From: baerbel.poehle@zib-berlin.de (Baerbel Poehle)
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1996 12:15:42 +0200
Subject: Schneeberger lacedldetter@iquest.net
Hi Patricia and all other interested,
the Schneeberg Lace is called after a small town in the Ore Mountains
in Germany (southern Saxonia). Until the end of the GDR (German
Democratic Republic) in Schneeberg existed an accredited school for
lace makers and designers. The training was very thorough and famous
lace makers came from this school.
The Schneeberg Lace was developed at the beginning of the century in
order to compete with the machine lace. The desire was to produce a
hand made bobbin lace with just a few pairs of bobbins and with little
time exposure. Professor Trautmann was the initiator and later on
professor Rudolf.
Today the school belongs to the department "Applied Arts" of the
technical college of Zwickau (a town in Saxonia).
With the two other towns you probably meant Annaberg and
Schwarzenberg. In Schwarzenberg still exists a manufacture making
bobbin lace. At the time of the GDR such a manufacture was supported
by the government. Today even amateurs don't want to pay the real
prices for hand made bobbin lace. Therefore I have heard of
considerations to design matching clothes for the nearly priceless
china of the porcelain manufacture Meissen and then to gain the very
rich as customers.
Bobbin lace making began in Annaberg. When the return of the silver
mines went down during the 17th century the women tried to earn the
living for their families by home word first. Later on whole families
made bobbin lace or wood carving and wood turning.
But that was long ago. The reason why people did not share the old
patterns a few years ago is not clear. I suspect they had no real
copyright protection. In the GDR there have been many things you
could not buy for money therefore everything rare and valuable served
as bartering object.
I have heard of lace makers to whom laces have been shown only if they
did not tell that they are experts.
Kind regards Baerbel
baerbel.poehle@zib-berlin.de
(
geocities.com/heartland/fields) (
geocities.com/heartland)