Commemorative stamp series - Germany / German Democratic Republic 1974 - 20 Pfennig

Plauen lace from the GDR The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of the German Democratic Republic issues four special postage stamps with illustrations of Plauen lace from the GDR. Technical process for the production of Plauen lace The most highly refined product of the textile industry of the German Democratic Republic is at the top. The center of production is in Vogtland, mainly in the top town of Plauen. A large number of different production products are produced in the product group Embroidery Lace under the direction of VEB Plauener Spitze. The working people of these industries produce high quality industrial shaped bits, including the air plains shown on the stamps. The Plauener Spitze has been world famous for a century and has an equally long export tradition. Essential features of the products of the Plauen lace industry are their adaptation to the wishes of demanding consumers of both the socialist countries and the capitalist foreign countries, as well as the simple jewelry needs for the festivals and everyday life. The lace products are versatile processed into lace dresses, lace blouses, fashionable garment, lace underwear, blankets and much more. The patterns of the air plains are generally embroidered in cotton on a synthetic material (solvron) base, which is then dissolved by hot wet treatment and disappears so that the embroidery looks as if embroidered in the air. Hence the name Luftspitze or as in the stamps Luftplain. The invention of the tip of the air, which was made around 1888/89 in Plauen, makes it possible to machine all types of lace. Previously, the embroidery substrate was removed or etched away by heat or acids, which is why the embroidery was sometimes also called Ätzspitze. The fabric is bleached after the treatment (white material) or dyed in fashionable tones, finished and stretched. The production of lace is mainly on so-called embroidery machines, about 9 to 13.5 meters long complicated machines that simultaneously and much faster perform the work of hundreds of hand embroidery women. Before the tip leaves the production plants, it is scrutinized by the quality control and possibly improved. Only perfectly good goods may use the name "Plauener Spitze". The strict stylized floral motif of the brown 20-pfennig value is made of stronger material that makes the embroidery even more plastic.