VENETIAN LACE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 23 August 1924, Page 15

VENETIAN LACE.

A ROMANTIC HISTORY. Venice claims the honour of introducing the invention of needle-made laces into Europe, and they figured in England as early as the coronation of Richard 111. as “fringes of Venice and mantle laees of white silk and golde of Venice. ’ ’

But though the City of Lagoons is .justly regarded as the home of lace, from the very earliest days her lacemalcers have been hampered in their wonderful mode of self-expression by legislation which tried to limit the price of lace to five lire an ell. In fact, so strenuous were the laws of the Republic that in 1847 the women of the city took matters into their own hands and begged the Pope to intercede, aiul apparently l from (this period Venetian laces have steadily developed in skill and artistic delicacy of design until they reached the zenith of their beauty in the seventeenth century.

Indeed, Venetian lace was the accepted decoration for dress of every description on all occasions throughout Europe, whilst for ecclesiastical purposes it was used tremendously for ornamenting altars, saints, Madonnas, and priestly vestments. This lace is sufficiently important to have quite a literature of its own, which began with the pattern books designed for the lace-makers, and Venice is thought to have produced the first pattern hook ou bobbin laces, a singularly crude little book guiltless alike of instructions as to how to make the lace and descriptions of the material and implements required. As a general rule these little hooks contain some slight letterpress describing the working of the patterns, but their great feature is the dedication, usually in most florid language, to some Dogaressa or other great lady who has taken pride in the number of gills who have taken up temporary quarters in her palace to receive instruction in the art.

The most fashionable pattern book was that written by Viueiolo, the protege of Catherine de Medici, who granted this Venetian the privilege of making those fluted collarettes so fashionable at the French Court of the period. The book, which is entitled “Les Singuliers et nouveaux Pourtraiets et Ouvrages de Lingerrie,” went through quite a number of editions and has two fascinating figures of sixteenth-century dames at work on their frames.

If would be difficult to find more delightful geometrical pattern's than these in the first volume, whilst the ones in the second have their subjects in squares with counted stitches like Berlin wool embroidery. These pattern books were too rare and expensive to be easily obtained, so gave rise to the invention of “sam cloths, ’ ’ where several different designs in “Lacis” would be copied by a child on to the more durable canvas. Another outcome of this lace-making was the compilation of “cliansoms a toile,” which appeared in the shape of tiny books full of ballads for the women to sing whilst working. These songs are still to be heard round Venice and Chioggin, and are encouraged by the proprietors of schools and studios as tending to keep the lace-malcers cheerful and busy, while discouraging the gossip that so interferes with good work. The ballad — usually led by an acknowledged head — sounds like a sweet rhythmic chant, and has for its subject some romance in the life of a lace-maker, perhaps the most popular being the accidental discovery and invention of bobbin lace. This is one of the most cherished traditions of the city, and, according to the story, was totally unforeseen. An Adriatic fisherman was betrothed to a lace-maker, who made him a new net as a gift, and the first time this was cast into the sea the only catch was a piece of white coralline, which was given to the girl. Soon afterwards the fisherman was pressed into the Venetian navy, and the useless net left with the girl. As she wept and bemoaned her fate she unconsciously wound the delicate coralline strands in and out of the net, then twisted the threads and small weights attached and made an imitation of the spirals of the coral, throwing and twisting the leads just as bobbins are thrown. The effect was so 'lovely and so easy to accomplish that the girl, whose work had been confined to the coarse guipure of the time, got interested in- her discovery and evolved a series of serviceable implements not unlike the modern cushion and bobbins. Every lace-maker firmly believes in this song, and the chanting of one or another version acts as an incentive on the hottest day. It was “Point de Venise” in relief which was first introduced to supply the demand for some novelty at the close of the sixteenth century, that made Venice the first lace-making city in Europe and dethroned all other styles in public taste. If perfection- can. exist on earth it has been attained by Venetian point, whose distinctive styles of ornaments, leaves and flowers in raised outline arc considered by connoisseurs to be the masterpiece of the lace industry and by artists to be one of the most beautiful productions of human skill.

The effect is that of old carved ivory, though the lace has the soft sheen of velvet that lends a richness that ivory can never hope to attain.