Bride (lace)
Also: bar, tie, pearl-tie
A bride is a small thread bar that links the motifs of a lace; in needle lace it is usually overcast with buttonhole stitches, often with tiny picots.
A bride is a small strip or connection that links the details of ornament in a lace. Margaret Jourdain's 1908 glossary says it may consist of threads overcast with buttonhole stitches, or of twisted or plaited threads, and gives the English equivalent as pearl-tie, though the French word is the one in general use. English writers also call brides bars.
What does a bride do?
In lace without a net ground, the brides hold the motifs together. Mrs. F. Nevill Jackson's 1900 repair instructions describe simple bars made by passing two or three strands across a space and covering them closely with buttonhole stitch. Jourdain describes the brides of the finest rose point as elaborately decorated with picots, circles, semicircles and star shapes, which is why a bride ground helps tell one kind of Venetian lace from another.
Why do brides matter to collectors?
They are usually the weakest part. Jourdain notes that in rose point the brides are more liable to be destroyed than the thick, solid ornament they join, and that lace menders replace them. A piece with no brides at all, or with motifs forced together where bars should be, is therefore worth a closer look. Jackson makes a related point about value: the ground of a needle lace should be repaired in kind for as long as possible.
See also needle lace and cordonnet.
Sources
- Old Lace: A Handbook for Collectors (1908), Margaret Jourdain. Archive.org scan of the 1908 edition
- A History of Hand-Made Lace (1900), Mrs. F. Nevill Jackson. Archive.org scan of the 1900 edition
See also
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