International studio (32.1907)

Lace at Pratt Institute

OLD VALENCIENNES LACE

PRATT INSTITUTE

ACE AND LACE MAKING AT
PRATT INSTITUTE
BY EVA LOVETT
The Lace and Embroidery Section of
Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, where classes
in such work are conducted, has lately acquired a
collection of lace, not large, but thoroughly good
and comprehensive. This collection is a valuable
asset for the Institute, and furnishes an excellent
object lesson for the students, which was the special
purpose for which it was bought. It contains be-

cut work or

LACE TEXTURE

tween nine hundred and one thousand pieces, in-
cluding specimens of nearly every kind of lace, and
covering nearly every period of its manufacture.

The majority of the lace pieces are quite small;
some are only a few inches in length, but there is
enough of each to show the pattern, the peculiarities
of the variety, and the distinctive stitches used in
making it. Each piece is complete and in good con-
dition. Each is well mounted and labeled with the
name and a short description of the kind of lace,
and the place where, and the year when, it was
first made and most used.

The specimens begin withearly
“ drawn work,” where the threads
of the material were drawn to-
gether in clusters and patterns,
leaving spaces between ; “ cut
work,” where small pieces of the
material were cut out, forming a
pattern, with the edges of the
cut worked over with buttonhole
stitch, making an effect something
like the English embroidery now
in vogue, and “reticella,” where
an elaborate pattern was worked
with threads in the open spaces.
All these were styles which
marked the beginnings of lace
making, when embroidery was
developing into lace. The dates
of these pieces are the fifteenth

SOUTHERN ITALY

LVIII