An unexpected find

[Sandra]

On Saturdays, I see an older lady as a part of my Stephen Ministry. I've being helping care for her for some time - she's a lovely person who's 89 and has some dementia. She's lonely, and I try and alleviate that. Her only son lives with her and is her caregiver. (He's terrific. The place is immaculate and she's beautifully cared for. We should all be so lucky.)

While I was there today, the son brought out some gorgeous crocheted doilies that his grandmother (his mother's mother) had done. There were a ton of doilies, all different patterns, including a pineapple one. All were in beautiful shape and really pretty. But then he brought out the real treasures - several spectacular tatted doiles done by the same grandmother. Two were oval and one was made from a series of round medallions tatted together. All were in terrific shape.

I took pictures with my phone. The oval one is about 14 inches across. The medallions in the other one are about 8 inches each. They're gorgeous, aren't they? Does anyone know the patterns?

Maxwell tatting2.jpg
Maxwell tatting1.jpg

[Fox]

Lovely vignette and beautiful old treasures......

[Marian]

Those are beautiful!!!

[TattingChic]

Wow! Those are treasures, aren't they! How nice that he shared them with you, if but for a brief moment! The oval doily looks easy enough, but I do not recognize the pattern. That centerpiece is spectacular!

[PattyD]

Wow! Those are beauties! The oval doily is really classic. The doily made of round motifs had me going for a minute to understand its structure. Did you notice that the outer row of each motif is Hens and Chicks? From the best that I can figure, Hens and Chicks was the "new thing" round about 1880-1890, so I take that as the "not before" date for the doily. Of course, it could be any time after, but since we know that it was this 89 year old woman's mother, she was playing with the hot new number in Tatting. Both of these pieces are quite modern tatting in the sense that the design elements are quite developed and don't look like some of earliest patterns. I have seen vinyl copies of the oval doily, it is a clean crisp style that is timeless. Both of these pieces are living history.