"The Identification of Lace" by Pat Earnshaw Book Review

Lately I have been approached by various representatives of one company or another asking that I talk about their product or place their "widget" on my blog. By and large I ignore these requests unless they benefit you my readers.
Well, I recently received one request that I could not ignore. Shire Publications Ltd. contacted me and asked if I would be interested in reviewing a book on lace. Is water wet? Is grass green? Is tatting the best of all the laces? .....naturally my answer was a resounding YES!!!!

So let's get on with the review shall we?



About the author: Pat Earnshaw has written 15 books on lace. The Identification of Lace is her first book. She began as a lace collector and ended up a lace expert giving lectures all over the world.

About the book: This soft cover book has 160 pages with beautiful black and white photographs of lace on nearly every page.
"This book guides the reader through the intricacies of identifying a piece of lace, listing and illustrating the points to look for in each lace. It covers the whole range of lace from all parts of the world, selecting for examination those major types which the collector or dealer is most likely to come across or hear about. The numerous photographs are arranged to assist comparison of diagnostic features and to put together laces which might be confused with one other so that their differences, sometimes subtle, can be appreciated." - Quoted from Shire website.


Table of Contents
Click to Enlarge

My personal assessment: I found this book a very easy and enjoyable read. I am most impressed by the large number of beautiful and interesting lace photos like this one. I feel that after reading this book I can also identify the many forms of lace. So this book has served its educational purposes well.
My only gripe about this book is that only one small paragraph is dedicated to tatting. I know....(((GASP)))...huh?
I will quote an amusing paragraph from page 140 here: "Many innovations of design and technique came from Queen Marie of Romania. An expert tatter, she worked large ecclesiastical pieces and spangled them with topaz, turquoise, pearl and crystal jewels. Subsequently she donated them to the monastery of Sinaia in the Carpathians in order, it is said, that her precious stones should not fall into the clutches of her husband's mistress."

I highly recommend this book for any lace lover's collection. It can be purchased here. You can choose your country in the upper right hand corner.