Lace Makers

Pictured right: Maltese Lace
It seems most likely that what we now regard as lace arose in the early sixteenth century. Early references to ‘lace’ in English texts almost certainly refer to ‘ties’, as this was the primary meaning of the word lace until well into the seventeenth century.

There is pictorial evidence from the late fifteenth century of simple plaited laces used on costume, What is certainly true is that the second half of the sixteenth century saw the rapid development of lace as an openwork fabric, created with a needle and single thread (needle lace) or with multiple threads (bobbin lace).

Bobbin lace evolved from braids and trimmings worked in colourful silks and silver-gilt threads and used as surface decoration for both dress and furnishings. Three forms of embroidery provided the origins of needlelace:

1) little loops and picots decorating the collar and cuff edges of shirts and smocks;

2) open-work seaming, linking widths of fabric;

3) cutwork. Cutwork started as decorative stitching worked within small spaces cut out of linen.

As the spaces became larger, leaving only a grid of the original threads, elaborate geometric patterns could be worked (known as Reticella). In time, instead of cutting out expensive fabric, foundation threads were couched on to a temporary backing — usually parchment — and true needlelace lace was born. Designs were then able to break away from the geometric forms imposed by working within fabric, and the lace known as Punto in Aria (stitches in the air) was born.

Bobbin lace is generally quicker to work than needlelace, and skilled workers were soon able to copy needlelace designs. Details of such lace can be seen on hundreds of portraits from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Other Laces

• Tape Lace
• Filet and Netting
• Decorated Nets
• Crochet
• Knitted
• Tatting
• Macramé
• Tenerife and Nandut

Sources and further information:

https://www.laceguild.org/craft/history.html
http://www.lacemakerslace.oddquine.co.uk/history.html http://www.norfolklacemakers.org.uk/history.html http://www.williams.gen.nz/hosiery.html http://www.cowperandnewtonmuseum.org.uk/lace-making/ http://www.afamilystory.co.uk/history/northamptonshire-lace.aspx http://woldslacemakers.co.uk/