Well...I learned something new today....can't say I've ever seen any either here nor in England where I am from. Personally, after Yoopers story I would probably find them a new home (or recycle them somehow). They sound like they were instruments of domestic torture.
Your ancestors would probably have forty fits if they saw how my net/lace curtains (what few I have left) are laundered. Chucked in the machine....thrown over a line and re-hung whilst slightly damp so any wrinkles magically disappear....the joy of polyester lace. Now our screening plants are grown and the gardens renovated to ensure privacy and pretty vistas....mine are being taken down....the old curtains make great plant nets to keep the birds off my fruit trees, or cut up and thrown over tender plants in the really hot weather.