The Eighteenth century is the century of the elegance, of the intellectuals, of the continuous exchanges between Italy, France, and Austria. Everyday life, especially of the aristocratic and upper classes, becomes frivolous, noisy and fun-loving. Venice celebrates the magnificent luxuries of her golden century (the end of the glorious Republic was in 1797) and happily goes from a party to the theatre, from a banquet to a carnival. The cafés begin to become cultural meeting places and is spreading the vogue of the "casini", elegant apartments around St. Mark’s square and the theatres, places where Venetians used to go to play and have fun.

In this period the most important laces are PUNTO BURANO, PUNTO VENEZIA PIATTO.

We are inside a Venetian ridotto, a place where it is possible to play cards, have nice conversations or some, or even engage in a romantic affair. The facial mask is mandatory both for men and women; the larva (a facial mask), black at first, and then white, covered half the face, and it si completed by the lacy bauta (BLONDA) made of black silk, covers the head, the chest and the shoulders, the tabarro (mantle) of black silk and the tricorno. The first couple is standing beside the open door: the man welcomes the lady in white, offering her a precious half-closed fan and staring intensely her in the eyes. The second lady uses a rather showy French fan – a love token- to partially shade her face, while she whispers something to a man leaning to a walking stick.

• The Blonda is a bobbin lace worked with continuous thread that had been made since the Seventeenth century with raw silk (hence the honey colour) or in black or polychrome silk and metallic threads. It is not a very expensive lace, unless it is made with gold or silver threads. In Venice the black silk Blonda was very much used for the baute, worn by men and women; the blonda is also in great demand in Spain for the realization of the mantillas, used since the Seventeenth century. (A. Kraatz, Merletti, Milan, 1988, p.95).

• It is documented how in 1787 the interest toward the needle laces made in Alençon and Argentan was quickly vanishing in favour of the Blonda. According to the Duchess d'Abrantès, the Blonda, as any other light and transparent lace, was mostly used during the summer, while needle laces were considered more appropriate for the winter. Marie Antoinette, in the last years of her reign used to wear large quantities of this type of lace. (M. Jourdain, Old Lace, a Handbook for Collectors, London, 1908, pp.105-106).

• The showing-offs, the cajoleries, the trifles, the absent-minded smiles, the lip bitings, accompanied with grace and ability by the movement of the fan, were the acts of a seductive comedy of the body, executed with masterly skill by the ladies of the Eighteenth century. Resting on the cheeks, on the breasts, near the eyes, open, closed, turned over, the fan announced the anger, the pleasure, the fear, the anxiety, in a sort of language invented almost as a game. (A. Cantagallo, Sua maestà il ventaglio, Foligno, 1993, pp.111-114).

• Madame de Staël used to say about the fan: “There are many ways to use this precious trinket. A movement of it let us distinguish the princess from the countess, the marquise from the woman of the people”. Moreover, beside the language spoken by these movements, it needs to be remembered the symbolic code of colours and themes, especially floral themes. For instance, the flower of the aconitum meant “platonic love”, the jonquil “intense desire”, the passionflower “patience”, the pansy “I am always thinking about you”. (A. Cantagallo, Sua maestà il ventaglio, Foligno, 1993, p.113).

• It can be correctly said that for about half the year the Venetian used to go around the city wearing a mask. This custom was allowed not only during the famous Carnevale, but also for many other occasions: the Sensa, (Ascension day), the elections of the Doges, the marriages of the sons and daughters of the Doges, and so on. During the Carnevale, masked men and women crowded the theatres and the ladies needed to wear the bauta to enter. The other places where the masqueraders used to go were the ridotti - meeting places inside private houses, near the theatres - and the cafes, that, during the Carnevale, were open day and night. (L. Urban, Carnevale a Venezia Maschere e Costumi, Italia).

• Carlo Goldoni, who, among his commedie and his Memorie, left us, between 1736 and 1787, one of the most complete frescoes of everyday life in (mostly, but not only) Venice, describing many contemporary fashions, to the point of being defined “cronista mondano”, talks also about laces. In his Il bugiardo, for instance, written in 1750, he narrates that Lelio commissioned to Brighella the purchase of “quaranta braccia di bionda”, (act I, scene XII) for his costume. Since in Venice the brazzo used to measure the silk was equal to about 63,7-8 centimetres, it was about 25,48 meters of a nice, but not exceptional lace, moderately expensive. Brighella (Act III, last scene) says he has paid “dieci zecchini” to the haberdasher at the “Insegna del Gact”; given that a Venetian zecchino was equal to 4 grams of gold, compared with the current value of a gram of gold, around 25 euros, 10 zecchini are equal to 40 grams of gold, presently equalling to 1,000 euro. (D. Davanzo Poli, Schegge goldoniane di moda, in “Quaderno 6”, Venice, 1994).

• In the Adulatore, dated 1750, a piece that takes place in Naples, in the conversation between Elvira and Luigi (Act I, scene XV) it is affirmed that 20 braccia (roughly 13 meters) of a not better defined “fashionable lace” can cost up to 4 zecchini for each braccio, for a total of 80 zecchini, or about (according the above-mentioned comparison) 8,000 euro. (D. Davanzo Poli, Schegge goldoniane di moda, in “Quaderno 6”, Venice, 1994).

• Around the half of the Eighteenth century, Giovanni Grevembroch wrote and designed for the nobleman Grimani, four volumes entitled: Gli abiti de Veneziani di quasi ogni età (meaning with età the historical period), that can be considered a sort of dictionary of the arts and crafts. Regarding the “Buranelle” (women from the island of Burano), he affirms that although they were in the past celebrated for their “ability […] in the art of the Punto in Aere, creating with their hands those unparalleled and expensive laces, so appreciated by Venetian brides and ladies”; they also made “gold and silver laces”, but in those years of decadence they were forced “to make a living” going “by boat every day to Venice to beg or to do some domestic work”. This evidence documents the disappearance of the laces from the fashion stage. (G. Grevembroch, Gli abiti de Veneziani…, sec. XVIII, t. III, ff. 103v-104r, Venice, Museo Correr).