more old stuff

Dipping into the collection I have for this one today – rather old and stained by water or something from inside the container where it was kept for all those ages before it emerged onto the street stall where I bought it. The motif is about 4 inches/10 cm at it’s widest.
The mesh filling is very fine and I just love the delicacy of the connecting bars – needlemade lace for sure but with the appearance of my aunt’s tatting – still, both needle and shuttle do the same thing in this case.
A set of serviettes or a tablecloth with lots of this kind of motif would be worth a fortune today if in good condition. I have my eyes open when out on the street markets – the quality of some of the pieces on sale out there is very high, often much better than a couple of private collections I have seen. A lot of traditional embroidery comes up in estate sales – several people have made the statement supporting what I have observed – that the younger people want modern easy-care stuff, and are not usually prepared to spend the time and effort required to keep linen like this in use and carefully laundered. I did meet L, one collector who has masses of table linen, both everyday and some very special things, eg, a massive ecru coloured venetian lace cloth. Stunning, and probably priceless. Sometimes he lends some of them for special occasions, such as weddings and serious significant birthdays or other celebrations. (the formal cloths tend to be very long, up to 4m, and some longer, which cover some of the massively long fully extended family dining tables still to be found here) And he pays to have one of the few remaining specialist laundries downtown to have his best table cloths hand washed and dried blocked out over special stretcher bars. That in itself might be an interesting expedition, I must ask my friend V where to go…. I am of modern mind – and generally use table mats or cloths I can iron MOL easily (no ironing is easy, imho) and I will pay to have several large damask cloths we have laundered commercially. (used at such times as Christmas if the family are around) Where I go here, the cloth is machine washed and ironed on a press. For the equivalent of US$10, they do a very good job, with the cloth being presented folded over a coathanger. A while ago I bought a lovely, fabulous linen cloth embroidered in lots of lovely flowers, whitework, about 2.5 m long with hemstitched borders, for under equivalent US$100, and now just waiting for the family (at least 10 of them) to appear for Christmas/New Year here this year, and I am sure my local cleaner will deal with it just fine. Depending on how we go with the red wine, I might even do the napisan thing myself and take the clean cloth round for pressing. Posted by Picasa

One Response to “more old stuff”

  1. Deb H says:

    It’s a beautiful bit of lacework Alison. I usually have an antique quilt top for my tablecloth. I protect it from food stains by laying a piece of clear vinyl over the top. That way I get to see the antique patchwork & enjoy it every day, & don’t worry about spilling on it. I have several that I’ve colected over the years, & I change them out about every motnh for fun.

Leave a Reply

Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS).

All images and text are © Alison Schwabe
Reproduction of any kind is expressly prohibited without written consent.

Translate »