Trying to ID Antique Lace

[cy-di-ku]

Have lots of antique lace, trying to learn about it and id it. Can you help?  What kind would you call each of these - bobbin, tambour, crocheted?  Other types?  Thanks so much. 

[meowmeow]

This board is very slow these days. There are some of us around who may be able to help you out. However with lace in particular, it is important to get a good, close photo showing the stitches. People can guess but generally it is impossible to ell much of anything looking at photos like these.

I would suggest you take more photos, with close ups. Maybe put 3 or 4 in a thread and hope someone comes along who can help. I may be able to with some of them.

There are some good books out there, which may help you. Lace is hard to learn, unfortunately. You just have to keep handling different types.

One book I would suggest is Elizabeth Kurella, Guide to Lace and lInens.

Good luck!

meowmeow

[meowmeow]

Number 5 is crochet, by the way. 🙂

meowmeow

[cy-di-ku]

Thanks much so much for your suggestions. I will try to find the book. And here are closeup photos.   A few questions 

- are all lace pieces on net - tambour lace?

- how do you know if it's needle lace?

# 1# 2#3# 4# 5# 6# 7# 8# 9#10# 11

[meowmeow · Accepted solution]

I believe #2 is tatting. Not sure about #1, although I am sure it is somewhere in my brain! Perhaps machine Alencon.

#3 looks like the corners are a chemical (machine made) lace and a machine done embroidery on net.

#4 also machine done, I do not think a particular name.

#5 embroidery on net, likely machine done.

#6 is Princess lace, I think.

#7 is crochet. Crochet is always hand done.

#8 is probably Hairpin lace. Not positive.

#9 is chemical lace.

#10 is a machine made lace, no name.

#11 is embroidery on net, not sure if it is hand done or machine.

No, not all work on net is tambour. There are many different tyhpes of lace on net, both machie and hand made. I suggest you get the book and poke around the internet. Look up needle lace. it is a very specific category. 

Lace is wonderful but there is so much ot learn about it. It is very hard to explain things like this. Perhaps someone else can do better, and maybe help out with the list above, as I may have made some mistakes. 

I hope this helps!

meowmeow

[cy-di-ku]

You were a big help. I must be lace challenged, I look at pics, then what I have piece by piece and it never seems straight forward.  Again, thanks. 

[jumping4joy4819]

It's not you.  Lace ID is difficult without some guidance.  I have found this site to be very helpful, rookandraven.weebly.com/

[meowmeow]

Yep. Lace is one of the hardest things to learn. You need to handle as much a possible. And see if you can find someone who knows lace well. Sit with them with pieces in your hand with a magnifying glass. Even then, there will be times you will misidentify pieces and not be sure about stuff. And it is very difficult to learn form photos but Kurella's book is a good start. She has close up photos and good descriptions. There are other books as well but start with that one.

And feel free to post here. We will try our best to help out.

meowmeow

[azurline]

I think #9 is a needle lace.  Of course, I could always be wr.. wr... wr.. uh, mistaken!

[meowmeow]

Azur, I thought #9 was needlelace as well....until I was able to enlarge it a bit. Chemical lace is sneaky like that! lol!

meowmeow