Featured Lace "Merry Christmas" handkerchief?

Hello, everyone. I am completely out of my element with this (I'm a PGP person) but I've had this bit of lace for several years. A friend just went nuts over it, telling me over and over how special it is. So, I figure I'd better find out just how great and what it actually is! 5" by 5½" and almost tissue thin.

So what can anyone tell me about this? Christmas "card"? Giftie? I don't even know where to look! Thanks for any and all assistance!

Linda

 

My first thought is knitted, but I'm going to have to check the books!

 

My Mom had some. Hers were filet crocheted
Christmas doilies.

 

I agree. Looks like crochet.

 

Thanks, everyone. Christmas doily, crocheted. Man, that's gotta be some very fine thread and teeny weeny hook! It looks almost like the bobbin lace we saw in Bayeux (on my very first trip to Europe!) last fall.

Linda

 

I do not think this is crochet -- definitely not filet which is darning over a knotted grid... the mesh of this is not a grid.

maybe some sort of bobbin lace, but...

For me, I don't think I can confidently id without better closeups.

 

Okay, Jivvy, I was just kinda guessing! How much closer do you want? Not sure the macro on my old camera will do a whole lot better.

Linda

 

With lace, the closer you can get the better. Think about whether someone looking at it can follow the path of a single thread.

And do closeups of the different bits. The bits that look like cloth, the bits that look like net, the edge.

I'm currently leaning toward bobbin lace, but it's hard to see.

@moreotherstuff posted this in another thread and it's perfect.

 

My best book (Guide to Lace and Linens by Elizabeth M Kurella) keeps sending me to Valenciennes bobbin lace.

But that's with me guessing at some pieces.

 

This probably isn't clear enough. Trying again!

 

I've been fiddling around trying to get a better image but I guess I'm just not able to figure out resizing and such. And once I think I've resized the photo, I can't find it in my files. Where, oh, where are my kids when I need them!

Linda

 

Even without better photos, everything I can find points to Valenciennes.

Including that -- "gossamer threads" is used a lot when describing Valenciennes.

 

I wasn't able to get that close a detail with my camera. I got that picture with a high density scan.

I wonder if this is a sampler; an exercise for someone to demonstrate the techniques they've learned. Too bad there isn't a date.

 

Oh, clever!

 

I think this is about as close-up as I can get without a tutorial from one of the kids. Any better?

 

Good grief! I know I'm not a great techie, but I feel I do reasonably well for my generation! I feel quite a bit better about my photo abilities now!

Linda

 

While we were in Bayeux, we actually went to the Bobbin Lace Museum, not far from where the Tapestry is displayed. There were 4 or 5 ladies seated at narrow tables with anywhere from 8 to 25 bobbins pinned across cushions, each working a different pattern. It's amazing how many hours work it takes to make just a 2" square of lace, and I'm sure the thread they were working with was nowhere as fine as this is. I couldn't afford any of the lace but bought a handful of plastic bookmarks with different bobbin lace patterns on them. Photos were not allowed or I would have taken a bunch!

Linda

 

So, Kurella's book defines five different parts of lace (with her own lingo) to look at towards identification:

1. Clothwork: broad dense areas (like "cloth")
2. Outline: the edge around each bit of clothwork
3. Mesh: openwork background holds the clothwork together
4. Bridges: another means of connecting motifs... hard to describe the difference between bridge and mesh in just a few words... I know what it is when I see it. Sometimes.
5. Ornament: pretty much what it sounds like, fancy bits

I've highlighted the picture of your lace to point out Clothwork (blue), Outline (green), and Mesh (yellow).

1. Clothwork: I believe the clothwork is linen stitch. Hard to be 100% certain because of picture blurriness, but it's what I think I see. So the clothwork is typical of Valenciennes.

2. Outline: I believe the outline is what is called a "ring pair" -- "a single pair of threads separated from clothwork by one twist in the pairs that enter and leave the clothwork" (Kurella, p 216).

Fits with Valenciennes and, important to note, "ring pair" outline eliminates most other laces.

3. Mesh... I THINK it is a braided (not twisted) mesh, but that is something that can be hard to discern with a piece in hand. I really have no business making a call on that from photos. But, since early 18th century, braided mesh is the defining characteristic of Valenciennes. (Kurella, p 216)

4. Bridges: I don't see any. And Valenciennes doesn't have any, so that works.

5. Ornament: don't really see any here and it's not a defining factor one way or the other.




Please note: This is all me working from a very good book. I am not a lace expert, lace is HARD, and I may have gotten stuff wrong.

 

It doesn't look like Valenciennes to me. Although Valenciennes is delicate, it is still one of the Dutch-Flemish group of laces, even though the town is now part of France. Flemish means it is intricate but has 'bones' to support the finer, delicate details. You can feel the raised edges of the thicker outlines when you gently slide your hand over it.
Your doily looks like all parts are the same thickness, and the same height when laid flat.

Some examples of Valencijn/Valencienne(s):






Some textile historians differentiate between the original Dutch-Flemish name Valencijn and the later French spelling of Valencienne and Valenciennes to indicate the period of the piece in question. Hence the different spelling. As a type it is a Flemish lace.

 

"The only constant factors in Valenciennes lace are the very fine thread used and the total lack of thick outlining which makes it completely flat." (Antique Lace: Identifying Types and Techniques, Heather Toomer)

"Unlike comparable Mechlin lace, it does not have an extra thread (cordonnet) outlining the pattern." (The Textile Research Centre (TRC) Leiden)

"The lace is distinguished by having no cordonnet (the raised outline present in most laces of the period to give definition to the design) and is consequently flat and even in texture. " (Encyclopædia Britannica, "Valenciennes Lace" 1999)

According to everything I have read, not having an outline like you mention is one of the defining features of Valenciennes. Having a ring pair outline is defining.

The photos you posted demonstrate one thing clearly to me: one of these is not like the other. The first piece has a clear cordonnet. My best guess is that it is Mechlin lace which is very much like Valenciennes, but with the cordonnet.

The second photo you post is difficult to see, but I do think it and the remaining all have a ring pair outline, so yes, I expect they are Valenciennes.