drawnwork

The elderly female population was engaged in drawnwork, making designs on cotton fabric by plucking threads by hand.

She slowly replaced all her simple maiden underlinen with garments which, while still simple, were wrought with beautiful French embroidery, tucks, and drawnwork.

Sheets were less varied in the patterns available; in cotton there is a larger selection of double than queen size, all Victorian or Edwardian in feeling, one set with embroidered cupids and drawnwork (double, about $49).

Grand carries only queen-size sheets and has a larger selection than the department stores: in linen, three patterns, from about $84 to $109; in cotton, with cupids and drawnwork, which Mr. Wong calls punchwork, about $41.

Once relegated to thrift shops and garage sales, vintage linens of every description, from drawnwork Victorian tea cloths to funky Depression-era printed cotton tablecloths, have become standard issue at auctions in the United States and abroad.

In pure linen, there was only one pattern in queen-size sheets (about $120), two in double - one an appealing geometrical floral with cutwork and a drawnwork border (about $117), with no machine stitching on the sheet or the pillowcases.