Certainly both places were centres of the lace trade and production. In the early part of the century bobbin lace was much used as insertions and applications on household linens and clothing. As such it was made from bleached linen, coloured silks and silver and gold metallic threads. By the beginning of the seventeenth century bobbin lace had overtaken needle lace in popularity and was moving to the fantastic heights of the eighteenth century. The plaits and trails of this lace can still be seen in the modern Bedfordshire, Maltese, Cluny and Le Puy laces.
Today there are many style of lace pillow.
The main requirement being a firm surface to pin the lace to. Only a few pictures exist of lace pillows used in period but they appear to be a bolster-style pillow, usually placed on a stand. The bolster-style pillow meant that the rounded bobbins did not roll as much as on later, flatter pillows. Pins Sixteenth century laces used fewer pins than later laces, temporary pins can be put in place and then moved as the plaits are tensioned. The process of manufacture did not change until the nineteenth century when a machine which could make headed pins in one piece was introduced.