Elisa Ricci in connection with Freehand Lace (notes from Vibeke Ervø)

The first mention of the expression 'Free-Hand Lace' is, as far as we know, in the English edition (Old Italian Lace, Vol. II, London, Philadelphia 1913) of Elisa Ricci's Antiche Trine Italiane, Volume II (Bergamo 1911).

The companion Volume (I) describes all the different laces produced by the needle. That volume is also very interesting from a FHL point of view as many of those very early lace types were mounted with bobbin-made insertions and edgings.

This work, 'Old Italian Lace' in two huge volumes is now available online on the University of Arizona's site, thanks to Tess. Bodil Tornehave had the English edition, while the library of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Copenhagen has the original Italian edition. They look very much alike. However, different ways of numbering has been used both for pages and figures. The Italian edition's page numbers start afresh for each chapter while the pages in the English edition are numbered consecutively. The same is the case of the figures with the added difference that each lace in the English edition has a separate number while all figures on one plate in the Italian edition may have the same number.

Many of the plates from both volumes were published as a loose-leaf edition with very little text in: Elisa Ricci: Trine Italiane (con 150 Tavole), Bergamo 1934. The figures from the chapter about Abruzzi were not included in that edition.

Some of the laces have also been shown in: Elisa Ricci: Italian Lace Designs, 243 Classic Examples; Dover Publications 1993. This booklet has no text. It contains many of the interesting old laces in addition to Figures 231 and 232 which are 17th century insertions from Abruzzi (motives on point de Paris ground).

Among the publications to be found in libraries at museums of Decorative Arts are The Studio's Special Autumn numbers about Peasant Art. There are at least six different volumes published between 1910 and 1929. The one from 1913 "Peasant Art in Italy" was edited by Charles Holme. It is in a class of its own because the chapter "Women's Crafts" was written by Elisa Ricci. There is a picture of a cap with FHL from Piedmont. Otherwise, she mainly concentrates on Abruzzi. In addition, the drawn thread-work from Sicily is edged by bobbin lace e.g. the 'snake' a FHL pattern known from many different regions. The picture of a peasant's bedroom from Sarre, Val d'Aosta, Piedmont (fig. 16) shows lacepillows. The form is well known from Cogne (also in the Aosta Valley), but the book does not mention lace from that region.   

In Old Italian Lace, Vol. II Elisa Ricci does not mention Cogne in the ordinary text but in the introduction (p. 14-15):

Even of late years, when a revival of artistic feeling seems to be stirring in every field of work, although we are conscious of a renewed interest being awakened in this delicate art, we are not able to locate the moving spirit. Fifty years or so ago a woman in service at Cogne, Val d'Aosta, taught two or three compatriots how to make bobbin-lace; these taught others. During wintertime the women of that region employ themselves by making simple laces which are sold in the neighbourhood and have given rise to a local fashion of wearing a large collar of starched lace. The work is done on a cylindrical cushion, empty inside, covered with striped material which serves as guide to the worker who makes her lace without a design. The pins are thick, with coloured heads. The rude cushion, the large pins, and absence of design are sufficient to mark Cogne lace unmistakably.
Again at Sansepolcro in Arezzo, ten years or more ago, the two daughters of the village schoolmaster learned from an old foreign woman how to make bobbin-lace. To-day, by virtue of these industrious, clever girls, a lace-school of pure Italian bobbin-work flourishes exceedingly at Sansepolcro, being one of the best in the land. If within the century Cogne and Sansepolcro, should become centres of an important industry, what satisfactory explanation of their origin could they bring forward, had there been no written record of these beginnings?

Many may know Elisa Ricci from her foreword to Dover's 'Renaissance Patterns for Lace and Embroidery', 1971. That book was published after the 1909 facsimile edition of the 1606 version of Frederico Vinciolo's book with a very, very long title. That is only one of several old pattern books reissued in Bergamo around 1910 to have a foreword by Elisa Ricci.

Elisa Ricci was extremely important in connection with needle lace and the Aemilia Ars society, but here we have only concentrated on the simple bobbin laces.