Belgian
Lace Fragment, 16th century
Needle and bobbin lace, 13.3 x 10.2 cm (5 1/4 x 4 in.)
This is a roughly triangular, very deteriorated needle and bobbin lace fragment from sixteenth-century Belgium. The fragment consists of small sections of intact needle lace work, connected together with a spider web of twisted bobbin threads. Several loose bobbin threads project from the sides where further connections with needle lace have been lost. The small, but various sized intact portions of needle lace have differing designs consisting of buttonhole stitches around tight stitching, at times in triangular shapes, other times rectangular. The bobbin lace connecting the sections have prominent knots in their centers.
Long Gallery
Commentary
This small piece of lace was probably given to Isabella Stewart Gardner by Alfred John Rodwaye, the Honorary Secretary for the Order of the White Rose. It was meant to be a “relic of the most unfortunate & maligned Queen, Marie Stewart,” (also known as Mary Queen of Scots). Gardner was fascinated by the Queen, and erroneously believed herself to be a descendant of the royal Stuart line.