The Cavaliere Merli has endeavoured to classify them according to the names
in the pattern-books with which Venice supplied the world, as well as with
her points. Out of some sixty of these works, whose names have been
collected, above one-third were published in Venice.[167]
[Illustration: Fig. 20.
MERMAID'S LACE.]
1. Punto a reticella.[168]--Made either by drawing the threads of the
cloth, as in the samplar already given (Fig. 5), or by working the lace on
a parchment pattern in buttonhole stitch (punto smerlo). (Fig. 21.) This
point is identical with what is commonly called "Greek" lace.
Under this head comes punto reale (the opposite of reticella), where the
linen ground is left and the design cut out.[169] Punto di cartella or
cordella (card-work) is similar in effect to reticella, but the
button-holing is done entirely over a foundation made by sewing coarse
thread and bits of parchment on to the design and covering them with
button-hole stitch.
[Illustration: Fig. 21.
Reticella.]
_To face page 50._
{51}2. Punto tagliato.[170]--Cut-work, already described.
3. Punto di Venezia.
4. Punto in aria.[171]--Worked on a parchment pattern, the flowers
connected by brides: in modern parlance, Guipure.
5. Punto tagliato a fogliami.[172]--The richest and most complicated of all
points, executed like the former, only with this difference, that all the
outlines are in relief, formed by means of cottons placed inside to raise
them. Sometimes they are in double and triple relief; an infinity of
beautiful stitches are introduced into the flowers, which are surrounded by
a pearl of geometric regularity, the pearls sometimes in scallops or
"campané," as the French term it.[173] This is our Rose (raised) Venice
point, the Gros Point de Venise, the Punto a relievo, so highly prized and
so extensively used for albs, collerettes, berthes, and costly decoration.
We give an example (Fig. 23) from a collar, preserved in the Musée de
Cluny, once the property of a Venetian nobleman, worn only on state
occasions.
Two elaborate specimens were in the possession of Mr. Webb; one is a long
narrow piece fringed at both ends, which may have served as a maniple (Fig.
26); the other, a "pale"[174] for the communion, he has given to the
Victoria and Albert Museum.
These two last are made of silk of the natural cream colour. Both silk and
thread unbleached appear to have been greatly in favour. At Paris much lace
of this colour has been disposed of by its owners since the revolutions in
Italy.[175]
Other varieties of so-called rose point are punto neve (point de neige),
with its ground of starred threads resembling snowflakes, and the coral
point, a small irregular pattern supposed to have been copied from coral.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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