Good morning Arachnids It does not make sense to attribute honeycomb ground to any particular country or region as it was in general use in lace designs throughout Europe. Also many of the names we currently use are modern uses. Even the name âBucks pointâ referring to point ground lace made in the East Midlands in England is fairly recent. In The Bucks. Cottage Workers Agency, written after 1911, the lace we currently call Bucks Point is called Buckingham Point Ground and Old Bucks Point. On page 31 is a handkerchief with a narrow Bucks corner made using techniques that we currently call Bedfordshire lace. Pages 36-40 show lace being called Bucks Cluny that is currently known as Beds Cluny. Page 61 What we now call Bedfordshire lace is called Buckinghamshire lace. Page 74 Bucks point edgings are merely called point ground and there more. English point lace was also made in Rippon, Yorkshire, the area around Eye, Norfolk, Malmsbury, Wiltshire, Devon and no doubt many others.
The late Joan Tyler-Smith did some useful research into the laces in different regions ending up with a map of Europe on which she attached coloured stickers, one for each basic type of lace. When finished she realised she had produced a map of the trade routes. As with modern products e.g. Cheddar cheese, copies are made in other places and sold under the original name. If you were given a piece of Cheddar cheese would you classify it as English even if it had been made in Canada? Where the history of lace is concerned we find only occasional references, but over time these comments add up to the fact that lace was made in many places not exclusively in the one from which the lace has taken its name. In fact, Honiton lace was never made in Honiton but took its name from being transported to London on the Honiton coach. Honiton lace was also made in Diss in Norfolk. The same techniques were used throughout Europe, some of the Balkan states and in India in the 19th century. Unless there is proof of place of origin we need to consider lace names as generic, not proof of origin. Blowing the dust Alex - 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/
