I am finding this conversation about this pillow fascinating. Since I am from the St. Louis area(50 miles east), and the Torchon Lace Company is from St. Louis and is the one that made the Princess Lace Machine(am I correct in my thinking?), this has me interested. And it is also interesting to note that the Princess Lace machine was made in 1904 which also happened to be the year of the World's Fair in St. Louis, Mo. Any correlation there and wonder if it was presented at the 1904 World's Fair? Any one have thoughts on the history of that? Trying to get my facts straight.......
Happy Lacemaking! Mark, aka Tatman In cool, soon to be rainy Greenville, IL USA Www.tat-man.net Www.tat-man.net/blog > -------------- Original message -------------- > From: "Laurie Waters" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >> It doesn't really matter whether they were good to use or not. The German >> Rassmussen pillow, of which this is almost a direct copy (along with most of >> the patterns), was just as hard to use. The point is that The Torchon Lace >> Company, product of Sylvester Lewis, was the first and only commercial >> attempt at marketing bobbinlace to American women through early 20th century >> advertising. And the enterprise lasted from 1904 to 1919 - one even finds >> examples sold in Australia. His 'paint by numbers' patterns was also not >> unique - I've seen this in earlier French works. Who knows if he ever came >> through on his promise to buy the lace that these machines would produce? >> All in all this was a totally impractical system. Typically American! >> Nothing like it before, although one might argue that his contemporary >> Cottrell in France came close. >> And so, many of these machines survive, and more and more are showing up on >> Ebay. 30 years ago, if we found one in an antique shop, it was a very lucky >> find. I predict the price will remain in this range for a long time to >> come. And even higher prices realized for the much rarer Australian version. >> Laurie - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
