Nicholas de Piro’s latest coffee-table publication focuses on fine Maltese lace adorning a ‘first’ selection of the island’s high-profile ladies, bringing to light some of the finest work our artisans have designed and produced in the past
Nicholas de Piro, who has produced more beautiful books about our heritage than anybody else, has this time excelled himself.
Ladies of Malta is a book about both lace and women. The tradition of lace-making in Gozo and Malta is well-known but until now has not been given the attention it deserves as both a handcraft and an art form.
The foreword includes illustrations of ladies wearing lace in past centuries. I was touched to see the marvellous picture of my mother, modelling lace in 1929 at Lady Strickland’s charity event at the Royal Opera House.
This work is an important record of beautiful lace and de Piro deserves praise for having brought together so many fine examples and shown them to great advantage.
It constitutes a superb catalogue of this branch of Maltese art. It is also presented in a light-hearted manner, with accompanying text, which is interesting in itself, and also fits well with the portrait beside it.
The book itself opens with a full-length portrait of Margaret Abela, First Lady of Malta. This indicates the tone and scope of the book.
With this book, a work of great artistic and historical value, de Piro declares not only his interest in lace but in beautiful and interesting women and the portraits by Patrick Fenech are simply magnificent. I cannot help feeling that he has not been given enough credit for this in the light of his great contribution.
Mrs Abela is followed by Michelle Muscat and her sweet daughters Etoile and Soleil, combining tartan and lace bonnets to charming effect.
Kate Gonzi follows looking as elegant and serene as ever.
Gerald de Trafford recalls how his mother, Cecilia, a daughter of Lord Strickland, started Malta Industries in 1935 and promoted Maltese lace internationally by introducing it at Harrods.
A portrait of Gerald’s wife, Charlotte, appears later in the book with another comment that “lace-making is difficult, time-consuming and a strain on the eyes”.
Some of the portraits are serendipitous, such as that of Cynthia Caruana Turner by a piano, looking as if she would like to sit and play something by Poulenc.
Giannella de Marco looks good in lace as she does in court.
What can one say about Tiffany, Ira, the Tonnas? Beautiful.
To my mind the book’s most striking portrait of all is that of Madeleine Gera. She looks stunning.
But if I had a prize to award for the best picture in the book it would go to the regal portrait of Elizabeth Parnis, perceptive, authoritative, yet full of suppressed humour.
Each picture tells a story that deserves to be told but that would take too much space. The answer is to beg, borrow or steal a copy of the book, or even perhaps buy one.
De Piro is the creator of this book, for which he deserves all credit, but the lasting artistic merit is the superb photography of Fenech and, of course, the beauty and grace of the sitters and that of the lace which adorns them.
This is not only a work of art but a historical record of some importance and no Melitensia library should be without a copy.
• The Malta Community Chest Fund is a beneficiary from the sale of this book.