Antique Tablecloths

I collect antique linen.  When my daughter got married, I wanted something extra special in the linen department.  The best way to do that...use my collection!

My favorite Needle Lace  Cloth!

The bride and groom sweetheart table had a French Cluny Lace tablecloth.

French Cluny Lace

Pt. De Venise inserts in this tablecloth with filet lace borders

My favorite Appenzell cloth

 Appenzell is wonderful.  It is probably my favorite type of lace.  I'll have to blog about it sometime.

Tablecloth loaded with punchwork and embroidery. 

Tablecloth with punchwork.

The guest book is sitting on a wonderful Madeira tablecloth.  There is a ton of detailed work that is typically found on Italian reticella.  This Maderia cloth is extremely rare and very expensive.   If you find one, don't let it get away!

It actually wound up on the placecard table.

The guest book table had another wonderful Madeira organdy tablecloth on it.  I wanted to mix it up a bit.  This is the shot at the reception.  I don't have a shot of it in the garden at the wedding.

The italian tole easel and the french pen holder were antiques.  The guest book was also an antique that I designed. It was an 1860's binding, with pages made from business cards from the 1700's.

Details of Maderia organdy tablecloth on guest book table.

Originally I had planned on using the cloth below, but it was too small.  I picked up some Borghese cherub statues to use on the table--they looked lovely with the black urns.  

We had a table of wedding photos with a centerpiece of this lovely dress made out of an old spring, decorated with tiny vintage pieces of old lace!

I used 16 tablecloths with needle lace and filet lace inserts.  The library had the gift table and I put a piece of french net lace on the bar.

Below is the center medallion.  It is quite lovely and romantic.

The dessert room had even more linens!

The non-traditional wedding cake.  It has an antique German Erzgebirge couple on top.

There were many things I wasn't able to do because I broke my hand and had surgery 4 days before the wedding.  In fact, looking back it is a miracle I pulled it off at all.   

My sister ironed all of the tablecloths before the wedding.   That was HUGE.  We put down plastic, wool blankets, cotton quilts, sheets, on my 10' x 55" table, and away she went!  It went so much more quickly than attempting to iron on an ironing board. 

In all, the use of the antique linen was a success. I washed all the damask napkins, which  were a breeze.... Laundry hints:   don't do a heavy spin, it leaves creases in the napkins.... and run through a mangle on completion, you can iron about 120 in an hour!  I can't take credit, my brother did it all for me.  Thanks Lenny.

Punchwork Embroidered Tablecloth

You can find me from time to time selling antique linens on Ebay: antique-monograms-- I need to share some of my fabulous finds, I don't have room for more!