Evolution of Lace
The publication of patterns for needlepoint and pillow laces dates from about the middle of the 16th century. Before that period lace described such articles as cords and narrow braids of plaited and twisted threads, used not only to fasten shoes sleeves and corsets together, but also in a decorative manner to braid the hair, to wind round hats, and to be sewn as trimmings upon costumes.
As to the evolution of lace-making, notice should be taken of
the fact that at an early period the darning of varied ornamental
devices, stiff and geometric in treatment into hand-made network of
small square meshes became
specialized in many European countries. This is held by some writers to
be opus filatorium, or opus araneum (spider work). Examples of this
opus filatorium, said to date from the 13th century exist in public
collections. The productions of this darning in the early part of the
16th century came to be known as punto a maglia quadra in Italy and as
lacis in France, and through a growing demand for household and wearing
linen, very much of the lacis was made in white threads not only in
Italy and France but also in Spain. In appearance it is a filmy fabric.
With white threads also were the purlings above mentioned made, by
means of leaden bobbins or fuxii, and were called merletti a
piombini.
Cut and drawn thread
linen work (the latter known as tela tirata in Italy and as deshilado
in Spain) were other forms of embroidery as much in vogue as the
darning on net and the purling. The ornament of much of this cut and
drawn linen work, more restricted in scope than that of the darning on net, was governed
by the recurrence of open
squares formed by the withdrawal of the
threads. Within these squares and rectangles radiating devices usually
were worked by means of whipped and buttonhole stitches. The general effect in the linen was a succession of insertions or
borders of plain or enriched reticulations, whence the name punto a
reticella given to this class of embroidery in Italy. Work of similar
style and especially that with whipped stitches was done rather earlier
in the Grecian islands, which derived it from Asia Minor and Persia. The
close connection of the Venetian republic with Greece and the eastern
islands, as well as its commercial relations with the
East, sufficiently
explains an early transplanting of this kind of embroidery into Venice,
as well as in southern Spain.
At Venice besides being called reticella, cut work was also called punto tagliato. Once fairly established as home industries such arts were quickly exploited with a beauty and variety of pattern, complexity of stitch and delicacy of execution, until insertions and edgings made independently of any linen as a starting base came into being under the name of Punto in aria. This was the first variety of Venetian and Italian needlepoint lace in the middle of the 16th century, and its appearance then almost coincides in date with that of the merletti a piombini, which was the earliest Italian cushion or pillow lace.
The prevalence of fashion in the above-mentioned sorts of embroidery during the 16th century is marked by the number of pattern books then published. In Venice a work of this class was issued by Alessandro Pagannino in 1527; another of a similar nature, printed by Pierre Quinty, appeared in the same year at Cologne; and La Fleur de la science de pourtraicture et patrons di broderie,fa con arabicque it ytalique, was published at Paris in 1530. From these early dates until the beginning of the 17th century pattern books for embroidery in Italy, France, Germany and England were published in great abundance. The designs contained in many of those dating from the early 16th century were to be worked for costumes and hangings, and consisted of scrolls, arabesques, birds, animals, flowers, foliage, herbs and grasses. So far, however, as their reproduction as laces might be concerned, the execution of complicated work was involved which none but practiced lace workers, such as those who arose a century later, could be expected to undertake.
The activity in cord and braid making and in
the particular sorts of ornamental needlework already mentioned clearly
postulated such special labor as was capable of being converted into
lace making. And from the 16th century onwards the stimulus to the
industry in Europe was afforded by regular trade demand, coupled with
the exertions of those who encouraged their dependents or proteges to
give their spare time to remunerative home occupations. Thus the origin
and perpetuation of the industry have come to be associated with the
women folk of peasants and fishermen in circumstances which present
little dissimilarity whether in regard to needle lace workers who made
lace in whitewashed cottages and cabins at Youghal and Kenmare in the
south of Ireland, or those who produced their punti in aria during the
16th century about the lagoons of Venice, or Frenchwomen who made the sumptuous
Points de France at Alencon and elsewhere in the 17th and
18th centuries; or pillow lace workers from little seaside villages tucked away in Devonshire dells, or those who
were engaged more than four hundred years ago in merletti a piombini
in Italian villages or on Dentelles au fuseau in Flemish lowlands.
The ornamental character, however, of these several laces would be found to differ much; but methods, materials, appliances and opportunities of work would in the main be alike. As fashion in wearing laces extended, so workers came to be drawn together into groups by employers who acted as channels for general trade. Nuns in the past as in the present have also devoted attention to the industry, often providing in the convent precincts workrooms not only for peasant women to carry out commissions in the service of the church or for the trade, but also for the purpose of training children in the art. Elsewhere lace schools were founded by benefactors or organized by some leading local lace maker as much for trading as for education.
In all this variety of circumstance, development of finer work has depended upon the abilities of the workers being exercised under sound direction, whether derived through their own intuitions, or supplied by intelligent and tasteful employers. Where any such direction has been absent the industry viewed commercially has suffered, its productions being devoid of artistic effect or adaptability to the changing tastes of demand.
Lace Making in: