Dear Deanna There are two other books that might interest you. The first is "Textiles from Bohemian and Moravian Synagogues" which is exactly what it says it is, and in effect, the whole collection of which the lace is just a part. Nothing extra on the lace, but a superb art book of the embroideries and luxury textiles used in the synagogues, mainly ark curtains, but also scroll covers and so on. It puts them in context, and gives a full history of the collection. I can't find its ISBN, but it was published by the museum, and edited by Ludmila Kybalova, Eva Kosakova and Alexandr Putik. Almost certainly best borrowed from a library.
The other book, well worth raiding the money-box for, is Rosemary Shepherd's "An Early Lace Workbook", which gives a pattern for the first lace piece illustrated in "Laces from the Collections...". While that book includes some patterns, there's not one for this piece, and Rosemary's careful and detailed examination of other laces of the period would help use the Museum's book. Has anyone been inspired to create lace for their own synagogue? English traditional ones seem to have plenty of blue velvet with yellow machine embroidery and fringes, and some have modern embroidery, some very spectacular, but no "real" lace. Possibly most were put up too late. The one in Cheltenham, 1835, counts as one of the oldest, and does have an ark curtain of the period, identified by Santina Levy as a Moghul bed spread (tree of life common motif to both cultures, but what we thought were lions of Judah, on close examination, were tigers!!) [email protected] - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]
