réseau, and alone of all Venetian needle laces survived the dark days of
the close of the eighteenth century. Some fine specimens of these were
shown by M. Dupont d'Auberville in the International Exhibition, and Marini
quotes from a document of the seventeenth century, in which, speaking of
merletti, it is said that "these laces, styled 'punti in aria,' or di
Burano, because the greater part of them were made in the country so
called, are considered by Lannoni as more noble and of greater whiteness,
and for excellency of design and perfect workmanship equal to those of
Flanders, and in solidity superior."
A new departure has been taken in modern times, in the making of hand-made
laces at the island of Burano, near Venice, where a large number of girls
were employed in the eighteenth century, both in the town and the convents,
in making a point closely resembling that of Alençon. Here the art lingered
on as late as 1845, when a superannuated nun of ninety, with whom Mrs.
Dennistoun, of Dennistoun, conversed on the subject, said how in her
younger days she and her companions employed their time in the fabric of
"punto di Burano";[194] how it was ordered long beforehand for great
marriages, and even then cost very dear. She showed specimens still tacked
on paper: the ground is made right across the thread of the lace.
[Illustration: Fig. 31.
POINT DE VENISE À RÉSEAU.--Early 18th century. N.B.--Mrs. Palliser
incorrectly described this as Brussels in her first Editions.
_To face page 58._]
{59}Burano point had not the extreme delicacy of the Venetian point à
réseau or of Alençon, and the late Alençon patterns were copied. Though
needle-made, it was worked on a pillow arranged with a cylinder for
convenience of working. The unevenness of the thread gives the réseau a
cloudy appearance, and the cordonnet is, like the Brussels needlepoint, of
thread stitched round the outline instead of the Alençon button-hole stitch
over horse-hair. The mesh of the réseau is square, as in Alençon.
Fig. 32 is copied from a specimen purchased at Burano by the Cav. Merli, of
the maker, an old woman known by the name of Cencia Scarpariola. In 1866,
the industry was extinct, and the "Contrada del Pizzo," once the
headquarters of the lace-makers, was a mystery to the natives, who could no
longer account for the denomination. In the church is preserved a splendid
series of altar-cloths of so-called Burano point in relief, and a fine
_storiato_ piece, representing the mysteries of the Passion. "Venice point
is now no more," writes Mrs. Palliser; "the sole relic of this far-famed
trade is the coarse torchon lace, of the old lozenge pattern, offered by
the peasant women of Palestrina to strangers on their arrival at hotels,"
the same fabric mentioned by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, when she speaks of
"peddling women that come on pretext of selling pennyworths of lace."
The formation of the school recently established there,[195] and the
revival of the art of lace-making in Burano, arose out of the great
distress which in 1872 overtook the island. The extraordinary severity of
the winter that year rendered it impossible for the poor fishermen, who
form the population {60}of the island, to follow their calling. So great
was the distress at that time, while the lagoons were frozen, that the
fishermen and their families were reduced to a state bordering on
starvation, and for their relief contributions were made by all classes in
Italy, including the Pope and the King. This charitable movement resulted
in the collection of a fund of money, which sufficed to relieve the
immediate distress and leave a surplus for the establishment of a local
industry to increase the resources of the Burano population.
[Illustration: Fig. 32.
BURANO POINT.--(Late 18th century.)]
PLATE XIII.
[Illustration: ITALIAN. MODERN POINT DE BURANO.
Marriage veil of Queen Elena of Italy. Much reduced. Length about 7 ft.;
width seen about 4 ft. 6 in.
Photo by the Burano School.]
_To face page 60._
{61}Unfortunately, the industry at first fixed upon, namely, that of making
fishermen's nets, gave no practical result, the fishermen being too poor to
buy the nets. It was then that a suggestion was made by Signor Fambri that
an effort should be made to revive the ancient industry of lace-making, and
Princess Chigi-Giovanelli and the Countess Andriana Marcello were asked to
interest themselves in, and to patronise, a school for this purpose.
To this application these ladies yielded a ready assent, and at a late
period Queen Margherita graciously consented to become the president of the
institution.
When Countess Marcello, who from that time was the life and soul of the
undertaking, began to occupy herself with the foundation of the school, she
found an old woman in Burano, Cencia Scarpariola, who preserved the
traditions of the art of lace-making, and continued, despite her seventy
years and upwards, to make Burano point. As she, however, did not
understand the method of teaching her art, the assistance was secured of
Madame Anne Bellorio d'Este, a very skilful and intelligent woman, for some
time mistress of the girls' school at Burano, who in her leisure hours took
lessons in lace-making of Cencia Scarpariola, and imparted her knowledge to
eight pupils, who, in consideration of a small payment, were induced to
learn to make lace.
As the number of scholars increased, Madame Bellorio occupied herself
exclusively in teaching lace-making, which she has continued to do with
surprising results. Under Madame Bellorio's tuition, the school, which in
1872 consisted of eight pupils (who received a daily payment to induce them
to attend), now, in 1897, numbers four hundred workers, paid, not by the
day, but according to the work each performs.
In Burano everything is extremely cheap, and a humble abode capable of
accommodating a small family may be had for from six hundred to one
thousand Italian lire. It is not a rare occurrence to find a young
lace-worker saving her earnings in order to purchase her little dwelling,
that she may take it as a dower to her husband. Nearly all the young men of
Burano seek their wives from among the lace-women. The school's diploma of
honour speaks of the economical importance of the lace-work "to the poor
place of Burano," and "the benefit which the gentle industry {62}brings to
the inhabitants of the interesting island, whose welfare, having passed
through a series of undeserved trials, is due exclusively to the revival of
it practised on a large scale."
The lace made in the school is no longer confined, as in the origin it was,
to Burano point, but laces of almost any design or model are now
undertaken--point de Burano, point d'Alençon, point de Bruxelles, point
d'Angleterre, point d'Argentan, rose point de Venise, Italian punto in
aria, and Italian punto tagliato a fogliami. The school has been enriched
by gifts of antique lace, and Queen Margherita gave the school permission
to copy two magnificent specimens of Ecclesiastical lace--now Crown
property--that had formerly belonged to Cardinal de Retz, and Pope Clement
VII. (Rezzonico).
In order the better to carry out the character of the different laces, the
more apt and intelligent of these pupils, whose task it is to trace out in
thread the design to be worked, have the advantage of being taught by
professional artists.
The four hundred lace-workers now employed are divided into seven sections,
in order that each may continue in the same sort of work and, as much as
possible, in the same class of lace. By this method each one becomes
thoroughly proficient in her own special department, executes it with
greater facility, and consequently earns more, and the school gets its work
done better and cheaper.
While Countess Marcello was working to re-establish the making of
needle-point at Burano, Cav. Michelangelo Jesurum was re-organising the
bobbin-lace industry at Pellestrina, a small fishing-town on the Lido. In
1864 the lace of Pellestrina might have been described as an inextricable
labyrinth of threads with vaguely distinguishable lines and occasional
holes. The lace was so imperfect, and made in such small quantities, that
two women who went about selling it in Venice and the country round
sufficed to dispose of all that was made. The pricked papers were prepared
by an old peasant woman, who made them more and more imperfect at each
repetition, losing gradually all trace of the original design. Cav.
Jesurum, by a careful copying of the old designs, obtained valuable
results, and founded a lace-school and a flourishing industry. About 1875
polychrome lace was introduced in Venice--bobbin-lace worked in colours
with designs of flowers, fruits, leaves, arabesques, and animals, with the
various tints and shading required. The women who make bobbin-lace now in
Venice and in the islands amount to 3,000, but it is difficult to give an
exact estimate of their numbers, as many of them are bone-workers, wives
and daughters of fishermen, who combine the lace-making with their
household duties, with mending of nets, and with field-work.
PLATE XIV.
[Illustration: ITALIAN.--Modern reproduction at Burano of the flounce now
belonging to the Crown of Italy, formerly to Pope Clement XIII., Rezzonico,
1693-1769. Height, 24 in.
Photo by the Burano School.]
_To face page 62._
{63}MILAN ("MILANO LA GRANDE").
"Margaret: I saw the Duchess of Milan's gown that they praise so.
"Hero: O that exceeds, they say.
"Margaret: By my troth, it's but a night-gown in respect of yours; cloth
o' gold and cuts, and laced with silver."--_Much Ado about Nothing_, iv.
1.
One of the earliest records of Italian lace belongs to Milan, and occurs in
an instrument of partition between the sisters Angela and Ippolita Sforza
Visconti, dated 1493 (see VENICE).
This document is of the highest interest as giving the inventory of an
Italian wardrobe of the fifteenth century. In it, amidst a number of
curious entries, are veils of good network, with cambric pillow-cases,
linen sheets, mosquito curtains and various articles, worked _a reticella_
and _a groppi_, with the needle, bobbins, bones, and other different
ways[196] mentioned in the pattern-books of the following century.
Among other items we find, "Half of a bundle containing patterns for
ladies' work."[197]
Though the fabric of these fine points dates back for so many centuries,
there is little notice of them elsewhere. {64}Henry VIII. is mentioned as
wearing one short pair of hose of purple silk of Venice gold, woven like a
caul, edged with a passamaine lace of purple silk and gold, worked at
Milan.[198]
In a wardrobe account of Lord Hay, gentleman of his Majesty's robes,
1606,[199] is noted down to James I., "One suit with cannons thereunto of
silver lace, shadowed with silk Milan lace."
Again, among the articles furnished against the "Queen's lying down," 1606,
in the bills of the Lady Audrye Walsingham,[200] is an entry of "Lace,
Milan fashion, for child's waistcoat."
A French edict, dated March, 1613, against superfluity in dress,
prohibiting the wearing of gold and silver embroidery, specially forbids
the use of all "passement de Milan, ou façon de Milan" under a penalty of
one thousand livres.[201] The expression "à point de Milan" occurs in the
statutes of the passementiers of Paris.[202]
"Les galons, passements et broderies, en or et en argent de Milan," says
Savary,[203] were once celebrated.
Lalande, who writes some years later, adds, the laces formerly were an
object of commerce to the city, now they only fabricate those of an
inferior quality.[204]
Much was consumed by the Lombard peasants, the better sorts serving for
ruffles of moderate price.[205] So opulent are the citizens, says a writer
of the same epoch, that the lowest mechanics, blacksmiths and shoemakers,
appear in gold stuff coats with ruffles of the finest point.[206]
And when, in 1767, the Auvergne lace-makers petition for an exemption from
the export duty on their fabrics, they state as a ground that the duty
prevents them from competing abroad, especially at Cadiz, with the
lace-makers of Piedmont, the Milanais, and Imperial Flanders. Milan must,
therefore, have made lace extensively to a late period.
PLATE XV.
[Illustration: ITALIAN. MILANESE BOBBIN-MADE.--Late seventeenth century.
Width, 12 in.
Photo by A. Dryden from private collection.]
_To face page 64._
{65}Fig. 33 is a specimen of what has been termed old Milan point, from the
convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, in that city. It is more often known
as Greek lace.
[Illustration: Fig. 33.
RETICELLA FROM MILAN.]
The so-called punti di Milano--points de Milan--were all bobbin-laces,
which originated in Milan, and, though imitated by Genoa and Naples,
remained unapproached in design and workmanship. After first making
passements, Milan imitated the Venetian points, "a fogliami," in which the
pattern has the appearance of woven linen, with à jours occasionally
introduced to lighten portions of it. The design was at first connected
with bars, but later, meshes (in the seventeenth century large meshes, and,
still later, smaller {66}meshes) filled the ground. This réseau varies, but
most frequently it has four plaited sides to a mesh, as in Valenciennes.
Like other Italian laces, Milanese lace frequently has coats-of-arms or
family badges woven in it, such as the Doge's horn, the baldachino (a
special distinction accorded to Roman princes), the dogs of the Carrara
family, and so on, to commemorate a marriage or some other important event
in the family. This sort of lace was known as Carnival lace when made of
Venetian point.
Milan lace is now represented by Cantu, near Lake Como, where the making of
white and black pillow-lace gives employment to many thousands of women.
The torchon lace of the country is original, and in much request with the
peasantry.
In the underground chapel of San Carlo Borromeo, in Milan Cathedral, are
preserved twenty-six "camicie," trimmed with flounces of the richest point,
all more or less splendid, and worked in the convents of the city, but many
of the contents of this sumptuous wardrobe have rotted away from the
effects of the damp atmosphere.
FLORENCE.
Of Florence and its products we know but little, though the Elegy of Agnolo
Firenzuola proves that ladies made raised point at an early period.[207]
His expression "scolpì," carved, sculptured in basso rilievo, leaves no
doubt upon the matter.
PLATE XVI.
[Illustration: ITALIAN, VENETIAN. NEEDLE-MADE.--Very raised and padded.
First half of eighteenth century. Width, 3¼ in.]
PLATE XVII.
[Illustration: ITALIAN, MILANESE. BOBBIN-MADE.--Early eighteenth century.
Width, 5¾ in.
Photos by A. Dryden from private collections.]
_To face page 63_
"This collar was sculptured by my lady {67}
In bas reliefs such as Arachne
And she who conquered her could ne'er excel.
Look on that lovely foliage, like an Acanthus,
Which o'er a wall its graceful branches trails.
Look on those lovely flowers of purest white,
Which, near the pods that open, hang in harmony.
That little cord which binds each one about,
How it projects! proving that she who wrought it
Is very mistress of this art.
How well distributed are all these points!
See the equality of all those little buds
Which rise like many fair proportioned hills,
One like the other....
This hand-made lace, this open-work,
Is all produced by her, this herring-bone,
Which in the midst holds down a little cord,
Was also made by her; all wrought by her."
Henry VIII. granted to two Florentines the privilege of importing for three
years' time all "manner of fringys and passements wrought with gold and
silver or otherwise,"[208] an account of which will be found in the notice
of that monarch's reign.
Beyond this, and the statute already mentioned, passed at the "Sute of the
Browderers" on account of the "deceyptful waight of the gold of Luk,
Florence, Jeane, and Venice,"[209] there is no allusion to the lace of
Florence in our English records.
In France, as early as 1545, the sister of Francis I. purchases "soixante
aulnes fine dantelle de Florence"[210] for her own use, and some years
afterwards, 1582, the Queen of Navarre pays 17 écus 30 sols for 10 aulnes
et demye of the same passement "faict à l'esguille à haulte dantelle pour
mettre à des fraizes."[211] On the marriage of Elizabeth de France with
Philip II. in 1559, purchases were made of "passements et de bisette, en
fil blanc de Florence."
Seeing the early date of these French accounts, it may be inferred that
Catherine de Médicis first introduced, on her arrival as a bride, the
Italian points of her own native city.[212]
In Florence, in the fifteenth century, Savonarola, in his sermons
(1484-1491), reproached the nuns with "devoting their time to the vain
fabrication of gold laces with which to adorn the houses and persons of the
rich."
Ray mentions that people of quality sent their daughters {68}at eight years
old to the Florentine nunneries to be instructed in all manner of women's
work.
Lace was also fabricated at Sienna, but it appears to have been the _lavoro
di maglia_ or lacis, called by the Tuscans _modano ricamato_--embroidered
network.
Early in the last century two Genoese nuns, of the Convent Sta. Maria degli
Angeli in Sienna, executed pillow laces and gold and silver embroidery of
such surpassing beauty, that they are still carefully preserved and
publicly exhibited on fête-days. One Francesca Bulgarini also instructed
the schools in the making of lace of every kind, especially the Venetian
reticella.[213]
THE ABRUZZI.
In the Abruzzi, and also the Province of the Marche, coarse laces are made.
These are worked without any drawing, the rude design being made by
skipping the pin-holes on a geometrically perforated card. The pattern is
surrounded by a heavy thread, and composed of a close stitch worked between
the meshes of a coarse net ground. This lace somewhat resembles Dalecarlian
lace. In the eighteenth century fine pillow lace was also made in these
provinces. The celebrated industry of Offida in the Marche has sunk into
artistic degradation.
ROMAGNA.
Lace was made in many parts of Romagna. Besides the knotted lace already
alluded to,[214] which is still made and worn by the peasants, the peasant
women wore on their collerettes much lace of that large-flowered pattern
and fancy ground, found alike in Flanders and on the headdresses of the
Neapolitan and Calabrian peasants.
Specimens of the lace of the province of Urbino resemble in pattern and
texture the fine close lace on the collar of Christian IV., figured in our
notice of Denmark. The workmanship is of great beauty.
Reticella is made at Bologna, and was revived in January, 1900, by the
Aemilia-Ars Co-operative Society. The designs are for the most part taken
from old pattern-books, such as Parasole.
{69}Fig. 34 represents a fragment of a piece of lace of great interest,
communicated by the Countess Gigliucci. It is worked with the needle upon
muslin, and only a few inches of the lace are finished. This incompleteness
makes it the more valuable, as it enables us to trace the manner of its
execution, all the threads being left hanging to its several parts. The
Countess states that she found the work at a villa belonging to Count
Gigliucci, near Fermo on the Adriatic, and it is supposed to have been
executed by the Count's great-grandmother above 160 years ago--an exquisite
specimen of "the needle's excellency."
[Illustration: Fig. 34.
UNFINISHED DRAWN-WORK.]
Though the riches of our Lady of Loreto fill a volume in themselves,[215]
and her image was fresh clad every day of the year, the account of her
jewels and plate so overpower any mention of her laces, which were
doubtless in accordance with {70}the rest of the wardrobe, that there is
nothing to tell on the subject.
The laces of the Vatican and the holy Conclave, mostly presents from
crowned heads, are magnificent beyond all description. They are, however,
constantly in the market, sold at the death of a Cardinal by his heirs, and
often repurchased by some newly-elected prelate, each of whom on attaining
a high ecclesiastical dignity is compelled to furnish himself with several
sets.
A lady[216] describing the ceremony of washing the feet by the Pope,
writes, in 1771, "One of his cardinals brought him an apron[217] of old
point with a broad border of Mechlin lace, and tied it with a white ribbon
round his holiness's waist." In this guise protected, he performed the
ceremony.
Clement IX. was in the habit of making presents of Italian lace, at that
period still prized in France, to Monsieur de Sorbière, with whom he had
lived on terms of intimacy previous to his elevation. "He sends ruffles,"
cries the irritated Gaul, who looked for something more tangible, "to a man
who never has a shirt."[218]
NAPLES.
When Davies, Barber Surgeon of London,[219] visited Naples in 1597, he
writes, "Among the traffic of this city is lace of all sorts and garters."
Fynes Moryson, his contemporary, declares "the Italians care not for
foreign apparel, they have ruffles of Flanders linen wrought with Italian
cut-work so much in use with us. They wear no lace in gold and silver, but
black"; while Lassels says, all they care for is to keep a coach; their
point de Venise and gold lace are all turned into horses and liveries.[220]
PLATE XVIII.
[Illustration: CUSHION MADE AT THE SCHOOL.--These coloured silk laces are
reproductions of the sixteenth century. Size, 20 × 12 in.]
PLATE XIX.
[Illustration: ITALY.--Group of workers of the Brazza School, Torreano di
Martignacco, Friuli, showing the different kinds of lacework done and
pillows in use.
Photos by Contessa di Brazza.]
_To face page 70._
{71}Of this lace we find but scanty mention. In the tailor's bill of Sir
Timothy Hutton, 1615, when a scholar at Cambridge, a charge is made for
"four oz. and a half quarter and dram of Naples lace." And in the accounts
of laces furnished for the marriage of the Princess Elizabeth to the
Elector Palatine, 1612, is noted "narrow black Naples lace, purled on both
sides."
The principal fabric of lace was in the Island of Ischia. Vecellio, in
1590, mentions the ladies' sleeves being trimmed with very fine thread
lace.[221] Ischia lace may still be met with, and serves for trimming
toilets, table-covers, curtains, etc., consisting generally of a square
netting ground, with the pattern embroidered. Black silk lace also used to
be made in Ischia.
Much torchon lace, of well-designed patterns, was also made, similar in
style to that given in Fig. 40.
Though no longer fabricated in the island, the women at Naples still make a
coarse lace, which they sell about the streets.[222]
The _punto di Napoli_ is a bobbin lace, resembling the punto di Milano, but
distinguished from it by its much rounder mesh and coarser make.
Towards the middle of the last century, many of the Italian sculptors
adopted an atrocious system, only to be rivalled in bad taste by those of
the Lower Empire, that of dressing the individuals they modelled in the
costume of the period, the colours of the dress represented in varied
marbles. In the villa of Prince Valguarnera, near Palermo, were some years
since many of these strange productions with rich laces of coffee-coloured
point, admirably chiselled, it must be owned, in giallo antico, the long
flowing ruffles and head-*tires of the ladies being reproduced in white
alabaster.[223]
{72}GENOA ("GENOVA LA SUPERBA").
"Lost,--A rich needle work called Poynt Jean, a yard and a half long and
half quarter broad."--_The Intelligencer_, Feb. 29, 1663.
"Genoa, for points."--_Grand Tour._ 1756.
The art of making gold thread, already known to the Etruscans, took a
singular development in Italy during the fourteenth century.