Yale Center for British Art

Title:

Album of cyanotype reproductions of lace samples.

Published / Created:

Great Britain, 1890s?

Physical Description:

1 volume (approximately 300 cyanotypes) ; 49 cm

Holdings:

Rare Books and Manuscripts
Folio A 2018 5
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund

Copyright Status:

Related Content:

View a selection of digital images in the Yale Center for British Art's online catalogue https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/orbis:13505192

Classification:

Photographs

Notes:

Album of approximately 300 cyanotypes depicting specimens of machine lace and hand-made lace. The cyanotypes range in size from about 5 x 5 cm to 45 x 25 cm. Also present are a small number of drawings and photographs in other formats, including gelatin silver and albumen. The volume is likely the work of a lace collector or enthusiast, not a manufacturer. The volume appears to have been originally used as an account book or register. Intermittently visible are numbers and ruled lines (in black ink) written on the blue pages of the album.

The lace specimens depicted include a wide variety of machine laces (primarily at the front) and hand-made laces (the remainder of the volume). Among the styles depicted are specimens of Mechlin bobbin lace, Flemish bobbin lace, point de gaze, chemical lace, Venetian gros point (or punto a relievo), Brussels lace, Honiton lace, guipure, and point de neige.

Attached to one specimen is the printed label of Frank Woodward, Pilcher Gate, Nottingham. Woodward was a lace manufacturer active in the late 1890s, if not earlier.

Subject Terms:

Form/Genre:

Pattern books. | Photographs. | Cyanotypes (photographic prints) | Albumen prints. | Gelatin silver prints.