Dear friends -- On this lovely, sunny, COOL, Sunday morning I am thinking it's time to stop slicing and dicing irrelevances (copyrights; "stealing" !) and return to thoughts about lace. One of the delights of actually getting up and going off to take a lace course is seeing what other people are doing. About ten years ago I toddled out of Baltimore and -plop!- across the ocean and in over my head to a class at Christine Springett's in Thomas Lester lace. My nearest neighbor in that class was making a handkerchief so beautiful, so complex, so breathtaking that really I thought I was in heaven with the angels. She had rows and rows of bobbins stacked up neatly on either side of her pillow, waiting to be taken in. And unhurried, unflushed, undisturbed, chatting, smiling, happy, she went about producing stars, flowers, leaves...
Fast forward. I found a little booklet, "Bedfordshire Lace Old & New," printed evidently in 1998 by the Springetts, and what is the first thing in it? A picture of my long-ago neighboring lacemaker and her gorgeous handkerchief. I even have her cherished name. Christine Agambar. Christine Agambar, the maker of the most beautiful handkerchief in the world. Forget about Miss Channer's mat with its reprints, copies, copyrights, stealing and what else. Can anyone find out the origin of Christine Agambar's unforgettable lace handkerchief? Was it made from an original pattern? An antique pattern? A Thomas Lester pattern? How could one locate the pattern? (P.S.) One could even -- if a mat mentality has got such a grip on 21stC lacemakers -- alter a handkerchief pattern so as to form a mat. That would certainly fulfil the 23% alteration requirement. - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
