The Rijnland lace cap TRC 2021.2446 is a small cap with a handmade bobbin lace flounce in a bad condition. This type of lace is the only type of bobbin lace traditionally made in the Netherlands. It was worked in the village of 's-Gravenmoer in the province of Noord-Brabant, north of the Belgian port of Antwerp.
Woman's cap from the Rijnland with 's-Gravenmoer bobbin lace, 1920s-1940s (TRC 2021.2446).
The production of lace in 's-Gravenmoer was intended as a cheap substitute for the many forms of Belgian bobbin lace with their floral patterns, and the mainly geometric patterns of 's-Gravenmoer should perhaps give a suggestion of flowers and plants.
The pattern newly worked, showing the true beauty of the bobbin lace.
's-Gravenmoer lace is not a strong lace and it is often found in a badly damaged state, as seen in this cap. There are holes in the lace, with some darning done followed by more damage. A few traces can be seen of decorative and thick gimps. Those gimps were an essential part of the pattern and their presence can now mostly be deduced by following the larger spaces in the background grid.
's-Gravenmoer laces always have an outer edge fortified with several thick gimps. Since the gimps have worn away this edge disappeared too. Luckily the lace itself did not unravel because the outer edge had its own set of threads. The edge of this cap has been repaired by adding a narrow strip of tulle and a line of machine made picots.
Detail of 's-Gravenmoer lace cap: On top the filling found on the lace cap as it is now; in the centre a filling of small 2 x 2 blocks, and at the bottom the reconstructed filling with crossings in between the small blocks.The pattern of this particular lace was easy to reconstruct. As a form of torchon lace, 's-Gravenmoer lace uses a strictly rectangular grid. In fact, 's-Gravenmoer lace was made without any chart at all, simply by counting and looking at an example and working on the grid itself. This often caused some mistakes, but it also made it possible for the workers to develop their own variations on popular patterns, such as the boat motif (TRC 2021.3165).
The actual reworking took 116 bobbins and a lot of time. The special 's-Gravenmoer half stitch is not worked in the usual back-and-forth manner, but always done from one side of a motif to the opposite, returning without working to the starting side every row. This results in a motif with vertical threads running though it and it is completely symmetrical.
In this piece of lace there are only a few blocks of half stitch, made with 4 x 4 pairs, and a filling consisting of the smallest blocks of 2 x 2 pairs with a crossing-over stitch between these blocks.
As indicated at the beginning, relatively few complete examples of 's-Gravenmoer lace have survived, and the reconstruction of the damaged piece now in the TRC Collection is certainly of interest. The original lace cap, together with its reconstruction, will feature in an upcoming TRC exhibition.
Bettie Stijnman, 16 December 2021
