Life Lesson #21: Never stop learning
Daughter the Older lived in England for seven years, and twice, while visiting her, I managed to squeeze in time for a field trip to the textiles room at the Victoria & Albert Museum.
Be still my heart…
Virtually every textile technique of the past 5,000 years–from Predynastic Egypt to the present–are represented. There are cases and cases…drawers and drawers…files and files full of every sort of textile you can imagine–and then some. There are always students and conservationists studying the pieces. How I would have loved to sit with them all.day.long to learn more!
The few pictures I took are nothing exceptional, but their subjects are! See if you agree… You can click any picture to enlarge it.
Exquisite! Do you have a favorite?
If you’d like to be a lifelong learner and expand your knowledge of vintage linens, click HERE (or on the Vintage Linens tab) then scroll to the bottom of the page. I’ve listed some of my favorite books for learning about collecting and identifying linens and lace. There’s more to the subject than I can possibly remember, but the detailed information is fascinating!
While you’re on the page, be sure to check out my How to Care for Vintage Linens & Lace series. There’s plenty to learn there, too!
Have you learned anything new lately?
This is part of a 31-day series. All of the posts are available HERE.
Thank you for the tip on where to find your reference books…exactly what I am needing right now! :–)
Happy to help!
I just remembered that I had a Rondel that I took to my History of Textiles professor at Kent. She identified it saying it was worn by a person who was a member of the soldier class. A rondel is a silk round piece that is sewn onto the back of the clothing. It was made in China well before the Red Curtain went up. She wanted me to donate it to a museum and urged me to get it out of the light into a drawer that had conditions maintained. I didn’t. I framed it and gave it to one of my sisters. I’ll have to check and see if she can take pictures of it to send to me. It was a fascinating piece. Thanks for this bit of history Susan!
I remember you mentioning that to me. What a fascinating piece of history!