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“It’s nothing. Just an old box of lacemaking supplies I left there by accident. I wanted to come and get it before I get a scolding from my mother. We’re going now.”

During the 1600s, lacemaking spread rapidly across Europe from country to country and city to city.

The second foundational technique of lacemaking is also introduced: needle lace, descended from embroidery and requiring only a single thread and one needle.

The show virtually begins with a large color reproduction of Vermeer’s craftswoman near a real late-19th-century “lacemaking pillow” with a piece of lace in progress and a video of it in use.

Lace is one of many delicate leitmotifs running through the exhibition, partly a tribute to Nottingham’s history as a centre of lacemaking, partly because its reticular, woven nature might make a metaphor for the show itself.