Gentle Spiders,
I agree with most that has been said so far -- the overal design, the
precision of detail, the condition and the availability are probably
the main criteria in establishing a value of any piece of visual art,
and that includes machine-made lace. I might also, possibly, have a
half-penny-worth (stretched over many words, as usual g) to add to
where to *start* valuing such lace.
20+ years ago, I visited the G-Street Fabric store; at the time, it was
still in DC, still on G-Street, and consisted of one, 5-story (if I
remember correctly), building. The top floor of it was permanently
under lock and key, and you could access it only with a minder (a
trusted employee of the store). That's where all the super-dooper,
designer-destined stuff was -- the best silks, the best wools, the
most interesting (real silk, and cut in patterns) velvets. And the best
lace. Machine made, but not of the WalMart quality, and priced to match
:)
I agree with Adele that few people are likely to be aware of the limits
of the lace machines, and are not going to be overmuch impressed by
exceptional use of the technique. OTOH, Devon's DH isn't too far off
when he suggests pricing by the yard as one of the criteria... :)
All of the laces (all imports, from France, as I remember) were of
superiour quality (I could tell *that* much, even though I knew nothing
of lacemaking -- by hand or machine -- at the time); none had obvious
faults like stiffness due to artificial fibers, or bits of un-dissolved
(or no carefully trimmed) threads... But, all things being equal, the
wider the lace, the more expensive it was -- in *geometric* proportion;
by the time you got to the dress width (36/90cm), a yard of *cotton*
lace was running into hundreds of dollars (as compared to about $12 for
excellent quality, 45 wide, silk, double weave -- satin with crepe
back)...
Stands to reason, even if you know nothing about lace-machines and
little about design (other than being sure what it is you like and
don't g). Given the same fineness of thread and workmanship, the
wider the lace, the longer the repeat -- ie, there's more thought and
effort going into both the overal design and into setting the machine's
cogs.
Now, consider a piece of lace which has *no repeats* at all -- every
bit in it is unique to the piece. Add to that the destruction of the
original cards which makes reproduction just about impossible (the
Limited Edition principle. DH collects prints -- once the
plate/stone/whatever is destroyed, that's it for the piece, like
breaking the mould is for 3-D objects). Add to that the Historical
Collectible value (I agree with Adele; lacemakers wouldn't *begin* to
be a good market for something like the B of B panel). Add Age of the
piece (if known). Provenance, if known (and if sufficiently exalted
g), would be icing on the cake :)
So, my advice would be to start with looking at superiour fabric stores
which cater to well-known clothes designers and which carry
lace-by-the-yard, and compare the prices of those first -- those are
the prices at which good quality, but modern and not unique
machine-made lace is being sold at; the bread-and-butter as it were.
From there, the jump to cake ought to be somewhat easier.
Re the George Washington panel that Devon mentioned: I wonder...
When I was a child, machine-made lace was very popular for curtains.
Most of it was just by the yard, repeat after repeat (even if wide),
just like any other fabric. Some of it was also sold by the yard, but
woven in panels, for cafe-type curtains. There'd be nothing much
between the panels, but the threads running down to the next panel; you
cut the fabric through those threads, in the middle of the no man's
land (ie between the design parts) and finished (as best you could
g) both the top and the bottom. Those were more expensive than the
running patterns, because the design was more elaborate and also
self-contained (an immitation selvage was woven into both top and
bottom; sometimes they had a left and right orientation).
My Mother knew very little about machine-made lace, but she had worked
in a textile factory as a teenager/young adult. According to her,
before the war (when everything -- except thepolitical system -- was
better g), there had been curtain panels made which were special --
on those, the machine *started and finished each panel separately*.
That required threading up the machine for every one of them, and
ending the weaving in a different way than usual. She said that there
were never many of those made in a single pattern, as setting up the
machine every time took up so much time, but that they sold -- to the
very rich -- at exorbitant prices, *because* of that; the
blood-sucking capitalists (g) liked to be assured that the hoi-polloi
wouldn't have the same thing... She told me I was unlikely to ever
*see* one of those, but, all the same, she told me how to look for
