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"In
the early laces, fashion required that metallic threads be used, occasionally
with the addition of coloured silks. Less favoured in other countries,
these polychrome, gold, and silver laces attained a popularity in Spain
which, with the exception of the blondas or silk laces, has never been
surpassed there by any other class of lace. The name by which this group
is usually designated is punto de España, a term which has led to
several popular misconceptions of Spanish lace.
No matter how conservative, an estimate of the amount of metallic laces employed during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries would seem fantastic. Whenever a decree on dress was given out, there was almost always certain to be in it a censure by the sovereign on the continual use of gold and silver. In contemporary chronicles pages were devoted to detailed descriptions of the costumes, with their metallic decorations, which enhanced silk and velvet alike. A typical instance is the report of the welcome tendered Mary of Portugal, betrothed of Prince Philip, at Badajoz in 1543 by the Duke of Medina Sidonia and his richly-dressed train. For the occasion, the Princess, attended by fourteen ladies-in-waiting, ten compatriots and four Castilians, wore a velvet Castilian cape and a ruff of gold net sewn with pearls, and on her head was a net of similar work . At Valencia in 1599 great pomp also marked the wedding celebrations of Philip the Third and Margaret of Austria. On the liveries and costly clothing gleamed yards of gold and silver trimming nor did the banners, devices, and horse trappings lack for their share of rich ornament Pedro Fernandez Navarrete, discussing the restoration of economic prosperity to Spain, remarked on the excessive use of silver trimmings in that country. In the first quarter of the seventeenth century, the use of silk and metallic passementerie was restricted to women's wardrobes, but the ruling was temporarily suspended when, accompanied by the Duke of Buckingham, the Prince of Wales arrived at Madrid to pay court to Maria, sister of Philip the Fourth. About thirty years afterward, a traveler in Spain noticed that silver laces formed part of the trappings of the King's horses (1I6). Even so fragile an article as the screen-shaped fan of the period had an edging of this kind of lace. |
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To the English F anshawes, tarrying at Cadiz in 1664, were brought "crimson taffeta clothes, laced with silver laces" and, on the occasion of Sir Richard's presentation of his credentials to the King at Madrid, his Lady writes that he wore "a very rich suit of clothes of a dark fillemorte brocade laced with silver and gold lace, nine laces, everyone as broad as my hand, and a little silver and gold lace laid between them, both of very curious workmanship" The laws, repeatedly directed against the use of gold and silver, turned the attention of lace makers to flax thread as a substitute and, with this new medium, came the opportunity to create elaborate designs. However, it was not until the eighteenth century, with the definite increase of silk and linen laces, that metallic laces began to lose their widespread appeal, to be limited eventually to braids and galloons. It was for a long time believed that punto de Espana, better known by the French spelling, point d' Espagne, meant either guipure, or needle laces of gold and silver threads. Contrary to general opinion, bobbins were used much more than the needle. A number of important seventeenthcentury specimens may be found in the Mush Historique des Tissus at Lyons. One of the characteristics of this work , when made with bobbins, is the lack of a mesh ground;in this respect it may be classed as passsememterie, although it is not of so simple a composition as that made entirely without tools. It is said that these laces required special bobbins, some twenty centimeters in length and of an unusual thickness. Because of its heavy lines and simple designs, gu8ipure is thought to be indirectly decended from punto de España." The above text is quoted from the Book "Hispanic Lace and Lacemaking by Florence May |
