Thu Feb 7, 2019 10:55 PM

Morning Modelbuch (2/8/2018)

Some gorgeous bobbin lace at the Met, originally from Ida Schiff’s collection and a pattern from Parasole’s 1610 _Fiore D’Ogni Virtu Per le Nobili Et Honeste Matrone_.

I want to mention a little bit about who Ida Schiff was. She was one of by the first modern collectors of lace and altar linens, living in Florence and opening a school for lace. The collection was first displayed in 1901 at the Castle of St. Angelo. When it came up for sale, the Italian government wanted to acquire the Schiff collection, but it ended up being divided in 1920 between The Met ( 2/5) Cleveland Museum of Art (2/5) and the final 1/5 went to Minneapolis. Just to give an idea of the size of the collection, The Met’s share was 377 pieces and Cleveland got 430. According to the “Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol7,” 75 of their pieces feature in Elisa Ricci’s _Old Italian Lace_. I need to spend more time in Cleveland’s collection anyway, but matching up the collection with Ricci sounds like a great excuse to go treasure hunting.

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/220944 (lace) https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/355096 (book)