34 
HOUSE & GARDEN 
Oxfordshire’s most ancient edi¬ 
fice. The pillow having been 
stuffed and pounded hard, a parch¬ 
ment pricking was pinned around 
the center. If possible the pat¬ 
tern was joined so that it could be 
worked continuously. The bob¬ 
bins were wound with the thread, 
generally by hand, although there 
were reels in which a bobbin could 
be inserted and a handle turned to 
facilitate a tedious process. A slip 
knot was then tied so that the bob¬ 
bin did not unwind as it hung from 
the pillow, but so tied that the 
thread could be lengthened by 
pulling the bobbin. The required 
number of threads were tied to a 
few pins, and the weaving was be¬ 
gun. The stitch was simply an 
over and under weaving with extra 
twists to form the meshes. After 
every stitch a pin was set, the 
position of the pin, as stated 
above, determining the pattern. 
The Ipswich Lace 
The heavy outline thread, which 
is a characteristic of Buckingham¬ 
shire lace, the kind that was made 
in Ipswich, is a loosely-twisted 
flax. Some thread of this sort 
that was never used is in the 
writer’s possession, and it shows 
plainly the irregularity of a softly 
twisted hand-spun thread. The 
early settlers were obliged to de¬ 
pend on home spinning. In 1656, 
records tell us, “The Selectmen 
are to divide ’ their towns into 
classes of five, six and ten, and 
appoint a class leader, for the pur¬ 
pose of spinning. Each family, which can furnish one spin¬ 
ner, shall spin thirty weeks in a year, three pounds of linen, 
cotton and.woolen, monthly. . . . The commons are to be 
cleared for sheep. The seed of hemp and flax is to be saved.” 
This proves beyond doubt that the early Ipswich lacemakers 
made their own thread. 
The early Ipswich lace was always made in stripes, never 
in set figures. Although there are some wide pieces in exist¬ 
ence, most of the lace is narrow. This lace was extensively 
used on baby clothes, and later lace of this sort was known 
to our grandmothers as “English thread lace.” If you are 
fortunate enough to possess a garret, seek out the dear little 
linen shirts which your great-grandmother made for her babies, 
and more than likely the handmade lace which trims them, if 
not made in Ipswich, is the same type of lace, exquisite, dainty 
and yet durable. A christening dress will almost surely be 
ornamented with such lace, and caps both for the babies and 
the grandmothers were finished with more or less elaborate 
edges that are most interesting. 
The lacemakers" pins were used over and over again. As 
a laceworker progresses she takes 
out the first set of pins, and the 
lace held by these pins falls fin¬ 
ished into the little India cotton 
bag. Bobbin lace used to be com¬ 
monly known in England as bone 
lace, and although the reason has 
never been definitely ascertained, 
it has been suggested that the use 
of small fish bones to hold the pat¬ 
tern, in the days when pins were 
very dear and almost unprocur¬ 
able, may account for the name. 
Unions in Those Days? 
A certain Aunt Mollie Caldwell 
(so history tells us) collected the 
Ipswich workers’ lace once a week 
and took it to Boston by stage 
coach, railways being unknown; 
in exchange she brought back 
French calico, sugar, tea, coffee, 
etc., and surreptitiously little 
packages of most-desired snuff. 
It wasn’t alone the lacemakers 
who were not paid in currency, for 
the town records as far back as 
1640 read that “No persons are 
compelled to pay future debts in 
cash, but corn, cattle, fish and 
other articles.” Mrs. Caldwell not 
only disposed of the workers’ lace, 
but was clever enough to buy a 
bit from a peddler, and prick off 
a pattern from it and give it to 
one of the workers to reproduce. 
Felt’s History, published in 
1834, states that “Lace of thread 
and silk was made in large quan¬ 
tities, and for a long period by 
girls and women. . . . Black as 
well as white lace was manufac¬ 
tured of various widths, qualities 
and prices. The females of almost every family would pass 
their leisure hours in such employment. In 1790 no less than 
41,979 yards were made here annually.” 
The Coming of Machines 
Let us go back a little that we may understand the sudden 
appearance of an entirely different sort of lace. In England, 
about 1809, a Mr. Heathcoat perfected a machine that made 
a very good hexagonal mesh, so that a yard of yard-wide net 
could be woven in the time it formerly took to make six inches 
of inch wide net on a pillow. The pillow lacemakers naturally 
resented this very keenly, so they banded themselves together 
and took drastic measures to destroy these machines. So 
much damage was actually done that many operators were 
driven out of employment, and in 1818 to 1822 emigrated to 
our Massachusetts Ipswich to be relieved of the constant an¬ 
noyance they suffered in Nottingham and several other cities. 
The English government, realizing this danger to her textile 
industries, if these skilled workmen could get machines, put 
(Continued on page 64) 
A piece of early darned net lace. The pattern, 
which was taken from bobbin lace, was darned 
in after the net was made 
This and the piece above, both darned net. were 
made in 1827. The work is similar to that made 
in Ireland and called Limerick lace, and in 
Italy and called Sicilian 
A sample of the bobbin lace made in Ipswich about 1880 
Parchment patterns on which the bobbin lace was made 
