Unknown Maker, Flemish

In the 1600s, Flanders (now northern Belgium and part of the Netherlands) and Italy were the centers of lacemaking. Flemish lace is dense, and made following a pricked pattern from many threads wound on bobbins. Venetian lace is looser, and worked using a needle and a single thread.

Lace was once largely reserved for religious garments, altar clothes, and shrouds, but in the 1600s it became an everyday luxury item of adornment for the Dutch, who were flush with capital from the global trade of goods and enslaved people. Domestic and exemplary Italian lace was used to trim clothing, celebrate the birth of babies, and decorate Dutch households.