I would also be interested in this information. As I stare at the lace in our collection and wonder if it is actually 15th, 16th or 17th century or whether it is 19th century, I have to think that an understanding of the thread is the only way to ever figure this out. I am convinced that techniquewise some of the 19th century reproductions such as Amelia Ars were very accurate. I am interested to see that you seem to be posting from Claeys. I was told that I should have taken Diane Claeys's class at Ithaca because she is particularly knowledgable about these very things. In an earlier posting we discussed a project in Australia in which lace from a shipwreck dating from the 1600's was analyzed and found to be a blend of linen and cotton. This was followed by a project at the Powerhouse Museum in which they analyzed thread from many of their pieces of 17th century lace and found many different blends of linen and cotton and some of silk. A paper was published about this at a conservation conference at Winterthur in which the author mentions that there is no literature dating from the time that describes this blending and she suggests that the thread may even have been secretly adulterated in order to make the expensive linen go farther. Devon in New Jersey, gazing at mountains of snow
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