A History of Hungarian Csetnek Lace

Try your hand at a delicate crochet technique. Current PieceWork magazine subscribers can log in and access the pattern for this subscriber-exclusive PDF below.

The story of Csetnek lace resembles the stories of many European laces in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In 1904, two philanthropic sisters, Erzsébet (1856–1917) and Aranka Szontagh (1858–1950), who lived in the countryside close to the small town of Csetnek (historically part of Northern Hungary, now part of Slovakia), wished to create employment opportunities for local women because the area’s tobacco-growing industry, their main source of income, had declined.

At about this time, the sisters’ cousin Kata (dates unknown), who lived in Paris, learned to make Irish crocheted lace, which was highly popular in the French capital. When she arrived in Csetnek with her new lacemaking skill, she taught it to Erzsébet and Aranka. The sisters realized that lacemaking might provide income for the women they wanted to help, and they set to work.

Crochet this exquisite bookmark, “A Csetnek Lace Bookmark to Crochet” by Julianna Máté, for yourself or for a special friend. Photo by George Boe