[Sca-cooks] Report from England

[Kirrily Robert]

Huette wrote:
> Oh, I don't know about that ... Many years ago,
> three Caidan knights and their wives/so's went to
> England together...

I had a similar, but smaller experience.  I was waiting for a friend who
works at a local university, and near where I was waiting there was a
small museum of archaeology, presumably stuff that had been found by
staff and students of the university.  So I went for a wander through
it, looking mostly at the cooking and textiles implements.  In one case,
along with a pile of ancient Greek needles and warp weights, was
something that looked very much like a tatting shuttle.

I peered at it from all angles, wondering whether it could in fact be a
tatting shuttle.  I had *thought* that tatting was 18th century or
thereabouts... I was pretty certain that it wasn't known pre-1600... so
I really wanted to know what this thing was.

Someone was rummaging in one of the cabinets, moving things around, so I
asked her.  She didn't know, but said I could ask the curator, who was
on the phone at the moment.  The curator eventually came out, and I
asked her.  She said "Oh, we think that's a tatting shuttle."  I asked
her about its provenance, adding that I was interested because I hadn't
believed that tatting was that early.  She said that she wasn't 100%
sure of its origin, but that it had come to the museum along with the
other ancient Greek textile tools.

So I gave her a brief history of lace making, as I understand it as a
reasonably knowledgeable amateur.  I told her about Renaissance needle
lace and bobbin lace and so on, and cited a few of the sources I know of
on the subject.  The curator ended up agreeing that the tatting shuttle
really shouldn't be in that case of ancient Greek stuff.  She also asked
me if I was studying archaeology or history.  I told her neither; I'm a
computer programmer professionally, but I have an amateur interest in
textile history.  She was rather surprised by this, as I'd apparently
appeared rather learned on the subject.

So that was my tiny little moment of smugness at a museum.

Yours,

Katherine


--
Lady Katherine Rowberd (mka Kirrily "Skud" Robert)
katherine at infotrope.net  http://infotrope.net/sca/
Caldrithig, Skraeling Althing, Ealdormere
"The rose is red, the leaves are grene, God save Elizabeth our Queene"