 |
From Elisa Ricci: Old Italian Lace, Vol. II London, Philadelphia
1913 p. 14-15:
"Even of late years, when a revival of artistic feeling seems to be stirring
in every field of work, although we are conscious of a renewed interest
being awakened in this delicate art, we are not able to locate the moving
spirit. Fifty years or so ago a woman in service at Cogne, Val d'Aosta,
taught two or three compatriots how to make bobbin-lace; these taught others.
During wintertime the women of that region employ themselves by making
simple laces which are sold in the neighbourhood and have given rise to
a local fashion of wearing a large collar of starched lace. The work is
done on a cylindrical cushion, empty inside, covered with striped material
which serves as guide to the worker who makes her lace without a design.
The pins are thick, with coloured heads. The rude cushion, the large pins,
and absence of design are sufficient to mark Cogne lace unmistakably.
Again at Sansepolcro in Arezzo, ten years or more ago, the two daughters
of the village schoolmaster learned from an old foreign woman how to make
bobbin-lace. To-day, by virtue of these industrious, clever girls, a lace-school
of pure Italian bobbin-work flourishes exceedingly at Sansepolcro, being
one of the best in the land. If within the century Cogne and Sansepolcro,
should become centres of an important industry, what satisfactory explanation
of their origin could they bring forward, had there been no written record
of these beginnings?" |
