The starlike effect in the old Malta laces was very simply made by taking fourteen bobbins to work a strip of the required length; this was then joined up as required into a pattern of more or less regular and starlike form, partly, no doubt, to imitate the older geometric designs. The same bobbins were used throughout. See Plate [83].
The same style of making is more beautifully carried out in the two patterns of Plate [84]. The lace in No. 1 is unfortunately very much worn, but the way the bobbin-made strip is arranged to make flowerlike forms is very ingenious; the ground is completely covered and yet nothing is awkward or crowded. No. 2 is also a very fine example of this simple bobbin work. I consider both to be early Venetian.
Number 1 of Plate [85] is a typical pattern of the lace which, originally no doubt inspired by the East has become universal under the name of "peasant" lace. We find it in Russia, Hungary, Dalmatia, Spain, Sicily, Sardinia, in fact wherever lace was made at all, this pattern with slight variations is supreme. Ceylon and India produce very similar lace, as also does South America. I have therefore made no special reference to these peasant laces, as although quite satisfactory from the point of view of utility, they are only otherwise interesting as the product of an industry much to be encouraged.
Numbers 2, 3 and 4, on Plate [85], may be considered as showing a transition state, as in all three there is an attempt to add a background to the toile or tapelike pattern.
Number 4 is a specimen of old Maltese lace now no longer made.
Number 1 in Plate [86] is of reticello pattern and a very successful imitation of the needle-point linen lace.
Number 2 is a fine example of the same style worked into points or pizzi, and is probably Venetian.
Numbers 3, 4 and 5, are examples of Genoese plaited lace.
Number 5 is especially notable as recalling the Eastern tradition.
Plate [87] shows two specimens of Genoese lace. No. 2 is what is sometimes called collar lace, and sometimes Vandyke lace, from the very general use of it in portraits by that great painter. No. 1 is Genoese fringed lace. In both the starlike groups of little "grains of corn," as they are called, are characteristic of Genoese lace, as they are now considered to be of Maltese. But the Genoese patterns were only introduced into Malta and Gozo about sixty or seventy years ago. One can but be glad of the success of an industry so profitable to the industrious peasantry of those islands, but it is impossible not to regret the total disappearance of the old style of lace-making. The old patterns are not in demand for the modern market, which is chiefly French, and the lace is principally made with silk imported from France.