LACE PILLOW
During the Golden Age of Amelia, handmade lace was an expensive item and popular hobby for women. Women would place a lace pillow, like the one in our collection, on their laps or table, and carefully place pins in the locations designated by a pattern. Thread, wound onto bobbins (pictured below), would be crossed and twisted around the pins to create elaborate designs.
Unfortunately, the lace pillow in our collection no longer has bobbins attached. However, you can still see the pricks from the pins slowly being worked down the pattern.
19th century lace pillow. Image courtesy of Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum. https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18382463/