Page 346 - J. C. Turner "History and Science of Knots"

The History of Macrame 339

The craft then continued to enjoy a very quiet and restricted popularity,
being kept alive by sailor's work going ashore, either for sale to supplement
their miserable pay, or as gifts for wives and girl friends.
In the 19th Century, Mrs Bury Palliser [3] published a comprehensive
book on the history of lace. Of macrame she wrote:
There exists a beautiful and ingenious work taught in the schools
and convents along the Riviera. It is carried to a great perfection
at Chiavari, and also at the Albergo de Povari at Genoa. You see
it at every stage; it is almost the first employment of the fingers
which the poor children of either sex learn.
The designs at this stage were, on the whole, simple ones; apparently
the intricate Renaissance styles had been forgotten. Then in 1843 a richly
ornamented piece of old panto a gruppo was brought to the school in Genoa
by the Baroness d'Asti, and a young pupil, Maria Picchetti, had the patience to
unpick the work and discover how the patterns were formed. From then on the
children's work there grew more ambitious. The older children invented new
and beautiful patterns, and some of their work was used for church decoration.
Many items were sold locally; others were exported to South America and
California. Interest in the craft grew, and it spread rapidly. A Genoese Lady's
trousseau was not considered complete unless she had some undergarments
trimmed with macrame lace.
It was at this time that the craft received its present name. One source
suggests that it was named after a village on the river Macri, where it was
very popular. Whichever theory is correct, it was certainly named in Italy,
and called Macrame, or Macrami, although the accented `e' suggests that it
was coined in France. At an early period the word was used as a noun denoting
the homespun huckaback towels with plain fringed edges which were made in
Genoa. Gradually the name came to be applied to the distinctive fringes, and
then to the knots themselves.
Once again, the popularity of the macrame craft spread throughout Eu-
rope in the North; and there were many elaborate specimens of it submitted
to the Paris Exhibition of 1867. Then it crossed the English Channel for a
second time. It could not have arrived at a more fortuitous period, the mid-
to late-Victorian era. At this time everything was over-decorated; no bracket,
mantelshelf or piece of furniture was safe; and the social system was more than
appropriate for it, too. In middle-class Victorian society, the woman's place
was in the home. An independent career was unthinkable, for not only was
the husband's comfort considered to be his wife's career, but also in this late
industrial revolution time a man had to show off his successes; to have a wife
working would indicate to his peers that she needed to work, with a conse-
quent loss of status for him. The period even came up with bigger furniture,