ONE of the world's largest private collections of lace is to go on display for the first time at one of the region's museums.

Although the exhibition, at the Bowes Museum, in Barnard Castle, County Durham, is not due to open for another 18 months, work is already taking place behind the scenes to prepare the lace for public viewing.

The Blackborne Lace collection consists of thousands of pieces of lace dating from the 17th to the 19th centuries.

About 100 pieces of the finest examples are to be exhibited in June next year.

The collection, loaned to the museum by a North-East family, was built up in the mid-19th Century by a family of London lace dealers.

At that time, lace was at the height of fashion - and extremely expensive.

As well as collecting contemporary examples of lace, the family also began collecting historic pieces. The earliest is from a gentleman's collar dating from about 1630.

Joanna Hashagen, the museum's keeper of textiles, said: "In those days, lace was as much a status symbol as diamonds.

"Victorian women used to feel each other's lace to see how fine it was. Men used to wear it as much as women, perhaps more so."

Despite the decline in popularity of lace in the 20th Century, the collection was still kept at the lace dealer's shop and survived flooding and bombing in the Second World War.

Records of items bought and sold abroad, and how much was paid for them, have also survived.

It is hoped the exhibition will include paintings loaned from the National Portrait Gallery showing how lace was worn.

Work is now ongoing, cleaning and restoring it for the exhibition.

Caroline Rendell, textile conservator at the museum, said: "There's such a wide variety, from small pieces of collars and cuffs to large bits used for furnishings.

"What a lot of people don't realise is that there's a wide range of shades to the lace and we have to be careful to keep those when we're cleaning it."

Ms Hashagen said: "We're also looking at different ways to display it, such as showing it in 3D on bits of perspex. Light's going to be very important and the way we illuminate it. What we don't want is for it to be stuck flat on a board.

"It's quite a challenge. In museum terms, it's going to be a world class exhibition, as this is something that's never been seen before in public."

Published: 03/01/05