Chantilly lace. They have a similar pattern with sprigs of flowers, which was fashionable in the second half of the 19th century. Both pieces are made out of dull black silk (grenadine). The handmade lace (TRC 2018.0098b) is worked as a continuous-thread bobbin lace. The machine made lace (TRC 2018.0109) is made on the Pusher machine. Both examples are the same from front and back side.
In this example we have two pieces of blackFilling : In the handmade example, every circle has a independent structure of fillings. We can see pinholes inside the frame of the circle. The orientation of the threads adapts to the defined direction of the pattern, the half stitch is more open and regular in appearance. In both examples the circle is surrounded by the gimp. In the machine lace example, the half stitch has a more consistent and steady direction of the threads with a strong impression of parallel lines.
Gimp: In these two examples the gimp does look very similar because in machine made lace it was darned in by hand.
Ground: The Pusher machine perfectly imitates the ground of Chantilly bobbin lace/Lille ground. Differences of the ground can be noticed in the larger areas without the pattern. The ground of this handmade piece is more irregular, while the machine made example shows mostly identical meshes.
Side: The two examples look the same from both sides.
Handmade lace: | Machine-made lace: | |