Aemilia Ars Dress

A kind gentleman named Claudio over at the MI1906 Milan 1906 World's Fair website has brought to my attention a magazine article he found while looking for something else in a copy of L'Illustrazione Popolare Sunday Edition no. 46 for the 14th of October, 1906 (click on the photo for a closer look):


I give you the entire article in Italian for those Italian readers and I will translate it here below for those English-speaking readers.

Unfortunately it corresponds with a photo in Merletti e Ricami della Aemilia Ars (1929). What must have been a completely amazing dress, tragically lost to fire when the Fine Arts Pavillion was consumed by flames on the night of the 2nd-3rd of August, 1906. (Click on the photo for a closer look):


The caption in Merletti e Ricami della Aemilia Ars reads:

"Dress designed from a sketch by A. Rubbiani by A. Casanova and executed by commission for Signora Marsaglia Balduino (Genoa) in 1905, according to the fashion of the time. There were 15 different kinds of birds among flowers, fruits and ornaments. The hemline was made of individually attached peacock feathers so as to be light and rich at the same time."

The article from L'Illustrazione Popolare reads:

Needlework Miracles burned at the Exposition in Milan

Because at least the memory remains of an object worthy of note lost in the fire – August 3rd – in the Italian Decorative Arts Pavilion, we believe it opportune to present to our readers the gown executed in punto in aria without seams and made on commission, as an almost actual-size detail of the patient work. It was made in two months by sixty-five workers at the Aemilia Ars workshop from a design by A. Casanova. In its sweet whiteness and in its fair and refined richness the beautiful gown made one think of a gift from a fairy who had wanted to wrap up and protect a princess in a cloud of leaves, flowers, birds because she was the most elegant of women. And this dreamy gown, an envied masterpiece was itself destroyed along with many other beautiful things that fateful night.

The flames also burned the laces of the company Jesurum of Venice. So many other wonderful things lost! They were the results of more than a year of study done by Jesurum of the most remarkable reproductions of ancient works and for that purpose many repeated trips were made to visit a few precious originals kept in the Decorative [Arts] Museums of Paris, Antwerp and Brussels. They had also specially bought ancient fragments and made many very expensive attempts to achieve results which are now lost. Among the most important works displayed were a cushion, table centres and doilies, reproduced for the first time from the Byzantine medallions of the church of Torcello, which were bought by the best lace dealer in Paris, Lescure: a Gothic placemat all embroidery and needle lace, a trim rich in a plastron collar [sorry, I don't know what this is!] fan of needlepoint lace, so fine that it was necessary to put a strong lens in front of them so that the public might see the design and workmanship; a complete trim of Rosaline Point, the finest that has been made in recent times; an embroidered blanket, made with all the needle lace stitches manufactured by Jesurum in Burano; a complete rich collection of Burano laces of every stitch; window curtains and covers in every stitch, individually designed and studied; an outfit in coloured lace, bobbin lace, etc.

There were also many items for the table, including a magnificent placemat, composed of sixty-four squares with sixty-four different designs, handkerchiefs, ties, fans. A few reproductions of antique Pellestrina lace were placed together with original pieces from the same Pellestrina museum to show the accuracy of the copy. Jesurum had insured its exhibit for thirty thousand lire, but the damages are, in a complexity of respects, incalculable.

Captions for the L'Illustrazione Popolare photos are as follows:
Photo of dress: Gown executed in punto in aria, without seams, destroyed in the fire at the Decorative Arts Pavilion on the 3rd of August at the Exposition in Milan.

Photo of dress detail: Detail of the gown in punto in aria, exhibited in the Decorative Arts Pavilion, destroyed by the fire of the 3rd of August.

If anyone can tell me about the plastron collar fan - I'd appreciate it!

Many thanks to Claudio for this article!

World's Fair – Milan, 1906

"Our exposition, inaugurated the 3rd of May, 1906 by Their Majesties the King and Queen of Italy, was utterly destroyed by the overnight fire of August 2nd and 3rd. The pages of this book, collected while our halls offered themselves to the public like inspired revelations of Italian art and work, today take on a particular documentary merit and are left as a reminder of the artistic work done, the thought and the love of those who promoted and prepared it."
-- Le Industrie Femminili Italiane, 1906


... although rescue was quick, and despite the dedicated efforts of firefighters, both the Italian and Hungarian exhibitions of the Decorative Arts were engulfed in flames. When day came, all that remained of the site was a pile of smoldering rubble and charred beams...
-- L'Illustration, 1906

In what was probably the single worst loss of needlework excellence in history, the Decorative Arts Pavilion burnt to the ground halfway through the World's Fair in Milan in 1906.



An unpardonable act of arson. The list of pieces submitted to the Fair for display and for sale is a dozen pages long: furnishings – entire bedroom suites, dining room linens, door hangings and curtains, window treatments and coverings; clothing – traditional costumes, baby, children, women's and men's outfits, lingerie, personal, table and household linens; dolls wearing representative territorial costumes.


Needle lace, bobbin lace, knitting, crochet, traditional embroidery, territorial specialty embroideries and laces, tapestries, weaving – works of all materials: silk, linen, gold, straw, cotton.

Gone.

Can you imagine the horrific news reaching the women who laboured to make their very best pieces? The loss... the loss!

Much more than embroidery and lace was burned to ashes: priceless manuscripts, documents, metal statues "reduced to ingots".


Then: within 40 days – the Pavillion was reborn. They literally worked around the clock: the architects, the builders, the artists and artisans, the embroiderers, the weavers and the lacemakers to produce exhibitions every bit as wondrous as those that had been lost. Grand prize and gold medal winners.

"... Also worthy of particular praise, is the National Cooperative of Women's Industries... which managed, with really wonderful results, to awaken and discipline in the remotest provinces of Italy... traditional female industries - embroidery, lace or woven fabrics - characteristic of each region. Of these works there were some wonderful ones from Sardinia or from Friuli, the Abruzzi or Bergamo, from Valsesia or Calabria, [which were] burned in the first exhibition, and although much less numerous, there are beautiful ones in the renewed exhibition. ... Among all the other works, of special, very distinguished importance appeared and appear, however, the exquisitely delicate lace of Aemilia Ars..."
-- Vittorio Pica, L'Emporium, 1906.

Many, many thanks to the people of the Ning Group MI 1906 who have made this post possible.

I will continue my research for traces of these pieces and will post here when I find them!

Jesurum - A lace tradition in Venice

Michelangelo Jesurum opened his first lace-making workshop in 1870 after learning the art of Pellestrina bobbin lace as part of an effort going on in Venice at the time (1870) to revive the ancient art of lacemaking which had fallen into decline. Adding coloured threads to the laces earned a Grand Prize for Jesurum at the 1878 Universal Exhibition in Paris. There is a small picture of the prize-winning entry on the Jesurum website but there is a great picture of another coloured silk thread piece in the book: Il Merletto Veneziano by Doretta Davanzo Poli (1998). There are lots of other pictures of Jesurum lace in this book, as well as a wealth of photos of all kinds of Venetian lace and info (text in Italian).

By the beginning of the 20th century there were seven Jesurum workshops employing nearly 3000 women and the lace was recognized and sought worldwide.


Jesurum became lacemakers to the Italian Royal family and other nobility throughout Europe. In 1906 Michelangelo Jesurum opened a Lace Museum in his home.

World War I interrupted the workshops and halted the market for lace. Jesurum kept many of its workers employed making military uniforms. Only a marginal increase in business after the war put the company in danger of bankruptcy and closure. In 1939 the Levi Moreno family took over the company but kept the name as it was well-known and respected.


Some pieces from the Levi Moreno family lace collection are on display at the Relais Ca' Maffio situated half way between Venice and Treviso, if you find yourself out that way!

Recently Jesurum is under new ownership and has opened a new store on Calle Larga XXII Marzo, San Marco 2401 - just off Piazza San Marco in Venice where they sell household and yacht linens.


The Online Digital Document Archive has a free, downloadable Jesurum monograph (text in Italian) in which the last paragraph reads: The simplicity of the manual production used in Venetian lace therefore consents the most variety and the most valuable results: a Jesurum lace has the same worth as any work of art and, like a painting could be signed before being offered for the admiration of those who love beautiful things.

There are photos of Jesurum laces in Elisa Ricci's Old Italian Lace (1913), also available from the Online Digital Document Archive.


On YouTube there is an excellent 9 minute documentary on the lace of Pellestrina. Make sure to watch it in 720pHD!