Panel

This parchment is the pattern on which a piece of lace was worked for the front panel of a waistcoat. As the lace was not completed, the stages of its construction can be clearly seen. The parchment was marked out in ink with the shape and pattern required, then a thicker thread was laid down along the pattern’s outline, held in place by threads taken through to the reverse side of the parchment. The lace was gradually constructed stitch by stitch on this outline structure, with linking bars added to help hold it together. When the lace was complete, the threads at the back of the parchment would be cut, the finished piece lifted off, and the parchment was ready for reuse. The number of pinholes around the edges of this piece suggest it was reused several times.

The parchment was purchased by the Museum in 1854 for 30 shillings (£1.50). As an unfinished piece it would have been intended for teaching purposes.