I agree with most that has been said so far -- the overal design, the precision of detail, the condition and the availability are probably the main criteria in establishing a value of any piece of visual art, and that includes machine-made lace. I might also, possibly, have a half-penny-worth (stretched over many words, as usual <g>) to add to where to *start* valuing such lace.
20+ years ago, I visited the G-Street Fabric store; at the time, it was still in DC, still on G-Street, and consisted of one, 5-story (if I remember correctly), building. The top floor of it was permanently under lock and key, and you could access it only with a "minder" (a trusted employee of the store). That's where all the super-dooper, designer-destined "stuff" was -- the best silks, the best wools, the most interesting (real silk, and cut in patterns) velvets. And the best lace. Machine made, but not of the WalMart quality, and priced to match :)
I agree with Adele that few people are likely to be aware of the limits of the lace machines, and are not going to be overmuch impressed by "exceptional use" of the technique. OTOH, Devon's DH isn't too far off when he suggests "pricing by the yard" as one of the criteria... :)
All of the laces (all imports, from France, as I remember) were of superiour quality (I could tell *that* much, even though I knew nothing of lacemaking -- by hand or machine -- at the time); none had obvious faults like stiffness due to artificial fibers, or bits of un-dissolved (or no carefully trimmed) threads... But, all things being equal, the wider the lace, the more expensive it was -- in *geometric* proportion; by the time you got to the "dress width" (36"/90cm), a yard of *cotton* lace was running into hundreds of dollars (as compared to about $12 for excellent quality, 45" wide, silk, "double weave" -- satin with crepe back)...
Stands to reason, even if you know nothing about lace-machines and little about design (other than being sure what it is you like and don't <g>). Given the same fineness of thread and workmanship, the wider the lace, the longer the repeat -- ie, there's more thought and effort going into both the overal design and into setting the machine's cogs.
Now, consider a piece of lace which has *no repeats* at all -- every bit in it is unique to the piece. Add to that the destruction of the original cards which makes reproduction just about impossible (the Limited Edition principle. DH collects prints -- once the plate/stone/whatever is destroyed, that's "it" for the piece, like breaking the mould is for 3-D objects). Add to that the Historical Collectible value (I agree with Adele; lacemakers wouldn't *begin* to be a good market for something like the B of B panel). Add Age of the piece (if known). Provenance, if known (and if sufficiently "exalted" <g>), would be icing on the cake :)
So, my advice would be to start with looking at superiour fabric stores which cater to well-known clothes designers and which carry lace-by-the-yard, and compare the prices of those first -- those are the prices at which good quality, but modern and not unique machine-made lace is being sold at; the "bread-and-butter" as it were. From there, the jump to "cake" ought to be somewhat easier.
Re the George Washington panel that Devon mentioned: I wonder...
When I was a child, machine-made lace was very popular for curtains. Most of it was just by the yard, repeat after repeat (even if wide), just like any other fabric. Some of it was also sold by the yard, but woven in panels, for cafe-type curtains. There'd be nothing much between the panels, but the threads running down to the next panel; you cut the fabric through those threads, in the middle of the "no man's land" (ie between the design parts) and finished (as best you could <g>) both the top and the bottom. Those were more expensive than the "running" patterns, because the design was more elaborate and also self-contained (an immitation selvage was woven into both top and bottom; sometimes they had a left and right orientation).
My Mother knew very little about machine-made lace, but she had worked in a textile factory as a teenager/young adult. According to her, before the war (when everything -- except thepolitical system -- was better <g>), there had been curtain panels made which were "special" -- on those, the machine *started and finished each panel separately*. That required threading up the machine for every one of them, and ending the weaving in a different way than usual. She said that there were never many of those made in a single pattern, as setting up the machine every time took up so much time, but that they sold -- to the very rich -- at exorbitant prices, *because* of that; the blood-sucking capitalists (<g>) liked to be assured that the hoi-polloi wouldn't have the same thing... She told me I was unlikely to ever *see* one of those, but, all the same, she told me how to look for the tell-tale differences.
So, perhaps, the George Washington panel is something that had been made along the same lines? "Special", but "curtains" nevertheless? She wouldn't have known anything about the designing and punching of the cards for such panels; all she knew was already second-hand, from other factory workers. The best machine-made lace in Poland came from Lvov (now in Lithuania); her factory (in Lodz) spun thread for and wove "everyday" fabric.
----- Tamara P Duvall Lexington, Virginia, USA Formerly of Warsaw, Poland http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd/
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