Hi David and All. You numbers boggle the mind. I wonder how many lacemakers are in UK today and then, in the rest of the world? It is no where close to the 1881 figures I would imagine.
Thanks for that information. Yes it would seem there should be plenty of old bobbins and I wonder how many of those are used on lace pillows today? Nothing could be prettier than a tool that has survived the ages...what stories they could tell. Susie ________________________ Susie Johnson, Morris, IL Crafts Site: http://home.comcast.net/~cjohnson0969/ 815-942-1838 [EMAIL PROTECTED] DAVID WROTE: I fully agree with all you've written, expect perhaps for the above quote. I would have, that is until last week when I finished reading a wonderful book called "Thomas Lester, his Lace and the East Midlands Industry 1820 - 1905" by Anne Buck, 1981 & 1982 ISBN 0 903585 09 X. Perhaps you have it too. In that book the author has gone to the trouble to check the numbers of people who offered "lacemaker" as their occupation in the various censuses & petitions of the UK in the 19th century. Here are the statistics as she quoted them:- Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire & Northamptonshire - 1881 - 12,480 - 1871 - 20,587 - 1861 - 23,450 - 1851 - 26,670 (5,725 under 15 yrs of age) - 1830 - petition of lace-manufacturers - 150,000 - 1815 - over 150,000 Now, you will recall that it was about 1820 that the machine lace industry became firmly entrenched and began to have a significant effect on the numbers of lace-makers, as evidenced by the above figures. However, IF there were around 150,000 lace-makers in 1815 working point ground, it would not seem unreasonable to me that each would own at least 100 bobbins, giving us 15,000,000 antique bobbins for which to keep out an eye on Ebay :) Even if only half have survived, that's still ample for the numbers collecting them today, without forgers ever having to go to all that trouble. Just thoughts David in Ballarat - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
