The Little White Shoebox

It sat on a side table, not on the large stand where all the desirable objects vied for customers. It looked tatty and very ordinary. Just a battered white shoebox. And then I saw the writing on the box, the magic word - DENTELLES -

Thats when my heart started beating faster and when I made a bee line for the stand, hoping for all those long seconds that there really would be some lace inside that little box.

And there was!

It took ages looking through the box to see what was hiding inside, and then negotiating with the stall holder, but in the end it was mine :-)

I found some gorgeous salesman samples in the box, with their original little labels, so special -

My favourite piece,  RESERVED for North America

Fabulous metallic lace -























The first layer in the box was pieces of the finest, daintiest Napoleon III era black lace, so very delicate and somewhat ravaged by time, but beautiful nonetheless -

Amongst the black lace was this beautiful black floral piece, perhaps for millinery -

And then there was the white/ecru/ivory lace ...

And that was not all, there were also many pieces of the most beautifully hand worked broderie anglaise, which I absolutely adore -

I can't imagine how anybody could produce such beautiful, neat, tiny stitches by candlelight. 

I hope you have enjoyed looking through the little white shoebox. Wishing you a beautiful new week wherever you are, toodlepip xxx