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"A Bedfordshire Lace Maker"

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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This postcard from the turn of the 20th century depicts an elderly lace maker in England making "bobbin lace". On her lap rests a lacemaking pillow. Her project is pinned to it over a paper pattern and her thread is wound on wooden bobbins that hang from the project. She makes her lace by twisting, braiding or weaving from point to point on her pattern and sets in a pin at each point to hold the lace in place while she continues to work. Lacemaking was most popular in Belgium, England, Italy and Ireland, among other countries. The device in front of the woman is probably a bobin winder. To the woman's left is a candle set up to shine through a glass bulb filled with water. This magnifies the candlelight.

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