The crux of the matter here is that the bobbins in question are Victorian Midlands bobbins, made by probably low-income, village bobbin makers. It is known that quite a few of these people probably made the bulk of their income from their bobbin and their skill is absolutely undeniable. If they had had access to ivory then they may have used it to make bobbins. But they most likely never saw it to buy or the finances to buy it if they had.
And why would they have wanted too. At the time we are talking about there was plenty of large leg bone available from cattle and the heavy horses who were the power in agriculture, and the bone bobbins they made must have been stunning when they were new and bright. There are ivory bobbins around from this era, but they were made in India (where ivory was available to carvers/turners) and the design of them is distinctly different as the turners were not exposed to the lacemakers and so the ornamentation is what they consider aesthetic with no restraint as to whether it may be functional. This ivory/bone discussion is on a similar line to the pewter/silver decoration one, but that is more easily argued as the metal used to fill carved out grooves etc has to be melted and poured in. The melting point of silver is so high that both wood and bone would combust as the metal is poured on! The only way silver can be used to decorate bobbins is in the form of wire or studs. But is the argument is looked at from the other side, the same logic can be applied as the ivory/bone problem, ie the village turner wouldn't have easy access to buy silver, or the spare funds, or the far more complicated equipment needed to melt and handle at the dangerously high temperatures needed. Finally, the bobbins had to be sold at a price the lacemakers could afford, and the vast majority of them were doing it as a job, to earn money, not for fun and interest as we do now; would they want, or be able to, pay even more to have their expensive, fancy, luxury bobbin made of ivory and decorated with silver. Jacquie in England - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
