On Dec 16, 2004, at 21:49, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Devon) wrote:
It is hard to tell from the picture, but am I the only person who thinks
this may not be a lappet?
No, you're not <g> I'd have expected a lappet to, either: be straight except for the wider ends, or: widen out at both sides in the centre, rather than curve in at one side and curve out at the other. But, when I think "lappet", I think *very early* 19th c *at the latest*, and more likely 18th.
It looks to me like it might be a dress ornament from the late 19th, early 20th century [...] didn't they wear things like this in the 1890s or so? The "back" of the lappet looks more like the back of a collar to me, than something that would go on top of the head.
Quite so. That had been my own instinctive response but I wasn't going to say anything, until someone else did (and you're "it" <g>) But, as I'd said above, 'when I think of "lappet"... '
I just checked the "Concise Oxford Dictionary" and, "lappet" is defined as: "fold; loose or overlapping piece of garment" (though secondary meaning is "streamer of woman's head-dress"). We both think of "lappet" in terms of its secondary meaning but, if you apply the first meaning, then the "lappet-collar" that Barbara has, even though worn much later and in a different manner, can still be called a "lappet".
And, by whatever name, it's a beautiful piece ... :)
BTW. I have a lovely, *contemporary* piece (Russian Tape lace) which is even more grievously misnamed. More grievously, because it had been called a "collar" by it's maker, not by some 3rd-hand reseller... I do wear it as a collar sometimes, but I've never been able to either find or make a neckline to fit it; it bunches up and stretches out in all the wrong places. And then, one day, I tried to fit the inner curve around my face rather than my neck, and the fit was *perfect* :)
The piece is the exact shape of a lace head-dress worn in some folk costumes in Russia. Those, in turn, are the remnants of an earlier head-dress, where the outer structure was rigid and sumptuous, but, quite often, the inside (surrounding the face) was softer - pleated linen or silk. And lace, still a bit later... The head-dress was called "kokoshka" (hen), because it resembles the spread tail of a hen... The head-dress of Mother Durga is of a similiar shape.
--- Tamara P Duvall http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland)
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