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 [...]
[...] she suggests that the thread may even have been secretly
adulterated in order to make the expensive linen go farther.
Can't help but wonder though... *Was* cotton really cheaper as early as that? It had to be imported, from far away. While flax grew at home, since it doesn't mind cold weather... Once there were steamships and railways and steam-powered machines in the factories, sure, but, in 17th century or earlier?
Certainly blending silk into linen wasn't done to save money -- silk has always been the more expensive proposition, even after Euope learnt how to produce it. So, perhaps, the rationale behind blending in cotton was something else too (weight? easier to spin finely and smoothly? esier to take care of, since less heat was required?) For all we know, the reason there's no literature describing such practice stems from it being a ferociously guarded family secret, like lace patterns, baking recipes, silk production, etc... :)
----- Tamara P Duvall Lexington, Virginia, USA Formerly of Warsaw, Poland http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd/
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