Historical information

This is a machine made copy of a bobbin lace featuring ‘spiders’ and double picots on the edge. It appears to be cotton and would be a pretty trim on a mob cap, a fichu or children’s clothing. It is quite narrow and was most likely made on the Barmen machine which was developed in the 1890s in Germany from a braiding machine Its bobbins imitate the movements of the bobbins of a hand-made lace maker and it makes perfect copies of torchon and the simpler hand-made laces. It can only make one width at a time and does not have the pattern potential of the Leavers 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.

Physical description

Machine made bobbin lace trim with double picots, slightly ivory in colour