Many years ago I spent many days at the Art Institute of Chicago studying their Milanese and Flemish tape laces from the 17th and 18th centuries. I noticed that there were actually 2 classes of Milanese designs. In one the decorated tape was always the same width and the number of bobbins remained constant, as the tape curlicued all over the lace. The other class looked the same in terms of the overall impact of the design. A casual observer, or someone who didn't know bobbin lace technique, would have thought they were all one class, stylistically. But what I could see in the 2nd group is the tapes changed width beyond what could be accounted for by fancy stitches inside the tape. And these usually also had motifs that started and ended. In other words they were actually part laces (sectional laces) rather than tape laces (braid laces). The museum labeled these part laces exactly the same as the pure Milanese or Flemish tape laces.
So from a historical viewpoint both constant width and variable width, and discrete motifs were all part of the antique Milanese lace. Lorelei Halley - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
