Page:Arts & Crafts Essays.djvu/252

 commencement of the sixteenth century at Venice and Antwerp. But such patterns were designed in the first place for various sorts of embroidery upon a material, such as darning upon canvas (punto fa su la rete a maglia quadra), drawn thread work of reticulated patterns (punto tirato or punto a reticella), and cut work (punto tagliato). Patterns for quite other sorts of work, such as point in the air (punto in aere) and thread work twisted and plaited by means of little leaden weights or bobbins (merletti a piombini), were about thirty years later in publication. These two last-named classes of work are respectively identifiable (punto in aere) with needlepoint and (merletti a piombini) with bobbin lace-making; and they seem to date from about 1540.

The sixteenth-century and earliest known needlepoint laces (punto in aere) 228