There is a picture of a punto in aria maker in a book of contemporary Venetians in the Museo Correr's library dated to approximately 1754 (not sure why not exactly!). She is sitting with her pillow on her lap, and apart from the fact that it is not on a stand, very similar to the modern Burano set-up, with a lifting stick, though her pillow looks more like a modern Honiton pillow rather than the bolster used on Burano. She is wearing three thimbles, one on each thumb, one on her left-hand index finger. She is shown drawing a thread, as long as her modern sisters, through with her right hand, so the thimbled thumb and bare index finger. It's not clear how or why the thimbles were used. They don't look metallic, so could be leather. Of course, raising the cordonnette in typical Venetian needle lace is hard on the digits, unlike making the toile, so possibly that's what she's doing. I have heard the theory that they were used to help sweaty fingers get a grip on a slippery needle, but would have thought fingers dried on a cloth or with talc or flour would be better.
While holidaying in Venice last month, visited the Palazzo Mocenigo, which has an excellent display of 18th century costume, with lace where appropriate, of course. One superb piece was a scarf, dated to the mid century, 8 inches by 2 yards (20 x 180cms) - in black silk! The motifs, while only slightly raised compared with the gros point of the previous century, were as elaborate as anything similar in white linen, the overblown flowers and leaves and the like, and the work looked as fine. It had a net ground - a remarkable piece, must have been very trying on the eyes. Does anyone know if this is unique, or is it just that I haven't come across black Venetian needle lace before? Of course, dyed silk has a much lower life-expectancy than undyed linen, so it could just be that we've lost the coloured needle lace, as we have lost the coloured silk bobbin lace from earlier centuries (and of course the metal, which would get deliberately recycled). The museum catalogue is unfortunately in Italian. It includes the picture described above; I may be missing out on useful information on it and the black lace due to ignorance of the language... [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Free Pop-Up Blocker - Get it now http://companion.yahoo.com/ - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
