Lace books are getting harder to find

I first wrote about Tina Frauberger’s Handbuch Der Schiffchenspitze back in December of 2007 I received inquiries concerning how to get the book. One, in an email, stayed in my inbox for the longest time and now I cannot find it. I did want to reply but I was never sure what to say.

I received a comment yesterday with an interesting statement “Someone on E-tatters gave me a web site address that carries the book, but the site is in German, and I was wondering if you knew of a site selling the book that I could correspond with in English?” In all probability I was the “Someone on E-tatters.”

I still have a copy of the email I sent to the people who sold me the book in which I apologize for not speaking German.

I really wish I could help everyone get access to Tina Frauberger’s work. I remember when I first started struggling with onion-rings having a well know teacher wrote in passing that I should study the work of Tina Frauberger and in one email I got the impression that her work was ubiquitous through-out the tatting community. I did find out differently later when I tried to find these works.

I mentioned the German website to this teacher in a email in March of 2007. It was in August of that year that I wrote my first email to the sellers. I sent a second email in October. I received my first reply in November of 2007. I received the book on December 10, 2007.

I had spent over a year trying to obtain copies of these books and I hope that the German site is still responding to international orders. I received one of their newsletters last June and that is the last I have heard from them.

It is very frustrating trying to get older Lace books. I joke that of Mary Konior’s four known published works I have five. She published a pamphlet for a Women’s organization in the UK and I was able to obtain a copy. It is mainly written instruction with only two patterns but it is a rare treasure and I treat it that way.

But let us consider Mary Konior’s most well known publication, Tatting with Visual Patterns. If I go to Amazon.com a new paperback copy is listed today at $210.64, a used one is more. If I go to Lacis I can order a copy for $20.00. We need to thank Lacis. The edition they sell is their own. So the open market is overpricing B T Batsford’s edition while the wonderful Lacis Publications has taken up producing this work.

Unfortunately they do not have the ability to publish everything. Try to get the wonderful and some would say necessary Practical Skills in Bobbin Lace by Bridget M. Cook for under $100.00. I cannot find one. OK, I bought the last one.

I want to work on lace today, especially to post my finished version of fig. 53 with some comments. I wish I could find a reasonably priced copy of New Braids and Designs in Milanese Lace, currently over $200.00 on Amazon.

I am so spoiled with my books and my crafts. My dream was once that I could find copies of the original publications of Tina Frauberger’s works so I could scan them and put them on the Antique Patterns web site. I have a reproduction so I do not own any rights.

I hope those that want copies can get them, but the German site is the only source I know. Today even the few what once seemed expensive originals are gone. I did see one copy of band 2 for over $90.00 but that’s it. Persistence is what found me mine, I wish you luck.

I cannot work on lace today because I am getting the house ready for Thanksgiving, I shouldn’t be working on this. We are having people over and I already have Turkey from Honey Baked Ham and will be getting Brisket from Rudy’s. My main concern has been how long I will have to stand in line.

I was thinking of these things on my way to drop my children off at school today when I heard an article on Zimbabwe.

I hope I can remember over Thanksgiving to say an extra prayer for those in Zimbabwe and all the other areas of the world where there is so little food that finding a kernel of undigested corn in animal manure is a treasure.