1. Lacis (or Modano) and Buratto work. (See Plates [8], [11], [17].) I include also under Lacis those varieties which are called in Italy Sfilature, as the ancient specimens are, I find, usually worked on a foundation of knotted lacis. See Plate [7].
2. Linen lace, comprising reticello work and tela tirata. See Plates [14], [19], [25].
3. Punto in aria—of which all later needle-point laces are varieties. See Plates [31] and [32].
The three chief ways of making bobbin-lace, "Trine a fuselli," are:
1. A tape, sometimes plain, sometimes ornamented, is made on the pillow. This tape is placed and arranged as wished and joined up on the pillow, but it is not cut or finished off, but continues to form the pattern until the lace is completed. See Plates [83] and [84].
2. Complete sprays or patterns are made on the pillow and finished off; these are afterwards joined by brides or by a réseau. See Plates [90] and [91].
3. The bobbins first used, continue and complete both pattern and ground of the whole length of the lace. See Plate [97].
I here give a Glossary, the result of inquiries tabulated during a stay in Italy some years ago. I cannot find any authoritative translation of the technical terms used to describe ancient lace, so I give my interpretations for what they are worth.
[GLOSSARY]
| À Jours or Modes | See Fillings. |
| Alb | The long linen robe (worn under the chasuble by priests at the altar) which is sometimes enriched with a border of lace, as well as with lace on the cuffs. |
| Appliqué | When the ornamentation made separately is fixed and sewn by hand to a complete ground of bobbin or machine-made net. |
| Argentella | A name given sometimes to lace made with either fillings or a complete background of the réseau called rosacé. This very pretty work occurs in both Venetian and French needle-point of the eighteenth century. (See Plate [60].) But it is a mistake to use the word as denoting a distinct make of lace. |
| Avorio | Ivory. See Punti. |
| Bobbin-made Lace | See Pillow-lace. |
| Bone point | See Cordonnet. This term was also applied to early bobbin-made lace made in England with bone bobbins. |
| Brides, or bars | Ties or loops between the edges of details, forming the pattern, and connecting them together. Brides are often adorned with picots, or little knots, and are then called brides picotées, when they have no picots they are brides claires. Brides occur both in needlepoint and in bobbin-made lace. |
| Button-hole stitch | See Punto a festone. |
| Buratto | Lacis, with a twisted instead of a knotted foundation. |
| Clothing | See also Fond and Toilé. |
| Cordonnet | One or more threads used to outline or define the forms composing patterns of lace. The cordonnet in the heavier Venetian and Spanish point is usually substantial and bold, and in parts gradually swelling and diminishing to form reliefs on the lace, which then suggests an effect of carved bone or ivory. This gave rise to one of the meanings of the term, bone point. These relief portions were often enriched by rows or tiers of picots. In Alençon lace a horsehair instead of a stout thread was sometimes used as a foundation for the cordonnet, which was closely over-cast with button-hole stitches. |
| Cotta | The short white linen robe worn by servers and at times by priests. This, like the alb, is sometimes trimmed with lace. |
| Filet | See Lacis. |
| Fillings | These are termed in French modes or à jours, and are the ornamental work (made either by needle or by bobbins) introduced into any enclosed place in the toilé, or elsewhere in the lace. |
| Fond | See also Clothing and Toilé. The word fond, or foundation, denotes the close parts in either needle-point or pillow lace, which were made first, and then joined together by bars or brides, or by a réseau. In some laces the whole work proceeds concurrently. |
| Fuselli | Bobbins. |
| Groppo | A knot. |
| Guipure | A term long used for any lace of a heavyish texture made without réseau. It is now often used for lace made with a tape, but it applies more correctly, perhaps, to gimp work. |
| Ivory Stitch | Or Punto-avorio. So called because the effect when closely worked makes a surface like ivory, as it is quite without the slight rib which shows in punto a festone, which is the stitch usually found in the various punti in aria. See No. 6, Plate [8]. |
| Lacis or Lassis | Derived from Latin laqueus, a noose, in English, Lace. A foundation of net, or filet, with a pattern darned into it. The net for the Italian lacis, called punto a maglia quadra, as well as for the French filet or lacis, was made very much as fish-nets are now made; the darning-stitch was called punto a rammendo. In Buratto lacis, sometimes called punto di Ragusa, the twisted network was made by passing the foundation threads forwards and backwards in a frame. (See No. 3, Plate [8].) The name Buratto comes from the sieves made in this way in Italy for sifting grain and meal. |
| Macramé | Derived from the Arabic. It is a hand-made, knotted fringe, called Moresco in Spain. |
| Maglia | Mesh. |
| Mezzo punto | A description of lace in which the pattern is formed with a braid or tape, and the brides and fillings are of needle-point work. See Plate [55]. |
| Modano | A general name in Italy for lacis work with square mesh. |
| Modes | See Fillings. |
| Picots | Loops or knots added to brides, or, indeed, to any part of the lace, for its enrichment. |
| Pillow Lace | Lace made with bobbins on a pillow; this lace is called in Italian trine a fuselli, or sometimes merletti a piombini, as in making the coarser lace the workers attach pieces of lead to the bobbins. |
| Point Lace | Strictly speaking, should always mean needle-made lace, as the term is used too generally in respect of either needle-made or pillow-made lace to be of much value as a definition without further qualification. |
| Point de Neige | A name sometimes given to fine Venice needle-point lace, with many small raised flowers and clusters of picots--which give the effect almost of snowflakes. See Plate [50]. |
| Punto | A stitch. |
| Punti | In the earliest needle-point lace-work on linen or net the punti, or stitches, were as follows: |
| Punto a Rammendo | (sometimes called Punto di Genoa). Darning or ladder stitch. This is the stitch used in lacis work. See enlarged stitch Nos. 1 and 3 of Plate [8]. |
| Punto a stuora | Matting stitch. This stitch is used to make the centres of geometrical patterns in lacis and reticello work. It looks like the centre of a round mat or basket. See enlarged stitch, No. 1, Plate [8]. |
| Punto tagliato | Work on cut linen. |
| Punto a tela | Linen or cloth stitch. |
| Punto tirato | Work on linen, which is begun by pulling threads from the linen without cutting it. See Tela tirata, enlarged stitch, No. 5, Plate [8]. |
| Punto treccia | Or tress stitch--so called from the threads of linen being left loose, and only caught here and there by a few stitches, so looking like a tress of hair. See Plate [8], and top border of No. 2, Plate [29]. Treccia also means plait. Later stitches were: |
| Punto avorio | See Ivory Stitch, enlarged stitch, No. 6, Plate [8]. |
| Punto in aria | Needle-point lace worked without any foundation of net or linen, hence the term, aria--in the air. See Plate [31]. |
| Punto a festone | Buttonhole stitch: in French point noué. The term "a festone" comes from festoon--a garland hanging in a curve--the stitch being often used when edging lace to form curves or festoons round the edge or the patterns of lace. The buttonhole or looped stitch is used in constructing the toilé, or fond, and also to cover the cordonnet and brides of needle-point lace. Until the advent of the réseau this stitch was almost the only one used in Venetian needle-point. See enlarged lace Plate [49], and Plate [52]. |
| Punto riccio | Literally curled stitch: this is a variety of punto scritto, but the name will easily be understood on looking at the specimens--as they are adorned with the tendril-like curls, which gives the name to this stitch. See No. 3, Plate [28]. |
| Punto reale | This is really an embroiderer's stitch, and in English called satin stitch; in linen lace it is usually associated with punto tirato. |
| Punto in rilievo | Raised or rose stitch. |
| Punto scritto | Literally writing stitch, as this stitch is used for marking names and generally for outlining work. In English it would be called short stitch. |
| Quadro | A square (as in punto a maglia quadra, or square mesh net). |
| Réseau | Term used for what may be called the mesh background of both needle and bobbin-made lace. The réseau connects the toilé, or more solid parts of the patterns together by filling the spaces between them with fine meshes, the make of which is very varied especially in the pillow laces. The two réseaux of Alençon needle-point are shown in No. 1, Plate [9], and the réseau à feston of Argentan is shown in No. 3, Plate [9], the réseau of the Venice point à réseau in No. 2, Plate [9]. The needle-point réseau of the Brussels lace is No. 4, Plate [9]; and the bobbin-made Brussels, now called vrai réseau, is No. 5, Plate [9]. The réseaux of the bobbin laces are shown on Plate [10]. |
| No. 1 | The maglia di Spagna, or Spanish mesh; this was also much used for fine silk laces or ruffles. See Plate [112]. |
| 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.
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].
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]