 |
| Linen bobbin-lace ca. 1600-1700 Italy Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
 |
| Linen needle lace (Man's collar in Venetian style) ca. 1650-75 Italy Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
 |
| Linen needle lace (Chalice cover) ca. 1675-1700 Italy Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
 |
| Linen needle lace (Angel with palm and crown of martyrdom) ca. 1675-1725 Italy Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
LACE – A slender open-work fabric of linen, cotton, silk, woollen, or metal threads, usually ornamented with inwrought or applied patterns.
The men sate at home spinnying and woorkyng of Lace.
– William Watreman, Fardle of facions conteining the aunciente maners of Affrike and Asia (translated 1555)
*
The King's Edict prohibiting all his Subjects from using any Gold or Silver, either fine or counterfeit; all Embroiderie, and all Lace of Millan, or of Millan fashion.
– title of sumptuary proclamation issued by James I in 1613
*
The busy town . . . where finest lace industrious lasses weave.
– John Gay, An Epistle to the Earl of Burlington, 1715
*
In the shadows lay fine webs and laces of ice.
– George Macdonald, Annals of a quiet neighborhood, 1866
 |
| Silk damask ca. 1500-1600 Italy Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
 |
| Silk and metallic thread embroidery on linen ca. 1500-1700 Italy Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
 |
| Silk ca, 1600-1625 Italy Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
 |
| Silk and metallic thread brocade ca. 1600-1700 Italy Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
 |
| Silk and metallic thread brocade ca. 1650-1700 Italy Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
 |
| Silk damask ca. 1675-1725 Italy Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
 |
| Silk embroidery on silk grosgrain ca. 1700-1725 Italy Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
 |
| Silk satin brocade ca. 1700-1725 Italy Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
 |
| Silk appliqué with metallic trim on silk ca. 1700-1800 Italy Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
 |
| Silk ca. 1700-1800 Italy Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
Citations from the Oxford English Dictionary.