Thank you Lindy for that link. And David - Gosh, fancy looking at his eyes when there is such beautiful lace to look at!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)) However - in the close up, he has one eye slightly lighter than the other - but they are both dark - as far as I can see, -- so I think it is just the lighting at the time when the painting was done. (candle power!)
As to the lace - The 2 terms, David, are the names of types of lace. I tend to call it All "Reticella" - but "Punto in Aria" - (Stitches in Air) is, I believe, the lace that is made on a trace thread, totally free of fabric, while true Reticella is made within the fabric - like a type of drawn work, where fabric threads are withdrawn completely, and the needlelace worked in the 'holes' that are left. "Point Coupé" is the term used in Vinciolo's book. Ruskin Lace is a more modern version of the true Reticella in as much as it is worked within the fabric. I Should, I suppose, call what I make "Punto in Aria", as I totally free of fabric, but when you say Reticella, people know you mean the very geometric type of lace. There is a Bobbin lace that is called Reticella, too - a gerometric type made up of legs/plaits and some trails etc. "Punto in Aria" then develops into the figurative and floral lace as it progressed once it was free of the fabric. Devon, I have no idea how you would tell if it was made in England or Italy. What I Did find interesting is that the designs used for the large squares of 2 alternating patterns is modified to be the designs in the deep scallops. The narrow bands either side of the 'body' of the collar are the same as eachother, and then the body of the collar and the edge are the same - so it is a well thought out piece of lace, - not just random laces put together - which is what some look like, I think. Hmmmmmmm!!! I must get back to some of the pictures of these sorts of collars and take a second look!!!! Both Vecellio and Vinciolo's books show edges with bands of squares that don't remotely match in any way, - and are not even the same size so they don't match up in the repeats!! Regards from Liz in Melbourne, Oz, - where we had a bit of rain for about ¾ of an hour this morning!!! Lovely! lizl...@bigpond.com -- I am using the free version of SPAMfighter. We are a community of 6 million users fighting spam. SPAMfighter has removed 330 of my spam emails to date. Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len The Professional version does not have this message - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachnemodera...@yahoo.com