Museum Textile Services
  • About MTS
    • Our Team
    • Contact
    • Client List
    • Press Room
  • Textile Conservation
    • Architectural Interiors
    • Asian Art
    • Ethnographic Textiles
    • Flags & Banners
    • Historic Clothing
    • Quilts and Coverlets
    • Samplers & Embroideries
    • Sports Memorabilia
    • Tapestries
  • Collections Care
    • Vac & Pack
    • Surveys
    • Disaster Response
  • Education
    • LL
    • Porto
    • C3 >
      • C3 readings
    • HPRH
    • Becoming a Textile Conservator
  • Resources
    • MTS Magazine
    • Textile Conservation Basics
    • Textile Stabilization
    • Textile Storage
    • Displaying Historic Costume
    • Displaying Flat Textiles
    • Museum Pests
    • Disaster Response
    • Advanced Topics
    • Class Readings
    • Staff Publications
    • Resources in Spanish
    • MTS Videos and Slide Shows
  • Blog
  • Andover Figures™
    • Our Mission
    • The Andover Figures System
    • Choosing a Form
    • Purchasing Andover Figures
    • AF Contact Form

Lacing Together History

5/9/2017

0 Comments

 
In partial fulfillment of my internship at Museum Textile Services, I recently cleaned, repaired, mounted, and framed three lace objects that were donated to the study collection from a single family. I was fortunate to be able to spend an afternoon learning about the history of lace, manufacturing techniques, and how to identify various forms of lace. 
According to leading lace scholar, Pat Earnshaw, there is little evidence of lace before the 16th century.  Lace has a storied history of having both ecclesiastical and secular purposes. The secular use of lace was subjected to the ephemeral nature of fashion, and for this reason, there is a great array of designs and techniques that have been developed over the years, and even more styles developed based on the region of manufacture. 

​In the early 19th century, several styles of machine lace were developed, which allowed for mass production and lower costs. The influx of lace resulted in a resurgence of preference for the art form, and Earnshaw noted a large revival in handmade lace between 1840 and 1890. However, these works had a hard time competing with the cost and time efficient machine-made work. 
Picture
Detail from an anonymous portrait of Mertijntje van Ceters, 1623. Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Picture
Detail of the Irish crochet lace collar. MTS study collection.
Picture
Cotton lace collar mounted and framed in a vintage frame. MTS study collection.
​The first of the three objects I conserved was worn by the ancestor of the donor, who lived in Oberlin, OH, in the late 18th and early 20th centuries. The hand-made cotton collar and its matching cuffs were salvaged from a garment, which indicates its value to the owner. Known as Irish Crochet, this technique of lace was first produced in the 1840s using an extremely thin steel crochet hook. After MTS conservator Morgan Carbone wetcleaned the collar with Sodium Borohydride, I mounted it with hand stitching to a fabric-covered archival board. A vintage grain-painted frame was found in an appropriate size, which I cleaned and toned to hide a flaw. The lace was framed with acrylic spacers behind UV-filtering glass.
Picture
Detail of hand-made Teneriffe lace from South America. MTS study collection.
Picture
Cotton Teneriffe lace mounted and framed. MTS study collection.
​The second of the three objects I conserved is an example of Teneriffe lace that was likely picked up in South America during the donor’s travels in the 1960’s. According to Heather Toomer, Teneriffe or “Sol work,” is a Spanish craft with known examples from as early as the 17th century. We learned about Teneriffe lace in 2016 when a customer brought three pieces for us to conserve, which gave us the idea to mount and frame the piece in the MTS study collection. Again, Morgan Carbone wetcleaned the lace and I mounted and framed it in another vintage grain-painted frame.
Picture
Card attached to the Indian crochet lace in the MTS study collection.
Picture
Photograph from Lutheran Woman's Work, Volume 15, 1922.
The third lace object I worked on is was from the donor’s childhood, which was spent in India during the 1950’s. It came to us sewn to a piece of blue paper with a card reading “Rajahmundry Lutheran Lace Industry E. Godavari Dist., India pattern no. 33 L.M. 484.” After doing a bit of research on this label, I learned that Rajahmundry is a center of textile production on the Godavari river in the eastern Indian province of Andhra Pradesh.  A 1922 bulletin found online tells us that Lutheran missionaries trained women who had converted to Christianity in the art of lace making. ​The hand-made lace included needle lace, pin lace, and crochet, like the example I worked on, and the profits of the industry were used to support a “home for unprotected women.”
Picture
The Indian lace will be matted and framed with the original paper card.
​The Indian lace was wetcleaned and soon it will be mounted to a fabric-covered board like the previous examples. In order to frame the card along with the lace, an acid-free mat will be placed around the lace with a cut-out for the card to sit in. The card will be mounted with small dots of archival adhesive. This piece of lace will be framed behind UV-filtering glass in a newly purchased frame and will be displayed in the Museum Textile Services studio. 
​
​
Picture
Melissa King has experience in objects and paintings conservation. She received her B.A. in Art History and Communication Studies from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and has been accepted into the next class at the Winterthur/ University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    MTS Blog

    Want Answers?

    Get the Blog

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Abigail Brooks Adams
    Adams National Historical Park
    Admiral Perry
    AFL
    Africa
    American Institute For Conservation
    Amherst College
    Andover Figures
    Armor
    Arts And Crafts Movement
    Assuit
    Awvs
    Ballardvale
    Ballard Vale Mills
    Bamboo
    Banner
    Banshou In Temple
    Baseball
    Bed Hangings
    Bicorn
    Bleach
    Bombing
    Boning
    Books
    Boston
    Boston College
    Boston Marathon
    Boston Strong
    Brooks Brothers
    Bulldog
    Burnham
    Button
    Buttonwoods Museum
    Campbell Center
    Casablanca
    Chinese
    Christening Gown
    Christmas
    Civil War
    Cloak
    Cold Water Army
    Colonial Dames
    Concealed Objects
    Concord
    Copley Square
    Corset
    Costume
    Cotton
    Cotton Net
    Coverlet
    Crewel
    Crochet
    Digitally Printed Textiles
    Display
    Dog
    Dress Form
    Duchesse De Choiseul
    Echo Lake Aquarium
    Education
    Egypt
    E Magazine
    E-Magazine
    Embroidery
    English
    Ethafoam
    Exhibition
    Exhibits
    Fairbanks House
    Fancy Dress
    Farnsworth Museum Of Art
    Father Diman
    Featherbone
    Felting
    Filet Darning
    Fire
    Flag
    Flags
    Folly Cove
    Frame
    Framing
    France
    Ft. Knox
    Fur
    Furniture
    George Patton
    Gore Tex
    Gore-tex
    Handsome Dan
    Hat
    Henry Adams
    Hermansville
    Higgins Armory Museum
    Historic Replica
    Hitchcock
    Hockey
    Honest Marketing Revolution
    Hooked Rug
    Hopedale
    Huaca Malena Museum
    Infestation
    Insects
    Installation
    Intern Ryan
    Internship
    Ixl Museum
    Japan
    Jifu
    Journeymen Tailors Union
    Judaica
    King Louis
    Knitting
    Ky
    Lacquer
    Laundry Bluing
    League Of Their Own
    Leipzig
    Lily Yeats
    Ma
    Mannequin
    Marines
    Mary Baker Eddy
    Mascot
    Massachusetts
    Mead Art Museum
    Middlesex School
    Military
    Mold
    Mon
    Monuments Men
    Moths
    Mourning Wmbroidery
    Moving Messages
    Natural Sciences
    Navy
    Nazi
    Needlecraft Magazine
    Negro League Baseball
    Nema
    New England Museum Association
    New Hampshire
    New Hampshire Historical Society
    News
    Oberlin College
    Olympets
    Olympics
    Painted Textile
    Painting
    Peabody Historical Society
    Peace Flag
    Peru
    Pests
    Phillips Academy
    Presidential Seal
    Quilts
    Rayon
    Religious Textiles
    Restoration
    Reverse Painted Glass
    Robe
    Rug
    Sack Suit
    Salescaster Inc
    Sampler
    Samurai
    Self Portrait
    Shaker
    Shakespeare's Tomb
    Shawl
    Sheer Overlays
    Shelburne Farms
    Sign
    Silk
    So Clan
    Sodium Borohydride
    Softball
    Soot
    Sports Uniforms
    Stays
    St. George's School
    Storage
    Study Collection
    Swatch Book
    Synthetics
    Tapestry
    Textile Conservation
    Textile Manufacture
    Textiles
    Thangka
    Trapunto
    Trustworth Studios
    Tru-Vue Optium
    Tsushima
    Uniform
    Uniforms
    Union Railroad Station
    Velour
    Versailles
    Vietnam War
    Waves
    Wedding Dress
    Western Task Force
    Wheaton College
    Will "Cannonball" Jackman
    Wisconsin Land Lumber Co.
    Women
    World War One
    World War Two
    Yale
    Yarn

Join Our Mailing List

Picture

Museum Textile Services, LLC

P.O. Box 5004
Andover, MA 01810
admin@museumtextiles.com
​
978.474.9200
  • About MTS
    • Our Team
    • Contact
    • Client List
    • Press Room
  • Textile Conservation
    • Architectural Interiors
    • Asian Art
    • Ethnographic Textiles
    • Flags & Banners
    • Historic Clothing
    • Quilts and Coverlets
    • Samplers & Embroideries
    • Sports Memorabilia
    • Tapestries
  • Collections Care
    • Vac & Pack
    • Surveys
    • Disaster Response
  • Education
    • LL
    • Porto
    • C3 >
      • C3 readings
    • HPRH
    • Becoming a Textile Conservator
  • Resources
    • MTS Magazine
    • Textile Conservation Basics
    • Textile Stabilization
    • Textile Storage
    • Displaying Historic Costume
    • Displaying Flat Textiles
    • Museum Pests
    • Disaster Response
    • Advanced Topics
    • Class Readings
    • Staff Publications
    • Resources in Spanish
    • MTS Videos and Slide Shows
  • Blog
  • Andover Figures™
    • Our Mission
    • The Andover Figures System
    • Choosing a Form
    • Purchasing Andover Figures
    • AF Contact Form