Again.....depends on age and what they are....
Linen? hand tatted edge?....or cotton made in China and machine made lace. Printed with a souviniere message...?
Try looking under old textiles.
Linda C

I too have a lot of pretty hankies hiding in the drawer for no one to see. I have a short hallway so I strung fishing line then folded the hankies over it to make an ever so pretty border

My friend has a lovely collection of hankies, casually arranged in a large frame. Hers happen to have her name on each one, but any group of similar hankies would be quite attractive.

Thanks for the ideas. I have several black ones with colored hand embroidery that I think might look nice in a frame.
Linda, some are linen, a lot are hand-tatted and there are some that are scalloped, etc. with floral or cat prints. I suppose they are manufactured, but they are older.
The border idea is nice; I think I could do that on one wall in my bedroom with the ones that are all white with delicate lace. I was actually going to stencil a lace pattern there to cover an irregular meeting of the wall and ceiling. This idea would be a lot quicker.
Thank you for helping.
Cat

I have a collection of handkerchiefs from both of my grandmothers and a great grandmother. I framed 13 of them, each between two pieces of glass. They are hanging randomly in my sunroom above the sofa.

Martha Stewart did an article on framing handkerchiefs and they looked very nice. Also a store in my area sells some items made by a woman from Oregon (?) who makes beautiful valences and lamp shades.

I think I'll put the black ones on a yellow or white background with gold frames so they aren't gloomy and hang them in my hall. They would look pretty there. The rest I'll pick ones to string along my ceiling in my bedroom.
Thanks for the good ideas.
Cathy

This is probably too late but just FYI: ebay has thousands of old hankies - you can look at some of them to get an idea of their worth. My hobby is collecting old hankies and I have seen some of them go for over $200!!!

i too collect old hankies. they sit in a drawer until i take a few out and iron them and bring them along to a funeral. the family never seems to carry them, always a tissue that never holds up. i have hundreds of them - male and female alike, but the female ones are just gorgeous and i will never part with them. i like the idea of framing them, it's quite interesting. now to find just the right frames for just the right hankie. wonder if it can be backed by all the old doilies i have...

maryanne

I collect old Handkerchiefs also - mainly mens ones with bold stripes / patterns, but womans floral Handkerchiefs are very pretty.
there is a website www.flickr.com - where people can post photos of anything and everything. there are 2 Handkerchief groups on the site where people can post photos of their handkerchiefs and comment on other peoples handkerchief photos

Here is a link that might be useful: Flickr