Notice that the outlines of the petals are looped and crossed over continuous machine-made tapes, the centers of the petals are filled in with a variety of dense handmade needle lace. The little joining threads, or brides, are handmade buttonhole stitch.
This is Chinese needle lace that also uses machine-made tapes in its construction. It is of the type that was exported to the UK and the US beginning after WWII. So, mid-century, although they still export a lot of it today. Notice that the outlines of the petals are looped and crossed over continuous machine-made tapes, the centers of the petals are filled in with a variety of dense handmade needle lace. The little joining threads, or brides, are handmade buttonhole stitch. Here is a photo of one of these lace cloths from my Chinese replications file.
Your gorgeous panel is 100% machine-made Nottingham Leaver lace — it replicates both Italian hand-knotted filet and Cluny bobbin lace. Here are similar examples of Nottingham Leaver lace. Look closely at the square mesh. Notice the thick braid-like thread running horizontally and three loose threads vertically. Sometimes there are only two vertical threads. These two Nottingham Leaver lace examples are meant to look like Italian knotted filet. These two are copying handmade Cluny bobbin lace.
Nope. Your beautiful lace is called Renaissance Lace. It is a type of tape lace. It is handmade, but starts with a base of purchased "tapes”. The lacemaker lays out a pattern of tapes on a piece of paper. Then she ties all the tapes together and fills in the spaces with beautiful handmade needlework. The very left edge here is handmade needle lace and so are the little horizontal bars with knobs in the center. Look closely - those are all handmade buttonhole stitch. Now look at the central pattern of tapes. You can put your finger down on any tape and follow it along loop by loop like a little road. What may have made you think of Gros Point, was the very thick, heavy outline tape that surrounds some of the flowers. However, again, if you follow your finger along those heavy white satiny lines you can see they, too, are a long continuous tape. The heavy white tape is filled in with different handmade needle lace stitches. It is high quality work. The types of tapes available for purchase at the turn of the century were wide and varied, plain and lavish, thick and thin. Hundreds of paper patterns were available. So they all look different. Here is a bit more reading from the internet
http://antiquestextiles.org/antique-tablecloth-renaissance-tape-lace-needlework-c1900-105-x-70.php https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_lace Nottingham lace is not exactly a kind of lace. It refers to any machine-made lace produced in Nottingham, England that was used for curtains, tablecloths, and clothing. The various lace-making mills established in Nottingham employed many different kinds of lace-making machines – Leaver (Lever), Schiffli, Pusher, Sauer, etc. Nottingham became the industrial lace-making center of England beginning in the early 1800s.
There is still one factory actively working today. Cluny Lace, established in 1845, is Nottingham’s ninth-generation Lever’s Lace manufacturer. It works with design houses such as Christian Dior, Vivienne Westwood, Burberry, Gucci and Paul Smith. In 2012 they supplied the Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court Palace with lace to create Catherine Middleton’s Royal Lace Appliqué for her veil and shoes. You can read more about Nottingham’s lace market HERE. This beautiful table centerpiece dates to ca. 1880s, Victorian Era, most likely British. It is a “mixed-lace". The shiny “vines" are purchased tape. The little “brides” or connecting threads that hold the tapes in place are handmade needle lace. The floral edge, the fine leaves and the fat little grapes are hand crocheted. The little buttons and tassels are an extra bonus that add value. I can’t see in the photo, but I am guessing they are crocheted as well?
Valenciennes bobbin lace originated and was developed in Valenciennes, in the north of France, in the 1700s. Later, the center of production moved to Belgium, in and around Ypres, West Flanders, where the tradition continued, though the designs were somewhat modified. Valenciennes continued to be made in Flanders throughout the 1800s until around 1890 when the invention of machines that could make it took over. As it was originally developed in Valenciennes, this type of lace became known under the name of that town, even after relocating the center to West Flanders. Valenciennes lace is a Flanders lace, but of course, not all Flanders lace is Valenciennes. (ie All Ford sedans are cars, but not all cars are Fords!) Valenciennes lace is made on a lace pillow all in one piece, with the diamond-shaped net ground (reséau) being made at the same time as the pattern (tôile). It is identified via several factors - the openness of the diamond-shaped ground, the closeness and evenness of the tôile patterns, the lack of gimp or outlining threads, etc. This is a short answer but there is much more to know!
Compare: Handmade continuous bobbin lace tapes are flat and smooth where they turn the corners and loop about. There are no gathers or wrinkles, no fold-overs or over-laps. The lace-maker builds in the turns and loops as she goes along so they stay flat. Purchased tapes are not “bendable” or “loop-able”, they are straight and they have to be coaxed around corners by a series of gathers and puckers. Run your finger along one of the tapes on your cloth, notice where it starts and where it stops. Notice the gathers the lacemaker had to make, the “wrinkles” she devised to make it loop around. Notice the over laps or folds she had to make at the sharp turns. I believe the intention of Renaissance Tape Lace was to create something that looks like handmade Milanese Bobbin lace, but which took much less time to complete. Beautiful stuff, all the same! Milanese. A similar look, but no gathers, no wrinkles, smoothly hand made.
This is Normandy lace. It is a patchwork of many different types of old laces and embroideries. Normandy lace was made during, or shortly after WWI. The bombing and burning of the flax fields during the war, caused a shortage of the linen thread that was needed to make lace. Belgian lacemakers had to salvage and repurpose old laces - both handmade and machine-made, to work with to support their families. Your lovely piece has scraps of hand-embroidered linen, handmade needle-run lace on net, and machine-made Valenciennes edging.
Belgian Zele lace IS Point de Venise lace, but it is made in Belgium, not Italy. It uses the same needlelace making techniques - mostly button hole stitch. (Much in the same way as English Bedfordshire and French Cluny can be made in any country and in many styles using the same techniques.) As I am not a lace maker, I cannot discuss the technique of how this lace is made in the different countries. I can only respond to the design. I believe the difference is mostly manifested in the design elements or pattern. Here is my opinion - and I may be wrong! This description does not come from my mentor or from any textbook. Just from my intuition and understanding.
Italian Point de Venise has beautiful, complex designs, a great variety of fills, flourishes, sometimes with fancy little picots on a hex ground, high / low raised work. The Italians seem to add their soul and personality to their designs. (bottom right corner in the photo below is Cantú)
I cannot tell if my lace is handmade or if it is machine-made lace. What should I look for?8/13/2020
Here are a couple of pointers to help you examine lace more closely. Handmade lace brides, on the other hand, are very regular, neat and even. They look like tight little braids or buttonhole stitch. No twists, no lumps, nothing uneven, no spirals in sight. There are many other characteristics, but this is a start. The key is to look closely!
|
Copyright © 2024 Sharron Bassano. All rights reserved. All photographs on this website are copyrighted and are the property of The Rook and The Raven. The photos are free to use online as a reference only. Please contact us if you want copies of individual photos for your own use.
Posts are in reverse chronological order. Scroll down for earlier posts.
Click on images to enlarge
Archives
January 2022
Topics
All
|