Guide to the Exhibition
The exhibition opened in 1996 makes the Museum visitors acquainted with the development of the Czech lace in an integrated sequence since the end of the 17th century till now. It is located in the first floor and the ground floor of the building of the Lace Museum. Authors of the scenario and of the exhibition implementation are Jitka Pivcova, Dr. Vera Klimesova and Marie Hulcova.
The exhibition in the first floor originates from the wealth
of the folk lace making, it suggests differences in the use of
lace on both folk and townsfolk garment, and also the decisive
economic, pedagogical and style influences that have changed
the lace in its expression and function. In this part of the
exhibition, it is apparent how the character of the modern Czech
lace has been formed - it has grown from a workmanlike educated
and aesthetically chastened environment. In modern times, the
Czech lace has become a world concept. It has been presented
mainly through the sets of the EXPO Brussels 1958 and Montreal
1967 world exhibitions.
The exhibition in the ground floor of the building is focused
on the modern studio creation.
Ground floor
Thanks to Emilie Palickova-Mildeova, the Czech lace has emancipated from its utility function, and, at the end of the fifties, started to aim at the monumental form, without any dependence on the development abroad. Thus, the monumental appearance of the lace is a specific benefit of the Czech environment to the contemporary applied art. Since the half of the fifties, modern Czech lace achieved a number of significant successes abroad; not only at such actions as was EXPO 58 int Brussels or EXPO 67 in Montreal, where it was part of our exhibition pavilions, but also at independent exhibitions.
Particularly great return had an exhibition prepared in 1983 by the Prague Museum of Applied Arts for the Royal Museum of History and Art in Brussels under the name "Czech Lace from the Art-deco Era till Today". A collection of more than two hundred exhibits representing the development of the Czech artistic lace trade since the half of the twenties till today was a great surprise in the traditional collection of the European lace, and it aroused an increase of interest in the Czech lace that resulted in organising several other foreign exhibitions, the largest of which were in Nordhalben (Germany, 1991) and in Tonder (Danmark, 1992).
Besides, our artists regularly participated in various international competitions, out of which they, as a rule, brought the most valuable trophies. The most significant competition is the International Biennale of the Lace, organised under the auspices of the Belgian Queen Fabiola in Brussels. First prize, the Golden Mallet, was won there by Ludmila Kaprasova (1983), Jana Slamova (1989) and Maria Danielova (1991). Second prize, the Silver Mallet, won Maria Danielova (1985), Ludmila Kaprasova and Marie Vankova (both in 1989). The third prize, the Bronze Mallet, got Jana Slamova (1985), and the fourth one, the Crystal Mallet, Vlasta Wasserbauerova (1989) andÝEmilie Frydecka (1991).
At the same time, the system of the contemporary education of the Czech Lace was appraised at the 2nd Biennale by the Great Prize of the Queen Fabiola, which, from her hands, Marie Vankova took over on behalf of the University of Applied Arts. For the Czech public, the development of the Czech modern Lace remained unknown till the autumn of 1992 when, after many years of efforts, an exhibition "Czech Lace - Three Generations" was successfully organised in the Prague Manes exhibition hall. Some works from this exhibition are part of the local modest exposition where the work of the top lace trade artists, graduates of the University of Applied Arts in Prague, is presented.
To this part of the exposition belongs Midsummer Night's Dream
an author work of Milca Eremiasova of 1980, which is exhibited
in the entrance hall of the Lace Trade Museum in the Martina
shop.
Another work, which opens the exposition of the modern studio
production, is the bobbin three-dimensional composition Kristus
an author work of Emilie Frydecka of 1969.
Author works of Emilie Frydecka are also two next exhibits, the spatial composition Stromy of 1971, and a pendant lace Praha of 1958. Author of the spatial lace Sloup of 1970 is Marie Vankova to whose production also belongs another pendant lace 1980, called Praha kvetouci .
The first part of the exposition is closed by the Barokni socha a black bobbin lace composition, an author work of Milca Eremiasova of 1980.
The exposition continues by the work of Marie Vankova, with a bobbin lace hanger Mir of 1983.
Mobil a spatial composition of Alina Jaskova occurred in 1988 as a diploma work.
The pendant work Za diagonalou is an author works of Jitka Stenclova of 1987.Horizont, a spatial wall composition of 1988, represents the production of Eva Fialova who is also an author of another work which, under the name of Alfa a Omega has occurred in 1996.
The exposition is closed by Praporek pro papouska, a pendant object by Eva Fialova of 1993.
In the Lace Museum exposition, the lace production of the second half of the twentieth century is represented by the works of the authors:
Emilie Palickova started her artistic career with study at the General School of the Academy of Visual Art (Vseobecna skola Akademie vytvarnych umeni) in Sophia, Bulgaria, where she moved to with her parents from Nachod.
After her return she still continued her study at the Umeleckoprumyslova skola v Praze, first in 1910-14, at the general school of drawing and painting for ladies, then in the women department of the special textile school of Professor Benes (1914-16), where she stayed till 1919 as an assistant. In 1919, she decided to accept a job in the newly founded Statni ustav skolsky pro domacky prumysl, where she was to design, among other, also the lace.
Here, her ability to always find the expression adequate to
the used technique was fully developed. Without any burden of
inveterate usances she worked with the lace methods freely and
did not even consider the theories prescribing how the contemporary
lace should look like. Already in her first works, she reached
a specific expression based on a poetic interpreting the stimuli
of the folk art.
Interest of the authorities and the possibility to put also large
works for foreign exhibitions in practice supported the development
of her painter's imagination, mainly in the field of the sewn
lace for which the extraordinary creative fantasy and an ability
to work with a detail is characteristic, with whose assistance
she made her emotive compositions, often with an impressive rhythm.
For the collection of lace exhibited at the International Exhibition of Decorative and Industrial Art in Paris in 1925 she won the Grand prix Prize and the Golden Medal. Since then the bobbin lace started to prevail in her production. Under the influence of the atmospheric functionalistic tendencies she, from the initial decorative style, arrived at a new expression stemming only from the basic technical means of the bobbin lace making. She created countless number of designs in which there is a thorough balance between the functionality and the artistic figuration.
One of the first greater works of this kind is the large circular
blanket made for the Czechoslovak exposition at the exhibition
in New York in 1939. It is a work that makes the beginning of
experiments with similar topic she was involved in during the
next two decades.
In 1946, she was called in the Vysoka skola umeleckoprumyslova in Prague where she worked as a professor and led a special studio for the lace and embroidery till 1959. In this period, she made a number of monumental works, starting, in 1947, with the bobbin net-curtain for the presidential box of the National Theatre (stÛra pro prezidentskou lÛzi Narodniho divadla - conceived as an architectonic composition, very distant from the traditional ornamental concept, and ending with the lace hanger for EXPO 58 in Brussels (zaves pro EXPO 58 v Bruselu Drafts for EXPO 58 are an example of the last phase of the development of her production, which is one of the most important chapters of the women national artistic culture.
Emilie Palickova-Mildeova managed to lead the lace making
out from its traditional concept, to free it from its historicizing
dependencies, and to increase it to the level of a real work
of art while she never ceased her attention to its craft clarity.
She broad-mindedly handed over her professional experience to
the young artists she gathered around herself at the Vysoka skola
umeleckoprumyslova.
She taught her students a thorough command of the bobbin lace technique from the drawn studies to the implementation of the draft, she taught them an independent creative access, which comes out from the inspiration by the material and technique used.
Bohumila Gruskovska belonged to the pupils of E. Palickova in 1951-56. She is an author of the monumental bobbin lace hanger Pruvod kralovnicek which, for EXPO 58, was implemented by the lace makers of the Vamberecka krajka cooperative .
This hanger is a successful attempt of making monumental lace compositions, one of the first major works in this field. For it, Bohumila Gruskovska won the Gold Medal at the EXPO 58. In accordance with the representative purpose of this work, the author started, both in the technical and the topical respects, from the folk art, and, at the same time, thus she did homage to her teacher whose production she openly followed.
After graduation she was first employed in the Ustav bytove a odevni kultury v Praze, where she created designs for machine lace fabric, curtain cloths, embroideries and, later on, also knitted fabric. Since 1961, she worked as a teacher in the Skolsky ustav umelecke vyroby in Prague in the field of the sewn and bobbin lace.
For her pupils, she made designs from tablemats to monumental compositions, implemented in a team way. Her work for the school then influenced also her own production, which was very sober and disciplined. She experimented with combinations of a sewn and bobbin lace or embroidery.
With this technique, she made transparent interior hangers and partitions. Another time, she used pack-cloth, which she complemented with a lace sewn in a viewport, or she applied bobbin lace details on it. Her compositions are mostly in natural colours, sometimes complemented with golden or silver thread.
Gabriela Slechtova studied in the studio of E. Palickova in 1947-52. After graduation she started as a designer to Textilni tvorba, where she designed machine curtain fabric, lace and embroideries. She remained in the Ustav bytove a odevni kultury, which, later on, took over the tasks of the Textilni tvorba, and created a number of designs of an inspiration collection for knitting enterprises. She worked there till 1983. Her intensive work in the employment, she was so devoted to, did not leave her much time for her own amateur production she used as a compensation of the more binding parameters of the machine production she had to respect in her designs. In her free time, she created bobbin lace hangers, complex dynamic compositions showing her original graphical education.
Since the end of the sixties, she became involved also in
the bobbin jewellery and garment accessories on which her rich
fantasy could fully apply.
This is also documented with the exhibited festive headdress
In the competition for the Czechoslovak participation in EXPO
67, she won 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes (together with M. Vankova).
Out of this collection, two dresses are decorated with bobbin
lace.
Vlasta Solcova studied at the Vysoka skola umeleckoprumyslova
in the studio of monumental painting of Professor A. Fisarek
and in the studio of E. Palickova in 1950-56.
In 1974-83, she worked as an artist and professor of restoring the historic textile in the Skolsky ustav umelecke vyroby. Otherwise, she worked as an independent textile artist in the field of the sewn and bobbin lace, and is involved in restoring the historic textiles. With her author production, she followed the pioneer work of her professor and, as one of the first Czech textile artists, started making three-dimensional lace objects modelled directly during her work on the cushion. An early expression of the new trend towards three-dimensionality in the development of the Czech lace of the seventies was her composition "Plakala panna, plakala" whose basic principles she developed in the cycle of "Prameny" from the monumental objects to the textile miniature.
She manages also the old lace making techniques that are no more used or seem to be forgotten for a long time which is one of the preconditions of the demanding restoring work. She is one of the few contemporary Czech artists - lace makers who masterfully manage the sewn lace technique but, lately, she has experimented mostly with the bobbin lace.
She liked working with colour materials, which requires a
great deal of discipline and a refined taste.
Besides the monumental lace hangers, she, lately, also created a number of variants of free bobbin lace collars that are rich in many artistic and technological ideas. Here, her production is represented with the white-black bobbin lace vest a bolero and a dress
Professor Marie Vankova-Kuchynkova studied at E. Palickova in 1951-56. After her graduation she was employed in the Ustav bytove a odevni kultury as an artist of the development of designing in the field of the machine lace, embroidery and knitted work.
Since 1961, she was an assistant at the VSUP in Prague where, in 1979, became an associate professor and, in 1992, a full professor. After being retired she still worked in the Skolsky ustav umelecke vyroby. Thanks to her sense of experimenting, Marie Vankova reached the success at the very beginning of her independent work. In her designs for gallonove machine curtain fabric and dresswear she reached outstanding results through her promoting the technological limitations of the machine production to an expression means which determines just this textile technique.
However, full satisfaction was brought to her only through her work with materials and techniques enabling her to use more expression freedom. Since her return to VSUP in 1961, she has been systematically involved in the bobbin lace. Creating a collection of bobbin lace for EXPO 67 brought her to the solution of the spatial lace problem to which she has given a new, monumental, in principle architectonic, appearance, while keeping all its original properties.
Besides the three-dimensional objects, she naturally creates also the classical bobbin hangers, in particular in cases when the topic or the theme require a clear, non-distorted picture. Since the second half of the sixties, a significant part of its production is also the bobbin jewel which origins from the natural proportions of the human body but never is a mere garment accessory.
Also her textile miniatures are mostly small spatial compositions out of which she can get a maximum expression. For the exposition in Montreal, she created a large lace composition called Fontana in shape of a 600 cm high hollow cylinder of 80 cm diameter.
From her garment collection, the dinner gown of pack-cloth, with a wide lace, bobbin made of warp threads, and two festive headdresses of pack and black flax with a golden and silver leonine web completed with pearl beading. For her EXPO 67 collection, M. Vankova was granted an honourable mention. Through her work, Marie Vankova has contributed not only to the renaissance of the Czech lace but, during her long stay at VSUP she also educated a whole further generation of lace makers out of which a number of them have successfully followed her work.
Eva Fialova studied in the studio of E. Palickova in 1949-54. Since 1955 till her retirement in 1987, she was employed in the Vyzkumny ustav vyrobnich druzstev in Prague There, her work was focused on the development of weaving, bobbin lace making, embroideries, printed textiles and the garment production. Each year, she participated in creating the inspiration collections for the co-operative production. Since 1956, she started working with the co-operative Vamberecka krajka in Vamberk which implemented most of her works.
At the beginning, Eva Fialova designed narrow yardage of various
colours for this co-operative. However, her interest soon became
focused on lace garment which she does not make through putting
individual parts together but composes it as a plastic work whose
forms are made directly in the process of bobbin lace making.
With an unusual creative invention, she designed a large collection
of these lace garments including accessories like shawls, bands,
hats and even bobbin shoes.
Out of the EXPO 67 collection, there are dinner dress exhibited here of natural flax yarn, completed with golden and silver leonine web, silver dinner dress with Czech garnets silver lace hats hat silver evening shawl and a lace shoe.
For the collection for Montreal she got an honourable mention. However, in Eva Fialova's work, we can find also the coloured bobbin tapestry called "Pavi" implemented into a particular architectonic space, or bobbin hangers) with figural and geometric compositions in which the level of styling corresponds to the technique used.
Unique part of her production are the table mats made by a combination of flax textile woven in various ways, with the bobbin lace made of warp threads, which are represented in the collection with a flax table cloth .
Even after leaving her employment, Eva Fialova systematically attends to individual production and some works she makes. Out of the successful bobbin models, there is also the evening dress here, with golden and silver metallic thread and pearl beading of 1974, a coloured Kaspar blouse of 1987, a brown and pack spiral and a red spiral of 1991.
Further, a black dress with a gauze skirt and a corsage made of bobbin lace of golden-black threads of 1964, a silver metallic thread shoe of 1968, and two black chamois shoes complemented with a bobbin lace.
Emilie Frydecka studied at VSUP in the studio of E. Palickova and Professor Antonin Kybal in 1957-63. After graduation she first worked as an independent textile artist, since 1972 till 1990 was employed in the Ustav bytove a odevni kultury in Prague as a designer of design for printed textiles. In 1990, she returned to VSUP as an assistant professor in the studio of the textile production of Professor B. Mrazek, where she habilitated and where she, as an associate professor, has worked till now, after the studio has been taken over by R. Rozsivalova.
At the beginning, in her independent work, she was focused on tapestry. In creating her compositions, she applied the loosened weft or warp threads of the underlay material or the loose threads of the applied bobbin motifs, which she combined with embroidery. Between the sixties and seventies, lace paraphrases of the folk Calvary and crucifixes occur in her work, and, at the same time, the enchantment of the Nature enters her production.
Motif of the tree becomes the central element, not only in its concrete form with bird nests but also as a symbol of life. At first, she brings the usage of loose threads also here but she complements them with more complex and decorative elements of the bobbin lace which, however, soon leave, and a simple, clear and, in a way almost graphic composition of the sand lace comes to their place. From the black-white shading, she comes to the coloured shading, very sober, which she sometimes accents with a golden or silver bouillon.
This graphic concept of the lace has permanently increased and, lately, it culminates in geometrical landscape visions, e.g. in the double-part variable composition "Krajina s dvema cestami", or in Krajina s dalnici for which Emilie Frydecka got even an international appreciation. It was just this lace she got the Crystal Mallet for at the 5th International Biennale of the Lace in Brussels. In her works, the emphasis she puts to the function of the optical effect of the lace, is distinctly apparent, to the play of light and shade which, in the transparent textile, becomes a means of existential message, and participates in the creation of the rich scale of expressions.
It is typical for the lace tapestry of Emilie Frydecka that
they also have a deep content aspect. In her production of the
last years, we could find also a number of invention designs
for a festive laid table with the use of the bobbin lace, and
also brainy miniatures are present here.
She devotes to her teaching activity and hands over her rich experience to the young generation. In the exposition, she is also represented by the bobbin necklace of pack and black flax with a golden leonine web from the Montreal collection, and the crucifix and loose bobbin hangers Stromy Praha Krajina sÝoblaky.
Milca Eremiasova studied in the studio of E. Palickova and of Professor A. Kybal in 1956-62. Here, she also graduated in 1967-71 and finished her artistic doctoral study in the field of hand-made lace. Since her graduation in 1962 till 1990, she was engaged in teaching activity as a professor in the Skolsky ustav umelecke vyroby and, after 1990, in the "Soukroma mistrovska skola umeleckeho designu" school in Prague as the head of the lace trade studio.
Simultaneously, she was engaged in her independent artistic production, for which the inspiration by the Nature, by the old Prague architecture, music and theatre is typical. There, we can find particular messages and sketches and also complex compositions containing often even negative messages. Mainly Janaceks music is very intimate for her. At the Janaceks cycle "Po zarostlem chodnicku", she tried to interpret individual parts of the composition with her expression means in closed, cyclically interconnected scenes put into massive frames cut from a trunk of one tree.
She used the connection of a massive, solid material with
the fine bobbin lace several times yet, for example in the scenically
conceived Midsummer Night's Dream, and, lately, in still-lives
with motifs of the Nature. From these topical domains some spatial
monumental compositions of abstract character are excluded; in
them, the relation of the lace and the space is being solved
like, e.g. in the "Vzlinani" composition.
From the classical white and pack lace, she has come over to expressive gaiety that, in some cases, intentionally graduates even to certain aggressiveness like in Ptak Ohnivak made after Igor Stravinskys music.
To the sphere of the theatrical insertion belongs the chamber tapestry "Hamlet" and the "Zapas" made according to the ballet "Krvava svatba" by Lorcas play. Milca Eremiasova did not avoid the garment lace. She made a number of variants of shawls, collars and other accessories. In the exposition, she is represented by the social shawl made as bobbin lace of fine white yarn of the seventies, and white gloves from the EXPO 67 collection, for which she got honourable mention.
Stanislava Losova-Muzikova comes from the lace-making region under the Orlice river but studied the lace trade in 1978-83 at the Vysoke umeleckoprumyslove uciliste V. I. Muchinova in Leningrad, Russia. She is engaged in an independent artistic production in the lace making field and, lately, also in the hand-made painting on textile for garment production.
Part of her work are hanging lace compositions and bobbin lace precisely made jewels, garment accessories and brainy designs of the tablemats. In the exposition, collars are exhibited that can arouse interest by their unique expression.
Alina Jaskova studied at VSUP as a student of Marie Vankova and graduated in 1986. After graduation she started as a designer of machine lacelike and curtain cloths in the Ustav bytove a odevni kultury, where she worked till l990. Since 1990 till 1995, she worked in the Skolsky ustav umelecke vyroby as a lace and embroidery designer and, later on, as a teacher of ornamental and figural drawing at the secondary school, branch of SUUV.
In 1996 and 1997, she taught lace and embroidery making at
the "Soukroma mistrovska skola umeleckeho designu"
in Prague. In her free production, she is engaged in the bobbin
lace jewels, tapestry and objects. For her production, the combination
of various techniques and materials is characteristic (lace with
glass) or, lately, also textile inlays in the form of tapestry
or table sets.
In the collaboration with specialised journals, she designs patterns for various textile techniques and, independently, she issues patterns. In the Lace Museum exposition, we can find the three-part Mobil garment accessories are represented with the collar and bracelet.
Miluse Mikusova studied textile design at VSUP, Professor
A. Kybal and B. Felcman in 1970-76. Since 1981, she has worked
as an assistant at the Pedagogicka fakulta University Karlovy
in Prague, where, in 1988, also habilitated. Besides her educational
activity, she is also engaged in her individual production in
which woven tapestry prevailed at first. Later on, she started
to combine woven textile with bobbin lace, and she started to
create interesting textile inlays of both natural and blanched
materials, sometimes complemented with fine colours.
Lately, she has intensively engaged in creating very brainy bobbin lace jewels in which she combines natural textile materials and golden and silver leonine web with metal details. In the exposition, she exhibits brooches and necklaces
Jitka Stenclova studied at VSUP in the textile studio of Professor Bohuslav Felcman in 1972-77, and she was also a student of Marie Vankova. After graduation, she devoted to her independent author production, and her creative activity divided into tapestry and lace.
his polarity showed itself already in her diploma work when she used woven textile whose basic motif she developed in bobbin lace made of warp threads. Already in her first works an inspiration by landscape occurs which is, in them, characterised with stylised natural motifs which, later on, she used in her lace compositions of trees bobbin-laced of rough natural material.
Here also, the principle of overlaying has occurred for the first time which, in a extremely simplified form, is a typical feature of the last period in which she was engaged in lace making, as well as the problem of the mutual relation between the fabric and its basic constructional element - crossing the warp and weft thread. Now and then she used also the colour contrasts. After 1992, she started to engage more in embroidery and painting. In the exposition, her production is represented by the Za diagonalou pendant lace.
Jana Stefkova is a precise and devoted implementer of some designs of our top artists. In the exposition, her own production is represented with garment accessories, mainly collars.
First Floor
Picture located on the landing shows situation from the end
of the 19th century - lacemakers, sitting with crossed legs on
the bench round the glass flasks filled with water. A man called
"perforator" is perforating lace patterns to help these
women stick the pins into them. TheÝpins were used for
fixing of interlaced pairs of yarn wound up on the spinned bobbins.
Room No.1
Display case No.1 - lacemaker's aids of 18 and 19th century
Girls, women, boys and even men of all the villages under Eagle Mountains spent many hours a day at their lace-pillows. There was one special task for boys then - before their going to the town school everyone had to make one or three "dents" of the lace. Quantity of the work depended on difficulty of created lace. Of course they were given some easier one...
The threads were wound up on the bobbins by means of spinning
wheel. Also illumination was very simple - the only source of
light - chip of wood or oil lamp used to be regulated by the
glass flasks filled with water.
Flat display cases No. 2 and 3
presents an endless and multiform world of the folk lace. Tape type of lace and continuous (many-paired) lace can be seen namely on the Czech, Moravian or Slovak clothes. From the beginning of the 19th century complicated Valenciennes, AlenÁon's and Maline's lace types decorating folk bonnets were replaced by the Flanders lace with more simple ground. This was the way how famous lace type produced in Vamberk - named "vlacka " (vlachka) - came into being (see the right part of display case No.3).
Display case No.4 stylish small town dress of the 19th century
History of clothing has been closely connected with the lace. There is a theory saying that the lace was developed from decorative ending of fabric. During development of single styles well-known European lace-making centres came into being. Stylish laceworks and particular lace-making techniques are usually named just according to these places. Speaking about the lace works in Bohemia, we mostly mean a bobbin-lace type. There are - however - many other lace -making techniques - e. g. : sewn lace or net lace
The blue dress originating from the half of the 19th century is completed with a pelerine coat created from "vlacka" hand made lace stripes. Bonnet of this dress is decorated with a machine-made lace. Machine production of the lace more and more replaced original hand-made bobbin-lace.
The white Art Nouveau dress from 1900 - 1910 proves this fact as well.
The black fan represents hand-made Chantilly lace. This nice work was probably made in Bohemia, about 1880.
The white fan shows hand-made Brussels bobbin-lace and originates
from 1875 - 1880, it is a Bohemian work.
Display case No.5 - samples of folk costume
In the end of 18th century this type of clothing reached its stable form using these types of decorations: bobbin-lace, embroidery on the tulle or perforated embroidery completed with "sewn spiders". Hard, golden silver bonnets are ornamented with trimming type lace. Both - hard and soft bonnets - are bordered with old, namely Valenciennes lace.
Metrical bands of lace, displayed in the left part of the
display case, show "vlacka" lace type.
Room No.2
Display case No.6 - development of lace-making from the
19th century to the beginning of the 20 th century
Lace-sellers - called "factors" - used the box with slings for carrying of their goods from place to place. An extensive net of home lace-workers covered a large region of Eastern Bohemia. During the second half of the 19th century there was an unusual quantity of lace, which was made for decorating of linen and fashionable net-curtains. Manual work had to compete with machine production and that was why artistic or technical level of the lace-seller's goods slowly decreased.
In the beginning of our century there was some effort to rise home-made lace production: former Museum of Applied Art in Hradec Kralove published competition for home lace-makers whose economic situation and standard of living became critical. Some new patterns reflecting single stylish trends originate just from this period (see tableau above).
Importance of professional lace-making education and the shift of creative emotion connected with a new aesthetic idea of the end of 19th century can be seen on the wide lace patterns which are located on the bottom: i.e. the white hand-made bobbin lace collar with the lily of the valley motif, collar made in Irish technique (crochetting)and the group of collars in the corner of the case. From the break of the 19th century there were some work-shops, established in bigger cities like Prague or Brno, creating aesthetic and very impressive works. These work-shops represented significant centres of lace production.
The circular lace in a shape of big rosette, made in sewn lace technique, was created in the Prague Mrs.Eckert's work-shop. In the break of the 19th and 20th century this was theÝplace producing a big quantity of similar table covers and curtains.
The circular lace cover with hand-made application of fabric on the tulle created in the beginning of the 20th century in a monasterial work-shop uses a technique of complicated inlayed work. This nice piece of lace-work is bordered with "vlacka" lace type.
Bobbin-lace covers displayed in the right part of the case
were made by the professional workers of the "School Institute
of Art Production". Coming of modernism functionalism in
the twenties of the 20th century is seen on the works of the
some institute - the lace made in this period is designed in
geometrical compositions (see the left part of the case).
Display case No.7 - work of Marie Sedlackova-Serbouskova
This famous artist lived in the village Javornice in the Orlicke hory (Eagle Mountains). A table set for 24 persons, ordered by the Barton family living in the castle of Nove Mesto nad Metuji is represented in our collection by two table-clothes decorated with initials "MB" and by severel preparatory works. The whole inscription seen on the table cloth was: "Lonely man feels bad even in the Paradise, good friends are more precious than gold and gems" . Table-cloth border, made in the style of modernism, was quite complicated. We can imagine the whole work thanks to some smaller preparatory works.
Marie Sedlackova-Serbouskova didn't forget her life credo:
"The lace should serve for good humour of family and friends
who met at the table..." That was why she tried to find
some new technology which would make home washing of the lace
as easy as possible. In the thirties and forties she invented
a unique own technique - seen on coloured table-clothes. Marie
Sedlackova-Serbouskova stimulated other artists to the new creative
approach to the technique of lace-making. We may say that her
influence is absorbed till now, even some contemporary big pendent
works take a great advantage of it.
Display case No.8 - is devoted to the Vamberk Lace Producting
Cooperative Society established around 1947.
The Lace Producing Society tried to find own programme of production and work for its workers: lace-makers, embroidery-makers and dress-makers. Lace products started to be used in quite new way - e.g. like costume jewellery, etc. Designers began production of the lace motives made in the form of glazed pictures and bobbin-lace draperies.
The big square hand-made table-cloth from the fifties is created in the Brussels bobbin lace technique. Influence of the 19th century motives used for its design is evident.
The fine circular table cover in front is inspired by the
folk elements which are known under the term "sveraz"
i. e. a characteristic stream of artistic creation from the end
of 19th century.
The circular lace on the left proves searching for a new style
in the fifties and its enforcing.
Important works of designer Anna Kuncova: the light-blue taffeta
dress decorated with a hand-made Brussels lace bodice white woollen
thread dress using the tape lace technique and oblong cover with
Brussels roses in the rudohorska (Ore Mountains) ground and the
created white covers from the rolled ribbons in klasterni (monsterial)
technique originate just from this period.
Marie Cerbsova is an author of the circular cover depicting a
snow-flake. Lace-maker used the Brussels technique.
Big international exhibition abroad (in Sao Paulo, London, Moscow, Paris and New York) brought a significant impulse for the Czech bobbin lace production. Lace-workers of the Vamberk Lace Producing Society also created drapery named "Vintage" which was designed by Eva Fialova. Eva Fialova is an artist, who strongly influenced Vamberk Lace Producing Society and its programme of production. She belonged to a leading personalities of the Czech artistic lace from the fifties till now.
The white blouse using fine chain net which the motif of the
leaves represents one of her clothing works of the first period.
The Lace Production Society in Vamberk co-operated with several
university teachers, workers of specialised central organisations
and with first after-war graduates of our artistic school. Some
of them made not only designs but also real lace works.
Drapery "Wedding in Moravian Slovakia" a very precise
time consuming narrative work, made in four-zoned composition
with ethnografical theme, was made by Blanka Hanusova like her
graduate work for the High-grade School of Arts and Crafts.
Display case No.9 located on the opposite wall of the room
Contains a famous drapery "Procession of the Little Queens" created by the lacemakers of Vamberk Lace Producing Society according to the design of Bohumila Gruskovska for EXPO exhibition in Brussels in 1958. This masterpiece and some other lace works shoved modern Czech and Slovak lace abroad and represented effort of many artists. The Czech Ministry of Culture gave the whole EXPO collection to the Lace Museum in Vamberk. You can find some other exhibits of this set in the second part of display case No.8.
Fine scarves made by Vlasta Edelmanova are placed on the bottom of the display case.
Pendent compositions using plant motives represents Eva Fialova's work.
The space above the flowers, which created according to design of Vlasta Edelmanova and Eva Fialova, is occupied by the Anna Kuncova's hat.
A circular work in pack-thread situated on the wall, is designed by Rudolf Richter.
Eva Fialova is an author - designer of two white dresses decorated
with the motives of pearls and strawberries.
Brussels collection is closed by the display case No.10
Which is devoted to the work of Emilie Palickova, an artist from the town of Nachod in Eastern Bohemia. In the twenties and thirties of the 20th century Palickova worked in the technique of sewn lace and created some top world-known works which gained a meaningful prize in international exhibition in Paris in 1925. Emilie Palickova worked in the School Institute of Artistic Production in Prague.
hen, in the fifties, she continued her pedagogic work with a group of young designers studyingin the High-grade School of Arts and Crafts. Collection created for the EXPO Brussels exhibition, which is shown in this museum, represents just a small part of her work.
The circular cover named "The Doves" was designed
by the Slovak artist Elena Holeczyova.
Display case No.11
Shows a selection of the lace collection displayed in the world EXPO exhibition in Montreal in 1967. The whole set was given to our museum by the Experimental Institute of the Cooperative System in Production.
Antonin Kybal - a leading personality of the textile studio working in the High-grade School of Arts and Crafts in Prague suggested a new liberal design of all exhibits created for the Montreal collection. His students - members of the newly coming artistic generation - tried to find some new ways in the field of technology.
The dress consisting of more parts, made from linen yarn and golden metallic thread hats shoe scarf and silver dress decorated with Czech garnets were by Eva Fialova.
The festive head cover three necklaces and the dress with wide lace border which was created from the thread of warp in hand-woven fabric and miniature, called My garden were designed by a university teacher Marie Vankova.
A Necklace the gloves and the shawl represents the work of Milca Eremiasova.
Bolero type bodice was designed by Vlasta Solcova, a teacher of School Institute of Artistic Production in Prague.
Emilie Frydecka is an author of the necklace decorated with
the small balls.
Room No.3
Our exhibition continues with exhibits of EXPO Montreal collection. You can see here also some works made in the seventies and nineties.
Display case No.12
Begins with the bolero type bodice which was created by Vlasta Solcova for the Montreal collection in 1967.
Miniatures - a little cap with the necklace represent the work of a professor Marie Vankova.
Brown and red collars with an ear-ring were designed by Stanislava Losova.
Spiral clothing supplements all-bobbin lace dress, decorated with the beads and the blouse called "the Punch" were created by Eva Filaova.
Display case No.13
Shows the clothes made for EXPO Montreal collection and the two models created for the fashion shows.
The white dress with a black veil and the black tight type
case dress decorated with black lace represent the work of Gabriela
Slechtova.
The black dress with a fantastic decorative lace was designed
by Vlasta Solcova.
The rusty shade dress and the long gown in the corner of this display case were made according to Eva Filalova's design for EXPO Montreal fashion shows. The same thing can be said about the shoes decorated with the lace motives. Eva Fialova also made the nice spiral clothing supplement.
The collar represents the work of Stanislava Losova.
Display case No.14
Clothing supplements and necklaces by Jana Stefkova.
Display case No.15
Displayed collar in blue and white and the bracelet represent
the work of Alina Jaskova.
Other clothing supplements were created by Eva Fialova.
Display case No.16
Eva Fialova's table-cloth from 1985 attracts your attention
thanks to its technique: all theÝlace borders were created
from the thread of warp in hand-woven fabric. Linen yarn is combined
with lurex metallic thread.
Display case No.17
Broaches and necklaces from the work of Miluse Mikusova.