In the Summer, I went on a Trip. Part One.

Last time, I looked at the research point that dealt with traditional textiles. This time, I thought I'd answer another one of the folder's questions - whether there were any textile arts that were unique to my local area. In August, I went to Bedford Museum. And it was great! Earlier today, I was taking some pictures off of my camera, and realised I'd never written anything up about my trip! So I'll belatedly do so now, and whilst doing so, I'll talk about the local craft.

Once upon a time, Bedford was famous for it's lace. Bobbin lace, that is. As I understand it, it was particularly popular in the Victorian period, and therefore, it is well documented in the town museum. Here's a picture of the lace display case:

As you can see, it focuses quite a bit on the man pictured at the side of the case, Thomas Lester. More about him later. There were plenty of different items on show, most prominent among which was this large item, a parasol cover.

Here's a close-up of the cloth itself. The most remarkable part, to my eye, is the number of tiny pin picots along the edges.

Some other, similarly fancy items were also in the case; I think that both of the following items are cuffs, though obviously they are displayed differently.

Part of a cap with an ostrich motif. The background is simply amazing. Two parallel rows of fine thread with looped pin picots - the thread used appeared to be finer (and neater, more tightly twisted) than modern sewing cotton, let alone crochet cotton. It was more of an equivalent to 100/3 silk. Most of these pieces were made during the mid-Victorian period, and so could well have been made with machine-spun thread. However, found elsewhere in the case are medals and certificates demonstrating the prizes won by the designer at various exhibitions and 'world fairs', so it may still have been worth the while of the manufacturer to retain some hand-spinners for his finest pieces. I think I'll do a little more research into this, and find out more about the remaining numbers of hand-spinners at the time.

At the bottom of the case was a book of sample edgings with an unreadable contents page opposite.

Some business cards and one of the prize medals.

At the side of the case was the man that ran the works producing the featured items, Thomas (sometimes spelt Thomazin) Lester. Despite producing these beautiful objects, this tale of Victorian textile production seems to have followed the usual course - the sign tells me that selling his products marketed at 'real lace' meant that the lacework itself was produced by hand (though there's no word as to the origins of the thread), and that Lester came up with many of his own designs to compete with simpler machine made lace - it was a business venture, not so much an artistic one. I said the business followed the usual course; the notice also reads "He was known as a hard task-master who would sometimes punish his workers if their lace was below his high standards.". This thought, though it is one that has followed almost all textile work, and especially lace making, throughout the ages, cast rather a pall over the jolly animal scenes for me. Though lace is probably my favourite textile art, it has a terribly hard history. I moved on to another exhibit, which I will write about in my next post.