LACE

see captionXXTAPIZOF CRIMSON VELVET WORKED IN GOLD TISSUE(16th Century. Monastery of Las Huelgas, Burgos)

XXTAPIZOF CRIMSON VELVET WORKED IN GOLD TISSUE(16th Century. Monastery of Las Huelgas, Burgos)

It is perhaps allowable to include among the oldest makers of Spanish tapestry the names of Gonzalo de Mesa and Diego Roman, who, inthe year 1331, were paid respectively one thousandmaravedisand eighteen hundredmaravedis, for decorating the tents of King Sancho the Fourth. There also exists the following entry, dating from the same period; “To Boançibre, master of the tents; XXXmaravedisfor his food, for fifteen days.”[44]

Far clearer than these laconic excerpts is a document preserved in the library of the Academy of History at Madrid, in the form of a memorial presented to Philip the Second by a Spanish tapestry-maker of Salamanca, named Pedro Gutierrez,[45]and setting forth, in pessimistic language, the unhappy condition of this craft in the Peninsula. Pedro relates of himself that in twenty-four days he made for the Cardinal-archduke no less than a hundred and twentyreposteros; and that in order to exhibit his cleverness as atapestry-weaver, he set up a loom in the royal palace (being officially thetapiceroto the Crown), and worked for forty days where all might criticise the product of his toil. Gutierrez also states that the township of Madrid had provided him with six hundred ducats to enable him to establish there a tapestry-factory for the space of ten years, together with six hundred and fifty ducats from the Cortes for supporting his apprentices, and a thousand ducats from the king to defray the cost of certain voyages he had made to Lisbon, Monzón, and Barcelona, and of removing his residence from Salamanca to the capital of Spain. He complains, however, that the house he dwells in at Madrid is not large enough to contain his loom, and replies to the objections of such persons as opposed his opening the tapestry-works at all (on the ground that this craft was practised better and more cheaply in Flanders), by asserting that Spanish makers ofreposteroswere now accustomed to receive a daily wage of no more than threerealesand “a miserable meal.” This, he urges, should render Spanish tapestries at least as inexpensive to produce as those of Flanders; although, upon the other hand, he admits that the colouring of the former is likely to prove inferior to theFlemish cloths in purity and durability. “Common tapestry,” he says, “seldom keeps its colour upward of a couple of years, so that, if such were used in open sunlight on the backs of beasts of burden, or to cover carts, exposed to sun, wind, dust, and mire, or else for cleaning shoes upon, as now is practised with thereposteros, their imperfections would become apparent all the sooner.”

Mention of these typically Spanish objects known asreposteros,[46]induces me to quote an interesting notice relating to the visit of Philip the Second to Cordova, in the year 1570. The train of the Duke of Medina Sidonia, who journeyed to this city in order to receive his sovereign, consisted of a hundred and three mules covered with “newreposterosof wool, and of six mulescovered withreposterosof purple velvet, embroidered with silver and gold, and bearing the duke's arms.”

If, as seems most likely, the woollenreposterosabove referred to were of woven work containing a device, this passage would demonstrate that the manufacture of the cloths in question was sometimes the province of the tapestry-maker and sometimes that of the embroiderer. Ramírez de Arellano, from whose instructive studies on the craftsmen of older Spain I quote the foregoing extract, says that the making ofreposterosconstitutes a branch of craftsmanship distinct from embroidery of the common class, and that the men who produced them deserve to be included among artists of real merit. He gives the names of two, Hernán Gonzalez and Juan Ramos, who worked at Cordova in the middle of the sixteenth century. A document relating to the former of these men tells us that in those days the price of arepostero de estambremeasuring sixteen palms square, with a coat-of-arms worked in the centre, and a decorative border, was ninetyreales.

see captionXXITHE SPINNERS(By Velazquez. Prado Gallery)

XXITHE SPINNERS(By Velazquez. Prado Gallery)

Riaño says: “I do not find any information of a later date which suggests the existence of the manufacture of tapestries in Spain during theMiddle Ages.” Davillier, however, affirms that in the year 1411 two master-makers of tapestry were living at the court of the King of Navarre, and that other craftsmen, holding the same title, were established at Barcelona in 1391 and 1433. This notice is accepted by Müntz: “A la fin du XIVeet au commencement du XVesiècle, les Espagnols tentèrent de fonder dans leur patrie quelques ateliers de haute lisse. A Barcelone, en 1391 et en 1433, plusieurs tapissiers (maestros de tapices) firent partie du grand Conseil. Mais ces tentaves ne semblent pas avoir eu de résultats durables. Il était plus commode de recourir aux manufactures flamandes, si merveilleusement organisées. Peut-être même ce système était-il plus économique. Ne voyons-nous pas aujourd'hui jusqu'à l'extrême Orient tirer, pour raison d'économie, des fabriques de Manchester et de Birmingham les tissus courants dont il a besoin?”

The history of tapestry-making at Madrid may be said to date from the establishment in this town of a small factory by Pedro Gutierrez, whose petition to Philip the Second I have already quoted, and who received protection both from that monarch and from the queen, Doña Ana. In 1625 Gutierrez was succeeded by AntonioCeron, who formally styled himself “tapicero de nuevo, sucesor de Pedro Gutierrez” (“maker of new tapestries, successor to Pedro Gutierrez”), and petitioned the king for the grant of a meal a day, “in recompense of having taught his trade to eight lads, and of having mounted eight looms in (the factory of) Santa Isabel.” This factory of Santa Isabel was so called from the street in which it lay, and part of it is represented in the celebrated painting by Velazquez calledLas Hilanderas(“The Spinners,” not, as it is translated in Riaño's handbook, “The Weavers.” Plate xxi.).

This factory was unsuccessful, and declined by degrees until it ceased completely, in spite of the efforts made to revive it in 1694 by a Belgian named Metler, and in 1707 by a Salamanquino, Nicholas Hernández.

see captionXXIITAPESTRY MADE AT BRUSSELS FROM GRANADA SILK(16th Century. Spanish Crown Collection)

XXIITAPESTRY MADE AT BRUSSELS FROM GRANADA SILK(16th Century. Spanish Crown Collection)

A new tapestry-factory—that of Santa Barbara—was founded shortly afterwards in a building known as the Casa del Abreviador. The first director, engaged in 1720 by order of Philip the Fifth, was Jacob Van der Goten, a native of Antwerp,[47]who died in 1724, and was succeededat the factory by his sons, Francisco, Jacobo, Cornelius, and Adrian. These craftsmen worked withbasse lisselooms till 1729, in which year ahaute lisseloom was mounted by a Frenchman, Antoine Lenger.

In 1730, when the court removed to Seville, a tapestry-factory was established at this city also. The director was Jacob Van der Goten the younger, assisted by the painter Procaccini. At the end of three years this factory closed its doors, and Van der Goten and Procaccini, returning to Madrid, established themselves at the old factory of Santa Isabel, from which, in 1744, they again removed to the factory of Santa Barbara.[48]

In 1774, when, with the exception of Cornelius,who was considered the most skilful of them all, the family of the Van der Gotens had died out, the direction of the Santa Barbara factory was entrusted to several Spanish artists, named Manuel Sanchez, Antonio Moreno, Tomás del Castillo, and Domingo Galan. Sanchez, who acted as general superintendent of the works, died in 1786, and was succeeded in this office by his nephew, Livinio Stuck, whose son resumed the directorship in 1815, after the factory had been paralysed by the invasion of the Peninsula, and destroyed by the French in 1808. Since then it has never ceased working, and descendants of the Stucks continue to superintend it at the present day.

see captionXXIIIA PROMENADE IN ANDALUSIA(Cartoon for Tapestry. By Goya)

XXIIIA PROMENADE IN ANDALUSIA(Cartoon for Tapestry. By Goya)

The collection of tapestry belonging to the Crown of Spain is probably the finest in the world. As far back as the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the walls of the royal palace were hung with decorative textile cloths orpaños de Ras, and among the officers in the household of their son, the youthful Prince Don Juan, we findincluded a keeper of the tapestry andreposteros. But it was not until the reigns of Charles the Fifth and Philip the Second that the royal collection was enriched with numerous sets of celebrated tapestries produced in Italy and Flanders—countries which were then subjected to the yoke of Spain. Frequent additions were also made throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, both from abroad and subsequently (when the Brussels industry declined) from the Spanish factories of Santa Isabel and Santa Barbara.

As early as the year 1600 a Spaniard wrote enthusiastically of “the rich and cunning tapestries belonging to His Majesty, to whom it would be easier to win a kingdom than to get them made anew.”[49]At the present day it is impossible to estimate with any certainty the number of these tapestries, the greater part of which are locked away. Only on certain festivals, such as the days of Corpus Christi and the Candelaria (Purification), a few are unfolded and displayed in the upper galleries of the palace at Madrid. Their total number is believed to be not far short of onethousand pieces;[50]but Señor Tormo calculates that were they no more than five hundred, they would, if placed end to end, cover more than two miles of ground.

Among the sets which form this wonderful collection, distributed between the palaces of Madrid, the Prado, and the Escorial, none is of greater merit or magnificence than the series of twelve cloths depicting theConquest of Tunis(Platexxii.), designed for Charles the Fifth by his Court painter, Jan Vermay or Vermeyen, of Beverwyck, near Haarlem, and executed by William Pannemaker, of Brussels. It was agreed by Pannemaker in 1549 that the materials employed upon this tapestry should consist of the finest wool, Granada silk, and, for the woof, the choicest Lyonsfillet—the very best that money could procure. The Emperor himself was to provide the gold and silver thread. Accordingly, Pannemaker was supplied with five hundred and fifty-nine pounds and one ounce of silk, dyed and spun in the city of Granada, where one of Charles' agentsresided for two years seven months and twenty-five days, for the purpose of superintending its preparation. The cost of this silk, exclusive of the agent's expenses, amounted to 6,637 florins. Nineteen colours were employed in the dyeing, each colour consisting of from three to seven shades, and a hundred and sixty pounds of the finest silk were consumed in trying to obtain a special shade of blue.

After receiving these materials, Pannemaker kept seven workmen constantly engaged upon eachpañoof this tapestry, or eighty-four workmen in all. As soon as any one of the pieces was concluded, he submitted it to experts who pointed out such details as they recommended for correction. The entire work required a little more than five years, and was therefore terminated in 1554. The price paid for it was twelve florins per ell, and the number of these was 1246, representing a total cost of 14,952 florins, while Pannemaker, subject to the Emperor's being satisfied with the work, was further promised a yearly pension of a hundred florins.[51]

Equally remarkable are the spirited design andthe flawless execution of this series of elaborate cloths, recalling, in their swarms of armed figures and the lofty point of view, which reduces the sky to a mere strip, the vivacious war and camp pictures of Snyders. The titles of the subjects, forming, as it were, a pictured epitome of the expedition led by Charles in person against the Barbary pirates, are as follows: (1) A map of the Spanish coast; (2) The review of the troops at Barcelona; (3) The landing of the forces; (4) A skirmish; (5) The camp; (6) Foraging; (7) The capture of La Goleta; (8) The battle of Los Pozos, Tunis; (9) A sortie of the besieged; (10) The sack of Tunis; (11) The victors returning to the harbour; (12) The forces embarking.

According to Müntz, this tapestry has been copied at least on two occasions; once in the eighteenth century by Josse de Vos, of Brussels, and also, in the same century, in Spain, partly at Seville, and partly at the factories of Santa Isabel and Santa Barbara.

see captionXXIVTAPESTRY. ARRAS WORK, FROM ITALIAN CARTOONS(First half of 15th Century. Zamora Cathedral)

XXIVTAPESTRY. ARRAS WORK, FROM ITALIAN CARTOONS(First half of 15th Century. Zamora Cathedral)

Other most valuable and beautiful tapestries belonging to the Spanish Crown are the series titledThe History of the Virgin, believed to be from cartoons by Van Eyk,The Passion, fromcartoons attributed to Van der Weyden, theHistory of DavidandHistory of Saint John the Baptist, theMass of Saint Gregory, and theFounding of Rome. All of these series date from the fifteenth century and early in the sixteenth. Belonging to a later period are the reproductions of rustic scenes and hunting subjects by Teniers and others, executed in Spain between 1721 and 1724, theScenes from Don Quixote, made at Santa Barbara from Procaccini's cartoons, and the eminently national series produced at the same factory from designs by Francisco Goya y Lucientes. This latter group amounts to several dozen pieces, including the well-knownBlind Man's Buff,A Promenade in Andalusia(Platexxiii.),The Crockery-seller,The Grape-Gatherers(Frontispiece), and other spirited and charming scenes of popular Spanish life—“tout cela,” as Lefort describes it, “spirituel, vif, pittoresque, très mouvementé, bien groupé, s'élevant sur des fonds champêtres ou baignant gaiement en pleine lumière.”

Other tapestry collections of great merit belong to the cathedrals of Burgos, Zamora (where they line the walls of the Sacristy; Plate xxiv.), Zaragoza, Toledo, Tarragona, and Santiago. The first of these temples possesses the following sets,which are displayed to decorate the cloisters on the feast of Corpus Christi:—

(1) The History of Cleopatra and Mark Antony.(2) The History of David.(3) The Creation.(4) An Historical Subject.(5) The Theological and Cardinal Virtues.(6) A series of five Gothic tapestries, which represent some mystery or allegory, and seem to be of Flemish manufacture. One otherpaño, of a similar character, accompanies them.

(1) The History of Cleopatra and Mark Antony.

(2) The History of David.

(3) The Creation.

(4) An Historical Subject.

(5) The Theological and Cardinal Virtues.

(6) A series of five Gothic tapestries, which represent some mystery or allegory, and seem to be of Flemish manufacture. One otherpaño, of a similar character, accompanies them.

see captionXXVFLEMISH TAPESTRY(Late 15th Century. Collection of the late Count of Valencia de Don Juan)

XXVFLEMISH TAPESTRY(Late 15th Century. Collection of the late Count of Valencia de Don Juan)

All but the last of the above sets are marked with two B's separated by a shield, denoting Brussels workmanship. TheTheological and Cardinal Virtueswere presented to the cathedral about the end of the sixteenth century. They are evidently executed from Italian cartoons, and thehaute-lissecraftsman who made them, in or towards the year 1571, was named Francis Greubels.[52]

The tapestries which belong to the cathedral ofZaragoza number some sixty or seventy pieces, including a series (fifteenth century) representingThe Life of Saint John the Baptist, from designs by Lucas of Holland. Good tapestries were also the property of Valencia cathedral, but have been dispersed and sold in recent years. The convent of the Descalzas Reales at Madrid possesses a set from designs by Rubens. Ten pieces of this series formerly belonged to the Count-Duke of Olivares, who sent them to his town of Loeches; four passing subsequently to the Duke of Westminster's collection. The small though valuable collection formed by the late Count of Valencia de Don Juan (Platexxv.), passed at this nobleman's death to his daughter, Señora de Osma, who has presented part of it to the Archæological Museum at Madrid. Another collector resident in Spain, Mons. Mersmann, of Granada, possesses a series of fine Brussels cloths representing scenes fromDon Quixote, by Van den Hecke.

Footnotes:[42]“A côté de l'Italie, il faut citer l'Espagne, tributaire comme elle des ateliers flamands. Les résidences royales regorgeaient de ces précieux tissus, qui aujourd'hui encore, à Madrid ou à l'Escurial, se chiffrent par centaines. Parmi les présents que le roi de Castille envoya à Tamerlan († 1405), on remarquait des tapisseries dont les portraits étaient faits avec tant de délicatesse, dit un chroniqueur persan, que si on voulait leur comparer les ouvrages merveilleux autrefois exécutés par le peintre Mani sur la toile d'Artène, Mani serait couvert de honte et ses ouvrages paraîtraient difformes.”—Müntz,La Tapisserie, p. 172.[43]A Portuguese word meaning a strip of silk upon the back of a chasuble.[44]Manuel G. Simancas,Artistas Castellanos del Siglo XIII(Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Excursionesfor January, 1905.)[45]At about the same time that this petition was presented by Gutierrez, another tapestry-maker named Pedro de Espinosa, a native of Iniesta, was living at Cordova. On February 2nd, 1560, he married Leonor de Burgos, and received as dowry from his bride the sum of thirty-five thousandmaravedis. (Ramírez de Arellano,Artistas Exhumados, published in theBoletín de la Sociedad Española de Excursiones.)[46]“Reposteros,” says Riaño, “is the ancient name given to the hangings which are placed outside the balconies on state occasions in Spain. Several splendid examples of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries may still be seen at the houses of Spanish grandees, of which those belonging to the Conde de Oñate and Marques de Alcañices at Madrid are the most remarkable for their artistic design.”It is surprising that Riaño should insert so incomplete a definition of this word, whose primitive and proper meaning, according to the Dictionary of the Spanish Academy, is “a square piece of cloth with the arms of a prince or Señor, which serves for covering baggage carried by beasts of burden, and also for hanging in antechambers.” See also Vol. II., p.16(note) of the present work.[47]The royal contract with the elder Van der Goten, dated July 30th, 1720, was the result of secret negotiations, and largely brought about by the influence of Philip's minister, Cardinal Alberoni.[48]“On Saturday, May 27th, passing through the gate of Saint Barbara, I visited the tapestry manufactory, which resembles, and equals in beauty, the Gobelins, whence it originally came. I found a Frenchman at the head of it, who was civil and communicative. This fabric was brought into Spain, and established here under the direction of John de Van Dergoten, from Antwerp, in the year 1720. They now employ fourscore hands, and work only on the king's account, and for his palaces, making and repairing all the tapestry and carpets which are wanted at any of theSitios, or royal residences.”—Townsend, in 1786.“The elegant manufacture of tapestry is carried on without Saint Barbe's gate, at the entrance of the promenade of Los Altos, or Chamberi; it was established in 1720 by Philip the Fifth, at whose invitation John Dergoten, of Antwerp, was induced to undertake its superintendence, an office at present filled by his descendants. The productions of this manufactory are carpets and tapestry, the subjects of which are often drawn from fable or history; it sometimes copies pictures executed by superior artists, and affords daily employment to eighty persons, including dyers, drawers, designers, and all its various branches.”—Laborde (about 1800).[49]Licentiate Gaspar Gutierrez de los Ríos,Noticia general para la estimación de las Artes y de la manera en que se conocen las liberales de las que son mecánicas y serviles.[50]Riaño estimates them at this number. See hisReport on a collection of photographs from tapestries of the Royal Palace of Madrid; London, 1875; and alsoTapices de la Corona de España, with 135 plates in phototype, and text by Count Valencia de Don Juan; Madrid, Hauser and Menet, 1903.[51]Müntz,La Tapisserie, pp. 217, 218. Wauters,Les Tapisseries Bruxelloises, pp. 76, 77. Houdoy,Tapisseries représentant la Conqueste du Royaulme de Thunes par l'empereur Charles-Quint.[52]See an article on these tapestries by Señor Lamperez y Romea, published in No. 55 of theBoletín de la Sociedad Española de Excursiones; and also Nos. 156 and 157 of the same publication, for an article on the Crown and other Spanish collections, by Elías Tormo y Monzó.

Footnotes:

[42]“A côté de l'Italie, il faut citer l'Espagne, tributaire comme elle des ateliers flamands. Les résidences royales regorgeaient de ces précieux tissus, qui aujourd'hui encore, à Madrid ou à l'Escurial, se chiffrent par centaines. Parmi les présents que le roi de Castille envoya à Tamerlan († 1405), on remarquait des tapisseries dont les portraits étaient faits avec tant de délicatesse, dit un chroniqueur persan, que si on voulait leur comparer les ouvrages merveilleux autrefois exécutés par le peintre Mani sur la toile d'Artène, Mani serait couvert de honte et ses ouvrages paraîtraient difformes.”—Müntz,La Tapisserie, p. 172.

[43]A Portuguese word meaning a strip of silk upon the back of a chasuble.

[44]Manuel G. Simancas,Artistas Castellanos del Siglo XIII(Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Excursionesfor January, 1905.)

[45]At about the same time that this petition was presented by Gutierrez, another tapestry-maker named Pedro de Espinosa, a native of Iniesta, was living at Cordova. On February 2nd, 1560, he married Leonor de Burgos, and received as dowry from his bride the sum of thirty-five thousandmaravedis. (Ramírez de Arellano,Artistas Exhumados, published in theBoletín de la Sociedad Española de Excursiones.)

[46]“Reposteros,” says Riaño, “is the ancient name given to the hangings which are placed outside the balconies on state occasions in Spain. Several splendid examples of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries may still be seen at the houses of Spanish grandees, of which those belonging to the Conde de Oñate and Marques de Alcañices at Madrid are the most remarkable for their artistic design.”It is surprising that Riaño should insert so incomplete a definition of this word, whose primitive and proper meaning, according to the Dictionary of the Spanish Academy, is “a square piece of cloth with the arms of a prince or Señor, which serves for covering baggage carried by beasts of burden, and also for hanging in antechambers.” See also Vol. II., p.16(note) of the present work.

It is surprising that Riaño should insert so incomplete a definition of this word, whose primitive and proper meaning, according to the Dictionary of the Spanish Academy, is “a square piece of cloth with the arms of a prince or Señor, which serves for covering baggage carried by beasts of burden, and also for hanging in antechambers.” See also Vol. II., p.16(note) of the present work.

[47]The royal contract with the elder Van der Goten, dated July 30th, 1720, was the result of secret negotiations, and largely brought about by the influence of Philip's minister, Cardinal Alberoni.

[48]“On Saturday, May 27th, passing through the gate of Saint Barbara, I visited the tapestry manufactory, which resembles, and equals in beauty, the Gobelins, whence it originally came. I found a Frenchman at the head of it, who was civil and communicative. This fabric was brought into Spain, and established here under the direction of John de Van Dergoten, from Antwerp, in the year 1720. They now employ fourscore hands, and work only on the king's account, and for his palaces, making and repairing all the tapestry and carpets which are wanted at any of theSitios, or royal residences.”—Townsend, in 1786.“The elegant manufacture of tapestry is carried on without Saint Barbe's gate, at the entrance of the promenade of Los Altos, or Chamberi; it was established in 1720 by Philip the Fifth, at whose invitation John Dergoten, of Antwerp, was induced to undertake its superintendence, an office at present filled by his descendants. The productions of this manufactory are carpets and tapestry, the subjects of which are often drawn from fable or history; it sometimes copies pictures executed by superior artists, and affords daily employment to eighty persons, including dyers, drawers, designers, and all its various branches.”—Laborde (about 1800).

“The elegant manufacture of tapestry is carried on without Saint Barbe's gate, at the entrance of the promenade of Los Altos, or Chamberi; it was established in 1720 by Philip the Fifth, at whose invitation John Dergoten, of Antwerp, was induced to undertake its superintendence, an office at present filled by his descendants. The productions of this manufactory are carpets and tapestry, the subjects of which are often drawn from fable or history; it sometimes copies pictures executed by superior artists, and affords daily employment to eighty persons, including dyers, drawers, designers, and all its various branches.”—Laborde (about 1800).

[49]Licentiate Gaspar Gutierrez de los Ríos,Noticia general para la estimación de las Artes y de la manera en que se conocen las liberales de las que son mecánicas y serviles.

[50]Riaño estimates them at this number. See hisReport on a collection of photographs from tapestries of the Royal Palace of Madrid; London, 1875; and alsoTapices de la Corona de España, with 135 plates in phototype, and text by Count Valencia de Don Juan; Madrid, Hauser and Menet, 1903.

[51]Müntz,La Tapisserie, pp. 217, 218. Wauters,Les Tapisseries Bruxelloises, pp. 76, 77. Houdoy,Tapisseries représentant la Conqueste du Royaulme de Thunes par l'empereur Charles-Quint.

[52]See an article on these tapestries by Señor Lamperez y Romea, published in No. 55 of theBoletín de la Sociedad Española de Excursiones; and also Nos. 156 and 157 of the same publication, for an article on the Crown and other Spanish collections, by Elías Tormo y Monzó.

Although the Spaniards have enjoyed, and still enjoy, a widespread fame for lace-making, theirwritten records of this craft are unsubstantial. Originally, perhaps, they borrowed it from the Arabs or Venetians. Certainly, the earliest Spanish lace was such as is made with a needle, that is, point, not pillow lace. In this form,à la aguja, and in the sixteenth century, the Spaniards possibly conveyed the secrets of its manufacture to the Netherlands, receiving from the natives of this country, in exchange, the art of making lace by means of bobbins, including the characteristic “Flemish net,” orred flandés.

Towards the sixteenth century the parts of Spain where lace was manufactured in the largest quantity were some of the Manchegan towns and villages, the coast of Finisterre, and nearly the whole of Cataluña. In La Mancha lace was made, and still is so, at Manzanares, Granatula, Almagro, and other places. That of Almagro (the celebratedpunto de Almagro, resembling the lace of Cataluña), is mentioned by nearly all the older travellers. InDon Quixote, Teresa writes to Sancho Panza that their daughter Sanchita was engaged in making bobbin-lace at a daily wage of eightsueldos.

see captionXXVITHE MARCHIONESS OF LA SOLANA(By Goya)

XXVITHE MARCHIONESS OF LA SOLANA(By Goya)

In 1877, at the Exhibition of Sumptuary Arts which was held in Barcelona, a magnificent lacetocawas shown, which was affirmed by its possessor, Señor Parcerisa, to be the work of a Spaniard of the later part of the fifteenth century, and to have belonged to Isabella the Catholic. The cathedral of the same city owns three thread-lace albs of sixteenth century workmanship, and the South Kensington Museum other pieces of Spanish lace of a comparatively early date, probably made by nuns and subtracted from the convents during the stormy scenes of 1835.

Dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, we have a number of notices, though scrappy and inexplicit as a rule, relating to Spanish lace. One of the more complete and interesting is quoted by Riaño from theMicrocosmia y Gobierno Universal del Hombre Cristiano(Barcelona, 1592) of Father Marcos Antonio de Campos. “I will not be silent,” wrote this austerepadre, “and fail to mention the time lost these last years in the manufacture ofcadenetas, a work of thread combined with gold and silver; this extravagance and excess reached such a point that 100 and 1000 ducats were spent in this work, in which, besides destroying the eyesight, wasting away the lives, and rendering consumptive the women who worked it, and preventing them fromspending their time with more advantage to their souls, a few ounces of thread and years of time were wasted with so unsatisfactory a result. I ask myself, after this fancy shall have passed away, will the lady or gentleman find that the chemises that cost them 50 ducats, or thebasquiña(petticoat) that cost them 300, are worth half their price, which certainly is the case with other objects in which the material itself is worth more?”

see captionXXVIIA SPANISHMAJA(A.D. 1777)

XXVIIA SPANISHMAJA(A.D. 1777)

Several of the other notices relating to the lace-makers' craft are from the pen of Countess d'Aulnoy. Of the Countess of Lemos this writer says: “Her hair was white, but she carefully concealed it beneath a black blonde”; and of another Spanish lady, Doña Leonor de Toledo, that she wore “a green velvet skirt trimmed with Spanish blonde.” In the apartments of the young Princess of Monteleón the countess saw “a bed of green and gold damask, decorated with silver brocade and Spanish blonde. The sheets were fringed with English point-lace, extremely broad and handsome.” The countess also says that the petticoats of the Spanish ladies were of English point-lace,[53]and that these ladies, when theyvisited each other, wore on their heads “atocaof the richest English black point-lace, half a yard broad, forming points like the antique laces, beautiful to look at, and very dear. This head-dress suits them rarely.”

According to Balsa de la Vega, whose interesting articles on Spanish lace (published in the newspaperEl Liberal) are worth perusal by all who are interested in this craft, about the middle of the seventeenth century the custom originated in Spain of making lace in broader pieces, dividing the pattern into a number of strips orfajaswhich were subsequently sewn together. In Belgium, on the contrary, the design was cut out, following the contour of the floral or other decoration.

In former ages gold and silver lace was made in France, and also at Genoa. I think it possible that Genoese merchants, many of whom are known to have settled in Granada and other Spanish cities, may first have introduced this branch of lace-making among the Spaniards. The sumptuary laws of Aragon, Castile, León, and Navarre would seem to show that lace of these materials, known aspuntoorredecilla de oro(orplata) was manufactured by the Spanish Jews between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. During theseventeenth century and part of the eighteenth, the quantity produced in the Peninsula was very large. In hisFenix de Cataluña, a work which was published at Barcelona in 1683, Feliu de la Peña says that Spanishrandaorréseuil, of gold and silver, silk, thread, and aloe fibre, was better made in Spain than in the Netherlands. The journal of Bertaut de Rouen contains the following notice of this silver lace: “Le Roy y envoya le Lieutenant du Maistre des Postes, avec huit postillons, couverts de clinquant, et quarante chevaux de poste, dont il y en avoit huit avec des selles et des brides du Roy où il y avoit de la dentelle d'argent, que Monsieur le Mareschal fit distribuer à environ autant de gens que nous estions, sur une liste qu'il avoit envoyée quelques jours auparavant.”

see captionXXVIIIMAJA(By Goya)

XXVIIIMAJA(By Goya)

It is impossible to mention Spanish lace without recalling that most graceful article of headwear, themantilla, the use of which is gradually dying out. At present we understand by this word a black or white head-covering of lace alone (the white being more conspicuous and dressy), but about a hundred years ago themantillawas made of a variety of fabrics. Also, it was worn in an easier and morenegligémanner than nowadays,retaining a closer likeness to theveloormantowith which the Spanish women of the seventeenth century were able, at their pleasure, to completely mask their faces (Platesxxvi. andxxvii.). Indeed, as late as the early part of the nineteenth century themantillawas sometimes thrown over the face (Platesxxviii. andxxix.). The same usage is referred to by Townsend, who describes themantillaas “serving the double purpose of a cloak and veil.”[54]To-day it is worn, not hanging loose and open, but a good deal bunched up at the bosom. The hair, too, is dressed to an unusual height, with a tall comb, and over this the delicate lace covering should droop a little to one side. A flower or two (roses or carnations by preference) may be worn at one side of the head, and where themantillais caught up at the breast.

The manuscript account of Spanish costumes early in the nineteenth century, and which is prefixed to my copy of Pigal's coloured lithographs, contains some excellent descriptions of the olderSpanishmantilla. We learn, for instance, that at Palma the women of the well-to-do middle class wore amantillaof black taffeta, trimmed with blonde (Platexviii.).[55]In La Mancha, and among the peasants, it was of white muslin; at Cordova, in cold weather, “en flanelle ou en bayette fine: elle est garnie de rubans à l'extrémité desquels il y a deux gros noeuds: en été elle est en mousseline.” The smallmantillaor “mantellina” of the wife of the smuggler of Tarifa was “en flanelle blanche, ou noire, ou rose, brodée d'un ruban: elle en fait três souvent un usage différent des autres femmes espagnoles, car au lieu de la mettre sur la tête attachée avec des épingles, elle s'en sert de schal: quelque fois elle la met en baudrier laissant flotter derrière elle les deux extrémités qui sont ornées d'un noeud en ruban.” The servant-girl of Madrid wore a whitemantillain summer, and a black one in winter. The same author describes in greater detail themantillasof the fine ladies. “La mantille et la basquigne,” he says, “voila de quoi se compose principalement le costume du beau sexe en Espagne. Ce costume, quoique national, est susceptible de recevoir aussibien que tout autre les divers degrés de luxe que les femmes d'une riche classe et celles du plus haut rang peuvent apporter dans leur parure: la classe la moins aisée porte la mantille en laine noire ou blanche et la basquigne en serge ou autre étoffe de laine noire. Pendant le jour, lorsque les dames espagnoles se présentent en public, c'est toujours avec la mantille et la basquigne, mais le soir si elles vont au spectacle ou ailleurs, elles sortent três souvent habillées à la française.”

see captionXXIXA LADY OF SORIA(About A.D. 1810)

XXIXA LADY OF SORIA(About A.D. 1810)

Elsewhere he says: “Nous avons déjà dit qu'un simple ruban, un peigne, ou une fleur, est la coiffure adoptée par les dames espagnoles, pour faire usage de la mantille: celle-ci est dans l'hiver quelquefois en serge de soie, taffetas, etc., noir, garnie en outre de blondes, ou d'un large ruban de velours noir en échiquier (cinta de terciopelo à tablero), mais ce ruban est toujours noir. Il y eut un temps où la mode, qui ne fut pas de longue durée, prescrivait que les bouts de la mantille se terminassent en trois pointes ornées chacune d'une houppe (borla) noire, ou d'un lacet de ruban noir. Jamais les mantilles ne sont doublées.”

The same author remarks of the lady of Madrid; “La mantille de tulle brodé ne se porte que dans la belle saison … elle ne dépasse jamais laceinture”[56]; and of the lady of Granada: “si la mantille est blanche, elle est en tulle parsemé de petits bouquets et garnie de larges et riches dentelles. Si elle est noire, comme cela arrive plus ordinairement, elle est alors en blonde: il y a de ces mantilles qui coutent cinq cent, mille, et jusqu'à deux mille francs.”

see captionXXXHANDKERCHIEF OF CATALAN LACE(Presented to Queen Victoria of Spain, on her marriage)

XXXHANDKERCHIEF OF CATALAN LACE(Presented to Queen Victoria of Spain, on her marriage)

A good deal of lace, principally of the less elaborate and cheaper kinds, was formerly manufactured in the kingdom of Valencia. Cabanillas wrote in 1797 that at Novelda, a small town of this region, more than two thousand women and children worked at making laces, which were hawked about the country by others of the townspeople. Swinburne remarks upon the same industry, and Ricord tells us in his pamphlet (1791) that cotton lace was made in six factories at Torrente, Alicante, and Orihuela.[57]The total product of these factories for the said year was 1,636,100 yards, which sold at from nine to twelverealesthe yard. Laborde wrote some years later, in the first volume of his book, that lace, and goldand silver fringes were then made at Valencia, and in the fourth volume; “Gold and silver laced stuffs, and velvets of all colours brocaded and flowered with the same metals, are made at Toledo, Barcelona, Valencia, and Talavera de la Reina; and the manufacture at the last-named city annually consumes four thousand marks of silver, and seventy marks of gold.

“At Barcelona, Talavera de la Reina, and Valencia are also manufactured gold and silver edgings, lace, and fringes, though not in a sufficient quantity to answer the demands of Spain; and the gold is very badly prepared, having too red a cast.”

Lace-making was an ancient and important industry of every part of Cataluña. Lace articles for ladies' headwear are known to have been made throughout this region at least as far back as the fifteenth century, and Capmany reminds us that by aceduladated from the Cortes of Monzón, December 16th, 1538, the Emperor Charles the Fifth confirmed the Ordinances of the guild, established long before, of thetejedores de velosof Barcelona. Technical provisions are embodied in this code, concerning various articles of lace employed as headwear, such asalfardillas,quiñales,andespumilla, all of which were largely exported to America.

The attention of foreigners who travelled in Cataluña towards the eighteenth century was constantly attracted by the lace-makers. Swinburne mentions “Martorell, a large town, where much black lace is manufactured,” and “Espalungera (Esparraguera?), a long village, full of cloth and lace manufacturers,” and wrote of Sarriá and its surroundings, close to Barcelona: “The women in the little hamlets were busy with their bobbins making black lace, some of which, of the coarser kind, is spun out of the leaf of the aloe. It is curious, but of little use, for it grows mucilaginous with washing.”

see captionXXXICURTAIN OF SPANISH LACE(Point and Pillow Work. Modern)

XXXICURTAIN OF SPANISH LACE(Point and Pillow Work. Modern)

“Martorell,” wrote Townsend in 1786, “is one long, narrow street, in which poverty, industry, and filth, although seldom seen together, have agreed to take up their abode. The inhabitants make lace, and even the little children of three and four years old are engaged in this employment.” Laborde wrote that at the beginning of the eighteenth century seventeen manufactories of blondes were established at Mataró, and adds of Barcelona province generally at that time: “Laces and blondes constitute the employment ofwomen and children. The work is principally done at Pineda, Malgrat, San Celoni, Tosa, Canet, Arenys, Callela, San-Pol, Mataró, Esparraguera, Martorell, and Barcelona…. The laces are almost all shipped for the New World.”

The most observant and most entertaining of all these tourists was Arthur Young, who wrote, in 1787, of the towns upon the coast of Cataluña: “The appearance of industry is as great as it can be: great numbers of fishing-boats and nets, with rows of good white houses on the sea-side; and while the men are active in their fisheries, the women are equally busy making lace.” Of Mataró he says: “It appears exceedingly industrious; some stocking-frames; lace-makers at every door…. I am sorry to add that here also the industry of catching lice in each other's heads is well understood.

“Pass Arrengs (Arenys), a large town … making thread lace universal here. They have thread from France; women earn ten to sixteensousat it. Great industry, and in consequence a flourishing appearance. Canet, another large town, employed also in ship-building, fishing, and making lace…. Pass Malgrat, which is not so well built as the other towns, but much lacemade in it…. Reach Figueras, whose inhabitants seem industrious and active. They make lace, cordage, and mats, and have many potteries of a common sort.”[58]

Lace-making prevails to-day all through this region of north-eastern Spain, particularly in the strip or zone of it including the valley of the Llobregat as far as Martorell, and which extends from Palamós to Barcelona. The towns which produce the greatest quantities of lace are Arenys de Mar, Malgrat, San Pol, Canet, and Arenys de Munt. In the last of these places an important Regional Exhibition of Lace was held in July of last year, the number of exhibitors amounting to one hundred and twenty-five. Due to the increasing production of underlinen and woven fabrics generally, or to other causes, lace-making has declined at Blanes, Pineda, Calella, and one or two other places. At San Celoni, Vallgorguina, San Vicente, San Andrés de Llevaneras, Argentona, Caldeta, and San Acisclo de Vilalta, lace is made by women who combine this work with dirtier and rougher labour in the field. Most of the lace made in these towns is therefore black.

see captionXXXIIPOINT LACE FAN, OF MUDEJAR DESIGN(Modern)

XXXIIPOINT LACE FAN, OF MUDEJAR DESIGN(Modern)

In the spring of last year, an elaborate lacepocket-handkerchief (Platexxx.), designed by Señor Riquer, and executed in a traditional style of Cataluña, denominated locally theret Catalá, was made in the old-established lace-factory of the widow of Mariano Castells in the town of Arenys de Mar, and offered by the Agricultural Institute of San Isidro as a wedding-present to Princess Ena of Battenberg. Twoencajerasworked at this handkerchief under the personal direction of the widow Castells, and the time employed by them in making it was two months.

Plate xxxi. represents a small portion of a very original and beautiful lace curtain, ten feet high, designed by Señor Aguado, and executed, partly by Señorita Pilar Huguet (who superintended the work throughout), and partly by seventeen of this lady's pupils, at the School of Arts and Industries, Toledo. Although it is a hackneyed trope to declare that the ornamentation of the Spanish-Moors, whether in ivory, wood or metal, stone or plaster, was “delicate enough to seem of lacework,” I believe this to be the first occasion when such intricate and graceful motives have been actually reproduced in lace. The result of the experiment has proved surprisingly effective. The design is Spanish-Arabicin its purest form, recalling various arabesques upon the walls of the Alhambra, and includes thirty-three medallions which constitute the principal decorative scheme, a hundred and forty-eight palms oralharacas, and the Arabic expression “God is all-powerful,” repeated sixty-six times. The centre of the curtain consists in all of four hundred and forty-eight pieces. The broad cenefa or bordering, which runs right round the whole, contains, in Arabic, the following inscription: “This curtain was begun in thecurso(course or series of classes) of the year 1903–1904, and terminated in thecursofollowing, (Art) School of Toledo.” The style adopted throughout is that of Brussels, known erroneously as English point, although upon a coarser scale than is considered to be proper to this lace, the ground being executed by the needle, or in point-work, and the rest by bobbins.

Plate xxxii. represents a covering for a fan, also executed by Señorita Huguet, and also in the Brussels style. The design is a combination of Mudejar motives, such as conventional foliage and geometrical bordering, with a Spanish scutcheon and the double-headed eagle of the Emperor Charles the Fifth.

At the present day, and largely owing to theinitiative and the skilled tuition of Señor Salvi, excellent lace is manufactured at Madrid, including reproductions—which have been generally admired in Great Britain and elsewhere—of the finest point or bobbin work of Malines, Manchester, and Venice.

Back to Index Next