Border with Geometric Patterns

c. 1850–70

Border with Geometric Patterns, c. 1850–70. Spain. Needle lace, filet/lacis (knotted ground and darned in one direction); bleached linen (est.) and cotton (est.); overall: 18.4 x 108 cm (7 1/4 x 42 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Educational Purchase Fund 1923.877 This piece of lace is simple and honest in its decorative quality. The focus is on the thick and graphic darning, or area of woven pattern, depicts triangular and geometric motifs. In addition to the knotting of the thread (filet/lacis technique), the lace maker used thicker thread to create the bold and heavy pattern against the unadorned diamond ground netting. The word lace derives from the Latin laqueus, meaning noose.