Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 26. (Budapest, 2008)
Lilla ERDEI T.: Kerchiefs Adorned with Bobbin Lace Pendants from the Second Half of the 17* and First Half of the 18th Century
with one exception, the symmetrical designs (tulip, pomegranate, daisy, bunch of flowers in Italian jug, bent asymmetrical flower stalks) of the aristocratic embroideries can be discerned, naturally in simplified forms as the technique of lace-making required. The forms of the corners and the ways how they are attached are also varied. The lace pendants are round or slightly oval, about 14 cm in diameter. Usually there is a V-shaped indent in the circle, sometimes stretching slightly over the circle towards the kerchief sides. With the help of this notch it can be stitched to the cloth corner. There is no such specimen in the Museum's collection, so let it be illustrated by the detail of a cloth from the church of Krivány in ill. 12. The sides are rarely framed by trimming lace. When there is trimming lace, it is either made together with the corner pattern (see ill. 6) or separately. In the latter case, the trimming lace was sewn onto the existing corner laces of a different kind (ill. 11). The laces belong to the hand-made tape laces as simple variants of the Milanese and Flemish types adopted by Hungary early. The groundwork is lace worked in linen stitch. There is little ornamentation in the tape, e.g. wave line (see ill. 7) or a peculiar leading of the gold thread (ills. 9, 12). The bordering arch of the lace and the central motif are either directly linked or they are connected by bridges or rarely by a loose mesh. The border and the inner design can be made at the same time or in two phases. In the latter case, the outward looks may also differ (on account of the different technique, colour or base material). The shape of the lace pendants evolved from the arcaded "crenellated Renaissance" form well known from Renaissance architecture. The semicircular forms are familiar from early pattern-books and laces {point 13. Detail of the lace of a bed-sheet border from Gömör, 19 h century, Museum of Applied Arts, inv. no. 13434 coupé, reticella). This style lived on in the 18 th20 lh century and became one of the major characteristics of ornamental bedsheets, flags used by the peasantry in Upper Hungary, especially Sáros and Gömör counties.'' In the scallops a wide variety of tulip and tree-of-life designs can be found, mostly in linen stitch inside a mesh groundwork. Their decorativeness derives from the diverse arrangement of colour threads in tapes (e.g. chain stitch), the ornate elaboration of the tapes and their different colour from the ground mesh (ill. 13). Place and date of making In her study on aristocratic embroideries published in 1947 Gertrud Palotay 33 called attention to an interesting lace type: "research literature has ignored them so far, and we do not know if they constitute an indigenous type or they belong to a lace also customary abroad". By our current knowledge, kerchiefs with aristocratic embroidery and lace pendants at the corners are only known from the territory of historical Hungary today's Hungary, one-time Upper Hungary (today in Slovakia) and Transylvania (today in Romania). The early data, the stock of designs and technique of the known specimens suggest Upper Hungary. According to the prohibitive rulings banning lace-makmg,
