Auction: DENTELLE – LINGE DE MAISON – BRODERIE BLANCHE
Date: Tuesday, October 13, 2020
Place: Hôtel Drouot, Salle 2
9 rue Drouot, 75009 Paris
Directions:  http://tinyurl.com/85b78gl
Time: 11:00 AM to noon
2:00 PM to 6:00 PM
Catalogs: 
https://tinyurl.com/yy2qh2ow (French)
https://tinyurl.com/y4jdgpqy (English)
They are using the DeepL online translation software, and you can access the original French version on the description page. Some terms are quite creative: bobbins are “spindles”, Longs Métrages is translated as “Feature Films” and Volant is translated as “Steering Wheel”. Barbes (lappets) are “Beards”. Chantilly is occasionally described as “Whipped Cream” (see the recipe at the end of the post).
Public Viewing:  October 10th and 12th from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM
Auction by:  Coutau-Bégarie & Associés
Sale contact: Mrs. Mélissa Seminara,
information@coutaubegarie.com, +33 (0)1 45 56 12 20 (24  hours before the sale)
Expert: Mme Claude Vuille, Member de la FNEPSA,
claude_vu@hotmail.com, +33 (0)6 74 66 39 05

This auction includes items from the collections of Mme Sonja Dorfmeister, and Mme Rieta Alkema. Many lots are collections of fragments, and several pieces are from well known past collections. Here are a few examples that I find interesting:

Lot 94 A rare early macramé border fragment.
Lot 99 Some interesting polychrome buratto. Note sure what ‘document’ means.
Lot 101 An unusually complete example of pulled thread red embroidery, perhaps silk.
Lot 108 A very dense Flemish border.
Lot 125 Large panel of Gros Point.
Lot 130 Large flounce of Coraline.
Lot 133 Point de France border, Bérain style.
Lot 145 Two Jewish silk “Talit” ornaments in needlelace.
Lot 161 Rare Argentan Cap back and matching lappets. It’s fairly common to see lappets with a matching band, but a matching cap back/lappet set is much rarer.
Lot 195 Burano? silk flounce, late 18th c. Silk laces of this period rarely survive.
Lot 212 3 interesting Valenciennes de Gand borders.
Lot 229 10 meters of a wide (22 cm) border of Duchesse de Bruges.
Lot 239 Dress flounce of application on machine net, described as English – the motifs could derive from Honiton.
Lot 263 Lots of butterflies in different techniques.
Lot 272 Chantilly long gloves, quite rare to see this form.
Lot 296 Large square Duchesse de Bruxelles shawl.
Lot 297 Interesting Burano apron with matching collar and cuffs.
Lot 312 Excellent Point de Gaze rectangular shawl.
Lot 317 Interesting Beveren liturgical flounce
Lot 331 Needlelace War Lace panel. See also Lot 330.
Lot 332 Triptych of figural needlelace, seems to resemble Zele work.
Lots 341-351 Excellent Eastern European samples.

If you wish to purchase any of the lace and cannot come to Paris, there are three ways to do so – these notes are from Claude.

Online bidding with Drouot Live:
If you want to bid by yourself you will have to create an account at Drouot. Then you will be able to follow the sale with a real time viewing of the auction directly from your computer. You can bid by clicking the appropriate bidding price when the auctioneer reaches the lot you are interested in. If you wish to register for the auction please follow the instructions at http://tinyurl.com/zl5beow to create a Drouot Live Account. You must also register for this specific auction before 9:00 AM, October 13, 2020 – log in and go to https://tinyurl.com/yyfbybzf.  The view on your computer has a few seconds delay but the auctioneer is used to it and he will wait a few second when somebody is bidding through the net. This works well as long as the internet equipment has no connection troubles.

Phone bidding:
Otherwise, you can ask to be called when the auctioneer is approaching the particular lot number. A member of the staff will phone you a few minutes before the item will be on sale and you can instruct him to bid on you behalf, in real time.  Both of these possibilities are free of charge and will not have any impact to the final hammer price.

Absentee Bid:
You can also submit an Absentee Bid Form (an order bid) and the auction house will execute it by bidding for you behalf until the price has reached your nominated amount. If bidding doesn’t reach this amount, you win the item for the price at which the bidding ceased. If you are the winner, a member of the staff will send you by email your final invoice. We will send your item to the appropriate postal address as soon as we will get your payment.

Buyer fee’s is 28.8% TTC (24% + VAT at 20%) – book sales have a 5.5%VAT.

Recipe for Chantilly Cream:
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Beat cream, vanilla, and sugar with an electric mixer to form soft peaks. Refrigerate covered until serving.