I don't know the answer to what the drawer is for, but a few years ago I bought an old pillow from a Barnardos shop. I was shown it before it had been priced, and had to go back five days later to speak to the Manageress. I had £30 in my purse, and I thought if I have enough money on me to buy it, I'm meant to have it.
The Manageress was being very canny. She said, "We know what we've got, and we know what it would have cost new. I've shown it to a lacemaker in (she named a nearby town), and we can't take less than £29.95 for it". I said "Thank you very much" and "Keep the change", and took it home to examine at my leisure. It wasn't the same shape as the one on e-bay, though it was squared at the back, with a sort of horseshoe shaped cushion, the whole lot being within a wooden frame. There was a scruffy piece of lace on the pillow, with a number of old wooden bobbins in use, spangled. (The manageress seemed to think that the lace added to the value of the pillow). I had to unwind a fair bit of it to sort out the bobbins, because there were rather less pins than there were wooden bobbins. The real beauty of this pillow, however, was the drawer at the back of the frame. This contained a hank of linen thread, and something wrapped in tissue paper. This treasure trove turned out to be 14 bone bobbins, all spangled - nothing very special, I don't think, but nevertheless, at a minimum of £5 a time for a bone bobbin, there was £70 worth straight away! Ann in Manchester, UK ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jean Nathan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Lace" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, July 27, 2003 9:27 AM Subject: [lace] Antique lace pillow on ebay - whats the drawer for? - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED]
