Typically the lace was produced from "prickings" or patterns created on parchment or pasteboard that were attached to a round bolster-style
lace pillow.
Bobbins whittled from local wood or reeds were used to provide the thread repository and the appropriate tension for constructing the lace.
Linen or
silk thread was the material commonly used in the early period with
cotton employed only later after the development of
mercerised cotton improved thread characteristics. Imported and individually handmade
pins provided the structural support for the patterns, until pin-making machines became available in the 1840s. Known lace examples are largely white linen or black silk threads. Preceding and during the
American Revolutionary War, the purchase of luxury imported goods was problematic from social, political, and logistical perspectives.
Hannah Adams of
Medfield, who later became an eminent writer, described making bobbin lace herself during these years. The style or type of lace she made is unknown, but confirms that lace making was underway and profitable during this period in Massachusetts.During the American revolutionary war, I learned to weave bobbin lace, which was then saleable, and much more profitable to me than spinning, sewing or knitting, which had previously been my employment. At this period I found but little time for literary pursuits. But at the termination of the American war, this resource failed, and I was again left in a destitute situation. By the 1790s, over 600 women in the Ipswich area were producing significant quantities of lace for sale. Stored in the
Library of Congress with the papers of
Alexander Hamilton, a report of this activity was submitted to the Secretary of the Treasury with actual samples of Ipswich lace. Reverend
Joseph Dana, author of the report, provided: Rev. Dana reported 13483 yards of edgings and 28496 yards of lace, for a total of 41979 yards of Ipswich lace made by local women in that time frame. Lace making continued through the end of the century and into the early 1800s as a hand-made activity, and period advertisements for “American Laces” and “Ipswich Lace” indicate that the lace was available from local merchants, on par with competing European laces. Period paintings in the New England region frequently illustrate black lace shawls with trims that resemble Ipswich laces. However, these garments may have been too fragile to survive the centuries and are difficult to locate in archives. Black lace was subject to decay due to "acidic
mordant" that made them fragile. Extant samples of Ipswich lace on garments can be found in various archives. For example, a mourning cap, silk hood and a cloak featuring Ipswich lace are found in the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Martha Washington possessed a shawl made with Ipswich lace which is preserved in the
Mount Vernon collection; the lace was reportedly purchased by
George Washington on his post-election tour of the young United States. An additional lace segment is also at Mount Vernon. Lace adorning a man's
Masonic "
Memento mori" apron is also an Ipswich lace. The
Museum of Old Newbury at The Cushing House has a boy's garment, called the Eleazer Johnson dress, which appears to have rare blond Ipswich lace collar and cuff trims. The lace has characteristics of typical Ipswich motifs, and represents a non-garment based use of the lace in an art piece which is novel. The
Ipswich Historical Society and Ipswich Museum have conserved artifacts of the lace-making activities. Historic New England displays an Ipswich pillow with bobbins and lace in progress on a pricking. In the 1820s, attempts to
mechanize lace production in Ipswich shifted activity away from hand made pillow laces to embroidery on lace
bobbinet that was produced by machine. Although some lace makers continued to produce pillow lace, and samples of Ipswich lace were cherished and stored by traditional lace makers like Sarah Lakeman, hand-made lace making was no longer a widespread commercial practice. In the 1970s, a lace restorer and self-taught lace maker named Michael Auclair replicated the black Ipswich lace samples from the Library of Congress archives. By the 21st century, revived interest in this historical lace was supported by new scholarship and exhibition. In 2001, an exhibit in The
Smithsonian National Museum of American History called
Within These Walls displayed a historic house relocated from
Ipswich and included reproduction Ipswich lace and lacemaking tools. In addition, archived lace samples that are stored in the
Library of Congress have been re-created by Karen Thompson, and pattern working diagrams have been published that enable lace makers to accurately reproduce this lace today. Ipswich lace has also appeared in popular culture. A trilogy of fiction books by
Brunonia Barry uses Ipswich lace as a plot device, and a major character is a maker of the lace in one of the books,
The Lace Reader. In the book, the lace is used as the source of psychic vision activation. The New England Lace Group has initiated a project to raise the profile of Ipswich lace and the historical lace makers of this region. A mobile exhibit of Ipswich lace history and tools, and reproduction laces, has been developed to educate and inform at local historic sites and craft fairs. Media coverage included discussion of the history of this textile and its cultural significance in the region. ==External links==