Dear Ilske, These things are very hard to track down, as your experience with the Goethe museum indicates. I don't know that there would even be any point to asking the Rembrandt house in Amsterdam. I was wondering if perhaps some lace maker, reading widely with a lace intensive focus might have seen such a reference to Rembrandt. Looking at the paintings, it seems that Rembrandt was able to paint lace very clearly. But, for all I know, it may be the case that every painter of that era would be well versed in painting lace, much as the painters of the Gilded Age were renowned for their ability to paint pearls. Another question, I suppose, is whether most Dutch housewives of the era made lace and thus that Rembrandt's mother's lacemaking would be assumed much as my mother made Jello, but we never talked much about it. It is hard, at least for me, to understand whether this was the case. I saw a slide show some years ago compiled by Lia Baumeister that showed Dutch lacemaking scenes and the practitioners of the craft were seated in nice interiors, wearing nice clothing and even having servants. Lia's theory was that bobbin lace was made by well off people. Of course, art historians may argue that composing a painting would involve bringing many pretty images together such as luxurious furnishings and women holding their hands in a charming way, so one may not be able to derive too much from examining these paintings about social history. Actually, my inclination is to think that the Dutch housewives of ample means made lace for pleasure with the maintenance of household linens as a pretext suited to their industrious culture, much as 19th century quilt making seemed to be about thriftily acquired warmth, but actually seemed to be more about artistic expression. But, I realize that I am projecting my 20th/21st century perception back to the 17th century, so it seems dangerous to go with my instinct. Devon
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