ANCIENT AND MODERN LACE

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1678, 27 April 1904, Page 72 (Supplement)

ANCIENT AND MODERN LACE

The term "lace” wag not in general nse till the end of the seventeenth century; what was called lace in the time of Richard 111. being what is now described as braid. Italians employed the generic name of punto, and the Trench at hrst that of pias&eiment, the modern I rencli designation of dentelle being only once applied to lace in possession of Mary Queen of Scots, and not again until lbbi). Lae© for personal wear was essentially modern, and so fragile that, even when “old,” it was probably not more than 300 years old (save, of course, exceptionally well-preserved national treasures). It was said that little could' be worn or used with, any freedom the age of which was over 200 years. With regard to the invention of lace. Nature lias undoubtedly provided many sources of inspiration, in the flowers and leaves, the wreaths and s-prays that form the patterns in the best threadwork, in the honeycomb cens clearly reproduced in the symmetrical sections of. net grounds, in the meshes of the spider's web, also .in the reticulations of the sponge, of coral, of the wing of a fly, and the skeleton of a leaf. The earliest forms of lace-making evidently originated in the West, thence passing into Europe. Isaiah spoke of ‘them that work in fine flax, and them, that weave networks,” and Homer mentioned “veil® of net, woven of gold.” Paintings on an ancient Egyptian sarcophagi had figures weaving garments of fine network, and old mummy Wrappings showed drawn-work, cut-work, and otiier open ornamentation, ad which species of needlecraft directly developed, according to Mr Alan Cole, into our point lace. The darned netting, the first early approximation to our ideas of lac©, was tlie ‘‘opus araneum” (spider work), examples of which, dating from the thirteenth century, still existed. - Drawn thread, made of loos© linen lias 1 been called "the mother of lac©”—'that is of modern lace, while all drawn thread has much general similarity, the Spanish is Moorish in style, the Greek classical. It is a disputed point whether the cutwork now cal led Greek lace was 1 not originally Venetian; it differed in no important particular- from the Italian retioeilla. In mediaeval times the drawn, thread, the outwork, and the more exclusively needlework were about to merge into the lighter more fragile, and more familiar products of the Renaissance. The most notable epoch in the history of lace occurred when, in the fourteenth century, the severe sumptuary regulations ©f Italy caused the use of gold, silver and silk to be abandoned in favour of flax threads, lacemaking thenceforward proceeding to attain a grace and delicacy as well a® an "infinite variety” impossible to compass with coarser and less pliable materials. The supporting of such work by the fingers was soon entirely superseded by the employment of pillows', the adoption of these being ©re long accompanied by the use of bobbins, and, lastly, but of the utmost importance in connection with pillow work, of pins. The two countries that especially shine in painting are those in which, in mediaeval times, the best lac© was made', na.mefy, North Italy and Flanders. In a "Sforzab inventory ait Milan of 1493,- till© first mention was made of the then varying kinds of lace, comprising networks, points, knotted laces, bone (or bobbin) faces, and spindle points. A pattern book for pillow lac© published in Venice in 1557 was the oldest known of its kind, In Venetian point, lace-making finds its most perfect expression. In England lace began to be made in the fifteenth century but, with f 1 exception of the famous English point—now extinct—English lace does not rank so high as the Venetian, Flemish, and French production®. In modem times, Queen Adelaide did much to revive the Honiton sprig trade, as still more recently have Queen Victoria, and our present Queen, both of whose wed-ding-dresses were of Honiton (application) lace. In these days lace-making a®' a trade for educated women is too poorly paid and too precarious tp be recommended by itself, but the mending and cleaning of til© gradually diminishing stores of old and exquisite lac© is more profitable, the chief requisites for this branch of handicraft being good eyesight, good taste, and common sense.