Historical information

This 158cm length of machine embroidered broderie anglaise was most likely intended to be inserted into children’s wear, women’s undergarments or as an embellishment for bed linen. It most likely originated in or around the Czech Republic but became extremely popular in England in the mid1800s. Prior to the 1870s broderie anglaise was created by hand either by punching out the holes with an embroidery stiletto and using a fine buttonhole stitch around them or by creating the pattern with stitchery and using scissors to cut out the holes. Beginning in the 1870s it was made using the Swiss hand-embroidery machine and nowadays all broderie anglaise is made by machine.

Significance

The Amess family owned Churchill Island from 1872 to 1929. This lace collection was owned and contributed to by four generations of Amess women, see above.

Physical description

Machine embroidered length of lace trim.