90 
*Ybur Home is cm Expression of uiirsetjf 
"tKe^all Decorations Especially. 
Would you Preserve their Beauty ? 
Life is self-expression. “That 
which is not expressed, dies,” 
said Henry Churchill King. 
Woman finds self-expression 
in her home. If the walls sag 
and the plaster cracks, if they 
discolor and ruin her decorations 
—is irritated beyond measure. 
A crack, unseen by the casual 
eye, glares at her. 
It isn’t necessary. Plaster 
doesn’t have to go through the 
traditional cracking stage while 
the walls settle — not if the 
plaster-backing is Bostwick 
" TRUSS-LOOP” Metal Lath. 
Trowelled deep in the meshes of 
those wonderful trussed steel 
arches, the plaster is literally 
locked on. You would have to 
chip it of! with a cold Chisel! 
Moreover, Bostwick “TRUSS- 
LOOP” is fire-proof and preserves the 
beauty of your interior decorations. 
Write for illustrated booklet and insist 
that your architect or builder use 
THE BOSTWICK STEEL 
LATH COMPANY 
NILES, OHIO 
METAL LATH 
“Makes Plaster Permanent” 
The Romance of 
(Continued fr 
ers and tendrils with a profusion of 
picots giving the design something the 
effect of the serrated margins of leaves; 
Punto a Gioie or Jeweled Point, a va¬ 
riety of lace frequently mentioned by 
old Italian writers, although no example 
of it has come down to us. Into this 
lace pearls and other gems were worked, 
and also Venetian beads, the whole 
given a setting-off by gold and silver 
threads and further enriched by silk re¬ 
lief. Portraits of some of the Medici 
picture them in jeweled laces of perhaps 
this sort. 
In connection with Point de Venise 
one should call attention to a sort of 
mixed point called Venetian Guipure, so 
often depicted in the portraits painted 
by Lavinia Fontana. In this the design 
was outlined in pillow-lace (distin¬ 
guished from lace made by needle alone, 
point lace, by being made with inter¬ 
laced bobbins worked on a pillow) with 
needlepoint for the filling in and the re¬ 
liefs. The ground consisted of purled 
bars, and was often of silk threads. The 
very early 16th Century Venetian laces 
always contained a gulp to form the 
pattern. The word guipure means “to 
roll a thread around a cord”. 
In passing mention may be made of 
an early Venetian lace, the manufacture 
of which has been revived in Venice, 
called Merletto Polychrome or Parti¬ 
colored lace, a lace invented by the 
Venetian Jews, worked in silk of dif¬ 
ferent colors, the designs being of fruit 
and flowers. This was the lace particu¬ 
larly affected by the inhabitants of the 
old-time Giudecca. 
The Venetians love to tell a little 
story of the origin of the Punto di Rosa 
lace. They say that once upon a time 
lace-making had become so much an 
occupation and a pastime that every 
other woman in Venezia was engaged in 
this sort of needlework. It was then, 
when the sailor-lovers brought home to 
their sweethearts when returning from 
distant voyages mementos of “frutti di 
mare”—seaweeds, corals, shells and the 
like, telling these faithful ones not to 
put out their eyes with weeping when 
again they must leave them, but to em¬ 
ploy their needles deftly, instead, on 
their bridal veils. The fancy then took 
shape in making lace patterns from tiny 
sea-shells, seaweeds, star-fish, sea- 
urchins, corals and the like in compli- 
House & Garden 
Point de Venise 
om page 88) 
ment to the mementos the sailor-lads 
had brought their loved ones. Thus 
originated this Punto di Rosa lace (so 
they say). These and all the precious 
Venetian laces had special metal boxes 
devised for their safe-keeping, recep¬ 
tacles called verghetti, and I suppose the 
Venetian quartes called Dei Verghetti 
may have derived its name from some 
extensive manufactory there of these 
particular boxes for storing laces. 
The inordinate love of the Venetians 
for Point de Venise led to such extrava¬ 
gances on the part of the citizens of 
the Republic that laws to suppress its 
extravagant use were promulgated by 
the Senate. As early as 1476 it was 
decreed, says the Countess di Brazza 
Savorgnan, that no Punto in Aria either 
in flax or metal thread should be used 
on the garments or on curtains and bed- 
linen in city or provinces, but women 
were accustomed to disobey such laws 
and rebelled against Lorenzo Guistiniani, 
Patriarch of Venice, who, in 1437, 
dared forbid, under threat of fines and 
excommunication, costly jewelry and all 
superfluous adornment. The Pope was 
appealed to, the women “struck” against 
attending mass, and finally ambassadors 
were sent to Rome and the Pope was 
induced to direct the Cardinal Arch¬ 
bishop to withdraw his ban and re¬ 
store peace. 
The wives of the Venetian Doges 
took great interest in lace-making. The 
Dogaressa Giovanni Dandolo, wife of 
Pasquale Malipiero, may have founded 
a lace school as early as 1414; at least 
Rossi, the historian, speaks of the great 
encouragement she held forth to the 
Venetian lace-makers. Molmenti says, 
“It seems only natural that a woman 
should have been the first to promote 
the art of making these valuable and 
fanciful designs, which have always re¬ 
mained, amidst the varying caprices of 
fashion, the type of the beautiful, and 
of elegant adornment without vulgar 
display.” 
Collectors of lace will find a further 
study of Point de Venise fascinating. 
The public collections of America, such 
as the remarkable one in- the Metro¬ 
politan Museum of Art, New York, are 
rich in examples of Venetian point of 
the rarest quality, admirably arranged 
for viewing by the collector and lover 
of old laces. 
Notes of the Garden Clubs 
A T the Eighth Annual Interna¬ 
tional Flower Show, held under 
the auspices of the Horticultural 
Society of New York, and the New York 
Florists’ Club, at the Grand Central 
Palace, New York City, March 14 to 
20, 1921, Special Classes were open to 
the Member Clubs of the Garden Club 
of America, one for the best bird bath, 
with planting arrangement at base not 
to exceed T by 7', and the other for 
the best vase or basket of cut flowers 
(any green or foliage to be used) not to 
exceed 3' or to be less than 2' in di¬ 
ameter. 
The first prize, a silver cup from the 
New York Horticultural Society, was 
awarded to the Garden Club of Somer¬ 
set Hills, of which Mrs, Francis G. 
Lloyd is the President, for their exhibit 
of an antique marble bird bath resting 
on a pedestal of the same material 
standing about V/i high and around 
which twined a little ivy. The back¬ 
ground of this arrangement (and of all 
the others, with one exception), was of 
conifers. A pale yellow acacia drooped 
over one side of the bath. Iberis 
sempervirens was placed towards the 
back on one side and towards the front 
of the foreground, with three clumps of 
Darwin tulips of soft cherry red and 
pale mauve at one side of the pedestal. 
The entire surface of the base was 
sodded. 
The Garden Club of Short Hills, of 
which the President is Mrs. John A. 
Stewart, won the second prize, a silver 
medal, from the Flower Show Man¬ 
agement Committee, and also the 
Schling Gold Medal was received for 
“The best exhibit in the Show of the 
Garden Club of America”, a sweep- 
stakes award. A figure of the youth 
Narcissus kneeled over three pools, con¬ 
structed one above the other, sur¬ 
rounded by moss and ferns, which also 
covered the base, and in this were 
planted naturalized snow-drops, dwarf 
Iris, violets, primroses, and forget-me- 
nots. Six small birds were placed among 
the planting and conifers. 
The statue, by the sculptor, Miss 
Angelica Church, was designed especial¬ 
ly for this exhibit, and was of a com¬ 
position, but may be reproduced by Miss 
Church in any material. On the moss 
lay a card bearing a printed copy of a 
poem written for this occasion by a 
member of the Short Hills Garden Club, 
Mrs. Oswald Yorke (“Annie Russell”, 
the well-known actress), who described 
the transforming of Narcissus, “Spring’s 
(Continued on page 92) 
