THE ART OF LACE MAKING
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THE ART OF LACE MAKING
Right up until the 1950s, groups of women aged between eight and eighty sitting outside their homes engaged in lace-making were a familiar sight in Gozo and Malta. As they worked their intricate laces on bolster (long, cylindrical) pillows, in narrow lanes in winter and under covered patios in summer, they would share stories and gossip, giggling and laughing and even reciting prayers that sometimes took the form of poems. When dusk fell, they would huddle indoors around a flickering oil lamp, working together to complete urgent orders.
Group of women sitting outside their homes engaged to lace making
In the midst of their work, you might hear a popular lacemaker’s chant from years gone by:
“Aħdem bizzilti aħdem, Ħa jgħidu li ’ntom beżlin, nixtrilkom il-brazzuletti u l-festa tmorru mżejnin.”
One of the most romantic traditions involving lace in Malta was the practice of singing folk songs about love and marriage, known as għana, while working on lace outdoors. These songs elevated the status of the hardworking girls, weaving love into the very fabric of their craft. But lace wasn’t just about romance; it was also deeply tied to marriage. Girls would earn their dowry (money given by their parents for marriage) by making lace, which often included household linens trimmed with lace and, most importantly, gold jewellery.
The amount of gold a girl wore proudly displayed her hard work and potential for marriage. In village festi (feasts), girls would proudly parade, adorned in their gold jewellery earned through lace making. The more gold they wore, the more respected and hardworking they were seen to be.
Work my lace, work it. They will say you are so hardworking that I will buy you bracelets to wear for the festa” Bizilla is the Maltese word for lace).
Some History
In the 16th century, lace became a trendy new fabric, different from embroidery, and it quickly became a hit in the busy mercantile cities of Milan and Venice. Along the coast of Italy, southern France, and the Iberian Peninsula, ports opened up specifically to trade in lace. Cities like Naples, Genoa, Marseilles, Barcelona, and Cadiz became the go-to spots for all things lace.
Merchants from Malta, on their way to the Iberian Peninsula, would buy and sell all sorts of goods, including lace. In these crowded ports, they met French and Flemish traders who brought beautiful lace from Northern France, Flanders, and the Netherlands. This lace filled the markets in Spain and even made its way to the Americas. With everyone copying each other’s designs and techniques, it became hard to tell where the lace originally came from.
In Gozo, this method of making lace was known as Bizzilla tal-Qasba and it continued until the mid-20th century. Lace makers used a long pillow called a Trajbu, which was perfect for creating these continuous strips of lace. This technique likely came from Malta’s trade connections with Spain.
The lace exported from Malta was typically made from local home-spun cotton thread, usually white. Maltese merchants would bring this thread back from their travels, often stopping in Naples on their way home from Spain. The Rocco family, among other thread merchants from Naples, visited Malta twice a year, bringing large amounts of lace thread. Because of this, the thread became known in Malta as Filo di Napoli, or ‘thread of Naples.’
For example, in 1746, a Maltese merchant named Francesco Attard from Cospicua brought back a box of thread after nine months of business in Marseilles, stopping in Naples along the way. Another shipment included 40 pounds of thread brought by a crew of seven Cottonera merchants after a 29-day voyage on a Speronara (Maltese boat), with eight days spent in Naples.
In 1746, Maltese Customs started keeping separate records for silk thread, known as seta, because it was more expensive than regular cotton thread. Most of this silk was imported by merchants from the Cottonera region returning from Sicily.
The church played a huge role in the lace industry. Priests, canons, and monsignors needed lace for their religious garments, like albs and rocchettos, which featured intricate lace borders and cuffs. Female orders of cloistered nuns also contributed significantly, especially those in Valletta, the harbour cities, and Mdina. The Benedictine nuns, for example, taught young girls to spin, weave, and make beautiful lace. They created high-quality lace for church vestments and kept the craft alive and protected from mass production.
These convents acted like treasure troves of exquisite lace. The nuns made the finest pieces for the Grand Master, bishops, and other high-ranking clergy. The church also established conservatories, which were homes for educating girls and orphans. These conservatories, funded by wealthy merchant families, became the first schools for girls. They taught reading, writing, housework, and various crafts, including lace-making.
One of the earliest conservatories, the Conservatorio delle Zitelle, was opened in Cospicua in 1699 by Laurica Hagius. It later became known as Conservatorio San Giuseppe. By the early 19th century, this conservatory was recognized for producing the best crafts and the most skilled teachers, especially in lace-making.
When machine-made lace was invented in England in 1764, it created tough competition for traditional bobbin and needle lace makers. The situation got even harder when the Knights of St. John left Malta, and the British took over in 1800. The Spanish Government banned foreign cotton imports, and cheaper cotton started flooding in from India, Syria, and Egypt. This hurt the demand for Malta’s home-spun cotton even more, as shops in Valletta began selling ready-made cotton products from England.
The lace industry faced other challenges too. A plague in 1813 and quarantine measures until 1826, followed by another cholera outbreak in 1837, caused significant disruptions. Severe droughts in 1840-41 led many Maltese farmers to consider moving to North Africa.
Fashion changes also impacted the lace market. From the mid-1820s, all-lace dresses fell out of style, replaced by embroidered muslin collars. However, a revival was on its way. In the 1830s and 1840s, large, naturalistic lace patterns became popular in Spain. Chantilly lace makers began using the ‘point de racroc’ stitch to join strips of lace seamlessly, allowing ten workers to complete in less than a month what used to take one person a year. This technique helped them compete with machine-made lace.
New fashion trends in England and France also boosted the industry. Lace flounces and bertha collars became very fashionable, helping sustain the lace trade. Royal interest played a role, too: Queen Adelaide visited Malta in 1838, and Queen Victoria commissioned lace from poor girls in Malta, showing support for the local craft.
During Queen Victoria’s reign from 1837 to 1901, silk became the dominant material in Maltese lace. Queen Victoria herself had a great love for lace and wanted to support lacemakers across her Empire, ensuring they had steady work throughout the year. The success of the Maltese black silk shawl at the London Exhibition of 1862 boosted the local lace trade, and these shawls became very popular, slowly growing in size, including mantles made entirely of lace. The Queen set the trend by wearing lace on official occasions, inspiring others to follow suit.
Inspired by their Queens, two English ladies did their best to help Maltese lace makers. Lady Sarah Austin was instrumental in promoting the Malta Bazaar, where Maltese lace was made by lacemakers at the Conservatory at Floriana (later the ‘House of Industry’ till the 1830s). Meanwhile, Lady Hamilton Chichester helped connect top Genoese lace teachers with the skilled workers in Rabat and Gozo and worked tirelessly to highlight the importance of lace making in Malta and Gozo. One major result of her efforts and those of Geraldine Mallia was the introduction of the bolster-shaped pillow, known locally as the Tal-Balla pillow. This special pillow got its name from the popular Tal-Balla Stitch used on it.
According to the 1861 census, there were 1261 seamstresses, 19 embroiderers, and 23 lace makers registered in Cottonera. Compare this with the 121 seamstresses, 3 embroiderers and 2597 lacemakers registered in Gozo! Lace-making merchants operated mainly from the harbour region, but the best lacemakers came from Gozo.
Canon Salvatore Bond (1790-1859) and Fr Giuseppe Diacono did much to improve the lot of lace-makers in Gozo and encourage their trade. Salvatore was a lace designer himself, incorporating Italian styles into Maltese designs. He also provided a space in his parish for girls to learn lace-making, which helped them earn a living from the shelter of their homes. During this time, Regina Papa and her niece set up a school in Victoria, the capital of Gozo, as it was called under the British, to teach lacemaking. Giuseppe Diacono, who was born in 1847, and was also a lace designer, opened a lace-making school named Casa Pia Industriale in Xagħra Gozo, which later moved to Victoria. The schools were famous for their lace pillows. The success of this school encouraged Fr Diacono to open a similar one in St Christopher Street in Valletta, and in 1920, he gathered all his experience in a book with the name ‘Bizzilli li jinħadmu f’Għawdex u f’Malta’ (Lace made in Gozo and Malta).
Back in Malta, the Church was also quite active in promoting the lace industry. The first lace school in Malta opened in 1862 at Ħaż-Żebbuġ, followed a year later by another in Mdina at the hall of the Carmelite Church.
In Cottonera, the nuns of St Margherita and the Conservatorio S. Giuseppe at Bormla, and those of St Scolastica at Birgu continued to teach young girls the art of lace making. Starting off with Zejtun, the Sisters of Charity also established lace schools in the various villages.
During the First World War and the economic downturn that followed, people started wearing simpler clothes, and the demand for fancy lace decreased. This led to a tough time for the lace industry once again.
However, Lord Strickland, who was the Prime Minister of Malta from 1924 to 1932, and his daughter Cecilia wanted to help the struggling lace industry. They set up the ‘Malta Industries Association’ to promote lace-making, weaving, and pottery. This association became a company in 1935.
Cecilia, especially, was passionate about lace-making. She worked with the best lace-makers in Gozo and even hired Maltese lace makers to work in her factory in Malta. Except for a break during the Second World War, the Malta Industries Association kept making lace until the 1980s. But as time went on, weaving and lace making became less important, and the company started to get smaller.
In the 1960s, the tradition of lace-making began to fade away. Only a few elderly women could be seen sitting sadly on doorsteps, with no young ones to carry on the craft. Girls and young women were drawn to other jobs like hand knitting, crocheting, or using machines to make garments, which offered better pay. As textile factories emerged in Gozo in the 1970s, offering higher wages, many women left home to work there. This shift marked a decline in lace-making.
But there’s hope on the horizon! Thanks to the efforts of researcher and lace-maker Consiglia Azzopardi and Heritage Malta’s textile curator Anna Maria Gatt, lace-making is experiencing a revival. Consiglia launched a Lace Making Programme at the University of Malta Gozo Campus, inspiring a new generation of lace-makers. In 1997, past students of the program formed a lace co-op called ‘Koperattiva Għawdxija tal-Bizzilla u Artiġjanat Limitata.’ They also established a Lace Guild in 2000.
If you’re ever in Cottonera, be sure to visit the National Textiles Collection at the Inquisitor’s Palace in Birgu. Here, you can see examples of Maltese and Gozitan lace lovingly preserved by Heritage Malta’s textile conservation laboratory in Kalkara. It’s a testament to the rich history and ongoing revival of lace-making in Malta.
Written with reference to:
‘Maltese Lace of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries’ by Consiglia Azzopardi. (Thesis presented to the Mediterranean Institute as a requirement to graduate for Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Malta, 2013).
‘Zejtun: An eighteenth-century ‘Smart City’ by Carmel Vassallo. Published in ‘Proceedings of History Week, 2011’ Malta Historical Society, Midsea books.
Watch Heritage Malta Curator for Costumes and Textile Annamaria Gatt, talk about the creation of this exquisite bobbin lace semi-flared skirt at the Inquisitor’s Palace in Birgu.