In describing the design of this piece of old lacis, I am again tempted to quote M. Gayet's description of lace found in the Coptic tomb. He says: "It is lace as it is made to-day. All the threads of the réseau are drawn together to one point, and the meshes start from the centre like rays crossing and recrossing and thus forming various patterns." The pieces of network from these Coptic tombs, preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum fully justify this description, and no doubt the Eastern tradition can be traced in Plate [7].
As we have seen, the ornament of the earliest laces was simple, or quasi-simple, in design; but even then the craving to represent life often appears. The band down the front of the Assisi alb, for example, has a row of stags thoroughly subservient to the distinctly polygonal idea.
In Plate [11] a portion of an early lacis or modano border is represented. Conventional peacocks and numerous smaller birds are added to the central design of I.H.S. in Gothic letters—quaint little angels are at the ends of some of the rays. The inscription has so far found no interpreter.
The altar-cloth in Plate [12] may possibly have been made for Richard II.; his two wives were both French, and this piece has the stag, which was the royal device.
No. 1 of Plate [13] is an interesting border of Sicilian lacis, the design Eastern, introducing the gammadion, the netting is all made obliquely. Two stitches are used for the pattern, the punto a rammendo and also the punto scritto. A vandyked border of punto avorio is added.
In Plate [14] the squares of lacis or modano are alternated with linen worked with reticello. The design in each square is different.
The effect of the gold thread added to the pattern worked in punto a tela, or linen-stitch, in Plate [15], is very good, and there is much variety in the execution of this piece.
No. 1 of Plate [16] is lacis of possibly German work with a design of vine-leaves and grapes worked in punto a tela. No. 2 is a vandyked border of English lacis with a pattern of large and small blossoms—the larger ones resemble Tudor roses. Both these pieces have the punto riccio introduced.
Plate [17] is a specimen of lacis called buratto in Italy, as the netting is twisted and not knotted. The pattern is punto a rammendo, worked with very coarse thread, but the result is satisfactory. This piece must be early sixteenth-century work.