Lacy Handkerchiefs Attract Collectors and Users
by Elizabeth Kurella

   “One for show, one for blow” were the two categories of handkerchiefs before the invention of Kleenex. Today, the “ones for blow” that were produced in the first half of the twentieth century can be found in boxes in nearly half the antique mall stands. Many still have their original folds and “Irish linen” labels. Price tags of one or two dollars are common — two for a dollar are not unheard of. Handkerchiefs edged by our grandmothers in the first half of this century with a bit of tatting or crochet sell for five to fifteen dollars; fancier home-crafted handkerchiefs may sell for $25 to $50. Some of the prettier ones are presented to brides, fashioned into baby bonnets as gifts, used to wrap gifts, or assembled into quilts. Removed from the cloth center, or cut, the lace edging can be used as a collar. Some handkerchiefs are gathered into jabots, or worn as a corsage.
   The “ones for show,” however, when they were lace handkerchiefs, are highly sought after collectibles, and regularly sell for $200 to $500.  Occasional examples will go for nearly a thousand dollars. They are saved exclusively for study, or for display in a frame.
   What does a five-hundred-dollar handkerchief have that the dollar handkerchief doesn’t? About five inches of ferns and flowers depicted in three-dimensional stitchery.
   The tradition of “one for show” probably goes back to at least the seventeenth century. Spanish, French, and Italian portraits suggest that handkerchiefs were used much as fans were, for flirting and to show off graceful hands. Proportions of other items in the portraits suggest these handkerchiefs were large, between sixteen and twenty inches square.
    These early portraits also suggest that handkerchiefs were rare luxuries: even plain squares were depicted, suggesting that they were highly valued. Heavy linen handkerchiefs were decorated with picot edges, and often wide inserts and edgings of crusty Venice lace to match huge millstone collars and ruffs. Pattern books of the day offer designs for elaborately contrived corners, suggesting that the item was meant to be a “lace handkerchief,” as opposed to a square of cloth with a lace edging added.
    The size of the handkerchief offers one clue as to its age. Handkerchiefs of the Louis XIV era, the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, were immensely large, on the order of twenty-four inches square. By the first quarter of the eighteenth century and the reign of Louis XV, they decreased to approximately eighteenth inches square. Nearing the French revolution, they again increased to about twenty-four inches square. The “ones for show” generally were of finely embroidered white lawn and edged with inch-wide Valenciennes, Mechlin, or Bucks Point bobbin lace.
  Some records suggest that the eighteenth century English exchanged tiny, three to four inch handkerchiefs as “love tokens.”
  Most of the handkerchiefs available to collectors today date from the nineteenth century forward. Mid-nineteenth century handkerchiefs were fairly large, between sixteen and twenty inches square. Around the turn of the century, very small, ten to twelve inch handkerchiefs were also popular.
    American retailers were avid importers of lace handkerchiefs. As early as the 1860s, purchasing agents for Marshall Field’s of Chicago were seeking out artisans and commissioning designers and lacemakers to produce for their stores.
   This practice continued well into the twentieth century. Marshall Field’s in the 1940s had over a hundred drawers of handkerchiefs in their main-floor department.
  Lacy handkerchiefs can be grouped by type of lacemaking technique: 1) Lacy whiteworks, in which the fine cloth itself has been turned into lace by withdrawing and moving threads, cutting holes, and perhaps inserting needle lace accents by stitching into the holes. 2) Squares of cloth, to which a lace edge has been added. In some cases the lace may be an original decoration, in others, an afterthought.  3) True “lace handkerchiefs,” in which the lace is designed like a fabric sculpture specifically for the handkerchief. The finest are almost entirely of lace, with only a few inches of cloth in the center. These were designed for flaunting, probably never for any useful function.
  Some styles of whitework (white embroidery and lacy work on white cloth) are Ayrshire from the British Isles; Swiss embroideries, primarily from the Appenzell region east of Zurich; Moravian work from Czechoslovakia; and French whitework. All include satin stitch embroidery, with openwork formed by cutting holes and by withdrawing and moving threads. The openwork may be enhanced with embroidery, and the holes may be filled with needle worked stitches.
  The French whitework is probably the most impressive. Designs are sophisticated and elegant, and the fabric is so encrusted with embroidery and needlework that it nearly entirely disappears into the needlework.
   Lacy, white-on-white embroideries should be inspected carefully. Because they are so subtle, the details that give it value are often overlooked. Very fine details that cannot be duplicated today are sometimes apparent only with a magnifying glass.
   Eighteenth century whitework handkerchiefs with pulled and drawn work, and perhaps an edging of an inch-wide handmade Valenciennes or Mechlin lace will sell for $100 to $200. Circa 1900-1920 handkerchiefs from Moravia or Switzerland, about ten to twelve inches square, will sell for $20 to $45. The French work typically brings the highest prices, ranging from $250 to $500.
    The most subtle are the handkerchiefs bordered with narrow edgings of handmade bobbin lace. These laces include Valenciennes or Binche, Bucks Point, Mechlin, and Bedfordshire.  Because the background and design are woven at the same time, they are known as “continuous” bobbin laces.”  This lace usually was gathered to go around the corner. At the beginning of the twentieth century, corners were more often shaped to turn the corner instead of being gathered.
   These handkerchiefs are often undervalued because the lace is subtle, and because it is difficult to separate handmade from machine. The fact that the handmade is unique is often not appreciated. The most sought after are the small handkerchiefs of late nineteenth and early twentieth century Binche bobbin lace, with designs that may include deer, doves, swans, and costumed ladies in a snowflake background. These handkerchiefs, usually only ten to twelve inches square, with edgings from one to four inches deep, can sell for $75 to $300.
   Needle laces, especially the Belgian Point de Gaze and the Irish Youghal, as well as the non-continuous bobbin lace types (those where separately made motifs of lace are joined with bars, or appliqued onto a net) are particularly well suited to the lavish shaped handkerchief designs. The bobbin lace techniques most often found in these nineteenth century handkerchiefs include Belgian Brussels, Duchessse, and Bruges techniques, and the English Honiton.
   Mixed Brussels, combining Duchesse bobbin lace and Point de gaze needle lace was also popular. These are the most popular collector’s handkerchiefs, primarily because they are the showiest. Average quality handmade bobbin and needle lace handkerchiefs from the nineteenth century sell for $50 to $100. The finest lace handkerchiefs, with five to six inches of the best quality handmade lace and only the smallest center of cloth sell for five hundred dollars up to over a thousand.

Home-crafted Lace Handkerchiefs

   In addition to commercially produced handkerchiefs, magazines and pattern books of the nineteenth century encouraged ladies to crochet, tat, knit, and stitch their own heirlooms. Well into the twentieth century, tatting and crocheting were commonplace skills.  Nearly every household could boast a handful of handkerchiefs with quarter to half-inch edgings of tatting or crochet. Handkerchiefs with a commonplace crochet edging sell for only a few dollars. Tatted edges may sell for a bit more.
  Craft patterns in magazines frequently included instructions to imitate a high-fashion lace in a technique more easily learned and worked, such as white work, crochet, or tape lace (Batten- berg). These patterns were often not easy to work, and are less often found.  Depending on the attractiveness of the design, they will sell for $10 to $50.

Souvenir Handkerchiefs

    Every tourist region in Europe that had a lacemaking tradition — a half dozen cities in Belgium, a handful in France, Burano and the lagoons of Venice that made needle laces, and assorted other regions, including Hungary and Eastern European countries — all made handkerchiefs especially to appeal to tourists. The cheapest ones, designed to serve as take-home tokens for friends and relatives, should not be expected to appreciate in value. They are easily duplicated even today.
   Those depicting buildings, national emblems, and costumed figures sometimes acquire some collector’s value. Prices depend on how difficult the technique was, whether they could be duplicated today.
   Commemorative handkerchiefs celebrating an event are another type of souvenir. Lace may depict fairs and exhibitions, battles and victories. Look for flags, national emblems and dates.  Some, like the war lace of World War I that depicted animals of different countries — the lion, roosters, dragons, bears, and eagles — may not be obvious. Some can be startling: a Nazi swastika in lace, however unnerving, can be highly collectible because it is so unexpected.

Where to Find Handkerchiefs

     Competition for fine lace handkerchiefs is keen. Just a handful of dealers in the United States specialize in fine lace and lacy linens, and they often offer the best pieces to collectors that they know will appreciate the quality.
    Dealers specializing in lace sometimes show their wares at conventions of lacemakers across the country. The International Old Lacers, an association dedicated to the study of old lacemaking techniques, often attracts dealers in fine antique lace to their annual convention. Their convention in 2000 will take place in August in Indianapolis, Indiana. Regional groups of lacemakers also hold annual conventions or “Lace Days.”  Information can be found on their internet website at http://members.aol./IOLinc./ioli.html
    Phillips and Christie’s auction houses in London, England, regularly include fine antique lace handkerchiefs in their textile auctions. Phillips specializes in antique lace, and has eight to ten auctions a year that have fine lace dating back to the 1600s. Christie’s occasionally includes antique lace. Both catalogs are worth getting to have the opportunity to acquire museum quality lace handkerchiefs, and to track prices. Really fine quality handkerchiefs rarely show up on internet auctions because bidders tend not to go high enough for really fine-quality internet items.

The following images can be viewed in the print version of the Gavel

Three small handkerchiefs with hand crocheted edgings. Every proper young girl of the 1920s to 1940s was expected to crochet edges on a few handkerchiefs. These are easy to do, and take just about an hour to complete.  $10 to $15 is a reasonable price.

Two small handkerchiefs trimmed in machine made lace. The crisp effect of chemical lace (left) is more popular than the machine-embroidered net on the right, but both made lovely gifts, and typically sell for $20 to $35.

Handkerchief with subtle shadow work, and elegant drawnwork design. The difficult workmanship of these very subtle white-on-white designs is not recognized or properly valued. At any price below $30 to $50, a lacy hand embroidered handkerchief like this is a bargain.

True lace handkerchief, with hand-made lace about 4 inches deep, elegantly shaped on both the inside and outside edges. About 15 to 18 inches square, this handkerchief probably dates to the mid-nineteenth century. Priced anywhere below $500, this mint-condition handkerchief would be a bargain.

Drawnwork handkerchief with a design of the Trylon and Perisphere, symbols of the 1930s New York World’s Fair. This souvenir handkerchief is very unusual because of the extremely complex handwork used to create it. Part of a private collection, the handkerchief is not for sale.

Very large handkerchief, over 20 inches square, probably dates to the late 18th or early 19th century. Outside edge is trimmed with a straight edging of handmade Lille bobbin lace, gathered to go around the corners. Inside edge is an elaborate lacy edge of drawnwork and a narrow design of embroidery. Corner is elaborately embroidered with initials.