Tricia writes:

The lace threads for the project have arrived! After testing several threads (noted in earlier blog entries), we chose a family of threads fabricated by Benton and Johnson (www.bentonandjohnson.com). The diameter of the thread was close to that found on lace samples from the first quarter of the 17th century viewed at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as other locations.

This family of threads is manufactured to limit the amount of overtwist imparted to the core thread when wrapping the metal foil around the core. The manufacturer calls the line “Tambour” as it is primarily used by those who practice tambour embroidery. The line comes in two weights, 9 drms (thick diameter) and Fine (small diameter). The 9 drm version is what we are using. 

The line also comes in a choice of metallurgy. We have been receiving a lot of questions to the blog and in private about the metallurgy of the lace threads. Of course one of the first considerations was to match the threads of the 17th century. Currently I have not found conservation literature on the exact metallurgy of lace threads that have been studied, while there is a body of knowledge on embroidery threads of this time period.  But consultations with conservators who have a great deal of expertise with metal threads (Dr. Marta Jaro at the Hungarian National Museum is one of the best known) match the references in period accounts and imply that the metallurgy would not have been different between the lace and embroidery threads. Each would have started with a silver rod with gold leaf wrapped around it. This would then be drawn into a thin wire that was then flattened and wrapped (really be spun) around a silk or linen core thread. During the 17th century, a less expensive version of these threads was made using a copper rod with application of silver or silver and gold leaf, called ‘false gilt’ or ‘false silver-gilt’.

- 2% gold (a much thicker layer of gold on the predominately copper core, again with a possible layer of silver between)
- gilt (electroplated gold with a predominately copper core and possibly a thin layer of silver between)

Currently available silver threads are:
- 90% silver alloy
- silver plated (electroplated silver on a predominately copper core)

When deciding which of each version to use, we knew we would already be closer to the ‘false gilt’ threads of the day and not the more expensive versions made in the 17th century. We did explore the possibility of making silver cored wire, but the expense of nobel metals today and the #lbs we would have to manufacture would have been more than the entire cost of this project, so we had to back off of that level of authenticity. For similar reasons, we had already made the decision to use gilt and not 2% gold for the embroidery thread, so gilt for the lace threads was an obvious choice. For the silver threads, conservation drove the decision to use the significantly more expensive 90% silver threads. 

Silver tarnishes with a blue-black hue when exposed to sulfur, which is prevalent in low doses in the atmosphere and much higher doses in human sweat and in paper manufacture. Electroplated silver thread tarnishes in a very short time frame (a few years depending on storage) whereas 90% silver thread can last at least a decade, again depending on storage conditions. We have been looking at the conservation literature and decided that since this object would automatically become a museum object, destined for study in several decades, we would use the highest quality silver thread we could get.  The literature specifies easy tests that will be used to evaluate the materials that will be used for the display cases and storage to help get the longest lifetime for our lace.
The lace threads have been on order for over a month and they arrived this week! With people doing less and less handwork, much of the gold thread industry has to make to order to save on inventory costs. We are starting to put together the lace kits and expect to ship them starting January 1st.

The lace in the kits is not the Laton lace from the jacket. The kit lace is shown in the photos here. The kit lace is similar to the Laton lace, and uses many of the same techniques. Each kit will contain:
- 110 spangles
- 24 yards of 90% silver 9 grm tambour
- 12 yards of gilt 9 grm tambour
- needle to thread spangles
- complete instructions, color diagrams, and pricking for lace
- Photograph of finished lace

The materials included are enough to complete the sample (about 6 inches in length and 1-1/4" in width) and a second full sample for the lace maker to keep. 

The cost of each kit is $40.00 plus $5 shipping, which includes a $20 tax-deductible donation, which will directly support the jacket project. 

To order a kit, please call Kathy at 508-746-1622 X 8114 or email at kroncarati@plimoth.org

If you have already put your name on the list for a kit, yours will go out in the first shipment. Just please contact Kathy to arrange a payment method.

We can start scheduling lace makers, two at a time, for the January sessions. You can let me know by phone or email (508-746-1622 X 8119 or jhall@plimoth.org) what session you’d like to attend. We only have room for two lacers at each session, so you’ll want to let me know as soon as you decide.

Since we’ve started talking about reproducing the lace on the Margaret Laton jacket, several people have left comments or written to me offline to ask questions. 

First off, the Margaret Laton jacket lives at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, England. It is permanently mounted inside a closed case. No one can get in and take it out for any reason. One of the reasons this jacket is so special is that, also living at the V&A, is a portrait by Marcus Gheeraerts of Margaret Laton wearing this very jacket. The portrait is also in a case, and the lighting is dim, to preserve both valuable artifacts. To see them, go to www dot vam dot ac dot uk – search the collections and put “laton jacket” in the search box. You should go right there. Revel in the photos, some of which show amazing detail of the lace and the embroidery. 

The conservation report on the jacket states that the lace that trims the jacket was added after the original construction. Many people have taken this to mean that the metal lace on the jacket now is not the same lace as is depicted in the portrait, and have further wondered if the lace on the jacket now is not early 17^th century lace, but perhaps 18^th century or even later. Moreover, if that’s the case, why would we want to reproduce that? 

Most of these questions were new ideas to me, beyond that the lace was not considered part of the original construction. After having worked with the lace in close-up photographs and searched 16^th and 17^th century lace pattern books, paintings, etc, for comparable designs, Carolyn Hastings and I were pretty confident that the lace on the jacket was from 1650 or earlier and therefore appropriate to our reproduction. 

But, having a skeptical heart, I was perfectly prepared to believe I was mistaken. It’s happened often enough before. So I wrote to Susan North, curator of 17^th and 18^th century costume for the V&A. Ms North has been beyond helpful to Tricia and me as we’ve done this research, and immensely generous with her time and expertise. 

She couldn’t tell from the photos of the portrait that she had on hand (even enlargements) that the lace was or wasn’t the same as the jacket. She considered the idea that the lace was replaced with later century lace (which would have been awful if true as we’d already done all the work on the jacket lace) but rejected that idea. If the family had been aware of the jacket during those later centuries, she surmised that the lace wouldn’t have been replaced, but removed to recover the valuable gold. She also reminded me that Gheeraerts was neither a lacer nor an embroiderer, and likely was only recording the impression of the lace, not the exact pattern. At the very end of her note she promised to go look at the portrait in person the next day (at which I went positively green with envy – imagine working surrounded by all those treasures, and able to go see them anytime! But I bet she’s trapped in her office more than she’d like after all.) 

The next day, I got another message. Ms North had borrowed a colleague’s distance magnifier which enabled her to examine each visible repeat of the lace even through the case and despite the reduced light. What she found was that the painted lace is non-repeating. The artist, or his studio assistant, painted each motif with a different squiggle or swirl. So he did record the effect of the lace, the kink of the metal threads and the way they stand out from the surface of the jacket, but not the actual pattern as it would appear in a lace making manual. 

I have to admit I breathed a sigh of relief. Although I was perfectly prepared to go back to the drawing board with a new lace pattern, I am awfully glad we were on the right track all along. 

Carolyn is in the UK right this very minute, and spent an hour this afternoon with Ms North and a number of early 17^th-century metal laces. Carolyn found strong similarities between these laces and the jacket lace, including some techniques that are not used in modern laces. Although she’s very modest about her own expertise and insists she’s not an expert, she says that her research today makes her confident in our choice to reproduce the jacket lace. 

I’m grateful to everyone who raised these questions. For one thing, a rising tide lifts all boats and this level of debate concerning one piece of historic costume can only interest more people in the subject and shed more light on history’s dark corners. Secondly, it has always been very important to us in conducting this project to investigate and document all our choices. Our choices are only ours, and the next crazy ambitious group that does something like this may make very different and equally valid choices. Questions caused us to reexamine, and although this time we’ve arrived again at the original conclusion, another time we might find a better way before we’ve gone too far to change course.

 Now that we’re all excited about the lace again, guess what? The large order of metal threads for the lace and the lace kits has arrived! Tricia is putting together kits even as we speak, and they will be ready for shipment shortly. 

The price for the lace sample kits is $40 + $5 shipping, exactly the same as for the embroidery kits. The cost includes a $20 tax-deductible donation to Plimoth Plantation which will directly support the jacket project. Kathy will commence taking actual orders, so call her 508-746-1622 X 8114 or email kroncarati@plimoth.org to place one. If she already has your name, your kit will be in the first batch that goes out. Just call her to arrange a payment method.

 The kits include enough materials for the lacer to make a 6” sample to send to Plimoth as well as a 6” – 8” sample to keep. This information, along with a lot more interesting details about the threads we’re using (and why we chose them) not to mention general info about metal threads for embroidery and lace will appear in Tricia’s blog entry tomorrow night.

Photo credit: Photo by Robbin D, of Carolyn’s sample of the Laton lace laid against one of the reproduction jacket’s sleeves.  Robbin was in the office today, spending her birthday embroidering on the jacket instead of going to work, so she got to see how much we use and enjoy the machine she helped us get. Happy Birthday, Robbin.

Samples received from Peggy V, Catherine G, and – our first gentleman – Timothy M.

I copied the phone number for the Mail Order office wrong – the correct phone number is 1-800-262-9356 X8332. I did fix it in last night’s post, and thanks to Mel for finding it and letting me know.

I have no pictures of it, but Norah and Paulette had quite an adventure at the laundromat today. Paulette and Norah are seasonal colonial interpreters working with us for the month of December. They mostly do laundry, plus a little laundry. Not glamorous, but as Paulette says, it’s warm and there’s no wood smoke. Everything’s relative.

Anyway, they took two carloads of textiles to the laundry, blankets and bed rugs and bed curtains and sheets and pillow covers, oh my. And they filled the available machines before they ran out of laundry. And one of the machines flooded. But they got about half the wool and quite a lot of the linen done; the wool is hanging to dry and they’ll be hitting the laundromat again on Thursday.

 PS. That’s Paulette on the cover of the embroidered coif instruction book in last night’s post. And Paulette is the staff person who, on paper at least, is most likely to fit into the Jacket once it’s done.

Is Still Available

These are just the directions for the old embroidered coif kit, not the kit itself with the design-stamped cloth and floss. But many people have asked for the directions so we’ve made them available.

There was a rumor that these were sold out, but they were only sold out of the Crafts Center Gift Shop, not sold out completely. There are 13 copies left, they cost $6.95 each (plus shipping if applicable). Locals can get them from the main gift shop in the Plimoth Plantation Visitors’ Center, open daily 10-4 until December 21. Non-locals (or anyone who wants to do mail order) can get them by calling 1-800-2MAYFLO X 8332 (1-800-262-9356 X 8332).

If we sell out of these and there is demand, we can maybe reprint, so let me know if you tried to get one and couldn’t.

Also still available are spots in the December 11 – 14 embroidery session. We had two cancellations today, and we’re a small intimate group now, so we’ll be in the Wardrobe Office again. If you’ve got a vacation day or two and want to join us, it isn’t necessary to come all four days. The gift shops will be open and volunteers receive a 10% discount.

In other news, I’m still working on the sheep/wool/yarn thing. It is the proverbial can of worms. Thanks for the recent comments, and that is precisely what I am working on – getting at what qualities we want in the wool fiber and looking for a breed source. Unfortunately I think the only description of the wool the Gunnister stockings are knit with is "long-staple" which, of course is a completely subjective description…..but I’m working on it!

Today’s treats are courtesy of Beth from NJ. I met Beth ages and ages ago when she was doing some research into how living history sites organized their historic clothing programs. I was new at the managing end of things and didn’t know that you weren’t supposed to send back surveys when you got them (apparently very very few surveys were completed and returned) and Beth ended up coming to Plymouth.

Here are two smocks (chemises? shifts? there are so many words for this item) made and embroidered by Beth. The first has columns of embroidery down the whole garment. The second has embroidery at the neck and cuffs. Both are beautifully done and must be fun to wear.

Beth is currently doing a graduate program, teaching and working on an upcoming embroidery exhibit that will appear in the New York area either late next year or early in 2009. She’s been to Plymouth a couple of times already to work on the jacket, and is hoping to come again between semesters, if the weather and vacation time-granters are amenable.

Today I’d like to show you another treasure from November’s Show & Tell Day.

This belt or girdle was made by Allison. The green velvet piece was 60" long before finishing, and it only lost a few inches in the making up. The embroidery covers 55" of the girdle.

The embroidery consists of a double line of couched gold thread, which outlines large leaves and small buds or leaf buds. The small white buds are pieces of Allison’s wedding dress fabric.

The most special detail, though, is that Allison used one single length of gold thread for the whole 55" of repeating motifs. There are no joins. She’s justly proud of the skill and planning and patience required to carry out this work.

And I’m glad she’s willing to spend her skill and patience on the jacket embroidery.