Hello, Arachneans! Knowing our love of a mystery, when I read about a mystery object on another list, I had to put it before the expertise and eagle eyes of Arachne.
I have put the two images that were sent me into the Arachne2003 webshots album. http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003 Colman cap: http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/573900945nKOPnt ============================================================================ == I agree that it looks like crochet, with a fine thread using a relatively large crochet hook. The edging looks like hairpin crochet, but being one-sided is probably made over a wide gauge. Crochet being the leading contender for the technique, the next question is the validity of the claimed ages. Those mid 1700 dates are very early for crochet in my estimation. So if it is crochet, what are the real dates? The use of caps slowly waned throughout the 1800s. Caps that were not made of lace were usually pretty heavily embroidered. I think the only test that would verify the age is a burn test of the fiber, since machine spun cotton thread was only achieved around 1830. Linen thread would be a strong vote of agreement with the 1700s dates, cotton thread would make the claimed dates very suspect. Patty - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]
