lynxlace.com   Revival Era Bobbin Lace   Late 19th - Early 20th Century Straight Lace   Antique Bobbin Lace   © Lorelei Halley  2009

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All the laces on this page were made by unknown lacemakers.  The initials refer to the owner of the lace at the time it was photographed.  Assume I am the photographer, unless other specified by:  ph/b.  All the laces labeled IT were also photographed by her.

Mesh Grounded Straight Laces:

Torchon

Torchon is always the same, whatever century it is made, a geometric straight lace, with a ground made of 2 twisted threads.  Several grounds were possible..

283 c/o jl  Rose ground/virgin ground		738 elena

Flanders                                                                    *

The modern lace called Flanders is an attempt to bring back the 18th century lace which used the five hole ground.  The town Mechlin is situated in the region called Flanders.  Some museum people refer to the 18th century lace using gimp as "Mechlin".  Laces of that type and era used any one of several grounds: Flanders (five hole), Mechlin (similar to droschel but shorter stacks of half stitches), 12 thread armure (called Binche snowflake in half stitch nowadays), Paris, Valenciennes, other snowflakes and snowballs of various kinds.  But when this type was revived at the turn of the 19th-20th century, only Flanders ground was considered appropriate.  So what we modern lacemakers call Flanders now is a straight lace using Flanders ground (some variant of 5 hole ground), usually with gimp to surround the clothwork, and a ring pair outside the gimp, and  two pairs enter the clothwork at each pin.  See    2 STRUCTURES.           

341 bh		370 bh
All this row contain the motif called "the ape".
343 bh	347 bh	706 lh	707 lh

Valenciennes and Binche
The towns of Valenciennes and Binche are very close together.  Santina Levey thinks they both made virtually the same kinds of lace in the 18th century: a straight lace, with no gimp, the clothwork is surrounded by a ring pair, two pairs enter the clothwork at each pin, and any one of several grounds might occur: Valenciennes (round variant), Binche snowflakes, Binche snowballs, Mechlin, Paris, Flanders (5 hole).  Revival era Valenciennes is based on these, but limits itself to Val ground.  Revival era Binche uses primarily snowflakes and snowballs, but also may use the others as well.

Valenciennes              *

		742 lh	708  lh

Binche (also called Point de Fee in older books)                              *

      337 bh             342 bh

Paris                                                            *

Revival era Paris lace may be based on Pottenkant.       It uses the same ground that in Bucks point is called kat stitch, but the clothwork is woven differently.  See Two Structures.    The ring pair is not consistently used around each motif.  Usually there is gimp.  The motifs in revival and modern Paris are usually mirror image symmetrical, as were Pottenkant motifs.  But Binche, Valenciennes, Mechlin and Flanders were not usually symmetrical.  This  symmetry habit  also suggests the link between Paris and Pottenkant.  Revival era Paris limits itself to Paris ground, although others may occur as fillings.          

32 ek 121 rh

  351 bh  709 lh 710 lh

701 lh

 Mechlin                                                                  *

Laces made in the Mechlin district in the 18th century used a variety of grounds, but as the 18th century wore on the more complex grounds tended to disappear and Mechlin ground became more frequent.  During the early 19th century many laces were made with either point ground or Mechlin ground, and the designs were very similar, almost impossible to tell apart from a distance.  You have to look really closely at the ground to be sure which was used.  Mechlin ground has little vertical stacks (when viewed from the same direction as the lacemaker.)   By the middle of the 19th century Mechlin ground laces virtually disappeared, replaced entirely by point ground.   Revival era Mechlin selected only the Mechlin ground as acceptable and motif shapes somewhat recall the early 19th century, but are generally smaller and simpler.   

  114 lh  

Guipure (Bar/Braid Grounded) Straight Laces:

Cluny:                                                              *

Cluny began in the mid 19th century in an attempt to recreate the technique and character of 16th and 17th  century Genoese laces in the Cluny museum.  But stylistically most of them are very different from the old Genoese.   So the style we call Cluny is actually another revival attempt, but occurred earlier than the 1890-1910 time period usually considered "revival era".  These below are very simple and may actually be 20th century examples.  Cluny is a style that began in the 19th century and has continued into the present.  Giving an absolute date to any piece is virtually impossible without other evidence.  

Genoese imitations

	This one is closer to the Genoese old style than most Cluny laces.  The attempt at greater authenticity suggests to me a revival era origin, rather than earlier in the 19th century.	See  Cluny photos.
339 bh

192 mfb	758 lh		295 jl

292 jl		213 lh		reverse

481 nh	703 lh	392 nh	140 bn

Bedfordshire:                                                                     *

318 jl	387 ef

     Abbreviations     Lace Terminology   

   Bobbin Lace Introduction          Bobbin 2 structural classes                      Bobbin lace history overview 
  1559-1700              Pottenkant/Milanese                  18th c Bobbin Lace                  Napoleonic era
  19th c Straight Bar Lace          19th c Straight Mesh Lace               19th c Part Lace
            Revival Era Part Lace           New Revival Era  

 Last edited:   10/26/12