{75}The lace manufacture extends along the coast from Albissola, on the Western Riviera, to Santa Margherita on the eastern. Santa Margherita and Rapallo are called by Luxada[236] the emporium of the lace industry of Genoa, and are still the greatest producers of pillow-lace on the coast. The workers are mostly the wives and daughters of the coral-fishers who support themselves by this occupation during the long and perilous voyages of their husbands. In the archives of the parochial church of Santa Margherita is preserved a book of accounts, in which mention is made, in the year 1592, of gifts to the church, old nets from the coral fishery, together with _pisetti_ (_pizzi_), the one a votive offering of some successful fishermen, the other the work of their wives or daughters, given in gratitude for the safe return of their relatives. There was also found an old worn parchment pattern for a kind of tape guipure (Fig. 36).[237] The manufacture, therefore, has existed in the province of Chiavari for many centuries. Much of this description of lace is assigned to Genoa. In these tape guipures the tape or braid was first made, and the ground worked in on the parchment either by the needle or on the pillow. The laces consist of white thread of various qualities, either for wear, church decoration, or for exportation to America. Later, this art gave place to the making of black blonde, in imitation of Chantilly, of which the centres in Italy are now Genoa and Cantu. In the year 1850 the lace-workers began to make guipures for France, and these now form their chief produce. The exportation is very great, and lace-making is the daily occupation, not only of the women, but of the ladies of the commune.[238] In 1862 Santa Margherita had 2,210 lace-workers: Rapallo, 1,494. The _maestri_, or overseers, receive all orders from the trade, and find hands to execute them. The silk and thread required for the lace is weighed out and given to the lace-makers, and the work when completed is re-weighed to see that it corresponds with that of the material given. The _maestri_ contrive to realise large fortunes, and become in time _signori_; not so the poor lace-makers, whose hardest day's gain seldom exceeds a franc and a half.[239] Embroidered lace is also made at Genoa. On a band of tulle are embroidered in darning-stitch flowers or small detached springs, and the ground is sometimes _semé_ with little embroidered dots. A coarse thread outlines the embroidery. {76}[Illustration: Fig. 36. LACE PATTERN FOUND IN THE CHURCH AT SANTA MARGHERITA (circ. 1592).] PLATE XX. [Illustration: ITALIAN. BOBBIN TAPE WITH NEEDLE-MADE RÉSEAU. Width, 8 in. Photo by A. Dryden.] PLATE XXI. [Illustration: ITALIAN, GENOESE. SCALLOPED BORDER OF UNBLEACHED THREADS, TWISTED AND PLAITED.--Sixteenth or seventeenth century. Width, 5 in. Victoria and Albert Museum.] _To face page 76._ {77}[Illustration: Fig. 37.