A History of Tatting

Tatting is believed to have evolved from knotting, a very ancient type of decoration for clothing. The Egyptians used knotting as decoration on ceremonial dresses and a mummy was found with a skirt overlay of knotted rings, which look very much like tatting.

The Chinese also used knotting and couched their knotted designs into their embroideries. These eventually found their way to Europe. Knotting was popular for the decoration of furnishing and embroideries in medieval times.

Knotting was worked by winding thread into a shuttle and then making a series of knots on the thread at close intervals so that the work looked like a string of beads. However, it did not become real popular until the seventeenth century when it is thought that the Dutch, due to their trading in the East, brought new forms of knotting from China and made it common place in Europe. It is not quite clear where the transition from knotting to tatting took place, but it is generally thought it may have occurred in Italy. Someone sitting knotting one day decided to join her knots into a ring instead of making a string of them and thus tatting was born.

In England, it was written that Queen Mary herself was an ardent knotter and took it everywhere. Sir Charles Sedley wrote a poem about her riding in her coach always knotting thread.

Tatting was thought to have originated by Nuns in Italy in the 16 th century. The early forms were different from today's versions. There were no chains and the work consisted of only rings, which were made in rows or groups using only a single shuttle and then tied or sewn together afterwards. Sometimes rings were made with a needle instead of a shuttle. During the early eighteenth century tatting was gradually taking over from knotting in England, although the word Tatting did not actually appear in print till 1843. It is thought that early examples of tatting were still referred to as knotting.

In 1843 the Ladies Handbook of Millinery, Dressmaking and Tatting was published in England. This was the start of many books on the subject. Mlle Riego was a publisher of many books on the subject and was instrumental in making it more popular.

The next major advance in tatting was in 1910 when Lady Katherine Hoare wrote the art of tatting and used her own work and that of Queen Marie of Romania as examples. Queen Marie made many creative articles, often for the church, using gold threads and jewels worked into the pieces.

Today it is becoming more and more difficult to find old tatted pieces and shuttles. To find a class or folks who are still tatting is very difficult. Although with the Internet we find it easier to find pockets of “tatters” all over the world and new supplies. In Italy years ago I was able to find completed doilies and long pieces of lace made by the nuns at the convents of Venice and Florence but now it is really hard to find since many of those nuns have passed away. If you know how to Tat, I challenge you to teach someone in the younger generation this beautiful art of making fine lace.

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