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Comment by Devon Thein 12 hours ago

Another question for Laurie. Is there anyway you can tell by looking at the mesh whether it was made with the thread passed across the pattern as in Burano?

Comment by Devon Thein 12 hours ago

Thank you Laurie. I have seen people in Burano making needle lace and I think it is as you describe. At the time I thought it was odd, but I wasn't really processing what I was seeing.
I guess I have done my part to expand the confusion by translating Vieux Flandre to Old Flanders. Yes, it is a catch all term as you say, referring to early Flemish laces before they diverged into distinctly different kinds.
In her book, Guide to Lace and Linens, Kurella calls the lace, the one with Rosaline type flowers, but a needle mesh, Vieux Flandre.
She says: The translation of Vieux Flandre is "Old Flanders". The name appears in Belgian lace shop books but rarely in textbooks. The most likely explanation for the name is that by the nineteenth century, techniques and names had been recycled so many times that merchants were running out of unique names for these combinations. The lace is a unique combination of bobbin and needle lace, and deserves a label. "Belgian Stew" is descriptive, but not glamorous enough.
Then I saw in my book on Liederkerke that they were calling this Oud-Vlaamse, which would be Flemish for Vieux Flandre. I am going to post two pages from Ghislaine Eemans-Moors book where she describes the Vieux Flandre that was made near Aalst and Liederkerke. These are near Zele which is famous for needle lace.
I am intrigued by Punto Milano. I haven't found it in the first three books I have looked at. Do you have a source that you know of? Also, why do you think the floral terminations look Italian, like Cantu?
Devon

Comment by Laurie Waters 13 hours ago

The reason the Burano mesh is square looking has to do with the way it is made. This is a pillow-made needlelace, rather than the handheld laces of Alencon and Belgium. In Burano a thread is passed across the pattern and pulled tight. The twisted stitches are made into the row below with the tip of the needle inserted under the straight thread before twisting the thread pulling through. You can then do one or two overcast stitches on this straight base.  It’s exactly the opposite of Alencon where you make the twisted stitch first, then do the overcasting into the top of that row on the return which produces a more hexagonal mesh.  I’ll do an IOLI article on this in the near future, for the moment I’m concentrating the hand-held needlelaces.

Comment by Karisse A. Moore 13 hours ago

Devon maybe the squareness of the ground could be an individual lace makers style or maybe they were having a bad day and their tension was tight? Thanks for the pictures and using ING.

Comment by Devon Thein 18 hours ago

What is it about the mesh of Burano that makes it look more brick like? That is always the descriptor. Also, frequently there is discussion about the fuzziness of the thread. Objectively, it looks to me as though the movements of the thread are the same. Work a row of twisted buttonhole stitches, then whip back. So do the Burano workers tension the whipping back part more strongly? Or are they doing something different, possibly a different order of work than I am envisioning. I am going to post three photos. One is from the Belgian piece that we were positing may have had the mesh put on in Burano, one from Alencon, which is unfortunately very orange because of camera setting problems, and one from Burano that is sort of yellowy looking because of the thread color. 

Comment by Lorelei Halley Administrator yesterday

Calling it Old Flanders gives it a name, but doesn't tell us anything about where this type of lace was made, or exactly when. There are some similar laces in Tebbs, but without close up photos that would give us more certainty. 

Comment by Laura Sandison yesterday

Great thanks Devon! 

Comment by Devon Thein yesterday

Many thanks to Elizabeth Kurella for identifying this as Vieux Flandre. She describes it in her book. Also, confirmation was found in the Rosaline book by Ghislaine Eemans-Moors. It seems that the Vieux Flandre was made in the same area as Rosaline, especially in Liedekerke, Begium. I also found the lace, identified as Oud-Vlamse Kant, which means the same thing, Old Flemish lace, only in Flemish, in the book Kloskant te Liedekerke by William Cobbaert. Unfortunately the book is entirely in Flemish but there are some very clear photos The photos show the brick like needle ground. I confess that I also thought the brick like needle ground seemed like Burano. In Santina Levey's book, on p. 112, there is an intriguing reference to some pieces made on the Venetian Island of Pellestrina. Referring to Jesurum, "In the early twentieth century the firm also made a version of the Rosaline bobbin lace of Belgium, although the table sets that were made at that time of a mixture of Burano needle lace and Rosaline, are known to have employed lace imported from Belgium." I am attaching a photo from Kloskant te Liedekerke of Oud-Vlaamse. (Everyone agrees that Old Flemish is a misnomer since it was a 19th and 20th century lace.)

Comment by Lorelei Halley Administrator on Friday

I have tried for years to find somebody who can tell me just exactly where and when this combination of methods occurred. I think it perfectly reasonable to date it as near 1900 -- the "revival era". But Belgian? Dutch? French? I have not been able to get any certainty. The lacemaker of the motifs clearly knows Duchesse technique, and possibly had some acquaintace with Rosaline ( the little holes in the cloth parts are more typical of Rosaline than Duchesse. The needle lace ground is a larger scale than one would expect, and that is true of the 3 pieces on my website, as is true also of your piece. I have been wondering if there was some school where this combination was done frequently, but have had absolutely no information. Your piece is just one more intriguing and frustrating example.

Comment by Lorelei Halley Administrator on Friday

Devon - I have seen a few examples of laces somewhat like these. I have 3 on my personal website: bobbin part lace with a needle lace ground. Some have rosaline-like motifs, others are more like a coarse type of Duchesse. One characteristic of Rosaline is that it has a winkiepin edge (pin after 2 threads). Your piece has a sewing edge (pin after 4).

http://lynxlace.com/bobbinlacerevivalerapart.html#revival%20era%20o...

rosaline: http://lynxlace.com/images/lace61.jpg

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