2 borders of cutwork, Italian, 1550-99

Two pieces of cutwork, fragmentary and apparently deriving from the same source.

149 comprises three different styles of cutwork sewn together. There is one broad band, with a sophisticated and complex geometric pattern, finely worked. Along one edge is attached a narrow band, extending beyond the ends of the broader piece. It is also finely worked, but of different pattern, with a row of small motifs. At one end of the broad band there is attached a fragmentary piece, of relatively coarse construction in a simple repeating pattern.

149A is a comparable broad band, with a fragmentary coarser piece attached to the end, as in 149, but without the narrow band along one edge.

Both pieces appear to have been detached from a larger object. The quality of the main part suggests it may have been used as an insertion in fine table linen, and the attachment of the other pieces is not consistent with this, so they were probably attached in later use, although approximately contemporary in date.

Purchased (two pieces) from Miss Cholmeley, of York, for £2 10 shillings. It was part of a collection of lace of different dates.

Historical significance: These pieces of cutwork, though finely executed, are fragmentary. Their acquisition by the Museum in 1885 would have been as study pieces, to represent an aspect of the excellence of Italian Renaissance lace, seen by the museum authorities then as the high point of lace design and technique. The taste for such 16th century, geometric design was echoed in new lace made in professional workshops and lace schools, and by amateurs, often directly copying design from early pattern books.

The earliest known pattern book for embroidery was printed in the 1520s, but was probably not the first, and single pattern sheets are likely to have been printed in Germany from the late 15th century. At first only for conventional embroidery techniques, and lacis (darned net), pattern books gradually came to include patterns for drawn thread work and cutwork, including the use of solidly-shaded areas contrasted with simple looped fillings, suggesting new, more complex techniques.

The technique of cutwork was the creation of a delicate structure of needle lace stitches across the spaces cut in a fine linen ground. The design of the main part of this example of cutwork is typical of the patterns published in the 1540s, in works such as Matio Pagano's Il Spechio di pensieri delle belle et virtudiose donne (Venice, 1544; copy of 1549 edition in NAL Lib.95.0.38; illustrated in Levey plate 16) and Giovanni Andrea Vavassore's Fior di gli essempli (Venice c.1545; illustrated in Lodz pl.118). Such pattern books do not relate directly to professional embroidery and lace making, but were intended for the skilled amateur, and often had dedications to ladies of rank. From Adrian Poyntz's New and Singular patternes and Workes of Linnen (London 1591) : "these workes belong chiefly to Gentlewomen for to pass away their time in vertuous exercises".

The earliest known pattern book for embroidery was printed in the 1520s, but was probably not the first. Single pattern sheets are likely to have been printed in Germany from the late 15th century. At first only for conventional embroidery techniques, pattern books gradually came to include patterns for drawn thread work and cutwork, including the use of solidly-shaded areas contrasted with simple looped fillings, suggesting new, more complex techniques.

The technique of cutwork was the creation of a delicate structure of needle lace stitches across the spaces cut in a fine linen ground. The design of this example of cutwork is typical of the patterns published in the 1540s, in works such as Matio Pagano's Il Spechio di pensieri delle belle et virtudiose donne (Venice, 1544). Such pattern books do not relate directly to professional embroidery and lace making, but were intended for the skilled amateur, and often had dedications to ladies of rank. A comment in a late 16th century pattern book describes how "these workes belong chiefly to Gentlewomen for to pass away their time in vertuous exercises".

149&A-1885