Hi Susan, That's an interesting question! especially given the similarities between Beds and the early mimics of Punto in Aria, as in LePompe. I personally have not handled a piece of lace that seemed to be older than the mid-19th C that I would call Beds, but "Beds" is a name based on a geographical area. Lace in paintings from the 16th C through the 18th C that is Beds-like was obviously made in Italy, and a little later in England and Germany--can it be reasonably called Beds even though it wasn't produced by a tradition in or starting from Bedfordshire, England?
Just out of curiosity, I checked what would come up on the Web and found these statements: 1) "Lace-makers from Flanders settled in Bedfordshire as early as the 16th century. By the mid-18th century, Newport Pagnell was a centre of Bedfordshire lace production. The highpoint of lacemaking was from the late 17th century through the 18th century." (from Wikipedia "Bedfordshire lace", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedfordshire_lace) 2) "A new style of lace, Bedfordshire, lace emerged, flourished and died within 50 years [the last half of the 19th C]." (from Steph Peters' A Brief History of Bedfordshire Lace, http://www.sandbenders.demon. co.uk/bobbinlace/history.htm) I agree with Steph: Beds strictly speaking is a style of lace that originated in and around Bedfordshire England in the 19th C. It has similarities to the early Genoese braided lace, and generally Italian laces that developed to imitate Punto in Aria (needle-lace), but one wouldn't reasonably call lace developed and made in Italy "Bedfordshire lace", even if the needle-lace mimics eventually came to be made in England in the 16th and 17th C. "Beds" as a style of lace is still made today throughout England and North America, but that is a carry-over from the 19th C English Beds, not the older braided laces originally from Italy. Even the Wikipedia article on Bedfordshire lace differentiates between lace that originated elsewhere but happens to have come to be made in Bedfordshire, as in quote 1 above, versus the style of lace that originated in Bedfordshire: "Bedfordshire lace is a style of bobbin lace originating from Bedfordshire in the 19th century, and made in the English Midlands lacemaking area." If I were living in Bedfordshire and made a lace today based on a design from LePompe, I would not call it Beds, because of the origin of the design. But if I made a piece of lace from a Thomas Lester pricking, even though I am sitting in Connecticut USA, I would call it Beds--again because of the origin of the style. As a side note, I don't think all references should be considered equal. In my opinion, one should avoid the less scholarly references (e.g., Pallister's History of Lace) and concentrate on the more scholarly, and in general more recent, ones--the best being Santina Levey's Lace: A History (still available new on Amazon.com, for less than I paid for it when it first came out...). I'll be interested in what others think about this question. Also are there any suggestions about what to call the early plaited laces that originated in Genoa in the 15th C but spread rapidly. Based on my argument above, I guess they should be "Genoese plaited lace" or something like that. My copy of Levey is out in the car--I'd better go get it! Nancy Nancy A. Neff Connecticut, USA On Wed, Jun 14, 2017 at 5:18 PM, Susan <hottl...@neo.rr.com> wrote: > ... there is a three century difference of opinion. Should Bedfordshire > be considered 16th or 19th century? - 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/
