Venetian Needle Lace

Venetian needle lace, French Point De Venise, Venetian lace made with a needle from the 16th to the 19th century. Early examples were deep, acute-angled points, each worked separately and linked together by a narrow band, or “footing,” stitched with buttonholing. These points were used in ruffs and collars in the 16th and 17th centuries and, from their presence in portraits by Anthony Van Dyck, are known as “vandykes.” Geometrical designs began to give way in the late 16th century to more curvilinear patterns. From 1620 Venetian raised lace (in Italian punto a relievo, in French gros point de Venise) developed distinct from flat Venetian (point plat de Venise). The pattern was raised by outlining the design with a cordonnet, a heavier thread, bundle of threads, or horsehair, worked over with buttonholing, so that the curls, scrolls, and conventionalized leaves stood out like relief carving. Rose point (point de rose) was less grandiose than gros point but even more ornamented with many little loops (picots) and rosettes; lace with more light bars of thread (brides) worked with such motifs as picots and stars like snowflakes was called point de neige (“snow lace”). Point de Venise à réseau (“Venetian lace with a mesh”), imitated c. 1650 from French lace, had a mesh ground instead of bars. Lace making declined in Venice in the early 19th century but was revived in 1872 at nearby Burano.