Figures in early lace

 

Many early laces from the 16th and 17th century depict people. Some are mythical creatures like gods, goddesses and putti and others are people in contemporary dress. They were made in a variety of types of lace and patterns were available in books such as Le Pompe, published in 1559 for bobbin lace, and Federico Vinciolo’s 1587 pattern book for needle and filet lace. The image above comes from a 1617 pattern book published by Cesare Vecellio and depicts the four seasons and some dancing figures. The seasons are shown in classical dress while the dancers wear contemporary clothes. The pattern is designed to be worked in needlelace.

These lovely corner designs are printed in the same pattern book and again are patterns for needlelace. The books would not have included any instructions for working the patterns, as it was assumed the ladies who brought them had the required knowledge to work them from these illustrations.

This angel is worked in needlelace and is a detail from an illustration in Elisa Ricci’s book on Italian lace designs. It was made in the 17th century and is made to appear more three-dimensional than the previous images with the incorporation of thicker threads around parts of the lace, such as the halo and the feathers in the angel’s wings.

Another illustration from the same book is this detail of a tablecloth made up of alternating squares of embroidery and lacis work. Lacis was popular in the 16th century and many books included patterns for this type of lace which is basically darning on fine net. The net was made first ensuring that the squares were all the same size by using a gauge. It was then held taut in a frame while the design was worked by passing a needle and thread through the holes in the net, to darn some solid areas and make more open looped patterns in others.

Figures could also be made in bobbin lace as you can see in this lace made from a pattern in Le Pompe. It is a complicated pattern and requires threads to be added and removed as it is worked. The original pattern would not have included any working instructions but Santina Levey and Patricia Payne in their book about the Le Pompe patterns included instructions for making the laces. Forty pairs of bobbins were used to make the lace and two different threads were used, a fine one for the figures and a thicker one for the plaits. If you are interested in early laces this book is very helpful because it describes the way early laces were made and also explains how to make lace prickings from the original woodcut patterns.

Renaissance lace patterns from the 16th century

In the 16th century, several lace pattern books were produced in Europe for the skilled amateur working from home. Cesare Vecellio, a Venetian painter and designer who was a relative of the painter Titian, produced four volumes of these patterns. The first, entitled 'Corona delle nobili et virtuose donne' (Coronet of the noble and virtuous [skilful] ladies) was published in 1591 and dedicated to the wife of the ‘most illustrious lord procurator’ of Venice. 

All these books were dedicated to wealthy patronesses, who presumably had the leisure time to make these laces, or more likely, to organise and pay for their production by a skilled female workforce. Each design is accompanied by a caption highlighting its function or exclusivity, for example this image is labelled ‘Elegant Flemish style patterns used in Italy by duchesses and other noblewomen’ in the same way modern magazines advertise high end fashion.

Other captions are very specific, such as ‘Patterns for collars on little boys’ first dress clothes’, below this image of small patterns for children’s clothes. No instruction are given in the books, but the laces are variously labelled as punto in aria, cutwork, reticella, Flemish style needlework or rosettes. Santina Levey notes that Vecellio used all these terms interchangeably and all the patterns in this book are for needle lace. By the time of publication, needle lace no longer depended on a geometric woven background (like cutwork) and a technique based on outlining cords had been developed (punto in aria) which allowed the production of more free-flowing patterns of any shape. Basically the lacemaker could use whatever needle-lace technique she preferred, for example the image at the top of this blog is based on a square geometric design and could be worked in a reticella style or more freely as punto in aria.