Seven Centuries of Lace 5

Seven Centuries of Lace 5

NO. 2 The réseau called sometimes point de Paris,

and also fond chant; it was used for Paris

pillow-made laces, as well as at Chantilly for

silk Blonde laces. It also occurs in pillow

laces from Italy and Flanders.

 

NO. 3 The réseau of early Valenciennes, called the

round réseau. _See_ Plate 108.

 

NO. 4 Réseau of Mechlin lace. In this two sides of

each mesh are of plaited threads, the other

four of twisted threads.

 

NO. 5 Réseau called cinq trous, characteristic of

much Flemish lace. _See_ Plates 99 and 100.

 

NO. 6 Réseau of later Valenciennes, called square

réseau, and of late years almost the only

réseau used in Yprès lace. _See_ Plate 109.

 

NO. 7 Réseau of Buckingham lace. This also

corresponds with the réseau used in Lille

and Arras pillow laces. _See_ Plate 107.

 

RETICELLO The word is derived from rete, a net, and is

usually descriptive of the patterns in which

repeated squares, with wheel or star devices

and such-like, depending upon the diagonals

of each square, are the prevailing features.

In needle-point lace these openwork patterns

are usually of buttonhole stitching. The

squares are partly cut out of the linen

material, the threads not cut are sewn over

with punto a rammendo forming a frame for

the rest of the work. (Plate 29.) The

reticello pattern is also carried out in early

bobbin-made lace. _See_ Plate 86.

 

ROSALINE A modern Italian name for the fine Venetian

point called point de neige. _See_ Plate 50.

 

ROSE-POINT Any needle-point with raised work on it.

This raised work may be sometimes suggestive

of recurrent blossoms, but the word

"rose" in this connection is technical, and

merely means raised.

 

SFILATURA Drawn thread work. A variety of lacis. _See_

No. 1, Plate 28.

 

TELA TIRATA Or drawn work. The linen is sometimes

"drawn," that is to say, threads of both warp

and woof are removed from the entire piece to

be worked, only leaving three or four threads

each way. The pattern is then darned in so

as to appear like the original linen. I believe

the identical threads drawn out are sometimes

used for this. The remaining threads are

then sewn over to form the background of

small squares. (_See_ No. 5, Plate 8.) A

second way is only to draw threads from the

background, cutting some of the cross threads,

and leaving the original linen to form the

pattern, as in No. 4, Plate 8.

 

TOILÉ Is the clothing, "fond," or closer texture in

the pattern of both needle- and bobbin-made

lace. Toilé is so called because it resembles

toile or linen. The various details of the toilé

in needle-point lace are usually outlined by a

buttonhole stitch cordonnet, or sometimes

merely by a single thread, and are then fitted

to each other to form a complete design.

This fitting together of the several parts is

well exemplified in No. 40, Venetian cut linen

lace, in which the fond is really of toilé, cut

and joined by brides. In all the other

specimens the toilé is wholly of needle-point

work. In the earlier needle-point laces brides

were used, but in later ones the whole background

usually consists of a réseau.

 

TOMBOLO Lace pillow.

 

TRINA Lace. TRINE AD AGO, needle-made laces;

TRINE A FUSELLI, bobbin-made laces--Italian

terms in present use.

 

 

 

 

SEVEN CENTURIES OF LACE

 

 

Many books giving patterns for lace-making were produced in the

sixteenth century, but few of them afford any technical instruction in

the art, and all assume that lace was already in demand throughout

Europe. We need not therefore take these interesting little books into

consideration in determining the antiquity of lace, although they are of

great assistance on the question of design, as they constantly show by

introducing the gammadion and other symbols, the survival of the

Oriental tradition.[A] This is also clearly shown in the numerous

specimens of embroideries and woven silks made in Sicily and Spain in

the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and preserved in our own and

Continental museums.

 

[A] Eyn neu Kunstlichbuch, &c. Metre piere quinty Cologne, 1527.

 

The earliest specimens of lace stitches in my possession are on pieces

of Coptic linen work from tombs of the third to the fifth century from

the collection of Mr. R. de Rustafjaell. The threads purposely left

loose in the weaving are held by punto a rammendo worked in white linen

thread. A background of coloured worsted is afterwards added,[B] (_See_

Plate 4.) It is interesting to compare the towel, NO. 1 in Plate 28,

which in my opinion has probably been worked in the same way, that is,

the weaver has omitted the woof threads, leaving only the warp threads

to be drawn together by needlework. The bobbin-lace found in the same

tomb is illustrated in Plate 5.

 

[B] Darning stitch exists in the British Museum on a piece of

material woven from flax, and found in an Egyptian tomb. And chain

stitch is seen on a fragment of Greek work of the fourth century,

B.C., at the Hermitage, St. Petersburg.

 

The first mention of lace-making in Europe that I know of is an old rule

of the thirteenth century for English nuns, cautioning them against

devoting too much time to lace and ornamental work to the detriment of

work for the poor.[C]

 

[C] "Ne makie none purses ... ne _laz_ bute leave, auh schepied, and

seouwed, and amended cherche clodes, and poure monne clodes."

 

"Do not make no purses ... nor _lace_, without leave, but shape and

sew, and mend, church-vestments and poor people's clothes."

 

"The Ancren Riwle" (The Nun's Rule), p. 420, h. A.D. 1210. Morton's

edition, Old English, 1853.

 

This _laz_ or lace was doubtless lacis. This lacis or network, now

called modano in Italy, was the earliest foundation for the work of

needle-made lace "trine ad ago." We find in the Appendix to Dugdale's

History of St. Paul's mention of work of "albo filo nodato" knotted

white thread. This was noted at a Visitation made in 1295.[D] But pieces

of this opus sfilatorium have also been found in Egyptian tombs. Early

specimens often have the gammadion or symbol of the cross. _See_ Plate

4.

 

[D] Dugdale, "St. Paul's," p. 316.

 

A roll of the possessions of the Templars after their suppression in

1312 includes an inventory of the goods of Temple Church. One item of

this is "one net which is called _Espinum_ to cover Lectern, 2_s._"[E]

We must look to the specimens existing from early times in Europe, and

to contemporary testimony, whether of painting or sculpture, to enable

us to fix the date of these interesting productions of human

industry--the early lacis and linen laces. Embroidery on silk, in which

many of the lace stitches were used, has a very early record.

 

[E] "Norfolk Archæology," vol. v. (Norwich 1859), p. 91.

 

Here we need only cite the many magnificent examples of embroidered

Church vestments, chasubles, copes, &c., so freely produced from the

thirteenth century onwards, of which the wonderful Dalmatic of the ninth

century in the Vatican Treasury, the Syon Cope of the thirteenth

century in the Victoria and Albert Museum, together with others, are to

this date in excellent and almost perfect condition.

 

Now, if we remember that albs and other linen vestments used at Mass

have been for centuries as necessary and important as the outer ones of

silk, it must be allowed that while such a wealth of decoration was

lavished on the latter, adornment of the former was not likely to have

been omitted. I am, therefore, of opinion that much of the lacis, tela

tirata, and reticello work generally ascribed to the fifteenth and

sixteenth centuries, may more correctly be considered to be earlier in

date. That few of such ancient specimens remain is no doubt due to the