LACE IN THE COLLECTION OF MRS. ALFRED MORRISON AT FONTHILL
THE lace of Mrs. Alfred Morrison at Fonthill House is of special interest among private collections. Mrs. Morrison has long interested herself in the exertions of M. M. Lefébure, the Honiton revival by the late Mrs. Treadwin of Exeter, and even the crochet work of Ireland, and has in many cases supplied designs, or suggestions for design, to these centres; hence, with her well-known collection of antique lace she has included the best of its modern derivatives and modern design. Among the specimens illustrated are:—
Plate I: (1) A curious example of a rare type of lace made in Russia, consisting of a scarf with arms worked upon either end. This lace was made in the early part of the nineteenth century (when needle-point was first introduced into Moscow) at a private lace school. The design, which is upon net, and very unlike the characteristic Russian vermiculate patterns with their oriental character and occasional colouring, consists of a chain of jours enclosing coarse, simple, and prominent fillings similar to those of provincial pillow-laces of England and France, and a semé of small sprigs. Although the workmanship is even throughout, the drawing is so naïve as to suggest that the lace-worker was unused to that type of lace. There is a border of similar jours alternating with small leaves and sprays.
(2) Gros point de Venise.—In the central strip of this lace very few brides have been introduced, and only so far as is necessary for strength, and those used are plain. The bride work forms no essential part of the design, the parts of the pattern being chiefly held together by being worked in contact with one another. In the joined border, which is of later date, the work, and especially the raised scallops, is of a superior evenness and regularity. Short brides, both plain and picotées, connect the design, which is closer and more florid, and remarkable for the compact, firm character which careful and precise workmanship has given to the piece, as it were scolpito in rilievo.
(3) Point de Venise.—Two long strips (3½ inches wide) of excellent and open scroll and floral design. The brides which connect the design are decorated with small stars and whirls. Upon some of the raised borders are set small scallops, or picots. Seventeenth century.
(4) Alençon lappet, a design of interlacing ribbons, filled in with light modes, enclosing a small ornament. Eighteenth century. Period, Louis XV.
(5) Modern Irish Needle-point lace, à brides picotées, specially made and designed for Mrs. Alfred Morrison [very much reduced]. Nineteenth century.
Plate II: (1) Brussels veil (three sides of which are ornamented, the fourth being plain), containing floral devices made in pillow, and applied to pillow-made mesh grounds. The softness of the grounds, the workmanship of the flowers, of which the cordonnets have little or no relief, the lightness of the fillings of the modes, place these Brussels points in a category quite distinct from any other lace. The design is of light leafy festoons of roses and forget-me-nots. In the corner is an urn-shaped ornament with lateral festoons. The border has a scalloped edge. Throughout the veil are pillow renderings of various modes, the réseau rosacé, star devices, etc. Eighteenth century.
(2) Honiton lace, made by the late Mrs. Treadwin of Exeter, from an old design. The pattern is connected by small brides covered with a number of small picots.
(3) Rose point à brides (Venetian), of close workmanship, in silk (natural-coloured). The free use of ornate picots clustering upon flying loops edging the scallops, as well as upon the brides, is noticeable. The brides are thickly ornamented with stars and whirls. [This sort of lace is sometimes called point de neige, probably on account of its snowy appearance.] The stems of the pattern are of light work, and not strengthened on the edge by an outer cordonnet or button-hole stitched work. Seventeenth century.
A very similar specimen of Venetian needle-point lace in silk is to be seen at the Victoria and Albert Museum [835–’68]. It is also square and of similar size and date, and is also remarkable for the series of scallops and picots upon the raised portions of the design. The design of this specimen ‘consists of a symmetrical distribution of floral forms grouped about an ornamental arrangement in the centre.’ It was probably a ‘pall’ or covering for a chalice or sacramental cup. Though Mrs. Morrison’s specimen is said to be of Jewish work, and used in the synagogue to cover the law, it is more probable that it is a ‘pall,’ like the above-mentioned example.
I
PLATE II
PLATE III
(4) Drawn thread-work [Turkish?].
(5) Point de Venise, period Louis XIII.—A conventional design somewhat resembling Italian Renaissance ironwork. The pattern and some of the short brides which connect it are ornamented with picots, giving lightness and variety to the work.
(6) Irish crochet lace, specially made for Mrs. Alfred Morrison, adapted from the above design, which it well reproduces. An experiment in improving the spiritless and confused effect of Irish crochet, where conventional motifs are fitted together without any pre-arranged design. In natural-coloured silk.
(7) Imitation point d‘Alençon.—The ground or réseau of this piece is a very wide-meshed knotted net of coarse thread. A stiff and simple flower issuing from a horn or vase is set in the centre of a waved diamond-shaped compartment. The flowers are filled in with small pieces of coarse linen, and are appliqué to the net by stitches which hold the twisted thread outlines—the substitute for the cordonnet of button-hole stitches in the Alençon it imitates—to the little bits of linen.
Plate III: (1) Embroidered Turkish drawn thread work.—An eight-pointed star within the centre of which is a circle of drawn-work, of which the threads are overcast with fine button-hole stitches.
(2) The old conventional cut-work of Italy; Reticella, with punto in aria vandykes attached. Reticella differs from cutwork in that, though it also is worked on a linen foundation, the linen has almost entirely disappeared. The threads left as the framework of the design, dividing it into square compartments, are closely covered with stitches. Into these squares are introduced geometrical forms (star-forms) set in circles and enriched with patterns in solid needlework. This lace is frequently called Greek lace, principally owing to the fact that a great deal was found during the occupation of the Ionian islands by the English. It is, however, undoubtedly Italian in origin. The lace is shown upon the linen on which it is made; most specimens have been cut off for sale from the original linen ground. The punto in aria vandykes developed from the reticella, and are made with the same geometrical designs. The pointed edge was worked on threads laid down in the required shape, and the spaces filled in various designs. Brides picotées were sparingly added to connect the various portions of the pattern.
(3) Venetian-made Alençon (Burano).—A design of small sprays upon mixed grounds. Along the lower portion of the design runs a twisting ribbon enclosing various à jours and diapered grounds. The scalloped border shows blossom modes set upon a large hexagonal mesh picoté, alternating with a scalloped ribbon, enclosing varieties of diaper-patterned grounds, similar to those to be seen in the modes of Venetian heavy point laces.
(4) Venetian-made Alençon, design of palm leaves, with straight-edged border of flowerets and leaves.
(5) Alençon bordering lace, eighteenth century. Period, Louis XVI.—Under Louis XVI it became the fashion to multiply the number of flounces to dresses and to gather them into pleats, or, as it was termed, to badiner them, so that ornamental motifs, more or less broken up or partially concealed by the pleats, lost their significance and flow. The spaces between the motifs, therefore, widened more and more, until the design deteriorated into semés of small devices, detached flowers, pots, larmes, or, as in the present design, a dot set within a rosette. Instead, also, of wreaths, ribands, or festoons undulating from one side of the border to another, we have a stiff rectilinear border of purely conventional design. Naturalistic patterns are not met with in lace of that period.
M. JOURDAIN.