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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Northern Lights Lodge, post: 1961904, member: 13464&quot;]I felt compelled to add these photos of a piece of &quot;blonde&quot; Chantilly. It is unbelievably fine. The top photo shows the piece in it&#039;s entirety - measuring 13&quot; long x 11 1/2&quot; wide from footing straight edge to scalloped hem. It is gossamer fine silk.</p><p><br /></p><p>I purchased it many, many years ago from a rather wealthy lace collector - who didn&#039;t herself make lace. She stated that it was machine lace as it was &quot;way too fine&quot; and way too large to possibly have been worked by hand.</p><p><br /></p><p>There is no doubt in my mind that this piece is hand done.</p><p><br /></p><p>It is worked in two strips that would have run the entire length of the yardage. It is hard to see - and I should have given you a blow up - but the program wasn&#039;t being cooperative. The join runs horizontally across the piece - almost at the lower tip of the top solid sprig. About half way down the piece (not the fold that runs just above the design elements). That reason alone is enough to prove it is hand done. A machine would have just run the entire width as a whole.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]246554[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>In this second photo - waaaay enlarged: As a reference; each of the solid little ringed balls measure a 1/4&quot; or less (not including the outer outline thread/cordonnet).&nbsp; Under the balls, the openwork grid measures roughly 1/8&quot; across and each &quot;thread&quot; you see that makes each of those little circles - is actually two threads twisted together. The solid oval shape measures approximately 1/2&quot; x 1/4&quot;.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]246555[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]246556[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Yes, incredibly, incredibly fine! Unreal that it is hand worked. Something this fine, this beautifully executed, something this wide requiring dozens and dozens - several hundred pairs of threads... all worked WITHOUT benefit of magnification goggles...and often in very poor light. It boggles the mind!</p><p><br /></p><p>As we randomly look at the close ups - generally you can follow thread paths. I personally see some minor &quot;errors&quot; in the work... very small ones where a pair may have been twisted an extra time causing it to throw off the netting rhythm and regularity...just a little. There are no glaring errors; the skill level of the pattern maker AND the lace maker were at the highest level. Even a lace maker at this skill level would have found herself only working roughly a square inch an hour or less.</p><p><br /></p><p>Be amazed - as I am!</p><p>Leslie[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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