Numerical Laces

The origin of Numerical laces comes from the evolution of oriental laces. Curved lines constitute all types of drawings and fill all the empty spaces. These laces usually use 12 bobbins and a cylindrical pillow. In the most ancient designs -without fillings- the braids touch one to another Once these laces evolved, braids space out and fillings appear. A group, which includes Slovenian, Russian, Catalonian, and Talaverana (the two last ones in Spain) can be considered the most ancient pure numerical laces. They have no fillings since braids touch one to another producing a moving sense and changing directions as many times as needed to fill the spaces.

Each country they have its own characteristics and its own names too. The most known today is Russian Lace, since it was in Russia where these laces reached perfection, but we can talk also of Dalmata’s lace in Yugoslavia or Cinta Catalana in Spain. Dalmatia was the country that introduce bobbin lace to Eastern European countries and Russia. Bobbin lace is still made in the Yugoslavian town of Idria, where presumably the first tape lace was made.

Russian laces existed as early as the Fifteenth Century. These very simple narrow trimmings were made in gold and silver threads. Later developed into rich laces decorating Monasteries and was used by rich merchants. Bobbin lacemaking spread quickly and the laces became an integral part of Russian Folk Art in the Seventeenth Century.

In Spain, Talaverana lace is made of white thread and also uses silver, gold, and colored threads.

“Puntas Capitanas” developed as far as we know about the 17th. cent. in the South West of Spain.  A predecessor to "Encaje Numerico Sevillano" and "Hinojosa lace", but not so rich in stitches. Clothstitch is the main used. The design of patterns is similar.

Numerical lace in Catalonia is called “Cinta Catalana”. It is a very light lace since plaits fill the space between braids, sometimes continuous, sometimes discontinuous. The thread used is very fine cotton and the lace stands out with a high contrast of light and shades. Curves are drawn in parallel and with respect to a vertical axe between them. Braid has everyone its own foot.

Nowadays a numerical lace has been recovered in Spain: “Witchstitch Lace”  also called:

 Hinojosa lace.

Seventeen and eighteen centuries...  

Puntas Capitanas, Hinojosa Lace

Commercial activities with the American community: 17th and 18th c.

The Spanish braid lace called “Puntas Capitanas” is an antique numerical lace technique that Spanish ladies made in the South West of Spain and then was sent to the Spanish community in America.

The earliest written references to the Spanish “Puntas Capitanas” appear in inventory texts from 1697, -Morelia Cathedral in Valladolid in the State of Michoacán in Mexico- (“The Cathedral of Morelia” ISBN 968-7230-70-3 Authors: Oscar Martínez Herón Pérez,  Elena I. Estrada);   

Chile- 1754- “Crónicas de La Serena”,  Pág. 233: ..“Manteles de cambrai con Puntas Capitanas  donadas a la Iglesia por Mrs. Maria Herrera”....

Ecuador -1777/1820- “Historia de la gobernación de Cuenca”. Pág. 162 “más de doce enaguas, las doce de cambray batista, con tres corridos de espiguitas y sus pliegues anchos con puntas capitanas, guarnecidos con encajes en la cintura...”

Unfortunately, we do not have any images of “Puntas Capitanas” from that time. Nowadays, “Puntas Capitanas” are still worked with a scalloped headside, and straight laces are applied to traditional peasant traditional dresses in villages such as Puebla de Guzmán, in Huelva (South West of Spain). 

In the visit I made to Saint Charles Borromeus Church in Antwerp, Mrs. Nora Andries showed me some examples of the laces that were exported in 17th. c., to the American colonies.

It is interesting to point out that during the 17th c. there was an important commercial route between Antwerp and Spain to export Flemish laces to America, where these laces were highly appreciated.  The leaving ports were those of Cádiz and Huelva. It is also known that during this period the laces sent to Spain from Antwerp were called “Puntas españolas”. Why? Because, they were designed according to the Spanish fashion; that is: the headside of the laces was shaped with great scallops (called “puntas” in Spain), while in Flanders and other parts of Europe straight laces prevailed. This shape matches with the traditional lace “Puntas Capitanas” too. 

And… what is the relation of these laces with Hinojosa lace?

It is not unreasonable to think that the influence of Old Flemish laces coming from Antwerp had something to do with the development of the “Puntas Capitanas” and later with the Sevillian “Encaje Numérico Sevillano” and Hinojosa lace, these last ones enriched with decorative stitches acquired from Milanese laces..

Do not forget that the southwest of Spain was the area where all the routes coincided in their way to America, both Mediterranean and European countries.

We know that there were skilled lacemakers that worked numerical laces in Spain in the 16th c., as it is written in “The Quixote”. 

It is just my thought as a lace designer, that the Spanish ladies in that area of the southwest of Spain, wanted to imitate these fashionable laces which were so successful in America. So, working the braids with a point grid ground, intending to imitate a twisted ground, and applying linen stitch to highlight other parts of the braid, such as motifs, a new lace appeared, acquiring its own personality and giving names to the new stitches and motifs used. 

If we compare the drawings/patterns of Old Flemish laces with “Encaje Numérico Sevillano” and “Puntas Capitanas”, we can see a certain similarity between them, although its interpretation, the way of working the pattern and the final result are certainly different. While Flemish lace was worked across the pattern, with an important number of bobbins, “Puntas Capitanas” was a tape lace worked only with a few pairs of bobbins, the same as “Encaje Numérico Sevillano” and Hinojosa lace.