A draught for the Nottingham lace curtain machine

 

This image shows part of the draught or pattern for a large lace curtain to be made on the Nottingham lace curtain machine. The designer would have drawn the pattern, probably starting with the main motif, then deciding how to work the pattern repeat across the whole fabric and finally designing the edging. It is interesting that the designer has incorporated one-third of the main motif at the edge and linked it in to the edging design rather than just leaving a strip of blank net between the edge and the first main motif. The main motif that is closest to the edge has also been linked to that side bar with a swag, to reflect the smaller loops on the side motifs. This is a large scale pattern and the large arrow head in the image below shows where the centre of the curtain will be.

Once the designer produced a drawing of the finished design, it was sent to the draughtsman to convert it into instructions for the lace machine. He did this using the graph paper you can see here. Originally draughtsmen, or their assistants, had to draw out the graph by hand before they began their work, but this graph paper has been bought from a supplier ready printed. Each square measures one inch and is divided into 180 small rectangles. These are painted by hand to indicate the movement of the threads that are required by the lace machine to create the design. Different manufacturers used various colours for their instructions but in general red indicated back spool ties, green symbolised Swiss ties and blue meant combination ties. The draughtsman had to be a technician as well as an artist because he had to ensure the instructions for the machine were accurate and would reproduce the design in the way the designer intended. However, I'm sure it was easy to make mistakes and you can see that this draughtsman has tried to paint a green square over one he first painted red and someone has circled his mistake!

When the draught was finished it was then passed to the card puncher to produce the jacquard cards that were used to instruct the lace machine. Based on the colour codes on the draught, he used a machine to punch a series of holes through the cards. The cards were then joined together to form continuous lines of instructions for the lace machine. Other instructions are hand written on the edge of the draught, giving the machine operator more information about the lace. These include the style of the lace to be made and the recommended size, as well as the gauge or fineness of the finished lace (10 point) and the quality (54) which is a measure of how many complete motions of the machine were required to make three inches of the lace. So, not only are these draughts beautiful pieces of art but they also contain a wealth of information.

Shopping for lace in seventeenth century London

This engraving by Abraham Bosse shows the interior of a Parisian gallery in the 1650s where lace, embroidery and other haberdashery items were sold. Examples of the pieces for sale are pinned on the wall behind the counter and saleswomen and their assistants are shown dealing with the customers. A similar establishment, called the New Exchange, opened in London, on the south side of the Strand, in 1609 and was described as having two long double galleries one above the other, which housed ‘great numbers of very rich shops of drapers and mercers filled with goods of every kind’ according to Count Lorenzo Magalotti who visited it in 1669. High quality fabrics and dress accessories were also sold in shops crowded together along the old London Bridge, which at that time was the only crossing over the River Thames in London. In 1633 the bridge was nearly destroyed in a fire that started in a needle makers shop. Luckily the bridge survived but 41 shops selling fabrics, hats, gloves and haberdashery were destroyed – imagine the value of all the beautiful things lost in that fire. These galleries were a place to shop but also a place to promenade and show off ones clothes. However, according to a satirical pamphlet of the time, the best place to show off was the middle aisle of St Paul’s Cathedral, where fashionable young men would congregate every morning to parade up and down, showing off their latest fashions, lace and accessories. The pamphlet advises them that ‘four turns’ of this catwalk were enough as any more than that would be boring for their audience!

A close up of the engraving shows the type of lace items being sold readymade to customers. There seem to be several styles of collar, some with lace edgings round a linen collar and others made entirely of lace. The latest fashion in lace at the time would have been Flemish bobbin lace, which was a flat style with detailed designs (the lower piece in the photo below), however Italian bobbin lace was also popular, and you can see an example of that in the upper piece below.

Needle lace and various styles of cutwork were also fashionable, so there was a varied choice for customers. Styles of neckwear were changing at this time from the ruffs  of the sixteenth century to the falling bands and soft collars of the seventeenth century, which most of the customers are wearing, and this shop seems to have both in stock. As well as collars the image shows lace cuffs and fans for sale. There are also some rosette shapes which are probably decorations for shoes. This shop would also have sold lace trimmings and lengths of lace for customers to buy and apply to their own clothes. Larger and more important items would have been commissioned and the design and type of lace discussed with the lace merchant. It is interesting to see that saleswomen seem to be advising the customers while their male assistants are collecting items off the shelf or boxing them up and wrapping them once the purchase has been made. Most shopping at this time would have been done locally because the cost of transporting goods was high. However many people took advantage of any of their friends and family visiting London, giving them requests to buy items of lace for them. It’s always difficult buying things for other people though and frustrating for them if the item isn’t exactly what they wanted, so it was not an easy task. However, it must have been very exciting for Londoners and visitors alike when these new galleries opened and people could wander past a series of shops selling so many luxury items and browse a variety of beautiful things. 

Contemporary needle lace sampler

 

Needle lace is made with a needle and thread and most of the stitches are variations on blanket or buttonhole stitch. You need an outline from which to anchor the stitches and this can be made by cutting areas out of an existing piece of cloth or by making a framework by couching down threads. In both cases you then fill in the spaces you have made with lace stitches. The little sampler in the image was made by attaching  thin ribbons in a grid pattern to a background that I had painted and collaged and then filling in the open spaces with a variety of needle lace stitches.

I started by filling  some of the rectangular spaces with solid areas of stitching. At the top you can see an area of cloth stitch which starts with a line of thread being sewn straight across the space. You then work back along the thread with simple loops at regular intervals. For the row below that you start again with the thread across the space but your loops this time go round the thread and link into the loops of the previous row of stitches. Once I’d finished the block I then threaded a fine gold thread through the stitches but I could also have done that as I’d worked or used a different colour as my base thread.

 

In one of the lower spaces I worked my row of looped stitches over small lengths of thicker gold thread. With these wider strips of gold I didn’t need to secure them at each side of the space because the looped stitches are sufficient to keep them in place. In the rectangle on the right I have worked a more open stitch called double net stitch and again threaded fine gold through part of the work. To give some texture to the piece I also made some thicker interconnecting bars by sewing several threads across the space forming a rough T shape then worked close blanket stitch over them to form a more solid structure. By interlinking the shapes as I worked they form an intertwined grid. I also embellished the piece with small circular couronnes, made by wrapping threads into a circle and then working blanket stitch tightly all round them. Once made, the finished circles can be sewn to the work with the same thread used to make them. I also added beads and other couched threads, so quite a lot of additions, but I’ve kept the same subdued colour palette throughout the work so hopefully it all works together.