1578. "James Backhouse, of Kirby in Lonsdale. Bobbin lace, 6s. per ounce."
1597. "John Farbeck, of Durham. In ye Shoppe, 4 oz. & ½ of Bobbing lace, 6s. 4d."—Ibid.
"Bobbin" lace is noted in the Royal Inventories, but not so frequently as "bone."
"Laqueo ... fact. super lez bobbins."—G. W. A. Eliz., 27 and 28. P. R. O.
"Three peces teniar bobbin."—Ibid. Car. I., vi.
"One pece of bobin lace, 2s.," occurs frequently in the accounts of Lord Compton, afterwards Earl of Northampton, Master of the Wardrobe of Prince Charles.—Roll, 1622-23, Extraordinary Expenses, and others. P. R. O.
In the Ward. Acc. of his brother, Prince Henry, 1607, and the Warrant to the G. Ward., on his sister the Princess Elizabeth's marriage, 1612-13, "bone" lace is in endless quantities.
Bobbin lace appears invariably distinguished from bone lace, both being mentioned in the same inventory. The author one day showed an old Vandyke Italian edging to a Devonshire lace-worker, asking her if she could make it. "I think I can," she answered; "it is bobbin lace." On inquiring the distinction, she said: "Bobbin lace is made with a coarse thread, and in its manufacture we use long bobbins instead of the boxwood of ordinary size, which would not hold the necessary quantity of this thread, though sufficient for the quality used in making Honiton flowers and Trolly lace."—Mrs. Palliser.