Handmade Lace & the Forgotten Women Behind the Trade

Evolving from other domestic fiber art such as embroidery and cutwork, the two distinct lace techniques—needle lace and bobbin lace—emerged simultaneously.

In the simplest of terms, needle lace is constructed by using a single needle, thread, and hundreds, if not thousands, of small stitches to develop the desired design. Punto in aria, or stitch in air, was the earliest form of needle lace with the woven web of thread having the capacity to be snipped from the baseted fabric or parchment. 

Bobbin lace utilizes a pillow, thread, countless pins, and dozens of bobbins; plaiting and twisting the many threads to intertwine its intricate pattern. Most techniques and styles for the lace are named after the cities of their inception, such as Chantilly, Mechlin, Brussels, and Honiton. However, with the growing consumer demand for innovative motifs and quality, the production of city-specific laces could be manufactured in varying regions thanks in part to the accessibility of lace pattern books. 

La Pompe: Opera Nova and Nûw Modelbuch, Allerley Gattungen Däntelschnür (New Pattern Book of All Kinds of Bobbin Laces), gave lacemakers an exemplary template for favored designs; enhancing not only techniques but also introducing and diversifying the breadth of motifs into their repertoire.

So, who were the artists behind the lace? The greats that dedicated countless hours of repetitive stitching, twisting, or weaving which spurred a textile revolution and economic growth? Unfortunately, the answer is lost to history. Considered neither artists nor masters, lacemakers were generally average women manufacturing either from their home or within a religious order. Guild representation was also never an option for these makers. As a meditative craft of patience and control, lace-making was associated with the historical tenets of morality and femininity; women were expected to be modest, passive, submissive, delicate, and pious. Nicholaes Maes’ domestic scene, The Lacemaker, emphasizes these notions with the young mother who is simultaneously attentive to her plaiting of bobbins and her young baby. 

Despite its status as a gendered hobby, lace was considered a gender-neutral adornment until the late eighteenth century and was a coveted textile throughout Europe. Starched, stacked, or single collars; cuffs; edging details; and entire gowns—lace knew no bounds. Even restrictive sumptuary laws on the lower classes between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries could not slow the spreading web of the lace market. Epitomizing the dazzling spectacle of lace, Matthias de Visch's copy of Martin van Meytens’ Portrait of Empress Maria Theresa highlights the use of an unfathomable yardage of bobbin lace, giving insight into her remarkable political and economic prowess. The inclusion of so much lace represents the Empress’s identity as a monarch, emphasizes her status, and literally represents the lucrative industry within her domain. Some scholars have suggested that the copious amount of lace was also meant to align the monarch with the idealized feminine and the domesticity associated with the trade.

With the gendered undertones of lacemaking, regardless of whether it was produced as a sampler or purchased for elite finery, the politics of this textile can be traced through every stitch and ornamentation. While there are little to no women who can be singled out as leaders of the trade, the legacy of their work lives on. 

Seventeenth-century Dutch poet, Jacob van Eyck summarizes the skill and beauty of hand-made lace-making best: "Of many arts, one surpasses all; the threads woven by the strange power of the hand, threads which the dropping spider would in vain attempt to imitate, and which Pallas would confess she had never known.”