Historical information

This is a beautiful example of Irish crochet lace edging featuring the Clones knot which gives the picot appearance on the bars. Clones knots are made by twisting the crochet hook backwards and forwards many times and working into the same stitch then pulling a loop through and fastening it at the beginning of the knot. Irish crochet comes in many forms and at first glance this lace looks like a bobbin made torchon lace. It is very fine and the thread used is most likely a No. 60 cotton or finer. Being handmade this lace would have been quite expensive and the owner would have wanted it to be seen.

Significance

Churchill Island has a large lace collection, which was added to by three successive generations of the Amess family - Jane, Janet, and Unity. The Amess family owned Churchill Island from 1872 to 1929. Jane was wife of Samuel Amess, who was the first Samuel Amess to own Churchill Island. The examples of lace are notable for their variety, and provide representative examples of techniques from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries.

Physical description

length of handmade lace, with reinforced edges and a repeating, abstract motif reminiscent of buds.