Italian, Venice
Lace Border, 18th century
Needle lace, 347 x 5 cm (136 5/8 x 1 15/16 in.)
This thin handmade lace border is almost 12 feet long but only 2 inches wide. It is composed of undulating botanical forms. There are flowers in a wide range of sizes and varieties surrounded and connected by leaves and vine-like stems. One horizontal edge of the white lace border is simple and straight while the other edge is scalloped because of its sequence of curved vines and flower sprays. In the center there are irregular areas of delicate filling meshes.
Veronese Room
Commentary
Mrs. Gardner found many pieces of lace in Venice, whose historic role as a center of lace making was revived in the 1880s with the creation of a new school that trained the unemployed wives of local fisherman in the lost craft of handmade lace. Around 1900 many American museums displayed lace in the belief that historic examples would be relevant to workers in the booming American textile industry. Today, we still marvel at the superb craftsmanship and intriguing designs of this handmade lace.