51/127

This is a half-pillow for lacemaking. It is flat-bottomed and can be used on an ordinary table but is not suitable for wide patterns. It has a small revolving pillow let in it to which the parchment is pinned, and a pocket which holds parchments when not in use. This pocket also serves as a ‘worker’ – the cloth which prevents the parchment from being rubbed by the hands of the lacemaker. The pillow is made of straw packed round a wooden cavity which holds a small parchment roller, and is covered with a flowered pillow cloth.

1 half pillow; wood, straw and cloth; fair condition

Citation in publication [H. J. Massingham, 'Country Relics' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1939)] –'It was as lovely a thing as a flower-bed to see the first old lady's white head bent over the pillow in its full array - the intercrossed white threads against their dark background, the deep cream of the pig or calf-skin parchment on which the pattern is pricked, circling the pillow in a broad band, the grove of gleaming pins or "bugles" and the line of pendent bobbins in their rich variety of carved forms with bright-coloured beads or "spangles" attached to them. // The gallantry of a lace-pillow thus adorned may be imagined, and my own, though its pins are plain and it lacks the old eaches, is perhaps the gayest thing in the Hermitage, unless that be the festal harness of a waggon-team.' (pp.167, 171), MERL 'Catalogue index' card (51/128) – ‘The oldest lace pillows were almost round in shape. Then oval or bolster-shaped pillows with a hole in each end, came into use. A more recent development is the half-pillow, which is flat bottomed and can therefore be used on an ordinary table, instead of the usual pillow horse. On the half-pillow the parchment is fixed to a small, revolving pillow let into the large pillow, and there is, therefore, no need for the lacemaker to set up her work again. They cannot be used for wide patterns, however.’, MERL list / description [Massingham Collection, October 1989] – 'ACC. NO.: 51/127 // NAME: LACE MAKER'S PILLOW // NEG NO.: 35/160 // STORAGE: P.Ex. (Permanent Exhibition) Handcrafts.'

1875-01-01 - 1899-12-31

Late-nineteenth century