The politics and patina of lace craft : a critical assessment of the significance of South African ‘Koppies’ Lace

Abstract

Textiles are an important part of social history and often neglected in museum collections. Lace objects are textiles with an unambiguous European heritage. Examples of this kind of tangible heritage object are found in many private and national museum collections in South Africa. This research considers needle lace crafted by students of the Koppies Lace School established in the early 1900s in the (then) Orange River Colony. The research draws on theories of representation (Hall, 2013), whiteness (de Kock, 2006), and craftwork (Risatti, 2007) to interrogate the unique context of this lace. The analysis includes examples of needle lace from Iziko Museums in Cape Town, as well as the War Museum of the Boer Republics and the Emily Hobhouse Old Age Home in the Free State. The discussion repositions lace as ethnographic object and argues for its value to South African museum collections. Koppies lace is identified as a unique collection when placed within its larger socio-historical context, and appreciated in terms of what was achieved while the lace school was in operation. This research argues that the value of Koppies lace objects to South African heritage lies within this larger intangible context and knowing and sharing this knowledge.