“Long and Strong two Yards Long Cotton Laces.”
By Paul Dickfoss, 3rd NY, Reg’t
With many women in the NWTA making lucet cord,2 an interesting and inexpensive
impression one might do is that of a laces
seller. Other than the clothing of a poor person (male, female, young or old) only
laces and a long stick, approximately two yards long, are required. This impression
would provide interaction with the public and interpretation of clothing, cottage
industry and street life.
Lace criers are frequently pictured in the Cries of London.”1, 3, 4, 5 Some of these
criers show poor children described by Shesgreen as being orphans dressed in cast-off
rags (Figure 1). Shesgreen goes on to say that selling laces was one of the least
profitable trades. People sometimes pretended to sell laces to avoid being arrested
for begging.3 One cry
(Figure 2) advertises the laces as selling for “a halfpenny a piece.”
One lace seller may provide only one type of lace or different laces for different
uses as suggested in a rare description of lace sellers. This rhyme was published
in a chapbook in 17754 along with a crude woodcut (Figure 3):
This fellow ever at your nod is
With Laces strong for stays and bodice,
And fine red Garters he reveals;
Then who would ever with to go,
As some young slattern Misses do,
With stockings down about their heels?
(Continued page 2)
With many slovens such the case is;
Then come and buy his long red Laces,
His Garters long, and Laces strong;
Hence decent made, and nice, and tidy,
A Lady may sit down beside ye,
And you your betters go among.
Lace sellers are not only found in London. “The Edinburgh Lace Women” by David A1Ian
in 1784 (Figure 4), shows an older women selling laces from a long stick in a similar
manner to the English sellers.6 In the Cries of Paris (Figure 5), 1737 to 1746 a
young man is pictured selling boot-laces which are obviously much thicker than those
sold by the other criers mentioned.7 These boot laces are probably leather thongs.
Another French “Shoe lace” seller is included in a late 18th century edition of the
Cries of Paris, published ca. 1775.8
At any event, the most memorable thing the public leaves with are the sights and
sounds. A person selling laces would not make much money, not even enough to pay
for ones time, but it is the interpretation and creating the sights and sounds of
the late 18th century we attempt to accomplish. The American War for Independence
was cast upon a civilian backdrop.