LACE. – Lace or merletto, trina, pizzo, is a transparent fabric worked by hand with a needle, with bobbins, with a crochet hook, and also with a shuttle, using thread of every kind: linen, cotton, thread, silk, gold, and silver.
Of this small but precious art, the first secure examples of which date back to the late 15th century and which can be readily known through the surviving specimens, almost exclusively excel the needlework and bobbin lace. Both types have a notable history that, from the late 15th century to the present day, has followed different origins and developments.
Needle lace is now almost unanimously considered to be of Italian origin, or more precisely Venetian, and its derivation from ancient embroidery worked on withdrawn threads can be specified, both on those with drawn threads, commonly called "reticelli," and on buratto or modano. The true "punto tagliato" (cut point), which descends from the ancient "reticello," appears in the volume by Matthieu Pagan, L'ornamento delle belle et virtuose donne (Venice 1543), in other booklets, mostly published in Venice and Bologna, and in that of Aurelio Passarotti, from 1560, with beautiful plates, in which the "punto in aria" (point in air) is already found. The booklets continue to appear ever more frequently, from Cesare Vecellio to Isabella Catanea Parasole and Bartolomeo Danieli up to around 1630, attesting to the richness of stitches, the variety of patterns, and the spread of this art, which by that time had become highly refined. From the "punto tagliato" (point coupé) to the "punto in aria," to the raised foliage point (gros point de Venise), and to the very light rosette point, the way was opened to the most advanced and precious laces, which, from palaces and convents, their first setting, passed into workshops, developing further in direct relation to the extravagant luxury of the time.
In France, where the art of Venetian lace spread widely, from 1598, when the term dentelles first appears in the Nouveaux pourtraités de point coupé by Jacques Foillet, to 1665 (Colbert's edict), production was extremely intense. With Colbert, important centers for needle lace manufactures were founded, which, while imitating the models of Venice, Ragusa, Bologna, Milan, or Genoa, took the name of point de France. From then on, French names were partly adopted in Italy as well, and in Italy itself Italian names were Gallicized. Alençon became the most important center, followed by Sedan, Argentan, Aurillac, etc., all dependent on a perfect state organization, interrupted only by the Revolution, while in Italy and Flanders in the 18th century an attempt was made to imitate the exquisite refinements of French lace. Thus, Venice in the 18th century created the "punto di Venezia col fondo" (Venetian point with background) with large foliage and veins outlined in openwork, to surpass in preciosity the beautiful Alençon point, and the point of Burano, another celebrated type of lace with small round meshes and minute motifs, which met with great success and persisted even after the 19th-century revival (1872) of this local and popular art, which is still flourishing today. Other active centers in Italy include Val Sesia, Vallevogna, and above all Bologna with the Società dell'"Aemilia Ars." Italy and Flanders still contend today for the origin of bobbin lace, but even foreign scholars, such as Seguin (La dentelle, Paris 1875), lean toward Italy. In any case, bobbin lace also spread rapidly in Flanders and thus in Spain and France, where it was thought to have arrived via Spanish pilgrims. As for technique, bobbin lace, perhaps of very ancient use, is a transformation of ancient galloons or "passement" worked with fabrics of gold and silk or gold and wool, often studded with gems; worked like ribbons, they were applied to fabrics as trimming. Over time, an attempt was made to make them of ever rarer fabric, and on one side they were adorned with ever less simple and more slender scallops until the transition to bobbins was made, dispensing with the fabric support. The technique is one: at one end the threads are fixed on a pillow with pins that are moved by hand as the work progresses, and at the other the threads are interlaced and variously knotted with the small spools through a rotary motion (hence the names of lace with bones, with weights, with little mallets, with a lace pillow, with bobbins, according to the names given to the pillow or the spools). Ancient documents attest to the existence of bobbin lace (Ferrara 1476); however, the first edition of patterns for such work appears with the celebrated collection Le Pompe (Venice 1557, 1559); in Switzerland a booklet published in Zurich by Friskower appears in 1560; in France in 1598 that of Follet (not to be confused with the volume already cited published in the same year in Montbéliard, but concerning needle lace) and in 1615 in Paris La pratique de l'aiguille industrieuse by Matthias Müggecarck with many examples of bobbin lace, still called passements.
This art, even in its best period, which is the early 17th century, never reached the preciosity of needle lace, nor in Genoa, its main center—where a somewhat thick point called the rosaces de Gênes and guipure is used—nor in Portofino, Rapallo, Santa Margherita, Chiavari, Albissola, small lively centers scattered along the two Rivieras, in Pescocostanzo, L'Aquila, Naples. The variety of stitches is great: in Italy the "punto in trezzo" (Venice), the "punto di Milano" (Milan point), characterized by a narrow ribbon that marks without interruption very long scrolls with floral designs, especially suitable for liturgical vestments, which has produced models of great value; outside Italy the Mechlin point and the Valenciennes point, the Brussels point, the Paris point, the Arras point, Chantilly in black silk, the Lille point, the Flanders point, the Bruges point, the English point, and the famous Irish lace worked to a hundred. There is also a type of lace made with small reeds called "frivolité." Already in the 19th century and especially in modern times, a rich mechanical production has developed in Italy and abroad that imitates above all bobbin lace. – See pl. XLIV-XLV.