To find out more about the origins of shuttle lace, I consulted the library of the Textile Museum in St. Gallen. There I came across the title "Handbuch der Schiffchenspitze" by Tina Frauberger, Düsseldorf, 1914 with a new edition in 1919. I ordered a reprint of this manuel from 2015 via Amazon. It contains many patterns for shuttle lace and matching photos of completed patterns.

In the chapter "History" of this "Handbuch der Schiffchenspitze" I learned a lot about the first references to frivolité needlework in France. As early as during the 18th century paintings were created of noble women who are either depicted with shuttle lace in their hands or wearing borders of shuttle lace on their valuable dresses. Tina Frauberger sees a connection between the handicraft technique of boat lace, the craft of fishermen, who used "wooden boats" to make or repair their fishing nets. The similarity can be seen in the fact that, in addition to the thread, only "a shuttle" is needed to make airy stitches and knots.

The shuttle for tatting consists of two pointed plates on both sides, which are connected in the middle with a bar and the pointed ends of the plates touch slightly. In this way, a thread can be wound around the centered bar and when the shuttle hangs down by the thread, the thread cannot unwind from the bar. Originally, the shuttles were made from bone, ivory, horn, tortoiseshell and wood and later on from hard rubber or celluloid.

Tatting was developed in France in the pre-industrial age and remained popular in bourgeois circles until the first half of the 20th century. The industrial production of decorative borders and accessoires caused the vanishing of the more time-consuming handicraft.

Today the internet helps women to get together in Facebook groups to exchange patterns and support each other in learning new techniques in tatting. I personally admire the 1920 Eleonore Endrucks project, which goes back to the initiative of Muskaan (Meenakshi Jain) from India and Ninetta (Antonina Caruso) from Italy. Both experienced tatters  built up an internationally cooperative Facebook group of tatters, who work carefully and persistently through the German pattern book from 1920, reworking the patterns and creating new geometrical descriptions. Ninetta published the second edition of her own pattern book "Il chiacchierino è una cosa seria" in 2023, which I purchased via amazon. There is now an English edition available.

In Italy, shuttle lace is known as "occhi" or "chiacchierino". In Ninetta's book I learned that this handicraft is described in 1941 in the "Dizionario Enciclopedico di Lavori femminili" and that "occhi" was already well-known in Italy in 1929.

How well known is tatting in the English-speaking world? There are many old English pattern books for sale on eBay. I bought the even newer book "Mastering Tatting - Advanced Designs using basic techniques" by Lindsay Rogers from 2013, reprinted in 2014. In addition to patterns for borders and placemats, the patterns presented in the book also offer options for separating individual elements, such as a heart, from a more complex pattern. Today etsy.ch is a popular on-line-platform for selling and buying patterns for beginners and advanced tatters.