Renaissance lace

Renaissance lace

Renaissance Lace is a type of tape lace. The name refers to the rebirth of antique Italian forms to create the patterns of this 19th century lace.^[1]

The outline of the design is made of bought tape. Manufacturers produced a huge number of suitable tapes in different widths and sometimes with picots or other decoration. The lacemaker bought the tape and sewed it onto a paper with the pattern. Then she filled up the empty spaces with a needle using a variety of stitches. Finally the lace was cut from the paper.^[2] The tape laces varied from well-worked versions with a variety of filling stitches to those where the tapes were simply joined with a few needle-made bars.^[3]

Some regard the whole genre as being Renaissance Lace, with varying forms such as Branscombe, Princess and Battenberg.^[1] Others regard Renaissance Lace as one of the types.^[3]

References

1. Pat Earnshaw. A Dictionary of Lace. Shire Publications. ISBN 0-85263-700-4.
2. Trabel - Belgium travel network. "The History of Lace in Belgium, Brussels and Bruges". Retrieved 25 November 2014.
3. The Lace Guild. "Tape Lace". Retrieved 26 November 2014.