| Original Message: A precious number of beads from lace bobbins were used for 1920's necklaces! |
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It appears that a few well-off and fashionable British ladies in the early twentieth century saw little harm in collecting and removing the spangles from lace bobbins -making beautiful long glass bead necklaces. Occasionally, while shopping the Newark Fair & London's Portobello Road, Horticultural Hall, Alexandra Palace, and Gray's Markets- I have run into rare examples made from spangles. They are usually found loosely knotted with a 1920's look. While I have shopped in London dozens of times over the past forty years, I have found too many antique bobbins sometimes include new beads on new wire. Therefore, I shy away and have purchased only a few examples with spangles intact. Perhaps I should visit the auctions where large lots of lace bobbins, of wood and bone, occasionally turn up. If I lived in London, I would do that. Adapting beads for neckwear is not a new idea. By comparison, Anne Hall Grundy would remove the ojime from netsuke and inro ensembles to form a necklace which is now the British Museum Collection of Ojime. The Gilbertson Ojime Necklace is another early 20th c. British example (now belonging to Iris Rubinfield) shown intact in Bob Kinsey's book "OJIME, MAGICAL JEWELS OF JAPAN": color plate 45, page 17. No doubt, my "cattlebone bobbins are polished from many 1000's of hours of work and use," as Carole Morris says. -And dense bone with a lustrous patina is sometimes mistaken as ivory. Perhaps Carole Morris may take time from her busy schedule to share more from her experience. I admire the Englishwomen and men who have a cornucopia of opportunities for first hand research in the exceedingly bountiful markets of Great Britain. Cheers, All rights reserved by Bead Collector Network and its users |
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