Seven Centuries of Lace 8

Seven Centuries of Lace 8

A curious border of the Venetian rose-point is No. 1, Plate 38, worked

entirely in punto a festone. Birds and serpents occur, and the thick

cordonnet which outlines the pattern is also used to denote the scales

of the serpents and the feathers of the birds, tiny black beads mark the

eyes as in Plate 37. The edging is of very fine punto avorio. A specimen

of the so-called coraline Venice needle-point is also on this Plate.

 

In Plate 39 we have a very interesting specimen of needle-point as

applied to personal use--a lady's camisia, or shirt, of the sixteenth

century. The linen has a square hole cut for the head, and this opening

is beautifully worked in punto in aria. The sleeves are ornamental with

oblique bands of cut-work, and the seams everywhere worked with drawn

stitches and insertions of punto avorio. The handwoven linen is in good

condition, although the garment must have been much worn, as the cuffs

have been replaced by bobbin-made frills, trine a fuselli. It is

doubtful whether three hundred years hence any linen garment worn at the

present time will survive.

 

From the beginning of the sixteenth century the fashion began of

working portions of the lace separately, and joining them together by

brides, and modes or fillings were also introduced, into the pattern.

Later, from about 1630, the réseau ground was introduced, covering the

whole space between the patterns; the patterns themselves also changed,

and from being geometric and conventional became more and more

realistic. The stately lace of Venice, however, may be said to have

always preserved its conventional tradition, whether in the heavy rose

or raised point or the delicate point à réseau.

 

Venice obtained her pre-eminence of lace-making in the sixteenth

century. The flat point is probably the earliest distinctive lace; but

this was soon enriched by work upon work, stitch upon stitch, which gave

the name of rose-point or punto in rilievo. The characteristic ornament

in the heavy so-called gros point de Venise consists of conventional

blossoms like leaves and scrolls treated as though carved in ivory or

bone, and to it applies the title of punto tagliato a fogliami. The

brides are sometimes quite plain, but later are adorned with picots.

 

We now come to the period when lace, so long only made for church

purposes, was very extensively made and used by lay persons for their

personal adornment, and for furnishing purposes. The bed cover Plate 40

was, no doubt, one of many made for a household of simple tastes; the

coarse linen is cut into a fine flowing pattern edged with buttonhole

stitch, and ornamented with various fillings. But in houses of greater

pretension the use of the richest rose-point became lavish, not only on

the dress of the mistress, the collar of the master, but on table covers

and hangings of every kind. Examples of this splendid lace are given in

No. 42 and following plates. No. 44 has, perhaps, the finest toilé; but

the design of No. 45 is very beautiful. No. 46 is a flounce for an alb

of very fine scroll design with brides picotées and occasional raised

work; the beauty of the pattern is better seen in the enlargement, Plate

47. The paten cover, No. 48, and the enlargement of it, No. 49, give a

complete idea of the style and execution of this lace.

 

The design of the flounce, No. 51, is of the style usually associated

with point de France, the stitches and brides picotées are identical in

workmanship with the Venetian point. It was probably made at Alençon,

Sedan, or one of the other lace-making centres which were started upon

the importation of Venetian laceworkers into France after the middle of

the seventeenth century.

 

The specimens of Spanish rose-point, Nos. 53 and 54, show the stately

and elaborate design, rather overloaded with ornament, which is

characteristic of this lace.

 

The Venetian point à réseau was made from about 1650 in Venice and

Burano. The cap shown in No. 56 has a beautiful flowing design of a

scroll with flowers and leaves, and brides connecting some portions of

the design. The main ground is of small mesh réseau worked the length of

the lace, which is often the case in Venetian work, though I have never

seen it in Alençon lace, the réseau being, as far as I know, usually

worked across the lace by the early French workers. (Later, the réseau

of the Alençon lace was worked obliquely, as can be seen by examining

Plate 67, and the specimens I have seen of modern Alençon are also

worked in this way.)

 

Plates 59 and 60 show interesting specimens of this very rare Venetian

lace. No. 2, in the latter plate, is probably a specimen worked in

France.

 

The ground of No. 59 is of brides picotées arranged into hexagonal

meshes, a ground which is chiefly associated with the point de France,

and this specimen was no doubt from Alençon.

 

About 1660 important centres of lace-making were developed and

subsidised in France by the Government at Alençon, Paris, Sedan, and

other places, and the French needle-point then made was scarcely to be

distinguished from the Venetian. This was to be expected, as the first

workers of lace of this kind in France were imported from Venice. In a

letter to Colbert, the minister of Louis XIV., dated 1665, Catherine de

Marcq writes, "I am starting for Alençon with four Venetian lace

workers."[N]

 

[N] Bibliothèque Nationale, "Lettres à Colbert," vol. 132, fo. 14

bis.

 

As our King Charles II. revived his father's edict against foreign lace

at about the same time (1662), it would almost seem a concerted action

to check the Italian and Flemish superiority in the fabrication of the

finest lace, whether needle- or bobbin-made. But although the French

were successful in part in rivalling the Venetian needle-point, the

finest bobbin-lace of Flanders was never approached by the English

workers, and now, of course, can never be equalled, as the secret of the

thread used in the finest laces, such as Angleterre, Binche, etc., is

lost.

 

Nothing was too ambitious for the Venetian or French designers of the

seventeenth century. Coats of arms under canopies, scriptural or

classical figures, wreaths and vases of flowers, were frequently worked

into the same design for a piece of lace. The subsequent changes of

design which took place in the Alençon lace are most interesting to

note, the patterns gradually losing their Venetian character. In No. 61

vases and pots of flowers are introduced, and the floral patterns of the

specimens which follow become more and more realistic in drawing.

 

Towards the end of the reign of Louis XVI. enormous quantities of lace

were required for the new fashion of frills and flounces, and the change

in design is much marked by the adoption of borders of very light

effect, the réseau ground being spotted with little sprigs, slender

riband devices, and dots or pois, whence the term semé de larmes. (_See_

Plate 66.) In the numerous specimens shown, the changing fashion can be

marked, until in Plates 64 to 67 the Venetian character of the designs

of Alençon needle-point has quite disappeared. The patterns are

practically designed for borders only; and the réseau is, as I have

said, spotted with tiny sprigs, or dots. The __EXPRESSION__ semé de larmes

is said to have arisen in allusion to the misfortunes of Queen Marie

Antoinette, by whom much lace of this style was worn.

 

In needle-point made at Argentan we find a style and design such as we

should expect from its close neighbourhood to Alençon. The sole

peculiarity of the Argentan workers was that, not content with the

almost incredible toil involved in the lace of Alençon, they actually

worked the whole réseau of their lace over in buttonhole stitch, thus

making those compactly stitched hexagonal meshes which are distinctive

of this wonderful fabric. The Argentan réseau was sometimes introduced

into lace made at Alençon and elsewhere. The specimens, Nos. 68 and 69,

are representative of this rare lace.

 

The two specimens--one of silk and one of linen thread, Nos. 1 to 2,

Plate 70--I consider to be Portuguese, from the curious though rather

handsome and effective jumble of design which is often found in Spanish

and Portuguese work.

 

The Brussels needle-point of No. 3, Plate 70, and Plate 71 and Plate 72,

must seem poor and thin when compared to the preceding laces. But it is

very beautiful in its own delicate style, and has been called the

laciest of laces. The réseau is very fragile, hence the name sometimes

given of point de gaze. The designs shown have not the complete realism

aimed at in the Brussels lace of the present day, but have a charm of

their own which I confess attracts me more than all the brilliant

improvements of the last sixty years.

 

The two specimens of darned work on bobbin net, Plates 73 and 74,

especially the latter, are remarkable for the beauty and variety of the

work.

 

Plate 75 and Plate 76 have specimens of the beautiful and intricate work

called Tönder muslin lace made in Denmark in the eighteenth

century. The following, Plate 77, is lace of the same kind but made in

South Germany. I obtained these pieces in Leipzig forty years ago.

 

Number 2, in Plate 76, has a design and fillings which almost recall

those in the finest Alençon laces of the late seventeenth century.

 

Plate 78 has four specimens of eighteenth-century Dutch linen lace made

for caps; it is called Gouda lace; the fillings are very well

done.

 

In the Manila fibre lace, Plate 79, No. 1, the ground is entirely worked

over by the needle into small squares, giving the appearance of network.

This is done in the same way as the earlier tela tirata, the threads

drawn together and sewn with wonderful regularity, without any thread

being cut.

 

The two specimens of needle-point, Plate 79, Nos. 2 and 3, made entirely

of human hair, are rather difficult to render in a photograph. They are

evidently copied from Venetian patterns, and the various shades of hair

used have a very pretty effect, while the execution of such fine work in

so fragile a material must have demanded extreme skill and deftness of

hand. They were made about 1800, at the Bar Convent, York.

 

A very interesting piece of old English needle-point work is No. 80, a

cap of Holy, or Hollie, work. A close réseau is worked by using a stitch

very similar to buttonhole stitch, and the effect is of a texture very

like the cambric it adorns. The pattern is made by missing stitches,

forming small holes.

 

Hollie lace was chiefly used to decorate infants' caps, etc., for

baptism, and the pot with flower, reminiscent of the Annunciation, the

Holy Dove, etc., were devices frequently introduced into the patterns.

Collars