Trip to the V&A Archives - Part Three - Italian Ruff Edging

Credit here at the V&A.

One of the smaller objects I had requested was this retticella (sometimes called retticello, though whether this is an antiquated spelling, or a plural form, I'm unsure) ruff edging from 1600-20. Again, it's Italian, and according to museum records, 203 x 11.5cm laid flat. The collar is a recent reconstruction, made to display the lace edging. It's made with linen thread, and is a perfect example of the kinds of edgings that were reprinted over and over in pattern books for laceworkers at the end of the 16th century. I'll just take the opportunity to talk for a moment about a book that's been really very helpful in allowing me to judge the age of lace. It's a facsimile of "singuliers et nouveaux pourtraicts", published in 1587. This book, with it's more recent title of "Renaissance Patterns for Lace, Embroidery and Needlepoint", was originally published in France by the Italian author/designer Frederico Vinciolo. According to the editor's note, it was republished in 17 editions by 1658, when it's geometric style of lace was going out of fashion. My edition is a smaller reprint/English translation from 1971, based on a 1909 Italian edition. So it's fair to say it's been a widely printed book in it's time. With the basic framework of 'wheels', radiating 8 points outwards to the slightly rounded edges of the piece, themselves covered in stacks of semicircles, those in turn decorated by small picot, this is a classic piece of early 17th century Italian lacework. It's beautifully preserved, almost as white as the fine linen to which it has been attached in recent years. And it bears more than a passing resemblance to some of the patterns featured by Vinciolo. The trick to successful lacemaking in the early 17th century, it seems, is to make your patterns very 'black and white'. That is, a pattern is set down, and filled in very densely, the picots making the only concession to fancy stitches. There are no fillings, stars, or meshes. Only geometric lace in white that shows up magnificently against a black jerkin or doublet. Just to show how dense that stitching is, let's take a look at some of my close-ups.

The visible pattern repeats of the edging.

A sense of scale. Again, the black tip of the pencil is 18mm.

The fluting means some of the motifs are partially hidden.

Viewing this last picture full-size, it's possible to see that in each of the leaf-shaped constructions, there are about 5/6 rows of stitching. In the triangles near the edging points, there are about 9/10 rows. Judging by the scale of the pencil, that's 15-20 rows in a centimetre. Considering that this piece represents some of the earliest styles of lace, and that it is in such a fantastic state of preservation, the construction, compared to later lace, seems a little limited. It is a little basic in the range of stitches used, and the finished item often distorts as it is not sufficiently supported, as later laces were, for example by a mesh 'background'. However, it is a stepping stone that must be recognised in the evolution of lace, and I felt privileged to view it.