Last week we went to London for a few days, the date was chosen so that I could visit the Antique Textile Fair in Chelsea Town Hall. It’s been a while since I have visited such an event and it didn’t disappoint.
I bought four pieces, so two this time and two next. All different and none in my usual time period of the C17th, still I couldn’t not come home without them!
The image shows a bundle of Bucks Lace, I suspect from the interwar years, but I’m basing that on the cost of each yard, 2/6p (12.5p). There are two yards of lace, two inches high The designs really didn’t change much. The bundle has its original label attached from Mrs Armstrongs Lace Factory, which operated a cottage industry throughout the surrounding areas. The lace was attached to the original purple paper with tacking stitches. My story with this piece of lace was that I was born very near to Olney, a village in Buckinghamshire, where the lace came from.
There had been a domestic lace industry in this area since the C16th, gradually dying out post WW2. Mrs Armstrong was really Harry Armstrong, he thought that lace would be better marketed by a woman. He operated from 1906, until his death in 1943.
I can’t see me ever opening the bundle, which has remained so for many decades and which is so good to hold in your palm.
The other piece is from the Leek Embroidery Society, 6cm x 12cm. This society was started in 1879 in Staffordshire to promote high quality silk embroidery with gold work. It was closely allied to the Arts and Crafts Movement and William Morris and was made for both Ecclesiastical and Domestic venues.
The small piece was attached to a card and I immediately recognised the pencil writing of Joyce Doel. In the 1980’s and 90’s we were both Chairmen of neighbouring Embroiderers’ Guilds and she traded in all sorts of antique and foreign embroideries and indeed it was through her that I began building my own collection. Happy Memories.
Annwyn Dean 