Bobbin Lace Grounds

These are open parts of lace, used as filler between other parts of the pattern, such as solid areas. Ground can also be also called net or (in French) reseau or fond.

If you can't find what you want below, have a look at Grounds from "A Lace Guide for Makers and Collectors" by Gertrude Whiting (1920).

Simple grounds, using two pairs per unit

Torchon ground

Double Torchon ground

Bucks Point net

Half stitch ground or lattice stitch

Twisted hole ground

Mechlin ground

Brussels ground

Tally

Dot

Tiny diamond

Small spider

Hole

Plaied rose ground

Grounds using four pairs per unit

Rose ground

Triangular ground

Spider ground

Valenciennes

Round Valenciennes

Armour net

Chequerboard ground

Cane ground

Dot ground

Grounds using more than four pairs per unit

Star ground

Bias ground

Honeycomb

Kat stitch

Hexagon ground

Simple snowflake ground

Ringed snowflake ground

Hexagons surrounding snowflakes ground

Rose and line ground

Spider and line ground

Spider and dot ground

Star and dot ground

Sideways honeycomb / Kat stitch

"A Dictionary of Lace" by Pat Earnshaw defines Reseau, and puts the various bobbin lace grounds into categories. I list them here, with my own picture for what I think she means. Some of the grounds are quite similar, so I group them together on my pages. I have also included pictures from to "A Lace Guide for Makers and Collectors" by Gertrude Whiting (1920). Click on a picture to go to the relevant webpage explaining how to make it.

Reseau (French, network). The ground of small meshes filling the open spaces of a lace. The precise course of the threads and the resultant shape of the mesh are an important dignosic feature in lace identification.

My name	Mine	Whiting	Pat Earnshaw's categories
Bucks Point			(i) fond simple, simple ground, fond clair, Lille, point, or net ground, tulle mesh: found in Bucks, Lille, Chantilly, Spanish bobbin, blonde;
Kat stitch			(ii) fond double, double ground, point de Paris, Kat stitch, wire, French, six-point star, star, star-pointed ground, hairpin stitch, fond chant: found in French point de Paris lace, and in some Bucks, Chantilly, and Antwerp;
Rose ground			(iii) cinq trous, five hole, fond a la virge, virgin ground, rose stitch (Beds): found in Antwerp, some early Valenciennes, some torchon and yak;
Valenciennes			(iv) Valenciennes, square, diamond mesh;
Round Valenciennes			(v) round Valenciennes, round mesh: found in some Milanese and eighteenth-century Flemish laces;
Twisted hole ground			(vi) Spanish, maglia de spagna, twisted hole ground, twisted half stitch: found in silk laces, often from France and Italy, as well as Spain;
Mechlin ground			(vii) Mechlin, Malines
Brussels ground			(viii) droschel, vrai reseau, Brussels, bobbin mesh, Flemish ground: found in eighteenth-century point d'Angleterre, and Devon laces
Honeycomb			(ix) honeycomb, fond de marriage: found in some Bucks, often used as a filling
Ringed snowflake			(x) partridge eye, oeil de perdix, fond de neige, snowflake ground: the characterstic reseau of Binche, sometimes found in Mechlin;
Torchon ground			(xi) torchon;

© Jo Edkins 2016 - return to lace index