VENICE.

47

lace hoods Walpole describes Lady Mary W ortley Montagu aswearing at Florence, 1702, in place of a cap.

There is also another lace from Venice, “a reseau, or grounded.Its characteristic is its extraordinary delicacy and fineness;its most remarkable feature its flatness. Its meshes are veryminute, the cordonnet which outlines the pattern worked flat; theground has a horizontal appearance. It in some respects re-sembles the finest Brussels needle point.

M. Dupont d’Auberville had some exquisite specimens in theInternational Exhibition, which he assigns to the adjacent islandof Burano, which evidently produced a lace of some celebrity, forMarini quotes from a document of the seventeenth century, inwhich, speaking of merletti, it is said that “ these laces, styled‘ punti in aria,’ or ‘ di Burano,’ because the greater part of themwere made in the country so-called, are considered by Zannoni asmore noble and of a greater whiteness, and for excellency ofdesign and perfect workmanship equal to those of Flanders, andin solidity superior.” 40

From this it would appear as if punto in aria was made hereand found occupation for a number of lace-workers. 41

In the dictionary of Boerio, punto di Burano is described asfine needle point lace like that of Flanders, made by the womenof that island. 42

In 1845, when the late Mrs. Dennistoun, of Dennistoun, visitedthe island, a superannuated nun of ninety conversed with her onthe subject, and said that she and her companions in her youngerdays employed their time in making punto di Burano, which wasvery costly and ordered for great marriages long beforehand.She showed specimens still tacked on paper, the ground a reseau,worked backwards and forwards, like the Alenfon. Fig. 20 is takenfrom a specimen pm-chased at Burano by the Cavaliere Merli of themaker, an old woman known by the name of Ceccia la Scarpariola.It has no resemblance to the exquisite productiou we have de-scribed, but bears close analogy with point d’Alenfon.

leur tet .’’—Madame du Boccage, 1735,Leitre* ear I’lialie.

“ Quella specie di lungo cappuccio difiniesimo merlo purnero, cliiamato baula.”— Michiel.

40 Marini, “Com. di Venezia,” t. viii.

'' [file de Burano oil l’on fubiique lesdentelles.”— Quadri, Iiuit Jours a Venise.

42 “ Cliiamasi il lavori di certe merlettifmissirni e pregiatissimi futti a puntod’ ago—come quelle di Fiandra—che sifa dalle donne nelle Isole di Burauo—singorlarmente, ed anche nelle vicino diTorcello a Mazzorbo del Veneto Estuariodov’e da molti anni introdolta questaarte.”