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Brussels lace trim

Brussels lace trim
Brussels lace trim
Brussels lace trim
Status
Not on view
Label Text

Lace, the product of intense, time-consuming hand work, signaled prestige, power, and wealth, and consequently acted as an important finishing touch on elite dress. Martha Washington owned several sets of lace that she used to adorn her gowns, caps, and other accessories. Likely used as trimming or robing along the front edges of a gown, this piece of Brussels lace may have been part of one of the “suits” or sets of Brussels lace that she purchased from London in the 1760s or 1770s. It exemplifies the contemporary taste in lace for large open areas of mesh and motifs of scrolling leaves, flowers, and fancy fillings concentrated on the lace’s outer edge. The mesh is of the “droschel” style, featuring hexagonal shapes.

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Date1765-1775
Geography Made - Belgium
Medium/TechniqueLinen, bobbin lace
DimensionsOverall: 2 1/8 in. × 48 1/4 in. (5.4 cm × 122.56 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mrs. M. Lee Shaffer and Charles Conrad Krumbhaar, Jr., in memory of Mrs. Charles A. Conrad, 1955
Object numberW-638/E
DescriptionBrussels white linen bobbin lace featuring sprigs of flowers and leaves with a continuous line of scrolling leaves and areas of fancy fillings along the lower edge. Several key features of Brussels bobbin lace are identifiable in this piece: the six-sided droschel style mesh ground; the ridged outlines on certain motifs formed by the “eightstick” or “tenstick” technique (the weaving together of eight or ten threads); tiny picots or loops of threads along the exterior edge; and the design of multiple organic motifs within large spaces of mesh. Its grounds are of the six-sided droschel mesh.

Published ReferencesElizabeth M. Kurella, A Guide to Lace and Linens (Norfolk, Virginia: Antique Trader Books, 1998). (general reference)

A. Smolar-Meynart et al., Lace in Aristocratic and Royal Attire (Brussels: Lace and Costume Museum, 1991), i. (general reference)
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