Seven Centuries of Lace 4

Seven Centuries of Lace 4

AVORIO _Ivory._ _See_ PUNTI.

 

BOBBIN-MADE LACE _See_ PILLOW-LACE.

 

BONE POINT _See_ CORDONNET. This term was also applied

to early bobbin-made lace made in England

with bone bobbins.

 

BRIDES, or BARS Ties or loops between the edges of details,

forming the pattern, and connecting them

together. Brides are often adorned with

picots, or little knots, and are then called

brides picotées, when they have no picots

they are brides claires. Brides occur both in

needlepoint and in bobbin-made lace.

 

BUTTON-HOLE STITCH _See_ PUNTO A FESTONE.

 

BURATTO Lacis, with a twisted instead of a knotted

foundation.

 

CLOTHING _See also_ FOND and TOILÉ.

 

CORDONNET One or more threads used to outline or define

the forms composing patterns of lace. The

cordonnet in the heavier Venetian and Spanish

point is usually substantial and bold, and in

parts gradually swelling and diminishing to

form reliefs on the lace, which then suggests

an effect of carved bone or ivory. This gave

rise to one of the meanings of the term, bone

point. These relief portions were often enriched

by rows or tiers of picots. In Alençon

lace a horsehair instead of a stout thread was

sometimes used as a foundation for the cordonnet,

which was closely over-cast with

button-hole stitches.

 

COTTA The short white linen robe worn by servers

and at times by priests. This, like the alb,

is sometimes trimmed with lace.

 

FILET _See_ LACIS.

 

FILLINGS These are termed in French modes or à jours,

and are the ornamental work (made either

by needle or by bobbins) introduced into any

enclosed place in the toilé, or elsewhere in

the lace.

 

FOND _See also_ CLOTHING and TOILÉ. The word

fond, or foundation, denotes the close parts

in either needle-point or pillow lace, which

were made first, and then joined together by

bars or brides, or by a réseau. In some

laces the whole work proceeds concurrently.

 

FUSELLI Bobbins.

 

GROPPO A knot.

 

GUIPURE A term long used for any lace of a heavyish

texture made without réseau. It is now

often used for lace made with a tape, but

it applies more correctly, perhaps, to gimp

work.

 

IVORY STITCH Or PUNTO-AVORIO. So called because the

effect when closely worked makes a surface

like ivory, as it is quite without the slight rib

which shows in punto a festone, which is the

stitch usually found in the various punti in

aria. _See_ No. 6, Plate 8.

 

LACIS OR LASSIS Derived from Latin _laqueus_, a noose, in

English, Lace. A foundation of net, or filet,

with a pattern darned into it. The net for

the Italian lacis, called punto a maglia quadra,

as well as for the French filet or lacis, was

made very much as fish-nets are now

made; the darning-stitch was called punto

a rammendo.

 

In Buratto lacis, sometimes called punto

di Ragusa, the twisted network was made by

passing the foundation threads forwards and

backwards in a frame. (_See_ No. 3, Plate 8.)

The name Buratto comes from the sieves

made in this way in Italy for sifting grain

and meal.

 

MACRAMÉ Derived from the Arabic. It is a hand-made,

knotted fringe, called Moresco in Spain.

 

MAGLIA Mesh.

 

MEZZO PUNTO A description of lace in which the pattern

is formed with a braid or tape, and the brides

and fillings are of needle-point work. _See_

Plate 55.

 

MODANO A general name in Italy for lacis work with

square mesh.

 

MODES _See_ Fillings.

 

PICOTS Loops or knots added to brides, or, indeed,

to any part of the lace, for its enrichment.

 

PILLOW LACE Lace made with bobbins on a pillow; this

lace is called in Italian trine a fuselli, or

sometimes merletti a piombini, as in making

the coarser lace the workers attach pieces of

lead to the bobbins.

 

POINT LACE Strictly speaking, should always mean needle-made

lace, as the term is used too generally

in respect of either needle-made or pillow-made

lace to be of much value as a definition

without further qualification.

 

POINT DE NEIGE A name sometimes given to fine Venice

needle-point lace, with many small raised

flowers and clusters of picots--which give the

effect almost of snowflakes. _See_ Plate 50.

 

PUNTO A stitch.

 

PUNTI In the earliest needle-point lace-work on linen

or net the punti, or stitches, were as follows:

 

PUNTO A RAMMENDO (sometimes called PUNTO DI GENOA). Darning

or ladder stitch. This is the stitch used

in lacis work. _See_ enlarged stitch Nos. 1

and 3 of Plate 8.

 

PUNTO A STUORA Matting stitch. This stitch is used to make

the centres of geometrical patterns in lacis and

reticello work. It looks like the centre of a

round mat or basket. _See_ enlarged stitch,

No. 1, Plate 8.

 

PUNTO TAGLIATO Work on cut linen.

 

PUNTO A TELA Linen or cloth stitch.

 

PUNTO TIRATO Work on linen, which is begun by pulling

threads from the linen without cutting it.

_See_ TELA TIRATA, enlarged stitch, No. 5,

Plate 8.

 

PUNTO TRECCIA Or tress stitch--so called from the threads

of linen being left loose, and only caught here

and there by a few stitches, so looking like

a tress of hair. _See_ Plate 8, and top border

of No. 2, Plate 29. Treccia also means

plait.

 

Later stitches were:

 

PUNTO AVORIO _See_ IVORY STITCH, enlarged stitch, No. 6,

Plate 8.

 

PUNTO IN ARIA Needle-point lace worked without any foundation

of net or linen, hence the term, aria--in

the air. _See_ Plate 31.

 

PUNTO A FESTONE Buttonhole stitch: in French point noué.

The term "a festone" comes from festoon--a