Help with identifying this crochet lace please

C

Christine Smith

Registered Guest
Hello, can someone identify what kind of lace this is? Also, how old might it be? If the pictures aren't clear, it shows a risqué image of a woman sunbathing, I believe. Thank you.

20240814_142042.jpg
 
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The Vintage Vendeuse said:
Looks 20th century to me, possibly 1930s-50s somewhere, but that's just a guess. I've handled lots of lace items but am not an expert.
I think the subject matter may be meant to be a classical Greek/Roman goddess-style pose, rather than actually meant to be risque.
What size is it?
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Thank you for your response. You might be correct about it being a Greek Goddess. I hadn't considered that before. It is about 15 x 33 inches in size. The quality is excellent. It must have required a lot of time to create.
 
Christine Smith said:
It must have required a lot of time to create.
Click to expand...

Not really. It's likely machine-made, not hand-made... but a few close-up photos of front and back can help determine this.
BTW, filet lace, when hand-made, is created with a shuttle needle. Filet crochet is a crochet stitch/project created with a crochet hook to resemble filet lace.

Filet lace, hand-made:

Lace-filet-hrynkiw.jpg


Filet crochet:

4-filet-crochet-swatches-1024x1024.jpg
 
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I thought it was crochet.but you may be right.

Filet crochet is hand made. There are machine techniques that look similar but true crochet is not done by machine. I need a better close-up to be sure it’s true crochet, but first impression is that it is.

filet crochet is not a difficult technique, it’s easy, but doing it with fine thread and a fine hook takes time and good eyesight.
 
Retro Ruth said:
I thought it was crochet.but you may be right.

Filet crochet is hand made. There are machine techniques that look similar but true crochet is not done by machine. I need a better close-up to be sure it’s true crochet, but first impression is that it is.

filet crochet is not a difficult technique, it’s easy, but doing it with fine thread and a fine hook takes time and good eyesight.
Click to expand...

You may very well be right that it's filet crochet. The photo provided by the OP doesn't show detail and my eyes are getting old...!
It's just been my experience that most of these pictorial filet items are machine-made lace, so I made an assumption. Detailed photos will help. :)
 
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Retro Ruth said:
I thought it was crochet.but you may be right.

Filet crochet is hand made. There are machine techniques that look similar but true crochet is not done by machine. I need a better close-up to be sure it’s true crochet, but first impression is that it is.

filet crochet is not a difficult technique, it’s easy, but doing it with fine thread and a fine hook takes time and good eyesight.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your input. I'll add some close up photos tomorrow morning.
 
Here are some close up photos. Hope this helps. Thank you
 

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I thought I'd share some images of early 20th Century filet crochet patterns. Tablecloths and other homewares are common, but also lace trimmings for clothing, and occasionally whole garments. They are created by following a chart as shown. Usually only two types of crochet stitch are used, although occasionally you see slightly more complex patterns. If someone can do basic crochet, they can do filet crochet, but the impressive part is the fine scale of such work, using fine cotton thread and a very small hook.


1917
chs235-930x1200.jpg.webp




1917
500-delin1917-april-p-86-nightie-filet-crochet.jpg


1921

Sleeveless-Sweater-Filet-Crochet-Pattern-Cover-Page.jpg

1921
Sleeveless-Sweater-Filet-Crochet-Pattern-sm.jpg
 
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