Bobbin lace, also called pillow lace, is lace made by twisting and crossing many threads wound on small bobbins. The work is done on a firm pillow, with the pattern pricked on a strip of parchment or card and pins used to hold the threads in place as the design is built up.
The technique developed in the sixteenth century, probably in Flanders and Italy, and spread across Europe. Flemish centres such as Mechelen, Bruges and Brussels, together with Valenciennes and Chantilly in France, became famous for fine bobbin laces, while in England the craft was established in the East Midlands, especially Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire, and at Honiton in Devon. Bobbins themselves are collectable, particularly the decorated bone and wooden bobbins of the English Midlands, often inscribed with names, dates and mottoes. Machine-made lace undermined the hand trade in the nineteenth century, although it survived as a cottage industry. Collectors judge bobbin lace by fineness of thread, clarity of pattern and condition, and should look closely to distinguish hand-made lace from machine-made imitations, which tend to be more uniform.
