The Bowes Museum Blog

My role as Assistant Fashion and Textile Curator, which is funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, is to create access through the cataloguing and storage of the internationally important Blackborne Lace Collection that was generously gifted to the museum in 2006.

The Blackborne Collection is so vast and comprehensive that we are continually unearthing important items and are still in the process of discovering its full potential and historic significance.

I have begun the sizeable but exciting task of looking through the shop stock section of the collection, much of which is still in its original trunks.

The shop stock, which is in many ways an incidental collection of objects, documents the trade of the London based lace dealership A. Blackborne and Company during the second half of the 19^th century and early 20^th century. So it is a real mixture of lace of different shapes, sizes, ages, and origins.

I thought I would share a few choice images of the shop stock section of the collection:

Also:

If you are interested in contemporary lace watch out for our spring exhibition Study, Design & Create: The 98 Lace Group inspired by The Blackborne Collection

28^th Jan – 15^th April 2012.

By Annabel Talbot, Assistant Fashion & Textile Curator