Yesterday I went to the Victorian National Gallery with 11 others to a Lace
Study that the Guild had organized. We had a 2 hour session on the "Pollen
Collection."
The young lady in charge was beaut - she had laid out on the large table a
Victorian black chantilly shawl - which was thoughtful of her - and made a
Great 'Welcome' as we entered the room!
Then we gathered around drawers in a cabinet, and each one held between 2
and 4 pieces of lace - all sort of lace, although a lot of it was
Needlelace. There was some Gros Point, Rose point, Spanish faux Gros point
(BL braids with NL raised work on the top) Brussels lace - with the extra
petals of NL appliqued on top of some of the flowers and the smallest NL
couronnes imaginable added to it too. There was some Honiton (one piece
marked Duchesse!), Flanders,Brussels, some gold lace, some coloured lace, a
partly finished Drawn Thead work - with the rest of the fabric on a roll,
and the worked part laid out. Buratto, an unidentified piece - that I
think was an early Minanese - while it was still made continuously (not like
today's Milanes which is sectional), there was Cut work reticella and Punto
in Aria, and a beaut NL edge in the Van Dyke style - all NL braids!
It was real Eye Candy! Some pieces were wrongly marked, and I think she
was 100 years out on the Spanish Gros Point, as the Venetian G.Pt. came
first - in the mid 17th C, and the Spaniards were trying to cash in on the
market, and made the quicker BL braids - but she had it as 16th century for
the Spanish. She was very receptive to corrections so I gave her a brief
account of why I thought she was a bit out on her dates, and she was happy
to correct that. Also some pieces were wrong-side up, and she has happy to
turn them over, - and flipped back part of a piece so we could see the back
of it, etc. As we pointed out to her the wrongly labelled pieces and she
noted it down. It was SO nice to have her so receptive to our comments,
and with such an Open mind. There was None of the "I'm the curator, you are
just having a look" type feeling - I think she enjoyed us talking about the
pieces, and she was learning a lot.
It is awesome to think about those lacemakers working with the fine threads
and their work was So beautiful. I enjoyed every moment of it . It was so
nice to see the lace "For Real" - not just photos in a book!!!
Regards from Liz in Melbourne, Oz
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
-
To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line:
unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
