Italian Almanacs

Often when I'm researching online, I lose hours and hours just browsing documents. It's always interesting and once in a while I find things relating to what I was looking for in the first place. Most often though, I find things that take me on a completely different path.

I started out looking for something on the Universal Exposition of Turin in 1911 and ended up discovering that the Internet Archive has some scanned copies of old Italian Almanacs from the beginning of the 20th century.

These are fun to browse through for the photos and advertisements if you don't read any Italian. They are like mini-encyclopedias and re-caps of the news of the past year and the events for the next year.

Sometimes there are pages of summaries of other articles from previous issues which send you on your way to check out something you missed. Key words are: moda = fashion, lavori femminili = women's work, ricamo/i = embroidery/ies, trina/e or merletto/i or pizzo/i = laces.

In the 1914 Almanac, I came across this delightful Filet lace which is hard to tell if it was executed in the Darning Stitch or the Linen Stitch:

And this intriguing needle lace called Punto Sforza:

The accompanying article is brief and talks of the many different types of embroideries and laces and of the expositions of Siena, Turin and Paris. The author expresses a desire for more of such exhibitions in Italy "so that women can be encouraged to exercise their inventive faculties, and show what their intelligence is capable of producing."

With regard to Punto Sforza, it says that it is characterized by figures in lace stitches on a background of needle lace. It looks somehow familiar to me... like I've seen it somewhere else. Off I run to my library and in Lucia Petrali Castaldi's Dizionario Enciclopedico di Lavori Femminili it says:
 ... execution derived on a variation of the Milanese Lace... hmmm. Elisa Ricci's Trine a Fuselli doesn't seem to name it but there are some photos of exquisite pieces which seem to follow the criteria in the chapter on Milanese lace... yet, I know I've seen something very close to the photo from the Almanac somewhere...


Uh, oh... how did we get to "Milan" when I started out in "Turin"?
See how it happens? How easy it is to get distracted by beautiful things?!


Ah! Let me think about this Punto Sforza for a bit and let's see if something comes back to mind. In the meantime, have a browse through the old Almanacs for a bit of early 20th century Italy flavour.

Monogram categories

I recently purchased this little booklet written for young women c.1906 by Lucia Petrali Castaldi who would later (1925) become the editor of the Mani di Fata embroidery magazine and an accomplished author of many other texts.

There are 18 pages in total: four complete alphabets, four pages of examples of how to arrange monograms and ciphers, some images of other embroidery types which might compliment work with a monogram and a few words of wisdom.

I have translated a few lines below to give you an idea of the mood of the day for the young embroiderer in early 20th century Italy:

"Women and girls of good sense find it necessary to mark their linens, both personal and household, with their own initials or with their whole name.
On this point they are all in agreement: the differences begin with all the different ways to mark your linens. There are those who prefer something quick and adopt only one cursive initial - that of their last name - embroidered in Stem or Chain Stitch, when not resorting to the rapid, horrible stamping of indelible ink. They are practical women with little patience, always attracted by other treatments which do not require the measure of movements and tranquility of person. 
Some women prefer the traditional markings - on each piece - made with the no-less traditional Backstitch in red cotton: they are precise women, a bit limited, devoted to the past: they are never in a hurry and do everything the way one should.
Finally, there are women - real ladies - even if their purse is more than modest, meager, with brilliant views of educated taste.
They known to adopt, when appropriate, one or another of the various techniques and use them with finesse: although breathless from their daily tasks, they know how to find the time for so many beautiful works: beautiful not in material wealth, but in the good taste of choice and execution. 
{...}
Well prepared monograms executed with skill, with the right effects of chiaroscuro, immediately give the idea of the completely personal and innate taste of the woman who chose them."

A design for around a buttonhole on a man's shirt.

Here is the listing on the last page of other booklets by Lucia Petrali Castaldi at the time: 

You can read more about Lucia Petrali Castaldi on the Tuttoricamo website: click on the British flag for the English version then "Prominent Characters".

Feltria Ars

As I have mentioned before, in the later 19th and early 20th centuries there was an Arts and Crafts movement among the embroiderers and lacemakers of Italy. Many regions recovered lost needlework techniques or invented new ones and above all sought to provide a means of support for local women through the sale of their needlework.

Urbino was no exception and the association named Feltria Ars took inspiration from the local paintings, frescos and artwork to produce their unique needlework during this period.

Elisa Ricci in her book Ricami Italiani, Antichi e Moderni tells us:
"In Urbino a young lady of the aristocracy wanted to give work to the women of the area and gathered around her other ladies who helped voluntarily. The designs and inspirations for the new embroideries were taken from [the works of] Allegretto Nuzi, the brothers from San Severino and Antonio Alberti which offered thousands of little motifs, adorable for their freshness and grace, which adorned the clothing, drapery and halos of their saints."

Here are a few pictures:


Embroidered in turquoise silk thread on white cloth by Feltria Ars of Urbino. Motif taken from a painting by Allegretto Nuzi. You get the idea from a painting by the same artist at the National Gallery in the UK:


Feltria Ars of Urbino. Motif taken from a fresco by the brothers from San Severino:


You can see the pattern on the Madonna's robe (sorry I couldn't find a better pic):


Feltria Ars of Urbino. Motif taken from a painting by the master Antonio Alberti da Ferrara:


Again, just to give you an idea, here's a work by Antonio Alberti with motifs on the Madonna's robe (again, hard to see - click on the photos for a closer look):


The Feltria Ars association also "embroidered with coloured straw with which they made unique tassels" to quote Lucia Petrali Castaldi in her book Dizionario Enciclopedico di Lavoro Femminili. She also writes that the most important artistic handiworks to come from Feltria Ars were their hand-stamped fabrics using stamps from the 15th and 16th centuries.

I am unable to find out anything further on Feltria Ars or who the "young lady of the aristocracy" was who started it all. If you know anything will you post a comment below?

Italian Blackwork

In the Victoria & Albert Museum in London there is a 16th century Italian Blackwork sampler. This sampler fascinated American needlework teacher Dakota Rogers so much that she reproduced patterns from it to make an exquisite sampler of her own called Tiramisu.

This is my own stitched Tiramisu, I took the class from Dakota Rogers through the Embroiderers Guild of America in 2008:


La Muta by Raphael depicts some Italian Blackwork, check out the cuffs.

Here we see a late 16th century Italian man's shirt taken from At Home in Renaissance Italy, 2006:


In the Palazzo Davanzati in Florence there is a 17th century Italian sampler with Blackwork on it:


Elisa Ricci in her Ricami Italiani Antichi e Moderni, 1925 notes that Punto Scritto (Backstitch) in Italy is most often found in combination with some other embroidery technique like Satin Stitching or Cross Stitching such as the fretwork in Assisi Embroidery:


Lucia Petrali Castaldi in her Dizionario Enciclopedico di Lavori Femminili, 1941 lists Punto Scritto being interchangeable with Punto Volterrano [Volterra Stitch]. There are no examples pictured and no other information.

In the introduction of the 2007 book Volterrano 2006 by Antoinetta Monzo Menossi, Rosalba Niccoli talks about the difficulty she experienced in finding any trace of Punto Volterrano in Volterra, Italy. It seems there were two kinds of embroidery: the oldest being "il punto scritto volterra" [Volterra Backstitch], said to have been executed in gold thread though no proof or extant samples survive; and "il punto volterrano" [Volterra Stitch] created by a teacher named Emma Gazzarri from the Technical Institute in the mid 1900s. Antoinetta Monzo Menossi took all this information into account when creating patterns for the small volume of delightful designs (text in Italian).


Other Italian books on Blackwork are: Poesia di uno stile: Interpretazione Liberty by Manuela Alida D'Anna, 2009 (text in Italian, English and German) charming designs in Art Nouveau style with excellent technical execution instructions; L'Arte del Blackwork, 2007 and Idee in Blackwork, 2009 by Bruna Scagnetti & Gabriella Antoniazzi (text in Italian and English) of the association Il Friuli Ricama.

All books listed are available from Tombolo Disegni. Click on: Libri/Books, then Libri Ricamo, then Ricamo Italiani or Blackwork (different books are listed on different pages) – send an email request to order.

Thanks to Armida for the Palazzo Davanzati sampler photo!

Arezzo Embroidery

At the end of the 19th century excavations in Arezzo, Italy revealed some pieces of unevenly woven cloth dating to about 1400. Embroidered on these pieces were some patterns executed in Cross Stitch using only rust and blue coloured thread.

Just after these discoveries some women of the area decided to recreate and revive this embroidery. At the time, women in many cities and areas of Italy were developing or reviving local embroidery and lace techniques.

Fabric was handwoven in the nearby town of Città di Castello especially for this project. Designs of traditional motifs like stylized birds, fantasy animals and Romanesques were used with geometric patterns – designs very similar to the traditional designs of Perugian weaving.

Essentially a Counted Thread technique, the designs were filled in with Long Arm Cross Stitch over four/eight ground threads, and lines were done in Double Running Stitch over four ground threads. The narrow hems of the pieces were finished with Four-Sided Stitch. Hemp threads were used in rust and blue colours.

Items made were: placemats, bags, curtains, tablecentres, panels, cushions with inserts of bobbin lace and sometimes with knotted fringe or tassels.

Works were exhibited in local and regional exhibits.

This embroidery enjoyed some popularity at the time and other areas like Florence adopted it.

Over time it went into decline and is today almost forgotten. I have seen only a couple of modern pieces – one is pictured in the catalogue for the Italia Invita Lace and Embroidery Forum of 2005, executed by the Laboratorio Tessile di Alice in Castiglion Fiorentino; the other can be found if you click on the 'english' button in the top right hand corner of their homepage, then 'activity' at the bottom of the page, then 'weekly courses' there will appear a row of six images along the bottom left-hand side of the page: in the third from the left, is a small bird stitched in blue and rust. This is the only online picture that I can find to show you - if anyone knows of others, please, please – leave a comment below!

Black and white pictures of works from the beginning of the 20th century can be found in:
Anchor Manual of Needlework, Interweave Press
Dizionario Enciclopedico di Lavori Femminili by Lucia Petrali Castaldi
L'Opre Leggiadre by Lucia Petrali Castaldi