Being the first to have the book handy and a few minutes to type.....
the very first sentence of Chapter 1 of THE classic reference,
Santina Levey's _Lace: A History_, says: "During the two decades 1560
to 1580, lace became an increasingly important feature of fashionable
dress in most European countries, and this development can be traced
in contemporary records and in the portraits of the period."
She goes on to say that decorative "crimped and goffered EDGES"
appear in the _15th_ century, in the same places we would expect to
find lace some decades later -- but they are merely a "laundry
technique" and not needlework of any kind.
In the late 15th and early 16th centuries we can see "decorative
edges" that _do_ involve needlework of some kind on the edges of
veils, and at the necks and wrists of smocks and shirts. These edges
were created with embroidery (oversewing and buttonhole stitch),
beads, seed pearls or applied cords. "Many of these edge decorations
were carried out in colored silk or metal thread, a fact which has
tended to obscure their links with later linen laces."
The earliest record of some sort of trimming made with bobbins is
1476, by the ladies of the household of Eleanor d'Este, but it's
almost certainly a cord, since the account book says "...cordella
facto a piombino...".
"There was no moment," she says, "at which any of the above
techniques either changed into or were replaced by lace. Gradually,
however, during the second quarter of the sixteenth century, changing
tastes in trimmings and embroidery resulted in the exaggeration of
certain effects: in particular, greater emphasis was placed on
decorated seams and edgings.... Needle and bobbin lace began to
emerge in response to these demands, but it was a long time before
they were seen to have become separated from the older techniques...
Indeed, one of the clearest indications of the newness of lace is its
lack of a name that is wholly its own."
As for possible early dates for metallic lace, "...Although,
therefore, fifteenth-century references to 'lace', such as the mantle
lace worn by Richard III at his coronation in 1485, really refer to
cords and braids, it is possible that some of the later references to
'passementerie' may refer to early bobbin lace....The 'Pasmens of
gold' and 'passmeyn riband' worn respectively by Mary I and Edward VI
were certainly braids, but the more explicitly described 'Passmeyn
lace of bone work of gold' mentioned in the Lord Chamberlain's
Accounts for 1553 was bobbin lace." (She gives a footnote for this
conclusion, but doesn't justify it further. She goes on to describe a
"white silver bone lace" of 1560 and "6 white smocks edged with white
needle lace" in 1558-9.)
That help?
--
____________________________________________________________
O Chris Laning <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> - Davis, California
+ http://paternoster-row.org - http://paternosters.blogspot.com
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