The vintage handkerchief is something that I recently purchased from another Etsy seller, and I am very happy to have it, since it appears to be a very old piece of tatting. It has the picots sewn together, not joined. According to tatting history, this would place the time it was made before 1851, or possibly later by someone still using the sewn picot method. The reason for guessing it is prior to 1851, is because that's when a book called "Tatting Made Easy" was published, giving directions for joining picots by pulling up a loop of the working thread through the picot and putting the shuttle through, the way we do today. The author of that book was listed only as "a lady".I haven't been able to find the book in any of the Online Public Domain archives that I've seen so far, but there are many other vintage tatting books available as free downloads. A good article about tatting history by Virginia Mescher is on Georgia Seitz' website.
I admire the skill and patience of tatters of times past, but I'm so very grateful to be living in the 21st century with all the exciting options available to us now.
10 comments:
So beautiful!
♥Crissi♥
Your earrings look awesome!! :)
wwwoooowwww... I can't imagine sewing all those picots together! I probably wouldn't be a tatter pre - joins!! :)
Your earrings are quite lovely. I like the colors you chose, especially your 'Blackbird'.
I'm with you on admiring the work that was done 'pre-joins' but I'm so glad we have other options today. RandaGray has it right - I probably wouldn't be a tatter, either! It is a lovely hanky though. With that wide an edge it had to have been for an accessory only, heaven forbid that it was actually used to blow your nose!
Love the new earrings!!! A girlfriend just pick up for me your ``Tatted Jewelry`` book at Kareys tatting weekend and I cann`t wait to get my hands on it!! I just love vintage hankie!
Kelly
You always have such beautiful earrings! Congratulations on your hanky purchase. It's wonderful!
Isn't it exciting to find an old piece of tatting like that!
Great earrings, I love the colors.
Your earrings are lovely.
Beautiful hanky and what a beautiful edging, it looks so delicate, it's nice to find these old pieces, but it's a shame that some of these patterns have been lost.
Margaret
Oh, these earrings look like forest fruit coctail! Beautiful and tasty :)
Added to the good look the advantage is they should be light also to wear...therefore it will have much more comfort value which is a lot to me.
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