On Dec 29, 2008, at 9:52, dmt11h...@aol.com wrote:
Ah, a subject of endless fascination to me!
<VBG>
It has been my hunch that there were lacemakers who were prostitutes
when
necessary, and there were prostitutes who made lace between clients,
I've always thought the first was more likely than the second though,
like you, don't have any solid evience; all I have is that general
"cloud of rumour". There's that Saenredam print in Rijksmuseum, for
example, with the lacemaker sitting outside and a bevy of beaus (3)
surrounding her. Her hands are huge (coarse) so, obviously, she's not a
"lady", even though she's nicely (and modestly) dressed. But, are the
beaus -- at least one of whom is of laboring class -- surrounding her
because she might be of easy virtue? Or because, as a lacemaker, she
might bring extra income to the family and, therefore, worth courting
as a potential *wife*? I expect, in 16th century, the viewer would have
interpreted the print without any difficulty. I, OTOH, don't know
enough about the period and the place shown (Amsterdam?), to have an
opinion.
Perhaps if we had a better historical understanding of prostitution,
the
answer would be obvious to us. The question is probably "what is the
relationship between poverty, prostitution and the needle trades?"
It might not need to be full-blown prostitution, as a profession.
Professional prostitutes tended to be circumscribed as to what they
were pemitted to wear, where they were permitted to live, etc. I think
it's possible that the lacemakers were, perhaps... erm... less
"straight-laced" than we'd like to imagine? And, if they received a
gift or two for their generosity of heart and body, who could blame
them for accepting, given how poorly paid they were? And given that
they had no guild protection (or so it appears from my current
reading)? Perhaps they were like the French grisettes of a later era,
where payment might have been given, but was never demanded, unlike
with the pros...
--
Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/
Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland)
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