The Love of Lace [Hardcover]

Cynthia Hart (Author), Catherine Calvert (Author), Steven Tex (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 10, 1992

Nobles bankrupted themselves in pursuit of it. Young convent girls spent 60 hours just to make a square inch of it. The Victorians revived it, and today it still hasn't lost its romance and allure.

The Love of Lace celebrates this enchanting fabric from its beginnings as crude open cutwork in the 14th century to the height of lace mania-when over a quarter of Europe's workers were employed as lace makers-to laces today and how to use and care for them. Gracing Catherine Calvert's richly informative text are Cynthia Hart's exquisite compositions mixing antique laces with fresh flowers, silver heirlooms, bibelots, a faded photograph.

Fine enough to be drawn through a wedding band or heavily worked for a dining table, lace is the highest expression of the needleworker's art, a poem in thread-and The Love of Lace is universal.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Nobles bankrupted themselves in pursuit of it. Young convent girls labored for sixty hours just to make a square inch of it. The Victorians revived it with a passion, and today we've re-revived it. Whether suggesting innocence or intimacy, romance or refinement, lace has again woven its spell.

From the crude open cutwork of the fourteenth century to the glories of Alencon, Chantilly, Mechlin and Valenciennes, THE LOVE OF LACE celebrates the highest expression of the needleworker's art. Gracing the pages are collages, mixing exquisite antique laces with fresh flowers and silver heirlooms, bibelots and luscious portraits.

Fine enough to be drawn through a wedding band or heavily worked for a dining table, lace is a poem in thread, the fabric of romance. The love of lace is universal.

CYNTHIA HART is a noted designer and co-author of A Victorian Scrapbook; Joy to the World: A Victorian Christmas; Forget-Me-Nots: A Victorian Book of Love; Parlor Cats: A Victorian Celebration; and The Victoriana Calendar.

CATHERINE CALVERT, editor-at-large at Victoria magazine, wrote Having Tea and Cradle and All, published by Clarkson N. Potter.

About the Author

Cynthia Hart is a renowned designer and artist, and the owner/curator of The Cynthia Hart Collection of Cherished Images. She is the author of Cynthia Hart’s Victoriana Calendar, Cynthia Hart's Scrapbook Workshop, The Love of Lace, Parlor Cats, and other books. Her designs have been licensed to fragrance, gift, stationery, and home furnishing companies. Her studio is in New York City.



Catherine Calvert is a staff writer at Victoria magazine. She previously co-authored Having Tea.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 104 pages
• Publisher: Workman Publishing Company; 1St Edition edition (January 10, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1563053004
• ISBN-13: 978-1563053009
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 6.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,743,131 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book-beautiful pictures, October 20, 2009

By 

Elizabeth (Indiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Love of Lace (Hardcover)

This is a great little book full of wonderful pictures and stories about lace and it's coming into being and it's place in history. Beautiful patterns are represented here along with stories and footnotes that are of interest to young and old alike.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A pretty little thing..., February 28, 2007

By 

Ma Hen (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Love of Lace (Hardcover)

But that's about it. The information is a cursory skim of the subject, the pictures are small and overlap each other, the whole book is small and disappointing to me but it is...a pretty little, very little, light, slight and insignificant thing.