Collectors of Bedfordshire bobbin lace take note: this is a particularly rare and delicate little collar, possibly from the workshops of Thomas Lester. It’s great age -- probably close to 120 years old -- and extremely fine thread would make it best suited to study, display, or use on a wonderful big doll. Details that identify it as Bedfordshire, a continuous English bobbin lace, are shown in photos that follow. Additional information about Bedfordshire bobbin lace is found in Guide to Lace and Linens. The elegant nature of the simple leaf design, the detail in the clothwork of each leaf, the complexity of the background, and the very fine white thread are the features that suggest this collar might have been from the studios of Thomas Lester, the most prestegious of the nineteenth century English lace designers. (An article on Lester and his workshops, “Thomas Lester, For Beauty of Design and Excellence of Manufacture” appeared in Vol. 1 No. 3, The Lace Collector Newsletter, Summer 1991). Beds lace with such a complex pattern worked in extremely fine thread makes this piece quite rare and special. |