The history of tatting is fascinating. Like many tatters I am interested in how the art of tatting developed. There is a great deal of misinformation posted on the web about its origins. No one will ever know for certain.

Today I purchased a tatting book from 1961 by Elise Ashdown. It had a puzzling comment on the back cover.
"If you are really interested in this work (tatting), you will find much pleasure in reading any work which gives an account of Ragusa Lace, as it is thought that tatting was originally a copy of this,..."

This was news to me and I find it very dubious. Ragusa is the older name for the area in and around Dubrovnik in what is today the country of Croatia. Ragusa lace is defined in many ways by different sources. Some call it a knotted lace, knotted guipure, Venetian raised point lace and even gold lace!

If you have any historical information to share on tatting I would love to hear it.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art69465.asp

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I hope to hear from you sometime soon, either in the forum or in response to this email message. I thrive on your feedback!

Have fun passing this message along to family and friends, because we all love free knowledge!

Georgia Seitz, Tatting Editor
http://tatting.bellaonline.com

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