Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Question from Em - Jacobean lace

Was jacobean lace made of silk, linen, or all three? Does it make a difference if the lace was used on the neck, the cuff or elsewhere?

Any idea of the relative cost of a great lace neckpiece?
Thanks.

1 comment:

Karen from Canada said...

Hello, I can answer a little. Silk lace did exist but lace that needed to be starched into great ruffs and ruffled cuffs needed to be linen to hold up to the hot starch and irons process, they used heated irons like modern curling irons. Silk was too delicate for that. Lace was also made of silver and gold thread.
ALL lace was extremely expensive and a status symbol. It was entirely hand made and it could take a year or more to produce a piece of any magnitude.
There are probably lace websites out there that could give you a value comparison, such as 1 collar=1 nice horse.
Hope this helps!