Hand-Crafted Italian Lace Collar, Late 1800s
date: label: date made
content: end of 19th century
notes: label: Description
content: This hand-crafted lace collar, owned by Virginia Livingston Hunt, was made at the Lace School on the island of Burano, near Venice, Italy, in the late 1800s. Venice was a center for the production of fine needle lace from the late 1500s through the 1600s. French needle lace overtook Venetian styles in popularity during the 1700s, and lace-making skills began to die out in Italy. In 1872, a lace making school opened on Burano to revive traditional techniques. It was a charitable effort to attempt to improve the island’s economy by making and selling laces of cotton that imitated the linen needle laces of previous centuries. On close inspection you can see that the thickness of the cotton thread varies; also the <i>reseau</i> (net-like ground) is made with looped threads rather than with buttonhole stitches. Both of these characteristics identify the lace as Burano. Collars such as this, or collar-and-cuff sets, were popular clothing accessories in the 1800s and even into the 20th century, as they could be used to vary the appearance of a dress.
place: label: place made
content: Italy
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Textiles
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content: Lace
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content: Textiles
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content: Many Voices, One Nation
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Miss Virginia Livingston Hunt
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TE.T11840A
label: catalog number
content: T11840.00A
label: accession number
content: 198210
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Lace
label: Object Name
content: lace, collar
label: Object Type
content: lace
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall at tips: 1 in; 2.54 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall at neck edge: 28 3/8 in x 4 1/4 in; 72.0725 cm x 10.795 cm