HISTORISCHE SPITZEN

Overview

Historic lace was a passion of Leopold Iklé (1838–1922), scion of a Hamburg textile
dynasty who successfully produced machine-made embroidery over the
course of the industrial boom in St. Gallen around 1900. He exported to
England, France and the United States, among other places, at a time when
St. Gallen was the market leader in the lace industry.
Iklé’s collection of handmade European bobbin lace and needlepoint
from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century originally served as inspiration
for his firm’s textile designers. Through his passion for collecting,
however, it quickly surpassed the practical demands of a simple pattern
collection, and in 1904 he donated it to the Textile Museum St. Gallen.
Historische Spitzen provides a comprehensive review as well as
highlights of the lace samples in this unique collection of the Textilmuseum St. Gallen.

With contributions by: Anne Wanner, Frida Sorber, Roberta Orsi Landini,
Thessy Schoenholzer Nichols

Exhibition: This publication appears accompanying the exhibition Lace and High Society.
Innovation and Networking from the 16th to the 18th Century at the Textilmuseum St. Gallen, 26.10.2018–10.02.2019.