Lacemaking Bobbins - the tools of the Trade

A whole other trade developed at the height of the lacemaking years, making bobbins. Bobbin makers would travel from village to village hawking his wares. Each bobbin maker developed a unique design in the head and tail of the bobbin, and to this day some bobbin makers can be identified by the style of the old bobbins.

At one time the most popular bobbins were those with names and inscriptions on them. Bobbins makers would make common names on some they took with them on their travels and other more personal sayings and date were made to order. Some of these inscriptions were popular love and romance sayings. Others were memorials of loved ones who passed away or historical moments, like the marriage of Queen Victoria. These bobbins are among the most sought after for collectors today.

Bone was the most common material for this inscribed bobbins as the inscriptions wore much better than on the wood ones. Short names and saying would be written down the side but longer text was wrapped around the bobbin in a spiral. Some bobbin makers wound the spiral in the direction for the saying to be read by the lacemaker when the bobbins were on her pillow. Others were written in the opposite direction for a visitor to the lacemaker to read. The letters were made with tiny dots forming the letters, which were most commonly capital letters.

The other type of bobbin that these tradesmen created were fancy turned bobbins. Some consisted of turning like the fancy spindles on furniture. Others included wire and other shiny materials to catch the eye of the lacemaker who might be shopping for bobbins at a fair. These became known as "fairings".

Competing in an ever-shrinking market, bobbin makers continued to develop more and more interesting designs in their bobbins. They cut out "windows" sometimes filling them with tiny objects such as beads and sometimes even turning a tiny bobbin to insert inside a normal sized one. These have names like "mother and babe" and "cow and calf".

Today bobbin makers have returned to fill the need of lacemaking around the world. Although lacemaking almost died out it enjoyed resurgence in the 70's when lacemaking in America was revived, as well as around the world. Those first lacemakers at that time had difficulty finding material, patterns and books. Lucky for us some of those lacemakers encouraged

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