Featured Lace Lesson - Lace Bobbins

This post is in response to some recent queries re: antique Bedsfordshire lace bobbins. I felt like I needed to follow up with some additional information re: lace bobbins in general.

The first photos are of a "hill pillow with revolving bolster", which is exceptionally well suited for using Bedsfordshire spangled bobbins. This is one of my "demonstration" pillows; so in addition to spangled bobbins, I've also included a few other styles. The lace is one of my own designs called "3 Diamonds". It is a simple Torchon pattern.
This is the top layer of bobbins and includes old and new bobbins from different locations - purely for education. Lacemaking is done more rhythmetically when all the bobbins are relatively the same size, shape and weight. The pattern probably should be called "3 Diamonds and Fan" - but I liked the sound of it without the "fan" tacked on. The other notable thing is that on the very far right I'm using a sparkle thread - definitely non-traditional.
This shows the bobbins which were in the lower layer.

This is a better photo of the lace - the "3 diamonds" show up a bit clearer; but the far left diamond is very tiny.

This is an assortment of bone bobbins that are (mostly) named.

This is the backside of the above bobbins.




Of interest here: (close up of some of the above bobbins) From left:
#1. JOEL which as a domino design on the back and "evil eye' bead with a bone ring spangle
#2. JOHN with domino design on back
#3. "KIS ME QUICK MY MOME IS COMIN" has a great "eye" (polka dot) bead
#4. FRANCIS with bold diagonal red slashes on the back and red and blue incised stripes
#5. RICHARD with bold diagonal red slashes on the back and red and blue incised stripes.
#6. BENJAMIN ROBERTS 1858 (perhaps he was born in 1858)
#7. SAMUEL with a pretty frosted bell shape bead
#8. FANNY with pretty square cuts and carved bone flower beads
#9.
#10. "BUY THE RING"
#11. ELIZABETH with a black faceted glass button
#12. Spiral written "COME LOVE AND LIVE WITH ME MY DEAR" made by James Compton (1824-1889) distinctive for being a second generation bobbin maker and known for beautiful spiral written bobbins. His "Y's" were had a very curling stem and words spiraling to the right.
#13. KING DAVID
#14. Multiple incised line bobbin
#15. Tinsel bobbin - the indented areas originally held small strips of "tinsel". This one has lost all the metallic part of the tinsel and only the paper back remains in some of the grooves. I've also heard this one called a "fish bone/spine" bobbin. It has a really pretty carved rose bone bead.
#16. JOHN with a fairly thick shaft and deep green, pink and clear bobbins.
#17. RUTH with deep dots along the back side. The pigment has worn off so it is hard to read.
#18. THOMAS with a large, square faceted clear bead.
#19. ELIZABETH with red heart shape beads (those may be new additions - but I've had the bobbin since the mid 80's and it came that way).





I won't go into too much detail about these. All are spangled Bedsfordshire bobbins.
From left:
#8. Has a little jade anvil on the bottom.
#31. Has pewter inlay butterflies.
#32. Has a wide pewter panel which has something inscribed on it - but no longer readable. It has an interesting 2 part copper button.

You should be able to spot some "wired" bobbins which have a spiral wire, some leopards and another butterfly.

The group below belong to a special group of bobbins known as "Henry the 8th" bobbins. According to the Springett book "Spangles and Superstitions" this story illustrates very clearly how a "myth" can be created and by constant repetition become accepted as fact. These bobbins may be an East Midland style, but more commonly known as South Bucks bobbins. The bobbins have 1 through 6 or 8 loose pewter rings also known as "jingles" or "gingles". According to the story represent Henry the VIII and his six wives, the inference being that bobbins with one ring belonged to Catherine of Aragon, 2 to Anne Boleyn and a bobbin with 3 rings on the shank was described in a published article as having belonged to Henry's 3rd wife Jane Seymour. The bobbin with 8 pewter rings representing Henry himself.

It is unlikely that this story is true, as this style bobbin dates back into the early 16th century. The whole story was in fact invented by Miss Ethel Nettleship; a lacemaker. It was documented in a paper that Miss Nettleship (circa 1927) was offering a complete set of 6 bobbins "Royal Wives' for 2lb10 and selling them at the Kensington Antique Dealers Fair. Apparently, she was buying up these local bobbins for pennies and replacing any missing rings and making a handsome profit. She even said that it was particularly difficult to find #2 and #5 as those bobbins represented beheaded wives. Strangely enough, there is often a grain of truth in even the most far fetched stories as it is hard to find a bobbin with 2 rings and harder to find one with 5. Perhaps they were considered unlucky. Still, I consider myself lucky to have a complete set.



This selection is mostly Bedsfordshire spangled bone... a butterfly, wired, dyed (green or red).
Of particular interest is #7 from the left. The green dye has mostly worn off. It has deep blue beads with a white "Birdcage" bead, which has tiny beads encircling the larger bead. It is difficult to find an intact one as the fine wire often broke.
#14. The pretty twisted one on the end, I am told was ivory. It is "Danish".


I'll mention here that the dyes were different - depending on if you were dying the bobbin itself or the decoration. This information comes from the book by Springett - Success to the Lace Pillow.

The wood and bone bobbins were colored by immersion in various dyes and the dyes didn't dye very deeply and wore off the shank quickly due to handling and exposure to sun and usually stayed fairly vivid in the head area where the thread was wound. Some of the dyes were: deep reddish purple obtained from the Central American logwood tree. Carmine was probably derived from cochineal (the dried and powdered remains of an insect which lives on cactus in Mexico) and Cudbear (a dried and powdered lichen) is another possible source of red dyes.
Green dyes may have been obtained from arsenate of copper which requires careful handling. A yellow was achieved by using potassium bichromate and a shade of mauve was produced by gentain violet.

The dots and grooves used a wider variety of colors which were produced by mixing powdered paint with gum arabic and then painting it into the grooves or dots with a brush or quill. Any surplus was easily wiped away. This type of coloring is water soluble!!!

I can attest to the truth of that! While demonstrating in a beautiful summer day in our local park during an art fair; a sudden HEAVY downpour just came down in buckets! I fortunately carried my demo pillow in a plastic zipper bag. At the time, the pillow had had a lot of dyed incised bobbins strung on it! I managed to get it into the plastic bag JUST in time. If I remember right (it was 30 odd years ago); ONE particularly juicy raindrop fell on one of the dyed incised dots and immediately disappeared! YIKES! It was then that I learned they were water soluble!

I guess that is the end of the photos I can download in this post...
I have just a few more I'll post in a different thread

I hope you've learned a little...
Cheerio, Leslie

 

Thank you for sharing.

 

Following up with this second post about bobbins.

This lot of bobbins are sort of a mish mash.
From left:
#1. Spanish origin
#2. Puerto Rico origin made of bamboo and surprisingly heavy.
#3. "German Hooded" - The thread was wound underneath the removable hood and the hood protected the thread from light and hand oils. It makes a great little clicking noise.
#4. This one is probably a bit more modern as it is stamped "Daniel Del Olmo - Encajes de Almagro - Madrid - 2, Plaza Del Angel, 2"
#5. Quite a heavy bobbin and oddly enough, drilled for spangles - off hand I can't recall the locale where this one was popular
#6. French
#7. South Bucks - also called "Huguenots" or "thumpers"
#8. An oddity, as it is a French style bobbin with English spangles
#9. This homely little bobbin is dear to my heart. When I was very young and first learned that bobbin lacemaking existed; I was very eager to find equipment which was just not really available in the 1960's in the American Midwest. Eventually in the late 60's our family went to England. Somewhere along the line, I'd heard that they made bobbin lace in Europe, so bless my folks. They appeased me and we searched Petticoat Lane and Portabello Road, we missed Covent Gardens and The Wax Museum because we were scouring London antique shops for bobbin lace ANYTHING! Little did I know that all the mountains of antique clothing lining the market lanes were truly ANTIQUE and therefore the froth of lace on the garments were indeed handmade lace! ... shaking my head at my young ignorance. Anyway, we eventually landed in Plymouth at a charming cobblestone street lined with little shops. It was noon...most of the shops were closed for lunch. But one shop had a little basket heaped full of these little bobbins! Some had beads, some not, all still had thread on them. BUT HE WAS CLOSED FOR LUNCH! I went screaming up and down the lane at my folks - "Come here!!! I found them!!!! I found LACE BOBBINS!!" I banged and banged on his door and this confused elderly gentleman with a big belly and a smear of mustard on his chin eventually came to open the door and asked what I wanted. I explained. He obliged and sold me a handful of these dear little bobbins! I can't remember how much - but I was a teen and didn't have a lot of spending money and apparently, they weren't very sellable at that time in England... but if I recall right I bought all I could afford...about 8! This particular bobbin had no spangle. I expect he "heard me coming"! None the less I was thrilled! But that year, the replica of the Mayflower was in Plymouth, Massachusetts and later sailed to Plymouth, England. I visited it in both locations that summer and bought a charm in both Plymouths to hang on this bobbin.



This lot of wood bobbins are all pretty new. From the left a pretty Honiton bobbin -dyed green and wired; Italian; sorry I can't remember where this little one is from; modern utilitarian bobbin; Galicia Spain; Italian; Belgian (I particularly like using this style and weight bobbin); French


This selection are all modern. Post 1980.
From left:#1. "Mother and Babe" (made of ebony and probably rosewood) Mother and Babe's are not a modern innovation and came in a number of styles (cages in which a little bobbin sat, or a bobbin that unscrewed to reveal a mini bobbin). This babe is not removable.
#2. Modern spiral with red and green tinsel
#3. Ebony
#4. Wired and inscribed
#5. Ebony - wired with a "peep" which has a small photo of Queen Victoria illuminated within.
#6. Ebony with red wood bands



Lastly an assortment of more less modern. From left:
#1. Back before we could find readily available bobbins in the US, some of us used nails. They sound great, but they are awful to use as they are very unbalanced.
#2. Going back in time, bones WERE occasionally used out of necessity. Again, cumbersome to use.
#3. This is actually a mini baseball bat which could be found in the craft department. Not much thread area; but worked ok.
#4. There are a lot of glass bobbins out there now. I particularly liked this one which was dubbed "A Mexican jumping bean" bobbin as when you work with it, the heat from your hand makes the beans stick to the side and as it cools off when you lay it down, the beans hop down off the inside and makes a little click. I've seen glass ones with anything "special" inside, like a miniature bobbin or even sand to make an "hourglass".
#5. Simple bobbins made of dowels and beads - the end beads are glued and the others are free moving.
#6. Another wood style - perhaps French
#7. A turned spindle with loose discs and a heavy ceramic bead end.
#8. Ceramic with decals
#9. A pewter bobbin with a gnome face on the end. Really quite heavy!


By now you get the idea that there are dozens of styles and shapes and "fun stuff" connected to lace bobbins. One day I expect I'll have to either pass these down or sell them; but for now I'm the caretaker for this generation and I've fondly used them for decades!

Cheerio for now.
Leslie

 

You know I'm delighted to share! Glad you liked it!

 

This is a phenomenal thread Leslie! So much information to take in, I’m going to read it with my morning coffee

 

Always learning on here ! Now I must find some !

 

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Leslie

 

Oh, that makes me happy!
Leslie

 

Amazing collection, Leslie. And a very informative and enjoyable thread, thanks to your love of lace and lace-related items, and the many hours of research. We can read that love in every line.

 

Oh lovely! I'm filled with joy! Leslie