Exhibition

Lace: The Art of Needle and Bobbin

Higbee Gallery, March 23, 2007 - January 6, 2008

Jean Druesedow, Curator

Evening Dress

European, 1820-22

Red silk with self-fabric trim and ivory tulle sleeves.

Kent State University Museum

Gift of Colin Lawton Johnson, 2002.35.6

Shown with:

Stole of Bobbin Lace, Blonde

France, 1820s

Silk

110” x 22”

The rich floral pattern in this stole places it in the 1820s during the lace revival of the early nineteenth century. Whether creamy white or black, blonde lace was one of the most popular laces from the mid-eighteenth through the nineteenth centuries and was produced in both primary and secondary lace centers. The eighteenth century blondes were more geometric, while the nineteenth century blondes were more floral. There are a number of holes in the center of this stole indicating that it may have been pinned as part of a headdress.

Kent State University Museum

Silverman/Rodgers Collection, 1983.1.2150

Day Dress

American, about 1837

Bronze-colored silk.

Kent State University Museum

Transferred from the Allen Memorial Art Museum,

Oberlin, Ohio. Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Daniel Butler, 1931, 1995.017.0542

Shown with:

Pelerine Collar, Carrickmacross

Machine-made net with Appliqué

American (?), 1830s

Linen

L at CB: 15”

Fine net embroidered with appliquéd floral motifs. This is a very early example of Carrickmacross work, and is named after a town in Ireland.

Kent State University Museum

Gift of Evangeline Davey Smith, 1990.67.19

English School

1648

Portrait of Miss Jane Halswell, Aged 18, 1648

Portrait of Colonel John Tyne, her husband, Aged 30, 1648

Oil on canvas

Miss Halswell, 34 ½” x 31 ¼”; Colonel Tyne, 35 ½” x 29 ¾”

Kent State University Museum

Silverman/Rodgers Collection, 1983.4.718ab

The representation of the lace edging Miss Halswell’s white linen collar is most probably of scalloped Flemish bobbin lace typical of the 1630s. Heavy gold and silver gimp lace edging is represented on Colonel Tyne’s baldric, the heavily embroidered sash across his chest. Metallic laces were popular throughout the seventeenth century in spite of sumptuary laws that sought to control their use. Santina Levey in Lace A History published by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, mentions that a Committee of Parliament was set up in 1657 to investigate “the abuse of melting down the silver coins of the Nation to make lace.”

Queen Anne Sideboard

English, 1^st quarter, 18^th century

Oak

98” x 35” x 20”

Kent State University Museum

Silverman/Rodgers Collection, 1983.1.764