Parchment prickings

 

The pricking is the pattern used for bobbin lace. However, before the use of cardboard they were made from parchment and were often known just as parchments. My sources say that old parchments were generally 12 to 14 inches long but the one I have is only 10 inches in length plus the cloth extensions at each end which are about 4 inches long and are used to attach the pattern to the lace pillow.

Thomas Wright in The romance of the lace pillow says that the lace designer not only drew the pattern but also pricked it. This was done by making holes in the pattern where the lacemaker would need to use pins to support the work, using a needle fixed in a holder. Wright names several lace designers from the East Midlands and praises their skilled work. He explains that the design was first pricked on cardboard and the position of the outlining, or gimp threads, drawn on to the pattern to produce a draught. Transparent parchment was then laid over the draught, which was used as a template to prick the pin holes through the parchment. The position of the gimp threads would then be inked on to the parchment. Subsequent patterns would probably have been pricked from a template by the person organising the lace trade or occasionally by the lacemaker herself. This copying would probably have been done by laying the original over a piece of fresh parchment and pricking through the holes in the original to make a new copy of the holes into the lower parchment, which would then be inked. My example here has rolled up with age and it is so well used that some of the holes have torn to leave a gap in the foot side, both of which are common problems with old parchments and is why many of them have not survived.

Prickings

Prickings are the patterns of dotted holes that lacemakers follow to make bobbin lace. Technically the pricking shown in the image is only half complete as I am pricking the holes for the pins as I work the lace. Traditionally, the pattern would have been pricked in its entirety before the actual lacemaking began. Most prickings were made from an existing pricking or a copy of the pricking. Copies were made by placing a piece of thin paper over the reverse side of the pricking then rubbing over it with something like heel ball to leave an impression of the dotted pattern on the paper; in the same way as brass rubbings are produced. The reverse of the pricking was used because pushing pins through card or vellum leaves the top feeling smooth but causes a rough surface on the underside where the pins have displaced the card.

Copies were made by placing the original pricking (or the rubbing) over a new piece of card on a cork base, then pushing a pin through the existing holes of the pattern or the marks on the copy to produce a new pricking underneath the original. This was done using a pin permanently fixed into a holder, like a bobbin shaft, or using a pin vice (shown here) which holds the pin firmly in place. Using a pin on its own would be extremely fiddly and probably hurt your fingers as pricking lace patterns requires firm, precise, pressure. This image also shows how a pricking for a length of lace can be cut so the two pieces interlock and a continuous length of lace can therefore be made by alternating them.

Sadly the phrase “By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes” has nothing to do with lace prickings. It is said by one of the witches in Macbeth and is used to describe an ominous premonition, so it’s a creepy feeling rather than an overuse of lacemaking equipment!

Antique bobbin lace pricking

This antique bobbin lace pattern, or pricking, probably dates from the nineteenth century. It is a simple narrow insertion with a footside on each edge and a simple pattern of flowers and leaves running down the centre and would have been made using a Bedfordshire style of lace with plaits linking the different elements of the pattern, rather than the net ground used in Buckinghamshire lace. We now tend to use cardboard for our prickings but this one is made of parchment which suggests it is quite old. It is very sturdy and was made to be used many times, over and over again. The pattern is pricked before the lace is begun using a pointed pricker tool, often using a previous pricking as the template by pricking through it onto the new parchment.

The cloth attached to the ends would have made it easier to handle the pattern without making it greasy from too much handling and was the point at which the pattern was attach to the lace pillow. Thomas Wright in The romance of the lace pillow says that most parchments were about 14 inches long (this one is about 10 inches) and each was called a ‘down’. Thus the lacemaker would say she had made a down when she finished the length of the pattern. He also says that the linen ends were called ‘eaches’ which means an extension. Variations on the spelling are eche, eke and etch and the term is linked to the phrase ‘to eke something out’ meaning to extend it to make it last longer.