Sorry, in my haste I sent this from the AOL and not the gmail account. Devon
Many thanks to all those who are helping me with the puzzle of the Saxony lace. I have received some very insightful replies, both privately and publicly. Some themes emerge. Bohemia is a confusing concept, geographically and culturally. Several people, Jean, and Leonard, tended to identify the lace as resembling photographs that several books called Russian lace. Undoubtedly there are similarities with Russian lace, for instance the floral subtext. Russian lace itself changes over time taking on dramatically different appearances. One thing that sort of bothers me about calling this piece Russian lace (in medium) is that Russian lace often has a much more airy appearance, even though it is also a tape lace that rambles around the way this one does. The fact that the linen stitch is spread out as close to the edge of the tape as possible and there are no decorative tapes seems to be a feature. One sees this on Czech lace on ethnic costumes. Lorelei focused more on the loopty-lous as I call them, but Carolina would call them Vermicelli. This term Vermicelli also appears in Palliser. Another term I think I have seen is occhiolini, which I believe translates to eyelet. But this term or one like it (occhiwork) also seems to apply to tatting as Alexâs Illustrated Dictionary of Lacemaking defines it that way. Lorelei was kind enough to provide an entire history of laces going back in time with this feature. Most interesting was the role it played in the development of what would later become raised work in point dâAngleterre and Honiton. However, most of the use of the vermicelli seems to be a specialty of Italian and Eastern European lacemakers, at least that is my impression. This feature, the vermicelli, is one that gives me pause also about putting such a piece in the category of Russian lace. Ilske thinks it is very characteristic of Czech lace. In fact, I am wondering if the term âChurchâ lace was a mistaken transcription of Czech lace. Back then a lot of things were originally handwritten and not always as clearly as one might hope. High marks to Leonard for his memory of the work of Mincoff and Marriage. Here the subject of Saxony lace is addressed head on, and the date of the work, 1907 corresponds directly to the date when the piece arrived in the collection, 1908. Sadly, the examples given do not resemble the piece at all. But, double word score for Leonard, for having found a reference to making Mechlin in Turnhout! (However, one may interpret the word Mechlin in this context!) I am wondering if Czech lace can be considered a âmediumâ or style in itself. Devon Sent from Mail for Windows 10 Sent from Mail for Windows 10 - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
