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 Wedding handkerchief of linen trimmed with Youghal lace | |
| Type | Lace |
|---|---|
| Production method | Needle lace |
| Production process | Craft production |
| Place of origin | Youghal, Ireland. |
| Introduced | 1845 |
Youghal lace (or Point d'Irlande) is a needle lace inspired by Italian needle lace and developed in Youghal, County Cork, Ireland.
Youghal Lace was perhaps the most successful of the nineteenth century Irish needlelaces. In 1845 Mother Mary Ann Smith (d.1872), one of the Presentation Sisters, unpicked some Italian lace to discover the techniques used to make it, and then taught them to local women. [1] The Convent Lace School was opened in Youghal in 1852. [2] Youghal lace was made to a high standard and employed a wide variety of motifs. It was therefore able to survive as a commercial product until the First World War, which saw the general demise of handmade lacemaking. [3]
Youghal Lace is considered a true lace as it is created with a sewing needle and thread only. It was created in Youghal and Kenmare. [4] It was mostly used for fans, collars, cuffs and ecclesiastical trimmings. It is a flat needlepoint lace with no cordon nets. It uses a ladder like buttonhole stitches around each motif and edges decorated with a 'Venetian Stitch' or knotted border. The designs are primarily of flowers such as roses, anemones and fuchsia, with spiky shaped leaves. The shading of the petals are a result of the closeness of the buttonhole stitches. [5] There were at least fifty distinct stitches associated with Youghal Lace. [6]
Among the finest pieces of lace made in Youghal was a train for Queen Mary worn on her visit to India in 1911. The skill of lace making is still retained in Youghal to this day. There is no written record of either the stitches or the general technique at the Convents themselves. In 1863, a shawl of Youghal Lace was given to Alexandra of Denmark on her wedding. In 1888, a Rocket and Altar trimming created in Youghal for the Bishops of Ireland as a gift to Pope Leo XIII was awarded a gold medal at the Vatican Exhibition. [7]
The following are known work relating to Youghal Lace in collections:
Pat Earnshaw has written two books, Youghal and other Irish Lace [9] and Youghal Lace, the craft and the cream. [6]
Embroidery is the craft of decorating fabric or other materials using a needle to apply thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. In modern days, embroidery is usually seen on caps, hats, coats, overlays, blankets, dress shirts, denim, dresses, stockings, scarfs, and golf shirts. Embroidery is available in a wide variety of thread or yarn colour. It is often used to personalize gifts or clothing items.
Drawn thread work is one of the earliest forms of open work embroidery, and has been worked throughout Europe. Originally it was often used for ecclesiastical items and to ornament shrouds. It is a form of counted-thread embroidery based on removing threads from the warp and/or the weft of a piece of even-weave fabric. The remaining threads are grouped or bundled together into a variety of patterns. The more elaborate styles of drawn thread work use a variety of other stitches and techniques, but the drawn thread parts are their most distinctive element. It is also grouped with whitework embroidery because it was traditionally done in white thread on white fabric and is often combined with other whitework techniques.
Lace is a delicate fabric made of yarn or thread in an open weblike pattern, made by machine or by hand. Generally, lace is divided into two main categories, needlelace and bobbin lace, although there are other types of lace, such as knitted or crocheted lace. Other laces such as these are considered as a category of their specific craft. Knitted lace, therefore, is an example of knitting. This article considers both needle lace and bobbin lace.
Bobbin lace is a lace textile made by braiding and twisting lengths of thread, which are wound on bobbins to manage them. As the work progresses, the weaving is held in place with pins set in a lace pillow, the placement of the pins usually determined by a pattern or pricking pinned on the pillow.
Needle lace is a type of lace created using a needle and thread to create hundreds of small stitches to form the lace itself.
Needlepoint is a type of canvas work, a form of embroidery in which yarn is stitched through a stiff open weave canvas. Traditionally needlepoint designs completely cover the canvas. Although needlepoint may be worked in a variety of stitches, many needlepoint designs use only a simple tent stitch and rely upon color changes in the yarn to construct the pattern. Needlepoint is the oldest form of canvas work.
Armenian needlelace is a pure form of needle lace made using only a needle, thread and pair of scissors.
Tønder lace is a point-ground type of handmade bobbin lace identified with the Tønder region of Denmark since about 1850, although lace of many types has been made there since as early as 1650. The term is also used more broadly, to refer to any bobbin lace made in Denmark.
Hollie point is an English needle lace noted for its use in baby clothes, particularly in the 18th century. It is also known as Holy point, because it was originally used in liturgical laces. The Puritans were the first to make common usage of Hollie point beginning in the reign of James I.
Point de Gaze is a needle lace from Belgium named for the gauze-like appearance of the mesh ground. It was made from the early to mid 1800s to sometime between 1914 and the 1930s.
Limerick lace is a specific class of lace originating in Limerick, Ireland, which was later produced throughout the country. It evolved from the invention of a machine which made net in 1808. Until John Heathcoat invented a net-making machine in Devon in 1815, handmade net was a very expensive fabric. This meant cheap net became available to Irish lacemakers, particularly after 1823 when Heathcoat's patent expired.
Reticella is a needle lace dating from the 15th century and remaining popular into the first quarter of the 17th century.
Torchon lace is a bobbin lace that was made all over Europe. It is continuous, with the pattern made at the same time as the ground. Typical basic stitches include whole stitch, half stitch, and twists, and common motifs include spiders and fans. Torchon lace was notable historically for being coarse and strong, as well as consisting of simple geometric patterns and straight lines. It did not use representational designs, for the most part.
English embroidery includes embroidery worked in England or by English people abroad from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day. The oldest surviving English embroideries include items from the early 10th century preserved in Durham Cathedral and the 11th century Bayeux Tapestry, if it was worked in England. The professional workshops of Medieval England created rich embroidery in metal thread and silk for ecclesiastical and secular uses. This style was called Opus Anglicanum or "English work", and was famous throughout Europe.
Kenmare lace is a handmade needlepoint lace originally made in Kenmare, Ireland. In the 19th century, sisters of the Poor Clare convent, under the leadership of Mary O'Hagan introduced needlepoint lace to the women and girls of the locality. It was a response to the poverty that followed the Great Famine. The initiative was of immeasurable help to the people of the area in those difficult years.
Irish lace has always been an important part of the Irish needlework tradition. Both needlepoint and bobbin laces were made in Ireland before the middle of the eighteenth century, but never, apparently, on a commercial scale. It was promoted by Irish aristocrats such as Lady Arabella Denny, the famous philanthropist, who used social and political connections to support the new industry and promote the sale of Irish lace abroad. Lady Denny, working in connection with the Dublin Society, introduced lace-making into the Dublin workhouses, especially among the children there. It is thought that it was an early form of Crochet, imitating the appearance of Venetian Gros Point lace.
Battenberg lace is a type of tape lace. It is of American origin, designed and first made by Sara Hadley of New York. This American lace was named either in honor of the wedding of Princess Beatrice, Queen Victoria's youngest daughter, to Prince Henry of Battenberg, or from [sic] the widowed Princess Beatrice. It is made using bobbins and needles, or just needles alone.The original Battenberg lace used just one stitich: buttonhole picot. Other stitches that were later used include flat wheel and rings or "buttons".
Lace machines took over the commercial manufacture of lace during the nineteenth century.
The term Hedebo embroidery covers several forms of white embroidery which originated in the Hedebo (heathland) region of Zealand, Denmark, in the 1760s. The varied techniques which evolved over the next hundred years in the farming community were subsequently developed by the middle classes until around 1820. They were applied to articles of clothing such as collars and cuffs but were also used to decorate bed linen.
Milanese bobbin lace is a textile used as a fashion accessory or a decorative trim, first becoming popular in the 17th and 18th centuries in Milan. Lacemaking was an important economic activity in Northern Italy, besides touching on social status matters as well as being a culturally significant art form. The earliest versions of the lace consisted of the tape mostly filling the space. Typical characteristics of Milanese bobbin lace are scrolls made with curving clothwork tapes and floral motifs, and sometimes also consisting of human or animal figures. Sometimes needle lace techniques were combined with the bobbin lace pieces to create the final product.
Lace types | |||||||||
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| Needle lace |
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| Bobbin lace |
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| Tape lace | |||||||||
| Crocheted lace | |||||||||
| Machine-made lace | |||||||||
| Other handmade laces | |||||||||
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