You have a gorgeous, very elaborate piece of Schiffli machine-made lace. A Schiffli machine can replicate virtually ANY kind of needle lace, bobbin lace or embroidered lace and do a fantastic job. Some of it is very beautiful, and you need a magnifying glass to look at it closely to tell the difference sometimes. |
I cannot tell if my lace is handmade or if it is machine-made lace. What should I look for?8/13/2020
Here are a couple of pointers to help you examine lace more closely. Handmade lace brides, on the other hand, are very regular, neat and even. They look like tight little braids or buttonhole stitch. No twists, no lumps, nothing uneven, no spirals in sight. There are many other characteristics, but this is a start. The key is to look closely!
How long has lace been made by machine? What is the difference between all the machine-made laces?8/13/2020
Big question! I can give a small answer. The first machine-made lace was as early as 1812. You will find a simple history of machine-made lace:
https://www.laceguild.org/craft/index.html Here you will find an entire free ebook comparing handmade with machine made. It may be far more more information than you want, but it is a fine pictorial resource https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38973/38973-h/38973-h.htm You will see at The Rook and The Raven, the five most ubiquitous types of machine-made lace: Pusher - begun c. 1812, in England (New Radford) Leavers - begun c.1813, in England (Nottingham) Barmen - begun c.1890, in Germany Schiffli - begun c.1890, in Switzerland Quaker - begun c.1894 as Lehigh, in the USA After a while, one begins to recognize on which machine the laces were made. Study the photos. All five produce different qualities of lace and different patterns of lace. Some is thin, irregular, crude. Some is so fine it is nearly impossible to tell it from handmade. If you are a lace-maker, however, you can follow the trail of the thread and know instantly. Some machines can produce lace that beautifully mimics scores of different handmade lace – especially Schiffli. They are masters of replication. |
Copyright © 2024 Sharron Bassano. All rights reserved. All photographs on this website are copyrighted and are the property of The Rook and The Raven. The photos are free to use online as a reference only. Please contact us if you want copies of individual photos for your own use.
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