Trip to the V&A Archives - Part Four - Venetian Collar

Credit here at the V&A.

The last item I requested was another piece of Venetian lace. Although a very pretty, winding design, the workmanship in this collar is a little uncertain. It is a transitory piece between the last post, the ruff edging, and the first post, the Venetian rochet. The Style of motif is becoming very baroque, moving away from the renaissance obsession with the classics, and in particular it's insistence on geometry being the basis of all design. This is a far more 'natural' piece, and though most of the motifs are still plain-filled with rows of reinforced buttonhole stitch, some patterned fillings are appearing. The major difference in lace construction technique between this piece, dated 1660-75, and the last piece, the ruff dated 1600-20, is the outlining of the design with raised edges. This is something that is talked about a great deal in Alençon lace, where the outlines are also slightly raised. Apparently, both kinds of lace were carefully edged by buttonholing around a horsehair, though in Venice, this strengthening frame was taken quite literally to new heights, as picot-covered rings and large padded crescents emerged as staples of Italian Gros Point. In the French lace industry, this happened less often, though the workers did consider themselves excellent imitators of Italian lace when the commission required it. So once again, let's have a look at the close-ups I took.

An edging.

Some of the more raised sections.

A sense of scale.
As you can see from this piece, the design, fillings, edging technique, and scale were all advancing at terrific pace. This collar may not be the most refined piece of it's kind, but as an example of the mid-century transitional style, it's very significant indeed.