A selection of decorated carved and turned lace bobbins, with bead ‘spangles’.
Lace bobbins are used to make lace – thread is wound around the bobbins that are then plaited into elaborate patterns. Lace making was common throughout Wycombe and district – the cottage industry gave its name to the village of Lacey Green. Lace was made in the home by local women and children. Traditional Bucks Point lace was particularly intricate, and therefore slow to make. Although lace was expensive to buy, a majority of the profits would go to lace dealers, rather than to the women and children who made it. Bucks lace makers often lost out to simpler and faster varieties, such as Honiton lace from Devon and new machine-made lace from Nottingham.
Museum numbers HIWLH : 2001.60.1 & HIWLH : T 18.6.1997.10
