Parcel of bobbins
1818
- Medium
- wood, ivory, glass, metal
- Place/s of Execution
- (England)
- Accession Number
- 1090-D4
- Department
- International Fashion and Textiles
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Miss M. T. Tetley, 1951 - Gallery location
- 18th Century Decorative Arts & Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International - About this work
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Bobbin lace is made on a hard pillow and for this reason is often referred to as ‘pillow lace’, even though needle lace sometimes required a pillow. Lacemakers manipulated the bobbins to plait or weave the threads, working from one side to the other. A particularly fine bobbin lace would use hundreds of bobbins. This style of lace was often used to adorn garments as collars, cuffs or trimmings. Bone appears to have been the original material for bobbins, but wood and metal were also common. According to lace historian Pat Earnshaw, bobbins decorated with beads like these were popular in England’s East Midlands.