Modèles de dentelles au crochet appartenant a [?]A. Nicoll. by…

Square folio (250 × 250 mm), 8 leaves, over 150 crochet samples in linen or cotton (mainly white with some red and pink), stitched to rectos of each leaf, plus the inside of both covers. Coarse woodpulp paper throughout, early manuscript title to cover. Quite soiled, with slight marginal fraying. An excellent survival.

An exercise or model book for dentelle au crochet (crocheted lace) including numerous decorative borders, various roundels and a number of tubular designs for use as cuffs or sleeves. The patterns imitate those of cushion lace, but were created with coarser threads and with a crochet hook rather than bobbins. The patterns and execution are impressive, even if crocheted lace was considered less refined than ‘true’ lace. This album, with very few clues to its maker or provenance and on paper of the coarsest grade, appears as a rather remarkable survival of the craft in its most vernacular setting.