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| ORIGINS AND HISTORY OF LACES |
| MY OWN DESIGNS |
| PICTURES OF LACE DAY EVENTS |
| It is forbidden without permission, to reproduce in any form the pictures and patterns displayed on the entire website. Copyright C. de la Guardia 2009 |
Knotting, paliting and weaving claim to be the forerunners of bobbin lace.
Rudimentary laces has been found in excavations in Egypt, Peru or China.
In the beginning, lace was made by two entirely distinct purposes, without
apparently relationship or evolution between them, and that the people of the
countries wherein of the inventions was made were unknown each other.
One of these processes is the employment of the needle and the single thread,
wherein the work was perfected mesh by mesh, each mesh being completed as
the work progressed.
The other process was by the use of many threads at once, each one attached to
bobbins, for the purpose only of separating them, the meshes being made by
twisting the threads a greater or less number of times. When each mesh is only
partially completed, the thread is carried on to the next, and so on, grow side to
side, the entire width of the fabric.
Felkin, in his history of lace and embroidery, says that when pillow lace was
invented -about the middle of the Sixteenth Cent.- the various kinds of point lace
had reached a high perfection. Some early writers, after laborious investigations,
assert that pillow lace was first made in Flanders. In later years it has been
almost universally attributed to Barbara Uttman (Belgium 1561). No trace of this
mode of making lace (by use of pillow and bobbins), can be found before this
date. Barbara Uttman died in 1575.
At the same time another process had its origin in Italy. In the municipal archives
of Ferrara, (1469) is an allusion to lace, but there is a document of the Sforza
family, dated in 1497, in which the word "trina" constantly occurs, together with
"bone" and "bobbin" lace.
Spain was, as far as the records testify, the earliest and most adept pupil of Italy
in the art of lacemaking, though, as in Italy, at the beginning the work was
confined in the Iberian Peninsula to the convents. Spain too, achieved high
distinction in this field, its Point of Spain (Punto de España), being one of the most
celebrated of all the ancient laces, worked in gold and silver threads,even vying
with the finest Venetian Point.
In those days, the power of the Church was absolute and the use of laces for daily
wear was prohibited, though the use on Sundays and holidays was greatly in
evidence in the attire of those of high station.
In the beginning the number of designs was necessarily limited, but as the
industry developed and spread, and as the workers became more expert and
artistic, there was an incontrollable impulse to break away from conventional
designs and to evolve new patterns.
Then too, there was something of the spirit of pride behind this movement -a sort
of local patriotism- if it may so be termed. The Belgian, Spaniard, and Frenchman
themselves, set identify them with the place of their origin.
This explains the various names which were given to different types of laces, and
which designations still we can see. For instance: Alençon, Valenciennes,
Chantilly, Honiton, Milanese, Ret-fi catala. etc.
In the first half of the Twenty Century, handmade lace was still produced all over
the world, commercially its production was confined to France, Belgium, Germany,
Spain, Italy and England, where large quantities were produced.
(Bibliography: "Lace its origin and History")
Rudimentary laces has been found in excavations in Egypt, Peru or China.
In the beginning, lace was made by two entirely distinct purposes, without
apparently relationship or evolution between them, and that the people of the
countries wherein of the inventions was made were unknown each other.
One of these processes is the employment of the needle and the single thread,
wherein the work was perfected mesh by mesh, each mesh being completed as
the work progressed.
The other process was by the use of many threads at once, each one attached to
bobbins, for the purpose only of separating them, the meshes being made by
twisting the threads a greater or less number of times. When each mesh is only
partially completed, the thread is carried on to the next, and so on, grow side to
side, the entire width of the fabric.
Felkin, in his history of lace and embroidery, says that when pillow lace was
invented -about the middle of the Sixteenth Cent.- the various kinds of point lace
had reached a high perfection. Some early writers, after laborious investigations,
assert that pillow lace was first made in Flanders. In later years it has been
almost universally attributed to Barbara Uttman (Belgium 1561). No trace of this
mode of making lace (by use of pillow and bobbins), can be found before this
date. Barbara Uttman died in 1575.
At the same time another process had its origin in Italy. In the municipal archives
of Ferrara, (1469) is an allusion to lace, but there is a document of the Sforza
family, dated in 1497, in which the word "trina" constantly occurs, together with
"bone" and "bobbin" lace.
Spain was, as far as the records testify, the earliest and most adept pupil of Italy
in the art of lacemaking, though, as in Italy, at the beginning the work was
confined in the Iberian Peninsula to the convents. Spain too, achieved high
distinction in this field, its Point of Spain (Punto de España), being one of the most
celebrated of all the ancient laces, worked in gold and silver threads,even vying
with the finest Venetian Point.
In those days, the power of the Church was absolute and the use of laces for daily
wear was prohibited, though the use on Sundays and holidays was greatly in
evidence in the attire of those of high station.
In the beginning the number of designs was necessarily limited, but as the
industry developed and spread, and as the workers became more expert and
artistic, there was an incontrollable impulse to break away from conventional
designs and to evolve new patterns.
Then too, there was something of the spirit of pride behind this movement -a sort
of local patriotism- if it may so be termed. The Belgian, Spaniard, and Frenchman
themselves, set identify them with the place of their origin.
This explains the various names which were given to different types of laces, and
which designations still we can see. For instance: Alençon, Valenciennes,
Chantilly, Honiton, Milanese, Ret-fi catala. etc.
In the first half of the Twenty Century, handmade lace was still produced all over
the world, commercially its production was confined to France, Belgium, Germany,
Spain, Italy and England, where large quantities were produced.
(Bibliography: "Lace its origin and History")
| Origin of Laces |
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