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Title: History of Lace
Author: Palliser, Bury, Mrs.
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "History of Lace" ***
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Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
Page numbers enclosed by curly braces (example: {25}) have been
incorporated to facilitate the use of the Index.
* * * * *
HISTORY OF LACE
[Illustration: ANNE, DAUGHTER OF SIR PETER VANLORE, KT.,
FIRST WIFE OF SIR CHARLES CÆSAR, KT., ABOUT 1614.
The lace is probably Flemish, Sir Peter having come from Utrecht.
From the picture the property of her descendant, Captain Cottrell-Dormer.]
_Frontispiece._
HISTORY OF LACE
BY
MRS. BURY PALLISER
ENTIRELY REVISED, RE-WRITTEN, AND ENLARGED
UNDER THE EDITORSHIP OF
M. JOURDAIN AND ALICE DRYDEN
WITH 266 ILLUSTRATIONS
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1902
LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
DUKE STREET, STAMFORD STREET, S.E., AND GREAT WINDMILL STREET, W.
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION
Nearly thirty years have elapsed since the third edition of the HISTORY OF
LACE was published. As it is still the classical work on the subject, and
many developments in the Art have taken place since 1875, it seemed
desirable that a new and revised edition should be brought out.
The present Revisers have fully felt the responsibility of correcting
anything the late Mrs. Palliser wrote; they have therefore altered as
little of the text as possible, except where modern research has shown a
statement to be faulty.
The chapters on Spain, Alençon and Argentan, and the Introductory chapter
on Needlework, have been almost entirely rewritten. Much new matter has
been added to Italy, England and Ireland, and the notices of Cretan and
Sicilian lace, among others, are new. The original wood-cuts have been
preserved with their designations as in the 1875 edition, which differ
materially from the first two editions. Nearly a hundred new illustrations
have been added, and several portraits to show different fashions of
wearing lace.
The Revisers wish to record their grateful thanks to those who have
assisted them with information or lace for illustration; especially to Mrs.
Hulton, Count Marcello and Cavaliere Michelangelo Jesurum in Venice,
Contessa di Brazza and Contessa Cavazza in Italy, M. Destrée in Brussels,
Mr. Arthur Blackborne, Salviati & Co., and the Director of the Victoria and
Albert Museum in London.
M. JOURDAIN.
ALICE DRYDEN.
_London, September, 1901._
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I.--NEEDLEWORK 1
II.--CUT-WORK 14
III.--LACE 26
IV.--ITALY.--VENICE--MILAN ("Milano la Grande")--FLORENCE--THE
ABRUZZI--ROMAGNA--NAPLES--GENOA ("Genova La Superba")--
CANTU--SICILY 45
V.--GREECE--CRETE--TURKEY--MALTA 82
VI.--SPAIN--PORTUGAL 90
VII.--FLANDERS--BRUSSELS (BRABANT)--MECHLIN--ANTWERP--FLANDERS
(WEST)--FLANDERS (EAST)--HAINAULT 109
VIII.--FRANCE TO LOUIS XIV. 139
IX.--LOUIS XIV. 150
X.--LOUIS XIV.--_continued_ 161
XI.--LOUIS XV. 171
XII.--LOUIS XVI. TO THE EMPIRE 179
XIII.--THE LACE MANUFACTURES OF FRANCE--ALENÇON (Dép. Orne),
NORMANDY 188
XIV.--ARGENTAN (Dép. Orne) 202
XV.--ISLE DE FRANCE.--PARIS (Dép. Seine)--CHANTILLY (Dép. Oise) 209
XVI.--NORMANDY--SEINE INFÉRIEURE--CALVADOS--BRETAGNE 216
XVII.--VALENCIENNES (Dép. du Nord)--LILLE (Dép. du Nord)--ARRAS
(Artois) (Dép. Pas-de-Calais)--BAILLEUL (Dép. du Nord) 230
XVIII.--AUVERGNE AND VÉLAY--LE PUY (Dép. Haute-Loire)--AURILLAC
AND MURAT (Dép. Cantal) 242
XIX.--LIMOUSIN--LORRAINE--CHAMPAGNE--BURGUNDY--LYONNOIS--
ORLÉANOIS--BERRY--POITOU 250
XX.--HOLLAND, GERMANY, SWITZERLAND, AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY--
HOLLAND--SAXONY--GERMANY (NORTH AND SOUTH)--SWITZERLAND 258
XXI.--DENMARK--SWEDEN--RUSSIA 272
XXII.--ENGLAND TO QUEEN ELIZABETH 285
XXIII.--QUEEN ELIZABETH 299
XXIV.--JAMES I. TO THE RESTORATION.--JAMES I.--CHARLES I.--
THE COMMONWEALTH 315
XXV.--CHARLES II. TO THE HOUSE OF HANOVER.--CHARLES II.--
JAMES II.--WILLIAM III.--QUEEN ANNE 335
XXVI.--GEORGE I.--GEORGE II. 351
XXVII.--SMUGGLING 358
XXVIII.--GEORGE III. 363
XXIX.--THE LACE MANUFACTURES OF ENGLAND 371
XXX.--BEDFORDSHIRE--BUCKINGHAMSHIRE--NORTHAMPTONSHIRE--SUFFOLK 375
XXXI.--WILTSHIRE AND DORSETSHIRE 395
XXXII.--DEVONSHIRE--HONITON--TROLLY LACE--JAPAN 399
XXXIII.--SCOTLAND 418
XXXIV.--LACE MANUFACTURES OF SCOTLAND 428
XXXV.--IRELAND 435
XXXVI.--BOBBIN NET AND MACHINE-MADE LACE--BOBBIN NET--FRANCE--
BELGIUM--MACHINERY LACE 447
APPENDIX 459
GLOSSARY OF TERMS 503
INDEX 507
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
ANNE, DAUGHTER OF SIR PETER VANLORE, KT. _Frontispiece_
Gold Lace found in a barrow Fig. 1 4
ARGENTAN.--CIRCULAR BOBBIN RÉSEAU; VENETIAN NEEDLEPOINT PLATE I 12
ITALIAN BOBBIN RÉSEAU; SIX-POINTED STAR-MESHED BOBBIN
RÉSEAU; BRUSSELS BOBBIN RÉSEAU; FOND CHANT OF CHANTILLY
AND POINT DE PARIS; DETAILS OF BOBBIN RÉSEAU AND TOILE;
DETAILS OF NEEDLE RÉSEAU AND BUTTONHOLE STITCHES PLATE II 14
Point Coupé Fig. 2 18
ALTAR OR TABLE-CLOTH OF FINE LINEN (PROBABLY ITALIAN) PLATE III 18
Laces Fig. 3 19
Elizabethan Sampler " 5 22
Impresa of Queen Margaret of Navarre " 4 23
Spider-work Figs. 6, 7 24
FAN MADE AT BURANO PLATE IV 24
ITALIAN PUNTO REALE " V 24
Grande Dantelle au Point devant l'Aiguille Fig. 8 28
Petite Dantelle Figs. 9-12 29
Passement au Fuseau Figs. 13, 14 30
Passement au Fuseau Fig. 15 31
Merletti a Piombini " 16 31
ITALIAN.--MODERN REPRODUCTION AT BURANO PLATE VI 32
HERALDIC (CARNIVAL LACE) " VII 32
Old Mechlin Fig. 17 35
ITALIAN, VENETIAN, FLAT NEEDLE-POINT LACE PLATE VIII 36
PORTION OF A BAND OF NEEDLE-POINT LACE " IX 36
Guipure Fig. 18 39
Tape Guipure " 19 40
ITALIAN.--POINT DE VENISE À LA ROSE PLATE X 44
ITALIAN.--POINT PLAT DE VENISE " XI 46
ITALIAN.--POINT DE VENISE À RÉSEAU " XII 48
Mermaid Lace Fig. 20 50
Reticella " 21 50
Punto a Gropo " 22 52
Gros Point de Venise " 23 52
Punto a Maglia " 24 53
Punto Tirato " 25 54
Point de Venise à Bredes Picotées " 26 54
Venise Point " 27 55
Gros Point de Venise " 28 56
Point de Venise " 29 56
Point Plat de Venise " 30 56
Point de Venise à Réseau " 31 58
Burano Point " 32 60
ITALIAN.--MODERN POINT DE BURANO PLATE XIII 60
ITALIAN.--MODERN REPRODUCTION AT BURANO " XIV 62
ITALIAN.--MILANESE, BOBBIN-MADE " XV 64
Reticella from Milan Fig. 33 65
ITALIAN.--VENETIAN, NEEDLE-MADE PLATE XVI 66
ITALIAN.--MILANESE, BOBBIN-MADE " XVII 66
Unfinished Drawn-work Fig. 34 69
CUSHION MADE AT THE SCHOOL PLATE XVIII 70
ITALY.--GROUP OF WORKERS AT BRAZZA SCHOOL " XIX 70
Genoa Point, Bobbin-made Fig. 35 74
Lace Pattern found in the Church at Santa Margherita " 36 76
ITALIAN.--BOBBIN TAPE WITH NEEDLE-MADE RÉSEAU PLATE XX 76
ITALIAN, GENOESE.--BORDER " XXI 76
Parchment Pattern used to cover a Book Fig. 37 77
Fringed Macramé " 38 80
ITALIAN.--OLD PEASANT LACES, BOBBIN-MADE PLATES XXII, XXIII 80
ITALIAN.--MODERN PEASANT LACE PLATE XXIV 80
Silk Gimp Lace Fig. 39 84
SICILIAN.--OLD DRAWN-WORK PLATE XXV 84
SOUTH ITALIAN " XXVI 84
Reticella, or Greek Lace Fig. 40 85
Loubeaux de Verdale " 41 88
ITALIAN, RAPALLO--MODERN PEASANT LACE PLATE XXVII 88
MALTESE.--MODERN BOBBIN-MADE " XXVIII 88
Bobbin Lace (Ceylon) Fig. 42 89
The Work Room (16th century engraving) " 43 91
Unfinished Work of a Spanish Nun " 44 94
SPANISH.--MODERN THREAD BOBBIN LACE PLATE XXIX 94
SPANISH, BLONDE.--WHITE SILK DARNING ON MACHINE NET " XXX 94
Unfinished Work of a Spanish Nun Fig. 45 95
" " " " 46 96
Old Spanish Pillow Lace " 47 100
PORTRAIT, DUCHESSE DE MONTPENSIER PLATE XXXI 100
JEWISH " XXXII 104
SPANISH " XXXIII 104
Bobbin Lace (Madeira) Fig. 48 106
" (Brazil) " 49 107
SPANISH.--PILLOW-MADE 19TH CENTURY PLATE XXXIV 108
PARAGUAY.--"NAUDUTI" " XXXV 108
Lace-making Fig. 50 110
FLEMISH.--PORTION OF BED-COVER PLATE XXXVI 110
Cap of Emperor Charles V. Fig. 51 112
Isabella Clara Eugenia, Daughter of Philip II. " 52 112
Mary, Queen of Hungary, Cuff " 53 113
Belgian Lace School " 54 114
Old Flemish Bobbin Lace " 55 114
Old Flemish.--Trolle Kant " 56 115
BRUSSELS.--POINT D'ANGLETERRE À BRIDES PLATE XXXVII 116
FLEMISH.--TAPE LACE, BOBBIN-MADE " XXXVIII 116
Brussels Needle-Point Fig. 57 118
" " " 58 120
Brussels.--Point à l'Aiguille " 58A 120
Old Brussels.--Point d'Angleterre " 59 122
" " " " 60 124
MECHLIN, 17TH AND 18TH CENTURY PLATE XXXIX 126
Mechlin.--Period Louis XVI. Fig. 61 127
Mechlin, formerly belonging to H.M. Queen Charlotte " 62 128
MECHLIN.--THREE SPECIMENS FROM VICTORIA AND ALBERT
MUSEUM PLATE XL 128
A Lady of Antwerp Fig. 63 130
Antwerp Pot Lace " 64 130
Valenciennes Lace of Ypres " 65 132
FLEMISH.--FLAT SPANISH BOBBIN LACE PLATE XLI 132
FLEMISH.--GUIPURE DE FLANDRE " XLII 134
BELGIAN.--BOBBIN-MADE, BINCHE " XLIII 136
" " MARCHE " XLIV 136
DRAWN AND EMBROIDERED MUSLIN, FLEMISH " XLV 136
RUFF, EDGED WITH LACE " XLVI 142
BRUSSELS.--FLOUNCE, BOBBIN-MADE " XLVII 144
Cinq-Mars.--M. de Versailles Fig. 66 145
" .--After his portrait by Le Wain " 67 146
Lace Rose and Garter " 68 147
Young Lady's Apron, time of Henry III " 69 148
BRUSSELS.--BOBBIN-MADE, PERIOD LOUIS XIV. PLATE XLVIII 150
" .--POINT D'ANGLETERRE À RÉSEAU " XLIX 150
Anne of Austria Fig. 70 151
A Courtier of the Regency " 71 152
Canons of Louis XIV " 72 154
Chateau de Louvai " 73 156
CHENILLE RUN ON A BOBBIN-GROUND PLATE L 156
BRUSSELS.--BOBBIN-MADE " LI 156
Le Grand Bébé Fig. 74 162
Louvois, 1691 " 75 163
Madame de Maintenon " 76 164
Lady in Morning déshabille " 77 165
Le Grand Dauphin en Steinkerque " 78 168
Madame du Lude en Steinkerque " 79 168
Madame Palatine " 80 169
BRUSSELS.--MODERN POINT DE GAZE PLATE LII 170
Madame Sophie de France, 1782 Fig. 81 175
Madame Adélaide de France " 82 176
MADAME LOUISE DE FRANCE PLATE LIII 176
Madame Thérèse Fig. 83 177
Marie-Antoinette " 84 179
Madame Adélaide de France " 85 182
FRENCH.--BORDER OF POINT PLAT DE FRANCE PLATE LIV 188
Colbert, + 1683 Fig. 86 189
Venice Point " 87 191
FRENCH.--POINT D'ALENÇON PLATE LV 192
Argentella, or Point d'Alençon à Réseau Rosacé Fig. 88 194
Bed made for Napoleon I. " 89 197
Alençon Point à Petites Bredes " 90 200
Point d'Alençon, Louis XV. " 91 200
POINT D'ALENÇON. FLOUNCE PLATE LVI 202-3
Point d'Argentan Fig. 92 204
" " . Grande Bride ground " 93 206
FRENCH.--POINT D'ARGENTAN, 18TH CENTURY PLATE LVII 208
Point de Paris Fig. 94 210
Point de France " 95 210
FRENCH (OR DUTCH).--VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM PLATE LVIII 212
Chantilly Fig. 96 214
Cauchoise " 97 217
FRENCH, CHANTILLY.--FLOUNCE PLATE LIX 218
FRENCH, LE PUY.--BLACK SILK GUIPURE " LX 218
Petit Poussin, Dieppe Fig. 98 219
Ave Maria, Dieppe " 99 220
Point de Dieppe " 100 221
Dentelle à la Vierge " 101 222
Duc de Peuthièvre " 102 223
FRENCH.--BLONDE MALE, IN SPANISH STYLE PLATE LXI 226
Modern Black Lace of Bayeux Fig. 103 227
Point Colbert " 104 228
Valenciennes, 1650-1780 " 105 230
" Period, Louis XIV. " 106 232
" 17TH AND 18TH CENTURY PLATE LXII 232
" Fig. 107 234
Valenciennes Lappet " 108 234
Lille " 109 236
" " 110 238
Arras " 111 240
FRENCH, CAMBRAI PLATES LXIII, LXIV 246
FRENCH, LE PUY PLATE LXV 246
Point de Bourgogne Fig. 112 256
WILLIAM, PRINCE OF ORANGE PLATE LXVI 258
Dutch Bobbin Lace Fig. 113 260
Tomb of Barbara Uttmann " 114 261
Barbara Uttmann " 114A 262
SWISS, NEUCHATEL PLATE LXVII 264
GERMAN, NUREMBERG " LXVIII 264
ENGLISH, BUCKS " LXIX 264
HUNGARIAN.--BOBBIN LACE " LXX 268
AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN " LXXI 268
Shirt Collar of Christian IV. Fig. 115 273
Tönder Lace, Drawn Muslin " 116 274
RUSSIAN--NEEDLEPOINT; GERMAN--SAXON PLATE LXXII 276
RUSSIAN, OLD BOBBIN-MADE " LXXIII 276
RUSSIAN, BOBBIN-MADE IN THREAD PLATE LXXIV 280
Dalecarlian Lace Fig. 117 281
Collar of Gustavus Adolphus " 118 282
Russia, Bobbin-made, 19th Century " 119 284
CAP, FLEMISH OR GERMAN PLATE XXV 288
Fisher, Bishop of Rochester Fig. 120 292
ENGLISH.--CUTWORK AND NEEDLE-POINT PLATE LXXVI 292
ENGLISH.--DEVONSHIRE "TROLLY." " LXXVII 292
Fisher, Bishop of Rochester Fig. 121 293
MARIE DE LORRAINE PLATE LXXVIII 298
Queen Elizabeth's Smock Fig. 122 308
Christening Caps, Needle-made Brussels Figs. 123, 124 309
MARY SIDNEY, COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE PLATE LXXIX 316
HENRY WROTHESLEY, THIRD EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON " LXXX 320
Monument of Princess Sophia Fig. 125 321
" " " Mary " 126 322
Mary, Countess of Pembroke " 127 323
ELIZABETH, PRINCESS PALATINE PLATE LXXXI 326
Falling Collar of the 17th Century Fig. 128 327
Boots, Cuffs Figs. 129, 130 328
English Needle-made Lace Fig. 131 328
JAMES HARRINGTON PLATE LXXXII 332
JAMES, THE OLD PRETENDER, AND HIS SISTER, PRINCESS
LOUISA PLATE LXXXIII 344
JOHN LAW, THE PARIS BANKER " LXXXIV 352
Ripon Fig. 132 373
ENGLISH, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, BOBBIN LACE PLATE LXXXV 374
Buckinghamshire Trolly Fig. 133 381
" Point " 134 382
" " " 135 383
ENGLISH, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, BOBBIN LACE PLATE LXXXVI 384
Old Flemish Fig. 136 385
Old Brussels " 137 385
"Run" Lace, Newport Pagnell " 138 386
English Point, Northampton " 139 386
"Baby" Lace, Northampton " 140 387
" " Beds " 141 387
" " Bucks " 142 387
Wire Ground, Northampton " 143 388
Valenciennes " " 144 388
Regency Point, Bedford " 145 389
Insertion, " " 146 389
Plaited Lace, " " 147 392
Raised Plait, " " 148 393
ENGLISH, SUFFOLK, BOBBIN LACE PLATE LXXXVII 394
English Needle-made Lace Fig. 149 396
HONITON WITH THE VRAI RÉSEAU PLATE LXXXVIII 402
Bone Lace from Cap, Devonshire Fig. 150 404
Monument of Bishop Stafford, Exeter Cathedral " 151 406
Monument of Lady Doddridge " " " 152 407
Honiton, sewn on plain pillow ground " 153 408
Old Devonshire " 154 408
Honiton Guipure " 155 410
Honeysuckle, Sprig of Modern Honiton " 156 411
Old Devonshire Point " 157 412
Lappet made by the late Mrs. Treadwin of Exeter " 158 412
Venetian Relief in Point " 159 414
ENGLISH.--DEVONSHIRE. FAN MADE AT BEER FOR THE PARIS
EXHIBITION, 1900 PLATE LXXXIX 416
Sir Alexander Gibson Fig. 160 424
Scotch, Hamilton " 161 431
IRISH, YOUGHAL PLATE XC 436
IRISH, CARRICKMACROSS " XCI 442
IRISH, LIMERICK LACE " XCII 442
IRISH, CROCHET LACE " XCIII 446
Arms of the Framework Knitters' Company Fig. 162 447
The Lagetta, or Lace-bark Tree " 163 456
Metre P. Quinty Figs. 164, 165 460
Pattern Book, Augsburg " 166, 167 462
Augsburg Fig. 168 463
Le Pompe, 1559 " 169 473
Manner of Pricking Pattern " 170 486
Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1605 " 171 492
Monogram " 172 492
"Bavari," from "Ornamento nobile" of Lucretia Romana " 173 498
{1}HISTORY OF LACE.
CHAPTER I.
NEEDLEWORK.
"As ladies wont
To finger the fine needle and nyse thread."--_Faerie Queene._
The art of lace-making has from the earliest times been so interwoven with
the art of needlework that it would be impossible to enter on the subject
of the present work without giving some mention of the latter.
With the Egyptians the art of embroidery was general, and at Beni Hassan
figures are represented making a sort of net--"they that work in flax, and
they that weave network."[1] Examples of elaborate netting have been found
in Egyptian tombs, and mummy wrappings are ornamented with drawn-work,
cut-work, and other open ornamentation. The outer tunics of the robes of
state of important personages appear to be fashioned of network darned
round the hem with gold and silver and coloured silks. Amasis, King of
Egypt, according to Herodotus,[2] sent to Athene of Lindus a corslet with
figures interwoven with gold and cotton, and to judge from a passage of
Ezekiel, the Egyptians even embroidered the sails of their galleys which
they exported to Tyre.[3]
{2}The Jewish embroiderers, even in early times, seem to have carried their
art to a high standard of execution. The curtains of the Tabernacle were of
"fine twined linen wrought with needlework, and blue, and purple, and
scarlet, with cherubims of cunning work."[4] Again, the robe of the ephod
was of gold and blue and purple and scarlet, and fine twined linen, and in
Isaiah we have mention of women's cauls and nets of checker-work. Aholiab
is specially recorded as a cunning workman, and chief embroiderer in blue,
and in purple, and in scarlet, and in fine linen,[5] and the description of
the virtuous woman in the Proverbs, who "layeth her hands to the spindle"
and clotheth herself in tapestry, and that of the king's daughter in the
Psalms, who shall be "brought unto the king in a raiment of needlework,"
all plainly show how much the art was appreciated amongst the Jews.[6]
Finally Josephus, in his _Wars of the Jews_, mentions the veil presented to
the Temple by Herod (B.C. 19), a Babylonian curtain fifty cubits high, and
sixteen broad, embroidered in blue and red, "of marvellous texture,
representing the universe, the stars, and the elements."
In the English Bible, _lace_ is frequently mentioned, but its meaning must
be qualified by the reserve due to the use of such a word in James I.'s
time. It is pretty evident that the translators used it to indicate a small
cord, since lace for decoration would be more commonly known at that time
as _purls_, _points_, or _cut-works_.[7]
"Of lace amongst the Greeks we seem to have no evidence. Upon the
well-known red and black vases are all kinds of figures clad in costumes
which are bordered with ornamental patterns, but these were painted upon,
woven into, or embroidered upon the fabric. They were not lace. Many
centuries elapsed before a marked and elaborately ornamental character
infused itself into twisted, plaited, or looped thread-work. During such a
period the fashion of ornamenting borders of costumes and hangings existed,
and underwent a few phases, as, for instance, in the Elgin marbles, where
crimped {3}edges appear along the flowing Grecian dresses." Embroidered
garments, cloaks, veils and cauls, and networks of gold are frequently
mentioned in Homer and other early authors.[8]
The countries of the Euphrates were renowned in classical times for the
beauty of their embroidered and painted stuffs which they manufactured.[9]
Nothing has come down to us of these Babylonian times, of which Greek and
Latin writers extolled the magnificence; but we may form some idea, from
the statues and figures engraved on cylinders, of what the weavers and
embroiderers of this ancient time were capable.[10] A fine stone in the
British Museum is engraved with the figure of a Babylonian king,
Merodach-Idin-Abkey, in embroidered robes, which speak of the art as
practised eleven hundred years B.C.[11] Josephus writes that the veils
given by Herod for the Temple were of Babylonian work ([Greek: peplos
babylônios])--the women excelling, according to Apollonius, in executing
designs of varied colours.
The Sidonian women brought by Paris to Troy embroidered veils of such rich
work that Hecuba deemed them worthy of being offered to Athene; and Lucan
speaks of the Sidonian veil worn by Cleopatra at a feast in her Alexandrine
palace, in honour of Cæsar.[12]
Phrygia was also renowned for its needlework, and from the shores of
Phrygia Asiatic and Babylonian embroideries were shipped to Greece and
Italy. The _toga picta_, worked with Phrygian embroidery, was worn by Roman
generals at their triumphs and by the consuls when they celebrated the
games; hence embroidery itself is styled "Phrygian,"[13] {4}and the Romans
knew it under no other name (_opus Phrygianum_).[14]
Gold needles and other working implements have been discovered in
Scandinavian tumuli. In the _London Chronicle_ of 1767 will be found a
curious account of the opening of a Scandinavian barrow near Wareham, in
Dorsetshire. Within the hollow trunk of an oak were discovered many bones
wrapped in a covering of deerskins neatly sewn together. There were also
the remains of a piece of gold lace, four inches long and two and a half
broad. This lace was black and much decayed, of the old lozenge
pattern,[15] that most ancient and universal of all designs, again found
depicted on the coats of ancient Danes, where the borders are edged with an
open or net-work of the same pattern.
[Illustration: Fig. 1.
GOLD LACE FOUND IN A BARROW.]
Passing to the first ages of the Christian era, we find the pontifical
ornaments, the altar and liturgical cloths, and the draperies then in
common use for hanging between the colonnades and porches of churches all
worked with holy images and histories from the Holy Writ. Rich men chose
sacred subjects to be embroidered on their dress, and one senator wore 600
figures worked upon his robes of state. Asterius, Bishop of Amasus,
thunders against those Christians "who wore the Gospels upon their backs
instead of in their hearts."[16]
In the Middle Ages spinning and needlework were the occupation of women of
all degrees. As early as the sixth {5}century the nuns in the diocese of
St. Césaire, Bishop of Arles, were forbidden to embroider robes enriched
with paintings, flowers, and precious stones. This prohibition, however,
was not general. Near Ely, an Anglo-Saxon lady brought together a number of
maidens to work for the monastery, and in the seventh century an Abbess of
Bourges, St. Eustadiole, made vestments and enriched the altar with the
work of her nuns. At the beginning of the ninth century St. Viborade, of
St. Gall, worked coverings for the sacred books of the monastery, for it
was the custom then to wrap in silk and carry in a linen cloth the Gospels
used for the offices of the Church.[17] Judith of Bavaria, mother of
Charles the Bold, stood sponsor for the Queen of Harold, King of Denmark,
who came to Ingelheim to be baptised with all his family, and gave her a
robe she had worked with her own hands and studded with precious stones.
"Berthe aux grands pieds," the mother of Charlemagne, was celebrated for
her skill in needlework,[18]
"à ouvrer si com je vous dirai
N'avoit meillor ouvriere de Tours jusqu'à Cambrai;"
while Charlemagne[19]--
"Ses filles fist bien doctriner,
Et aprendre keudre et filer."
Queen Adelhaïs, wife of Hugh Capet (987-996), presented to the Church of
St. Martin at Tours a cope, on the back of which she had embroidered the
Deity, surrounded by seraphim and cherubim, the front being worked with an
Adoration of the Lamb of God.[20]
Long before the Conquest, Anglo-Saxon women were skilled with the needle,
and gorgeous are the accounts of the gold-starred and scarlet-embroidered
tunics and violet sacks worked by the nuns. St. Dunstan himself designed
the ornaments of a stole worked by the hands of a noble Anglo-Saxon lady,
Ethelwynne, and sat daily in her bower with her maidens, directing the
work. The four daughters of {6}Edward the Elder are all praised for their
needle's skill. Their father, says William of Malmesbury, had caused them
in childhood "to give their whole attention to letters, and afterwards
employed them in the labours of the distaff and the needle." In 800
Denbert, Bishop of Durham, granted the lease of a farm of 200 acres for
life to an embroideress named Eanswitha for the charge of scouring,
repairing, and renewing the vestments of the priests of his diocese.[21]
The Anglo-Saxon Godric, Sheriff of Buckingham, granted to Alcuid half a
hide of land as long as he should be sheriff on condition she taught his
daughter the art of embroidery. In the tenth century Ælfleda, a high-born
Saxon lady, offered to the church at Ely a curtain on which she had wrought
the deeds of her husband, Brithnoth, slain by the Danes; and Edgitha, Queen
of Edward the Confessor, was "perfect mistress of her needle."
The famous Bayeux Tapestry or embroidery, said to have been worked by
Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror, is of great historical
interest.[22] It is, according to the chroniclers, "Une tente très longue
et estroite de telle a broderies de ymages et escriptaux faisant
représentation du Conquest de l'Angleterre"; a needle-wrought epic of the
Norman Conquest, worked on a narrow band of stout linen over 200 feet long,
and containing 1,255 figures worked on worsted threads.[23] Mr. Fowke gives
the Abbé Rue's doubts as to the accepted period of the Bayeux tapestry,
which he assigns to the Empress Matilda. Mr. Collingwood Bruce is of
opinion that the work is coeval with the events it records, as the
primitive furniture, buildings, etc., are all of the eleventh century. That
the tapestry is not found in any catalogue before 1369 is only a piece of
presumptive evidence against the earlier date, and must be weighed with the
internal evidence in its favour.
After the Battle of Hastings William of Normandy, on {7}his first
appearance in public, clad himself in a richly-wrought cloak of Anglo-Saxon
embroidery, and his secretary, William of Poictiers, states that "the
English women are eminently skilful with the needle and in weaving."
The excellence of the English work was maintained as time went on, and a
proof of this is found in an anecdote preserved by Matthew of Paris.[24]
"About this time (1246) the Lord Pope (Innocent IV.) having observed the
ecclesiastical ornaments of some Englishmen, such as choristers' copes and
mitres, were embroidered in gold thread after a very desirable fashion,
asked where these works were made, and received in answer, in England.
'Then,' said the Pope, 'England is surely a garden of delights for us. It
is truly a never-failing spring, and there, where many things abound, much
may be extracted.' Accordingly, the same Lord Pope sent sacred and sealed
briefs to nearly all the abbots of the Cistercian order established in
England, requesting them to have forthwith forwarded to him those
embroideries in gold which he preferred to all others, and with which he
wished to adorn his chasuble and choral cope, as if these objects cost them
nothing," an order which, adds the chronicler, "was sufficiently pleasing
to the merchants, but the cause of many persons detesting him for his
covetousness."
Perhaps the finest examples of the _opus anglicanum_ extant are the cope
and maniple of St. Cuthbert, taken from his coffin in the Cathedral of
Durham, and now preserved in the Chapter library. One side of the maniple
is of gold lace stitched on, worked apparently on a parchment pattern. The
Syon Monastery cope, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, is an invaluable
example of English needlework of the thirteenth century. "The greater
portion of its design is worked in a chain-stitch (modern tambour or
crochet), especially in the faces of the figures, where the stitch begins
in the centre, say, of a cheek, and is then worked in a spiral, thus
forming a series of circular lines. The texture so obtained is then, by
means of a hot, small and round-knobbed iron, pressed into indentations at
the centre of each spiral, and an effect of relief imparted to it. The
general {8}practice was to work the draperies in feather-stitch (_opus
plumarium_)."[25]
In the tenth century the art of pictorial embroidery had become universally
spread. The inventory of the Holy See (in 1293) mentions the embroideries
of Florence, Milan, Lucca, France, England, Germany, and Spain, and
throughout the Middle Ages embroidery was treated as a fine art, a serious
branch of painting.[26] In France the fashion continued, as in England, of
producing groups, figures and portraits, but a new development was given to
floral and elaborate arabesque ornament.[27]
It was the custom in feudal times[28] for knightly families to send their
daughters to the castles of their suzerain lords, there to be trained to
spin, weave and embroider under the eye of the lady châtelaine, a custom
which, in the more primitive countries, continued even to the French
Revolution. In the French romances these young ladies are termed
"chambrières," in our English, simply "the maidens." Great ladies prided
themselves upon the number of their attendants, and passed their mornings
at work, their labours beguiled by singing the "chansons à toile," as the
ballads written for those occasions were termed.[29]
{9}In the wardrobe accounts of our kings appear constant entries of working
materials purchased for the royal ladies.[30] There is preserved in the
cathedral at Prague an altar-cloth of embroidery and cut-work worked by
Anne of Bohemia, Queen of Richard II.
During the Wars of the Roses, when a duke of the blood royal is related to
have begged alms in the streets of the rich Flemish towns, ladies of rank,
more fortunate in their education, gained, like the French emigrants of
more modern days, their subsistence by the products of their needle.[31]
Without wishing to detract from the industry of mediæval ladies, it must be
owned that the swampy state of the country, the absence of all roads, save
those to be traversed in the fine season by pack-horses, and the deficiency
of all suitable outdoor amusement but that of hawking, caused them to while
away their time within doors the best way they could. Not twenty years
since, in the more remote provinces of France, a lady who quitted her house
daily would be remarked on. "Elle sort beaucoup," folks would say, as
though she were guilty of dissipation.
So queens and great ladies sewed on. We hear much of works of adornment,
more still of piety, when Katharine of Aragon appears on the scene. She had
learned much in her youth from her mother, Queen Isabella, and had probably
{10}assisted at those "trials" of needlework[32] established by that
virtuous queen among the Spanish ladies:--
"Her days did pass
In working with the needle curiously."[33]
It is recorded how, when Wolsey, with the papal legate Campeggio, going to
Bridewell, begged an audience of Queen Katharine, on the subject of her
divorce, they found her at work, like Penelope of old, with her maids, and
she came to them with a skein of red silk about her neck.[34]
Queen Mary Tudor is supposed, by her admirers, to have followed the example
of her illustrious mother, though all we find among the entries is a charge
"to working materials for Jane the Fole, one shilling."
No one would suspect Queen Elizabeth of solacing herself with the needle.
Every woman, however, had to make one shirt in her lifetime, and the "Lady
Elizabeth's grace," on the second anniversary of Prince Edward's birth,
when only six years of age, presented her brother with a cambric smock
wrought by her own hands.
The works of Scotland's Mary, who early studied all female accomplishments
under her governess, Lady Fleming, {11}are too well known to require
notice. In her letters are constant demands for silk and other working
materials wherewith to solace her long captivity. She had also studied
under Catherine de Médicis, herself an unrivalled needlewoman, who had
brought over in her train from Florence the designer for embroidery,
Frederick Vinciolo. Assembling her daughters, Claude, Elizabeth and
Margaret, with Mary Stuart, and her Guise cousins, "elle passoit," says
Brantôme, "fort son temps les apres-disnées à besogner apres ses ouvrages
de soye, où elle estoit tant parfaicte qu'il estoit possible."[35] The
ability of Reine Margot[36] is sung by Ronsard, who exalts her as imitating
Pallas in the art.[37]
Many of the great houses in England are storehouses of old needlework.
Hatfield, Penshurst, and Knole are all filled with the handiwork of their
ladies. The Countess of Shrewsbury, better known as "Building Bess," Bess
of Hardwick, found time to embroider furniture for her palaces, and her
samplar patterns hang to this day on their walls.
Needlework was the daily employment of the convent. As early as the
fourteenth century[38] it was termed "nun's work"; and even now, in
secluded parts of the kingdom, ancient lace is styled by that name.[39]
Nor does the occupation appear to have been solely {12}confined to women.
We find monks commended for their skill in embroidery,[40] and in the
frontispieces of some of the early pattern books of the sixteenth century,
men are represented working at frames, and these books are stated to have
been written "for the profit of men as well as of women."[41] Many were
composed by monks,[42] and in the library[43] of St. Geneviève at Paris,
are several works of this class, inherited from the monastery of that name.
As these books contain little or no letterpress, they could scarcely have
been collected by the monks unless with a view to using them.
At the dissolution of the monasteries, the ladies of the great Roman
Catholic families came to the rescue. Of the widow of the ill-fated Earl of
Arundel it is recorded: "Her gentlewomen and chambermaids she ever busied
in works ordained for the service of the Church. She permitted none to be
idle at any time."[44]
Instructions in the art of embroidery were now at a premium. The old nuns
had died out, and there were none to replace them.
Mrs. Hutchinson, in her _Memoirs_, enumerates, among the eight tutors she
had at seven years of age, one for needlework, while Hannah Senior, about
the same period, entered the service of the Earl of Thomond, to teach his
daughters the use of their needle, with the salary of £200 a year. The
money, however, was never paid; so she petitions the Privy Council for
leave to sue him.[45]
When, in 1614, the King of Siam applied to King James for an English wife,
a gentleman of "honourable parentage" offers his daughter, whom he
describes of excellent parts for "music, her needle, and good
discourse."[46] And these are the sole accomplishments he mentions. The
bishops, however, shocked at the proceeding, interfered, and put an end to
the projected alliance.
[Illustration: PLATE I.
ARGENTAN.--Showing buttonhole stitched réseau and "brides bouclées."
CIRCULAR BOBBIN RÉSEAU.--Variety of Mechlin.
VENETIAN NEEDLE-POINT. Portions of lace very much enlarged to show details
of stitches.]
[Illustration: VENETIAN NEEDLE-POINT.]
{13}No ecclesiastical objection, however, was made to the epitaph of
Catherine Sloper--she sleeps in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey, 1620:--
"Exquisite at her needle."
Till a very late date, we have ample record of the esteem in which this art
was held.
In the days of the Commonwealth, Mrs. Walker is described to have been as
well skilled in needlework "as if she had been brought up in a convent."
She kept, however, a gentlewoman for teaching her daughters.
Evelyn, again, praises the talent of his daughter, Mrs. Draper. "She had,"
writes he, "an extraordinary genius for whatever hands could do with a
needle."
The queen of Charles I. and the wives of the younger Stuarts seem to have
changed the simple habits of their royal predecessors, for when Queen Mary,
in her Dutch simplicity, sat for hours at the knotted fringe, her favourite
employment, Bishop Burnet, her biographer, adds, "It was a strange thing to
see a queen work for so many hours a day," and her homely habits formed a
never-ending subject of ridicule for the wit of Sir Charles Sedley.[47]
From the middle of the last century, or rather apparently from the French
Revolution, the more artistic style of needlework and embroidery fell into
decadence. The simplicity of male costume rendered it a less necessary
adjunct to female or, indeed, male education. However, two of the greatest
generals of the Republic, Hoche and Moreau, followed the employment of
embroidering satin waistcoats long after they had entered the military
service. We may look upon the art now as almost at an end.
{14}CHAPTER II.
CUT-WORK.
"These workes belong chiefly to gentlewomen to passe away their time in
vertuous exercises."
"Et lors, sous vos lacis à mille fenestrages
Raiseuls et poinct couppés et tous vos clairs ouvrages."
--_Jean Godard_, 1588.
It is from that open-work embroidery which in the sixteenth century came
into such universal use that we must derive the origin of lace, and, in
order to work out the subject, trace it through all its gradations.
This embroidery, though comprising a wide variety of decoration, went by
the general name of cut-work.
The fashion of adorning linen has prevailed from the earliest times. Either
the edges were worked with close embroidery--the threads drawn and
fashioned with a needle in various forms--or the ends of the cloth
unravelled and plaited with geometric precision.
To judge from the description of the linen grave-clothes of St.
Cuthbert,[48] as given by an eye-witness to his disinterment in the twelfth
century, they were ornamented in a manner similar to that we have
described. "There had been," says the chronicler, "put over him a sheet ...
this sheet had a fringe of linen thread of a finger's length; upon its
sides and ends were woven a border of projecting workmanship fabricated of
the thread itself, bearing the figures of birds and beasts so arranged that
between every two pairs there were interwoven among them the representation
of a branching tree which divides the figures. This tree, so tastefully
depicted, appears to be putting forth its leaves," etc. There can be no
doubt that this sheet, for many centuries preserved in the cathedral church
of Durham, was a specimen of cut-work, which, though later it came into
general use, was, at an early period of our history, alone used for
ecclesiastical purposes, and an art which was, till the dissolution of
monasteries, looked upon as a church secret.
[Illustration: PLATE II.
ITALIAN BOBBIN RÉSEAU.
SIX-POINTED STAR-MESHED BOBBIN RÉSEAU.--Variety of Valenciennes.
BRUSSELS BOBBIN RÉSEAU.
FOND CHANT OF CHANTILLY AND POINT DE PARIS.
Valenciennes. Lille. Toilé.
DETAILS OF BOBBIN RÉSEAU AND TOILÉ.
Alençon réseau.
DETAILS OF NEEDLE RÉSEAU AND BUTTONHOLE STITCHES.
Portions of lace very much enlarged to show details of stitches.]
_To face page 14._
{15}Though cut-work is mentioned in Hardyng's _Chronicle_,[49] when
describing the luxury in King Richard II.'s reign, he says:--
"Cut werke was greate both in court and townes,
Both in menes hoddis and also in their gownes,"
yet this oft-quoted passage, no more than that of Chaucer, in which he
again accuses the priests of wearing gowns of scarlet and green colours
ornamented with cut-work, can scarcely be received as evidence of this mode
of decoration being in general use. The royal wardrobe accounts of that day
contain no entries on the subject. It applies rather to the fashion of
cutting out[50] pieces of velvet or other materials, and sewing them down
to the garment with a braid like ladies' work of the present time. Such
garments were in general use, as the inventories of mediæval times fully
attest.
The linen shirt or smock was the special object of adornment, and on the
decoration of the collar and sleeves much time and ingenuity were expended.
In the ancient ballad of "Lord Thomas,"[51] the fair Annette cries:--
"My maids, gae to my dressing-room,
And dress me in my smock;
The one half is o' the Holland fine,
The other o' needlework."
Chaucer, too, does not disdain to describe the embroidery of a lady's
smock--
"White was her smocke, embrouded all before
And eke behynde, on her colar aboute,
Of cole blacke sylke, within and eke without."
The sums expended on the decoration of this most necessary article of dress
sadly excited the wrath of {16}Stubbes, who thus vents his indignation:
"These shirtes (sometymes it happeneth) are wrought throughout with
needlework of silke, and such like, and curiously stitched with open seame,
and many other knackes besides, more than I can describe; in so much, I
have heard of shirtes that have cost some ten shillynges, some twenty, some
forty, some five pounds, some twenty nobles, and (which is horrible to
heare) some ten pound a pece."[52]
Up to the time of Henry VIII. the shirt was "pynched" or plaited--
"Come nere with your shirtes bordered and displayed,
In foarme of surplois."[53]
These,[54] with handkerchiefs,[55] sheets, and pillow-beres,[56]
(pillow-cases), were embroidered with silks of various {17}colours, until
the fashion gradually gave place to cut-work, which, in its turn, was
superseded by lace.
The description of the widow of John Whitcomb, a wealthy clothier of
Newbury, in Henry VIII.'s reign, when she laid aside her weeds, is the
first notice we have of cutwork being in general use. "She came," says the
writer, "out of the kitchen in a fair train gown stuck full of silver pins,
having a white cap upon her head, with cuts of curious needlework, the same
an apron, white as the driven snow."
We are now arrived at the Renaissance, a period when so close a union
existed between the fine arts and manufactures; when the most trifling
object of luxury, instead of being consigned to the vulgar taste of the
mechanic, received from artists their most graceful inspirations.
Embroidery profited by the general impulse, and books of designs were
composed for that species which, under the general name of cut-work, formed
the great employment for the women of the day. The volume most generally
circulated, especially among the ladies of the French court, for whose use
it was designed, is that of the Venetian Vinciolo, to whom some say, we
know not on what authority, Catherine de Médicis granted, in 1585, the
exclusive privilege of making and selling the _collerettes gaudronnées_[57]
she had herself introduced. This work, which passed through many editions,
dating from 1587 to 1623, is entitled, "Les singuliers et nouveaux
pourtraicts et ouvrages de Lingerie. Servans de patrons à faire toutes
sortes de poincts, couppé, Lacis & autres. Dedié à la Royne. Nouvellement
inventez, au proffit et contentement des nobles Dames et Demoiselles &
autres gentils esprits, amateurs d'un tel art. Par le Seigneur Federic de
Vinciolo Venitien. A Paris. Par Jean le Clerc le jeune, etc., 1587."
Two little figures, representing ladies in the costume of the period, with
working-frames in their hands, decorate the title-page.[58]
The work is in two books: the first of Point Coupé, or {18}rich geometric
patterns, printed in white upon a black ground (Fig. 2); the second of
Lacis, or subjects in squares (Fig. 3), with counted stitches, like the
patterns for worsted-work of the present day--the designs, the seven
planets, Neptune, and various squares, borders, etc.
Vinciolo dedicates his book to Louise de Vaudemont, the neglected Queen of
Henry III., whose portrait, with that of the king, is added to the later
editions.
Various other pattern-books had already been published. The earliest
bearing a date is one printed at Cologne in 1527.[59]
[Illustration: Fig. 2.
POINT COUPÉ.--(Vinciolo.)]
These books are scarce; being designed for patterns, and traced with a
metal style, or pricked through, many perished in the using. They are much
sought after by the collector as among the early specimens of wood-block
printing. We give therefore in the Appendix a list of those we find
recorded, or of which we have seen copies, observing that the greater
number, though generally composed for one particular art, may be applied
indifferently to any kind of ornamental work.
PLATE III.
[Illustration: Altar or Table Cloth of fine linen embroidered with gold
thread, laid, and in satin stitches on both sides. The Cut out spaces are
filled with white thread needle-point lace. The edging is alternated of
white and gold thread needle-point lace. Probably Italian. Late sixteenth
century.--Victoria and Albert Museum.]
_To face page 18_
{19}Cut-work was made in several manners. The first consisted in arranging
a network of threads upon a small frame, crossing and interlacing them into
various complicated patterns. Beneath this network was gummed a piece of
fine cloth, called quintain,[60] from the town in Brittany where it was
made. Then, with a needle, the network was sewn to the quintain by edging
round those parts of the pattern that were to remain thick. The last
operation was to cut away the superfluous cloth; hence the name of
cut-work.
[Illustration: Fig. 3.
LACIS.--(Vinciolo. _Edition_ 1588.)
Ce Pelican contient en longueur 70 mailles et en hauteur 65.]
{20}The author of the _Consolations aux Dames_, 1620, in addressing the
ladies, thus specially alludes to the custom of working on quintain:--
"Vous n'employiez les soirs et les matins
A façonner vos grotesques quaintains,
O folle erreur--O despence excessive."
Again, the pattern was made without any linen at all; threads, radiating at
equal distances from one common centre, served as a framework to others
which were united to them in squares, triangles, rosettes, and other
geometric forms, worked over with button-hole stitch (_point noué_),
forming in some parts open-work, in others a heavy compact embroidery. In
this class may be placed the old conventual cut-work of Italy, generally
termed Greek lace, and that of extraordinary fineness and beauty which is
assigned to Venice. Distinct from all these geometric combinations was the
lacis[61] of the sixteenth century, done on a network ground (_réseau_),
identical with the _opus araneum_ or spider-work of continental writers,
the "darned netting" or modern _filet brodé à reprises_ of the French
embroiderers.
The ground consisted of a network of square meshes, on which was worked the
pattern, sometimes cut out of linen and appliqué,[62] but more usually
darned with stitches like tapestry. This darning-work was easy of
execution, and the stitches being regulated by counting the meshes,[63]
effective geometric patterns could be produced. Altar-cloths, baptismal
napkins, as well as bed coverlets and table-cloths, were decorated with
these squares of net embroidery. In the Victoria and Albert Museum there
are several {21}gracefully-designed borders to silk table-covers in this
work, made both of white and coloured threads, and of silk of various
shades. The ground, as we learn from a poem on lacis, affixed to the
pattern-book of "Milour Mignerak,"[64] was made by beginning a single
stitch, and increasing a stitch on each side until the required size was
obtained. If a strip or long border was to be made, the netting was
continued to its prescribed length, and then finished off by reducing a
stitch on each side till it was decreased to one, as garden nets are made
at the present day.
This plain netted ground was called _réseau_, _rézel_, _rézeuil_,[65] and
was much used for bed-curtains, vallances, etc.
In the inventory of Mary Stuart, made at Fotheringay,[66] we find, "Le lict
d'ouvrage à rezel"; and again, under the care of Jane Kennethee, the
"Furniture of a bedd of network and Holland intermixed, not yet finished."
When the _réseau_ was decorated with a pattern, it was termed _lacis_, or
darned netting, the Italian _punto ricamato a maglia quadra_, and, combined
with _point-coupé_, was much used for bed-furniture. It appears to have
been much employed for church-work,[67] for the sacred emblems. The Lamb
and the Pelican are frequently represented.[68]
{22}In the inventory of Sir John Foskewe (modern Fortescue), Knight, time
of Henry VIII., we find in the hall, "A hanging of green saye, bordered
with darning."
Queen Mary Stuart, previous to the birth of James I. (1560), made a will,
which still exists,[69] with annotations in her own handwriting. After
disposing of her jewels and objects of value, she concludes by bequeathing
"tous mes ouvrages masches et collets aux 4 Maries, à Jean Stuart, et Marie
Sunderland, et toutes les filles";--"masches,"[70] with _punti a maglia_,
being among the numerous terms applied to this species of work.
These "ouvrages masches" were doubtless the work of Queen Mary and her
ladies. She had learned the art at the French court, where her
sister-in-law, Reine Margot, herself also a prisoner for many life-long
years, appears to have occupied herself in the same manner, for we find in
her accounts,[71] "Pour des moulles et esguilles pour faire rezeuil la
somme de iiii. L. tourn." And again, "Pour avoir monté une fraize neufve de
reseul la somme de X. sols tourn."
Catherine de Médicis had a bed draped with squares of reseuil or lacis, and
it is recorded that "the girls and servants of her household consumed much
time in making squares of reseuil." The inventory of her property and goods
includes a coffer containing three hundred and eighty-one of such squares
unmounted, whilst in another were found five hundred and thirty-eight
squares, some worked with rosettes or with blossoms, and others with
nosegays.[72]
Though the work of Milour Mignerak, already quoted, is dedicated to the
Trés-Chrestienne Reine de France et de Navarre, Marie de Médicis, and bears
her cipher and arms, yet in the decorated frontispiece is a cushion with a
piece of lacis in progress, the pattern a daisy looking at the sun, the
favourite impresa of her predecessor, the divorced Marguerite, now, by
royal ordinance, "Marguerite Reine, Duchesse de Valois." (Fig. 4.)
[Illustration: Fig. 5.
ELIZABETHAN SAMPLER.]
_To face page 22._
{23}These pattern-books being high in price and difficult to procure,
teachers of the art soon caused the various patterns to be reproduced in
"samcloths,"[73] as samplars were then termed, and young ladies worked at
them diligently as a proof of their competency in the arts of cut-work,
lacis and réseuil, much as a dame-school child did her A B C in the country
villages some years ago. Proud mothers caused these _chefs-d'oeuvre_ of
their children to be framed and glazed; hence many have come down to us
hoarded up in old families uninjured at the present time. (Fig. 5.)
A most important specimen of lacis was exhibited at the Art International
Exhibition of 1874, by Mrs. Hailstone, of Walton Hall, an altar frontal 14
feet by 4 feet, executed in point conté, representing eight scenes from the
Passion of Christ, in all fifty-six figures, surrounded by Latin
inscriptions. It is assumed to be of English workmanship.
[Illustration: Fig. 4.
IMPRESA OF QUEEN MARGARET OF NAVARRE IN LACIS.--(Mignerak.)]
Some curious pieces of ancient lacis were also exhibited (_circ._ 1866) at
the Museum of South Kensington by Dr. Bock, of Bonn. Among others, two
specimens of coloured silk network, the one ornamented with small
embroidered shields and crosses (Fig. 6), the other with the mediæval
gammadion pattern (Fig. 7). In the same collection was a towel or
altar-cloth of ancient German work--a coarse net ground, worked over with
the lozenge pattern.[74]
{24}But most artistic of all was a large ecclesiastical piece, some three
yards in length. The design portrays the Apostles, with angels and saints.
These two last-mentioned objects are of the sixteenth century.
When used for altar-cloths, bed-curtains, or coverlets, to produce a
greater effect it was the custom to alternate the lacis with squares of
plain linen.
"An apron set with many a dice
Of needlework sae rare,
Wove by nae hand, as ye may guess,
Save that of Fairly fair."
Ballad of Hardyknute.
[Illustration: Fig. 6.
"SPIDERWORK," THIRTEENTH CENTURY.--(Bock Coll. South Kensington Museum).]
[Illustration: Fig. 7.
"SPIDERWORK," FOURTEENTH CENTURY.--(Bock Coll. South Kensington Museum.)]
This work formed the great delight of provincial ladies in France. Jean
Godard, in his poem on the Glove,[75] alluding to this occupation, says:--
"Une femme gantée oeuvre en tapisserie
En raizeaux deliez et toute lingerie
Elle file--elle coud et fait passement
De toutes les fassons...."
The armorial shield of the family, coronets, monograms, the beasts of the
Apocalypse, with fleurs-de-lys, sacrés coeurs, for the most part adorned
those pieces destined for the use of the Church. If, on the other hand,
intended for a pall, death's-heads, cross-bones and tears, with the
sacramental cup, left no doubt of the destination of the article.
PLATE IV.
[Illustration: FAN MADE AT BURANO AND PRESENTED TO QUEEN ELENA OF ITALY ON
HER MARRIAGE, 1896.
Photo by the Burano School.]
PLATE V.
[Illustration: ITALIAN. PUNTO REALE.--Modern reproduction by the Society
Æmilia Ars, Bologna.
Photo by the Society.]
_To face page 24._
{25}As late as 1850, a splendid cut-work pall still covered the coffins of
the fishers when borne in procession through the streets of Dieppe. It is
said to have been a votive offering worked by the hands of some lady saved
from shipwreck, and presented as a memorial of her gratitude.
In 1866, when present at a peasant's wedding in the church of St. Lo (Dép.
Manche), the author observed that the "toile d'honneur," which is always
held extended over the heads of the married pair while the priest
pronounces the blessing, was of the finest cut-work, trimmed with lace.
Both in the north and south of Europe the art still lingers on. Swedish
housewives pierce and stitch the holiday collars of their husbands and
sons, and careful ladies, drawing the threads of the fine linen sheets
destined for the "guest-chamber," produce an ornament of geometric design.
Scarce fifty years since, an expiring relic of this art might be sometimes
seen on the white smock-frock of the English labourer, which, independent
of elaborate stitching, was enriched with an insertion of cut-work, running
from the collar to the shoulder crossways, like that we see decorating the
surplices of the sixteenth century.
Drawn-thread embroidery is another cognate work. The material in old
drawn-work is usually loosely-woven linen. Certain threads were drawn out
from the linen ground, and others left, upon and between which needlework
was made. Its employment in the East dates from very early times, and
withdrawing threads from a fabric is perhaps referred to in Lucan's
_Pharsalia_:--[76]
"Candida Sidonio perlucent pectora filo,
Quod Nilotis acus compressum pectine Serum
Solvit, et extenso laxavit stamina velo."
"Her white breasts shine through the Sidonian fabric, which pressed down
with the comb (or sley) of the Seres, the needle of the Nile workman has
separated, and has loosened the warp by stretching out (or withdrawing) the
weft."
{26}CHAPTER III.
LACE.
"Je demandai de la dentelle:
Voici le tulle de Bruxelles,
La blonde, le point d'Alençon,
Et la Maline, si légère;
L'application d'Angleterre
(Qui se fait à Paris, dit-on);
Voici la guipure indigène,
Et voici la Valenciennes,
Le point d'esprit, et le point de Paris;
Bref les dentelles
Les plus nouvelles
Que produisent tous les pays."
_Le Palais des Dentelles_ (Rothomago).
Lace[77] is defined as a plain or ornamental network, wrought of fine
threads of gold, silver, silk, flax, or cotton, interwoven, to which may be
added "poil de chèvre," and also the fibre of the aloe, employed by the
peasants of Italy and Spain. The term _lacez_ rendered in the English
translation of the Statutes[78] as "laces," implying braids, such as were
used for uniting the different parts of the dress, appears long before
lace, properly so called, came into use. The earlier laces, such as they
were, were defined by the word "passament"[79]--a general term for gimps
and braids, as well as for lace. Modern industry has separated these two
classes of work, but their being formerly so confounded renders it
difficult in historic researches to separate one from the other.
The same confusion occurs in France, where the first lace was called
_passement_, because it was applied to the same {27}use, to braid or lay
flat over the coats and other garments. The lace trade was entirely in the
hands of the "passementiers" of Paris, who were allowed to make all sorts
of "passements de dentelle sur l'oreiller aux fuseaux, aux épingles, et à
la main, d'or, d'argent, tant fin que faux, de soye, de fil blanc, et de
couleur," etc. They therefore applied the same terms to their different
products, whatever the material.
The word _passement_ continued to be in use till the middle of the
seventeenth century, it being specified as "passements aux fuseaux,"
"passements à l'aiguille"; only it was more specifically applied to lace
without an edge.
The term _dentelle_ is also of modern date, nor will it be found in the
earlier French dictionaries.[80] It was not till fashion caused the
passament to be made with a toothed edge that the expression of "passement
dentelé" first appears.
In the accounts of Henry II. of France, and his queen, we have frequent
notices of "passement jaulne dantellé des deux costez,"[81] "passement de
soye incarnat dentellé d'un costé,"[82] etc., etc., but no mention of the
word "dentelle." It does, however, occur in an inventory of an earlier
date, that of Marguerite de France, sister of Francis I., who, in 1545,
paid the sum of VI. livres "pour soixante aulnes, fine dantelle de Florance
pour mettre à des colletz."[83]
After a lapse of twenty years and more, among the articles furnished to
Mary Stuart in 1567, is "Une pacque de petite dentelle";[84] and this is
the sole mention of the word in all her accounts.
{28}We find like entries in the accounts of Henry IV.'s first queen.[85]
Gradually the passement dentelé subsided into the modern dentelle.
[Illustration: Fig. 8.
GRANDE DANTELLE AU POINT DEVANT L'AIGUILLE.--(Montbéliard, 1598.)]
It is in a pattern book, published at Montbéliard in 1598,[86] we first
find designs for "dantelles." It contains {29}twenty patterns, of all
sizes, "bien petites, petites" (Figs. 9, 10, 11, 12), "moyennes, et
grosses" (Fig. 8).
[Illustration: Fig. 9.
PETITE DANTELLE.--(1598.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 10.
PETITE DANTELLE.--(1598.)]
The word _dentelle_ seems now in general use; but Vecellio, in his
_Corona_, 1592, has "opere a mazette," pillow lace, and Mignerak first
gives the novelty of "passements au fuzeau," pillow lace (Fig. 13), for
which Vinciolo, in his edition of 1623, also furnishes patterns (Figs. 14
and 15); and Parasoli, 1616, gives designs for "merli a piombini" (Fig.
16).
[Illustration: Fig. 11.
PETITE DANTELLE.--(1598.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 12.
PETITE DANTELLE.--(1598.)]
In the inventory of Henrietta Maria, dated 1619,[87] appear a variety of
laces, all qualified under the name of "passement"; and in that of the
Maréchal La Motte, 1627, we find the term applied to every description of
lace.
{30}"Item, quatre paires de manchettes garnyes de passement, tant de
Venise, Gennes, et de Malines."[88]
Lace consists of two parts, the ground and the pattern.
The plain ground is styled in French _entoilage_, on account of its
containing the flower or ornament, which is called _toilé_, from the flat
close texture resembling linen, and also from its being often made of that
material or of muslin.
[Illustration: Fig. 13.
PASSEMENT AU FUSEAU.--(Mignerak, 1605.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 14.
PASSEMENT AU FUSEAU.--(Vinciolo, _Edition_ 1623.)]
The honeycomb network or ground, in French _fond_, _champ_,[89] _réseau_,
_treille_, is of various kinds: wire ground, Brussels ground, trolly
ground, etc., _fond clair_, _fond double_, etc.
{31}Some laces, points and guipures are not worked upon a ground; the
flowers are connected by irregular threads overcast (buttonhole stitch),
and sometimes worked over with pearl loops (picot). Such are the points of
Venice and Spain and most of the guipures. To these uniting threads, called
by our lace-makers "pearl ties"--old Randle Holme[90] styles them
"coxcombs"--the Italians give the name of "legs," the French that of
"brides."[91]
[Illustration: Fig. 15.
PASSEMENT AU FUSEAU.--(Vinciolo, _Edition_ 1623.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 16.
MERLETTI A PIOMBINI.--(Parasole, 1616.)]
The flower, or ornamental pattern, is either made together with the ground,
as in Valenciennes or Mechlin, or separately, and then either worked in or
sewn on (appliqué), as in Brussels.
The open-work stitches introduced into the pattern are called _modes_,
_jours_; by our Devonshire workers, "fillings."
All lace is terminated by two edges, the pearl, picot,[92] or couronne--a
row of little points at equal distances, and the footing or _engrêlure_--a
narrow lace, which serves to keep the stitches of the ground firm, and to
sew the lace to the garment upon which it is to be worn.
{32}Lace is divided into point and pillow (or more correctly bobbin) lace.
The term pillow gives rise to misconceptions, as it is impossible to define
the distinction between the "cushion" used for some needle-laces and the
"pillow" of bobbin-lace. The first is made by the needle on a parchment
pattern, and termed needle-point, _point à l'aiguille_, _punto in aco_.
The word is sometimes incorrectly applied to pillow-lace, as point de
Malines, point de Valenciennes, etc.
Point also means a particular kind of stitch, as point de Paris,[93] point
de neige, point d'esprit,[94] point à la Reine, point à carreaux, à
chaînette, etc.
"Cet homme est bien en points," was a term used to denote a person who wore
rich laces.[95]
The mention of point de neige recalls the quarrel of Gros René and
Marinette, in the _Dépit Amoureux_[96] of Molière:--
"Ton beau galant de neige,[97] avec ta nonpareille,
Il n'aura plus l'honneur d'être sur mon oreille."
Gros René evidently returns to his mistress his point de neige nightcap.
The manner of making bobbin lace on a pillow[98] need hardly be described.
The "pillow"[99] is a round or oval board, stuffed so as to form a cushion,
and placed upon the knees of the workwoman. On this pillow a stiff piece of
parchment is fixed, with small holes pricked through to mark the pattern.
Through these holes pins are stuck into the cushion. The threads with which
the lace is formed are wound upon "bobbins," formerly bones,[100] now small
round pieces of wood, about the size of a pencil, having round their upper
ends a deep groove, so formed as to reduce the bobbin to a thin neck, on
which the thread is wound, a separate bobbin being used for each thread.
PLATE VI.
[Illustration: ITALIAN.--Modern reproduction at Burano of Point de Venise à
la feuille et la rose, of seventeenth century.
Width, 8 in. Photo by the Burano School.]
PLATE VII.
[Illustration: Heraldic (carnival lace), was made in Italy. This appears to
be a specimen, though the archaic pattern points to a German origin. The
réseau is twisted and knotted. _Circ._ 1700. The Arms are those of a
Bishop.
Photo by A. Dryden from private collection.]
_To face page_ 32.
{33}By the twisting and crossing of these threads the ground of the lace is
formed. The pattern or figure, technically called "gimp," is made by
interweaving a thread much thicker than that forming the groundwork,
according to the design pricked out on the parchment.[101] Such has been
the pillow and the method of using it, with but slight variation, for more
than three centuries.
To avoid repetition, we propose giving a separate history of the
manufacture in each country; but in order to furnish some general notion of
the relative ages of lace, it may be as well to enumerate the kinds most in
use when Colbert, by his establishment of the Points de France, in 1665,
caused a general development of the lace manufacture throughout Europe.
The laces known at that period were:--
1. Point.--Principally made at Venice, Genoa, Brussels, and in Spain.
2. Bisette.--A narrow, coarse thread pillow lace of three qualities, made
in the environs of Paris[102] by the peasant women, principally for their
own use. Though proverbially of little value--"ce n'est que de la
bisette"[103]--it formed an article of traffic with the mercers and
lingères of the day.
3. Gueuse.--A thread lace, which owed to its simplicity {34}the name it
bore. The ground was network, the flowers a loose, thick thread, worked in
on the pillow. Gueuse was formerly an article of extensive consumption in
France, but, from the beginning of the last century, little used save by
the lower classes. Many old persons may still remember the term, "beggars'
lace."
4. Campane.[104]--A white, narrow, fine, thread pillow edging, used to sew
upon other laces, either to widen them, or to replace a worn-out picot or
pearl.
Campane lace was also made of gold, and of coloured silks, for trimming
mantles, scarfs, etc. We find, in the Great Wardrobe Accounts of George I.,
1714,[105] an entry of "Gold Campagne buttons."
Evelyn, in his "Fop's Dictionary," 1690, gives, "Campane, a kind of narrow,
pricked lace;" and in the "Ladies' Dictionary," 1694, it is described as "a
kind of narrow lace, picked or scalloped."[106]
In the Great Wardrobe Account of William III., 1688-9, we have "le poynt
campanie tæniæ."
5. Mignonette.[107]--A light, fine, pillow lace, called blonde de
fil,[108] also point de tulle, from the ground resembling that {35}fabric.
It was made of Lille thread, bleached at Antwerp, of different widths,
never exceeding two to three inches. The localities where it was
manufactured were the environs of Paris, Lorraine, Auvergne, and
Normandy.[109] It was also fabricated at Lille, Arras, and in Switzerland.
This lace was article of considerable export, and at times in high favour,
from its lightness and clear ground, for headdresses[110] and other
trimmings. It frequently appears in the advertisements of the last century.
In the _Scottish Advertiser_, 1769, we find enumerated among the
stock-in-trade, "Mennuet and blonde lace."
6. Point double, also called point de Paris and point des champs: point
double, because it required double the number of threads used in the single
ground; des champs, from its being made in the country.
7. Valenciennes.--See Chapter XV.
[Illustration: Fig. 17.
OLD MECHLIN.]
8. Mechlin.--All the laces of Flanders, with the exception of those of
Brussels and the point double, were known in commerce at this period under
the general name of Mechlin. (Fig. 17.)
9. Gold lace.
10. Guipure.
{36}GUIPURE.
Guipure, says Savary, is a kind of lace or passement made of "cartisane"
and twisted silk.
Cartisane is a little strip of thin parchment or vellum, which was covered
over with silk, gold, or silver thread, and formed the raised pattern.
The silk twisted round a thick thread or cord was called guipure,[111]
hence the whole work derived its name.[112]
Guipure was made either with the needle or on the pillow like other lace,
in various patterns, shades and colours, of different qualities and several
widths.
The narrowest guipures were called "Têtes de More."[113]
The less cartisane in the guipure, the more it was esteemed, for cartisane
was not durable, being only vellum covered over with silk. It was easily
affected by the damp, shrivelled, would not wash, and the pattern was
destroyed. Later, the parchment was replaced by a cotton material called
canetille.
Savary says that most of the guipures were made in the environs of
Paris;[114] that formerly, he writes in 1720, great quantities were
consumed in the kingdom; but since the fashion had passed away, they were
mostly exported to Spain, Portugal, Germany, and the Spanish Indies, where
they were much worn.[115]
Guipure was made of silk, gold and silver; from its costliness, therefore,
it was only worn by the rich.
PLATE VIII.
[Illustration: ITALIAN, VENETIAN, FLAT NEEDLE-POINT LACE. "PUNTO IN
ARIA."--The design is held together by plain "brides." Date, _circ._ 1645.
Width, 11-5/8 in.
Victoria and Albert Museum.]
PLATE IX.
[Illustration: PORTION OF A BAND OF NEEDLE-POINT LACE REPRESENTING THE
STORY OF JUDITH AND HOLOFERNES.--The work is believed to be Italian, made
for a Portuguese, the inscription being in Portuguese. Date, _circ._ 1590.
Width, 8 in. The property of Mr. Arthur Blackborne.
Photo by A. Dryden.]
_To face page 36._
{37}At the coronation of Henry II. the front of the high altar is described
as of crimson velvet, enriched with "cuipure d'or"; and the ornaments,
chasuble, and corporaliers of another altar as adorned with a "riche
broderie de cuipure."[116]
On the occasion of Henry's entry into Paris, the king wore over his armour
a surcoat of cloth of silver ornamented with his ciphers and devices, and
trimmed with "guippures d'argent."[117]
In the reign of Henry III. the casaques of the pages were covered with
guipures and passements, composed of as many colours as entered into the
armorial bearings of their masters; and these silk guipures, of varied
hues, added much to the brilliancy of their liveries.[118]
Guipure seems to have been much worn by Mary Stuart. When the Queen was at
Lochleven, Sir Robert Melville is related to have delivered to her a pair
of white satin sleeves, edged with a double border of silver guipure; and,
in the inventory of her clothes taken at the Abbey of Lillebourg,[119]
1561-2, we find numerous velvet and satin gowns trimmed with "gumpeures" of
gold and silver.[120]
It is singular that the word guipure is not to be found in our English
inventories or wardrobe accounts, a circumstance which leads us to infer,
though in opposition to higher authorities, that guipure was in England
termed "parchment lace"--a not unnatural conclusion, since we know it was
sometimes called "dentelle à cartisane,"[121] from the slips of parchment
of which it was partly composed. Though Queen Mary would use the French
term, it does not seem to have been adopted in England, whereas "parchment
lace" is of frequent occurrence.
From the Privy Purse Expenses of the Princess Mary,[122] we find she gives
to Lady Calthorpe a pair of sleeves of "gold, {38}trimmed with parchment
lace," a favourite donation of hers, it would appear, by the anecdote of
Lady Jane Grey.
"A great man's daughter," relates Strype[123] "(the Duke of Suffolk's
daughter Jane), receiving from Lady Mary, before she was Queen, goodly
apparel of tinsel, cloth of gold, and velvet, laid on with parchment lace
of gold, when she saw it, said, 'What shall I do with it?' Mary said,
'Gentlewoman, wear it.' 'Nay,' quoth she, 'that were a shame to follow my
Lady Mary against God's word, and leave my Lady Elizabeth, which followeth
God's word.'"
In the list of the Protestant refugees in England, 1563 to 1571,[124] among
their trades, it is stated "some live by making matches of hempe stalks,
and parchment lace."
Again, Sir Robert Bowes, "once ambassador to Scotland," in his inventory,
1553, has "One cassock of wrought velvet with p'chment lace of gold."[125]
"Parchment lace[126] of watchett and syllver at 7s. 8d. the ounce," appears
also among the laces of Queen Elizabeth.[127]
King Charles I. has his carpet bag trimmed with "broad parchment gold
lace,"[128] his satin nightcaps with gold and silver parchment laces,[129]
and even the bag and comb case "for his Majesty's barber" is decorated with
"silver purle and parchment lace."[130]
Again, Charles II. ornaments the seats on both sides the throne with silver
parchment lace.[131] In many of the inventories circ. 1590, "sylke
parchment lace" is noted down, and "red" and "green parchment lace," again,
appear among the wares found "in y^e Shoppes."[132]
But to return to the word guipure.
In an inventory of the Church of the Oratoire, at Paris, of the seventeenth
century, are veils for the host: one, "de {39}taffetas blanc garny d'une
guipure"; the other, "de satin blanc à fleurs, avec une dentelle de
guipure."[133]
These guipures will have also been of silk. When the term was first
transferred to the thread passements which are now called guipure, it is
difficult to say, for we can find no trace of it so applied.
Be that as it may, the thread guipures are of old date; many of the
patterns bear the character of the rich ornamentation and capricious
interlacings of the Renaissance; others, again, are "pur Louis Quatorze"
(Fig. 18). The finest thread guipures were the produce of Flanders and
Italy. They are most varied in their style. In some the bold flowing
patterns are united by brides; in others by a coarse réseau, often
circular, and called "round ground."
[Illustration: Fig. 18.
GUIPURE.--(Louis XIV.)]
In that class called by the lace-makers "tape guipure," the outline of the
flowers is formed by a pillow or handmade braid about the eighth of an inch
in width (Fig. 19).
{40}The term guipure is now so extensively applied it is difficult to give
a limit to its meaning. We can only define it as lace where the flowers are
either joined by "brides," or large coarse stitches, or lace that has no
ground at all. The modern Honiton and Maltese are guipures, so is the
Venetian point.
[Illustration: Fig. 19.
TAPE GUIPURE, BOBBIN-MADE.--(Genoa.)]
Most of these laces are enumerated in a _jeu d'esprit_, entitled "La
Révolte des Passemens," published at Paris in 1661.[134]
{41}In consequence of a sumptuary edict against luxury in apparel, Mesdames
les Broderies--
"Les Poinctes, Dentelles, Passemens
Qui, par une vaine despence,
Ruinoient aujourd'huy la France"--
meet, and concert measures for their common safety. Point de Gênes, with
Point de Raguse, first address the company; next, Point de Venise, who
seems to look on Raguse with a jealous eye, exclaims--
"Encore pour vous, Poinct de Raguse,
Il est bon, crainte d'attentat,
D'en vouloir perger un estat.
Les gens aussy fins que vous estes
Ne sont bons que, comme vous faites,
Pour ruiner tous les estats.
Et vous, Aurillac ou Venise,
Si nous plions notre valise,"
what will be our fate?
The other laces speak, in their turn, most despondently, till a "vieille
broderie d'or," consoling them, talks of the vanity of this world:--"Who
knows it better than I, who have dwelt in kings' houses?" One "grande
dentelle d'Angleterre" now proposes they should all retire to a convent. To
this the "Dentelles de Flandres" object; they would sooner be sewn at once
to the bottom of a petticoat.
Mesdames les Broderies resign themselves to become "ameublement;" the more
devout of the party to appear as "devants d'autel;" those who feel too
young to renounce the world and its vanities will seek refuge in the
masquerade shops.
"Dentelle noire d'Angleterre" lets herself out cheap to a fowler, as a net
to catch woodcocks, for which she felt "assez propre" in her present
predicament.
The Points all resolve to retire to their own countries, save Aurillac, who
fears she may be turned into a strainer "pour passer les fromages
d'Auvergne," a smell insupportable to one who had revelled in civet and
orange-flower.
All were starting--
"Chacun, dissimulant sa rage,
Doucement ploit son bagage,
Resolu d'obéir au sort,"
when
"Une pauvre malheureuse,
Qu'on apelle, dit on, la Gueuse,"
{42}arrives, in a great rage, from a village in the environs of Paris. "She
is not of high birth, but has her feelings all the same. She will never
submit. She has no refuge--not even a place in the hospital. Let them
follow her advice and 'elle engageoit sa chaînette,' she will replace them
all in their former position."
Next morn, the Points assemble. "Une grande Cravate[135] fanfaron"
exclaims:--
"Il nous faut venger cet affront,
Revoltons-nous, noble assemblée."
A council of war ensues:--
"La dessus, le Poinct d'Alençon
Ayant bien appris sa leçon
Fit une fort belle harangue."
Flanders now boasts how she had made two campaigns under Monsieur, as a
cravat; another had learned the art of war under Turenne; a third was torn
at the siege of Dunkirk.
"Racontant des combats qu'ils ne virent jamais,"
one and all had figured at some siege or battle.
"Qu'avons nous à redouter?"
cries Dentelle d'Angleterre. No so, thinks Point de Gênes, "qui avoit le
corps un peu gros."
They all swear--
"Foy de Passement,
Foy de Poincts et de Broderie,
De Guipure et d'Orfévrerie,
De Gueuse de toute façon,"
to declare open war, and to banish the Parliament.
The Laces assemble at the fair of St. Germain, there to be reviewed by
General Luxe.
The muster-roll is called over by Colonel Sotte Depense. Dentelles de
Moresse, Escadrons de Neige, Dentelles de Hâvre, Escrues, Soies noires, and
Points d'Espagne, etc., march forth in warlike array, to conquer or to die.
At the first approach of the artillery they all take to their heels, and
are condemned by a council of war--the Points to be made into tinder, for
the sole use of the King's Mousquetaires; the Laces to be converted into
paper; the Dentelles, {43}Escrues, Gueuses, Passemens, and Silk Lace to be
made into cordage and sent to the galleys; the Gold and Silver Laces, the
original authors of the sedition, to be "burned alive."
Finally, through the intercession of Love--
"Le petit dieu plein de finesse,"
they are again pardoned and restored to court favour.
The poem is curious, as giving an account of the various kinds of lace, and
as a specimen of the taste of the time, but the "ton précieux" of the Hôtel
Rambouillet pervades throughout.
The lace trade, up to this period, was entirely in the hands of pedlars,
who carried their wares to the principal towns and large country-houses.
"One Madame La Boord," says Evelyn, "a French peddling-woman, served Queen
Katherine with petticoats, fans, and foreign laces." These hawkers attended
the great fairs[136] of Europe, where all purchases were made.[137]
Even as early as King Henry III.[138] we have a notice "to purchase robes
at the fair of St. Ives, for the use of Richard our brother"; and in the
dramas of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, we find constant
allusion to these provincial markets:--[139]
"Seven
Pedlars' shops, nay all Sturbridge fair,[140] will
Scarce furnish her."[141]
{44}The custom of carrying lace from house to house still exists in
Belgium, where at Spa and other places, colporteurs,[142] with packs
similar to those borne by our pedlars, bring round to the visitors laces of
great value, which they sell at cheaper rates than those exposed in the
shops.[143]
Many travellers, too, through the counties of Buckingham and Bedford, or
the more southern regions of Devon, will still call to mind the inevitable
lace box handed round for purchase by the waiter at the conclusion of the
inn dinner; as well as the girls who, awaiting the arrival of each
travelling carriage or postchaise, climbed up to the windows of the
vehicle, rarely allowing the occupants to go their way until they had
purchased some article of the wares so pertinaciously offered to their
inspection.
In Paris, the lace trade was the exclusive privilege of the
passementiers.[144]
PLATE X.
[Illustration: ITALIAN. POINT DE VENISE À LA ROSE. Modern reproduction at
Burano of seventeenth century lace. Width, 17 in.
Photo by the Burano School.]
_To face page 44._
{45}CHAPTER IV.
ITALY.
"It grazed on my shoulder, takes me away six parts of an Italian cut-work
band I wore, cost me three pounds in the Exchange but three days
before."--Ben Jonson--_Every Man Out of His Humour_,1599.
"Ruffles well wrought and fine falling bands of Italian cut-work."--_Fair
Maid of the Exchange_, 1627.
The Italians claim the invention of point, or needle-made lace.
It has been suggested they derived the art of fine needlework from the
Greeks who took refuge in Italy from the troubles of the Lower Empire; and
what further confirms its Byzantine origin is, that those very places which
kept up the closest intercourse with the Greek Empire are the cities where
point lace was earliest made and flourished to the greatest extent.[145]
A modern Italian author,[146] on the other hand, asserts that the Italians
learned embroidery from the Saracens of Sicily, as the Spaniards acquired
the art from the Moors of Granada or Seville, and brings forward, as proof
of his theory, that the word to embroider, both in Italian and
Spanish,[147] is derived from the Arabic, and no similar word exists in any
other European language.[148] This theory may apply to embroidery, but
certainly not to lace; for with the exception of the Turkish crochet
"oyah," and some darned netting and drawn-work which occur in Persian and
Chinese tissues, there is nothing approaching to lace to be found on any
article of oriental manufacture.
{46}We proceed to show that evidences of the lace-fabric appear in Italy as
early as the fifteenth century.
In 1476, the Venetian Senate decreed that no Punto in Aria whatever,
executed either in flax with a needle, or in silver or gold thread, should
be used on the curtains or bed-linen in the city or provinces. Among the
State archives of the ducal family of Este, which reigned in Ferrara for so
many centuries, Count Gandini found mentioned in a Register of the
Wardrobe, dated 1476 (A. C. 87), an order given for a felt hat "alla
Borgognona," trimmed with a silver and silk gimp made with bobbins. Besides
this, in the same document is noted (A. C. 96) a velvet seat with a canopy
trimmed at the sides with a frill of gold and silver, made in squares, with
bobbins.
The Cavaliere Antonio Merli, in his interesting pamphlet on Italian
lace,[149] mentions an account preserved in the Municipal Archives of
Ferrara, dated 1469, as probably referring to lace;[150] but he more
especially brings forward a document of the Sforza family, dated[151] 1493,
in which the word _trina_ (under its ancient form "tarnete") constantly
occurs,[152] together with bone and bobbin lace.
PLATE XI
[Illustration: ITALIAN. POINT PLAT DE VENISE. NEEDLE-POINT.--Seventeenth
century. Length, 25 in.; width, 16 in. Victoria and Albert Museum.]
_To face page 46._
{47}Again, the Florentine poet, Firenzuola, who wrote from 1520-30,
composed an elegy upon a collar of raised point, made by the hand of his
mistress.
Cavaliere Merli cites, as the earliest known painting in which lace occurs,
a majolica disc, after the style of the Della Robbia family, in which,
surrounded by a wreath of fruit, is represented the half figure of a lady,
dressed in a rich brocade, with a collar of white lace. The costume is of
the fifteenth century; but as Luca della Robbia's descendants worked to a
later period, the precise date of the work cannot be fixed.
Evidences of white lace, or passement, are said to appear in the pictures
of Carpaccio, in the gallery at Venice, and in another by the Gentile
Bellini, where the dress of one of the ladies is trimmed round the neck
with a white lace.[153] The date of this last painting is 1500.
Lace was made throughout Italy mostly by the nuns,[154] and expressly for
the service of the Church. Venice was celebrated for her points, while
Genoa produced almost exclusively pillow-lace.
The laces best known in the commercial world in the earlier periods were
those of Venice, Milan, and Genoa.
VENICE.
Mrs. Termagant: "I'll spoil your point de Venise for you."--Shadwell,
_Squire of Alsatia_.
"Elle n'avoit point de mouchoir,
Mais un riche et tres beau peignoir
Des plus chers de point de Venise
En negligeance elle avoit mise."
_Les Combats_, etc., 1663.
The Venetian galleys, at an early period, bore to England "apes, sweet
wines," and other articles of luxury. They brought also the gold-work of
"Luk," Florence, "Jeane," {48}and Venice.[155] In our early parliamentary
records are many statutes on the subject. The Italians were in the habit of
giving short lengths, gold thread of bad quality, and were guilty of sundry
other peccadilloes, which greatly excited the wrath of the nation. The
balance was not in England's favour.
"Thei bare the gold out of this land
And sowkethe the thrifte out of our hande
As the waspe sowkethe the honey of the be."
It was these cheating Venetians who first brought over their points into
England.
In Venice itself, extravagance in lace was restrained in 1542, by a
sumptuary law, forbidding the metal laces embroidered in silk to be wider
than _due dita_ (_i.e._, about two inches). This interference is highly
Venetian, and was intended to protect the nobles and citizens from injuring
themselves and setting a bad example.
At the coronation of Richard III., "fringes of Venice," and "mantil laces
of white silk and Venys gold" appear, and twenty years later Elizabeth of
York disburses sundry sums for "gold of Venice" and "other
necessaries."[156] The queen's accounts are less explicit than those of her
royal predecessor; and though a lace is ordered for the king's mantle of
the Garter, for which she paid sixteen shillings, the article may have been
of home manufacture.
From this time downwards appear occasional mention of partlets,[157] knit
caul fashion, of Venice gold, and of white thread,[158] of billament lace
of Venice, in silver and black silk.[159] It is not, however, till the
reign of Elizabeth[160] that Italian cut-works and Venice lace came into
general use. These points found their way into France about the same
period, though we hear little of them.
PLATE XII
[Illustration: ITALIAN. POINT DE VENISE À RÉSEAU.--The upper ones are of
yellow silk; a chalice veil, with dove and olive branch, and possibly an
altar border. Probably late seventeenth century. The lower is thread, early
eighteenth century. Width, 2 in. In private collections.
Photos by A. Dryden.]
_To face page 48._
{49}Of "point couppé" there is mention, and enough, in handkerchiefs for
Madame Gabrielle, shirts for the king, and fraizes for La Reine Margot; but
whether they be of Venice or worked in France, we are unenlightened. The
works of Vinciolo[161] and others had already been widely circulated, and
laces and point couppé now formed the favourite occupation of the ladies.
Perhaps one of the earliest records of point de Venise will be found in a
ridiculous historiette of Tallemant des Réaux, who, gossiping of a certain
Madame de Puissieux,[162] writes: "On m'assuroit qu'elle mangeoit du point
coupé. Alors les points de Gênes, de Raguse, ni d'Aurillac ni de Venise
n'étoient point connus et on dit qu'au sermon elle mangea tout le derrière
du collet d'un homme qui etoit assis devant elle." On what strange events
hang the connecting threads of history!
By 1626 foreign "dentelles et passements au fuseau" were declared
contraband. France paying large sums of money to other countries for lace,
the Government, by this ordinance, determined to remedy the evil. It was at
this period that the points of Venice were in full use.[163]
"To know the age and pedigrees
Of points of Flanders and Venise"[164]
would, in the latter case, have been more difficult, had it not been for
the pattern-books so often quoted.
The earliest points, as we already know, soon passed from the stiff
formality of the "Gotico" into the flowing lines of the Renaissance, and
into that fine patternless guipure which is, _par excellence_, called Point
de Venise.[165]
In the islands of the Lagune there still lingers a tale of the first origin
of this most charming production.
A sailor youth, bound for the Southern Seas, brought home to his betrothed
a bunch of that pretty coralline (Fig. 20) known to the unlearned as the
mermaid's lace.[166] The girl, a worker in points, struck by the graceful
nature of the seaweed, with its small white knots united, as it were, by
{50}a "bride," imitated it with her needle, and after several unsuccessful
trials produced that delicate guipure which before long became the taste of
all Europe.
It would be difficult to enumerate the various kinds of lace produced by
Venice in her palmy days.
The Cavaliere Merli has endeavoured to classify them according to the names
in the pattern-books with which Venice supplied the world, as well as with
her points. Out of some sixty of these works, whose names have been
collected, above one-third were published in Venice.[167]
[Illustration: Fig. 20.
MERMAID'S LACE.]
1. Punto a reticella.[168]--Made either by drawing the threads of the
cloth, as in the samplar already given (Fig. 5), or by working the lace on
a parchment pattern in buttonhole stitch (punto smerlo). (Fig. 21.) This
point is identical with what is commonly called "Greek" lace.
Under this head comes punto reale (the opposite of reticella), where the
linen ground is left and the design cut out.[169] Punto di cartella or
cordella (card-work) is similar in effect to reticella, but the
button-holing is done entirely over a foundation made by sewing coarse
thread and bits of parchment on to the design and covering them with
button-hole stitch.
[Illustration: Fig. 21.
Reticella.]
_To face page 50._
{51}2. Punto tagliato.[170]--Cut-work, already described.
3. Punto di Venezia.
4. Punto in aria.[171]--Worked on a parchment pattern, the flowers
connected by brides: in modern parlance, Guipure.
5. Punto tagliato a fogliami.[172]--The richest and most complicated of all
points, executed like the former, only with this difference, that all the
outlines are in relief, formed by means of cottons placed inside to raise
them. Sometimes they are in double and triple relief; an infinity of
beautiful stitches are introduced into the flowers, which are surrounded by
a pearl of geometric regularity, the pearls sometimes in scallops or
"campané," as the French term it.[173] This is our Rose (raised) Venice
point, the Gros Point de Venise, the Punto a relievo, so highly prized and
so extensively used for albs, collerettes, berthes, and costly decoration.
We give an example (Fig. 23) from a collar, preserved in the Musée de
Cluny, once the property of a Venetian nobleman, worn only on state
occasions.
Two elaborate specimens were in the possession of Mr. Webb; one is a long
narrow piece fringed at both ends, which may have served as a maniple (Fig.
26); the other, a "pale"[174] for the communion, he has given to the
Victoria and Albert Museum.
These two last are made of silk of the natural cream colour. Both silk and
thread unbleached appear to have been greatly in favour. At Paris much lace
of this colour has been disposed of by its owners since the revolutions in
Italy.[175]
Other varieties of so-called rose point are punto neve (point de neige),
with its ground of starred threads resembling snowflakes, and the coral
point, a small irregular pattern supposed to have been copied from coral.
{52}6. Punto a gropo, or gropari.[176]--Groppo, or gruppo, signifies a
knot, or tie, and in this lace the threads are knotted together, like the
fringes of the Genoese macramè.[177] After this manner is made the trimming
to the linen scarfs or cloths which the Roman peasants wear folded square
over the head, and hanging down the back. (Fig. 22.)
[Illustration: Fig. 22.
PUNTO A GROPO (Knotted Point).]
7. Punto a maglia quadra.--Lacis; square netting,[178] the modano of the
Tuscans. (Fig. 24.)
[Illustration: Fig. 23.
GROS POINT DE VENISE.--From the Collar of a Venetian Nobleman. Musée de
Cluny, Paris. 16th century.
N.B.--This drawing makes the work and design appear heavier than it is in
reality.
_To face page 52._]
{53}This Tuscan sort was not generally embroidered; the pattern consists in
knitting the meshes together in different shapes. It was much used for
hangings of beds, and those curtains placed across the windows, called
_stores_ by the French, and by the Italians, _stuora_.[179]
8. Burato.--The word means a stiff cloth or canvas (_toille clere_ of
Taglienti, 1527), on which the pattern is embroidered, reducing it to a
kind of rude lace. One of the pattern-books[180] is devoted exclusively to
the teaching of this point.
[Illustration: Fig. 24.
PUNTO A MAGLIA (Lacis)]
The needle-made laces fabricated at Burano will be noticed later.
9. Punto tirato--Drawn work.[181] Fig. 25 is a lace ground {54}made by
drawing the threads of muslin (_fili tirati_).[182] The present specimen is
simple in design, but some are very complicated and beautiful.
The ordinance of Colbert must have inflicted a serious injury on the Venice
lace trade, which, says Daru, "occupoit la population de la capitale." In
_Britannia Languens_, a discourse upon trade, London, 1680,[183] it is said
that the laces commonly called Points de Venise now come mostly from
France, and amount to a vast sum yearly.
Savary, speaking of the thread laces termed Venice point in the early part
of the eighteenth century,[184] says, "The French no longer purchase these
articles, having established themselves manufactures which rival those of
the Adriatic."
[Illustration: Fig. 25.
PUNTO TIRATO (Drawn Lace).]
Still the greater number of travellers[185] make a provision of points in
their passage through Venice, and are usually cheated, writes a traveller
about this period.[186] He recommends his friend, Mr. Claude Somebody, a
French dealer, who probably paid him in ruffles for the advertisement.
[Illustration: Fig. 26.
POINT DE VENISE À BRIDES PICOTÉES.--Early 18th century.
_To Face page 54._]
{55}Our porte-bouquets and lace-trimmed nosegays are nothing new. On the
occasion of the annual visit of the Doge to the Convent delle Vergini, the
lady abbess with the novices received him in the parlour, and presented him
with a nosegay of flowers placed in a handle of gold, and trimmed round
with the finest lace that Venice could produce.[187]
[Illustration: Fig. 27.
VENICE POINT.]
Fynes Moryson[188] is the earliest known traveller who alludes to the
products of Venice. "Venetian ladies in general," he says, "wear a standing
collar and ruffs close up to the chin; the unmarried tie their hair with
gold and silver lace." Evidently the collars styled "bavari," for which
Vecellio[189] gives patterns "all' usanza Veneziana," were {56}not yet in
general vogue.[190] The Medici collars were supported by fine metal bars
called "verghetti," which were so much in demand that the inhabitants of a
whole quarter of Venice were engaged in their production, and the name
which it still bears was given to it in consequence.
[Illustration: Fig. 28.
GROS POINT DE VENISE.--(First half of 17th century.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 29.
POINT DE VENISE.--End of 17th century.]
[Illustration: Fig. 30.
POINT PLAT DE VENISE.--Middle of 17th century.
_To face page 56._]
{57}Fifty years later, Evelyn speaks of the veils of glittering taffetas,
worn by the Venetian ladies, to the corners of which hang broad but curious
tassels of point laces.
According to Zedler, an author who wrote about lace in 1742, the price of
Venice point in high relief varied from one to nine ducats per Italian ell.
The Venetians, unlike the Spaniards, thought much of their fine linen and
the decorations pertaining to it. "La camicia preme assai più del
giubbone," ran the proverb--"La chemise avant le pourpoint." Young nobles
were not allowed to wear lace on their garments until they put on the robe,
which they usually did at the age of five-and-twenty, on being admitted to
the council.[191]
Towards 1770, the Venice ladies themselves commenced to forsake the fabrics
of their native islands; for on the marriage of the Doge's son, in that
year, we read that, although the altar was decorated with the richest
Venice point, the bride and her ladies wore their sleeves covered up to the
shoulders with falls of the finest Brussels lace, and a tucker of the same
material.[192]
During the carnival, however, the people, both male and female, wore a
camail, or hood of black lace, covering the chin up to the mouth, called a
"bauta."[193] It was one of these old black lace hoods that Walpole
describes Lady Mary Wortley Montagu as wearing at Florence, 1762, in place
of a cap.
_Point de Venise à réseau_ is chiefly distinguished by the conventional
treatment of the flowers and ornament, and a general flat look of the work.
The outlining thread or cordonnet is stitched to the edge of the pattern
and worked in flatly. A minute border to the cordonnet of small meshes
intervenes between it and the réseau, which is of square {58}meshes and
always very fine. Whether the lace was derived from the Alençon, and was
the result of an attempt to win back the custom the French manufacturers
were taking away from Venice, or whether it was Alençon that imitated the
Venetian réseau, is a moot point, but certain it is that the Venetian
product surpassed in fineness both Alençon and Brussels. Its very delicacy
has been its destruction, so that very few specimens of this lace survive.
Plate XII.
_Mezzo Punto_, or mixed Venetian guipure, was a mixed point lace, of which
the scrolls and flowers were outlined in pillow-lace, or by a tape, and the
designs filled in with needle fillings, and connected by pearled brides on
a coarse needle-made réseau. This variety of lace was sometimes made of
silk. In point de Venise, flat or raised, the pattern is always connected
by an irregular network of pearled brides. Real brides connecting the
flowers here and there hardly ever occur; and the number of picots attached
to one single branch of the bride network never exceeds two. The
elaborately ornamental detached brides and a multiplicity of picots are
characteristic of "Spanish point" and early point de France.
The old Burano laces were a coarser outcome of the point de Venise à
réseau, and alone of all Venetian needle laces survived the dark days of
the close of the eighteenth century. Some fine specimens of these were
shown by M. Dupont d'Auberville in the International Exhibition, and Marini
quotes from a document of the seventeenth century, in which, speaking of
merletti, it is said that "these laces, styled 'punti in aria,' or di
Burano, because the greater part of them were made in the country so
called, are considered by Lannoni as more noble and of greater whiteness,
and for excellency of design and perfect workmanship equal to those of
Flanders, and in solidity superior."
A new departure has been taken in modern times, in the making of hand-made
laces at the island of Burano, near Venice, where a large number of girls
were employed in the eighteenth century, both in the town and the convents,
in making a point closely resembling that of Alençon. Here the art lingered
on as late as 1845, when a superannuated nun of ninety, with whom Mrs.
Dennistoun, of Dennistoun, conversed on the subject, said how in her
younger days she and her companions employed their time in the fabric of
"punto di Burano";[194] how it was ordered long beforehand for great
marriages, and even then cost very dear. She showed specimens still tacked
on paper: the ground is made right across the thread of the lace.
[Illustration: Fig. 31.
POINT DE VENISE À RÉSEAU.--Early 18th century. N.B.--Mrs. Palliser
incorrectly described this as Brussels in her first Editions.
_To face page 58._]
{59}Burano point had not the extreme delicacy of the Venetian point à
réseau or of Alençon, and the late Alençon patterns were copied. Though
needle-made, it was worked on a pillow arranged with a cylinder for
convenience of working. The unevenness of the thread gives the réseau a
cloudy appearance, and the cordonnet is, like the Brussels needlepoint, of
thread stitched round the outline instead of the Alençon button-hole stitch
over horse-hair. The mesh of the réseau is square, as in Alençon.
Fig. 32 is copied from a specimen purchased at Burano by the Cav. Merli, of
the maker, an old woman known by the name of Cencia Scarpariola. In 1866,
the industry was extinct, and the "Contrada del Pizzo," once the
headquarters of the lace-makers, was a mystery to the natives, who could no
longer account for the denomination. In the church is preserved a splendid
series of altar-cloths of so-called Burano point in relief, and a fine
_storiato_ piece, representing the mysteries of the Passion. "Venice point
is now no more," writes Mrs. Palliser; "the sole relic of this far-famed
trade is the coarse torchon lace, of the old lozenge pattern, offered by
the peasant women of Palestrina to strangers on their arrival at hotels,"
the same fabric mentioned by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, when she speaks of
"peddling women that come on pretext of selling pennyworths of lace."
The formation of the school recently established there,[195] and the
revival of the art of lace-making in Burano, arose out of the great
distress which in 1872 overtook the island. The extraordinary severity of
the winter that year rendered it impossible for the poor fishermen, who
form the population {60}of the island, to follow their calling. So great
was the distress at that time, while the lagoons were frozen, that the
fishermen and their families were reduced to a state bordering on
starvation, and for their relief contributions were made by all classes in
Italy, including the Pope and the King. This charitable movement resulted
in the collection of a fund of money, which sufficed to relieve the
immediate distress and leave a surplus for the establishment of a local
industry to increase the resources of the Burano population.
[Illustration: Fig. 32.
BURANO POINT.--(Late 18th century.)]
PLATE XIII.
[Illustration: ITALIAN. MODERN POINT DE BURANO.
Marriage veil of Queen Elena of Italy. Much reduced. Length about 7 ft.;
width seen about 4 ft. 6 in.
Photo by the Burano School.]
_To face page 60._
{61}Unfortunately, the industry at first fixed upon, namely, that of making
fishermen's nets, gave no practical result, the fishermen being too poor to
buy the nets. It was then that a suggestion was made by Signor Fambri that
an effort should be made to revive the ancient industry of lace-making, and
Princess Chigi-Giovanelli and the Countess Andriana Marcello were asked to
interest themselves in, and to patronise, a school for this purpose.
To this application these ladies yielded a ready assent, and at a late
period Queen Margherita graciously consented to become the president of the
institution.
When Countess Marcello, who from that time was the life and soul of the
undertaking, began to occupy herself with the foundation of the school, she
found an old woman in Burano, Cencia Scarpariola, who preserved the
traditions of the art of lace-making, and continued, despite her seventy
years and upwards, to make Burano point. As she, however, did not
understand the method of teaching her art, the assistance was secured of
Madame Anne Bellorio d'Este, a very skilful and intelligent woman, for some
time mistress of the girls' school at Burano, who in her leisure hours took
lessons in lace-making of Cencia Scarpariola, and imparted her knowledge to
eight pupils, who, in consideration of a small payment, were induced to
learn to make lace.
As the number of scholars increased, Madame Bellorio occupied herself
exclusively in teaching lace-making, which she has continued to do with
surprising results. Under Madame Bellorio's tuition, the school, which in
1872 consisted of eight pupils (who received a daily payment to induce them
to attend), now, in 1897, numbers four hundred workers, paid, not by the
day, but according to the work each performs.
In Burano everything is extremely cheap, and a humble abode capable of
accommodating a small family may be had for from six hundred to one
thousand Italian lire. It is not a rare occurrence to find a young
lace-worker saving her earnings in order to purchase her little dwelling,
that she may take it as a dower to her husband. Nearly all the young men of
Burano seek their wives from among the lace-women. The school's diploma of
honour speaks of the economical importance of the lace-work "to the poor
place of Burano," and "the benefit which the gentle industry {62}brings to
the inhabitants of the interesting island, whose welfare, having passed
through a series of undeserved trials, is due exclusively to the revival of
it practised on a large scale."
The lace made in the school is no longer confined, as in the origin it was,
to Burano point, but laces of almost any design or model are now
undertaken--point de Burano, point d'Alençon, point de Bruxelles, point
d'Angleterre, point d'Argentan, rose point de Venise, Italian punto in
aria, and Italian punto tagliato a fogliami. The school has been enriched
by gifts of antique lace, and Queen Margherita gave the school permission
to copy two magnificent specimens of Ecclesiastical lace--now Crown
property--that had formerly belonged to Cardinal de Retz, and Pope Clement
VII. (Rezzonico).
In order the better to carry out the character of the different laces, the
more apt and intelligent of these pupils, whose task it is to trace out in
thread the design to be worked, have the advantage of being taught by
professional artists.
The four hundred lace-workers now employed are divided into seven sections,
in order that each may continue in the same sort of work and, as much as
possible, in the same class of lace. By this method each one becomes
thoroughly proficient in her own special department, executes it with
greater facility, and consequently earns more, and the school gets its work
done better and cheaper.
While Countess Marcello was working to re-establish the making of
needle-point at Burano, Cav. Michelangelo Jesurum was re-organising the
bobbin-lace industry at Pellestrina, a small fishing-town on the Lido. In
1864 the lace of Pellestrina might have been described as an inextricable
labyrinth of threads with vaguely distinguishable lines and occasional
holes. The lace was so imperfect, and made in such small quantities, that
two women who went about selling it in Venice and the country round
sufficed to dispose of all that was made. The pricked papers were prepared
by an old peasant woman, who made them more and more imperfect at each
repetition, losing gradually all trace of the original design. Cav.
Jesurum, by a careful copying of the old designs, obtained valuable
results, and founded a lace-school and a flourishing industry. About 1875
polychrome lace was introduced in Venice--bobbin-lace worked in colours
with designs of flowers, fruits, leaves, arabesques, and animals, with the
various tints and shading required. The women who make bobbin-lace now in
Venice and in the islands amount to 3,000, but it is difficult to give an
exact estimate of their numbers, as many of them are bone-workers, wives
and daughters of fishermen, who combine the lace-making with their
household duties, with mending of nets, and with field-work.
PLATE XIV.
[Illustration: ITALIAN.--Modern reproduction at Burano of the flounce now
belonging to the Crown of Italy, formerly to Pope Clement XIII., Rezzonico,
1693-1769. Height, 24 in.
Photo by the Burano School.]
_To face page 62._
{63}MILAN ("MILANO LA GRANDE").
"Margaret: I saw the Duchess of Milan's gown that they praise so.
"Hero: O that exceeds, they say.
"Margaret: By my troth, it's but a night-gown in respect of yours; cloth
o' gold and cuts, and laced with silver."--_Much Ado about Nothing_, iv.
1.
One of the earliest records of Italian lace belongs to Milan, and occurs in
an instrument of partition between the sisters Angela and Ippolita Sforza
Visconti, dated 1493 (see VENICE).
This document is of the highest interest as giving the inventory of an
Italian wardrobe of the fifteenth century. In it, amidst a number of
curious entries, are veils of good network, with cambric pillow-cases,
linen sheets, mosquito curtains and various articles, worked _a reticella_
and _a groppi_, with the needle, bobbins, bones, and other different
ways[196] mentioned in the pattern-books of the following century.
Among other items we find, "Half of a bundle containing patterns for
ladies' work."[197]
Though the fabric of these fine points dates back for so many centuries,
there is little notice of them elsewhere. {64}Henry VIII. is mentioned as
wearing one short pair of hose of purple silk of Venice gold, woven like a
caul, edged with a passamaine lace of purple silk and gold, worked at
Milan.[198]
In a wardrobe account of Lord Hay, gentleman of his Majesty's robes,
1606,[199] is noted down to James I., "One suit with cannons thereunto of
silver lace, shadowed with silk Milan lace."
Again, among the articles furnished against the "Queen's lying down," 1606,
in the bills of the Lady Audrye Walsingham,[200] is an entry of "Lace,
Milan fashion, for child's waistcoat."
A French edict, dated March, 1613, against superfluity in dress,
prohibiting the wearing of gold and silver embroidery, specially forbids
the use of all "passement de Milan, ou façon de Milan" under a penalty of
one thousand livres.[201] The expression "à point de Milan" occurs in the
statutes of the passementiers of Paris.[202]
"Les galons, passements et broderies, en or et en argent de Milan," says
Savary,[203] were once celebrated.
Lalande, who writes some years later, adds, the laces formerly were an
object of commerce to the city, now they only fabricate those of an
inferior quality.[204]
Much was consumed by the Lombard peasants, the better sorts serving for
ruffles of moderate price.[205] So opulent are the citizens, says a writer
of the same epoch, that the lowest mechanics, blacksmiths and shoemakers,
appear in gold stuff coats with ruffles of the finest point.[206]
And when, in 1767, the Auvergne lace-makers petition for an exemption from
the export duty on their fabrics, they state as a ground that the duty
prevents them from competing abroad, especially at Cadiz, with the
lace-makers of Piedmont, the Milanais, and Imperial Flanders. Milan must,
therefore, have made lace extensively to a late period.
PLATE XV.
[Illustration: ITALIAN. MILANESE BOBBIN-MADE.--Late seventeenth century.
Width, 12 in.
Photo by A. Dryden from private collection.]
_To face page 64._
{65}Fig. 33 is a specimen of what has been termed old Milan point, from the
convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, in that city. It is more often known
as Greek lace.
[Illustration: Fig. 33.
RETICELLA FROM MILAN.]
The so-called punti di Milano--points de Milan--were all bobbin-laces,
which originated in Milan, and, though imitated by Genoa and Naples,
remained unapproached in design and workmanship. After first making
passements, Milan imitated the Venetian points, "a fogliami," in which the
pattern has the appearance of woven linen, with à jours occasionally
introduced to lighten portions of it. The design was at first connected
with bars, but later, meshes (in the seventeenth century large meshes, and,
still later, smaller {66}meshes) filled the ground. This réseau varies, but
most frequently it has four plaited sides to a mesh, as in Valenciennes.
Like other Italian laces, Milanese lace frequently has coats-of-arms or
family badges woven in it, such as the Doge's horn, the baldachino (a
special distinction accorded to Roman princes), the dogs of the Carrara
family, and so on, to commemorate a marriage or some other important event
in the family. This sort of lace was known as Carnival lace when made of
Venetian point.
Milan lace is now represented by Cantu, near Lake Como, where the making of
white and black pillow-lace gives employment to many thousands of women.
The torchon lace of the country is original, and in much request with the
peasantry.
In the underground chapel of San Carlo Borromeo, in Milan Cathedral, are
preserved twenty-six "camicie," trimmed with flounces of the richest point,
all more or less splendid, and worked in the convents of the city, but many
of the contents of this sumptuous wardrobe have rotted away from the
effects of the damp atmosphere.
FLORENCE.
Of Florence and its products we know but little, though the Elegy of Agnolo
Firenzuola proves that ladies made raised point at an early period.[207]
His expression "scolpì," carved, sculptured in basso rilievo, leaves no
doubt upon the matter.
PLATE XVI.
[Illustration: ITALIAN, VENETIAN. NEEDLE-MADE.--Very raised and padded.
First half of eighteenth century. Width, 3¼ in.]
PLATE XVII.
[Illustration: ITALIAN, MILANESE. BOBBIN-MADE.--Early eighteenth century.
Width, 5¾ in.
Photos by A. Dryden from private collections.]
_To face page 63_
"This collar was sculptured by my lady {67}
In bas reliefs such as Arachne
And she who conquered her could ne'er excel.
Look on that lovely foliage, like an Acanthus,
Which o'er a wall its graceful branches trails.
Look on those lovely flowers of purest white,
Which, near the pods that open, hang in harmony.
That little cord which binds each one about,
How it projects! proving that she who wrought it
Is very mistress of this art.
How well distributed are all these points!
See the equality of all those little buds
Which rise like many fair proportioned hills,
One like the other....
This hand-made lace, this open-work,
Is all produced by her, this herring-bone,
Which in the midst holds down a little cord,
Was also made by her; all wrought by her."
Henry VIII. granted to two Florentines the privilege of importing for three
years' time all "manner of fringys and passements wrought with gold and
silver or otherwise,"[208] an account of which will be found in the notice
of that monarch's reign.
Beyond this, and the statute already mentioned, passed at the "Sute of the
Browderers" on account of the "deceyptful waight of the gold of Luk,
Florence, Jeane, and Venice,"[209] there is no allusion to the lace of
Florence in our English records.
In France, as early as 1545, the sister of Francis I. purchases "soixante
aulnes fine dantelle de Florence"[210] for her own use, and some years
afterwards, 1582, the Queen of Navarre pays 17 écus 30 sols for 10 aulnes
et demye of the same passement "faict à l'esguille à haulte dantelle pour
mettre à des fraizes."[211] On the marriage of Elizabeth de France with
Philip II. in 1559, purchases were made of "passements et de bisette, en
fil blanc de Florence."
Seeing the early date of these French accounts, it may be inferred that
Catherine de Médicis first introduced, on her arrival as a bride, the
Italian points of her own native city.[212]
In Florence, in the fifteenth century, Savonarola, in his sermons
(1484-1491), reproached the nuns with "devoting their time to the vain
fabrication of gold laces with which to adorn the houses and persons of the
rich."
Ray mentions that people of quality sent their daughters {68}at eight years
old to the Florentine nunneries to be instructed in all manner of women's
work.
Lace was also fabricated at Sienna, but it appears to have been the _lavoro
di maglia_ or lacis, called by the Tuscans _modano ricamato_--embroidered
network.
Early in the last century two Genoese nuns, of the Convent Sta. Maria degli
Angeli in Sienna, executed pillow laces and gold and silver embroidery of
such surpassing beauty, that they are still carefully preserved and
publicly exhibited on fête-days. One Francesca Bulgarini also instructed
the schools in the making of lace of every kind, especially the Venetian
reticella.[213]
THE ABRUZZI.
In the Abruzzi, and also the Province of the Marche, coarse laces are made.
These are worked without any drawing, the rude design being made by
skipping the pin-holes on a geometrically perforated card. The pattern is
surrounded by a heavy thread, and composed of a close stitch worked between
the meshes of a coarse net ground. This lace somewhat resembles Dalecarlian
lace. In the eighteenth century fine pillow lace was also made in these
provinces. The celebrated industry of Offida in the Marche has sunk into
artistic degradation.
ROMAGNA.
Lace was made in many parts of Romagna. Besides the knotted lace already
alluded to,[214] which is still made and worn by the peasants, the peasant
women wore on their collerettes much lace of that large-flowered pattern
and fancy ground, found alike in Flanders and on the headdresses of the
Neapolitan and Calabrian peasants.
Specimens of the lace of the province of Urbino resemble in pattern and
texture the fine close lace on the collar of Christian IV., figured in our
notice of Denmark. The workmanship is of great beauty.
Reticella is made at Bologna, and was revived in January, 1900, by the
Aemilia-Ars Co-operative Society. The designs are for the most part taken
from old pattern-books, such as Parasole.
{69}Fig. 34 represents a fragment of a piece of lace of great interest,
communicated by the Countess Gigliucci. It is worked with the needle upon
muslin, and only a few inches of the lace are finished. This incompleteness
makes it the more valuable, as it enables us to trace the manner of its
execution, all the threads being left hanging to its several parts. The
Countess states that she found the work at a villa belonging to Count
Gigliucci, near Fermo on the Adriatic, and it is supposed to have been
executed by the Count's great-grandmother above 160 years ago--an exquisite
specimen of "the needle's excellency."
[Illustration: Fig. 34.
UNFINISHED DRAWN-WORK.]
Though the riches of our Lady of Loreto fill a volume in themselves,[215]
and her image was fresh clad every day of the year, the account of her
jewels and plate so overpower any mention of her laces, which were
doubtless in accordance with {70}the rest of the wardrobe, that there is
nothing to tell on the subject.
The laces of the Vatican and the holy Conclave, mostly presents from
crowned heads, are magnificent beyond all description. They are, however,
constantly in the market, sold at the death of a Cardinal by his heirs, and
often repurchased by some newly-elected prelate, each of whom on attaining
a high ecclesiastical dignity is compelled to furnish himself with several
sets.
A lady[216] describing the ceremony of washing the feet by the Pope,
writes, in 1771, "One of his cardinals brought him an apron[217] of old
point with a broad border of Mechlin lace, and tied it with a white ribbon
round his holiness's waist." In this guise protected, he performed the
ceremony.
Clement IX. was in the habit of making presents of Italian lace, at that
period still prized in France, to Monsieur de Sorbière, with whom he had
lived on terms of intimacy previous to his elevation. "He sends ruffles,"
cries the irritated Gaul, who looked for something more tangible, "to a man
who never has a shirt."[218]
NAPLES.
When Davies, Barber Surgeon of London,[219] visited Naples in 1597, he
writes, "Among the traffic of this city is lace of all sorts and garters."
Fynes Moryson, his contemporary, declares "the Italians care not for
foreign apparel, they have ruffles of Flanders linen wrought with Italian
cut-work so much in use with us. They wear no lace in gold and silver, but
black"; while Lassels says, all they care for is to keep a coach; their
point de Venise and gold lace are all turned into horses and liveries.[220]
PLATE XVIII.
[Illustration: CUSHION MADE AT THE SCHOOL.--These coloured silk laces are
reproductions of the sixteenth century. Size, 20 × 12 in.]
PLATE XIX.
[Illustration: ITALY.--Group of workers of the Brazza School, Torreano di
Martignacco, Friuli, showing the different kinds of lacework done and
pillows in use.
Photos by Contessa di Brazza.]
_To face page 70._
{71}Of this lace we find but scanty mention. In the tailor's bill of Sir
Timothy Hutton, 1615, when a scholar at Cambridge, a charge is made for
"four oz. and a half quarter and dram of Naples lace." And in the accounts
of laces furnished for the marriage of the Princess Elizabeth to the
Elector Palatine, 1612, is noted "narrow black Naples lace, purled on both
sides."
The principal fabric of lace was in the Island of Ischia. Vecellio, in
1590, mentions the ladies' sleeves being trimmed with very fine thread
lace.[221] Ischia lace may still be met with, and serves for trimming
toilets, table-covers, curtains, etc., consisting generally of a square
netting ground, with the pattern embroidered. Black silk lace also used to
be made in Ischia.
Much torchon lace, of well-designed patterns, was also made, similar in
style to that given in Fig. 40.
Though no longer fabricated in the island, the women at Naples still make a
coarse lace, which they sell about the streets.[222]
The _punto di Napoli_ is a bobbin lace, resembling the punto di Milano, but
distinguished from it by its much rounder mesh and coarser make.
Towards the middle of the last century, many of the Italian sculptors
adopted an atrocious system, only to be rivalled in bad taste by those of
the Lower Empire, that of dressing the individuals they modelled in the
costume of the period, the colours of the dress represented in varied
marbles. In the villa of Prince Valguarnera, near Palermo, were some years
since many of these strange productions with rich laces of coffee-coloured
point, admirably chiselled, it must be owned, in giallo antico, the long
flowing ruffles and head-*tires of the ladies being reproduced in white
alabaster.[223]
{72}GENOA ("GENOVA LA SUPERBA").
"Lost,--A rich needle work called Poynt Jean, a yard and a half long and
half quarter broad."--_The Intelligencer_, Feb. 29, 1663.
"Genoa, for points."--_Grand Tour._ 1756.
The art of making gold thread, already known to the Etruscans, took a
singular development in Italy during the fourteenth century.
Genoa[224] first imitated the gold threads of Cyprus. Lucca followed in her
wake, while Venice and Milan appear much later in the field. Gold of Jeane
formed, as already mentioned, an item in our early statutes. The merchants
mingled the pure gold with Spanish "laton," producing a sort of "faux
galon," such as is used for theatrical purposes in the present day. They
made also silver and gold lace out of drawn wire, after the fashion of
those discovered, not long since, at Herculaneum.
When Skippin visited Turin, in 1651, he described the manner of preparing
the metal wire. The art maintained itself latest at Milan, but died out
towards the end of the seventeenth century.
Our earliest mention of Genoa lace is,[225] as usual, to be found in the
Great Wardrobe Accounts of Queen Elizabeth, where laces of Jeane of black
"serico satten," of colours,[226] and billement lace of Jeane silk, are
noted down. They were, however, all of silk.
It is not till after a lapse of nigh seventy years that first Point de
Gênes appears mentioned in an ordinance,[227] and in the wardrobe of Mary
de Médicis is enumerated, among other articles, a "mouchoir de point de
Gennes frisé."[228]
{73}Moryson, who visited the Republic in 1589, declares "the Genoese wear
no lace or gardes."
As late as 1597, writes Vulson de la Colombière,[229] "ni les points de
Gennes, ni de Flandre n'etoient en usage."
It was not before the middle of the seventeenth century that the points of
Genoa were in general use throughout Europe. Handkerchiefs, aprons,
collars,[230] seem rather to have found favour with the public than lace
made by the yard.
No better customer was found for these luxurious articles of adornment than
the fair Madame de Puissieux, already cited for her singular taste in
cut-work.
"Elle étoit magnifique et ruina elle et ses enfans. On portoit en ce
temps-la," writes St. Simon; "force points de Gênes qui étoient extrêmement
chers; c'étoit la grande parure--et la parure de tout age: elle en mangea
pour 100,000 ecus (£20,000) en une année, à ronger entre ses dents celle
qu'elle avoit autour de sa tête et de ses bras."[231]
"The Genoese utter a world of points of needlework," writes Lassels, at the
end of the century, and throughout the eighteenth we hear constantly of the
gold, silver and thread lace, as well as of the points of Genoa, being held
in high estimation.
Gold and silver lace was prohibited to be worn within the walls of the
city, but they wear, writes Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, exceeding fine lace
and linen.[232] Indeed, by the sumptuary laws of the Republic, the richest
costume allowed to the ladies was black velvet trimmed with their home-made
point.
The _femmes bourgeoises_ still edge their aprons with point lace, and some
of the elder women wear square linen veils trimmed with coarse lace.[233]
{74}"That decayed city, Genoa, makes much lace, but inferior to that of
Flanders," states Anderson in his _Origin of Commerce_, 1764.
The Genoese wisely encouraged their own native manufacture, but it was now,
however, chiefly for home consumption.
Savary, speaking of the Genoa fabric, says: As regards France, these points
have had the same lot as those of Venice--ruined by the act of prohibition.
In 1840, there were only six lace-sellers in the city of Genoa. The women
work in their own houses, receiving materials and patterns from the
merchant who pays for their labour.[234]
Lace, in Genoa, is called _pizzo_. _Punti in aco_ were not made in this
city. The points of Genoa, so prized in the seventeenth century, were all
the work of the pillow, _a piombini_,[235] or _a mazzetta_, as the Italians
term it, of fine handspun thread brought from Lombardy. Silk was procured
from Naples. Of this Lombardy thread were the magnificent collars of which
we give an example (Fig. 35), and the fine guipures _à réseau_ which were
fashioned into aprons and fichus. The old Genoa point still finds favour in
the eyes of the clergy, and on fête days, either at Genoa or Savona, may be
seen splendid lace decorating the _camicie_ of the ecclesiastics.
The Ligurian or Genoese guipures have four entirely distinctive characters.
The Hispano-Moresque (or Greek) point de Gênes frisé, the Vermicelli from
Rapallo and Santa Margherita, a lace resembling Milanese lace with
"brides," and a fourth kind, entirely different from these varieties,
called _fugio_ (I fly), as it is very soft and airy. It is an adaptation of
guipure-like ribbons of weaving, with open-work variations, held together
by a very few bars. In all these laces, as in Neapolitan and Milanese lace,
a crochet needle is used to join the bars and design by drawing one thread
through a pin-hole in the lace and passing a free bobbin through the loop
to draw the knot tight.
[Illustration: Fig. 35.
GENOA POINT, BOBBIN-MADE. From a collar in the possession of the Author.
This is an elaborate specimen of Point de Gênes frisé--Italian merletti a
piombini. The plaits almost invariably consist of four threads.
_To face page 74._]
{75}The lace manufacture extends along the coast from Albissola, on the
Western Riviera, to Santa Margherita on the eastern. Santa Margherita and
Rapallo are called by Luxada[236] the emporium of the lace industry of
Genoa, and are still the greatest producers of pillow-lace on the coast.
The workers are mostly the wives and daughters of the coral-fishers who
support themselves by this occupation during the long and perilous voyages
of their husbands. In the archives of the parochial church of Santa
Margherita is preserved a book of accounts, in which mention is made, in
the year 1592, of gifts to the church, old nets from the coral fishery,
together with _pisetti_ (_pizzi_), the one a votive offering of some
successful fishermen, the other the work of their wives or daughters, given
in gratitude for the safe return of their relatives. There was also found
an old worn parchment pattern for a kind of tape guipure (Fig. 36).[237]
The manufacture, therefore, has existed in the province of Chiavari for
many centuries. Much of this description of lace is assigned to Genoa. In
these tape guipures the tape or braid was first made, and the ground worked
in on the parchment either by the needle or on the pillow. The laces
consist of white thread of various qualities, either for wear, church
decoration, or for exportation to America.
Later, this art gave place to the making of black blonde, in imitation of
Chantilly, of which the centres in Italy are now Genoa and Cantu. In the
year 1850 the lace-workers began to make guipures for France, and these now
form their chief produce. The exportation is very great, and lace-making is
the daily occupation, not only of the women, but of the ladies of the
commune.[238] In 1862 Santa Margherita had 2,210 lace-workers: Rapallo,
1,494. The _maestri_, or overseers, receive all orders from the trade, and
find hands to execute them. The silk and thread required for the lace is
weighed out and given to the lace-makers, and the work when completed is
re-weighed to see that it corresponds with that of the material given. The
_maestri_ contrive to realise large fortunes, and become in time _signori_;
not so the poor lace-makers, whose hardest day's gain seldom exceeds a
franc and a half.[239] Embroidered lace is also made at Genoa. On a band of
tulle are embroidered in darning-stitch flowers or small detached springs,
and the ground is sometimes _semé_ with little embroidered dots. A coarse
thread outlines the embroidery.
{76}[Illustration: Fig. 36.
LACE PATTERN FOUND IN THE CHURCH AT SANTA MARGHERITA (circ. 1592).]
PLATE XX.
[Illustration: ITALIAN. BOBBIN TAPE WITH NEEDLE-MADE RÉSEAU. Width, 8 in.
Photo by A. Dryden.]
PLATE XXI.
[Illustration: ITALIAN, GENOESE. SCALLOPED BORDER OF UNBLEACHED THREADS,
TWISTED AND PLAITED.--Sixteenth or seventeenth century. Width, 5 in.
Victoria and Albert Museum.]
_To face page 76._
{77}[Illustration: Fig. 37.
PARCHMENT PATTERN USED TO COVER A BOOK, BEARING THE DATE 1577. (Reduced.)]
The laces of Albissola,[240] near Savona, of black and white thread, or
silk of different colours, were once an article of considerable exportation
to the principal cities of Spain, Cadiz, Madrid and Seville. This industry
was of early date. In many of the parochial churches of Albissola are
specimens of the native fabric dating from 1600, the work of devout ladies;
and parchment patterns drawn and pricked for pillow-lace, bearing the
earlier date of 1577, have been found covering old law books, the property
of a notary of Albissola. The designs (Fig. 37) are flowing, but poor, and
have probably served for some shawl or apron, for it was a custom long
handed down for the daughters of great nobles, previous {78}to their
marriage, to select veils and shawls of this fabric, and, in the memory of
an aged workwoman (1864), the last of these bridal veils was made for a
lady of the Gentili family. Princes and lords of different provinces in
Italy sent commissions to Albissola for these articles in the palmy days of
the fabric, and four women would be employed at one pillow, with sixty
dozen bobbins at a time.[241] The making of this lace formed an occupation
by which women in moderate circumstances were willing to increase their
incomes. Each of these ladies, called a _maestra_, had a number of workers
under her, either at home or out. She supplied the patterns, pricked them
herself, and paid her workwomen at the end of the week, each day's work
being notched on a tally.[242] The women would earn from ten soldi to two
lire a day. The last fine laces made at Albissola were bought up by the
lace-merchants of Milan on the occasion of the coronation of Napoleon I. in
that city.[243]
Among the Alençon laces is illustrated a beautiful lappet sent from Genoa,
now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.[244] The pattern is of the Louis
Quinze period, and the lovely diapered ground recalls the mayflower of the
Dresden and the oeil-de-perdrix of the Sèvres china of that time. It was
supposed to be of Italian workmanship, though the very fine ground
introduced in the _modes_ of the riband pattern is the true Alençon réseau
stitch. M. Dupont Auberville claimed it for Alençon, asserting he had met
with the same ground on point undoubtedly of that manufacture. He named it
_réseau rosacé_.
A considerable quantity of lace was formerly made from {79}the fibre of the
aloe (filo d'erba spada)[245] by the peasants of Albissola, either of its
natural cream colour or dyed black. This lace, however, like that
fabricated in the neighbourhood of Barcelona, would not stand washing.[246]
There exists a beautiful and ingenious work taught in the schools and
convents along the Riviera. It is carried to a great perfection at Chiavari
and also at the Albergo de' Poveri at Genoa. You see it in every stage. It
is almost the first employment of the fingers which the poor children of
either sex learn. This art is principally applied to the ornamenting of
towels, termed Macramé,[247] a long fringe of thread being left at each end
for the purpose of being knotted together in geometrical designs (Fig. 38).
Macramé at the Albergo de' Poveri were formerly made with a plain plaited
fringe, till in 1843, the Baroness A. d' Asti brought one from Rome, richly
ornamented, which she left as a pattern. Marie Picchetti, a young girl, had
the patience to unpick the fringe and discover the way it was made. A
variety of designs are now executed, the more experienced inventing fresh
patterns as they work. Some are applied to church purposes. Specimens of
elaborate workmanship were in the Paris Exhibition of 1867. These
richly-trimmed macramé form an item in the wedding trousseau of a Genoese
lady, while the commoner sorts find a ready sale in the country, and are
also exported to South America and California.[248]
{80}CANTU.
Cantu, a small town near Lake Como, is one of the greatest lace-producing
centres in Italy. The lace industry was planted there in the sixteenth
century by the nuns of the Benedictine order, and until fifty years ago was
confined to simple and rude designs. During the latter half of the
nineteenth century, however, the industry has been revived and the designs
improved. Thousands of women throughout the province work at it and dispose
of their lace independently to travelling merchants, or work under the
direction of the Cantuese lace-merchants. The laces are all made with
bobbins with both thread and silk.
[Illustration: Fig. 38.
FRINGED MACRAMÉ.--(Genoa.)]
SICILY.
Sicily was celebrated in olden times for its gold and metal laces, but this
fabric has nearly died out. An attempt, however, is now being made to
organise a revival of the lace industry as a means of support for the women
of Palermo and other populous centres.
PLATE XXII.
[Illustration: ]
PLATE XXIII.
[Illustration: ITALIAN. OLD PEASANT LACES, BOBBIN MADE.--Actual size.]
PLATE XXIV.
[Illustration: ITALIAN. MODERN PEASANT BOBBIN LACE.--Made at the School at
Asolo near Bassano, founded by Browning. Width about 4 in.
Photo by A. Dryden.]
_To face page 80._
{81}At Messina, embroidered net (lacis) was made, and bobbin-laces and the
antique Sicilian drawn-work are now copied in the women's prison there.
Torchon, a lace which is also made in Sicily, has no design worked upon the
parchment. The peasant follows the dictates of her fancy, and forms
combinations of webs and nets by skipping the holes pricked at regular
intervals over the strip of parchment sewed upon the cushion or
_ballon_.[249]
There are other variations of old Italian laces and embroideries which have
not been mentioned here on account of space; either they are not often met
with--certainly not outside Italy--or in some cases they appear to be only
local names for the well-known sorts.
{82}CHAPTER V.
GREECE.
"Encor pour vous poincts de Raguse
Il est bon, crainte d'attentat,
D'en vouloir purger un Estat;
Les gens aussi fins que vous estes
Ne sont bons que comme vous faites
Pour ruiner les Estats."--_La Révolte des Passemens._
We have already spoken of Greece as the cradle of embroidery, and in those
islands which escaped the domination of the Turks, the art still lingered
on. Cyprus, to which in after times Venice gave a queen, was renowned for
its gold, its stuffs, and its needlework. As early as 1393, in an inventory
of the Dukes of Burgundy, we find noted "un petit pourpoint de satin noir,
et est la gorgerette de maille d'argent de Chippre"--a collar of silver
network.[250] The peasants now make a coarse thread lace, and some fine
specimens have recently been made in white silk, which were exhibited in
the Cyprus Court of the Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886, and are now
in the possession of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
In our own country, in 1423, we have a statute touching the deceitful works
of the embroiderers of gold and of silver of Cipre, which shall be
forfeited to the king.[251] But the secret of these cunning works became,
after a time, known throughout Europe. Of cut-works or laces from
Cyprus[252] and the islands of the Grecian seas, there is no mention; but
we hear much of a certain point known to the commerce of the seventeenth
century as that of Ragusa, which, after an ephemeral existence, disappears
from the scene. Of Ragusa, {83}says Anderson, "her citizens, though a
Popish state, are manufacturers to a man."
Ragusa, comparatively near the Montenegrin sea-board, and north-western
coast of Greece, was, in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, one
of the principal Adriatic ports belonging to the Venetian Republic. Certain
it is that this little republic, closely allied with the Italian branches
of the House of Austria, served them with its navy, and in return received
from them protection. The commerce of Ragusa consisted in bearing the
products of the Greek islands and Turkey to Venice, Ancona, and the kingdom
of Naples;[253] hence it might be inferred that the fine productions of the
Greek convents were first introduced into Italy by the merchants of
Dalmatia, and received on that account the denomination of points de
Raguse. When Venice had herself learned the art, these cut-works and laces
were no longer in demand; but the fabric still continued, and found favour
in its native isles, chiefly for ecclesiastical purposes, the dress of the
islanders, and for grave-clothes.
In our English statutes we have no allusion to the point de Raguse; in
those of France[254] it appears twice. "Tallemant des Réaux"[255] and the
"Révolte des Passemens"[256] both give it honourable notice. Judging from
the lines addressed to it in the last-named _jeu d'esprit_, point de Raguse
was of a more costly character, "faite pour ruiner les estats,"[257] than
any of those other points present. If, however, from this period it did
still form an article of commerce, we may infer that it appeared under the
general appellation of point de Venise. Ragusa had affronted Louis Quatorze
by its attachment to the Austro-Italian princes; he kicked out her
ambassadors,[258] and if the name of the point was unpleasant, we may feel
assured it was no longer permitted to offend the royal ears.
{84}[Illustration: Fig. 39.
SILK GIMP LACE.]
Though no manufacture of thread lace is known at Ragusa, yet much gold and
silver lace is made for ornamenting the bodices of the peasants. They still
also fabricate a kind of silk lace or gimp, made of twisted threads of
cotton covered with metal, which is sewn down the seams of the coats and
the bodices of the peasantry. The specimen, illustrated in Fig. 39, may
possibly be the old, long-lost point de Raguse. Its resemblance, with its
looped edges, to the pattern given from _Le Pompe_,[259] published at
Venice in 1557, is very remarkable. We have seen specimens from Italy and
Turkey.
PLATE XXV.
[Illustration: SICILIAN. OLD DRAWN-WORK.--Height, 12 in.
Photo by A. Dryden from Salviati & Co.'s Collection.]
PLATE XXVI.
[Illustration: SOUTH ITALIAN.--The upper one is seventeenth century Church
lace--réseau of threads twisted into star-shaped meshes. The three lower
are considered eighteenth century CRETAN. All pillow made of thread and
silk. Widths: 2, 2½, 1¾, 3¾ in.
Victoria and Albert Museum.]
_To face page 84._
{85}The conventionally termed Greek lace is really the Italian _reticella_.
"The designs of the earliest Greek laces were all geometrical, the oldest
being simple outlines worked over ends or threads left after others had
been drawn or cut. Next in date come the patterns which had the outlines
further ornamented with half circles, triangles, or wheels. Later,
open-work with thick stitches was produced."
[Illustration: Fig. 40.
RETICELLA, OR GREEK LACE.--(Zante.)]
The principal seats of the manufacture were the Ionian Isles, Zante, Corfu,
Venice, Naples, Rome, Florence and Milan. The Ionian Islands for many years
belonged to Venice, which accounts for the similarity in the manufacture.
Fig. 40 is from a specimen purchased in the Island of Zante. This lace was
much in vogue in Naples for curtains, bed-hangings, and coverlets, and even
formed a substitute for {86}tapestry. A room hung with bands of Greek lace,
alternated with crimson or amber silk, has a most effective appearance.
The church lace of the Ionian Isles was not appreciated by the natives, who
were only too glad to dispose of it to the English officers in garrison at
Corfu. "Much is still found in Cephalonia: the natives bring it on board
the steamers for sale, black with age, and unpleasant to the senses. This
is not to be wondered at when we consider that it is taken from the tombs,
where for centuries it has adorned the grave-clothes of some defunct
Ionian. This hunting the catacombs has now become a regular trade. It is
said that much coarse lace of the same kind is still made in the islands,
steeped either in coffee or some drug, and, when thus discoloured, sold as
from the tombs" (1869).
The Greek islands now fabricate lace from the fibre of the aloe, and a
black lace similar to the Maltese. In Athens, and other parts of Greece
proper, a white silk lace is made, mostly consumed by the Jewish Church.
CRETE.
Pillow-lace making in Crete would seem to have arisen in consequence of
Venetian intercourse with the island. "The Cretan laces[260] were chiefly
of silk, which seems to point to a cultivation of silk in the island, as
well as to its importation from the neighbouring districts of Asia Minor,
when laces were made there, at least one hundred years ago." In 1875, the
South Kensington Museum acquired a collection of Cretan laces and
embroideries, some of which (the white thread laces) bear distinct traces
of Venetian influence, as, for example, those in which costumed figures are
introduced. "As a rule, the motives of Cretan lace patterns are traceable
to orderly arrangement and balance of simple geometric and symmetrical
details, such as diamonds, triangles and quaint polygonal figures, which
are displayed upon groundworks of small meshes. The workmanship is somewhat
remarkable, especially that displayed in the making of the meshes for the
grounds. Here we have an evidence of ability to twist and {87}plait threads
as marked, almost as that shown by the lace-makers of Brussels and Mechlin.
Whether the twisting and plaiting of threads to form the meshes in this
Cretan lace was done with the help of pins or fine-pointed bones, may be a
question difficult to solve."
The patterns in the majority of the specimens are outlined with one, two,
or three bright-coloured silken threads, which may have been worked in with
the other threads as the _cordonnet_ in Mechlin. The numerous
interlacements which this _cordonnet_ makes with the lace point also to the
outline having perhaps been run in with a needle.
TURKEY.
"The Turks wear no lace or cut stuff," writes Moryson (1589), winding up
with "neither do the women wear lace or cut-work on their shirts"; but a
hundred and fifty years later fashions are changed in the East. The Grand
Turk now issues sumptuary laws against the wearing gold lace "on clothes
and elsewhere."[261]
A fine white silk guipure is now made in modern Turkey at Smyrna and
Rhodes, oriental in its style; this lace is formed with the needle or
tambour hook. Lace or passementerie of similar workmanship, called "oyah"
is also executed in colours representing flowers, fruits and foliage,
standing out in high relief from the ground. Numerous specimens were in the
International Exhibition of 1867.
The point lace manufactured in the harems is little known and costly in
price. It is said to be the only silk guipure made with the needle. Edgings
of it resemble in workmanship Figs. 121 and 122.
MALTA.
The lace once made in Malta, indigenous to the island, was a coarse kind of
Mechlin or Valenciennes of one arabesque pattern.[262] In 1833, Lady
Hamilton Chichester {88}induced a woman named Ciglia to copy in white the
lace of an old Greek coverlet. The Ciglia family from that time commenced
the manufacture of the black and white silk guipures, so generally known
under the name of Maltese lace. Much Maltese is made in the orphanage in
the little adjacent island of Gozo. Malta has certainly the first claim to
the invention of these fine guipures, which have since made the fortune of
Auvergne, where they have been extensively manufactured at Le Puy, as well
as by our own lace-makers of Bedfordshire and in the Irish schools. The
black is made of Barcelona silk, the same used in Catalonia for the
fabrication of the black blonde mantillas of the Spanish ladies. Fig. 41
represents the lace round the ecclesiastical robe of Hugues Loubeux de
Verdale, Cardinal and Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, who died in
1595, and is buried in the church of St. John, where a magnificent tomb is
erected to his memory.
[Illustration: Fig. 41.
LOUBEUX DE VERDALE.--(From the cast of his Tomb, Musée de Versailles.)]
Pillow-laces made by women in Ceylon and Travancore, as well as elsewhere
in India,[263] seem to owe more to the instruction of the Portuguese than
to the Dutch or English. We mention it in this place because the specimens
of thread pillow-lace from Point de Galle and Candy bear a striking
resemblance to the Maltese.
PLATE XXVII.
[Illustration: ITALIAN, RAPALLO. MODERN PEASANT LACE, BOBBIN MADE, IN
SILK.--Actual size.]
PLATE XXVIII.
[Illustration: MALTESE. MODERN, BOBBIN MADE IN SILK.--About two-thirds
actual size.
Photos by A. Dryden.]
_To face page 88._
{89}[Illustration: Fig. 42.
BOBBIN-LACE.--(Ceylon.)]
The specimens of Indian pillow-laces, wrought with white and black threads,
in the India Museum, are apparently made in single pieces, and not as in
Honiton laces, by separate flowers, which are subsequently placed together
for the ground to be worked in between them.[264] "A missionary taught a
few Chinese women to make silk lace from the wild silk of this part of
China," reports Consul Bullock from Chefoo (at the request of the
Nottingham Chamber of Commerce), but the small quantity of lace so produced
is sold to Europeans only. The Chinese do not care to buy it. Acting Consul
Trotman also reported from Hangkow, that a large quantity of hand-made lace
is made in the Roman Catholic orphanages there, but this was entirely for
European consumption. White lace in China is not woven by the natives, for
white and blue being the national mourning colours, and severe simplicity
of dress being _de rigueur_ on these occasions, lace of these colours has
no sale.[265]
{90}CHAPTER VI.
SPAIN.
"Of Point d'Espagne a rich cornet,
Two night rails and a scarf beset,
With a large lace and collaret."
--Evelyn, _Voyage to Marryland_.
"Hat laced with gold Point d'Espagne."[266]
--Wardrobe of a Pretty Fellow, _Roderick Random_.
"The Count: 'Voglio una punta di Spagna, larga, massiccia, ben lavorata.
Del disegno, della ricchezza, ma niente di luccicante."--Goldoni,
_L'Avaro fastoso_.
Spanish point, in its day, has been as celebrated as that of Flanders and
Italy. Tradition declares Spain to have learned the art from Italy, whence
she communicated it to Flanders, who, in return, taught Spain how to make
pillow-lace. Though the dress of the Court, guided not by the impulse of
fashion, but by sumptuary laws, gave little encouragement to the fabric, on
the other hand, the numberless images of our Lady and other patron saints,
dressed and redressed daily in the richest vestments, together with the
albs of the priests and the decorations of the altars, caused an immense
consumption of lace for ecclesiastical purposes. "Of so great value," says
Beckford, "were the laces of these favoured Madonnas, that in 1787 the
Marchioness of Cogalhudo, wife of the eldest son of the semi-royal race of
Medino Coeli, was appointed Mistress of the Robes to our Lady of La
Solidad, at Madrid, a much-coveted office."
{91}[Illustration: Fig. 43.
THE WORK-ROOM.--(From an engraving of the Sixteenth Century after
Stradan.)]
Point d'Espagne, in the usual sense of the word, signifies that gold or
silver lace, sometimes embroidered in colours, so largely consumed in
France during the earlier years of Louis XIV.'s reign. Ornaments made of
plaited and twisted gold and silver threads were produced in Spain during
the seventeenth century, and mention of them is to be found in the
ordinances of that time. Towards the end of the century, Narciso Felin,
author of a work published in Barcelona, quoted by M. Aubry, writes that,
"edgings of all sorts of gold, silver, silk thread and aloe fibres are made
at Barcelona with greater perfection than in Flanders." In the sixteenth
century, Flanders was part of the Spanish dominions, and from Flanders
Spain imported artistic goods, linen and lace included. Mr. A. S. Cole
concludes from this that the Barcelona lace-making was more or less an
imitation of that which had previously existed in Spanish Flanders.
{92}Apart from this, the gold and silver lace of Cyprus, Venice, Lucca and
Genoa preceded that from Flanders, and it appears that Spain was later in
the field of artistic lace-making than either Italy, Flanders or France.
Even the celebrity of the gold point d'Espagne is probably due more to the
use of gold lace by Spanish grandees,[267] than to the production in Spain
of gold lace. The name point d'Espagne was, I think, a commercial one,
given to gold lace by French makers.[268]
Dominique de Sera, in his _Livre de Lingerie_, published in 1584,
especially mentions that many of the patterns of point couppé and passement
given were collected by him during his travels in Spain; and in this he is
probably correct, for as early as 1562, in the Great Wardrobe Account of
Queen Elizabeth, we have noted down sixteen yards of black Spanish _laquei_
(lace) for ruffs, price 5s.
The early pattern-books contain designs to be worked in gold and
silver,[269] a manufacture said to have been carried on chiefly by the
Jews,[270] as indeed it is in many parts of Europe at the present time; an
idea which strengthens on finding that two years after the expulsion of
that persecuted tribe from the country, in 1492, the most Catholic kings
found it necessary to pass a law prohibiting the importation of gold lace
from Lucca and Florence, except such as was necessary for ecclesiastical
purposes. Mrs. Palliser was of opinion that thread lace was manufactured in
Spain at this epoch, for, "in the cathedral of Granada is preserved a lace
alb presented to the church by Ferdinand and Isabella, one of the few
relics of ecclesiastical grandeur still extant in the country." The late
Cardinal Wiseman stated to Mrs. Palliser that he had himself officiated in
this vestment, which was valued at 10,000 {93}crowns. But the following
passage from Señor Riano greatly affects the value of what would otherwise
be a fact of importance adduced by Mrs. Palliser. "Notwithstanding the
opinion of so competent an authority as Mrs. Palliser, I doubt the
statement, finding no evidence to support it, that thread lace of a very
fine or artistic kind was ever made in Spain, or exported as an article of
commerce during early times. The lace alb which Mrs. Palliser mentions to
prove this as existing at Granada, a gift of Ferdinand and Isabella in the
fifteenth century, is Flemish lace of the seventeenth."[271]
The sumptuous "Spanish point," the white thread heavy arabesque lace, was
an Italian production originally. It was imported for the Spanish churches
and then imitated in the convents by the nuns, but was little known to the
commercial world of Europe until the dissolution of the Spanish
monasteries[272] in 1830, when the most splendid specimens of nun's work
came suddenly into the market; not only the heavy lace generally designated
as "Spanish point," but pieces of the very finest description (like point
de Venise), so exquisite as to have been the work only of those whose "time
was not money," and whose devotion to the Church and to their favourite
saints rendered this work a labour of love, when in plying their needles
they called to mind its destination. Among the illustrations are some
photographs received from Rome of some curious relics of old Spanish
conventual work, parchment patterns with the lace in progress. They were
found in the Convent of Jesù Bambino, and belonged to some Spanish nuns
who, in bygone ages, taught the art to the novices. None of the present
inmates can give further information respecting them. The work, like all
point, was executed in separate pieces given out to the different nuns and
then joined together by a more skilful hand. In Fig. 44 we see the pattern
traced out by two threads fixed in their places by small stitches made at
intervals by a needle and aloe[273] thread working from underneath. The
réseau ground is alone worked in. We see the thread left as by Sister
Felice Vittoria when she last plied her task.
{94}Fig. 45 has the pearled ground, the pattern traced as in the other.
Loops of a coarser thread are placed at the corners, either to fasten the
parchment to a light frame, like a schoolboy's slate, or to attach it to a
cushion. In Fig. 46 the pattern is just worked.
[Illustration: Fig. 44.
UNFINISHED WORK OF A SPANISH NUN.]
PLATE XXIX.
[Illustration: SPANISH. MODERN THREAD BOBBIN LACE MADE AT
ALMAGRO.--Slightly reduced.]
PLATE XXX.
[Illustration: SPANISH, BLONDE. WHITE SILK DARNING ON MACHINE
NET.--Nineteenth century. Much reduced.
Photos by A. Dryden from private collections.]
_To face page 94._
{95}A possible reference to lace is found in Father Fr. Marcos Antonio de
Campos,[274] in his book, _Microscosmia y gobierno Universal del Hombre
Crestiano_, when he writes, "I will not be silent, and fail to mention the
time lost these last years in the manufacture of _cadenetas_, a work of
thread combined with gold and silver; this extravagance and excess reached
such a point that hundreds and thousands of ducats were spent in this work,
in which, besides destroying the eyesight, wasting away the lives, and
rendering consumptive the women who worked it, and preventing them from
spending their time with more advantage to their souls, a few ounces of
thread and years of time were wasted with so unsatisfactory a result. I ask
myself, after the fancy has passed away, will the lady or gentleman find
that the chemises that cost them fifty ducats, or the _basquina_
(petticoats) that cost them three hundred, are worth half their price?"
[Illustration: Fig. 45.
UNFINISHED WORK OF A SPANISH NUN.]
"The most important of Spanish ordinances[275] relating to Spanish art and
industry are those which appeared in the {96}fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries in Toleda and Seville, both remarkable centres for all kinds of
artistic productions. In neither of these, nor in the sixteenth and
seventeenth century ordinances relating to Granada--another art-centre--is
there any mention of lace.
[Illustration: Fig. 46.
UNFINISHED WORK OF A SPANISH NUN.]
"In the laws which were passed by Ferdinand and Isabella at the end of the
fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries, no mention is made of
lace, though numerous {97}details of costumes are named. It will be seen
from these remarks on Spanish lace that we give to Italy the credit of
producing the artistic and valuable point lace, which unexpectedly came out
of Spain after the dissolution of the monasteries."
The ordinance of Philip III, against the wearing of lace, dated 1623, which
enjoined "simples rabats, sans aucune invention de point couppé ou
passement" for the men, with fraises and manchettes in like trim for the
ladies, both too without starch,[276] and which extended to gold and silver
lace, was suspended during the matrimonial visit of Prince Charles;[277]
indeed, the Queen of Spain herself sent him, on his arrival at Madrid, ten
trunks of richly-laced linen. The Prince had travelled incognito, and was
supposed to be ill-provided. Whether the surmises of her Majesty were
correct, we cannot presume to affirm; we only know that, on the occasion of
the Spanish voyage, a charge of two dozen and a half laced shirts, at
twelve shillings each, for the Prince's eight footmen, appears in the
wardrobe accounts.[278]
The best account of Spanish manners of the seventeenth century will be
found in the already-mentioned _Letters of a Lady's Travels in Spain_.
"Under the vertingale of black taffety," she writes, "they wear a dozen or
more petticoats, one finer than the other, of rich stuffs trimmed with lace
of gold and silver, to the girdle. They wear at all times a white garment
called _sabenqua_; it is made of the finest English lace, and four ells in
compass. I have seen some worth five or six hundred crowns;... so great is
their vanity, they would rather have one of these lace _sabenquas_ than a
dozen coarse ones;[279] and either lie in bed till it is washed, or dress
themselves without any, which they frequently enough do." A number of
portraits exist in the Spanish galleries, {98}especially by Velasquez and
Carrêno, in which these extravagant costumes are fully portrayed, but in
very few Spanish portraits of the seventeenth century does thread lace of
the kind known to us as point d'Espagne, or de Venise ever appear.
Describing her visit to the Princess of Monteleon, the author continues:
"Her bed is of gold and green damask, lined with silver brocade, and
trimmed with point de Spain.[280] Her sheets were laced round with an
English lace, half an ell deep. The young Princess bade her maids bring in
her wedding clothes. They brought in thirty silver baskets, so heavy, four
women could carry only one basket; the linen and lace were not inferior to
the rest." The writer continues to enumerate the garters, mantle, and even
the curtains of the Princess's carriage, as trimmed with fine English
thread, black and bone lace.[281]
Judging from this account, Spain at that period received her "dentelles
d'Angleterre" from the Low Countries. Spain was early celebrated for its
silk,[282] which with its coloured embroidered laces, and its gold and
silver points, have always enjoyed a certain reputation. Of the latter,
during the seventeenth century, we have constant mention in the wardrobe
accounts and books of fashion of the French court. The description of the
celebrated gold bed at Versailles, the interior lacings of the carriages,
the velvet and brocade coats and dresses, "chamarrés de point d'Espagne,"
the laces of gold and coloured silk, would alone fill a volume to
themselves.[283] {99}Narciso Felin, writing in the seventeenth
century,[284] says that at that time "edgings of all sorts of gold,[285]
silver, silk, thread, and aloe, are made there with greater perfection than
in Flanders." Campany, another old author, carries the number of
lace-makers to 12,000. The Spaniards are said, nevertheless, in 1634, to
have derived a great part of their laces from the Île de France, while the
French, on their part, preferred those of Flanders.[286] That the lace
import was considered excessive is evident by the tariff of 1667; the
import duty of twenty-five reals per pound on lace was augmented to two
hundred and fifty reals. Much point was introduced into Spain at this time
by way of Antwerp to Cadiz, under the name of "puntos de mosquito e de
transillas."
Madame des Ursins, 1707, in a letter to Madame de Maintenon, ordering the
layette of the Queen of Spain from Paris, writes: "If I were not afraid of
offending those concerned in the purchase, in my avarice for the King of
Spain's money, I would beg them to send a low-priced lace for the linen."
{100}This gold point d'Espagne was much fabricated for home consumption.
The oldest banner of the Inquisition--that of Valladolid--is described as
bordered with real point d'Espagne, of a curious Gothic (geometric) design.
At the Auto-da-fè, the grandees of Spain and officers of the Holy Office
marched attired in cloaks, with black and white crosses, edged with this
gold lace. Silver point d'Espagne was also worn on the uniform of the
Maestranza, a body of nobility formed into an order of chivalry at Seville,
Ronda, Valencia and Granada. Even the saints were rigged out, especially
St. Anthony, at Valencia, whose laced costume, periwig and ruffles are
described as "glorious."
[Illustration: Fig. 47.
OLD SPANISH PILLOW-LACE.]
Point d'Espagne was likewise made in France, introduced by one Simon
Châtelain, a Huguenot, about 1596, in return for which good services he
received more protection than his advanced opinions warranted. Colbert,
becoming minister in 1662, guaranteed to Simon his safety--a boon already
refused to many by the intolerant spirit of the times. He died in 1675,
having amassed a large fortune.[287] That the fabric prospered, the
following entry in the wardrobe accounts of the Duke de Penthièvre, 1732,
gives proof:[288] "Un bord de Point d'Espagne d'or de Paris, à fonds de
réseau." "France," writes Anderson, "exports much lace into Spain."
PLATE XXXI.
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF THE DUCHESSE DE MONTPENSIER, INFANTA OF SPAIN,
SHOWING MANTILLA.
Middle of nineteenth century. M. de Versailles.]
_To face page 100._
{101}"The sumptuary law of 1723 has taken away," writes the author of two
thick books on Spanish commerce, "all pretence for importing all sorts of
point and lace of white and black silk which are not the manufactures of
our kingdom. The Spaniards acted on Lord Verulam's policy--that foreign
superfluities should be prohibited[289]--for by so doing you either banish
them or gain the manufacture." But towards the middle of the eighteenth
century there are notices of constant seizures of vessels bound from St.
Malo to Cadiz, freighted with gold and silver lace. The _Eagle_, French
vessel, taken by Captain Carr, in 1745, bore cases to the value of
£150,000.[290] In 1789 we also read that the exports of lace from the port
of Marseilles alone to Cadiz exceeded £500,000,[291] and the author of the
_Apendice a la Educacion Popular_[292] states that "all the five qualities
(of lace) come from foreign lands, and the greater varieties of coarser
ones."
Gold and silver lace were made at Barcelona, Talavera de la Reyna, Valencia
and Seville. In 1808 that of Seville was flourishing. The gold is badly
prepared, having a red cast. The manufacture of blonde is almost entirely
confined to Catalonia, where it is made in many of the villages along the
sea-coast, and especially in the city of Barcelona. In 1809 it gave
employment to 12,000 persons, a number which in 1869 was augmented to
34,000.
There are no large manufactories, and the trade is in the hands of women
and children, who make it on their own account, and as they please.[293]
Swinburne, who visited Spain in 1775, writes: "The women of the hamlets
were busy with their bobbins making black lace, some of which, of the
coarser kind, is spun out of the leaf of the aloe. It is curious, but of
little use, for it grows mucilaginous with washing." He adds: "At Barcelona
there is a great trade in thread lace."[294] Larruga, in his
{102}_Memorias_,[295] mentions a manufacture of gold and silver lace which
had been set up lately in Madrid, and in another place he[296] mentions
lace made at La Mancha,[297] where "the industry of lace has existed at
Almagro from time immemorial." Don Manuel Fernandez and Donna Rita Lambert,
his wife, natives of Madrid, established in this town in 1766 a manufacture
of silk and thread lace. This industry also existed at Granatula,
Manzanares and other villages in La Mancha. At Zamora "lace and blonde were
made in private houses." In _Sempere Historia del Lujo_[298] we find that
in the ordinance issued in 1723 the "introduction of every sort of edgings
or foreign laces was prohibited; the only kinds allowed were those made in
the country." Cabanillas writes[299] that at Novelda a third part of the
inhabitants made lace, and that "more than 2,000 among women and children
worked at this industry, and the natives themselves hawked their wares
about the country."[300]
The laces of New Castile were exported to America, to which colonies, in
1723, the sumptuary laws were extended, as more necessary than in Spain,
"many families having been ruined," says Ustariz, "by the great quantities
of fine lace and gold stuffs they purchased of foreign manufacture, by
which means Spanish America is drained of many millions of dollars."[301] A
Spanish lace-maker does not earn on an average two reals (5d.) a day.[302]
The national mantilla is, of course, the principal piece manufactured. Of
the three kinds which, _de rigueur_, form the toilette of the Spanish lady,
the first is composed of white blonde, a most unbecoming contrast to their
sallow, olive complexion; this is only used on state occasions--birthdays,
bull-fights, and Easter Mondays. The second is black {103}blonde, trimmed
with a deep lace. The third, "mantilla de tiro," for ordinary wear, is made
of black silk, trimmed with velvet. A Spanish woman's mantilla is held
sacred by law, and cannot be seized for debt.[303] The silk employed for
the lace is of a superior quality. Near Barcelona is a silk-spinning
manufactory, whose products are specially used for the blondes of the
country. Spanish silk laces do not equal in workmanship those of Bayeux and
Chantilly, either in the firmness of the ground or regularity of the
pattern. The annual produce of this industry scarcely amounts to
£80,000.[304]
Specimens of Barcelona white lace have been forwarded to us from Spain,
bearing the dates of 1810, 1820, 1830 and 1840. Some have much resemblance
to the fabric of Lille--clear hexagonal ground, with the pattern worked in
one coarse thread; others are of a double ground, the designs flowers,
bearing evidence of a Flemish origin.[305]
Spain sent to the International Exhibitions, together with her black and
white mantillas, fanciful laces gaily embroidered in coloured silks and
gold thread--an ancient fabric lately revived, but constantly mentioned in
the inventories of the French Court of the seventeenth century, and also by
the lady whose letters we have already quoted. When describing a visit to
Donna Teresa de Toledo, who received her in bed, she writes: "She had
several little pillows tied with ribbons and trimmed with broad fine lace.
She had 'lasses' all of flowers of point de Spain in silk and gold, which
looked very pretty."[306]
The finest specimen of Spanish work exhibited in 1862 {104}was a mantilla
of white blonde, the ground a light guipure, the pattern, wreaths of
flowers supported by Cupids. In the official report on Lace and Embroidery
at the International Exhibition of that year, we read that "the manufacture
of black and white Spanish lace shows considerable progress since 1851,
both in respect of design and fabrication. The black mantillas vary in
value from £4 to £50, and upwards of 20,000 persons are said to be employed
in their manufacture."
Before concluding our account of Spanish lace, we must allude to the
"dentelles de Moresse," supposed by M. Francisque Michel[307] to be of
Iberian origin, fabricated by the descendants of the Moors who remained in
Spain and embraced Christianity. These points are named in the
above-mentioned "Révolte des Passemens," where the author thus announces
their arrival at the fair of St. Germain:--
"Il en vint que, le plus souvent.
On disoit venir du Levant;
Il en vint des bords de l'Ibère.
Il en vint d'arriver n'agueres
Des pays septentrionaux."
What these points were it would be difficult to state. In the inventory of
Henry VIII. is marked down, "a purle of morisco work."
One of the pattern-books gives on its title-page--
"Dantique et Roboesque
En comprenant aussi Moresque."
A second speaks of "Moreschi et arabesche."[308] A third is entitled, "Un
livre de moresque."[309] A fourth, "Un livre de feuillages entrelatz et
ouvrages moresques."[310] All we can say on the subject is, that the making
cloths of chequered lace formed for a time the favourite employment of
Moorish maidens, and they are still to be purchased, yellow with age, in
the African cities of Tangier and Tetuan. They may be distinguished from
those worked by Christian fingers from the absence of all animals in the
pattern, the representation of living creatures, either in painting,
sculpture, or embroidery, being strictly forbidden by Mahommedan law.
PLATE XXXII.
[Illustration: JEWISH.--Made in Syria. The pattern is only modern Torchon,
but the knotting stitch is their peculiar tradition. Same size.]
PLATE XXXIII.
[Illustration: SPANISH.--The upper one is a copy of Italian lace clumsily
made. The lower is probably a "dentelle de Moresse." Widths about 3½ in.
Photo by A. Dryden from Salviati & Co.'s Collection.]
_To face page 104._
{105}PORTUGAL.
Point lace was held in high estimation in Portugal. There was no regular
manufacture; it formed the amusement of the nuns and a few women who worked
at their own houses. The sumptuary law of 1749 put an end to all luxury
among the laity. Even those who exposed such wares as laces in the streets
were ordered to quit the town.[311]
In 1729,[312] when Barbara, sister of Joseph, King of Portugal, at
seventeen years of age, married Ferdinand, Prince of Spain, before quitting
Lisbon, she repaired to the church of the Madre de Dios, on the Tagus, and
there solemnly offered to the Virgin the jewels and a dress of the richest
Portuguese point she had worn on the day of her espousals. This lace is
described as most magnificent, and was for near a century exhibited under a
glass case to admiring eyes, till, at the French occupation of the
Peninsula, the Duchesse d'Abrantès, or one of the Imperial generals, is
supposed to have made off with it.[313] When Lisbon arose from her ashes
after the terrible earthquake of 1755, the Marquis de Pombal founded large
manufactures of lace, which were carried on under his auspices. Wraxall, in
his _Memoirs_, mentions having visited them.
The fine points in relief of Italy and Spain were the result of such time
and labour as to render them too costly for moderate means. Hence they were
extensively counterfeited. The principal scroll of the pattern was formed
by means of tape or linen cut out and sewn on, and the reliefs were
produced by cords fixed and overcast after the work was finished, thus
substituting linen and cords for parts of {106}the needlework. These
counterfeit points were in France the occasion in 1669 of an ordinance.
[Illustration: Fig. 48.
BOBBIN-LACE.--(Madeira.)]
The modern laces of Portugal and Madeira closely resemble those of Spain;
the wider for flounces are of silk: much narrow lace is made after the
fashion of Mechlin. Both Spain and Portugal enjoy a certain reputation for
their imitation white Chantilly lace. A considerable quantity of coarse
white lace, very effective in pattern, was formerly made in Lisbon and the
environs;[314] this was chiefly exported, _viâ_ Cadiz, to South America.
Both black and white are {107}extensively made in the peninsula of Peniche,
north of Lisbon (Estremadura Province), and employ the whole female
population. Children at four years of age are sent to the lace school, and
are seated at _almofadas_ (pillows) proportioned to their height, on which
they soon learn to manage the bobbins, sometimes sixty dozen or more, with
great dexterity.[315] The nuns of Odivales were, till the dissolution of
the monasteries, famed for their lace fabricated of the fibres of the aloe.
[Illustration: Fig. 49.
BOBBIN-LACE.--(Brazil.)]
Pillow-lace was made at Madeira at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
The coarse kind, a species of _dentelle torchon_, served for trimming
pillow-cases and sheets--"seaming lace," as it was called (Fig. 49).
Sometimes the threads of the linen were drawn out after the manner of
cut-work; but the manufacture had entirely ceased until 1850 (circ.), when
it was re-established by Mrs. Bayman.[316]
{108}Brazil makes a coarse narrow pillow-lace for home consumption.
The Republics of Central and South America show indications of lace-making,
consisting chiefly of darned netting and drawn-work, the general
characteristic of the lace of these countries. The lace-bordered
handkerchiefs of Brazil, and the productions of Venezuela, with the borders
of the linen trousers of the guachos, and the Creva lace of the blacks of
the Province of Minas Geraes, are the finest specimens of drawn-work. The
lace of Chili is of the old lozenge pattern, and men also appear to be
employed on the work. In Paraguay there are two sorts of work--Nanduti or
"toile d'arraignée," made in silk or thread by a needle on a cardboard
pattern by the copper-coloured natives as an industry; also embroidery and
drawn thread-work on linen, of which there are specimens in the Victoria
and Albert Museum--all traditions of the European missionaries and traders
who first colonised the country.
PLATE XXXIV.
[Illustration: SPANISH.--Pillow made nineteenth century. Réseau of two
threads twisted and crossed. Slightly reduced.]
PLATE XXXV
[Illustration: PARAGUAY. "NANDUTI."--End of nineteenth century. Reduced
rather over half.
Photos by A. Dryden from private collections.]
_To face page 108._
{109}CHAPTER VII.
FLANDERS.
"For lace, let Flanders bear away the belle."
--Sir C. Hanbury Williams.
"In French embroidery and in Flanders lace
I'll spend the income of a treasurer's place."
--_The Man of Taste_, Rev. W. Bramstone.
Flanders and Italy together dispute the invention of lace. In many towns of
the Low Countries are pictures of the fifteenth century, in which are
portrayed personages adorned with lace,[317] and Baron Reiffenberg, a
Belgian writer, asserts that lace cornettes, or caps, were worn in that
country as early as the fourteenth century. As evidence for the early
origin of pillow-lace in the Low Countries, Baron Reiffenberg mentions an
altar-piece, attributed to Quentin Matsys (in a side chapel of the choir of
St. Peter's, at Louvain), in which a girl is represented making lace with
bobbins on a pillow with a drawer, similar to that now in use.[318] There
exists a series of engravings after Martin de Vos (1580-85), giving the
occupations of the seven ages of life: in the third,[319] assigned to _âge
mûr_, is seen a girl, sitting with a pillow on her knees, making lace (Fig.
50). The occupation must have been then common, or the artist would
scarcely have chosen it to characterise the habits of his country.
Of the two paintings attributed to Matsys--that in St. Peter's, at Louvain,
and that in Lierre, only the former is now assigned to the artist. Both
pictures are said to be of the end of the fifteenth century or beginning of
the sixteenth.
{110}[Illustration: Fig. 50.
LACE-MAKING.--(After Martin de Vos.)]
The triptych at Louvain is reproduced and described in detail by Van Even
in his work, _Louvain dans le passé et dans le présent_;[320] it consists
of five panels, the centre panel representing "La famille de Sainte Anne";
but among all the figures none, however, appear to be engaged in making
lace or, indeed, in any form of needlework.
PLATE XXXVI.
[Illustration: FLEMISH. PORTION OF BED COVER, BOBBIN-MADE.--First half of
seventeenth century. This is said to have belonged to Philip IV. of Spain.
Above the Austrian eagle and crown is the collar of the Golden Fleece. The
workmanship is of great skill.
Victoria and Albert Museum.]
_To face page 110._
{111}It has been suggested that the "Lace-maker making lace with bobbins on
a pillow with a drawer" (alluded to by Baron Reiffenberg) in the triptych
is taken from the above-mentioned engravings by Nicholas de Bruyel and
Assuerus van Londonzeel, after the drawings of Martin de Vos.
The historian of the Duke of Burgundy[321] declares Charles the Bold to
have lost his _dentelles_ at the battle of Granson, 1476; he does not state
his authority. Probably they were gold or silver, for no other exist among
his relics.
In Vecellio's _Corona_ of 1593 and 1596 are two designs of geometrical
lace--"ponto fiamengho" and "Manegetti di ponto Fiamengo," point de
Flandre.
In 1651, Jacob v. Eyck, a Flemish poet, sang the praises of lace-making in
Latin verse. "Of many arts one surpasses all; the threads woven by the
strange power of the hand, threads which the dropping spider would in vain
attempt to imitate, and which Pallas would confess she had never known;"
and a deal more in the same style.[322]
The lace-manufacture of the Netherlands, as Baron Reiffenberg writes, has a
glorious past. After exciting the jealousy of other European nations, in
the sixteenth century, when every industrial art fled from the horrors of
religious persecution, the lace fabric alone upheld itself, and by its
prosperity saved Flanders from utter ruin. Every country of Northern
Europe,[323] Germany, and England, has learned the art of lace-making from
Flanders. After the establishment of the Points de France by Colbert,
Flanders was alarmed at the number of lace-makers who emigrated, and passed
an act, dated Brussels, December 26th, 1698, {112}threatening with
punishment any who should suborn her workpeople.
Lace-making forms an abundant source of national wealth to Belgium, and
enables the people of its superannuated cities to support themselves, as it
were, on female industry.[324] One-fourth of the whole population (150,000
women) were said to be thus engaged, in 1861. But a small number assemble
in the ateliers; the majority work at home. The trade now flourishes as in
the most palmy days of the Netherlands.
[Illustration: Fig. 51.
CAP OF THE EMPEROR CHARLES V.--(Musée de Cluny.)
This engraving is not accurately drawn. The spaces contain birds and
crosses, and not sprigs.]
[Illustration: Fig. 52.
ISABELLA CLARA EUGENIA, DAUGHTER OF PHILIP II., ARCHDUCHESS OF AUSTRIA,
GOVERNESS OF THE NETHERLANDS.--Died 1633.
_To face page 112._]
{113}Lace forms a part of female education in Belgium. Charles V. commanded
it to be taught in the schools and convents. Examples of the manufactures
of his period may be seen in the cap said to be worn by him under his
crown, and in the contemporary portrait of his sister Mary, Queen of
Hungary. This cap, long preserved in the treasury of the bishop-princes of
Basle, has now passed into the Musée de Cluny (Fig. 51). It is of fine
linen; the imperial arms are embroidered in relief, alternate with designs
in lacis of exquisite workmanship.[325]
[Illustration: Fig. 53.
MARY, QUEEN OF HUNGARY, GOVERNESS OF THE LOW COUNTRIES. +1558.--(From her
portrait, Musée de Versailles.)]
Queen Mary's cuffs (Fig. 53) are of the geometric pattern of the age, and
we may presume, of Flanders make, as she was Governess of the Low Countries
from 1530 till her death. The grand-daughter of Charles V., the Infanta
Isabella, who brought the Low Countries as her dower,[326] appears in her
portraits (Fig. 52) most resplendent in lace, and her ruff rivals in size
those of our Queen Elizabeth, or Reine Margot.
But to return to our subject. Of the lace schools there were nearly 900 in
1875, either in the convents or founded by private charity. At the age of
five small girls commence {114}their apprenticeship; by ten they earn their
maintenance; and it is a pretty sight, an "école dentellière," the children
seated before their pillows, twisting their bobbins with wonderful
dexterity. (Fig. 54.)
[Illustration: Fig. 54.
A BELGIAN LACE SCHOOL.]
In a tract of the seventeenth century entitled, _England's Improvement by
Sea and Land, to outdo the Dutch without Fighting_,[327] we have an amusing
account of one of these establishments. "Joining to this spinning school is
one for maids weaving bone lace, and in all towns there are schools
according to the bigness and multitude of the children. I will show you how
they are governed. First, there is a large room, and in the middle thereof
a little box like a pulpit. Second, there are benches built about the room
as they are in our playhouses. And in the box in the middle of the room the
grand mistress, with a long white wand in her hand. If she observes any of
them idle, she reaches them a tap, and if that will not do, she rings a
bell, which, by a little cord, is attached to the box. She points out the
offender, and she is taken into another room and chastised. And I believe
this way of ordering the young women in Germany (Flanders) is one great
cause that the German women have so little twit-twat,[328] and I am sure it
will be as well were it so in England. There the children emulate the
father--here they beggar him. Child," he winds up, "I charge you tell this
to thy wyfe in bed, and it may be that she, understanding the benefit it
will be to her and her children, will turn Dutchwoman and endeavour to save
moneys." Notwithstanding this good advice, in 1768 England received from
Flanders lace-work £250,000 to her disadvantage, as compared to her
exports.
[Illustration: Fig. 55.
OLD FLEMISH BOBBIN LACE.
_To face page 114._]
{115}[Illustration: Fig. 56.
OLD FLEMISH (Trolle Kant).
The piece of lace from which this woodcut is taken has five or six
different designs all joined together; probably patterns sent round for
orders.]
The old Flemish laces are of great beauty, some of varied grounds. Fig. 56
represents a description of lace called in the country "Trolle kant," a
name which has been transferred to our own lace counties, where lace of a
peculiar {116}make is styled Trolly, with a heavy cordonnet which is called
gimp or Trolly. _Kant_ in Flemish is "lace."
At one period much lace was smuggled into France from Belgium by means of
dogs trained for the purpose. A dog was caressed and petted at home, fed on
the fat of the land, then after a season sent across the frontier, where he
was tied up, half-starved and ill-treated. The skin of a bigger dog was
then fitted to his body, and the intervening space filled with lace. The
dog was then allowed to escape and make his way home, where he was kindly
welcomed with his contraband charge. These journeys were repeated till the
French Custom House, getting scent, by degrees put an end to the traffic.
Between 1820 and 1836 40,278 dogs were destroyed, a reward of three francs
being given for each.[329]
According to some authorities the earliest lace made in Flanders was of the
kind known as Pillow Guipure. The pattern is made as of tape, in flowing
Renaissance style, sometimes connected by brides, and sometimes altogether
without brides, when the points of the pattern touch each other. In the
specimens of this type of lace in the Victoria and Albert Museum there is
apparently little in the laces by which the country of their origin may be
identified. Sometimes they have been considered French, sometimes Flemish,
and sometimes Italian. [See the specimens of tape-lace in the Catalogue of
the lace in the Victoria and Albert Museum, p. 49, by A. S. Cole.] (Plate
XXXVIII.)
BRUSSELS (BRABANT).
"More subtile web Arachne cannot spin."--Spenser.
"From Lisle I came to Brussels, where most of the fine laces are made you
see worn in England."--Lord Chesterfield, 1741.
At what period the manufacture of Brussels lace commenced we are ignorant;
but, judging from the earlier patterns, it may be placed at the beginning
of the sixteenth century. The ancient churches of Brabant possess, it is
said, many precious specimens, the gifts of munificent princes who have at
all periods shown a predilection for Brussels lace, and in every way
promoted its manufacture. In usage it is termed Point d'Angleterre, an
error explained to us by history.
PLATE XXXVII.
[Illustration: BRUSSELS. POINT D'ANGLETERRE À BRIDES. CROWN OF A CAP.--Last
half of seventeenth century.
The property of Mr. Arthur Blackborne.]
PLATE XXXVIII.
[Illustration: FLEMISH. TAPE LACE, BOBBIN-MADE.--Seventeenth century.
Photos by A. Dryden.]
_To face page 116._
{117}In 1662 the English Parliament, alarmed at the sums of money expended
on foreign point, and desirous to protect the English bone-lace
manufacture, passed an Act prohibiting the importation of all foreign lace.
The English lace-merchants, at a loss how to supply the Brussels point
required at the court of Charles II., invited Flemish lace-makers to settle
in England and there establish the manufacture. The scheme, however, was
unsuccessful. England did not produce the necessary flax, and the lace made
was of an inferior quality. The merchants therefore adopted a more simple
expedient. Possessed of large capital, they bought up the choicest laces of
the Brussels market, and then smuggling them over to England, sold them
under the name of point d'Angleterre, or "English Point."[330]
This fact is, curiously enough, corroborated in a second memorandum given
by the Venetian ambassador to the English Court in 1695, already mentioned
by an informant in London, who states that Venetian point is no longer in
fashion, but "that called English point, which, you know, is not made here,
but in Flanders, and only bears the name of English to distinguish it from
the others." "Questo chiamato punto d'Inghilterra, si sappia che non si fa
qui, ma in Fiandra, et porta solamente questo nome d'Inghilterra per
distintione dagli altri."
The account of the seizure made by the Marquis de Nesmond of a vessel laden
with Flanders lace, bound for England, in 1678[331] will afford some idea
of the extent to which this smuggling was carried on. The cargo comprised
744,953 ells of lace, without enumerating handkerchiefs, collars, fichus,
aprons, petticoats, fans, gloves, etc., all of the same material. From this
period "point de Bruxelles" became more and more unknown, and was at last
effaced by "point d'Angleterre,"[332] a name it still retains.[333]
On consulting, however, the English Royal Inventories of {118}the time, we
find no mention of "English point." In France, on the other hand, the
fashion books of the day[334] commend to the notice of the reader, "Corsets
chamarrés de point d'Angleterre," with vests, gloves, and cravats trimmed
with the same material. Among the effects of Madame de Simiane, dated 1681,
were many articles of English point;[335] and Monseigneur the Archbishop of
Bourges, who died some few years later, had two cambric toilettes trimmed
with the same.[336]
The finest Brussels lace can only be made in the city itself. Antwerp,
Ghent, and other localities have in vain tried to compete with the capital.
The little town of Binche, long of lace-making celebrity, has been the most
successful. Binche, however, now only makes pillow flowers (point plat),
and those of an inferior quality.
When, in 1756, Mrs. Calderwood visited the Béguinage at Brussels, she wrote
to a friend describing the lace-making. "A part of their work is grounding
lace; the manufacture is very curious. One person works the flowers. They
are all sold separate, and you will see a very pretty sprig, for which the
worker only gets twelve sous. The masters who have all these people
employed give them the thread to make them; this they do according to a
pattern, and give them out to be grounded; after this they give them to a
third hand, who 'hearts' all the flowers with the open work. That is what
makes this lace so much dearer than the Mechlin, which is wrought all at
once."[337]
The thread used in Brussels lace is of extraordinary fineness. It is made
of flax grown in Brabant, at Hal and Rebecq-Rognon.[338] The finest quality
is spun in dark underground rooms, for contact with the dry air causes the
thread to break, so fine is it as almost to escape the sight. The feel of
the thread as it passes through the fingers is the surest guide. The
thread-spinner closely examines every inch drawn from her distaff, and when
any inequality occurs stops her wheel to repair the mischief. Every
artificial help is given to the eye. A background of dark paper is placed
to throw out the thread, and the room so arranged as to admit one single
ray of light upon the work. The life of a Flemish thread-spinner is
unhealthy, and her work requires the greatest skill; her wages are
therefore proportionably high.
[Illustration: Fig. 57.
BRUSSELS NEEDLE-POINT.
_To face page 118._]
{119}It is the fineness of the thread which renders the real Brussels
ground (_vrai réseau_, called in Flanders, "droschel") so costly.[339] The
difficulty of procuring this fine thread at any cost prevented the art
being established in other countries. We all know how, during the last
fifty years of the bygone century, a mania existed in the United Kingdom
for improving all sorts of manufactures. The Anti-Gallican Society gave
prizes in London; Dublin and Edinburgh vied with their sister capital in
patriotism. Every man would establish something to keep our native gold
from crossing the water. Foreign travellers had their eyes open, and Lord
Garden, a Scotch Lord of Session, who visited Brussels in 1787, thus writes
to a countryman on the subject: "This day I bought you ruffles and some
beautiful Brussels lace, the most light and costly of all manufactures. I
had entertained, as I now suspect, a vain ambition to attempt the
introduction of it into my humble parish in Scotland, but on inquiry I was
discouraged. The thread is of so exquisite a fineness they cannot make it
in this country. It is brought from Cambrai and Valenciennes in French
Flanders, and five or six different artists are employed to form the nice
part of this fabric, so that it is a complicated {120}art which cannot be
transplanted without a passion as strong as mine for manufactures, and a
purse much stronger. At Brussels, from one pound of flax alone they can
manufacture to the value of £700 sterling."
There were two kinds of ground used in Brussels lace, the bride and the
réseau. The bride was first employed, but, even a century back,[340] had
been discontinued, and was then only made to order. Nine ells of
"Angleterre à bride" appear in the bills of Madame du Barry.[341] The lace
so made was generally of most exquisite workmanship, as many magnificent
specimens of "bas d'aube,"[342] now converted into flounces, attest.
Sometimes bride and réseau were mixed.[343] In the inventories the
description of ground is always minutely specified.[344] (See Plates
XXXVII., XLVII., XLVIII., XLIX., LI.)
[Illustration: Fig. 58.
BRUSSELS NEEDLE-POINT.
_To face page 120._]
[Illustration: Fig. 58A.
BRUSSELS. POINT À L'AIGUILLE.--Formerly belonged to H.M. Queen Charlotte.
_To face page 120._]
{121}The réseau was made in two ways,[345] by hand (à l'aiguille), and on
the pillow (au fuseau). The needleground is worked from one flower to
another, as in Fig. 44. The pillow is made in small strips of an inch in
width, and from seven to forty-five inches long, joined together by a
stitch long known to the lace-makers of Brussels and Bayeux only,[346]
called "point de raccroc"--in English, "fine joining"--and consisting of a
fresh stitch formed with a needle between the two pieces to be united. It
requires the greatest nicety to join the segments of shawls and other large
pieces. Since machine-made net has come into use the "vrai réseau" is
rarely made, save for royal trousseaux (Figs. 57 and 58).
There are two kinds of flowers: those made with the needle are called
"point à l'aiguille"; those on the pillow, "point plat."[347] The best
flowers are made in Brussels itself, where they have attained a perfection
in the relief (point brodé) unequalled by those made in the surrounding
villages and in Hainault. The last have one great fault. Coming soiled from
the hands of the lace-makers, they have a reddish-yellow cast. In order to
obviate this evil the workwoman, previous to sewing the flowers on the
ground, places them in a packet of white lead and beats them with the hand,
an operation injurious to the health of the lace-cleaner. It also causes
the lace to turn black when laid in trunks or wardrobes in contact with
flannel or other woollen tissues bleached with sulphur, which discolours
the white lead. Bottles containing scent, the sea air, or a heated room,
will produce the same disagreeable change, and the colour is with
difficulty restored. This custom of powdering yellow lace is of old date.
We read in 1782[348]: "On tolère en même temps les dentelles jaunes et fort
sales, poudrez-les à blanc pour cacher leur vetusté, dut la fraude
paroître, n'importe, vous avez des dentelles vous êtes bien dispensé de la
propreté mais non du luxe." Mrs. Delany writes in 1734: "Your head and
ruffles are being made up, but Brussels always look yellow;" and she was
right, for flax thread soon returns to its natural "crêmée" hue. Yet,
"How curled her hair, how clean her Brussels lace!"
exclaims the poet.[349] Later, the taste for discoloured lace became
general. The "Isabelle" or cream-coloured tint was found to be more
becoming than a dazzling white, and our coquettish grandmothers, who prided
themselves upon the colour of their point, when not satisfied with the
richness of its hue, had their lace dipped in coffee.
{122}In the old laces the plat flowers were worked in together with the
ground. (Fig. 59.) Application lace was unknown to our ancestors.[350] The
making of Brussels lace is so complicated that each process is, as before
mentioned, assigned to a different hand, who works only at her special
department. The first, termed--
1. Drocheleuse (Flemish, drocheles), makes the vrai réseau.
2. Dentelière (kantwerkes), the footing.
3. Pointeuse (needlewerkes), the point à l'aiguille flowers.
4. Platteuse (platwerkes), makes the plat flowers.
5. Fonneuse (grondwerkes), is charged with the open work (jours) in the
plat.
6. Jointeuse, or attacheuse (lashwerkes), unites the different sections of
the ground together.
7. Striqueuse, or appliqueuse (strikes), is charged with the sewing
(application) of the flowers upon the ground.
The pattern is designed by the head of the fabric, who, having cut the
parchment into pieces, hands it out ready pricked. The worker has no
reflections to make, no combinations to study. The whole responsibility
rests with the master, who selects the ground, chooses the thread, and
alone knows the effect to be produced by the whole.
The pattern of Brussels lace has always followed the fashion of the day.
The most ancient is in the Gothic style (_Gothique pur_), its architectural
ornaments resembling a pattern cut out in paper. This style was replaced by
the flowing lines which prevailed till the end of the last century. (Fig.
60.)
In its turn succeeded the _genre fleuri_ of the First Empire, an assemblage
of flowers, sprigs, columns, wreaths, and petits semés, such as spots,
crosses, stars, etc. In flowers, the palm and pyramidal forms predominated.
Under the Restoration the flowery style remained in fashion, but the palms
and pyramids became more rare. Since 1830 great changes have taken place in
the patterns, which every year become more elegant and more artistic.
[Illustration: Fig. 59.
OLD BRUSSELS. (Point d'Angleterre. Bobbin-made, circ. 1750.)
_To face page 122._]
{123}The lace industry of Brussels is now divided into two branches, the
making of detached sprigs, either point or pillow, for application upon the
net ground, and the modern _point à l'aiguille gazée_, also called point de
Venise, a needlework lace in which the flowers are made simultaneously with
the ground, by means of the same thread, as in the old Brussels. It is made
in small pieces, the joining concealed by small sprigs or leaves, after the
manner of the old point, the same lace-worker executing the whole strip
from beginning to end. Point gaze is now brought to the highest perfection,
and the specimens in the Paris Exhibition of 1867 were remarkable for the
precision of the work, the variety and richness of the "jours," and the
clearness of the ground.
_Brussels point à l'aiguille, point de gaze_, is the most filmy and
delicate of all point lace. Its forms are not accentuated by a raised
outline of button-hole stitching, as in point d'Alençon and point
d'Argentan, but are simply outlined by a thread. The execution is more open
and slight than in early lace, and part of the _toilé_ is made is close,
part in open stitch, to give an appearance of shading. The style of the
designs is naturalistic. (Plate LII.)
"Point Duchesse" is a bobbin lace of fine quality, in which the sprigs
resemble Honiton lace united by "brides." Duchesse is a modern name. The
work less resembles the old Brussels laces than the "Guipure de Flandre,"
made at Bruges in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which was much
used for cravats, being exceedingly rich and soft in effect. Bobbin lace is
sometimes named point Plat; the word point in this case signifies the fine
quality of the lace, and has nothing to do with the needle-point. Point
Plat appliqué is the name given to Belgian bobbin-made sprigs which are
afterwards applied to machine-made net. Bobbin lace is not now made in
Brussels itself.
Brussels was a favoured lace at the court of the First Empire.[351] When
Napoleon and the Empress Marie Louise made their first public entry into
the Belgian capital, they {124}gave large orders for albs of the richest
point, destined as a present for the Pope. The city, on its part, offered
to the Empress a collection of its finest lace, on vrai réseau, of
marvellous beauty; also a curtain of Brussels point, emblematic of the
birth of the King of Rome, with Cupids supporting the drapery of the
cradle. After the battle of Waterloo, Monsieur Troyaux, a manufacturer at
Brussels, stopped his lace fabric, and, having turned it into a hospital
for forty English soldiers, furnished them with linen, as well as other
necessaries, and the attendance of trained nurses. His humane conduct did
not go unrewarded; he received a decoration from his sovereign, while his
shop was daily crowded with English ladies, who then, and for years after,
made a point of purchasing their laces at his establishment when passing
through Brussels. Monsieur Troyaux made a large fortune and retired from
business.[352]
MECHLIN.
"And if disputes of empire rise between
Mechlin, the Queen of Lace, and Colberteen,
'Tis doubt, 'tis darkness! till suspended Fate
Assumes her nod to close the grand debate."
--Young, _Love of Fame_.
"Now to another scene give place;
Enter the Folks with silk and lace,
Fresh matter for a world of chat
Right Indian this, right Macklin that."
--Swift, _Journal of a Modern Lady_.
"Mechlin, the finest lace of all!"
--Anderson, _Origin of Commerce_.
"Rose: Pray, what may this lace be worth a yard?
"Balance: Right Mechlin, by this light!"
--Farquhar, _The Recruiting Officer_.
[Illustration: Fig. 60.
OLD BRUSSELS. (Point d'Angleterre. Formerly belonging to Queen Charlotte.)
_To face page 124._]
{125}Mechlin is the prettiest of laces, fine, transparent, and effective.
It is made in one piece, on the pillow, with various fancy stitches
introduced. Its distinguishing feature is the cordonnet or flat silky
thread which outlines the pattern, and gives to this lace the character of
embroidery (hence it is sometimes called Broderie de Malines[353]); and
secondly, the hexagonal mesh of the réseau. "This is made of two threads
twisted twice on four sides, and four threads plaited three times on the
two other sides. Thus the plait is shorter and the mesh consequently
smaller than that of Brussels lace." Mechlin was sometimes grounded with
an ornamental réseau called _Fond de neige_, or _Oeil de perdrix_, and also
with the six-pointed _Fond Chant_; but these varieties are not common. The
earliest Mechlin has the _points d'esprit_, and is very rare. It was made
at Mechlin, Antwerp, Lierre and Turnhout, but the manufacture has long been
on the decline. In 1834 there were but eight houses where it was
fabricated, but at a later date it appears to have partially revived. There
was a fine collection of Mechlin lace in the Paris Exhibition of 1867 from
Turnhout (Prov. Antwerp), and some other localities. Very little is now
manufactured. It is difficult to trace the real point de Malines. Previous
to 1665, as elsewhere stated, all Flanders laces, with some exceptions,
were known to the French commercial world as "Malines." According to
Savary, the laces of Ypres, Bruges, Dunkirk and Courtrai passed at Paris
under that name--hence we have in the inventories of the time, "Malines à
bride,"[354] as well as "Malines à rézeau."[355]
The statute of Charles II. having placed a bar to the introduction of
Flanders lace into England, Mechlin neither appears in the advertisements
nor inventories of the time.
We find mention of this fabric in France as early as Anne of Austria, who
is described in the memoirs of Marion {126}de l'Orme as wearing a veil "en
frizette de Malines."[356] Again, the Maréchal de la Motte, who died in
1657, has, noted in his inventory,[357] a pair of Mechlin ruffles.
Regnard, who visited Flanders in 1681, writes from this city: "The common
people here, as throughout all Flanders, occupy themselves in making the
white lace known as Malines, and the Béguinage, the most considerable in
the country, is supported by the work of the Béguines, in which they excel
greatly."[358]
When, in 1699, the English prohibition was removed, Mechlin lace became the
grand fashion, and continued so during the succeeding century. Queen Mary
anticipated the repeal by some years, for, in 1694, she purchased two yards
of knotted fringe for her Mechlin ruffles,[359] which leads us to hope she
had brought the lace with her from Holland; though, as early as 1699, we
have advertised in the _London Gazette_, August 17th to 21st: "Lost from
Barker's coach a deal box containing," among other articles, "a waistcoat
and Holland shirt, both laced with Mecklin lace." Queen Anne purchased it
largely; at least, she paid in 1713[360] £247 6s. 9d. for eighty-three
yards, either to one Margaret Jolly or one Francis Dobson, "Millenario
Regali"--the Royal Milliner, as he styles himself. George I. indulges in a
"Macklin" cravat.[361]
"It is impossible," says Savary about this time, "to imagine how much
Mechlin lace is annually purchased by France and Holland, and in England it
has always held the highest favour."
Of the beau of 1727 it is said:
"Right Macklin must twist round his bosom and wrists."
PLATE XXXIX.
[Illustration: MECHLIN.--Four specimens of seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. Arranged by age, the oldest at the top. The upper one is the end
of a lappet, the property of Mr. Arthur Blackborne. Width about 3½ in.
Widths of smaller pieces, 1¾ in., lower 2½ in.
Photos by A. Dryden.]
_To face page 126._
{127}While Captain Figgins of the 67th, a dandy of the first water, is
described, like the naval puppy of Smollett in _Roderick Random_, "his hair
powdered with maréchal, a cambric shirt, his Malines lace dyed with
coffee-grounds." Towards 1755 the fashion seems to have been on the decline
in England. "All the town," writes Mr. Calderwood, "is full of convents;
Mechlin lace is all made there; I saw a great deal, and very pretty and
cheap. They talk of giving up the trade, as the English, upon whom they
depended, have taken to the wearing of French blondes. The lace merchants
employ the workers and all the town with lace. Though they gain but
twopence halfpenny daily, it is a good worker who will finish a Flemish
yard (28 inches) in a fortnight."
[Illustration: Fig. 61.
MECHLIN.--(Period Louis XVI.)]
Mechlin is essentially a summer lace, not becoming in itself, but charming
when worn over colour. It found great favour at the court of the Regent, as
the inventories of the period attest. Much of this lace, judging from these
accounts, was made in the style of the modern insertion, with an edging on
both sides, "campané," and, being light in texture, was well adapted for
the gathered trimmings, later termed[362] "quilles," now better known as
"plissés à la {128}vieille."[363] Mechlin can never have been used as a
"dentelle de grande toilette"; it served for coiffures de nuit, garnitures
de corset, ruffles and cravats.[364]
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, describing an admirer, writes:
"With eager beat his Mechlin cravat moves--
He loves, I whisper to myself, he loves!"
[Illustration: Fig. 62.
MECHLIN.--(Formerly belonging to H. M. Queen Charlotte.)]
It was the favourite lace of Queen Charlotte (Fig. 62) and of the Princess
Amelia. Napoleon I. was also a great admirer of this fabric, and when he
first saw the light Gothic tracery of the cathedral spire of Antwerp, he
exclaimed, "C'est comme de la dentelle de Malines."
[Illustration: PLATE XL.
MECHLIN.--Three specimens of last half of eighteenth century.
Victoria and Albert Museum. Width, 5 in.
Photos by A. Dryden from Mrs. Ellis' Collection. Width, 4 ½ in. Width, 4
in.]
_To face page 123._
{129}ANTWERP.
"At Antwerp, bought some ruffles of our agreeable landlady, and set out
at 2 o'clock for Brussels."--_Tour_, by G. L., 1767.
Before finishing our account of the laces of Brabant, we must touch upon
the produce of Antwerp, which, though little differing from that of the
adjoining towns, seems at one time to have been known in the commercial
world.[365] In the year 1560 we have no mention of lace among the fabrics
of Antwerp, at that period already flourishing, unless it be classed under
the head of "mercery, fine and rare."[366] The cap, however, of an Antwerp
lady[367] of that period is decorated with the fine lace of geometric
pattern. (Fig. 63.) As early as 1698 the _Flying Postman_ advertises as
follows: "Yesterday, was dropped between the Mitre Tavern and the corner of
Princes-street, five yards and better of Antwerp lace, pinner breadth. One
guinea reward."
According to Savary, much lace without ground, "dentelle sans fond," a
guipure of large flowers united by "brides," was fabricated in all the
towns of Brabant for especial exportation to the Spanish Indies, where the
"Gothic" taste continued in favour up to a very late period. These envoys
{130}were expedited first to Cadiz, and there disposed of. In 1696, we find
in a seizure made by Monsieur de la Bellière, on the high seas, "2181
pieces de dentelles grossières à l'Espagnole assorties."[368] (Plate XLI.)
Since the cessation of this Spanish market, Antwerp lace would have
disappeared from the scene had it not been for the attachment evinced by
the old people for one pattern, which has been worn on their caps from
generation to generation, generally known by the name of "pot lace" (potten
kant). It is made in the Béguinages of three qualities, mostly "fond
double." The pattern has always a vase (Fig. 64), varied according to
fancy.[369] Antwerp now makes Brussels lace.
[Illustration: Fig. 63.
A LADY OF ANTWERP.--(Ob. 1598. After Crispin de Passe.)]
One of the earliest pattern-books, that printed by Vorsterman[370]--the
title in English--was published at Antwerp, but it only contains patterns
for Spanish stitch and other embroidery--no lace. There is no date affixed
to the title-page, which is ornamented with six woodcuts representing
women, and one a man, working at frames. This work is most rare; the only
copy known may be found in the Library of the Arsenal at Paris.
[Illustration: Fig. 64.
ANTWERP POT LACE (Potten Kant).
_To face page 130._]
{131}Turnhout, which with Antwerp and Mechlin form the three divisions of
the modern province of Antwerp, seems to have largely manufactured lace up
to the present century; as we find in 1803, out of forty lace thread and
lace fabrics in the province, there were thirteen at Antwerp, twelve at
Turnhout, and nine at Malines.[371] Turnhout now produces Mechlin.
FLANDERS (WEST).
The most important branch of the pillow-lace trade in Belgium is the
manufacture of Valenciennes, which, having expired in its native city, has
now spread over East and West Flanders. The art was originally imported
into Flanders from French Hainault in the seventeenth century. As early as
1656, Ypres began to make Valenciennes lace. When, in 1684, a census was
made by order of Louis XIV., there were only three forewomen[372] and
sixty-three lace-makers. In 1850, there were from 20,000 to 22,000 in Ypres
and its environs alone.
The productions of Ypres are of the finest quality and most elaborate in
their workmanship. On a piece not two inches wide, from 200 to 300 bobbins
are employed, and for the larger widths as many as 800 or more are used on
the same pillow. In the exhibition of 1867, one exhibited with the lace in
progress had 1,200 bobbins,[373] while in the International Exhibition of
1874 there were no less than 8,000 bobbins on a Courtrai pillow used for
making a parasol cover. The ground is in large clear squares, which
admirably throws up the even tissue of the patterns. In these there was
little variety until 1833, when a manufacturer[374] adopted a clear
{132}wire ground with bold flowing designs, instead of the thick
_treille_[375] and scanty flowers of the old laces. (Fig. 65.) The change
was accepted by fashion, and the Valenciennes lace of Ypres has now
attained a high degree of perfection. Courtrai has made great advances
towards rivalling Ypres in its productions.
[Illustration: Fig. 65.
VALENCIENNES LACE OF YPRES.]
Not a hundred years since, when the laces of Valenciennes prospered, those
of Belgium were designated as "fausses Valenciennes." Belgium has now the
monopoly to a commercial value of more than £800,000.[376] The other
principal centres of the manufacture are Bruges, Courtrai, and Menin in
West, Ghent and Alost in East, Flanders. When Peuchet wrote in the
eighteenth century, he cites "les dentelles à l'instar de Valenciennes" of
Courtrai as being in favour, and generally sought after both in England and
France, while those of Bruges are merely alluded to as "passing for
Mechlin." From this it may be inferred the tide had not then flowed so far
north. The Valenciennes of Bruges, from its round ground, has never enjoyed
a high reputation.
PLATE XLI.
[Illustration: FLEMISH. FLAT SPANISH BOBBIN LACE.--Made in Flanders.
Seventeenth century.
From a photo the property of A. Dryden.]
_To face page 132._
{133}In forming the ground, the bobbins are only twisted twice, while in
those of Ypres and Alost, the operation is performed four and five
times.[377] The oftener the bobbins are twisted the clearer and more
esteemed is the Valenciennes. The "guipure de Flandres" made at Bruges in
"point plat" is now in high repute, and has proved from its low price a
formidable rival to Honiton, which it resembles, but the workmanship is
coarser and inferior than in the best Honiton. It is of a brilliant white,
and composed of bobbin-made flowers united by _barettes_ or _brides à
picot_. In the _L'Industrie Dentellière Belge_ (1860), it is stated that
West Flanders has now 180 fabrics and 400 lace schools. Of these, 157 are
the property of religious communities, and number upwards of 30,000
apprentices.[378]
FLANDERS (EAST).
No traveller has passed through the city of Ghent for the last hundred
years without describing the Béguinage and its lace school. "The women,"
writes the author of the _Grand Tour_, 1756, "number nigh 5,000, go where
they please, and employ their time in weaving lace."
Savary cites the "fausses Valenciennes," which he declares to equal the
real in beauty. "They are," continues he, "moins serrées, un peu moins
solides, et un peu moins chères."
The best account, however, we have of the Ghent manufactures is contained
in a letter addressed to Sir John Sinclair by Mr. Hey Schoulthem in 1815.
"The making of lace," he writes, "at the time the French entered the Low
Countries, employed a considerable number of people of both sexes, and
great activity prevailed in Ghent. The lace was chiefly for daily use; it
was sold in Holland, France and England. A large quantity of 'sorted' laces
of a peculiar quality were exported to Spain and the colonies. It is to be
feared that, after an interruption of twenty years, this lucrative branch
of commerce will be at an end: the changes of fashion have even reached the
West Indian colonists, {134}whose favourite ornaments once consisted of
Flemish laces[379] and fringes. These laces were mostly manufactured in the
charitable institutions for poor girls, and by old women whose eyes did not
permit them to execute a finer work. As for the young girls, the quality of
these Spanish laces, and the facility of their execution, permitted the
least skilful to work them with success, and proved a means of rendering
them afterwards excellent workwomen. At present, the best market for our
laces is in France; a few also are sent to England." He continues to state
that, since the interruption of the commerce with Spain, to which Ghent
formerly belonged, the art has been replaced by a trade in cotton; but that
cotton-weaving spoils the hand of the lace-makers, and, if continued, would
end by annihilating the lace manufacture.[380]
Grammont and Enghien formerly manufactured a cheap white thread lace, now
replaced by the making of laces of black silk. This industry was introduced
towards 1840 by M. Lepage, and black silk and cotton-thread lace is now
made at Grammont, Enghien, and Oudenarde in the southern part of Eastern
Flanders. The lace of Grammont is remarkable for its regularity, the good
quality of its silk, and its low price, but its grounds are coarse, and the
patterns want relief and solidity, and the bobbins are more often twisted
in making the ground, which deprives it of its elasticity. Grammont makes
no small pieces, but shawls, dresses, etc., principally for the American
market.
The "industrie dentellière" of East Flanders is now most flourishing. In
1869 it boasted 200 fabrics directed by the laity, and 450 schools under
the superintendence of the nuns. Even in the poor-houses (hospices) every
woman capable of using a bobbin passes her day in lace-making.
HAINAULT.
The laces of Mons and those once known as "les figures de Chimay" both in
the early part of the eighteenth century enjoyed a considerable reputation.
Mrs. Palliser, on visiting Chimay in 1874, could find no traces of the
manufacture beyond an aged lace-maker, an inmate of the hospice, who made
black lace--"point de Paris"--and who said that until lately Brussels lace
had also been made at Chimay.
PLATE XLII.
[Illustration: FLEMISH. GUIPURE DE FLANDRE, BOBBIN-MADE.--Seventeenth
century. In the Musée Cinquantenaire, Brussels.]
_To face page 134._
{135}The first Binche lace has the character of Flanders lace, so it has
been supposed that the women who travelled from Ghent in the train of Mary
of Burgundy, the daughter of Charles le Téméraire, created the taste for
lace at Binche, and that the stay of the great ladies, on their visits to
the royal lady of the manor, made the fortune of the lace-makers.
Afterwards there was much traffic between the lace-workers of Brussels and
Binche, and there is a great resemblance between the laces of the two
towns. Sometimes the latter is less light, richer, and more complex in
effect, and the design is closely sprinkled with open-work, the ground
varied and contrasted.
Binche was, as early as 1686, the subject of a royal edict, leading one to
infer that the laces it produced were of some importance. In the said
edict, the roads of Verviers, Gueuse, and Le Catelet, to those persons
coming from Binche, are pronounced "faux passages."[381] Savary esteems the
products of this little village. The same laces, he adds, are made in all
the _monastères_ of the province, that are partly maintained by the gains.
The lace is good, equal to that of Brabant and Flanders. The characteristic
peculiarities of Binche are, that there is either no cordonnet at all
outlining the pattern, or that the cordonnet is scarcely a thicker thread
than that which makes the _toilé_.[382] The design itself is very
indefinite, and is practically the same as the early Valenciennes laces.
Varieties of the _fond de neige_ ground were used instead of the regular
_réseau_ ground. Dentelle de Binche appears to have been much in vogue in
the last century. It is mentioned in the inventory of the Duchesse de
Modène,[383] daughter of the Regent, 1761; and in that of Mademoiselle de
Charollais, 1758, who has a "couvrepied, mantelet, garniture de robe,
jupon," etc., all of the same lace. In the _Misérables_ of Victor Hugo, the
old grandfather routs out {136}from a cupboard "une ancienne garniture de
guipure de Binche" for Cosette's wedding-dress.[384] The Binche application
flowers have already been noticed.
The lace industry of Binche will soon be only a memory. But before 1830 it
"was a hive of lace-makers, and the bees of this hive earned so much money
by making lace that their husbands could go and take a walk without a care
for the morrow," as it is curiously phrased in an account of Binche and its
lace. (Plate XLIII.)
We have now named the great localities for lace-making throughout the Low
Countries. Some few yet remain unmentioned.
The needle-point of Liège should be mentioned among the Flanders laces. At
the Cathedral of Liège there is still to be seen a flounce of an alb
unequalled for the richness and variety of its design and its perfection.
Liège in her days of ecclesiastical grandeur carried on the lace trade like
the rest.[385] We read, in 1620, of "English Jesuitesses at Liège, who seem
to care as much for politics as for lace-making."[386]
An early pattern-book, that of Jean de Glen, a transcript of Vinciolo, was
published in that city in 1597. It bears the mark of his
printing-press--three acorns with the motto, "Cuique sua præmia," and is
dedicated to Madame Loyse de Perez. He concludes a complimentary dedication
to the lady with the lines:--
"Madame, dont l'esprit modestement subtil,
Vigoureux, se délecte en toutes choses belles,
Prenez de bonne part ces nouvelles modelles
Que vous offre la main de ce maistre gentil."
He states that he has travelled and brought back from Italy some patterns,
without alluding to Vinciolo. At the end, in a chapter of good advice to
young ladies, after exhorting them to "salutairement passer la journée,
tant pour l'âme que pour le corps," he winds up that he is aware that other
exercises, such as stretching the hands and feet, "se frotter un peu les
points des bras," and combing the hair, are good for the health; that to
wash the hands occasionally in cold water is both "civil et honnête," etc.
[Illustration: PLATE XLIII.
BINCHE.--Width, 2-1/8 in.]
[Illustration: PLATE XLIV.
BELGIAN, BOBBIN-MADE.
MARCHE.--End of eighteenth century. In the Musée Cinquantenaire, Brussels.]
BELGIAN, BOBBIN-MADE.
PLATE XLV.
[Illustration: DRAWN AND EMBROIDERED MUSLIN, resembling fine lace.--Flemish
work. End of eighteenth century. Width, 2½ in., not including the modern
heading.
Photos by A. Dryden from private collections.]
_To face page 136._
{137}"Dentelles de Liège, fines et grosses de toutes sortes," are mentioned
with those of Lorraine and Du Comté (Franche-Comté) in the tariff fixed by
a French edict of September 18th, 1664.[387] Mrs. Calderwood, who visited
Liège in 1756, admires the point-edging to the surplices of the canons,
which, she remarks, "have a very genteel appearance." The manufacture had
declined at Liège, in 1802, when it is classed by the French Commissioners
among the "fabriques moins considérables," and the lace-makers of the Rue
Pierreuse, who made a "garniture étroite"--the "caïeteresses"[388]--had
died out in 1881. The same work is now carried on at Laroche.[389]
The lace products of St. Trond, in the province of Limburgh, appear by the
report of the French Commission of 1803 to have been of some importance.
Lace, they say, is made at St. Trond, where from 800 to 900 are so
employed, either at their own homes or in the workshops of the
lace-manufacturers. The laces resemble those of Brussels and Mechlin, and
although they have a lesser reputation in commerce, several descriptions
are made, and about 8,000 metres are produced of laces of first quality,
fetching from twelve to fourteen francs the metre. These laces are chiefly
made for exportation, and are sold mostly in Holland and at the Frankfort
fairs. The report concludes by stating that the vicissitudes of war, in
diminishing the demand for objects of luxury, has much injured the trade;
and also suggests that some provisions should be made to stop the abuses
arising from the bad faith of the lace-makers, who often sell the materials
given them to work with.[390][391]
{138}Many of the Belgian churches have lace among the _trésors d'église_. A
great number of the convents also possess beautiful lace, for girls who
have been educated in them often give their bridal lace, after their
marriage, to the chapel of the convent.
At Bruges, an ancient turreted house of the fifteenth century, the Gruuthus
mansion, now restored, contains one of the finest collections of lace in
the world--a collection of Flemish laces presented to the town by the
Baroness Liedts. Bruges itself, and the country round, is full of
lace-workers, some working in factories or _ateliers_ at the guipure de
Flandres, others working at the coarse cheap torchon, sitting in the sun by
the quiet canal-sides, or in the stone-cobbled lanes of the old city, where
their house-door opens into a room as dark and narrow as a fox-earth, and
leading a life so poor that English competition in the cheaper forms of
lace is impossible.
Within the last few years the immense development of the Belgian lace trade
has overthrown the characteristic lace of each city. Lace, white and black,
point and pillow, may at the present time be met with in every province of
the now flourishing kingdom of Belgium.[392]
{139}CHAPTER VIII.
FRANCE TO LOUIS XIV.
"Il est une déesse inconstante, incommode,
Bizarre dans ses goûts, folle en ses ornements,
Qui parait, fuit, revient, et renaît, en tout temps:
Protée était son père, et son nom est la mode."--Voltaire.
"To-day the French
All clinquant, all in gold."--Shakespeare.
To the Italian influences of the sixteenth century France owes the fashion
for points coupés and lace.[393] It was under the Valois and the Médicis
that the luxury of embroidery, laces of gold, silver, and thread, attained
its greatest height, and point coupé was as much worn at that epoch, as
were subsequently the points of Italy and Flanders.
Ruffs and cuffs, according to Quicherat, first appeared in France in 1540.
The ruff or fraise, as it was termed from its fancied resemblance to the
caul[394] or frill of the calf, first {140}adopted by Henry II. to conceal
a scar, continued in favour with his sons. The Queen-mother herself wore
mourning from the day of the King's death; no decoration therefore appears
upon her wire-mounted ruff,[395] but the fraises of her family and the
_escadron volante_ are profusely trimmed with the geometric work of the
period, and the making of laces and point coupé was the favourite
employment of her court. It is recorded that the girls and servants of her
household consumed much time in making squares of _réseuil_, and Catherine
de Médicis had a bed draped with these squares of _réseuil_ or _lacis_.
Catherine encouraged dress and extravagance, and sought by brilliant fêtes
to turn people's minds from politics. In this she was little seconded
either by her husband or gloomy son, King Charles; but Henry III. and his
"mignons frisés et fraisés" were tricked out in garments of the brightest
colours--toques and toquets, pearl necklaces and earrings. The ruff was the
especial object of royal interest. With his own hand he used the
poking-sticks and adjusted the plaits. "Gaudronneur des collets de sa
femme" was the soubriquet bestowed on him by the satirists of the day.[396]
By 1579 the ruffs of the French court had attained such an outrageous size,
"un tiers d'aulne,"[397] in depth that the wearers could scarcely turn
their heads.[398] "Both men and women wore them intolerably large, being a
quarter of a yard deep and twelve lengths in a ruff," writes Stone. In
London the fashion was termed the "French ruff"; in France, on the other
hand, it was the "English monster." Blaise de Viginière describes them as
"gadrooned like organ-pipes, contorted or crinkled like cabbages, and as
big as the sails of a windmill." So absurd was the effect, the
{141}journalist of Henry III.[399] declares "they looked like the head of
John the Baptist in a charger."
Nor could they eat so encumbered. It is told how Reine Margot one day, when
seated at dinner, was compelled to send for a spoon with a handle two feet
in length wherewith to eat her soup.[400] These monstrosities, "so
stiffened that they cracked like paper,"[401] found little favour beyond
the precincts of the Louvre. They were caricatured by the writers of the
day; and when, in 1579, Henry III. appeared thus attired at the fair of St.
Germain, he was met by a band of students decked out in large paper cuffs,
shouting, "À la fraise on connoit le veau"--for which impertinence the King
sent them to prison.[402] Suddenly, at the Court of Henry, the fraise gave
way to the rabat, or turn-down collar.[403] In vain were sumptuary edicts
issued against luxury.[404] The court set a bad example; and in 1577, at
the meeting of the States of Blois, Henry wore on his own dress four
thousand yards of pure gold lace. His successor, Henry IV., issued several
fresh ordinances[405] against "clinquants [406] et dorures." Touching the
last, Regnier, the satirist, writes:--
"A propos, on m'a dit
Que contre les clinquants le roy faict un edict."[407]
Better still, the King tried the effect of example: he wore a coat of grey
cloth with a doublet of taffety, without either {142}trimming or lace--a
piece of economy little appreciated by the public. His dress, says an
author, "sentait des misères de la Ligue." Sully, anxious to emulate the
simplicity of the King, laughed at those "qui portoient leurs moulins et
leurs bois de haute futaie sur leurs dos."[408] "It is necessary," said he,
"to rid ourselves of our neighbours' goods, which deluge the country." So
he prohibited, under pain of corporal punishment, any more dealings with
the Flemish merchants.
But edicts failed to put down point coupé; Reine Margot, Madame Gabrielle,
and Bassompierre were too strong for him.
The Wardrobe Accounts of Henry's first queen are filled with entries of
point coupé and "passements à l'aiguille";[409] and though Henry usually
wore the silk-wrought shirts of the day,[410] we find in the inventory of
his wife one entered as trimmed with cut-work.[411] Wraxall declares to
have seen exhibited at a booth on the Boulevart de Bondy, the shirt worn by
Henry when assassinated. "It is ornamented," he writes, "with a broad lace
round the collar and breast. The two wounds inflicted by the assassin's
knife are plainly visible."[412]
PLATE XLVI.
[Illustration: RUFF, EDGED WITH LACE.--In the Musée de Cluny, Paris.]
_To face page 142._
{143}In the inventory[413] made at the death of Madame Gabrielle, the fair
Duchesse de Beaufort, we find entered sleeves and towels of point couppé,
with fine handkerchiefs, gifts of the King to be worn at court, of such an
extraordinary value that Henry requires them to be straightway restored to
him. In the same list appears the duchess's bed of ivory,[414] with
hangings for the room of rézeuil.[415]
The Chancellor Herault,[416] who died at the same period, was equally
extravagant in his habits; while the shirts of the combatants in the duel
between M. de Crequy and Don Philippe de Savoie are specially vaunted as
"toutes garnies du plus fin et du plus riche point coupé qu'on eust pu
trouver dans ce temps là, auquel le point de Gennes et de Flandres
n'estoient pas en usage."[417]
The enormous collarette, rising behind her head like a {144}fan, of Mary de
Médicis, with its edgings of fine lace, are well known to the admirers of
Rubens:--
"Cinq colets de dentelle haute de demy-piè
L'un sur l'autre montez, qui ne vont qu'a moitié
De celuys de dessus, car elle n'est pas leste,
Si le premier ne passe une paulme la teste."[418]
On the accession of Louis XIII, luxury knew no bounds. The Queen Regent was
magnificent by nature, while Richelieu, anxious to hasten the ruin of the
nobles, artfully encouraged their prodigality. But Mary was compelled to
repress this taste for dress. The courtiers importuned her to increase
their pensions, no longer sufficient for the exigencies of the day. The
Queen, at her wits' end, published in 1613 a "Réglement pour les
superfluités des habits," prohibiting all lace and embroidery.[419]
France had early sent out books of patterns for cut-work and lace. That of
Francisque Pelegrin was published at Paris in the reign of Francis I. Six
were printed at Lyons alone. The four earlier have no date,[420] the two
others bear those of 1549[421] and 1585.[422] It was to these first that
Vinciolo so contemptuously alludes in his dedication, "Aux Benevolles
Lecteurs," saying, "Si les premiers ouvrages que vous avez vus out engendré
quelque fruit et utilité je m'assure que les miens en produiront
davantage." Various editions of Vinciolo were printed at Paris from 1587 to
1623; the earlier dedicated to Queen Louise de Lorraine; a second to
Catherine de Bourbon, sister of Henry IV.; the last to Anne of Austria. The
_Pratique de Leguille de Milour M. Mignerak_ was published by the same
printer, 1605; and we have another work, termed _Bèle Prerie_, also printed
at Paris, bearing date 1601.[423]
The points of Italy and Flanders now first appear at court, and the Church
soon adopted the prevailing taste for the decoration of her altars and her
prelates.[424]
PLATE XLVII.
[Illustration: BRUSSELS. FLOUNCE, BOBBIN-MADE.--Late seventeenth century.
Given by Madame de Maintenon to Fénélon, Archbishop of Cambrai. Now in the
Victoria and Albert Museum.
Height, 2 ft. 2 in.]
_To face page 146._
{145}The ruff is finally discarded and replaced by the "col rabattu," with
its deep-scalloped border of point. The "manchettes à revers" are trimmed
in the same manner, and the fashion even extends to the tops of the boots.
Of these lace-trimmed boots the favourite, Cinq-Mars, left three hundred
pairs at his death, 1642. From his portrait, after Lenain, which hangs in
the Gallery of Versailles, we give one of these boots (Fig. 66), and his
rich collerette of Point de Gênes (Fig. 67).
[Illustration: Fig. 66.
CINQ-MARS.--(M. de Versailles.)]
The garters, now worn like a scarf round the knee, have the ends adorned
with point. A large rosette of lace completes the costume of the epoch
(Fig. 68).
{146}Gold lace shared the favour of the thread fabric on gloves,[425]
garters and shoes.[426]
"De large taftas la jartière parée
Aux bouts de demy-pied de dentelle dorée."[427]
The cuffs, collars of the ladies either falling back or rising behind their
shoulders in double tier, caps, aprons descending to their feet (Fig. 69),
are also richly decorated with lace.
[Illustration: Fig. 67.
CINQ-MARS.--(After his portrait by Le Nain. M. de Versailles.)]
The contemporary engravings of Abraham Bosse and Callot faithfully portray
the fashions of this reign. In the Prodigal Son, of Abraham Bosse, the
mother, waiting his {147}return, holds out to her repentant boy a collar
trimmed with the richest point. The Foolish Virgins weep in lace-trimmed
handkerchiefs, and the table-cloth of the rich man, as well as his
dinner-napkins, are similarly adorned. Again, the Accouchée recovers in a
cap of Italian point under a coverlet of the same. At the Retour de
Baptême, point adorns the christening-dress of the child and the surplice
of the priest.
When, in 1615, Louis XIII. married Anne of Austria, the collerettes of the
Queen-Mother were discarded--the reign of Italy was at an end--all was now
à l'éspagnole and the court of Castile.
[Illustration: Fig. 68.
LACE ROSE AND GARTER.--(After Abraham Bosse.)]
The prodigality of the nobles[428] having called down royal ordinances on
their heads,[429] these new edicts bring forth {148}fresh satires, in which
the author deplores the prohibition of cut-work and lace:--
"Ces points couppez, passemens et dentelles,
Las! que venaient de l'Isle et de Bruxelles,
Sont maintenant descriez, avilis,
Et sans faveur gisent ensevelis;"[430]
but
"Pour vivre heureux et à la mode
Il faut que chacun accommode
Ses habits aux editz du roi."
[Illustration: Fig. 69.
YOUNG LADY'S APRON, TIME OF HENRY III.--(After Gaignières. Bib. Nat.
Grav.)]
Edict now follows on edict.[431] One known as the Code Michaud, entering
into the most minute regulations for the toilet, especially excited the
risibility of the people. It was never carried out. The caricatures of this
period are admirable: one represents a young courtier fresh rigged in his
{149}plain-bordered linen, according to the ordinance. His _valet de
chambre_ is about to lock up his laced suit:--
"C'est avec regret que mon maître
Quitte ses beaux habillemens
Semés de riches passemens."[432]
Another engraving of Abraham Bosse shows a lady of fashion with her lace
discarded and dressed in plain linen cuffs and collar:--
"Quoique l'âge assez de beauté
Pour asseurer sans vanité
Qu'il n'est point de femme plus belle
Il semble pourtant, à mes yeux,
Qu'avec de l'or et la dantelle
Je m'ajuste encore bien mieux."
Alluding to the plain-bordered collars now ordered by the prohibition of
1639, the "Satyrique de la Court" sings:--
"Naguères l'on n'osoit hanter les damoiselles
Que l'on n'eust le colet bien garni de dentelles;
Maintenant on se rit et se moque de ceux là
Qui desirent encore paroistre avec cela.
Les fraises et colets à bord sont en usage,
Sans faire mention de tous en dentellage."
France at this time paying large sums to Italy and Flanders for lace, the
wearing of it is altogether prohibited, under pain of confiscation and a
fine of 6,000 livres.[433] The Queen-Mother, regardless of edicts, has over
_passements d'or_ and all sorts of forbidden articles, "pour servir à la
layette que sa majesté à envoyé en Angleterre."[434] Within scarce one year
of each other passed away Marie de Médicis, Richelieu, and Louis XIII. The
King's effigy was exposed on its "lit de parade vêtue d'une chemise de
toile de Hollande avec de tres belles dantelles de point de Gennes au
collet et aux manches."[435]--So say the chroniclers.
{150}CHAPTER IX.
LOUIS XIV.
The courtiers of the Regency under Anne of Austria vied with the Frondeurs
in extravagance. The latter, however, had the best of it. "La Fronde,"
writes Joly, "devint tellement à la mode qu'il n'y avoit rien de bien fait
qu'on ne dist être de la Fronde. Les étoffes, les dentelles, etc., jusqu'au
pain,--rien n'estoit ni bon, ni bien si n'estoit à la Fronde."[436]
Nor was the Queen Regent herself less profuse in her indulgence in lace.
She is represented in her portraits with a berthe of rich point, her
beautiful hand encircled by a double-scalloped cuff (Fig. 70). The
boot-tops had now reached an extravagant size. One writer compares them to
the farthingales of the ladies, another to an inverted torch. The lords of
the Regent's court filled up the apertures with two or three rows of Genoa
point (Fig. 71).
In 1653,[437] we find Mazarin, while engaged in the siege of a city,
holding a grave correspondence with his secretary Colbert concerning the
purchase of some points from Flanders, Venice, and Genoa. He considers it
advisable to advance thirty or forty thousand livres "à ces achapts,"
adding, that by making the purchases in time he will derive great advantage
in the price; but as he hopes the siege will soon be at an end, they may
wait his arrival at Paris for his final decision.[438]
PLATE XLVIII.
[Illustration: BRUSSELS. BOBBIN-MADE.--Period Louis XIV., 1643-1715.
In the Musée Cinquantenaire, Brussels.]
PLATE XLIX.
[Illustration: BRUSSELS. POINT D'ANGLETERRE À RÉSEAU.--Eighteenth century.
Widths, 2 in. and 3½ in.
Photo by A. Dryden.]
_To face page 150._
{151}[Illustration: Fig. 70.
ANNE OF AUSTRIA.--(M. de Versailles.)]
Colbert again writes, November 25th, pressing his Eminence on account of
the "quantité de mariages qui se feront l'hyver." A passage in Tallemant
des Réaux would lead one to suppose these laces were destined as patterns
for the improvement of French manufactures. "Per mostra di farne in
Francia," as the Cardinal expressed himself. Certainly in the inventory of
Mazarin[439] there are no mention of Italian points, no lace coverlets to
his "Lict d'ange moire tabizée, couleur de rose chamarrée de {152}dentelles
d'or et d'argent." We may almost imagine that the minister and his
secretary combined were already meditating the establishment of Points de
France.
In this reign, fresh sumptuary ordinances are issued. That of November
27th, 1660, is the most important of all,[440] and is highly commended by
Sganarelle in the "Ecole des Maris" of Molière which appeared the following
year:--
"Oh! trois et quatre fois soit béni cet édit,
Par qui des vêtemens le luxe est interdit;
Les peines des maris ne seront pas si grandes,
Et les femmes auront un frein à leurs demandes.
Oh! que je sais au roi bon gré de ses décrets;
Et que, pour le repos de ces mêmes maris,
Je voudrais bien qu'on fit de la coquetterie
Comme de la guipure et de la broderie."
[Illustration: Fig. 71.
A COURTIER OF THE REGENCY.--(After Abraham Bosse.)]
This ordinance, after prohibiting all foreign "passemens, points de Gênes,
points coupés," etc., or any French laces or passements exceeding an inch
in width, allows the use of the "collerettes and manchettes" persons
already possess for the space of one year, after which period they are only
to be trimmed with a lace made in the kingdom, not exceeding an {153}inch
in width. The ordinance then goes on to attack the "canons," which it
states have been introduced into the kingdom, with "un excès de dépense
insupportable, par la quantité de passemens, points de Venise et Gênes,"
with which they are loaded.[441] Their use of them is now entirely
prohibited, unless made of plain linen or of the same stuff as the coat,
without lace or any ornament. The lace-trimmed "canons" of Louis XIV., as
represented in the picture of his interview with Philip IV., in the Island
of Pheasants, previous to his marriage, 1660 (Fig. 72), give a good idea of
these extravagant appendages. These
"Canons à trois étages
A leurs jambes faisoient d'ombrages."[442]
And, what was worse, they would cost 7,000 livres a pair. "At the Court of
France," writes Savinière, "people think nothing of buying rabats,
manchettes, or canons to the value of 13,000 crowns."[443] These canons,
with their accompanying rheingraves, which after the prohibition of Venice
point were adorned with the new productions of France, suddenly
disappeared. In 1682, the _Mercure_ announces, "Les canons et les
rheingraves deviennent tout à fait hors de mode."
At the marriage of the young King with the Infanta, 1660, black lace,[444]
probably in compliment to the Spanish[445] {154}court, came into favour,
the nobles of the King's suite wearing doublets of gold and silver brocade,
"ornés," says the _Chronique_,[446] "de dentelles noires d'un point
recherché."[447] The same writer, describing the noviciate of La Vallière
at the Carmelites, writes, "Les dames portoient des robes de brocard d'or,
d'argent, ou d'azur, par dessus lesquelles elles avoient jetées d'autres
robes et dentelles noires transparentes."[448] Under Louis XIV., the gold
and silver points of Spain and Aurillac rivalled the thread fabrics of
Flanders and Italy; but towards the close of the century,[449] we are
informed, they have fallen from fashion into the "domaine du vulgaire."
The ordinance of 1660 had but little effect, for various others are issued
in the following years with the oft-repeated prohibitions of the points of
Genoa and Venice.[450] But edicts were of little avail. No royal command
could compel people to substitute the coarse inferior laces of France[451]
for the fine artistic productions of her sister countries. Colbert
therefore wisely adopted another expedient. He determined to develop the
lace-manufacture of France, and to produce fabrics which should rival the
coveted points of Italy and Flanders, so that if fortunes were lavished
upon these luxuries, at all events the money should not be sent out of the
kingdom to procure them.
He therefore applied to Monseigneur de Bonzy, Bishop of Béziers, then
Ambassador at Venice, who replied that in Venice "all the convents and poor
families make a living out of this lace-making." In another letter he
writes to the minister, "Je vois que vous seriez bien aise d'establir dans
le royaume la manufacture des points de Venise, ce qui se pourrait faire en
envoyant d'icy quelques filles des meilleures ouvrières qui pussent
instruire celles de France avec le temps."[452]
[Illustration: Fig. 72.
CANONS OF LOUIS XIV.--(M. de Versailles, 1660.)
_To face page 154._]
{155}Monseigneur de Bonzy's suggestion was accepted, and a few years later
(1673) Colbert writes to M. le Comte d'Avaux, who succeeded M. de Bonzy as
ambassador at Venice: "I have gladly received the collar of needlepoint
lace worked in relief that you have sent me, and I find it very beautiful.
I shall have it compared with those new laces being made by our own
lace-makers, although I may tell you beforehand that as good specimens are
now made in this kingdom."[453] Alençon, an old lace-making centre, was
chosen as the seat of the new manufacture.[454] Favier-Duboulay writes to
Colbert that, before the introduction of the new points de France,
lace-making was to the peasants "une manne, et une vraie bénédiction du
ciel, qui s'est espandue sur tout ce pays." The art had spread far and wide
through the district about Alençon; children of seven years of age and aged
men earned their daily bread by it, and the shepherdesses worked at their
lace while herding their flocks.
{156}[Illustration: Fig. 73.
CHÂTEAU DE LONRAI, DÉP. ORNE.]
M. Odolent Desnos gives the following account of the invention and
establishment of point d'Alençon:--[455]
"In 1665, at the recommendation of the Sieur Ruel, he (Colbert) selected a
Madame Gilbert, a native of Alençon, already acquainted with the manner of
making Venice point, and making her an advance of 50,000 crowns,
established her at his château of Lonrai (Fig. 73), near Alençon, with
thirty forewomen, whom he had, at great expense, caused to be brought over
from Venice. In a short time Madame Gilbert arrived at Paris with the first
specimens of her fabric. The king, inspired by Colbert with a desire to see
the work, during supper at Versailles announced to his courtiers he had
just established a manufacture of point more beautiful than that of Venice,
and appointed a day when he would inspect the specimens. The laces were
artistically arranged over the walls of a room hung with crimson damask,
and shown to the best advantage. The king expressed himself delighted. He
ordered a large sum to be given to Madame Gilbert, and desired that no
other lace should appear at court except the new fabric, upon which he
bestowed the name of point de France.[456] Scarcely had Louis retired than
the courtiers eagerly stripped the room of its contents. The approval of
the monarch was the fortune of Alençon: point de France adopted by court
etiquette, the wearing of it became compulsory. All who had the privilege
of the 'casaque bleue'--all who were received at Versailles or were
attached to the royal household, could only appear, the ladies in trimmings
and headdresses, the gentlemen in ruffles and cravats of the royal
manufacture."
PLATE L.
[Illustration: CHENILLE RUN ON A BOBBIN GROUND.--Taken from an early
eighteenth century Court dress, and typical of a French dress passementerie
of that date. About half size.]
PLATE LI.
[Illustration: BRUSSELS. BOBBIN-MADE.--Early eighteenth century. Width, 3
in. Photos by A. Dryden from private collections.]
_To face page 156._
{157}Unfortunately for this story, the Château de Lonrai came into the
family of Colbert fourteen years after the establishment of the
lace-industry at Alençon,[457] and the name of Gilbert is not found in any
of the documents relating to the establishment of point de France, nor in
the correspondence of Colbert.[458]
An ordinance of August 5th, 1665, founded upon a large scale the
manufacture of points de France,[459] with an exclusive privilege for ten
years and a grant of 36,000 {158}francs. A company was formed,[460] its
members rapidly increased, and in 1668 the capital amounted to 22,000
livres. Eight directors were appointed at salaries of 12,000 livres a year
to conduct the manufacture, and the company held its sittings in the Hôtel
de Beaufort at Paris. The first distribution of profits took place in
October, 1669, amounting to fifty per cent. upon each share. In 1670 a
fresh distribution took place, and 120,000 livres were divided among the
shareholders. That of 1673 was still more considerable. In 1675 the ten
years' privilege ceased, the money was returned, and the rest of the
profits divided. Colbert likewise set up a fabric at the Château de Madrid,
built by Francis I., on the Bois de Boulogne. Such was the origin of point
lace in France.
The difficulties met by Colbert in establishing his manufactories can only
be estimated by reading his correspondence, in which there are no less than
fifty letters on the subject. The apathy of the town authorities and the
constant rebellions of the lace-workers who preferred their old stitch were
incessant sources of trouble to him, but eventually Colbert's plan was
crowned with success. He established a lucrative manufacture which brought
large sums of money into the kingdom[461] instead of sending it out. Well
might he say that[462] "Fashion was to France what the mines of Peru were
to Spain."[463]
{159}Boileau alludes to the success of the minister in his "Epistle to
Louis XIV":--
"Et nos voisins frustrés de ces tributs serviles
Que payait à leur art le luxe de nos villes."[464]
The point de France supplanted that of Venice,[465] but its price confined
its use to the rich, and when the wearing of lace became general those who
could not afford so costly a production replaced it by the more moderate
pillow-lace. This explains the great extension of the pillow-lace
manufacture at this period--the production did not suffice for the demand.
Encouraged by the success of the royal manufactures, lace fabrics started
up in various towns in the kingdom. The number of lace-workers increased
rapidly. Those of the towns being insufficient, they were sought for in the
surrounding country, and each town became the {160}centre of a trade
extending round it in a radius of several miles, the work being given out
from the manufactory to be executed by the cottagers in their own
homes.[466]
{161}CHAPTER X.
LOUIS XIV.--_continued_.
"Tout change: la raison change aussi de méthode;
Écrits, habillemens, systèmes: tout est mode."
Racine fils, _Epître à Rousseau_.
Point de France continued to be worn in the greatest profusion during the
reign of Louis XIV. The King affected his new-born fabric much as monarchs
of the present day do their tapestries and their porcelains. It decorated
the Church and her ministers. Ladies offered "tours de chaire à l'église de
la paroisse."[467] Albs, "garnies d'un grand point de France brodé
antique";[468] altar-cloths trimmed with Argentan[469] appear in the church
registers.[470] In a painting at Versailles, by Rigaud, representing the
presentation of the Grand Dauphin to his royal father, 1668, the infant is
enveloped in a mantle of the richest point (Fig. 74); and point de France
was selected by royal command to trim the sheets of holland used at the
ceremony of his "nomination."[471] At the marriage of the Prince de Conti
and of Mademoiselle de Blois the toilette[472] presented {162}by the King
was "garnie de point de France si haut qu'on ne voyait point de
toile."[473] The valance, too, and the coverlet of the bed were of the same
material.[474]
In this luxury, however, England followed her sister kingdom, for we read
in the _Royal Magazine_ of 1763 that on the baptism of the young prince,
afterwards Duke of York, the company went to the council chamber at St.
James's, where a splendid bed was set up for the Queen to sit on, the
counterpane of which is described as of inimitable workmanship, the lace
alone costing £3,783 sterling.[475] "What princes do themselves, they
engage others to do," says Quintilian, and the words of the critic were, in
this case, fully verified: jupes,[476] corsets, mantles, aprons with their
bibs,[477] shoes,[478] gloves,[479] even the fans were now trimmed with
point de France.[480]
At the audience given by the Dauphine to the Siamese ambassadors, "à ses
relevailles," she received them in a bed "presque tout couvert d'un tres
beau point de France, sur lesquels on avoit mis des riches carreaux."[481]
On the occasion of their visit to Versailles, Louis, proud of his fabric,
presented the ambassadors with cravats and ruffles of the finest
point.[482] These cravats were either worn of point, in one piece, or
partly of muslin tied, with falling lace ends.[483] (Fig. 75.)
[Illustration: Fig. 74.
LE GRAND BÉBÉ. (M. de Versailles.)
_To face page 162._]
{163}In 1679 the king gave a fête at Marly to the élite of his brilliant
court. When, at sunset, the ladies retired to repair their toilettes,
previous to the ball, each found in her dressing-room a robe fresh and
elegant, trimmed with point of the most exquisite texture, a present from
that gallant monarch not yet termed "l'inamusable."
Nor was the Veuve Scarron behind the rest. When, in 1674, she purchased the
estate from which she afterwards derived her title of Maintenon, anxious to
render it productive, she enticed Flemish workers from the frontier to
establish a lace manufacture upon her newly-acquired marquisate. How the
fabric succeeded history does not relate, but the costly laces depicted in
her portraits (Fig. 76) have not the appearance of home manufacture.
[Illustration: Fig. 75.
LOUVOIS. 1691.--(From his statue by Girardon. M. de Versailles.)]
Point lace-making became a favourite employment among ladies. We have many
engravings of this reign; one, 1691, of a "fille de qualité" thus occupied,
with the motto, "Apres {164}dîner vous travaillez au point." Another,[484]
an engraving of Le Paultre, dated 1676, is entitled "Dame en Déshabille de
Chambre" (Fig. 77).
"La France est la tête du monde" (as regards fashion), says Victor Hugo,
"cyclope dont Paris est l'oeil"; and writers of all ages seem to have been
of the same opinion. It was about the year 1680 that the
"Mode féconde en mille inventions,
Monstre, prodige étrange et difforme,"
was suddenly exemplified in France.
[Illustration: Fig. 76.
MADAME DE MAINTENON.--(From her portrait. M. de Versailles.)]
All readers of this great reign will recall to mind the story of the
"Fontanges." How in the hurry of the chase the locks of the royal favourite
burst from the ribbon that bound them--how the fair huntress, hurriedly
tying the lace kerchief round her head, produced in one moment a coiffure
so light, so artistic, that Louis XIV., enchanted, prayed her to retain it
for that night at court. The lady obeyed the royal command. This mixture of
lace and ribbon, now worn for the first time, caused a sensation, and the
next day all {165}the ladies of the court appeared "coiffées à la
Fontange." (See Madame du Lude, Fig. 79.)
[Illustration: Fig. 77.
A LADY IN MORNING DÉSHABILLE.--(From an engraving by Le Paultre. 1676.)]
But this head-dress, with its tiers of point mounted on wires,[485] soon
ceased to be artistic; it grew higher and higher. Poets and satirists
attacked the fashion much as they did the high head-dresses of the Roman
matrons more than a thousand years ago.[486] Of the extinction of this mode
{166}we have various accounts, some asserting it to have been preached down
by the clergy, as were the _hennins_ in the time of Charles VI.; but the
most probable story is that which relates how, in October, 1699, Louis XIV.
simply observed, "Cette coiffure lui paroissoit désagréable." The ladies
worked all night, and next evening, at the Duchess of Burgundy's
reception,[487] appeared for the first time in a low head-dress.
Fashion,[488] which the author of the before-quoted _Consolation_ would
call _pompeux_, was "aujourd'hui en reforme." Louis XIV. never appreciated
the sacrifice; to the day of his death he persisted in saying, "J'ai eu
beau crier contre les coiffures trop hautes." No one showed the slightest
desire to lower them till one day there arrived "une inconnue, une guenille
d'Angleterre" (Lady Sandwich, the English Ambassadress!!), "avec une petite
coiffure basse--tout d'un coup, toutes les princesses vont d'une extrémité
a l'autre."[489] Be the accusation true or not, the _Mercure_ of November,
1699, announces that "La hauteur des anciennes coiffures commence á
paroître ridicule"; and St. Simon, in his _Memoirs_, satirises the fontange
as a "structure of brass wire, ribbons, hair, and baubles of all sorts,
about two feet high, which made a woman's face look as if it were in the
middle of her body."
In these days lace was not confined to Versailles and the Court.[490]
"Le gentilhomme," writes Capefigue, "allait au feu en manchettes poudré à
la maréchale, les eaux se senteur sur son mouchoir en point d'Angleterre,
l'élégance n'a jamais fait tort au courage, et la politesse s'allie
noblement à la bravoure."
But war brings destruction to laces as well as finances, {167}and in 1690
the loyal and noble army was found in rags. Then writes Dangeau: "M. de
Castanaga, à qui M. de Maine et M. de Luxembourg avoient demandé un
passeport pour fair venir des dentelles à l'armée, a refusé le passeport,
mais il a envoyé des marchands qui ont porté pour dix mille écus de
dentelles, et après qu'on les eut achetées, les marchands s'en retournèrent
sans vouloir prendre d'argent, disant qu'ils avoient cet ordre de M. de
Castanaga."
"J'avois une Steinkerque de Malines," writes the Abbé de Choisy, who always
dressed in female attire. We hear a great deal about these Steinkirks at
the end of the seventeenth century. It was a twisted lace necktie, and owed
its origin to the battle of that name in 1692,[491] when the young French
Princes of the Blood were suddenly ordered into action. Hastily tying their
lace cravats--in peaceful times a most elaborate proceeding--they rushed to
the charge, and gained the day. In honour of this event, both ladies and
cavaliers wore their handkerchiefs knotted or twisted in this careless
fashion.
"Je trouve qu'en été le Steinkerque est commode,
J'aime le falbala,[492] quoiqu'il soit critiqué,"
says somebody. Steinkirks became the rage, and held good for many years,
worn alike in England[493] and France by the women and the men. Fig. 78
represents the Grand Dauphin in his "longue Steinkerque à replis
tortueux";[494] Fig. 79 the Duchesse du Lude[495] in similar costume and
high Fontange, both copied from prints of the time.
We find constant mention now of the fashion of wearing a lace ruffle to the
ladies' sleeves, concerning the wearing of which "à deux rangs," or "à
trois rangs," there was much etiquette.
The falbalas were not given up until after the Regency; the use of them was
frequently carried to such an excess {168}that a caricaturist of that
period drew a lady so enveloped in them that she "looked like a turkey
shaking its feathers and spreading its comb." This caricature gave rise to
a popular song called "La Dinde aux Falbalas"; but in despite of song and
caricature, the flounce continued in popularity.
"Les manches plates se font de deux tiers de tour, avec une dentelle de fil
de point fort fin et fort haut. On nomme ces manches Engageantes."[496]
This fashion, though introduced in 1688, continued in vogue till the French
Revolution. We see them in the portrait of Madame Palatine, mother of the
Regent (Fig. 80), and in that of Madame Sophie de France, daughter of Louis
XV., taken in 1782 by Drouais.
[Illustration: Fig. 78.
LE GRAND DAUPHIN EN STEINKERQUE.]
[Illustration: Fig. 79.
MADAME DU LUDE EN STEINKERQUE.
_To face page 168._]
{169}[Illustration: Fig. 80.
MADAME PALATINE (ELIZ. CHARLOTTE DE BAVIÈRE), DUCHESSE D'ORLÉANS.
(By Rigaud. M. de Versailles.)]
Before finishing with point de France, we must allude to the équipage de
bain, in which this fabric formed a great item. As early as 1688, Madame de
Maintenon presents Madame de Chevreuse with an "équipage de bain de point
de France" of great magnificence. It consisted not only of a peignoir, but
a broad flounce, which formed a valance round the bath itself. You can see
them in old engravings of the day. Then there were the towels and the
_descente_, all equally costly,[497] for the French ladies of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries admitted their _habitués_ not only to
the _ruelle_,[498] but also to the bath-room.[499] In the latter case the
bath {170}was _au lait_, _i.e._, clouded by the mixture of some essence.
"Aux autres temps, autres moeurs."
The "fameuse poupée" of the reign of Louis XIV. must not be forgotten. The
custom of dressing up these great dolls originated in the salons of the
Hôtel Rambouillet, where one, termed "la grande Pandore," at each change of
fashion was exhibited "en grand tenue"; a second, the little Pandore, in
morning _déshabille_. These dolls were sent to Vienna and Italy, charged
with the finest laces France could produce. As late as 1764 we read in the
_Espion Chinois_, "Il a débarqué à Douvres un grand nombre de poupées de
hauteur naturelle habillées à la mode de Paris, afin que les dames de
qualité puissent régler leurs goûts sur ces modèles."[500] Even when
English ports were closed in war-time, a special permission was given for
the entry of a large alabaster doll four feet high, the Grand Courrier de
la Mode.[501] In the war of the First Empire this privilege was refused to
our countrywomen; and from that time Englishwomen, deprived of all French
aid for a whole generation, began to dress badly. Pitt has much to answer
for. With this notice finishes our account of the reign of Louis XIV.
PLATE LII.
[Illustration: BRUSSELS. MODERN POINT DE GAZE.--Actual size.
Photo by A. Dryden.]
_To face page 170._
{171}CHAPTER XI.
LOUIS XV.
"Le luxe corrompt tout, et le riche qui en jouit, et le pauvre qui le
convoite."
--J. J. Rousseau.
Louis XIV. is now dead, to the delight of a wearied nation: we enter on the
Regency and times of Louis XV.--that age of "fourchettes," manchettes, and
jabots--in which the butterfly abbés, "les porte-dentelles par excellence,"
played so conspicuous a part.
The origin of the weeping ruffles, if Mercier[502] is to be credited, may
be assigned to other causes than royal decree or the edicts of fashion.
"Les grandes manchettes furent introduites par des fripons qui voulaient
filouter au jeu et escamoter des cartes." It never answers to investigate
too deeply the origin of a new invented mode,--sufficient to say, ruffles
became a necessary adjunct to the toilet of every gentleman. So
indispensable were they, the Parisians are accused of adopting the custom
of wearing ruffles and no shirts.
"Les Parisiens," writes Mercier, "achètent quatre ajustemens contre une
chemise. Un beau Monsieur se met une chemise blanche tous les quinze jours.
Il coud ses manchettes de dentelle sur une chemise sale," and powders over
his point collar till it looks white.[503] This habit passed into a
proverb. The Maréchal de Richelieu, who, though versed in astronomy, could
not spell, said of himself, "Qu'on ne lui avoit pas fourni des chemises,
mais qu'il avoit acheté des {172}manchettes."[504] This account tallies
well with former accounts[505] and with a letter of Madame de Maintenon to
the Princess des Ursins, 1710.[506]
At this period it was the custom for grisettes to besiege the Paris hotels,
bearing on their arms baskets decked out with ruffles and jabots of
Malines, Angleterre, and point. What reader of Sterne will not recollect
the lace-seller in his _Sentimental Journey_?
The jabot and manchettes of points were the customary "cadeau de noces" of
the bride to her intended for his wedding dress--a relic of which practice
may be found in the embroidered wedding shirt furnished by the lady, in the
North of Europe.[507] The sums expended in these articles would now appear
fabulous. The Archbishop of Cambray[508] alone possessed four dozen pairs
of ruffles, Malines, point, and Valenciennes. The Wardrobe Bills of the
Duke de Penthièvre of 1738 make mention of little else. An ell and a
quarter of lace was required for one pair of ruffles. A yard, minus 1/16,
sufficed for the jabot.[509] There were manchettes de jour, manchettes
tournantes,[510] and manchettes de nuit: these last-named were mostly of
Valenciennes.[511] The {173}point d'Alençon ruffles of Buffon, which he
always wore, even when writing, were exhibited in 1864 at Falaise, being
carefully preserved in the family to whom they have descended.
Even, if a contemporary writer may be credited, "Monsieur de Paris," the
executioner, mounted the scaffold in a velvet suit, powdered, with point
lace jabot and ruffles.
"Les rubans, les miroirs, les dentelles sont trois choses sans lesquelles
les François ne peuvent vivre. Le luxe démesuré a confondu le maître avec
le valet,"[512] says an unknown writer, quoted by Dulaure.[513] The
servants of the last century had on their state liveries lace equal in
richness to that worn by their masters.[514] Of a Prussian gentleman, we
read, "His valets, who according to the reigning tastes were the prettiest
in the world, wore nothing but the most costly lace."[515] This custom was
not confined, however, to France or the Continent. "Our very footmen,"
writes the angry _World_, "are adorned with gold and {174}silver bags and
lace ruffles. The valet is only distinguished from his master by being
better dressed;" while the _Connoisseur_ complains of "roast beef being
banished from even 'down stairs,' because the powdered footmen will not
touch it for fear of daubing their lace ruffles."[516]
But the time, of all others, for a grand display of lace was at a visit to
a Parisian lady on her "relevailles," or "uprising," as it was called, in
the days of our third Edward. Reclining on a chaise longue, she is
described as awaiting her visitors. Nothing is to be seen but the finest
laces, arranged in artistic folds, and long bows of ribbon. An attendant
stationed at the door asks of each new arrival, "Have you any perfumes?"
She replies not, and passes on--an atmosphere of fragrance. The lady must
not be spoken to, but, the usual compliments over, the visitors proceed to
admire her lace. "Beautiful, exquisite!"--but, "Hist! speak low," and she
who gave the caution is the first, in true French style, to speak the
loudest.[517]
Lace "garnitures de lit" were general among great people as early as 1696.
The _Mercure_ speaks of "draps garnis d'une grande dentelle de point
d'Angleterre." In 1738 writes the Duc de Luynes,[518] "Aujourd'hui Madame
de Luynes s'est fait apporter les fournitures qu'elle avoit choisies pour
la Reine, et qui regardent les dames d'honneur. Elles consistent en
couvrepieds[519] garnis de dentelle pour le grand lit et pour les petits,
en taies d'oreiller[520] garnies du {175}même point d'Angleterre, etc.
Cette fourniture coûte environ 30,000 livres, quoique Madame de Luynes
n'ait pas fait renouveler les beaux couvrepieds de la Reine." These
garnitures were renewed every year, and Madame de Luynes inherited the old
ones.
[Illustration: Fig. 81.
MADAME SOPHIE DE FRANCE, 1782, DAUGHTER OF LOUIS XV. By Drouais. M. de
Versailles. (In this picture the hexagonal brides and heavy relief of Point
d'Argentan are clearly to be seen.)]
{176}[Illustration: Fig. 82.
MADAME ADÉLAÏDE DE FRANCE, DAUGHTER OF LOUIS XV.--(M. de Versailles.)]
Madame de Créquy, describing her visit to the Duchesse Douairière de La
Ferté, says, when that lady received her, she was lying in a state bed,
under a coverlet made of point de Venise in one piece. "I am persuaded,"
she adds, "that the trimming of her sheets, which were of point d'Argentan,
were worth at least 40,000 écus."[521] To such a pitch had the taste for
lace-trimmed linen attained, that when, in 1739, Madame, eldest daughter of
Louis XV., espoused the Prince of Spain, the bill for these articles alone
amounted to £25,000; and when Cardinal Fleury, a most economical prelate,
saw the trousseau, he observed, "Qu'il croyait que c'etait pour marier
toutes les sept Mesdames."[522] (Figs. 81, 82). Again, Swinburne writes
from Paris:[523] "The trousseau of Mademoiselle de Matignon will cost
100,000 crowns (£25,000). The expense here of rigging[524] out a bride is
equal to a handsome portion in England. Five thousand pounds' worth of
lace, linen, etc., is a common thing among them."
PLATE LIII.
[Illustration: MADAME LOUISE DE FRANCE. Trimmings and tablier of Point
d'Argentan.
Painted by Nattier at the age of eleven, 1748. M. de Versailles.]
_To face page 176._
{177}[Illustration: Fig. 83.
MARIE THÉRÈSE ANT. RAPH., INFANTA OF SPAIN, FIRST WIFE OF LOUIS DAUPHIN,
SON OF LOUIS XV.
--By Tocqué. Dated 1748. M. de Versailles.]
The masks worn by the ladies at this period were of black blonde lace[525]
of the most exquisite fineness and design.[526] They were trimmed round the
eyes, like those described by Scarron:--
"Dirai-je comme ces fantasques
Qui portent dentelle à leurs masques,
En chamarrent les trous des yeux,
Croyant que le masque en est mieux."
In the reign of Louis XV., point de France was rivalled {178}by the
productions of Angleterre[527] and Malines. Argentan and Alençon (Fig. 83)
were declared by fashion to be "dentelles d'hiver:" each lace now had its
appointed season.[528] "On porte le point en hiver," says the Dictionary of
the Academy.
There was much etiquette, too, in the court of France, as regards lace,
which was never worn in mourning. Dangeau chronicles, on the death of the
Princess of Baden, "Le roi qui avoit repris les dentelles et les rubans
d'or et d'argent, reprend demain le linge uni et les rubans unis
aussi."[529]
"Madame" thus describes the "petit deuil" of the Margrave of Anspach: "Avec
des dentelles blanches sur le noir, du beau ruban bleu, à dentelles
blanches et noires. C'etoit une parure magnifique."[530]
{179}CHAPTER XII.
LOUIS XVI. TO THE EMPIRE.
"Proud Versailles! thy glory falls."--Pope.
[Illustration: Fig. 84.
MARIE-ANTOINETTE.--From a picture by Madame Le Brun. M. de Versailles.]
In the reign of Louis XVI. society, tired out with ceremony and the stately
manners of the old court, at last began to emancipate itself.
Marie-Antoinette (Fig. 84) first gave the signal. Rid herself of the
preaching of "Madame Etiquette" she could not on state occasions, so she
did her best to amuse herself in private. The finest Indian muslin now
supplanted the heavy points of the old court. Madame du Barry, in her
_Memoirs_, mentions the purchase of Indian muslin so fine {180}that the
piece did not weigh fifteen ounces, although sufficient to make four
dresses. "The ladies looked," indignantly observed the Maréchale de
Luxembourg, "in their muslin aprons and handkerchiefs like cooks and
convent porters."[531] To signify her disapproval of this new-fangled
custom, the Maréchale sent her grand-daughter, the Duchesse de Lauzun, an
apron of sailcloth trimmed with fine point and six fichus of the same
material similarly decorated. Tulle and marli[532] were much worn during
the latter years of the Queen's life, and entries of tulle, marli, blondes,
and embroidered linens occur over and over again in Madame Eloffe's
accounts with the Queen. The richer ornamental laces were not worn, and one
reads of items such as "a gauze fichu trimmed with white _prétention_."
On leaving Versailles for the last time (October 6th, 1789), Marie
Antoinette distributed among her suite all that remained of her fans and
laces.
The arrangement of the lace lappets was still preserved by rule. "Lappets
to be pinned up"--lappets to be let down on grand occasions.[533] Later
Madame de Staël, like a true _bas-bleu_--without speaking of her curtsey to
Marie Antoinette, which was all wrong--on her first visit of ceremony to
Madame de Polignac, in defiance of all etiquette, left her lace lappets in
the carriage.
The democratic spirit of the age now first creeps out in {181}the fashions.
Among the rich _parures_ of Du Barry[534] we find "barbes à la
paysanne"--everything now becomes "à coquille," "à papillon."
Even the Queen's hairdresser, Léonard, "qui
"Portait jusques au ciel l'audace de ses coiffures,"
did not venture to introduce much lace.
The affected phraseology of the day is very "precious" in its absurdity. We
read of the toilette of Mademoiselle Duthé in which she appeared at the
opera. She wore a robe "soupirs étouffés," trimmed with "regrets
superflus"; a point of "candeur parfaite, garnie en plaintes indiscrètes";
ribbons en "attentions marquées"; shoes "cheveux de la reine,"[535]
embroidered with diamonds, "en coups perfides" and "venez-y-voir" in
emeralds. Her hair "en sentiments soutenus," with a cap of "conquête
assurée," trimmed with ribbons of "oeil abattu"; a "chat[536] sur le col,"
the colour of "gueux nouvellement arrivé," and upon her shoulders a Médicis
"en bienséance," and her muff of "agitation momentanée."
In the accounts of Mademoiselle Bertin, the Queen's milliner, known for her
saying, "Il n'y a rien de nouveau dans ce monde que ce qui est oublié," we
have little mention of lace.[537]
{182}"Blond à fond d'Alençon semé à poix, à mouches," now usurps the place
of the old points. Even one of the "grandes dames de la vieille cour,"
Madame Adélaïde de France herself, is represented in her picture by Madame
Guiard with a spotted handkerchief, probably of blonde (Fig. 85).
[Illustration: Fig. 85.
MADAME ADÉLAÏDE DE FRANCE.--After a picture by Madame Guiard, dated 1787.
M. de Versailles.]
The Church alone protects the ancient fabrics. The lace of the Rohan
family, almost hereditary Princes Archbishops of Strasburg, was of
inestimable value. "We met," writes the Baroness de Oberkirch, "the
cardinal coming out of his chapel dressed in a soutane of scarlet moire and
rochet of English lace of inestimable value. When on great occasions he
officiates at Versailles, he wears an alb of old lace 'en point à
l'aiguille' of such beauty that his assistants were almost afraid to touch
it. His arms and device are worked in a medallion above the large flowers.
This alb is estimated at 100,000 livres. On the day of which I speak he
wore the rochet of English lace, one of his least beautiful, as his
{183}secretary, the Abbé Georget, told me."[538] On his elevation to the
see of Bourges (1859), Monseigneur de La Tour d'Auvergne celebrated mass at
Rome arrayed with all the sacerdotal ornaments of point d'Alençon of the
finest workmanship. This lace descended to him from his uncle, Cardinal de
La Tour d'Auvergne, who had inherited it from his mother, Madame d'Aumale,
so well known as the friend of Madame de Maintenon. Under the first Empire,
a complete suit of lace was offered to the prelate for sale, which had
belonged to Marie-Antoinette. This lace is described as formed of squares
of old point d'Angleterre or de Flandre, each representing a different
subject. The beauty of the lace and its historic interest decided his
Eminence to speak of it to his colleague, Cardinal de Bonald, and these two
prelates united their resources, bought the lace, and divided it.
But this extravagance and luxury were now soon to end. The years of '92 and
'93 were approaching. The great nobility of France, who patronised the rich
manufactures of the kingdom at the expense of a peasantry starving on
estates they seldom if ever visited, were ere long outcasts in foreign
countries. The French Revolution was fatal to the lace trade. For twelve
years the manufacture almost ceased, and more than thirty different fabrics
entirely disappeared.[539] Its merits were, however, recognised by the
Etats Généraux in 1789, who, when previous to meeting they settled the
costume of the three estates, decreed to the _noblesse_ a lace cravat. It
was not until 1801, when Napoleon wished to "faire revenir le luxe," that
we again find it chronicled in the annals of the day: "How charming
Caroline Murat looked in her white mantelet of point de Bruxelles et sa
robe garnie des mêmes dentelles," etc. The old laces were the work of
years, and transmitted as heirlooms[540] from generation to generation.
{184}They were often heavy and overloaded with ornament. The ancient style
was now discarded and a lighter description introduced. By an improvement
in the point de raccroc several sections of lace were joined together so as
to form one large piece; thus ten workers could now produce in a month what
had formerly been the work of years.
Napoleon especially patronised the fabrics of Alençon, Brussels, and
Chantilly. He endeavoured, too, without success, to raise that of
Valenciennes. After the example of Louis XIV., he made the wearing of his
two favourite points obligatory at the Court of the Tuileries, and it is to
his protection these towns owe the preservation of their manufactures. The
lace-makers spoke of the rich orders received from the imperial court as
the most remarkable epoch in their industrial career. Never was the beauty
and costliness of the laces made for the marriage of Marie-Louise yet
surpassed. To reproduce them now would, estimates M. Aubry, cost above a
million of francs. Napoleon was a great lover of lace: he admired it as a
work of art, and was proud of the proficiency of his subjects. Mademoiselle
d'Avrillion relates the following anecdote:--The Princess Pauline had given
orders to the Empress Joséphine's lace-maker for a dress and various
objects to the value of 30,000 francs. When the order was completed and the
lace brought home, the Princess changed her mind and refused to take them.
Madame Lesoeur, in despair, appealed to the Empress. She, thinking the
price not unreasonable, considering the beauty of the points, showed them
to Napoleon, and told him the circumstance. "I was in the room at the
time," writes the authoress of the _Mémoires_. The Emperor examined
minutely each carton, exclaiming at intervals, "Comme on travaille bien en
France, je dois encourager un pareil commerce. Pauline a grand tort." He
ended by paying the bill and distributing the laces among the ladies of the
court.[541] Indeed, it may be said that never {185}was lace more in vogue
than during the early days of the Empire.
The morning costume of a French duchesse of that court is described in the
following terms:--"Elle portait un peignoir brodé en mousseline garni d'une
Angleterre très-belle, une fraise en point d'Angleterre. Sur sa tête la
duchesse avait jeté en se levant une sorte de 'baigneuse,' comme nos mères
l'auraient appelée, en point d'Angleterre, garnie de rubans de satin rose
pâle."[542] The fair sister of Napoleon, the Princess Pauline Borghese,
"s'est passionnée," as the term ran, "pour les dentelles."[543]
That Napoleon's example was quickly followed by the _élégantes_ of the
Directory, the following account, given to the brother of the author by an
elderly lady who visited Paris during that very short period[544] when the
English flocked to the Continent, of a ball at Madame Récamier's, to which
she had an invitation, will testify.
The First Consul was expected, and the _élite_ of Paris early thronged the
_salons_ of the charming hostess, but where was Madame Récamier?
"_Souffrante_," the murmur ran, retained to her bed by a sudden
indisposition. She would, however, receive her guests _couchée_.
The company passed to the bedroom of the lady, which, as still the custom
in France, opened on one of the principal _salons_. There, in a gilded bed,
lay Madame Récamier, the most beautiful woman in France. The bed-curtains
were of the finest Brussels lace, bordered with garlands of honeysuckle,
and lined with satin of the palest rose. The _couvrepied_ was of the same
material; from the pillow of embroidered cambric fell "des flots de
Valenciennes."
The lady herself wore a _peignoir_ trimmed with the most exquisite English
point. Never had she looked more lovely--never had she done the honours of
her hotel more gracefully. And so she received Napoleon--so she received
the heroes of that great empire. All admired her "fortitude," her
_dévouement_, in thus sacrificing herself to society, and on the following
day "tout Paris s'est fait inscrire chez elle." Never had such anxiety been
expressed--never had woman gained such a triumph.
{186}The Duchesse d'Abrantès, who married in the year 1800, describing her
trousseau,[545] says she had "des mouchoirs, des jupons, des canezous du
matin, des peignoirs de mousseline de l'Inde, des camisoles de nuit, des
bonnets de nuit, des bonnets de matin, de toutes les couleurs, de toutes
les formes, et tout cela brodé, garni de Valenciennes ou de Malines, ou de
point d'Angleterre." In the corbeille de mariage, with the cachemires were
"les voiles de point d'Angleterre, les garnitures de robes en point à
l'aiguille, et en point de Bruxelles, ainsi qu'en blonde pour l'été. Il y
avait aussi des robes de blonde blanche et de dentelle noire," etc. When
they go to the Mairie, she describes her costume: "J'avais une robe de
mousseline de l'Inde brodée au plumetis et en points à jour, comme c'était
alors la mode. Cette robe était à queue, montante et avec de longues
manches, le lé de devant entièrement brodé ainsi que le tour du corsage, le
bout des manches, qu'on appelait alors amadis. La fraise était en
magnifique point à l'aiguille, sur ma tête j'avais un bonnet en point de
Bruxelles.... Au sommet du bonnet était attachée une petite couronne de
fleurs d'oranger, d'où partait un long voile en point d'Angleterre qui
tombait à mes pieds et dont je pouvais presque m'envelopper." Madame Junot
winds up by saying that "Cette profusion de riches dentelles, si fines, si
déliées ne semblaient être qu'un réseau nuageux autour de mon visage, où
elles se jouaient dans les boucles de mes cheveux."
Hamlet always used to appear on the stage in lace cravat and ruffles, and
Talma, the French tragedian, was very proud of his wardrobe of lace. Dr.
Doran relates of him that on one occasion, when stopped by the Belgian
custom-house officers at the frontier, an official, turning over his
wardrobe, his stage costumes, etc., contemptuously styled them "habits de
Polichinelle." Talma, in a rage exclaimed, "Habits de Polichinelle! Why,
the lace of my jabot and ruffles alone is worth fifty louis a yard, and I
wear it on my private costume." "And must pay for it accordingly," added
the official. "Punch's clothes might pass untaxed, but Monsieur Talma's
lace owes duty to our king." Talma was forced to submit.
The French lace manufacture felt the political events of {187}1813 to 1817,
but experienced a more severe crisis in 1818, when bobbin net was first
made in France. Fashion at once adopted the new material, and pillow lace
was for a time discarded. For fifteen years lace encountered a fearful
competition. The manufacturers were forced to lower their prices and
diminish the produce. The marts of Europe were inundated with tulle; but
happily a new channel for exportation was opened in the United States of
North America. In time a reaction took place, and in 1834, with the
exception of Alençon, all the other fabrics were once more in full
activity.[546] But a cheaper class of lace had been introduced. In 1832-33
cotton thread first began to be substituted for flax.[547] The lace-makers
readily adopted the change; they found cotton more elastic and less
expensive. It gives, too, a brilliant appearance, and breaks less easily in
the working. All manufacturers now use the Scotch cotton, with the
exception of Alençon, some choice pieces of Brussels, and the finer
qualities of Mechlin and Valenciennes. The difference is not to be detected
by the eye; both materials wash equally well.
We now turn to the various lace manufactures of France, taking each in its
order.
{188}CHAPTER XIII.
THE LACE MANUFACTURES OF FRANCE.
France is a lace-making, as well as a lace-wearing, country.
Of the half a million of lace-makers in Europe, nearly a quarter of a
million are estimated as belonging to France.
Under the impulse of fashion and luxury, lace receives the stamp of the
special style of each country. Italy furnished its points of Venice and
Genoa. The Netherlands, its Brussels, Mechlin, and Valenciennes. Spain, its
silk blondes. England, its Honiton. France, its sumptuous point d'Alençon,
and its black lace of Bayeux and Chantilly. Now, each style is copied by
every nation; and though France cannot compete with Belgium in the points
of Brussels, or the Valenciennes of Ypres, she has no rival in her points
of Alençon and her white blondes, or her black silk laces. To begin with
Alençon, the only French lace not made on the pillow.
ALENÇON (DÉP. ORNE), NORMANDY.
"Alenchon est sous Sarthe assis,
Il luic divise le pays."--_Romant de Rou._
We have already related how the manufacture of point lace was established
by Colbert. The _entrepreneurs_ had found the lace industry flourishing at
the time of the point de France. (Page 155.)
PLATE LIV.
[Illustration: FRENCH. Border of POINT PLAT DE FRANCE to a baptismal veil
of embroidered muslin.--The orderly arrangement of the "brides" differs
from the Venetian, and foreshadows the "grande maille picotée."
In the Musée Cinquantenaire, Brussels.]
_To face page 188._
{189}[Illustration: Fig. 86.
COLBERT + 1683.--M. de Versailles.]
Point d'Alençon is mentioned in the _Révolte des Passemens_, 1661,
evidently as an advanced manufacture; but the monopoly of the privileged
workmen--the new-comers--displeased the old workwomen, and Colbert[548] was
too despotic in his orders prohibiting to make any kind of point except
that of the royal manufactory, and made the people so indignant that they
revolted. The intendant, Favier-Duboulay, writes to Colbert, August 1665,
that one named Le Prevost, of this town, having given suspicion to the
people that he was about to form an establishment of "ouvrages de fil," the
women to the number of above a thousand assembled, and pursued him so that,
if he had not managed to escape their fury, he would assuredly have
suffered from their violence. "He took refuge with me," he writes, "and I
with difficulty appeased the multitude by assuring them that they would not
be deprived of the liberty of working. It is a fact that for many years the
town of Alençon subsists only by means of these small works of lace: that
the same people make and sell, and in years of scarcity they subsist only
by this little industry, and that wishing to {190}take away their liberty,
they were so incensed I had great difficulty in pacifying them."
The Act, it appears, had come from the Parliament of Paris, but as Alençon
is in Normandy, it was necessary to have the assent of the Parliament of
Rouen.
The remonstrance of the intendant (see his letter in Chap. IX., page 155)
met with the attention it deserved.
On September 14th following, after a meeting headed by Prevost and the
Marquis de Pasax, intendant of the city, it was settled that after the king
had found 200 girls, the rest were at liberty to work as they pleased; none
had permission to make the fine point of the royal pattern, except those
who worked for the manufactory; and all girls must show to the authorities
the patterns they intended working, "so that the King shall be satisfied,
and the people gain a livelihood."
The "maîtresse dentellière," Catherine Marcq, writes to Colbert, November
30th, 1665, complaining of the obstinacy of the people, who prefer the old
work. "Out of 8,000 women, we have got but 700, and I can only count on 250
who at least will have learnt to perfection the Venetian point, the
remainder merely working a month and then leaving the establishment."
The new points are duly chronicled.[549] In 1677 the _Mercure_ announces,
"They make now many points de France without grounds, and 'picots en
campannes' to all the five handkerchiefs. We have seen some with little
flowers over the large, which might be styled 'flying flowers,' being only
attached in the centre."
In 1678 it says: "The last points de France have no brides, the fleurons
are closer together. The flowers, which are in higher relief in the centre,
and lower at the edges, are united by small stalks and flowers, which keep
them in their places, instead of brides. The manner of disposing the
branches, called 'ordonnances,' is of two kinds: the one is a twirling
stalk, which throws out flowers; the other is regular--a centre flower,
throwing out regular branches on each side." In October of the same year,
the _Mercure_ says: {191}"There has been no change in the patterns," and it
does not allude to them again. What can these be but Venice patterns? The
flower upon flower--like "fleurs volante"--exactly answers to the point in
high relief (Fig. 87).
[Illustration: Fig. 87.
VENICE POINT.--"Dentelle Volante."]
A memoir drawn up in 1698 by M. de Pommereu[550] is the next mention we
find of the fabric of Alençon. "The manufacture of the points de France is
also," he says, "one of the most considerable in the country. This fabric
began at Alençon, where most of the women and girls work at it, to the
number of more than eight to nine hundred, without counting those in the
country, which are in considerable numbers. It is a commerce of about
500,000 livres per annum. This point is called 'vilain'[551] in the
country; the principal sale was in Paris during the war, but the demand
increases very much since the peace, in consequence of its exportation to
foreign countries." The number of lace-workers given by M. Pommereu appears
small, but Alençon {192}manufacture was then on the decline. The death of
its protector, Colbert (1683), and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes,
which reduced the population one-third, the industrial families (qui
faisaient le principal commerce) retiring to England and Scotland, the long
wars of Louis XIV., and, finally, his death in 1715, all contributed to
diminish its prosperity.[552]
Savary, writing in 1726, mentions the manufacture of Alençon as not being
so flourishing, but attributes it to the long wars of Louis XIV. He adds,
"It still, however, maintains itself with some reputation at Alençon; the
magnificence, or, if you like, the luxury of France, sufficing to keep it
up even in war-time; but it flourishes principally in peace, in consequence
of the large exports to foreign countries." Russia and Poland were its
great marts: and before the Revolution, Poland estimates the annual value
of the manufacture at 11,000,000 to 12,000,000 livres.[553] The workwomen
earned from three sous to three livres per day.
In 1680, in _Britannia Languens_, a discourse upon trade, it states that
"the laces commonly called points de Venise now come mostly from France,
and amount to a vast sum yearly."
PLATE LV.
[Illustration: FRENCH. POINT D'ALENÇON.--Eighteenth century. Period Louis
XV. Needle-point lappet end and border. These show in combination the
"Alençon," "réseau," and the "Argentan" hexagonal "brides." The ribands in
the border show varieties of diaper pattern stitches similar to those in
the "modes" of heavy Venetian points. Widths: lappet 4½ in., border 3½ in.
Victoria and Albert Museum.]
_To face page 192._
{193}Point d'Alençon is made entirely by hand, with a fine needle, upon a
parchment pattern, in small pieces, afterwards united by invisible seams.
There are twelve processes, including the design, each of which is executed
by a special workwoman. These can again be subdivided, until the total
number of processes is twenty or twenty-two.[554] The design, engraved upon
a copper plate, is printed off in divisions upon pieces of parchment ten
inches long, each numbered according to its order. Green parchment is now
used, and has been in vogue since 1769, at which date it is noted in an
inventory of Simon Geslin (April 13th, 1769). The worker is better able to
detect any faults in her work than on white. The pattern is next pricked
upon the parchment, which is stitched to a piece of very coarse linen
folded double. The outline of the pattern is then formed by two flat
threads, which are guided along the edge by the thumb of the left hand, and
fixed by minute stitches passed, with another thread and needle, through
the holes of the parchment. When the outline is finished, the work is given
over to the "réseleuse" to make the ground, which is of two kinds, bride
and réseau. The delicate réseau is worked backwards and forwards from the
footing to the picot--of the bride, more hereafter. Besides the hexagonal
bride ground, and the ground of meshes, there was another variety of
grounding used in Alençon lace. "This ground consists of
buttonhole-stitched skeleton hexagons, within each of which was worked a
small solid hexagon connected with the surrounding figure by means of six
little tyes or brides." Lace with this particular ground has been called
Argentella.[555] In making the flowers of Alençon point, the worker
supplies herself with a long needle and a fine thread; with these she works
the "point noué" (buttonhole stitch) from left to right, and when arrived
at the end of the flower, the thread is thrown back from the point of
departure, and she works again from left to right over the thread. This
gives a closeness and evenness to the work unequalled in any other point.
Then follow the "modes," and other different operations, which completed,
the threads which unite lace, {194}parchment and linen together, are cut
with a sharp razor passed between the two folds of linen, any little
defects repaired, and then remains the great work of uniting all these
segments imperceptibly together. This task devolves upon the head of the
fabric, and is one requiring the greatest nicety. An ordinary pair of men's
ruffles would be divided into ten pieces; but when the order must be
executed quickly, the subdivisions are even greater. The stitch by which
these sections are worked is termed "assemblage," and differs from the
"point de raccroc," where the segments are united by a fresh row of
stitches. At Alençon they are joined by a seam, following as much as
possible the outlines of the pattern. When finished, a steel instrument,
called a picot, is passed into each flower, to polish it and remove any
inequalities in its surface. The more primitive lobster-claw or a wolf's
tooth was formerly used for the same purpose.
Point d'Alençon is of a solidity which defies time and washing, and has
been justly called the Queen of Lace. It is the only lace in which
horsehair is introduced along the edge to give firmness and consistency to
the cordonnet, rendered perhaps necessary to make the point stand up when
exposed to wind, mounted on the towering fabrics then worn by the ladies.
The objection to horsehair is that it shrinks in washing and draws up the
flower from the ground. It is related of a collar made at Venice for Louis
XIII. that the lace-workers, being unsuccessful in finding sufficiently
fine horsehair, employed some of their own hair instead, in order to secure
that marvellous delicacy of work which they aimed at producing. The
specimen, says Lefébure, cost 250 golden écus (about sixty pounds). In
1761, a writer, describing the point de France, says that it does not
arrive at the taste and delicacy of Brussels, its chief defect consisting
in the thickness of the cordonnet, which thickens when put into water. The
horsehair edge also draws up the ground, and makes the lace rigid and
heavy. He likewise finds fault with the "modes" or fancy stitches of the
Alençon, and states that much point is sent from there to Brussels to have
the modes added, thereby giving it a borrowed beauty; but connoisseurs, he
adds, easily detect the difference.[556]
[Illustration: Fig. 88.
ARGENTELLA, OR POINT D'ALENÇON À RÉSEAU ROSACÉ.--Period Louis XV.
_To face page 194._]
{195}When the points of Alençon and Argentan dropped their general
designations of "points de France"[557] it is difficult to say. An eminent
writer states the name was continued till the Revolution, but this is a
mistake. The last inventory in which we have found mention of point de
France is one of 1723,[558] while point d'Argentan is noted in 1738,[559]
and point d'Alençon in 1741, where it is specified to be "à réseau."[560]
In the accounts of Madame du Barry, no point d'Alençon is mentioned--always
point à l'aiguille--and "needle point" is the name by which point d'Alençon
was alone known in England during the last century. The purchases of needle
point of Madame du Barry were most extensive. Sleeves (engageantes) and
lappets for 8,400 livres; court ruffles at 1,100; a mantelet at 2,400; a
veste at 6,500; a grande coëffe, 1,400; a garniture, 6,010, etc.[561]
In the description of the Department of the Orne drawn up in 1801, it is
stated, "Fifteen years back there were from 7,000 to 8,000 lace-workers at
Alençon and its environs: the fabric of Argentan, whose productions are
finer and more costly, had about 2,000." Almost all these lace-makers, some
of whom made réseau, others the bride ground, passed into England, Spain,
Italy, Germany, and the courts of the north, especially to Russia. These
united fabrics produced to the annual value of at least 1,800,000 fr., and
when they had extraordinary orders, such as "parures" for beds and other
large works, it increased to 2,000,000 fr. (£80,000). But this commerce,
subject to the variable empire of fashion, had declined one-half even
before the Revolution. Now it is almost nothing, and cannot be estimated at
more than 150,000 to 200,000 fr. per annum. "It supported three {196}cities
and their territory, for that of Séez[562] bore its part. Some black laces
are still made at Séez, but they are of little importance.--P.S. These
laces have obtained a little favour at the last Leipsic fair."[563]
The manufacture of Alençon was nearly extinct when the patronage of
Napoleon caused it to return almost to its former prosperity. Among the
orders executed for the Emperor on his marriage with the Empress Marie
Louise, was a bed furniture of great richness. Tester, curtains, coverlet,
pillow-cases. The principal subject represented the arms of the empire
surrounded by bees. From its elaborate construction, point d'Alençon is
seldom met with in pieces of large size; the amount of labour therefore
expended on this bed must have been marvellous. Mrs. Palliser, when at
Alençon, was so fortunate as to meet with a piece of the ground powdered
with bees, bought from the ancient fabric of Mercier, at Lonray, when the
stock many years back was sold off and dispersed (Fig. 89). The point
d'Alençon bees are appliqué upon a pillow ground, "vrai réseau," executed
probably at Brussels. Part of the "équipage" of the King of Rome excited
the universal admiration of all beholders at the Paris Exhibition of 1855.
Alençon again fell with the empire. No new workers were trained, the old
ones died off, and as it requires so many hands to execute even the most
simple lace, the manufacture again nearly died out. In vain the Duchesse
d'Angoulême endeavoured to revive the fabric, and gave large orders
herself; but point lace had been replaced by blonde, and the consumption
was so small, it was resumed on a very confined scale. So low had it fallen
in 1830, that there were only between 200 and 300 lace-workers, whose
products did not exceed the value of 1,200 francs (£48). Again, in 1836,
Baron Mercier, thinking by producing it a lower price to procure a more
favourable sale, set up a lace school, and caused the girls to work the
patterns on bobbin net, as bearing some resemblance to the old "point de
bride," but fashion did not favour "point de bride," so the plan failed.
In 1840 fresh attempts were made to revive the {197}manufacture. Two
hundred aged women--all the lace-makers remaining of this once flourishing
fabric--were collected and again set to work. A new class of patterns was
introduced, and the manufacture once more returned to favour and
prosperity. But the difficulties were great. The old point was made by an
hereditary set of workers, trained from their earliest infancy to the one
special work they were to follow for life. Now new workers had to be
procured from other lace districts, already taught the ground peculiar to
their fabrics. The consequence was, their fingers never could acquire the
art of making the pure Alençon réseau. They made a good ground, certainly,
but it was mixed with their own early traditions: as the Alençon workers
say, "Elles bâtardisent les fonds."
[Illustration: Fig. 89.
BED MADE FOR NAPOLEON I.]
In the Exhibition of 1851 were many fine specimens of {198}the revived
manufacture. One flounce, which was valued at 22,000 francs, and had taken
thirty-six women eighteen months to complete, afterwards appeared in the
"corbeille de mariage" of the Empress Eugénie.
In 1856 most magnificent orders were given for the imperial layette, a
description of which is duly chronicled.[564] The young Prince was "voué au
blanc"; white, therefore, was the prevailing colour in the layette. The
curtains of the Imperial infant's cradle were of Mechlin, with Alençon
coverlet lined with satin. The christening robe, mantle, and head-dress
were all of Alençon; and the three _corbeilles_, bearing the imperial arms
and cipher, were also covered with the same point. Twelve dozen embroidered
frocks, each in itself a work of art, were all profusely trimmed with
Alençon, as were also the aprons of the Imperial nurses.
A costly work of Alençon point appeared in the Exhibition of 1855--a dress,
purchased by the Emperor for 70,000 francs (£2,800), and presented by him
to the Empress.
A few observations remain to be made respecting the dates of the patterns
of Alençon point, which, like those of other laces, will be found to
correspond with the architectural style of decoration of the period. The
"corbeilles de mariage" preserved in old families and contemporary
portraits are our surest guides.
In the eighteenth century the réseau ground was introduced, and soon became
universally adopted. After carefully examining the engravings of the time,
the collection of historical portraits at Versailles and other galleries,
we find no traces of Point d'Alençon with the réseau or network ground in
the time of Louis XIV. The laces are all of the Venetian character, à
bride, and Colbert himself is depicted in a cravat of Italian design;
while, on the other hand, the daughters of Louis XV. (Mesdames de France)
and the "Filles du Régent" all wear rich points of Alençon and
Argentan.[565] The earlier patterns of the eighteenth century are flowery
and undulating[566] (Fig. 91), scarcely {199}begun, never ending, into
which haphazard are introduced patterns of a finer ground, much as the
medallions of Boucher or Vanloo were inserted in the gilded panellings of a
room. Twined around them appear a variety of _jours_, filled up with
patterns of endless variety, the whole wreathed and garlanded like the
decoration of a theatre. Such was the taste of the day. "Après moi le
déluge"; and the precept of the favourite was carried out in the style of
design: an _insouciance_ and _laisser-aller_ typical of a people regardless
of the morrow.
Towards the latter end of the reign a change came over the national taste.
It appears in the architecture and domestic decoration. As the cabriole
legs of the chairs are replaced by the "pieds de daim," so the running
patterns of the lace give place to compact and more stiff designs. The
flowers are rigid and angular, of the style called _bizarre_, of almost
conventional form. With Louis XVI. began the ground _semé_ with compact
little bouquets, all intermixed with small patterns, spots (_pois_),
fleurons, rosettes, and tears (_larmes_) (Fig. 90), which towards the end
of the century entirely expel the bouquets from the ground. The semés
continued during the Empire.
This point came into the highest favour again during the Second Empire.
Costly orders for trousseaux were given not only in France, but from Russia
and other countries. One amounted to 150,000 francs (£6,000)--flounce,
lappets and trimmings for the body, pocket-handkerchief, fan, parasol, all
_en suite_, and, moreover, there were a certain number of metres of
_aunage_, or border lace, for the layette. The making of point d'Alençon
being so slow, it was impossible ever to execute it "to order" for this
purpose.
Great as is the beauty of the workmanship of Alençon, it was never able to
compete with Brussels in one respect: its designs were seldom copied from
nature, while the fabric of Brabant sent forth roses and honeysuckles of a
correctness worthy of a Dutch painter.
{200}This defect is now altered. The designs of the lace are admirable
copies of natural flowers, intermixed with grasses and ferns, which give a
variety to the form of the leaves.
[Illustration: Fig. 90.
ALENÇON POINT, À PETITES BRIDES.--Louis XVI.]
[Illustration: Fig. 91.
POINT D'ALENÇON.--Louis XV. period.
_To face page 200._]
{201}Alençon point is now successfully made at Burano near Venice, in
Brussels, at Alençon itself, and at Bayeux, where the fabric was
introduced, in 1855, by M. Auguste Lefébure, a manufacturer of that town.
Departing from the old custom of assigning to each lace-maker a special
branch of the work, the lace is here executed through all its stages by the
same worker. Perhaps the finest example of point d'Alençon exhibited in
1867 was the produce of the Bayeux fabric; a dress consisting of two
flounces, the pattern, flowers, and foliage of most artistic and harmonious
design, relieved by the new introduction of shaded tints, giving to the
lace the relief of a picture.[567] The ground (point à l'aiguille) was
worked with the greatest smoothness and regularity, one of the great
technical difficulties when such small pieces have to be joined together.
The price of the dress was 85,000 francs (£3,400). It took forty women
seven years to complete.
In the Exhibition of 1889 in Paris, Alençon itself showed the best piece of
lace that had taken 16,500 working days to make.
{202}CHAPTER XIV.
ARGENTAN (DÉP. ORNE).
"Vous qui voulez d'Argentan faire conte,
A sa grandeur arrêter ne faut;
Petite elle est, mais en beauté surmonte
Maintes cités, car rien ne lui defaut;
Elle est assise en lieu plaisant et haut,
De tout côtè à prairie, à campaigne,
Un fleuve aussi, où maint poisson se baigne,
Des bois épais, suffisans pour nourrir
Biches et cerfs qui sont prompts à courir;
Plus y trouvez, tant elle est bien garnie,
Plus au besoin nature secourir
Bon air, bon vin, et bonne compagnie!"
--_Des Maisons._ 1517.
The name of the little town of Argentan, whose points long rivalled those
of Alençon, is familiar to English ears as connected with our Norman kings.
Argentan is mentioned by old Robert Wace as sending its sons to the
conquest of England.[568] It was here the mother of Henry II. retired in
1130; and the imperial eagle borne as the arms of the town is said to be a
memorial of her long sojourn. Here the first Plantagenet held the "cour
plénière," in which the invasion of Ireland was arranged; and it was here
he uttered those rash words which prompted his adherents to leave Argentan
to assassinate Thomas à Becket.[569]
But, apart from historic recollections, Argentan is celebrated for its
point lace. A "bureau" for points de France was established at Argentan at
the same time as the bureau at Alençon (1665), and was also under the
direction of Madame Raffy. In a letter dated November 23rd, 1665, she
writes to Colbert: "Je suis très satisfaite de la publication à son de
trompe d'un arrêt qui ordonne aux ouvrières d'Argentan de travailler
uniquement pour la bureau de la manufacture royale."
PLATE LVI.
[Illustration: ]
[Illustration: POINT D'ARGENTAN.--Modern reproduction at Burano of the
flounce now belonging to the Crown of Italy, said formerly to have belonged
to Paul de Gondy, Cardinal de Retz 1614-79. This is evidently wrong, as the
design and execution is of fifty years later date, but it is a fine
specimen of an ecclesiastical flounce. Height, 24 in.
Photo by Burano School.]
_Between pages 202 and 203._
{203}Point d'Argentan has been thought to be especially distinguished by
its hexagonally-arranged brides; but this has also been noticed as a
peculiarity of certain Venetian point laces. The bride ground, to which we
have before alluded in the notice of Alençon, was of very elaborate
construction, and consists of a large six-sided mesh, worked over with the
buttonhole stitch. It was always printed on the parchment pattern, and the
upper angle of the hexagon is pricked. After the hexagon is formed, by
passing the needle and thread round the pins in a way too complicated to be
worth explaining, the six sides are worked over with seven or eight
buttonhole stitches in each side. The bride ground was consequently very
strong. It was much affected in France; the réseau was more preferred
abroad.[570] At the present time, it is usual to consider the point
d'Alençon as a lace with a fine réseau, the mesh of which is more square
than hexagonal in form, worked by looped stitches across horizontal lines
of thread, with the flower or ornament worked in fine point stitches,
closely resembling the gimp or ornament in the point de Venise à réseau,
and outlined by a cordonnet of the finest buttonhole stitches worked over a
horsehair or threads, while point d'Argentan is a lace with similar work as
regards flower, ornament, and cordonnet, but with a hexagonal bride ground,
each side of the hexagon being of the finest buttonhole stitchings.
Regarding the date of the introduction of the réseau, the large hexagonal
"grande bride" would appear to follow from the points de Venise, Argentan
being named before Alençon à réseau. Madame Despierres, however, is of
opinion that Argentan simplified the usual réseau by adopting the bride
tortillé (_i.e._, twisting the threads round each mesh instead of the more
arduous buttonhole stitching). Alençon would then {204}have copied back the
petites brides of small hexagonal twisted or buttonholed meshes in Louis
XVI.'s reign. To this again succeeded the looped réseau of very thick
thread.
With the view of showing that Alençon and Argentan were intimately
connected the one with the other in the manufacture of lace, M. Dupont says
that, whereas considerable mention has been made in various records of the
establishment at Alençon of a lace factory, trace of such records with
regard to Alençon cannot be found. A family of thread and linen dealers, by
name Monthulay, are credited with the establishment of a branch manufactory
or _succursale_ for lace at Argentan.
The Monthulays, then, sowed Alençon seeds at Argentan, which developed into
the so-called Argentan lace. In almost all respects it is the same as
Alençon work.[571] The two towns, separated by some ten miles, had
communications as frequent as those which passed between Alençon and the
little village of Vimoutier, eighteen miles distant, where one workman in
particular produced what is known as the true Alençon lace. If a work were
made at Argentan, it was called Argentan, if at Alençon, Alençon, though
both might have been produced from the same designs.
In 1708, the manufacture had almost fallen to decay, when it was raised by
one Sieur Mathieu Guyard, a merchant mercer at Paris, who states that "his
ancestors and himself had for more than 120 years been occupied in
fabricating black silk and white thread lace in the environs of Paris." He
applies to the council of the king for permission to re-establish the
fabric of Argentan and to employ workwomen to the number of 600. He asks
for exemption from lodging soldiers, begs to have the royal arms placed
over his door, and stipulates that Monthulay, his draughtsman and engraver,
shall be exempted from all taxes except the capitation. The Arrêt obtained
by Guyard is dated July 24th, 1708.
[Illustration: Fig. 92.
POINT D'ARGENTAN.
_To face page 204._]
{205}Guyard's children continued the fabric. Monthulay went over to another
manufacturer, and was replaced in 1715 by Jacques James, who, in his turn,
was succeeded by his daughter, and she took as her partner one Sieur De La
Leu. Other manufactures set up in competition with Guyard's; among others
that of Madame Wyriot, whose factor, Du Ponchel, was in open warfare with
the rival house.
The marriage of the Dauphin, in 1744, was a signal for open hostilities. Du
Ponchel asserted that Mademoiselle James enticed away his workmen, and
claimed protection, on the ground that he worked for the king and the
court. But on the other side, "It is I," writes De La Leu to the intendant,
on behalf of Mademoiselle James, "that supply the 'Chambre du Roi' for this
year, by order of the Duke de Richelieu. I too have the honour of
furnishing the 'Garderobe du Roi,' by order of the grand master, the Duke
de La Rochefoucault. Besides which, I furnish the King and Queen of Spain,
and at this present moment am supplying lace for the marriage of the
Dauphin."[572] Du Ponchel rejoins, "that he had to execute two 'toilettes
et leurs suites, nombre de bourgognes[573] et leurs suites' for the Queen,
and also a cravat, all to be worn on the same occasion." Du Ponchel appears
to have had the better interest with the controller-general; for the
quarrel ended in a prohibition to the other manufacturers to molest the
women working for Du Ponchel, though the Maison Guyard asked for
reciprocity, and maintained that their opponents had suborned and carried
off more than a hundred of their hands.[574]
The number of lace-makers in the town of Argentan and its environs at this
period amounted to nearly 1,200. In a list of 111 who worked for the Maison
Guyard appear the {206}names of many of the good bourgeois families of the
county of Alençon, and even some of noble birth, leading one to infer that
making point lace was an occupation not disdained by ladies of poor but
noble houses.
De La Leu, who, by virtue of an ordinance, had set up a manufacture on his
own account, applies, in 1745, to have 200 workwomen at Argentan, and 200
at Carrouges, delivered over to his factor, in order that he may execute
works ordered for the King and the Dauphin for the approaching fêtes of
Christmas. This time the magistrate resists. "I have been forced to admit,"
he writes to the intendant, "that the workmen cannot be transferred by
force. We had an example when the layette of the Dauphin was being made.
You then gave me the order to furnish a certain number of women who worked
at these points to the late Sieur de Monthulay. A detachment of women and
girls came to my house, with a female captain (capitaine femelle) at their
head, and all with one accord declared that if forced to work they would
make nothing but cobbling (bousillage). Partly by threats, and partly by
entreaty, I succeeded in compelling about a dozen to go, but the Sieur de
Monthulay was obliged to discharge them the next day.[575] I am therefore
of opinion that the only way is for M. De La Leu to endeavour to get some
of the workwomen to suborn others to work for him under the promise of
higher wages than they can earn elsewhere. M. De La Leu agrees with me
there is no other course to pursue; and I have promised him that, in case
any appeal is made to me, I shall answer that things must be so, as the
work is doing for the king." From this period we have scarcely any notices
concerning the fabric of Argentan.
In 1763 the widow Louvain endeavoured to establish at Mortagne (Orne) a
manufacture of lace like that of Alençon and Argentan, and proposed to send
workers from these two towns to teach the art gratuitously to the girls of
Mortagne. We do not know what became of her project; but at the same period
the Epoux Malbiche de Boislaunay applied for permission to establish an
office at Argentan, with the ordinary exemptions, under the title of Royal
Manufacture. The title and exemptions were refused. There were then (1763)
at Argentan three manufactures of point de France, without counting the
general hospital of St. Louis, in which it was made for the profit of the
institution, and evidently with success; for in 1764, a widow Roger was in
treaty with the hospital to teach her two daughters the fabrication of
point d'Argentan. They were to be boarded, and give six years of their
time. The fine on non-performance was 80 livres. In 1781, the Sieur
Gravelle Desvallées made a fruitless application to establish a manufacture
at Argentan; nor could even the children of the widow Wyriot obtain a
renewal of the privilege granted to their mother.[576] Gravelle was ruined
by the Revolution, and died in 1830.
[Illustration: Fig. 93.
POINT D'ARGENTAN.--Grande bride ground. Eighteenth century.
_To face page 206._]
{207}Arthur Young, in 1788, estimates the annual value of Argentan point at
500,000 livres.
Taking these data, we may fix the reigns of Louis XV. and Louis XVI. as the
period when point d'Argentan was at its highest prosperity. It appears in
the inventories of the personages of that time; most largely in the
accounts of Madame du Barry (from 1769 to 1773), who patronized Argentan
equally with point d'Angleterre and point à l'aiguille. In 1772, she pays
5,740 francs for a complete garniture. Lappets, flounces, engageantes,
collerettes, aunages, fichus, are all supplied to her of this costly
fabric.[577]
One spécialité in the Argentan point is the "bride picotée," a remnant,
perhaps, of the early Venetian teaching. It consists of the six-sided
button-hole bride, fringed with a little row of three or four picots or
pearls round each side. It was also called "bride épinglée," because pins
were pricked in the parchment pattern, to form these picots or boucles
(loops) on; hence it was sometimes styled "bride bouclée."[578] {208}The
"écaille de poisson" réseau was also much used at Alençon and Argentan.
The manner of making "bride picotée" is entirely lost. Attempts were made
to recover the art some years since (1869), and an old workwoman was found
who had made it in her girlhood, but she proved incapable of bringing the
stitch back to her memory, and the project was given up.[579]
Point d'Argentan disappeared, and was re-established in 1708; but though a
few specimens were produced at the Exhibition of Industry in 1808, the
industry died out in 1810.[580] It was again revived with some success by
M. M. Lefébure in 1874. In January 1874, with the assistance of the mayor,
he made a search in the greniers of the Hôtel Dieu, and discovered three
specimens of point d'Argentan in progress on the parchment patterns. One
was of bold pattern with the "grande bride" ground, evidently a man's
ruffle; the other had the barette or bride ground of point de France; the
third picotée, showing that the three descriptions of lace were made
contemporaneously at Argentan.
The author of a little pamphlet on Argentan, M. Eugène[581] de Lonlay,
remembers having seen in his youth in the Holy week, in the churches of St.
Martin and St. Germain, the statues of the apostles covered from head to
foot with this priceless point.
Argentan is now much made at Burano. Plate LVI. illustrates one of their
fine reproductions.
PLATE LVII.
[Illustration: FRENCH. POINT D'ARGENTAN.--Eighteenth century. Period Louis
XV. Needle-point borders. Both these have the hexagonal ground of the
genre "Argentan." The upper one is chiefly filled in with the "oeil de
perdrix" or "réseau rosacé." Width, 3-3/8 in. The lower one has been
pieced together. Width, 7 in.
Victoria and Albert Museum.]
_To face page 208._
{209}CHAPTER XV.
ISLE DE FRANCE.--PARIS (DÉP. SEINE).
"Quelle heure est-il?
Passé midi.
Qui vous l'a dit?
Une petite souris.
Que fait-elle?
De la dentelle.
Pour qui?
La reine de Paris."--_Old Nursery Song._
Early in the seventeenth century, lace was extensively made in the environs
of Paris, at Louvres, Gisors, Villiers-le-Bel, Montmorency, and other
localities. Of this we have confirmation in a work[582] published 1634, in
which, after commenting upon the sums of money spent in Flanders for
"ouvrages et passemens,[583] tant de point couppé que d'autres," which the
king had put a stop to by the sumptuary law of 1633, the author
says:--"Pour empescher icelle despence, il y a toute l'Isle de France et
autres lieux qui sont remplis de plus de dix mille familles dans lesquels
les enfans de l'un et l'autre sexe, dès l'âge de dix ans ne sont instruits
qu'à la manufacture desdits ouvrages, dont il s'en trouve d'aussi beaux et
bien faits que ceux des étrangers; les Espagnols, qui le sçavent, ne s'en
fournissent ailleurs."
Who first founded the lace-making of the Isle de France it is difficult to
say; a great part of it was in the hands of the Huguenots, leading us to
suppose it formed one of the numerous "industries" introduced or encouraged
by {210}Henry IV. and Sully. Point de Paris, mignonette, bisette, and other
narrow cheap laces were made, and common guipures were also fabricated at
St. Denis, Écouen, and Groslay. From 1665 to the French Revolution, the
exigencies of fashion requiring a superior class of lace, the workwomen
arrived gradually at making point of remarkable fineness and superior
execution. The lappet (Fig. 94) is a good example of the delicacy of the
fine point de Paris. The ground resembles the fond chant, the six-pointed
star meshed réseau.
[Illustration: Fig. 94.
POINT DE PARIS.--Reduced.]
[Illustration: Fig. 95.
POINT DE FRANCE.--Bobbin lace. Seventeenth century. With portraits of Louis
XIV. and Marie Thérèse.
Mrs. Palliser gives this illustration the above designation in her last
edition; in her former ones, that of Flemish lace. The lace has lately come
into the possession of Mr. Arthur Blackborne. It appears to be Flemish work
made for the French Queen.
_To face page 210._]
{211}Savary, who wrote in 1726, mentions how, in the Château de Madrid,
there had long existed a manufacture of points de France.[584] A second
fabric was established by the Comte de Marsan,[585] in Paris, towards the
end of the same century. Having brought over from Brussels his nurse, named
Dumont, with her four daughters, she asked him, as a reward for the care
she had bestowed upon him in his infancy, to obtain for her the privilege
of setting up in Paris a manufactory of point de France. Colbert granted
the request: Dumont was established in the Faubourg St. Antoine--classic
land of embroidery from early times--cited in the "Révolte des Passemens,"
"Telle Broderie qui n'avoit jamais esté plus loin que du Faubourg S.
Antoine au Louvre." A "cent Suisse" of the king's was appointed as guard
before the door of her house. In a short time Dumont had collected more
than 200 girls, among whom were several of good birth, and made beautiful
lace called point de France. Her fabric was next transferred to Rue Saint
Sauveur, and subsequently to the Hôtel Saint-Chaumont, near the Porte St.
Denis. Dumont afterwards went to Portugal, leaving her fabric under the
direction of Mademoiselle de Marsan. But, adds the historian, as fashion
and taste often change in France, people became tired of this point. It
proved difficult to wash; the flowers had to be raised each time it was
cleaned; it was thick and unbecoming to the face. Points d'Espagne were now
made instead, with small flowers, which, being very fine, was more suitable
for a lady's dress. Lastly, the taste for Mechlin lace coming in, the
manufacture of Dumont was entirely given up.[586]
In the time of Louis XIV. the commerce of lace was distributed in different
localities of Paris, as we learn from the "Livre Commode"[587] already
quoted. The gold laces, forming of themselves a special commerce, had their
shops in the "rue des Bourdonnais (in which silk laces were especially
sold) and the rue Sainte-Honoré, entre la place aux Chats et les piliers
des Halles," while the rue Bétizy retained for itself the spécialité of
selling "points et dentelles."
The gold and silver laces of Paris, commonly known as points
d'Espagne,[588] often embellished with pearls and other {212}ornaments,
were for years renowned throughout all Europe; and, until the revocation of
the Edict of Nantes, an object of great commerce to France. Its importance
is shown by the sumptuary edicts of the seventeenth century forbidding its
use, and also by its mention in the _Révolte des Passemens_. It was made on
the pillow. Much was exported to Spain and the Indies. How those exiled
workmen were received by the Protestant princes of Europe, and allowed to
establish themselves in their dominions, to the loss of France and the
enrichment of the lands of their adoption, will be told in due time, when
we touch on the lace manufactures of Holland and Germany. (Plate LVIII.)
Since 1784, little lace has been made in Paris itself, but a large number
of lace-makers are employed in applying the flowers of Binche and Mirecourt
upon the bobbin-net grounds.
CHANTILLY (DÉP. OISE).
"Dans sa pompe élégante admirez Chantilli,
De héros en héros, d'âge en âge embelli."
--Delille. _Les Jardins._
Although there long existed lace-makers in the environs of Paris, the
establishment for which Chantilly was celebrated owes its formation to
Catherine de Rohan, Duchesse de Longueville, who sent for workwomen from
Dieppe and Havre to her château of Étrepagny, where she retired at the
beginning of the seventeenth century, and established schools.
The town of Chantilly, being the centre of a district of lace-makers, has
given its name to the laces of the surrounding district, the trade being
distributed over more than a hundred villages, the principal of which are
Saint-Maximien, Viarmes, Méric, Luzarches, and Dammartin. The proximity to
Paris, affording a ready sale for its productions, caused the manufacture
to prosper, and the narrow laces which they first made--gueuse and point de
Paris--were soon replaced by guipures, white thread, and black silk
lace.[589]
PLATE LVIII.
[Illustration: FRENCH (OR DUTCH).--Borders of gold and silver thread and
gimp lace. Eighteenth century. From the Treasury of St. Mary's Church,
Dantzig. Widths: 1-1/8, 1¾ and 4¼ in.
Victoria and Albert Museum.]
_To face page 212._
{213}Some twenty years since there dwelt at Chantilly an elderly lady,
grand-daughter of an old proprietor, who had in her possession one of the
original pattern-books of the fabric, with autograph letters of Marie
Antoinette, the Princess de Lamballe, and other ladies of the court, giving
their orders and expressing their opinion on the laces produced. We find in
the inventories of the last century, "coëffure de cour de dentelle de soye
noire," "mantelet garni de dentelles noires," a "petite duchesse et une
respectueuse," and other "coëffes," all of "dentelle de soye noire."[590]
White blonde appears more sparingly. The Duchesse de Duras has "une paire
de manchettes à trois rangs, deux fichus et deux paires de sabots en
blonde."[591] The latter to wear, probably, with her "robe en singe." Du
Barry purchases more largely.[592] See pages 181, 182, and 224.
Fig. 96 is a specimen taken from the above-mentioned pattern-book; the
flowers and ground are of the same silk, the flowers worked en grillé (see
Chap. III., grillé), or open stitch, instead of the compact tissue of the
"blondes mates," of the Spanish style. The cordonnet is a thicker silk
strand, flat and untwisted. This is essentially "Chantilly lace." The
fillings introduced into the flowers and other ornaments in Chantilly lace
are mesh grounds of old date, which, according to the district where they
were made, are called vitré, mariage, and cinq trous. Chantilly first
created the black silk lace industry, and deservedly it retains her name,
whether made there or in Calvados. Chantilly black lace has always been
made of silk, but from its being a grenadine, not a shining silk, a common
error prevails that it is of thread, whereas black thread lace has never
been made {214}either at Chantilly or Bayeux. The distinguishing feature of
this lace is the _fond chant_ (an abbreviation of Chantilly), the
six-pointed star réseau, or, as it is better described, a diamond crossed
by two horizontal threads.
Chantilly fell with '93. Being considered a Royal fabric, and its
productions made for the nobility alone, its unfortunate lace-workers
became the victims of revolutionary fury, and all perished, with their
patrons, on the scaffold. We hear no more of the manufacture until the
Empire, a period during which Chantilly enjoyed its greatest prosperity. In
1805, white blonde became the rage in Paris, and the workwomen were chiefly
employed in its fabrication. The Chantilly laces were then in high repute,
and much exported, the black, especially, to Spain and her American
colonies; no other manufactories could produce mantillas, scarfs, and other
large pieces of such great beauty. It was then they made those rich
large-patterned blondes called by the French "blondes mates," by the
Spaniards "trapeada," the prevailing style since the First Empire.
[Illustration: Fig. 96.
CHANTILLY.--Reduced.--From one of the Order Books, temp. Louis XVI.]
About 1835 black lace again came into vogue, and the lace-makers were at
once set to work at making black silk laces with double ground, and
afterwards they revived the hexagonal ground of the last century, called
fond d'Alençon,[593] for the production of which they are celebrated.
The lace industry has been driven away from Chantilly by the increase in
the price of labour consequent on its vicinity to the capital. The lace
manufacturers, unable to {215}pay such high salaries, retired to Gisors,
where in 1851 there were from 8,000 to 9,000 lace-makers. They continued to
make the finest lace some years longer at Chantilly; but now she has been
supplanted by the laces of Calvados, Caen, and Bayeux, which are similar in
material and in mode of fabrication. The generally so-called Chantilly
shawls are the production of Bayeux.
{216}CHAPTER XVI.
NORMANDY.
"Dangling thy hands like bobbins before thee."
--Congreve, _Way of the World_.
SEINE INFÉRIEURE.
Lace forms an essential part of the costume of the Normandy peasants. The
wondrous "Bourgoin,"[594] with its long lappets of rich lace, descended
from generation to generation, but little varied from the cornettes of the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (Fig. 97). The countrywomen wore their
lace at all times, when it was not replaced by the cotton nightcap, without
much regard to the general effect of their daily clothes. "Madame the
hostess," writes a traveller in 1739, "made her appearance in long lappets
of bone lace, with a sack of linsey wolsey."
The manufactures of the Pays de Caux date from the beginning of the
sixteenth century. It appears to have been the first centre in Normandy, as
in 1661 Havre laces occur in the _Révolte des Passemens_. Lace-making was
the principal occupation of the wives and daughters of the mariners and
fishermen. In 1692, M. de Sainte-Aignan, governor of Havre, found it
employed 20,000 women.[595]
{217}[Illustration: Fig. 97.
CAUCHOISE.--From an engraving of the eighteenth century.]
It was in the province of Normandy, as comprised in its ancient extent,
that the lace trade made the most rapid increase in the eighteenth century.
From Arras to St. {218}Malo more than thirty centres of manufacture
established themselves, imitating with success the laces of Mechlin; the
guipures of Flanders; the fond clair, or single ground, then called point
de Bruxelles; point de Paris; black thread laces, and also those guipures
enriched with gold and silver, so much esteemed for church ornament. The
manufactures of Havre, Honfleur, Bolbec, Eu, Fécamp, and Dieppe were most
thriving. They made double and single grounds, guipure, and a kind of thick
Valenciennes, such as is still made in the little town of Honfleur and its
environs. In 1692 the number of lace-makers at Havre and its environs was
not less than 22,000. Corneille,[596] 1707, declares the laces of Havre to
be "très recherchées"; and in an engraving, 1688, representing a "marchande
lingère en sa boutique,"[597] among the stock in trade, together with the
points of Spain and England, are certain "cartons" labelled "Point du
Havre." It appears also in the inventory of Colbert, who considered it
worthy of trimming his pillow-cases and his camisoles;[598] and Madame de
Simiane[599] had two "toilettes garnies de dentelle du Hâvre," with an
"estuy à peigne," en suite.
Next in rank to the points du Havre came the laces of Dieppe and its
environs, which, says an early writer of the eighteenth century, rivalled
the "industrie" of Argentan and Caen. The city of Dieppe alone, with its
little colony of Saint-Nicolas-d'Aliermont (a village two leagues distant,
inhabited by the descendants of a body of workmen who retired from the
bombardment of Dieppe),[600] employed 4,000 lace-makers. A writer in
1761[601] says, "A constant trade is that of laces, which yield only in
precision of design and fineness to those of Mechlin; but it has never been
so considerable as it was at the end of the seventeenth century. Although
it has slackened since about 1745 for the amount of its productions, which
have diminished in value, it has not altogether fallen. As this work is the
occupation of women and girls, a great number of whom have no other means
of subsistence, there is also a large number of dealers who buy their
laces, to send them into other parts of the kingdom, to Spain, and the
islands of America. This trade is free, without any corporation; but those
who make lace without being mercers cannot sell lace thread, the sale of
which is very lucrative."[602]
PLATE LIX.
[Illustration: FRENCH, CHANTILLY. FLOUNCE, BLACK SILK, BOBBIN-MADE.--Much
reduced.]
PLATE LX.
[Illustration: FRENCH, LE PUY. BLACK SILK GUIPURE, BOBBIN-MADE.
Photos by A. Dryden from laces the property of Mr. Arthur Blackborne.]
_To face page 218._
{219}[Illustration: Fig. 98.
PETIT POUSSIN.--Dieppe.]
About twenty years later we read, "The lace manufacture, which is very
ancient, has much diminished since the points, embroidered muslins, and
gauzes have gained the preference; yet good workers earn sufficient to live
comfortably; but those who have not the requisite dexterity would do well
to seek some other trade, as inferior lace-workers are unable to earn
sufficient for a maintenance."[603] M. Feret writes in 1824,[604] "Dieppe
laces are in little request; nevertheless there is a narrow kind, named
'poussin,' the habitual resource and work of the poor lace-makers of this
town, and which recommends itself by its cheapness and pleasing effect when
used as a trimming to collars and morning dresses. Strangers who visit our
town make an ample provision of this lace" (Fig. 98). The lace-makers of
Dieppe love to give their own {220}names to their different laces--vierge,
Ave Maria, etc. (Fig. 99)--and the designation of Poussin (chicken) is
given to the lace in question from the delicacy of its workmanship.
Point de Dieppe (Fig. 100) much resembles Valenciennes, but is less
complicated in its make. It requires much fewer bobbins, and whereas
Valenciennes can only be made in lengths of eight inches without detaching
the lace from the pillow, the Dieppe point is not taken off, but
rolled.[605] It is now no longer made. In 1826 a lace school was
established at Dieppe, under the direction of two sisters from the Convent
of La Providence at Rouen, patronized by the Duchesse de Berri, the Queen
of the French, and the Empress Eugénie. The exertions of the sisters have
been most successful. In 1842 they received the gold medal for having, by
the substitution of the Valenciennes for the old Dieppe stitch, introduced
a new industry into the department. They make Valenciennes of every width,
and are most expert in the square grounds of the Belgian Valenciennes, made
entirely of flax thread, unmixed with cotton, and at most reasonable
prices.[606]
[Illustration: Fig. 99.
AVE MARIA.--Dieppe.]
A very pretty double-grounded old Normandy lace, greatly used for caps, was
generally known under the name of "Dentelle à la Vierge" (Fig. 101). We
find only one mention of a lace so designated, and that in the inventory
made in 1785, after the death of Louis-Philippe, Duke of {221}Orleans, the
father of Egalité, where in his chapel at Villers-Cotterets is noted, "Une
aube en baptiste garnie en gros point de dentelle dite à la Vierge."[607]
[Illustration: Fig. 100.
POINT DE DIEPPE.--Bobbin-made.]
The lace of Eu, resembling Valenciennes, was much esteemed. Located on the
site of a royal château, the property of the Duc de Penthièvre, himself a
most enthusiastic lover of fine point, as his wardrobe accounts testify,
the {222}lace-makers received, no doubt, much patronage and encouragement
from the seigneur of the domain. In the family picture by Vanloo, known as
the "Tasse de Chocolat," containing portraits of the Duc de Penthièvre, his
son, and the unfortunate Princesse de Lamballe, together with his daughter,
soon to be Duchess of Orleans, the duke, who is holding in his hand a
medal, enclosed in a case, wears a lace ruffle of Valenciennes pattern,
probably the fabric of his own people (Fig. 102).
[Illustration: Fig. 101.
DENTELLE À LA VIERGE.]
{223}Arthur Young, in 1788, states the wages of the lace-makers seldom
exceed from seven or eight sous per day; some few, he adds, may earn
fifteen. Previous to the Revolution, the lace made at Dieppe amounted to
400,000 francs annually. But Normandy experienced the shock of 1790. Dieppe
had already suffered from the introduction of foreign lace when the
Revolution broke out in all its fury. The points of Havre, with the fabrics
of Pont-l'Evêque (Dép. Calvados), Harfleur, Eu, and more than ten other
neighbouring towns, entirely disappeared. Those of Dieppe and Honfleur
alone trailed on a precarious existence.
[Illustration: Fig. 102.
DUC DE PENTHIÈVRE.--Vanloo. M. de Versailles.]
CALVADOS.
The principal lace centres in the department of Calvados are Caen and
Bayeux.
From an early date both black and white thread laces were made, of which
the former was most esteemed. It was not until 1745 that the blondes made
their appearance. The first silk used for the new production was of its
natural colour, "écrue," hence these laces were called "blondes."[608]
{224}The blonde of the time of Marie Antoinette is a very light fabric with
spots or outline threads of thicker silk forming a pattern. Later, in the
time of the Empire, the Spanish style came into vogue. The
eighteenth-century patterns were again copied at Caen in the middle of the
nineteenth century. After a time silk was procured of a more suitable
white, and those beautiful laces produced, which before long became of such
commercial importance. A silk throwster, M. Duval, was in a great degree
the originator of the success of the Caen blondes, having been the first to
prepare those brilliant white silks which have made their reputation. The
silk is procured from Bourg-Argental, in the Cevennes. The Caen workers
made the Chantilly lace, "Grillé blanc," already described,[609] and also
the "blonde de Caen," in which the flower is made with a different silk
from that which forms the réseau and outlined with a thick silk strand. The
réseau is of the Lille type, fond simple. It is this kind of blonde which
is so successfully imitated at Calais.
Lastly the "blonde mate," or Spanish, already mentioned. In no other place,
except Chantilly, have the blondes attained so pure a white, such perfect
workmanship, such lightness, such brilliancy as the "Blondes de Caen." They
had great success in France, were extensively imported, and made the
fortune of the surrounding country, where they were fabricated in every
cottage. Not every woman can work at the white lace. Those who have what is
locally termed the "haleine grasse," are obliged to confine themselves to
black. In order to preserve purity of colour, the lace-makers work during
the summer months in the open air, in winter in lofts over their
cow-houses: warmed by the heat of the animals, they dispense with fire and
its accompanying smoke.[610] Generally, it was only made in summer, and the
black reserved for winter work. Peuchet speaks of white lace being made in
Caen from the lowest price to twenty-five livres the ell.[611] According to
Arthur Young, the earnings {225}of the blonde-workers were greater than
those of Dieppe or Havre, a woman gaining daily from fifteen to thirty
sous. The silk blonde trade did not suffer from the crisis of 1821 to '32:
when the thread-lace-makers were reduced to the brink of ruin by the
introduction of bobbin net, the demand for blonde, on the contrary, had a
rapid increase, and Caen exported great quantities, by smuggling, to
England. The blonde-makers earning twenty-five per cent. more than the
thread-lace-makers, the province was in full prosperity. The competition
with the machine-made blondes of Calais and Nottingham has caused the
manufacture of the white blondes to be abandoned, and the Caen lace-makers
have now confined themselves to making black lace. Caen also produces gold
and silver blondes, mixed sometimes with pearls. In 1847 the laces of Caen
alone employed more than 50,000 persons, or one-eighth of the whole
population of Calvados.
Bayeux formerly made only light thread laces--mignonette, and what Peuchet
calls[612] "point de Marli." "On ne voit dans ces dentelles," he writes,
"que du réseau de diverses espèces, du fond et une canetille à gros fil,
qu'on conduit autour de ces fonds." Marli, styled in the Dictionary of
Napoléon Landais a "tissu à jour en fil et en soie fabriqué sur le métier à
faire de la gaze," was in fact the predecessor of tulle. It was invented
about 1765,[613] and for twenty years had great success, and was much worn
by Marie Antoinette. When the mesh ground with an edging of loops, which
constituted this lace in the decadence of Louis XVI., had a pattern, it was
pois, rosettes, or the spots of point d'esprit. In the _Tableau de Paris_,
1782, we read that Marli employed a great number of workpeople, "et l'on a
vu des soldats valides et invalides faire le marli, le promener, l'offrir,
et le vendre eux-mêmes. Des soldats faire le marli!" It was to this Marli,
or large pieces of white thread net, that Bayeux owed its reputation. No
other fabric could produce them at so low a price. Bayeux alone made albs,
shawls, and other articles of large size, of thread lace.
{226}Lace was first made at Bayeux in the convents and schools, under the
direction of the nuns of "La Providence." The nuns were sent there at the
end of the seventeenth century, to undertake the supervision of the
work-room founded by the Canon Baucher, in the old church of S. George. In
1747 the Abbé Suhard de Loucelles provided additional rooms for them in a
house in the Faubourg St. Loup, close by the church of Notre Dame de la
Poterie. In a short time more than 400 young women were employed at the two
sets of work-rooms, and in 1758 the aldermen of the town presented to the
intendant of the province a pair of thread lace cuffs, which, according to
the accounts of the municipality, cost 144 livres. It was not until 1740
that a commercial house was established by M. Clément; from which period
the manufacture has rapidly increased, and is now one of the most important
in France. The black laces of Caen, Bayeux, and Chantilly, are alike; the
design and mode of fabrication being identical, it is almost impossible,
for even the most experienced eye, to detect the difference. They are
mostly composed of "piece goods," shawls, dresses, flounces, and veils,
made in small strips, united by the stitch already alluded to, the _point
de raccroc_, to the invention of which Calvados owes her prosperity. This
stitch, invented by a lace-maker named Cahanet, admits of putting a number
of hands on the same piece, whereas, under the old system, not more than
two could work at the same time. A scarf, which would formerly have taken
two women six months to complete, divided into segments, can now be
finished by ten women in one. (Plate LIX.)
About 1827, Madame Carpentier caused silk blonde again to be made for
French consumption, the fabric having died out. Two years later she was
succeeded by M. Auguste Lefébure, by whom the making of "blondes mates" for
exportation was introduced with such success, that Caen, who had applied
herself wholly to this manufacture, almost gave up the competition.
Mantillas (Spanish, Havanese, and Mexican), in large quantities, were
exported to Spain, Mexico and the Southern Seas, and were superior to those
made in Catalonia. This manufacture requires the greatest care, as it is
necessary to throw aside the French taste, and adopt the heavy, overcharged
patterns appropriate to the costumes and fashions of the countries for
which they are destined. These mantillas have served as models for the
imitation made at Nottingham. (Plate LXI.)
PLATE LXI.
[Illustration: FRENCH. BLONDE MATE, IN SPANISH STYLE.--Nineteenth century.
Photo by A. Dryden.]
_To face page 226._
{227}[Illustration: Fig. 103.
MODERN BLACK LACE OF BAYEUX.--Much reduced.]
To the exertions of M. Lefébure is due the great improvement in the
teaching of the lace schools. Formerly the apprentices were consigned to
the care of some aged lace-maker, probably of deficient eyesight; he, on
the contrary, {228}placed them under young and skilful forewomen, and the
result has been the rising up of a generation of workers who have given to
Bayeux a reputation superior to all in Calvados. It is the first fabric for
large pieces of extra fine quality and rich designs; and as the point
d'Alençon lace has also been introduced into the city, Bayeux excels
equally at the pillow and the needle (Figs. 103 and 104).
Messrs. Lefébure have also most successfully reproduced the Venetian point
in high relief; the raised flowers are executed with great beauty and the
picots rendered with great precision. The discovery of the way in which
this complicated point lace was made has been the work of great patience.
It is called "Point Colbert." See page 188.
In 1851 there were in Calvados 60,000 lace-workers, spread along the
sea-coast to Cherbourg, where the nuns of La Providence have an
establishment. It is only by visiting the district that an adequate idea
can be formed of the resources this work affords to the labouring classes,
thousands of women deriving from it their sole means of subsistence.[614]
Bayeux is now the centre for high-class lace-making in France. M. Lefébure
considers that the fichus, mantillas, etc., that are made of fine white
thread in the country round Bayeux have all the suppleness and softness
which contribute to the charm of Mechlin lace, to which they have a close
affinity.
BRETAGNE.
No record of lace-making occurs in Bretagne, though probably the Normandy
manufacturers extended westward along the coast. At all events, the wearing
of it was early adopted.
[Illustration: Fig. 104.
POINT COLBERT.--Venetian point in relief reproduced by M. Lefébure.
_To face page 228._]
{229}Embroidered tulle or point d'esprit was made in Brittany as in
Denmark, and around Genoa, where its production still continues.
Embroidered muslins with open-work lace stitches were also made in Brittany
during the eighteenth century, and called Broderie des Indes, after the
Indian muslin scarfs that were brought to Europe at that date, and set the
fashion.
There is a popular ballad of the province, 1587, on "Fontenelle le
Ligueur," one of the most notorious partizans of the League in Bretagne. He
has been entrapped at Paris, and while awaiting his doom, sends his page to
his wife, with these words (we spare our readers the Breton dialect):--
"Page, mon page, petit page, va vite à Coadelan et dis à la pauvre
héritière[615] de ne plus porter des dentelles.
"De ne plus porter des dentelles, parce que son pauvre époux est en
peine. Toi, rapporte-moi une chemise à mettre, et un drap pour
m'ensevelir."[616]
One singular custom prevails among the ancient families in Bretagne; a
bride wears her lace-adorned dress but twice--once on her wedding-day, and
only again at her death, when the corse lies in state for a few hours
before its placing in the coffin. After the marriage ceremony the bride
carefully folds away her dress[617] in linen of the finest homespun,
intended for her winding sheet, and each year, on the anniversary of the
wedding-day, fresh sprigs of lavender and rosemary are laid upon it until
the day of mourning.
{230}CHAPTER XVII.
VALENCIENNES (DÉP. DU NORD).
"Ils s'attachoient à considerer des tableaux de petit point de la
manufacture de Valencienne qui representoient des fleurs, et comme ils
les trouvoient parfaitement beaux, M. de Magelotte, leur hôte, vouloit
les leur donner, mais ils ne les acceptèrent point."--1686. _Voyage des
Ambassadeurs de Siam._
Part of the ancient province of Hainault, Valenciennes, together with Lille
and Arras, is Flemish by birth, French only by conquest and treaty.[618]
Its lace manufacture has been supposed to date from the fifteenth century,
its first productions being attributed to Pierre Chauvin and Ignace Harent,
who employed a three-thread twisted flax. This early date, however, is
probably not correct. It is more probable that Valenciennes developed from
and took the place of the lace-making foundation of Colbert at Le Quesnoy.
The lace of Le Quesnoy is never mentioned after Louis XIV., whereas after
that reign Valenciennes comes into notice. It reached its climax from 1725
to 1780, when there were from 3,000 to 4,000 lace-makers in the city alone.
One of the finest known specimens of the earlier fabric is a lace-bordered
alb,[619] belonging to the ladies of the Convent of the Visitation,[620] at
Le Puy. The lace is 28 inches wide, consisting of three breadths, entirely
of white thread, very fine, though thick. The solid pattern, which with its
flowers and scrolls partakes of the character of the Renaissance, comes out
well from the clear réseau ground.
[Illustration: Fig. 105.
VALENCIENNES.--1650-1730
_To face page 230._]
{231}From 1780 downwards, fashion changed. The cheaper and lighter laces of
Brussels, Lille, and Arras, obtained the preference over the costly and
more substantial products of Valenciennes--les éternelles Valenciennes, as
they were called--while the subsequent disappearance of ruffles from the
costume of the men greatly added to the evil. Valenciennes fell with the
monarchy. During the war of liberty, foreign occupation decimated its
population, and the art became nearly lost. In 1790, the number of
lace-workers had diminished to 250; and, though Napoleon used every effort
to revive the manufacture, he was unsuccessful. In 1851 there were only two
lace-makers remaining, and they both upwards of eighty years of age.
The lace made in the city alone was termed "Vraie Valenciennes," and
attained a perfection unrivalled by the productions of the villages beyond
the walls. In the lace accounts of Madame du Barry we find constant mention
of this term.[621] "Vraie Valenciennes" appears constantly in
contradistinction to "bâtarde"[622] and "fausse," simply leading us to
suppose that the last-mentioned appellations signify the laces fabricated
in the neighbourhood. In support of this assertion, M. Dieudonné
writes:[623] "This beautiful manufacture is so inherent in the place, that
it is an established fact, if a piece of lace were begun at Valenciennes
and finished outside the walls, the part which had not been made at
Valenciennes would be visibly less beautiful and less perfect than the
other, though continued by the same lace-maker with the same thread, and
upon the same pillow."[624]
{232}[Illustration: Fig. 106.
VALENCIENNES.--Period Louis XIV.]
PLATE LXII.
[Illustration: VALENCIENNES.--Three specimens of seventeenth and eighteenth
century. Arranged by age, the oldest at the top, which was made for a royal
personage, with the initials E. P.; it is now the property of Mr. Arthur
Blackborne. Widths of the middle and lower pieces 1½ and 2½ in.
Photos by A. Dryden.]
_To face page 232._
{233}The extinction of the fabric and its transfer to Belgium has been a
great commercial loss to France. Valenciennes, being specially a "dentelle
linge," is that of which the greatest quantity is consumed throughout the
universe. Valenciennes lace is altogether made upon the pillow, with one
kind of thread for the pattern and the ground (Fig. 106). No lace is so
expensive to make, from the number of bobbins required, and the flax used
was of the finest quality. The city-made lace was remarkable for the beauty
of its ground, the richness of its design, and evenness of its tissue. Its
mesh is square or diamond-shaped, and it has no twisted sides; all are
closely plaited. The ornament is not picked out with a cordonnet, as is the
case with Mechlin; but, like Mechlin, the ground went through various
modifications, including the "fond de neige," before the réseau was finally
fixed. From their solidity, "les belles et éternelles Valenciennes" became
an heirloom in each family. A mother bequeathed them to her daughter as she
would now her jewels or her furs.[625] The lace-makers worked in
underground cellars, from four in the morning till eight at night, scarcely
earning their tenpence a day. The pattern was the especial property of the
manufacturer; it was at the option of the worker to pay for its use and
retain her work, if not satisfied with the price she received. This lace
was generally made by young girls; it did not accord with the habits of the
"mère bourgeoise" either to abandon her household duties or to preserve the
delicacy of hand requisite for the work. It may be inferred, also, that no
eyes could support for a number of years the close confinement to a cellar:
many of the women are said to have become almost blind previous to
attaining the age of thirty. It was a great point when the whole piece was
executed by the same lace-worker. "All by the same hand," we find entered
in the bills of the lace-sellers of the time.[626]
The labour of making "vraie Valenciennes" was so great that while the Lille
lace-workers could produce from three to five ells a day, those of
Valenciennes could not complete more than an inch and a half in the same
time. Some lace-workers only made half an ell (24 inches) in a {234}year,
and it took ten months, working fifteen hours a day, to finish a pair of
men's ruffles--hence the costliness of the lace.[627] A pair of ruffles
would amount to 4,000 livres, and the "barbes pleines,"[628] as a lady's
cap was then termed, to 1,200 livres and upwards.
[Illustration: Fig. 107.
VALENCIENNES.]
[Illustration: Fig. 108.
VALENCIENNES LAPPET.--Period Louis XVI.
_To face page 234._]
{235}The Valenciennes of 1780 was of a quality far superior to any made in
the present century. The réseau was fine and compact, the flower resembling
cambric in its texture; the designs still betraying the Flemish origin of
the fabric--tulips, carnations, iris, or anemones--such as we see in the
old Flemish flower-pieces, true to nature, executed with Dutch exactness
(Fig. 108). The city owed not its prosperity to the rich alone; the
peasants themselves were great consumers of its produce. A woman laid by
her earnings for years to purchase a "bonnet en vraie Valenciennes," some
few of which still appear in the northern provinces of France at church
festivals and holidays. These caps are formed of three pieces, "barbes,
passe, et fond." The Norman women also loved to trim the huge fabric with
which they overcharge their heads with a real Valenciennes; and even in the
present day of "bon marché" a peasant woman will spend from 100 to 150
francs on a cap which is to last her for life.
The last important piece made within the city walls was a head-dress of
"vraie Valenciennes" presented by the city to the Duchesse de Nemours, on
her marriage in 1840. It was furnished by Mademoiselle Ursule Glairo,
herself an aged lady, who employed the few old lace-workers then living,
with the patriotic wish of exhibiting the perfection of the ancient
manufacture.[629]
LILLE (DÉP. DU NORD).
"Ces points couppés, passements et dentelles,
Las! qui venoient de l'Isle et de Bruxelles."
--_Consolation des Dames._ 1620.
The fabrics of Lille and Arras are identical; both make white lace with
single grounds (fond simple); but the productions of Lille are far superior
to those of Arras in quality. The manufacture of the capital of French
Flanders vies with those of the Netherlands in antiquity. As early as 1582
its lace-makers are described, at the entry of the Duke of Anjou into the
city, "as wearing a special costume. A gown of striped stuff, with a cap of
fine linen plaited in small flutes." A silver medal suspended from the neck
by a black ribbon completed a dress which has descended to the nineteenth
century.[630] The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle having transferred Lille to
France, many of its artizans retired to {236}Ghent; they are described at
that period as making both white and black lace.[631] The art, however, did
not die out, for in 1713,[632] on the marriage of the Governor, young
Boufflers, to Mademoiselle de Villeroi, the magistrates of Lille presented
him with lace to the value of 4,000 livres.[633]
[Illustration: Fig. 109.
LILLE.]
The beauty of the Lille lace is its ground, called "Point de Lille," or
fond clair, "the finest, lightest, most {237}transparent, and best made of
all grounds."[634] The work is simple, consisting of the ground, with a
thick thread to mark the pattern[635] (Fig. 109). Instead of the sides of
the mesh being plaited, as in Valenciennes, or partly plaited, partly
twisted, as in Brussels and Mechlin, four of the sides are formed by
twisting two threads round each other, and the remaining two sides by
simple crossing of the threads over each other. In the eighteenth century
more than two-thirds of the lace-making population of Europe made it under
the name of mignonettes and blondes de fil.
The "treille"[636] was finer in the last century; but in 1803 the price of
thread having risen 30 per cent.,[637] the lace-makers, unwilling to raise
the prices of their lace, adopted a larger treille, in order to diminish
the quantity of thread required.
The straight edge and stiff pattern of the old Lille lace is well known
(Fig. 110).
The laces of Lille, both black and white, have been much used in France:
though Madame Junot speaks disparagingly of the fabric,[638] the light
clear ground rendered them especially adapted for summer wear.
They found great favour also in England, into which country one-third of
the lace manufactured throughout the Département du Nord was smuggled in
1789.[639] The broad black Lille lace has always been specially admired,
and was extensively used to trim the long silk mantles of the eighteenth
century.[640]
{238}In 1788 there were above 16,000 lace-makers at Lille, and it made
120,000 pieces[641] of lace, representing a value of more than £160,000. In
1851 the number of lace-makers was reduced to 1,600; it is still gradually
diminishing, from the competition of the fabric of Mirecourt and the
numerous other manufactures established at Lille, which offer more
lucrative wages than can be obtained by lace-making.
[Illustration: Fig. 110.
LILLE.]
The old straight-edged is no longer made, but the rose pattern of the
Mechlin is adopted, and the style of that lace copied: the semé of little
square dots (_points d'esprit_) on the ground--one of the characteristics
of Lille lace--is still retained. In 1862 Mrs. Palliser saw at Lille a
complete garniture of beautiful workmanship, ordered for a trousseau at
Paris, but the commercial crisis and the revolutions of 1848 virtually put
an end to the lace industry of Lille and Arras.
{239}ARRAS (ARTOIS) (DÉP. PAS-DE-CALAIS).
"Arras of ryche arraye,
Fresh as floures in Maye."--Skelton.
Arras, from the earliest ages, has been a working city. Her citizens were
renowned for the tapestries which bore their name: the nuns of her convents
excelled in all kinds of needlework. In the history of the Abbaye du
Vivier,[642] we are told how the abbess, Madame Sainte, dite la Sauvage,
set the sisters to work ornaments for the church:--
"Les filles dans l'ouvroir tous les jours assemblées
N'y paroissent pas moins que l'Abbesse zelées,
Celle cÿ d'une aiguille ajuste au petit point
Un bel etuy d'autel que l'eglise n'a point,
Broche d'or et de soÿe un voile de Calice;
L'autre fait un tapis du point de haute lice,
Dont elle fait un riche et precieux frontal;
Une autre coud une aube, ou fait un corporal;
Une autre une chasuble, ou chappe nompareille,
Où l'or, l'argent, la soÿe, arrangés à merveille,
Representant des saints vestus plus richement
Que leur eclat n'auroit souffert de leur vivant;
L'autre de son Carreau detachant la dentelle,
En orne les surplis de quelque aube nouvelle."
Again, among the first rules of the institution of the "Filles de
Sainte-Agnès," in the same city, it is ordained that the girls "aprendront
a filer ou coudre, faire passement, tapisseries ou choses semblables."[643]
The Emperor Charles V. is said, however, to have first introduced the lace
manufacture into Arras.[644] Arras was one of the seats of Colbert's
manufactures, probably of the Flemish bobbin lace. It flourished in the
eighteenth century, when, writes Arthur Young, in 1788, were made "coarse
thread laces, which find a good market in England. The lace-workers earn
from 12 to 15 sous." Peuchet corroborates this statement. "Arras," he
says, {240}"fait beaucoup de mignonette et entoilage, dont on consomme
boucoup en Angleterre." The fabric of Arras attained its climax during the
Empire (1804 to 1812), since which period it has declined. In 1851 there
were 8,000 lace-makers in a radius of eight miles round the city, their
salary not exceeding 65 centimes a day. In 1881, however, the trade had
enormously decreased, only one house making a speciality of the old
patterns. The old Arras laces are now no more.
[Illustration: Fig. 111.
ARRAS.--Modern.]
There is little, or, indeed, no variety in the pattern of Arras lace; for
years it produced the same style and design. As a consequence of this, the
lace-makers, from always executing the same pattern, acquired great
rapidity. Though not so fine as that of Lille, the lace of Arras has three
good qualities: it is very strong, firm to the touch, and perfectly white;
hence the great demand for both home and foreign consumption, no other lace
having this triple merit at so reasonable a price (Fig. 111).
The gold lace of Arras appears also to have had a reputation. We find among
the coronation expenses of George I. a charge for 354 yards of Arras lace
"atrebaticæ lacinæ."[645]
{241}BAILLEUL (DÉP. DU NORD).
As already mentioned, up to 1790 the "vraie Valenciennes" was only made in
the city of that name. The same lace manufactured at Lille, Bergues,
Bailleul, Avesnes, Cassel, Armentières, as well as that of Belgium, was
called "Fausses Valenciennes." "Armentières et Bailleul ne font que de la
Valencienne fausse, dans tous les prix," writes Peuchet. "On nomme," states
another author,[646] "fausses Valenciennes la dentelle de même espèce,
inférieure en qualité, fabriquée moins serrée, dont le dessin est moins
recherché et le toilé des fleurs moins marqué." Of such is the lace of
Bailleul,[647] whose manufacture is the most ancient and most important,
extending to Hazebrouck, Bergues, Cassel, and the surrounding
villages.[648]
Previous to 1830, Bailleul fabricated little besides straight edges for the
Normandy market. In 1832 the scalloped edge was adopted, and from this
period dates the progress and present prosperity of the manufacture. Its
laces are not much esteemed in Paris. They have neither the finish nor
lightness of the Belgian products, are soft to the touch, the mesh round,
and the ground thick; but it is strong and cheap, and in general use for
trimming lace. The lace, too, of Bailleul, is the whitest and cleanest
Valenciennes made; hence it is much sought after, for exportation to
America and India. The patterns are varied and in good taste; and there is
every reason to expect that in due time it may attain the perfection, if
not of the Valenciennes of Ypres, at least to that of Bruges, which city
alone annually sends to France lace to the value of from £120,000 to
£160,000.
{242}CHAPTER XVIII.
AUVERGNE AND VÉLAY.
----
LE PUY (DÉP. HAUTE-LOIRE).
As early as the fifteenth century the countrywomen from the mountains of
the Vélay would congregate together during the winter within the walls of
the neighbouring cities, and there, forming themselves into companies, gain
their subsistence by making coarse lace to ornament the albs of the
priests, the rochets of the bishops, and the petticoats of ladies of
quality. And very coarse and tasteless were these early products, to judge
from the specimens which remain tacked on to faded altar-cloths, still to
be met with in the province, a mixture of netting and darning without
design. They also made what was termed "dentelles de menage" with the
coarse thread they used for weaving their cloth. They edged their linen
with it, and both bleached together in the wearing.
The lace region of Central France, of which Le Puy is the centre, is
considered to be the most ancient and considerable in France. It is
distributed over the four departments,[649] and employs from 125,000 to
130,000 women. It forms the sole industry of the Haute-Loire, in which
department alone are 70,000 lace-makers.
The lace industry of Le Puy, like all others, has experienced various
changes; it has had its trials[650] and its periods of great
prosperity.[651] In the chronicles of Le Puy of the sixteenth century[652]
we read that the merciers of Notre-Dame {243}des Anges "qui, suivant
l'usage faisaient dans notre ville le commerce des passementeries,
broderies, dentelles, etc., comptaient alors quarante boutiques, et qu'ils
figurent avec enseignes et torches au premier rang dans les solennités
religieuses."
Judging from local documents, this manufacture has for more than two
centuries back formed the chief occupation of the women of this province.
It suffered from the sumptuary edicts of 1629, 1635 and 1639, and in 1640
threatened to be annihilated altogether. In the month of January of that
year, the Seneschal of Le Puy published throughout the city a decree of the
Parliament of Toulouse, which forbade, under pain of heavy fine, all
persons of whatever sex, quality, or condition, to wear upon their
vestments any lace "tant de soie que de fil blanc, ensemble passement,
clinquant d'or ni d'argent fin ou faux;" thus by one ordinance annihilating
the industry of the province. The reason for this absurd edict was twofold:
first, in consequence of the large number of women employed in the lace
trade, there was great difficulty in obtaining domestic servants; secondly,
the general custom of wearing lace among all classes caused the shades of
distinction between the high and low to disappear. These ordinances, as may
be imagined, created great consternation throughout Le Puy. Father Régis, a
Jesuit, who was then in the province, did his best to console the sufferers
thus reduced to beggary by the caprice of Parliament. "Ayez confiance en
Dieu," he said; "la dentelle ne perira pas." He set out to Toulouse, and by
his remonstrances obtained a revocation of the edict. Nor did he rest
satisfied with his good work. At his suggestion the Jesuits opened to the
Auvergne laces a new market in Spain and the New World, which, until the
year 1790, was the occasion of great prosperity to the province. The Jesuit
Father, who died in December 1640, was later canonised for his good deeds;
and under his new appellation of Saint François Régis, is still held in the
greatest veneration by the women of Auvergne--as the patron saint of the
lace-makers.
Massillon, when bishop of Clermont (1717), greatly patronised the
lace-makers of his diocese, and, anxious that the province should itself
furnish the thread used in the manufacture, he purchased a quantity of
spinning-wheels, which he distributed among the poor families of
Beauregard, {244}the village in which the summer palace of the bishop,
previous to the Revolution, was situated.
The lace trade of this province frequently appears on the scene during the
eighteenth century. In 1707 the manufacturers demand a remission of the
import duties of 1664 as unfair,[653] and with success. Scarce ten years
afterwards,[654] notwithstanding the privilege accorded, we again find them
in trouble; whether their patterns did not advance with the fashions of the
day, or the manufacturers deteriorated the quality of the thread--too often
the effect of commercial prosperity--the shops were filled with lace,
"propres, les unes pour l'Italie, d'autres pour les mers du Sud," which the
merchants refused to buy. To remedy this bad state of affairs, the
commissioners assembled at Montpelier coolly decide that the diocese should
borrow 60,000 livres to purchase the dead stock, and so clear the market.
After some arguments the lace was bought by the Sieur Jerphanion, Syndic of
the diocese.
Prosperity, however, was not restored, for in 1755 we again hear of a grant
of 1,000 livres, payable in ten years by the States of Vélay, for the
relief of the distressed lace-makers, and again a fresh demand for
exemption of the export duty.[655] This is declared in a memorial of 1761
to be the chief cause of the distress, which memorial also states that, to
employ the people in a more lucrative way, a manufacture of blondes and
silk laces had been introduced. This distress is supposed to have been
somewhat exaggerated by the merciers of Le Puy, whose profits must have
been very considerable; the women, according to Arthur Young, earning only
from four to eight sous daily.
Peuchet, with his predecessor, Savary, and other writers on statistics,
describe the manufacture of Le Puy as the most flourishing in France. "Her
lace," writes Peuchet, "resembles greatly that of Flanders; much is
consumed in the {245}French dominions, and a considerable quantity exported
to Spain, Portugal, Germany, Italy and England. Much thread lace is also
expedited by way of Cadiz to Peru and Mexico. The ladies of these countries
trim their petticoats and other parts of their dress with such a profusion
of lace as to render the consumption 'prodigieuse.'" "Les Anglois en
donnent des commissions en contrebande pour l'Isthmus de Panama. Les
Hollandois en demandent aussi et faisaient expédier à Cadiz à leur
compte."[656] We read, however, after a time, that the taste for a finer
description of lace having penetrated to Mexico and Peru, the commerce of
Le Puy had fallen off, and that from that epoch the work-people had
supported themselves by making blondes and black lace. The thread used in
Auvergne comes from Haarlem, purchased either from the merchants of Rouen
or Lyons. In the palmy days of Le Puy her lace-workers consumed annually to
the amount of 400,000 livres. The laces made for exportation were of a
cheap quality, varying from edgings of 30 sous to 45 livres the piece of 12
ells; of these the annual consumption amounted to 1,200,000 livres.[657] It
may indeed be said that, with the exception of the period of the French
Revolution to 1801, the lace trade of Le Puy has ever been prosperous.
Formerly they only made at Le Puy laces which had each a distinctive
name--ave, pater, chapelets, mie, serpent, bonnet, scie, etc.
Le Puy now produces every description of lace, white and coloured, silk,
thread, and worsted, blondes of all kinds, black of the finest grounds,
application, double and single grounds; from gold and silver lace to
edgings of a halfpenny a yard, and laces of goats' and Angora rabbits'
hairs.
In 1847 more than 5,000 women were employed in making Valenciennes. They
have also succeeded in producing admirable needle-points, similar to the
ancient Venetian. A dress of this lace, destined to adorn an image of the
Virgin, was shown in the French Exhibition of 1855.
{246}In 1848 commerce and trade languished, and a cheaper lace was
produced, made of worsted, for shawls and trimmings. This lace was not long
in fashion, but it re-appeared a few years later under the name of "lama,"
or "poil de chèvre," when it obtained a great success. The hair of the lama
has never been used.
Le Puy now offers to the market an infinite variety of lace, and by means
of these novelties her laces successfully compete with those of Saxony,
which alone can rival her in cheapness; but as the patterns of these last
are copied from the laces of Le Puy and Mirecourt, they appear in the
foreign, market after the originals.
The finest collection of Auvergne lace in the International Exhibition
(1867) was from the fabric of Crâponne (Haute-Loire),[658] established in
1830 by M. Théodore Falcon, to whom Le Puy is indebted for her "musée de
dentelles," containing specimens of the lace of all countries and all ages,
a most useful and instructive collection for the centre of a lace district.
Le Puy has also a lace school, numbering a hundred pupils, and a school of
design for lace patterns, founded in 1859.[659]
AURILLAC AND MURAT (DÉP. CANTAL).
"L'on fait à Orillac les dentelles quit ont vogue dans le royaume," writes,
in 1670, the author of the _Délices de la France_.[660] The origin of the
fabric is assigned to the fourteenth century, when a company of emigrants
established themselves at Cuença and Valcameos, and nearly all the points
of Aurillac were exported into Spain through this company. In 1688 there
was sold on the Place at Marseilles annually to the amount of 350,000
livres of the products of Aurillac, with other fine laces of Auvergne.[661]
In 1726 the produce was already reduced to 200,000 livres. The finest
"points de France," writes Savary, were made at Aurillac and Murat, the
former alone at one time producing to the annual value of 700,000 francs
(£28,000), and giving occupation to from 3,000 to 4,000 lace-workers.
[Illustration: PLATE LXIII.
PLATE LXIV.
FRENCH.--Two specimens bought in France as Cambrai. They are typical of
Northern French laces that became naturalised in England after the French
Revolution. Widths, 2½ and 3½ in.
Photos by A. Dryden from private collection.]
PLATE LXV.
[Illustration: FRENCH. BOBBIN-MADE.--From the environs of Le Puy. Period
Louis XIII.-Louis XIV. Now made and called Guipure de Cluny.
In the Musée Cinquantenaire, Brussels.]
_To face page 246_
{247}An attempt to establish a "bureau" for Colbert's new manufacture of
points de France was at first opposed, as we read: "Les trois femmes
envoyées par les entrepreneurs pour établir cette manufacture furent
attaqués dans les rues d'Aurillac. Les ouvrières de cette ville leur disait
'qu'elles prouvaient s'en retourner, parce qu'elles savaient mieux
travailler qu'elles.'"[662]
The lace-makers would not give up what the intendant terms "the wretched
old point," which M. Henri Duref, the historian of the Département de
Cantal, describes, on the contrary, as consisting of rich flowered designs,
such as may be seen by studying the portraits of many Auvergnat noblemen of
the period. There are various letters on the subject in the Colbert
Correspondence; and in the last from Colbert, 1670, he writes that the
point d'Aurillac is improving, and there are 8,000 lace-women at work. It
appears that he established at Aurillac a manufactory of lace where they
made, upon "des dessins flamands modifiés," a special article, then named
"point Colbert," and subsequently "point d'Aurillac."
In the Convent of the Visitation at Le Puy is shown the lace-trimming of an
alb, point d'Angleterre. It is 28 inches wide, of white thread, with brides
picotées, of elegant scroll design. If, as tradition asserts, it was made
in the country, it must be the produce of this manufactory.
It appears that rich "passements," as they are still called in the country,
of gold and silver were made long before the period of Colbert. We find
abundant mention of them in the church inventories of the province, and in
the museum are pieces of rich lace said to have belonged to Francis I. and
his successors which, according to tradition, were the produce of Aurillac.
They are not of wire, but consist of strips of metal twisted round the
silk.
In the inventory of the sacristy of the Benedictine monastery at St.
Aligre, 1684, there is a great profusion of {248}lace. "Voile de brocard,
fond d'or entouré d'un point d'Espagne d'or et argent;" another, "garni de
dentelles d'or et argent, enrichi de perles fines"; "20 aubes à grandes
dentelles, amicts, lavabos, surplis," etc., all "à grandes ou petites
dentelles."[663]
In the inventory of Massillon's chapel at Beauregard, 1742, are albs
trimmed with "point d'Aurillac"; veils with "point d'Espagne or et
argent."[664]
Lacis was also made at Aurillac, and some specimens are still preserved
among the old families there. The most interesting dates from the early
seventeenth century, and belongs to the Chapel of Notre Dame at Thierzac,
where Anne of Austria made a pilgrimage in 1631, and which, by the
mutilated inscription on a piece of the work, would appear to refer to her.
Mazarin held the Aurillac laces in high estimation, and they are frequently
met with in the inventory of the effects he left on his death in 1660.
Again, in the account of a masked ball, as given in the _Mercure Galant_ of
1679, these points find honourable mention. The Prince de Conti is
described as wearing a "mante de point d'Aurillac or et argent." The Comte
de Vermandois, a veste edged with the same; while Mademoiselle de Blois has
"ses voiles de point d'Aurillac d'argent," and of the Duchesse de Mortemart
it is said, "On voyait dessous ses plumes un voile de point d'Aurillac or
et argent qui tomboit sur ses 'épaules.'" The Chevalier Colbert, who
appeared in an African costume, had "des manches pendantes" of the same
material.
The same _Mercure_ of April, 1681, speaking of the dress of the men, says,
"La plupart portent des garnitures d'une richesse qui empeschera que les
particuliers ne les imitent, puisqu'elles reviennent à 50 louis. Ces
garnitures sont de point d'Espagne ou d'Aurillac." From the above notices,
as well as from the fact that the greater part of these laces were sent
into Spain, it appears that point d'Aurillac was a rich gold and silver
lace, similar to the point d'Espagne.
The laces of Murat (Dép. Haute-Garonne) were "façon de {249}Malines et de
Lille." They were also made at La Chaise Dieu, Alenches, and Verceilles.
Those points were greatly esteemed, and purchased by the wholesale traders
of Le Puy and Clermont, who distributed them over the kingdom through their
colporteurs.
The fabrics of Aurillac and Murat ended with the Revolution. The women,
finding they could earn more as domestic servants in the neighbouring
towns, on the restoration of order, never again returned to their ancient
occupation.
{250}CHAPTER XIX.
LIMOUSIN.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a kind of pillow net (torchon
entoilage, Mr. Ferguson calls it)[665] for women's sleeves was manufactured
at Tulle (Corrèze) and also at Aurillac. From this circumstance many
writers have derived tulle, the French name for bobbin net, from this town.
M. Lefébure is of this opinion, and adduces in favour of it the fact that
lace was made at Tulle in the eighteenth century, and that an account of
1775 mentions certain Mesdemoiselles Gantes as lace-makers in that town.
The first dictionary in which the word "tulle" occurs is the French
Encyclopædia of 1765, where we find, "Tulle, une espèce de dentelle commune
mais plus ordinairement ce qu'on appelait entoilage."[666] Entoilage, as we
have already shown, is the plain net ground upon which the pattern is
worked[667] or a plain net used to widen points or laces, or worn as a
plain border. In Louis XV.'s reign Madame de Mailly is described, after she
had retired from the world, as "sans rouge, sans poudre, et, qui plus est,
sans dentelles, attendu qu'elle ne portait plus que de l'entoilage à bord
plat."[668] We read in the _Tableau de Paris_ how "Le tul, la gaz et le
marli ont occupés cent mille mains." Tulle was made on the pillow in
Germany before lace was introduced. If tulle derived its name from any
town, it would more probably be from Toul, celebrated, as all others in
Lorraine, for its embroidery; and as net resembles the stitches made in
embroidery by separating the threads (hemstitch, etc.), it {251}may have
taken its French name, Tulle, German Tüll, from the points de Tulle of the
workwomen of the town of Toul, called in Latin Tullum, or Tullo.[669]
LORRAINE.
The lace[670] manufactures of Lorraine flourished in the seventeenth
century. Mirecourt (Dép. Vosges) and the villages of its environs,
extending to the department of Meurthe, was the great centre of this trade,
which formed the sole occupation of the countrywomen. For some centuries
the lace-workers employed only hempen thread, spun in the environs of
Épinal, and especially at Châtel-sur-Moselle.[671] From this they produced
a species of coarse guipure termed "passament," or, in the patois of the
province, "peussemot."[672]
As early as the seventeenth century they set aside this coarse article and
soon produced a finer and more delicate lace with various patterns: they
now made double ground and mignonette; and at Lunéville (Dép. Meurthe),
"dentelles à l'instar de Flandre." In 1715 an edict of Duke Leopold
regulates the manufacture at Mirecourt.[673] The lace was exported to Spain
and the Indies. It found its way also to Holland, the German States, and
England, where Randle Holme mentions "Points of Lorraine, without
raisings."[674]
The Lorraine laces were mostly known in commerce as {252}"Les dentelles de
Saint-Mihiel," from the town of that name, one of the chief places of the
fabric. These last-named laces were much esteemed on their first
appearance. Previous to the union of Lorraine to France in 1766, there were
scarcely 800 lace-makers in Mirecourt. The number amounted to nearly 25,000
in 1869.[675]
Early in the nineteenth century the export trade gave place to more
extensive dealings with France. "Point de Flandres" was then very much
made, the patterns imported by travelling merchants journeying on their way
to Switzerland. Anxious to produce novelty, the manufacturers of Mirecourt
wisely sent for draughtsmen and changed the old patterns. Their success was
complete. They soon became formidable rivals to Lille, Geneva, and the Val
de Travers (Switzerland). Lille now lowered her prices, and the Swiss lace
trade sank in the contest.
Scarcely any but white lace is made; the patterns are varied and in
excellent taste, the work similar to that of Lille and Arras.
Some few years since the making of application flowers was attempted with
success at Mirecourt, and though it has not yet attained the perfection of
the Brussels sprigs, yet it daily improves, and bids fair to supply France
with a production for which she now pays Belgium £120,000 annually. The
Lorraine application possesses one advantage over those of Flanders, the
flowers come from the hands of the lace-makers clean and white, and do not
require bleaching.[676] The price, too, is most moderate. The production
which of late years has been of the most commercial value is the Cluny
lace, so called from the first patterns being copied from specimens of old
lace in the Musée de Cluny. The immense success of this lace has been
highly profitable to Mirecourt and Le Puy.
{253}The wages of the 24,000 lace-workers averaging eightpence a day, their
annual products are estimated at £120,000. Much of the Lorraine lace is
consumed at Paris and in the interior of France; the rest is exported to
America, the East Indies, and the different countries of Europe.
CHAMPAGNE.
The Ardennes lace was generally much esteemed, especially the "points de
Sedan," which derived their name from the city where they were
manufactured.[677] Not only were points made there, but, to infer from the
Great Wardrobe Account of Charles I., the cut-work of Sedan had then
reached our country, and was of great price. We find in one account[678] a
charge for "six handsome Sedan and Italian collars of cut-work, and for 62
yards of needlework purl for six pairs of linen ruffs" the enormous sum of
£116 6s. And again, in the last year of his reign, he has "six handsome
Pultenarian Sedan collars of cut-work, with the same accompaniment of 72
yards of needlework purl" amounting to £106 16s.[679] What these
Pultenarian collars may have been we cannot, at this distance of time,
surmise; but the entries afford proof that the excellency of the Sedan
cut-work was known in England. Rheims, Château-Thierry and Sedan are
mentioned among the other towns in the ordinance establishing the points de
France in 1665. In less than four months Rheims numbered a hundred and
forty workers, consisting of Venetians and Flemings, with seven from Paris
and the natives of the place. In 1669 the number had fallen to sixty, in
consequence of the price demanded for their board and lodging. Their lace
was remarkable for its whiteness. Lace was made in the seventeenth century
at Sedan, Donchéry, Charleville, Mézières, Troyes and Sens.
The thread manufacturers of Sedan furnished the material {254}necessary for
all the lace-workers of Champagne. Much point de Sedan was made at
Charleville, and the laces of this last-named town[680] were valued at from
four up to fifty livres the ell, and even sometimes at a higher rate. The
greater part of the produce was sold in Paris, the rest found a ready
market in England, Holland, Germany, and Poland.[681] Pignariol de la
Force, writing later, says the manufacture of points and laces at Sedan,
formerly so flourishing, is now of little value.[682]
Most of its lace-makers, being Protestants, emigrated after the Edict of
Revocation. Château-Renaud and Mézières were chiefly employed in the
manufacture of footings (_engrêlures_).[683] The laces of Donchéry were
similar to those of Charleville, but made of the Holland thread. They were
less esteemed than those of Sedan. A large quantity were exported to Italy
and Portugal; some few found their way to England and Poland. Up to the
Revolution Champagne employed from 5000 to 6000 lace-workers, and their
annual products were estimated at 200,000 fr. During the twelve years of
revolutionary anarchy, all the lace manufactures of this province
disappeared.
There are differences of opinion as to the exact character of Sedan lace.
M. Séguin considers it to have been a lace inferior in design and
workmanship to point de Venise à réseau. A single thread intervenes between
the pattern and the réseau, instead of the overcast cordonnet of Alençon,
and in other respects it resembles late Venetian needlepoint. Certain
authorities in Brussels, again, claim the point de Sedan as a needle-made
production of Brabant or Liège. M. Lefébure, on the other hand, considers
it as an important variety of Alençon. "The floral devices in points de
Sedan, which are somewhat large and heavy in execution, spring from bold
scroll forms, and in between them are big meshes of the 'grande maille
picotée' of the point de France. Instead of an even and slightly raised
stitching along their contours, these big flowers are accentuated here and
there in well chosen parts by raised stitching, worked somewhat {255}with
the effect of vigorous touches of rather forced high lights in a picture.
These recurrent little mounds of relief, as they may be called, are
frequently introduced with admirable artistic result. The finest bishops'
rochets which appear in the later portraits by Hyacinthe Rigaud and de
Larguillière are of point de Sedan."
It is possible that both types of lace mentioned--the heavy kind, and the
lace with the réseau--are the productions of Sedan.
BURGUNDY.
Colbert was proprietor of the terre de Seignelay, three leagues from
Auxerre, which caused him to interest himself in establishing
manufactories, and especially that of point de France. In his
Correspondence are twelve letters relating to this manufacture for 1667-74,
but it did not succeed. At last, worn out, he says "the mayor and aldermen
will not avail themselves of the means of prosperity I offer, so I will
leave them to their bad conduct."
Specimens of a beautifully fine well-finished lace, resembling old Mechlin,
are often to be met with in Belgium (Fig. 112), bearing the traditional
name of "point de Bourgogne," but no record remains of its manufacture. In
the census taken in 1571, giving the names of all strangers in the City of
London, three are cited as natives of Burgundy, knitters and makers of
lace.[684] In the eighteenth century, a manufactory of Valenciennes was
carried on in the hospital at Dijon, under the direction of the magistrates
of the city. It fell towards the middle of the last century, and at the
Revolution entirely disappeared.[685] "Les dentelles sont grosses," writes
Savary, "mais il s'en débite beaucoup en Franche-Comté."
{256}LYONNOIS.
Lyons, from the thirteenth century, made gold and silver laces enriched
with ornaments similar to those of Paris.
The laces of St. Etienne resembled those of Valenciennes, and were much
esteemed for their solidity. The finest productions were for men's ruffles,
which they fabricated of exquisite beauty.
A considerable quantity of blonde was made at Meran, a village in the
neighbourhood of Beauvoisin, but the commerce had fallen off at the end of
the last century. These blondes go by the familiar name of "bisettes."
ORLÉANOIS.
Colbert's attempts at establishing a manufactory of point de France at
Montargis appear by his letters to have been unsuccessful.
BERRY.
Nor were the reports from Bourges more encouraging.
POITOU.
Lace was made at Loudun, one of Colbert's foundations, in the seventeenth
century, but the fabric has always been common. "Mignonettes et dentelles à
poignet de chemises, et de prix de toutes espèces," from one sol six
deniers the ell, to forty sols the piece of twelve ells.
Children began lace-making at a very early age. "Loudun fournit quelques
dentelles communes," says the Government Reporter of 1803.[686]
[Illustration: Fig. 112.
POINT DE BOURGOGNE.--Bobbin-made.
_To face page 256._]
{257}Peuchet speaks of lace manufactories at Perpignan, Aix, Cahors,
Bordeaux,[687] etc., but they do not appear to have been of any importance,
and no longer exist.[688]
{258}CHAPTER XX.
HOLLAND, GERMANY, SWITZERLAND, AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY.
----
HOLLAND.
"A country that draws fifty feet of water,
In which men live as in the hold of nature,
And when the sea does in them break,
And drowns a province, does but spring a leak."--_Hudibras._
We know little of the early fabrics of this country. The laces of Holland,
though made to a great extent, were overshadowed by the richer products of
their Flemish neighbours. "The Netherlanders," writes Fynes Moryson, who
visited Holland in 1589, "wear very little lace,[689] and no embroidery.
Their gowns are mostly black, without lace or gards, and their neck-ruffs
of very fine linen."
We read how, in 1667, France had become the rival of Holland in the trade
with Spain, Portugal and Italy; but she laid such high duties on foreign
merchandise, the Dutch themselves set up manufactures of lace and other
articles, and found a market for their produce even in France.[690] A few
years later, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes[691] caused 4,000
lace-makers to leave the town of Alençon alone. Many took refuge in
Holland, where, says a writer of the day, "they were treated like artists."
Holland gained more than she lost by Louis XIV. The French refugees founded
a manufactory of that point lace called "dentelle a la Reine"[692] in the
Orphan House at Amsterdam.[693]
PLATE LXVI.
[Illustration: WILLIAM, PRINCE OF ORANGE, FATHER OF WILLIAM III.,
1627-1650. School of Van Dyck.
The collar is edged with Dutch lace. National Portrait Gallery.
Photo by Walker and Cockerell.]
_To face page 258._
{259}A few years later, another Huguenot, Zacharie Châtelain,[694]
introduced into Holland the industry, at that time so important, of making
gold and silver lace.
The Dutch possessed one advantage over most other nations, especially over
England, in her far-famed Haarlem[695] thread, once considered the best
adapted for lace in the world. "No place bleaches flax," says a writer of
the day,[696] "like the meer of Haarlem."[697]
Still the points of Holland made little noise in the world. The Dutch
strenuously forbade the entry of all foreign lace, and what they did not
consume themselves they exported to Italy, where the market was often
deficient.[698] Once alone in England we hear tell of a considerable parcel
of Dutch lace seized between Deptford and London from the Rotterdam hoy.
England, however, according to Anderson, in 1764, received in return for
her products from Holland "fine lace, but the balance was in England's
favour."
In 1770 the Empress Queen (Marie Theresa) published a declaration
prohibiting the importation of Dutch lace into any of her Imperial
Majesty's hereditary dominions in Germany.[699]
As in other matters, the Dutch carried their love of lace {260}to the
extreme, tying up their knockers with rich point to announce the birth of
an infant. A traveller who visited France in 1691, remarks of his hotel:
"The warming-pans and brasses were not here muffled up in point and
cut-work, after the manner of Holland, for there were no such things to be
seen."[700]
The Dutch lace most in use was thick, strong and serviceable (Fig. 113).
That which has come under our notice resembles the fine close Valenciennes,
having a pattern often of flowers or fruit strictly copied from nature.
"The ladies wear," remarks Mrs. Calderwood, "very good lace mobs." The
shirt worn by William the Silent when he fell by the assassin is still
preserved at The Hague; it is trimmed with a lace of thick linen stitches,
drawn and worked over in a style familiar to those acquainted with the
earlier Dutch pictures.
SAXONY.
"Here unregarded lies the rich brocade,
There Dresden lace in scatter'd heaps is laid;
Here the gilt china vase bestrews the floor,
While chidden Betty weeps without the door."
--"Eclogue on the death of Shock, a pet lapdog."
_Ladies' Magazine._ 1750.
"His olive-tann'd complexion graces
With little dabs of Dresden laces;
While for the body Mounseer Puff
Would think e'en dowlas fine enough."
--_French Barber._ 1756.
[Illustration: Fig. 113.
DUTCH BOBBIN-LACE.--Eighteenth century.
_To face page 260._]
{261}[Illustration: Fig. 114.
TOMB OF BARBARA UTTMANN, AT ANNABERG.]
The honour of introducing pillow lace into Germany is accorded by tradition
to Barbara Uttman. She was born in 1514, in the small town of Etterlein,
which derives its name from her family. Her parents, burghers of Nuremburg,
had removed to the Saxon Hartz Mountains, for the purpose of working some
mines. Barbara Etterlein here married a rich master miner named Christopher
Uttmann, of Annaberg. It is said that she learned lace-making from a native
of Brabant, a Protestant, whom the cruelties of the Spaniards had driven
from her country. Barbara had observed the mountain girls occupied in
making a network for the miners to wear over their hair: she took great
interest in the work, and, profiting by the experience derived from her
Brabant teacher, succeeded in making her pupils produce first a fine
knotted tricot, afterwards a kind of plain lace ground. In 1561, having
procured aid from Flanders, she set up, in her own name of Barbara Uttmann,
a workshop at Annaberg, and there began to make laces of various patterns.
This branch of industry soon spread from the Bavarian frontier to Altenberg
and Geissing, giving employment to 30,000 persons, and producing a revenue
of 1,000,000 thalers. Barbara Uttmann died in 1575, leaving sixty-five
children and grandchildren, thus realising a prophecy made previous to her
marriage, that her descendants would equal in number the stitches of the
first lace ground she had made: such prophecies were common in those days.
She sleeps in the churchyard of Annaberg, near the old lime-tree. On her
tomb (Fig. 114) is inscribed: "Here lies Barbara Uttmann, died 14 January,
1575, whose invention {262}of lace in the year 1561 made her the
benefactress of the Erzgebirge."
"An active mind, a skilful hand,
Bring blessings down on the Fatherland."
In the Green Vault at Dresden is preserved an ivory statuette of Barbara
Uttmann, four and a half inches high, beautifully executed by Koehler, a
jeweller of Dresden, who worked at the beginning of the eighteenth century.
It is richly ornamented with enamels and precious stones, such figures (of
which there are many in the Green Vault) being favourite articles for
birthday and Christmas gifts.
Previous to the eighteenth century the nets of Germany had already found a
market in Paris.[701] "On vend," says the _Livre Commode des Adresses_ of
1692, "le treillis d'Allemagne en plusieurs boutiques de la rue Béthizy."
"Dresden," says Anderson, "makes very fine lace," the truth of which is
confirmed by nearly every traveller of the eighteenth century. We have
reason to believe the so-called Dresden lace was the drawn-work described
in Chapter II., and which was carried to great perfection.
"Went to a shop at Spaw," writes Mrs. Calderwood, "and bought a pair of
double Dresden ruffles, which are just like a sheaf, but not so open as
yours, for two pounds two."
"La broderie de Dresde est très connue et les ouvriers très habiles," says
Savary.
This drawn-work, for such it was, excited the emulation of other nations.
The Anti-Gallican Society in 1753 leads the van, and awards three guineas
as their second prize for ruffles of Saxony.[702]
[Illustration: Fig. 114A.
BARBARA UTTMANN, WHO INTRODUCED THE LACE MANUFACTURE INTO THE ERZGEBIRGE.
From an ivory statuette by Koehler, Green Vault, Dresden.
_To face page 262._]
{263}Ireland, in 1755, gave a premium of £5 for the best imitation of
"Dresden point," while the Edinburgh Society, following in the wake, a year
later presents to Miss Jenny Dalrymple a gold medal for "the best imitation
of Dresden work in a pair of ruffles."
In the _Fool of Quality_,[703] and other works from 1760 to 1770, we have
"Dresden aprons," "Dresden ruffles," showing that point to have been in
high fashion. Wraxall, too, 1778, describes a Polish beauty as wearing "a
broad Medicis of Dresden lace." As early as 1760 "Dresden work" is
advertised as taught to young ladies in a boarding-school at Kelso,[704]
together with "shell-work in grottoes, flowers, catgut, working lace on
bobbins or wires, and other useful accomplishments."
The lace of Saxony has sadly degenerated since the eighteenth century. The
patterns are old and ungraceful, and the lace of inferior workmanship, but,
owing to the low price of labour, they have the great advantage of
cheapness, which enables them to compete with France in the American and
Russian markets. In all parts of Germany there are some few men who make
lace. On the Saxon side of the Erzgebirge many boys are employed, and
during the winter season men of all ages work at the pillow; and it is
observed that the lace made by men is firmer and of a superior quality to
that of the women. The lace is a dentelle torchon of large pattern, much in
the style of the old lace of Ischia.[705]
The Saxon needle-lace of the present day is made in imitation of old
Brussels, with small flowers on a réseau. Some is worked in coloured
thread, and also black silk lace of the Chantilly type is made: of this the
Erzgebirge is the chief centre. This lace is costly, and is sold at Dresden
and other large towns of Germany, and particularly at Paris, where the
dealers pass it off for old lace. This fabric employed, in 1851, 300
workers. A quantity of so-called Maltese lace is also made, but torchon
predominates.
The Museum for Art and Industry, opened at Vienna in 1865, contains several
pattern-books of the sixteenth century, and in it has been exhibited a fine
collection of ancient lace belonging to General von Hauslaub,
Master-General of the Ordnance.
{264}GERMANY (NORTH AND SOUTH).
Germany in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was renowned for its
lacis, cut-work, and embroidery with thread on net, of which there are
several good examples in the Victoria and Albert Museum, together with
specimens of early Flemish work from their colonies on the Elbe,
established in the twelfth century by various German rulers. The work of
these towns is of later date--of the fifteenth century--and has continued
to the nineteenth century, when they made cambric caps, embroidered or
ornamented with drawn-work, and edged with bobbin-made Tönder lace, in the
style of eighteenth century Valenciennes.
"Presque dans toutes sortes d'arts les plus habiles ouvriers, ainsi que les
plus riches négociants, sont de la religion prétendue réformée," said the
Chancellor d'Aguesseau;[706] and when his master, Louis XIV., whom he, in
not too respectful terms, calls "le roi trop crédule," signed the Act of
Revocation (1685), Europe was at once inundated with the most skilful
workmen of France. Hamburg alone of the Hanse Towns received the wanderers.
Lubec and Bremen, in defiance of the remonstrances of the Protestant
princes, allowed no strangers to settle within their precincts. The
emigrants soon established considerable manufactures of gold and silver
lace, and also that now extinct fabric known under the name of Hamburg
point.[707]
Miss Knight, in her _Autobiography_, notes: "At Hamburg, just before we
embarked, Nelson purchased a magnificent lace trimming for Lady Nelson, and
a black lace cloak for another lady, who, he said, had been very attentive
to his wife during his absence."
On the very year of the Revocation, Frederic William, Elector of
Brandenburg, anxious to attract the fugitive workmen to his dominions,
issued from Potsdam an edict[708] in their favour. Crowds of French
Protestants responded to the call, and before many years had passed Berlin
alone boasted 450 lace manufactories.[709] Previous to this emigration she
had none. These "mangeurs d'haricots," as the Prussians styled the
emigrants, soon amassed large fortunes, and exported their laces to Poland
and to Russia. The tables were turned. France, who formerly exported lace
in large quantities to Germany, now received it from the hands of her
exiled workmen, and in 1723 and 1734 we find "Arrêts du Conseil d'Etat,"
relative to the importation of German laces.[710]
[Illustration: PLATE LXVII.
SWISS.--From near Neûchatel. Early nineteenth century. Similar in make to
Lille and some Devon lace.]
[Illustration: PLATE LXVIII.
GERMAN, NUREMBERG.--Used by the peasants on their caps. The cordonnet
suggests a Mechlin influence, whilst the heavy réseau is reminiscent of
some Antwerp and Flemish and Italian village laces of the end of the
seventeenth century.]
PLATE LXIX.
[Illustration: ENGLISH, BUCKS.--A unique piece designed and made by the
lace-makers for Queen Victoria in the early years of her reign; from her
lady-in-waiting Emma, Lady Portman, it has descended to the present owner,
Mrs. Lloyd Baker. The above is a complete section of the design, which is
outlined with gold thread.
Photos by A. Dryden from private collections.]
_To face page 264._
{265}The Landgrave of Hesse also received the refugees, publishing an edict
in their favour.[711] Two fabrics of fine point were established at
Hanover.[712] Leipsic, Anspach,[713] Elberfeld, all profited by the
migration. "On compte," writes Peuchet, "à Leipsig cinq fabriques de
dentelles et de galon d'or et argent."
A large colony settled at Halle, where they made "Hungarian" lace--"Point
de Hongrie,"[714] a term more generally applied to a stitch in
tapestry.[715] The word, however, does occasionally occur:--
"Your Hungerland[716] bands and Spanish quellio ruffs,
Great Lords and Ladies, feasted to survey."[717]
All these various fabrics were offsets of the Alençon trade.
Fynes Moryson expresses surprise at the simplicity of the German
costume--ruffs of coarse cloth, made at home. The Dantzickers, however, he
adds, dress more richly. "Citizens' daughters of an inferior sort wear
their hair woven with lace stitched up with a border of pearl. Citizens'
wives wear much lace of silk on their petticoats." Dandyism began in
Germany, says a writer,[718] about 1626, when the women first wore silver,
which appeared very remarkable, and "at last indeed white lace." A century
later luxury at the baths of Baden had reached an excess unparalleled in
the {266}present day. The bath mantles, "équipage de bain," of both sexes
are described as trimmed with the richest point, and after the bath were
spread out ostentatiously as a show on the baths before the windows of the
rooms. Lords and ladies, princesses and margraves, loitered up and down,
passing judgment on the laces of each new arrival.[719]
This love of dress, in some cases, extended too far, for Bishop
Douglas[720] mentions how the Leipsic students "think it more honourable to
beg, with a sword by their side, of all they meet than to gain their
livelihood. I have often," he says, "given a few groschen to one finely
powdered and dressed with sword and lace ruffles."
Concerning the manufactures of the once opulent cities of Nuremburg and
Augsburg we have no record. In the first-mentioned was published, in 1601,
the model book, engraved on copper, of Sibmacher.[721] On the frontispiece
is depicted a garden of the sixteenth century. From the branches of a tree
hangs a label, informing the world "that she who loves the art of
needlework, and desires to make herself skilful, can here have it in
perfection, and she will acquire praise, honour, and reward." At the foot
of the tree is seated a modest young lady yclept Industria; on the right a
second, feather-fan in hand, called Ignavia--Idleness; on the left a
respectable matron named Sofia--Wisdom. By way of a preface the three hold
a dialogue, reviewing, in most flattering terms, the work.
A museum was founded in 1865 at Nuremburg for works and objects connected
with the lace manufacture and its history. It contains some interesting
specimens of Nuremburg lace, the work of a certain Jungfrau Pickleman, in
the year 1600, presented by the widow Pfarrer Michel, of Poppenreuth.[722]
The lace is much of the Venetian character. One specimen has the figures of
a knight and a lady, resembling the designs of Vecellio. The museum also
possesses other curious examples of lace, together with a collection of
books relative to the lace fabric. (Plate LXVIII.)
"In the chapel of St. Egidius at Nuremburg," writes one {267}of our
correspondents, "we were led to make inquiries concerning sundry
ponderous-looking chairs, bearing some resemblance to confessionals, but
wanting the side compartments for the penitents. We learned that they
belonged to the several guilds (Innung), who had undertaken to collect
money for the erection of a new church after the destruction of the old by
fire. For this end the last members sworn in of every trade sat in their
respective chairs at the church doors on every Sunday and holiday. The
offerings were thrown into dishes placed on a raised stand on the right of
the chair, or into the hollow in front. The devices of each trade were
painted or embossed on circular plates, said to be of silver, on the back
of each chair. One Handwerksstuhl in particular attracted our attention; it
was that of the passmenterie-makers (in German, Portenmacher or Posamentier
Handwerk), which, until the handicrafts became more divided, included the
lace-makers. An elegant scroll-pattern in _rilievo_ surrounds the plate,
surmounted by a cherub's head, and various designs, resembling those of the
pattern-books, are embossed in a most finished style upon the plate,
together with an inscription dated 1718."
Misson, who visited Nuremberg in 1698, describes the dress of a
newly-married pair as rich in the extreme--that of the bridegroom as black,
"fort chargé de dentelles"; the bride as tricked out in the richest
"dentelle antique," her petticoat trimmed with "des tresses d'or et de
dentelle noire."
In the Victoria and Albert Museum there are two women's ruffs from
Nuremberg belonging to the latter part of the sixteenth or early
seventeenth century, and embroidered in blue and black silk and white
cotton, and edged with a coarse thread Mechlin lace with a large meshed
irregular plaited réseau, probably late seventeenth century.
Perhaps the finest collection of old German point is preserved, or rather
was so, in 1840, in the palace of the ancient, but now extinct,
Prince-Archbishops of Bamberg.
Several more pattern-books were published in Germany. Among the most
important is that printed at Augsburg, by John Schwartzenburg, 1534. It is
printed in red, and the patterns, mostly borders, are of delicate and
elegant design. (See APPENDIX.)
Secondly comes one of later date, published by Sigismund Latomus at
Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1605; and lastly, that {268}of "Metrepière Quinty,
demor[=a]t dempre legl[=i]e de iii roies," a cul[=o]ge (Cologne), 1527.
In Austria, writes Peuchet, "les dentelles de soie et de fil ne sont pas
moins bien travaillées." Many of the Protestant lace-workers took refuge in
the cities of Freyburg and Altenburg.
There is a collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum of cuffs
embroidered in satin stitch, and edged with bobbin-lace "torchon" of the
peasants' work in Slavonia in the eighteenth century. The patterns resemble
Cretan and Russian laces.
There is a comparatively modern variety of lace made in Austria and Bohemia
which resembles the old Italian bobbin-lace; the school where it is taught
is under Government patronage. This industry was established as a means of
relieving the distress of the Tyrol in 1850, and continues to flourish.
Austria sent to the International Exhibition of 1874 specimens of
needle-point and point plat made in the school of the Grand Duchess Sophie,
and specimens of border laces in the style of the Auvergne laces were
exhibited from the Erzgebirge and Bohemia.
At the Paris Exhibition, Austria and Vienna both exhibited copies of old
needle-point laces.
At Laybach, in Austria, there was at one time a bobbin-lace factory which
produced lace much esteemed in the eighteenth century.
The collection of Hungarian peasant lace in the Victoria and Albert Museum
collection contains specimens of coarse modern pillow-made lace, with rude
floral designs worked in thick thread or yellow silk.
The modern laces of Bohemia are tasteless in design. The fabric is of early
date. "The Bohemian women," writes Moryson, "delight in black cloth with
lace of bright colours." In the beginning of the nineteenth century upwards
of 60,000 people, men, women and children, were occupied in the Bohemian
Erzgebirge alone in lace-making. Since the introduction of the bobbin-net
machine into Austria, 1831, the number has decreased. There were in 1862
scarcely 8,000 employed in the common laces, and about 4,000 on
Valenciennes and points.[723]
PLATE LXX.
[Illustration: HUNGARIAN. BOBBIN LACE.--Latter half of nineteenth century.
Widths, 6¼ and 2½ in.
Victoria and Albert Museum.]
PLATE LXXI.
[Illustration: AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN, SOUTH SLAVONIAN. CUFF OF LINEN
EMBROIDERED IN SATIN STITCH IN WHITE SILK. WHITE SILK BOBBIN
LACE.--Eighteenth century. Width, 7½ in.
Victoria and Albert Museum.]
_To face page 268._
{269}SWITZERLAND.
"Dans un vallon fort bien nommé Travers,
S'élève un mont, vrai séjour des hivers."--_Voltaire._
In the Preface of the _Neues Modelbuch of Froschowern_, printed at Zurich
(see APPENDIX), occurs the following:--"Amongst the different arts we must
not forget one which has been followed in our country for twenty-five
years. Lace-making was introduced in 1536 by merchants from Italy and
Venice. Many women, seeing a means of livelihood in such work, quickly
learned it, and reproduced lace with great skill. They first copied old
patterns, but soon were enabled to invent new ones of great beauty. The
industry spread itself about the country, and was carried to great
perfection: it was found to be one specially suitable for women, and
brought in good profits. In the beginning these laces were used solely for
trimming chemises and shirts; soon afterwards collars, trimmings for cuffs,
caps, and fronts and bodies of dresses, for napkins, sheets, pillow-cases
and coverlets, etc., were made in lace. Very soon such work was in great
demand, and became an article of great luxury. Gold thread was subsequently
introduced into some of it, and raised its value considerably; but this
latter sort was attended with the inconvenience that it was more difficult
to clean and wash than laces made with flax threads only."[724]
The above account is interesting, not only in its reference to Switzerland,
but from its corroborative evidence of the Italian origin of lace.
In 1572, one Symphorien Thelusson, a merchant of Lyons, having escaped from
the massacre of St. Bartholomew, concealed himself in a bale of goods, in
which he reached Geneva, and was hospitably received by the inhabitants.
When, after the lapse of near a hundred and twenty years, crowds of French
emigrants arrived in the city, driven from their homes on the Revocation of
the Edict of Nantes, a descendant of this same Thelusson took a body of
2,000 refugees into his service, and at once established a manufacture of
lace.[725] The produce of this industry was smuggled {270}back into France,
the goods conveyed across the Jura over passes known only to the bearers,
by which they avoided the custom-house duties of Valence. "Every day,"
writes Jambonneau, himself a manufacturer, "they tell my wife what lace
they want, and she takes their orders." Louis XIV. was furious.[726]
Though lace-making employed many women in various parts of the country, who
made a common description while tending their flocks in the mountains,
Neufchâtel has always been the _chef-lieu_ of the trade. "In this town,"
says Savary, "they have carried their works to such a degree of perfection,
as to rival the laces of Flanders, not only in beauty but in quality." We
have ourselves seen in Switzerland guipures of fine workmanship that were
made in the country, belonging to old families, in which they have remained
as heirlooms; and have now in our possession a pair of lappets, made in the
last century at Neufchâtel, of such exquisite beauty as not to be surpassed
by the richest productions of Brussels.
Formerly lace-making employed a large number of workwomen in the Val de
Travers, where, during his sojourn at Moutiers, Jean-Jacques Rousseau tells
us he amused himself in handling the bobbins.
In 1780 the lace trade was an object of great profit to the country,
producing laces valuing from 1 batz to upwards of 70 francs the ell, and
exporting to the amount of 1,500,000 francs; on which the workwomen gained
800,000, averaging their labour at scarcely 8 sols per day. The villages of
Fleurens and Connet were the centre of this once flourishing trade,[727]
now ruined by competition with Mirecourt. In 1814 there were in the
Neufchâtel district, 5628 lace-makers; in 1844 a few aged women alone
remained. The modern laces of Neufchâtel resemble those of Lille, but are
apt to wash thick. (Plate LXVII.)
In 1840, a fabric of "point plat de Bruxelles dite de Genève" was
established at Geneva.
By the sumptuary laws of Zurich,[728] which were most {271}severe, women
were especially forbidden to wear either blonde or thread lace, except upon
their caps. This must have been a disadvantage to the native fabrics, "for
Zurich," says Anderson, "makes much gold, silver, and thread lace."
Several pattern-books for lace were published in Switzerland in the later
years of the sixteenth century; one, without a date, but evidently printed
at Zürich about 1540, by C. Froschowern, is entitled, _Nüw Modelbüch
allerley Gattungen Däntel_, etc. Another one, entitled _New Model-buch_,
printed by G. Strauben, 1593, at St. Gall, is but a reprint of the third
book of Vecellio's _Corona_. Another, called also _Sehr Newe Model-Buch_,
was published at Basle in 1599, at the printing-house of Ludwig Künigs.
{272}CHAPTER XXI.
DENMARK, SWEDEN AND RUSSIA.
----
DENMARK.
"ERASTE.--Miss, how many parties have you been to this week?
"LADY.--I do not frequent such places; but if you want to know how much
lace I have made this fortnight, I might well tell you."
--Holberg. _The Inconstant Lady._
"The far-famed lace of Tönder."
"A certain kind of embroidery, or cut-work in linen, was much used in
Denmark before lace came in from Brabant," writes Professor Thomsen. "This
kind of work is still in use among the peasants, and you will often have
observed it on their bed-clothes."
The art of lace-making itself is supposed to have been first brought over
by the fugitive monks at the Reformation, or to have been introduced by
Queen Elizabeth,[729] sister of Charles V., and wife of Christian II., that
good queen who, had her husband been more fortunate, would, says the
chronicler, "have proved a second Dagmar to Denmark."
Lace-making has never been practised as a means of livelihood throughout
Denmark. It is only in the province of North Schleswig (or South Jutland,
as it is also called) that a regular manufacture was established. It is
here that King Christian IV. appears to have made his purchases; and while
travelling in Schleswig, entries constantly occur in his journal book, from
1619 to 1625, such as, "Paid to a female lace-worker 28 rixdollars--71
specie to a lace-seller for lace for the use of the children," and many
similar {273}notices.[730] It was one of those pieces of Tönder lace that
King Christian sends to his Chamberlain, with an autograph letter, ordering
him to cut out of it four collars of the same size and manner as Prince
Ulrik's Spanish. They must contrive also to get two pairs of manchettes out
of the same.
In the museum of the palace at Rosenborg are still preserved some shirts of
Christian IV., trimmed with Schleswig lace of great beauty (Fig. 115), and
in his portrait, which hangs in Hampton Court Palace, the lace on his shirt
is of similar texture.
[Illustration: Fig. 115.
SHIRT COLLAR OF CHRISTIAN IV.--(Castle of Rosenborg, Copenhagen.)]
It was in the early part of this monarch's reign[731] that the celebrated
Golden Horn, so long the chief treasure of the Scandinavian Museum at
Copenhagen, was found by a young {274}lace-maker on her way to her work.
She carried her prize to the king, and with the money he liberally bestowed
upon her she was enabled, says tradition, to marry the object of her
choice.
The year 1647 was a great epoch in the lace-making of Jutland. A merchant
named Steenbeck, taking a great interest in the fabric, engaged twelve
persons from Dortmund, in Westphalia, to improve the trade, and settled
them at Tönder, to teach the manufacture to both men and women, rich and
poor. These twelve persons are described as aged men, with long beards,
which, while making lace, they gathered into bags, to prevent the hair from
becoming entangled among the bobbins. The manufacture soon made great
progress under their guidance, and extended to the south-western part of
Ribe, and to the island of Romö.[732] The lace was sold by means of "lace
postmen," as they were termed, who carried their wares throughout all
Scandinavia and parts of Germany.
Christian IV. protected the native manufacture, and in the Act of
1643,[733] "lace and suchlike pinwork" are described as luxurious articles,
not allowed to be imported of a higher value than five shillings and
sixpence the Danish ell.[734] A later ordinance, 1683, mentions "white and
black lace which are manufactured in this country," and grants permission
to the nobility to wear them.[735]
Christian IV. did not patronise foreign manufactures. "The King of
Denmark," writes Moryson, "wears but little gold lace, and sends foreign
apparel to the hangman to be disgraced, when brought in by gentlemen."
[Illustration: Fig. 116.
TÖNDER LACE, DRAWN MUSLIN.--Denmark, eighteenth century. Width 2¾ inches.
Victoria and Albert Museum.
_To face page 274._]
{275}About the year 1712 the lace manufacture again was much improved by
the arrival of a number of Brabant women, who accompanied the troops of
King Frederick IV. on their return from the Netherlands,[736] and settled
at Tönder. We have received from Jutland, through the kind exertions of Mr.
Rudolf Bay, of Aalborg, a series of Tönder laces, taken from the
pattern-books of the manufacturers. The earlier specimens are all of
Flemish character. There is the old Flanders lace, with its Dutch flowers
and double and trolly grounds in endless variety. The Brabant, with fine
ground, the flowers and _jours_ well executed. Then follow the Mechlin
grounds, the patterns worked with a coarse thread, in many, apparently, run
in with the needle. There is also a good specimen of that description of
drawn muslin lace, commonly known under the name of "Indian work," but
which appears to have been very generally made in various manners. The
leaves and flowers formed of the muslin are worked round with a cordonnet,
by way of relief to the thick double ground (Fig. 116).[737] In the
Scandinavian Museum at Copenhagen is a pair of lappets of drawn muslin, a
fine specimen of this work.
The modern laces are copied from French, Lille, and Saxon patterns; there
are also imitations of the so-called Maltese. The Schleswig laces are all
remarkable for their fine quality and excellent workmanship. Guipure, after
the manner of the Venice points, was also fabricated. A fine specimen of
this lace may be seen decorating the black velvet dress of the youthful
daughter of Duke John of Holstein. She lies in her coffin within the
mortuary chapel of her family, in the castle of Sonderborg. Lace was much
used in burials in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when it really
appears people were arrayed in more costly clothing than in their lives.
The author of _Jutland and the Danish Islands_ has often seen mummies in
the Danish churches exposed to view tricked out in points of great
richness.
The lace industry continued to increase in value till the beginning of the
present century. The year 1801 may be considered its culminating point. At
that period the number of peasants employed in Tönder and its neighbourhood
alone was 20,000. Even little boys were taught to make lace till strong
enough to work in the fields, and there was scarcely a house without a
lace-maker, who would sit before her {276}cottage door, working from
sunrise till midnight, singing the ballads handed down from their Brabant
teachers.[738]
"My late father,"[739] writes Mr. F. Wulff, of Brede, "who began the lace
trade the end of the last century, first went on foot with his wares to
Mecklenburg, Prussia and Hanover: we consigned lace to all parts of the
world. Soon he could afford to buy a horse; and in his old age he
calculated he had travelled on horseback more than 75,000 English miles, or
thrice round the earth. In his youth the most durable and prettiest ground
was the old Flemish, much used by the peasants in Germany. It was solid,
and passed as an heirloom through several generations. Later, the fine
needle ground came in, and lastly, the fond clair, or point de Lille, far
less solid, but easier to work; hence the lace-makers became less skilful
than of old."
They had not many models, and the best workwomen were those who devoted
their whole life to one special pattern. Few were found so persevering. One
widow, however, is recorded who lived to the age of eighty and brought up
seven children on the produce of a narrow edging, which she sold at
sixpence a yard.
Each pattern had its proper name--cock-eye, spider, lyre, chimney-pot, and
feather.
The rich farmers' wives sat at their pillows daily, causing their household
duties to be performed by hired servants from North Jutland. Ladies also, a
century and a half ago, made it their occupation, as the motto of our
chapter, from the drama of Holberg, will show. And this continued till the
fashion of "hvidsom"--white seaming--the cut-work already alluded to, was
for a time revived. This work was, however, looked upon as _infra dig._ for
the wives of functionaries and suchlike, in whom it was unbecoming to waste
on such employment time that should be devoted to household matters. Our
informant tells of a lady in the north who thus embroidered the christening
robe of her child by stealth in the kitchen, fearing to be caught by her
visitors--cookery had in those days precedence over embroidery. Among the
hoards of this child, born 1755, was found a most exquisite collection of
old Tönder lace, embracing all the varieties made by her mother and
herself, from the thick Flemish to the finest needle-point.
PLATE LXXII.
[Illustration: RUSSIAN.--The upper piece of lace is needle-point "à brides
picotées." Modern reproduction of a sixteenth century design. Width, 3-3/8
in.
GERMAN. SAXON.--The lower piece bobbin-made by the peasants of the
Erzgebirge. Nineteenth century. Width, 3¼ in.
Victoria and Albert Museum.]
PLATE LXXIII.
[Illustration: RUSSIAN.--Old bobbin-made with coloured silk outlines. The
property of Madame Pogosky.
Photo by A. Dryden.]
_To face page 276._
{277}The fashion of cut-work still prevails in Denmark, where collars and
cuffs, decorated with stars, crosses, and other mediæval designs, are
exposed in the shop-windows of Copenhagen for sale--the work of poor
gentlewomen, who, by their needle, thus add a few dollars yearly to their
income.
From 1830 dates the decline of the Tönder lace. Cotton thread was
introduced, and the quality of the fabric was deteriorated.[740] The lace
schools were given up; and the flourishing state of agriculture rendered it
no longer a profitable employment either for the boys or the women.[741]
The trade passed, from the manufacturers into the hands of the hawkers and
petty dealers, who were too poor to purchase the finer points. The "lace
postmen" once more travelled from house to house with their little leathern
boxes, offering these inferior wares for sale.[742] The art died out. In
1840 there were not more than six lace manufacturers in Schleswig.
The old people, however, still believe in a good time coming. "I have in my
day," said an aged woman, "sold point at four thalers an ell, sir; and
though I may never do so again, my daughter will. The lace trade slumbers,
but it does not die."
SWEDEN.
At a very early period the Scandinavian goldsmith had learned to draw out
wires of gold and twine them round threads either of silk or flax--in fact
to _guiper_ them.
{278}Wadstena, where lies Queen Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of Henry
IV., is celebrated for its lace. The art, according to tradition, was
introduced among the nuns of the convent by St. Bridget on her return from
Italy. Some even go so far as to say she wrote home to Wadstena, ordering
lace from Rome; but, as St. Bridget died in 1335, we may be allowed to
question the fact: certain it is, though, the funeral coif of the saint, as
depicted in an ancient portrait, said to have been taken at Rome after
death, is ornamented with a species of perforated needlework.[743] By the
rules of the convent, the nuns of Wadstena were forbidden to touch either
gold or silver, save in their netting and embroidery. There exists an old
journal of the Kloster, called _Diarium Vadstenænse_, in which are,
however, no allusions to the art; but the letters of a Wadstena nun to her
lover _extra muros_, published from an old collection[744] of documents,
somewhat help us in our researches.
"I wish," she writes to her admirer, "I could send you a netted cap that I
myself have made, but when Sister Karin Andersdotter saw that I mingled
gold and silver thread in it, she said, 'You must surely have some
beloved.' 'Do you think so?' I answered. 'Here in the Kloster, you may
easily see if any of the brethren has such a cap, and I dare not send it by
anyone to a sweetheart outside the walls.' 'You intend it for Axel Nilson,'
answered Sister Karin. 'It is not for you to talk,' I replied. 'I have seen
you net a long hood, and talk and prattle yourself with Brother Bertol.'"
From netted caps of thread, worked in with gold and silver, the transition
to lace is easy, and history tells that in the middle ages the Wadstena
nuns "Knit their laces of {279}gold and silk." We may therefore suppose the
art to have flourished in the convents at an early date.
At the suppression of the monasteries, under Charles IX., a few of the
nuns, too infirm to sail with their sisters for Poland, remained in Sweden.
People took compassion on the outcasts, and gave them two rooms to dwell
in, where they continued their occupation of making lace, and were able,
for a season, to keep the secret of their art. After a time, however,
lace-making became general throughout the town and neighbourhood, and was
known to the laity previous to the dissolution of Wadstena--a favoured
convent which survived the rest of the other monasteries of Sweden.
"Send up," writes Gustaf Vasa, in a familiar letter[745] to his Queen
Margaret, "the lace passement made for me by Anne, the smith's daughter, at
Upsala; I want it: don't neglect this."[746]
In an inventory of Ericksholm Castle, drawn up in 1548, are endless entries
of "sheets seamed with cut-work, half worn-out sheets with open border of
cut-work, towels with cut-work and with the king's and queen's arms in each
corner, blue curtains with cut-work seams," etc.
The style of Wadstena lace changed with the times and fashion of the
national costume. Those made at present are of the single or double ground,
both black and white, fine, but wanting in firmness. They also make much
dentelle torchon, of the lozenge pattern, for trimming the bed-linen they
so elaborately embroider in drawn-work.
In 1830 the products in value amounted to 30,000 rixdollars. They were
carried to every part of Sweden, and a small quantity even to foreign
parts. One dealer alone, a Madame Hartruide, now sends her colporteurs
hawking Wadstena lace round the country. The fabric, after much depression,
has slightly increased of late years, having received much encouragement
from her Majesty Queen {280}Louisa. Specimens of Wadstena lace--the only
lace manufactory now existing in Sweden--were sent to the Great
International Exhibition of 1862.
Hölesom, or cut-work, is a favourite employment of Swedish women, and is
generally taught in the schools.[747] At the various bathing-places you may
see the young ladies working as industriously as if for their daily
sustenance; they never purchase such articles of decoration, but entirely
adorn their houses by the labours of their own hands. It was by a collar of
this hölesom, worked in silk and gold, that young Gustaf Erikson was nearly
betrayed when working as a labourer in the barn of Rankhytta, the property
of his old college friend, Anders Petersen. A servant girl observed to her
master, "The new farm-boy can be no peasant; for," says she, "his linen is
far too fine, and I saw a collar wrought in silk and gold beneath his
kirtle."
Gold lace was much in vogue in the middle of the sixteenth century, and
entries of it abound in the inventory of Gustavus Vasa and his youngest
son, Magnus.
In an inventory of Ericksholm, 1536, is a pair of laced sheets. It is the
custom in Sweden to sew a broad border of seaming lace between the breadths
of the sheets, sometimes wove in the linen. Directions, with patterns
scarcely changed since the sixteenth century, may be found in the _Weaving
Book_ published at Stockholm in 1828.[748]
Towards the end of 1500 the term "passement" appears in general use, in an
inventory of "Pontus de Gardia."
In the neighbourhood of Wadstena old soldiers, as well as women, may be
seen of a summer's evening sitting at the cottage doors making lace. Though
no other lace manufactory can be said to exist in Sweden beyond that of
Wadstena, still a coarse bobbin lace is made by the peasantry for home
consumption. The author has received from the Countess Elizabeth Piper,
late Grande Maîtresse to her Majesty the Queen of Sweden, specimens of
coarse pillow laces, worked by the Scanian peasant women, which, she
writes, "form a favourite occupation for the women of our province."
PLATE LXXIV.
[Illustration: RUSSIAN.--Part of a long border setting forth a Procession.
Lacis and embroidery in silk. The lace is bobbin-made in thread. Réseau
similar to Valenciennes. The Russian thread is good quality linen. Size of
portion shown 18½ x 14 in. The property of Madame Pogosky.
Photo by A. Dryden.]
_To face page 280._
{281}Latterly this manufacture has been protected and the workwomen
carefully directed.
Far more curious are the laces made by the peasants of Dalecarlia, still
retaining the patterns used in the rest of Europe two hundred years since.
The broader[749] kinds, of which we give a woodcut (Fig. 117), are from
Gaguef, that part of Dalecarlia where laces are mostly made and used.
Married women wear them on their summer caps, much starched, as a shelter
against the sun. Others, of an unbleached thread, are from Orsa. This lace
is never washed, as it is considered an elegance to preserve this
coffee-coloured tint. The firmness and solidity of these last laces are
wonderful.
[Illustration: Fig. 117.
DALECARLIAN LACE.]
The specimens from Rättwik are narrow "seaming" laces of the lozenge
pattern.
There is also a sort of plaiting used as a fringe, in the style of the
Genoese macramè, from the ends of a small {282}sheet which the peasants
spread over their pillows. No improvement takes place in the designs. The
Dalecarlian women do not make a trade of lace-making, they merely work to
supply their own wants.[750]
Fig. 118 represents a lace collar worn by Gustavus Adolphus, a relic
carefully preserved in the Northern Museum at Stockholm. On it is inscribed
in Swedish: "This collar was worn by Gustaf Adolf, King of Sweden, and
presented, together with his portrait, as a remembrance, in 1632, to Miss
Jacobina Lauber, of Augsburg, because she was the most beautiful damsel
present." In addition to this collar, there is preserved at the Royal
Kladskammar at Stockholm a blood-stained shirt worn by Gustavus at the
Battle of Dirschau, the collars and cuffs trimmed with lace of rich
geometric pattern, the sleeves decorated with "seaming" lace.
In an adjoining case of the same collection are some splendid altar-cloths
of ancient raised Spanish point, said to have been worked by the Swedish
nuns previous to the suppression of the monasteries. A small escutcheon
constantly repeated on the pattern of the most ancient specimens has the
semblance of a water-lily leaf, the emblem of the Stures, leading one to
believe they may have been of Swedish fabric, for many ladies of that
illustrious house sought shelter from troublous times within the walls of
the lace-making convent of Wadstena.
In the same cabinet is displayed, with others of more ordinary texture, a
collar of raised Spanish guipure, worked by the Princesses Catherine and
Marie, daughters of Duke Johan Adolf (brother of Charles X.). Though a
creditable performance, yet it is far inferior to the lace of convent make.
The making of this Spanish point formed a favourite amusement of the
Swedish ladies of the seventeenth century: bed-hangings, coverlets, and
toilets of their handiwork may still be found in the remote castles of the
provinces. We have received the photograph of a flower from an old bed of
Swedish lace--an heirloom in a Smaland castle of Count Trolle Bonde.
[Illustration: Fig. 118.
COLLAR OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS.
_To face page 282._]
{283}RUSSIA.
After his visit to Paris early in the eighteenth century, Peter the Great
founded a manufacture of silk lace at Novgorod, which in the time of the
Empress Elizabeth fell into decay. In the reign of Catherine II. there were
twelve gold lace-makers at St. Petersburg, who were scarcely able to supply
the demand. In Russia lace-making and embroidery go hand in hand, as in our
early examples of embroidery, drawn-work, and cut-work combined.
Lace-making was not a distinct industry; the peasants, especially in
Eastern Russia, made it in their houses to decorate, in conjunction with
embroidery, towels, table-linen, shirts, and even the household linen, for
which purpose it was purchased direct from the peasants by the inhabitants
of the towns. Many will have seen the Russian towels in the International
Exhibition of 1874, and have admired their quaint design and bright
colours, with the curious line of red and blue thread running through the
pattern of the lace. Darned netting and drawn-work appear, as elsewhere, to
have been their earliest productions. The lace is loosely wrought on the
pillow, the work simple, and requiring few bobbins to execute the
vermiculated pattern which is its characteristic (Fig. 119, and Plates
LXXII.-IV.).
The specimens vary very much in quality, but the patterns closely resemble
one another, and are all of an oriental and barbaric character (Fig. 119).
In Nardendal, near Abo, in Finland, the natives offer to strangers small
petticoats and toys of lace--a relic of the time when a nunnery of
Cistercians flourished in the place.
Much of a simple design and coarse quality is made in Belev, Vologda,
Riazan, Mzeresk. At Vologda a lace resembling torchon is made, with colours
introduced, red, blue, and écru and white.[751] In some laces silks of
various colours are employed. Pillow-lace has only been known in Russia for
over a hundred years, and although the {284}lace produced is effective, it
is coarse in texture and crude in pattern. Late in the nineteenth century
the Czarina gave her patronage to a school founded at Moscow, where
Venetian needle-point laces have been copied, using the finest English
thread, and needle-laces made after old Russian designs of the sixteenth
century,[752] called _Point de Moscou_.
[Illustration: Fig. 119.
RUSSIA.--Bobbin-made nineteenth century.
_To face page 284._]
{285}CHAPTER XXII.
ENGLAND TO QUEEN ELIZABETH.
"We weare most fantastical fashions than any nation under the sun doth,
the French only excepted."--_Coryat's Crudities._ 1611.
It would be a difficult matter for antiquaries to decide at what precise
time lace, as we now define the word, first appears as an article of
commerce in the annals of our country.
As early as the reign of Edward III.,[753] the excessive luxury of veils,
worn even by servant girls, excited the indignation of the Government, who,
in an Act, dated 1363, forbade them to be worn of silk, or of any other
material, "mes soulement de fil fait deinz le Roialme," for which veils no
one was to pay more than the sum of tenpence. Of what stuff these thread
veils were composed we have no record; probably they were a sort of
network, similar to the caul of Queen Philippa, as we see represented on
her tomb.[754] That a sort of crochet decoration used for edging was
already made, we may infer from the monumental effigies of the day.[755]
The purse of the carpenter is described, too, in Chaucer, as "purled with
latoun," a kind of metal or wire lace, similar to that found at
Herculaneum, and made in some parts of Europe to a recent period.
M. Aubry refers to a commercial treaty of 1390, between England and the
city of Bruges, as the earliest mention of lace. This said treaty we cannot
find in Rymer, Dumont, {286}or anywhere else. We have, as before alluded
to, constant edicts concerning the gold wires and threads of "Cipre, Venys,
Luk, and Jeane," of embroideries and suchlike, but no distinct allusion to
"lace."[756]
According to Anderson, the first intimation of such an occupation being
known in England is the complaint, made in 1454, by the women of the
mystery of thread-working in London, in consequence of the importation of
six foreign women, by which the manufacture of needlework[757] of thread
and silk, not as yet understood, was introduced. These six women, probably
Flemings, had brought over to England the cut-work or darning of the time,
a work then unknown in this country.
All authors, up to the present period, refer to the well-known Act of
Edward IV.,[758] 1463, in which the entry of "laces, corses, ribans,
fringes, de soie and de file, laces de file soie enfile," etc., are
prohibited, as the first mention of "lace" in the public records.
The English edition of the Foedera, as well as the statutes at large,
freely translate these words as laces of thread, silk twined, laces of
gold, etc.; and the various writers on commerce and manufactures have
accepted the definition as "lace," without troubling themselves to examine
the question.[759] Some even go so far as to refer to a MS. in the Harleian
Library,[760] giving "directions for making many sorts of laces,[761] which
were in fashion in the times of King Henry VI. {287}and Edward IV.," as a
proof that lace was already well known, and formed the occupation of the
"handcraftry"--as those who gained their livelihood by manual occupation
were then termed--of the country. Now, the author has carefully examined
this already quoted MS., in the principal letter of which is a damaged
figure of a woman sitting and "making of lace," which is made by means of
"bowys."[762] As regards the given directions, we defy anyone, save the
most inveterate lover of crochet-work, to understand one word of its
contents, beyond that it relates to some sort of twisted thread-work, and
perhaps we might, in utter confusion of mind, have accepted the definition
as given, had not another MS. of similar tenor, bearing date 1651, been
also preserved in the British Museum.[763]
This second MS. gives specimens of the laces, such as they were, stitched
side by side with the directions, which at once establishes the fact that
the laces of silk and gold, laces of thread, were nothing more than braids
or cords--the laces used with tags, commonly called "poynts" (the "ferrets"
of Anne of Austria)--for fastening the dresses, as well as for ornament,
previous to the introduction of pins.
In the Wardrobe Accounts of the time we have frequent notice of these
"laces" and corses. "Laces de quir" (cuir) also appear in the
Statutes,[764] which can only mean what we now term bootlaces, or something
similar.
{288}In the "Total of stuffs bought" for Edward IV.,[765] we have entries:
"Laces made of ryban of sylk; two dozen laces, and a double lace of
ryban"--"corses of sylk with laces and tassels of sylk," etc. Again, to
Alice Claver, his sylkwoman, he pays for "two dozen laces and a double lace
of sylk." These double laces of ribbon and silk were but plaited, a simple
ornament still used by the peasant women in some countries of Europe. There
must, however, be a beginning to everything, and these tag laces--some made
round, others in zigzag, like the modern braids of ladies' work, others
flat--in due course of time enriched with an edging, and a few stitches
disposed according to rule, produced a rude lace; and these patterns,
clumsy at first, were, after a season, improved upon.
From the time of Edward IV. downwards, statute on apparel followed upon
statute, renewed for a number of years, bearing always the same expression,
and nothing more definite.[766]
The Venetian galleys at an early period bore to England the gold work of
"Luk," Florence, "Jeane" and Venice. In our early Parliamentary records are
many statutes on the subject. It is not, however, till the reign of Henry
VII. that, according to Anderson, "Gold and thread lace came from Florence,
Venice, and Genoa, and became an article of commerce. An Act was then
passed to prevent the buyers of such commodities from selling for a pound
weight a packet which does not contain twelve ounces, and the inside of the
said gold, silver, and thread lace was to be of equal greatness of thread
and goodness of colour as the outside thereof."[767]
The Italians were in the habit of giving short lengths, gold thread of bad
quality, and were guilty of sundry other misdemeanours which greatly
excited the wrath of the nation. The balance was not in England's favour.
It was the cheating Venetians who first brought over their gold lace into
England.
PLATE LXXV.
[Illustration: CAP. (FLEMISH OR GERMAN.)--The insertion is cut-work and
needle-point. The lace is bobbin-made, and bears a resemblance to Plate
XXVI., South Italian. Late seventeenth century. Length of lace about 12 in.
Photo by A. Dryden from private collection.]
_To face page 288._
{289}A warrant to the Keeper of the Great Wardrobe, in the eighteenth year
of King Henry's reign,[768] contains an order for "a mauntel lace of blewe
silk and Venys gold, to be delivered for the use of our right dere and
well-beloved Cosyn the King of Romayne"--Maximilian, who was made Knight of
the Garter.[769]
If lace was really worn in the days of Henry VII., it was probably either
of gold or silk, as one of the last Acts of that monarch's reign, by which
all foreign lace is prohibited, and "those who have it in their possession
may keep it and wear it till Pentecost,"[770] was issued rather for the
protection of the silk-women of the country than for the advantage of the
ever-complaining "workers of the mysteries of thread-work."
On the 3rd of October, 1502, his Queen Elizabeth of York pays to one Master
Bonner, at Langley, for laces, rybands, etc., 40s.; and again, in the same
year, 38s. 7d. to Dame Margrette Cotton, for "hosyn, laces, sope, and other
necessaries for the Lords Henry Courtenay, Edward, and the Lady Margrette,
their sister." A considerable sum is also paid to Fryer Hercules for gold
of Venys, gold of Danmarke, and making a lace for the King's mantell of the
Garter.[771]
It is towards the early part of Henry VIII.'s reign that the "Actes of
Apparell"[772] first mention the novel luxury of shirts and partlets,
"garded and pynched,"[773] in addition to clothes decorated in a similar
manner, all of which are {290}forbidden to be worn by anyone under the
degree of a knight.[774] In the year 1517 there had been a serious
insurrection of the London apprentices against the numerous foreign
tradesmen who already infested the land, which, followed up by the
never-ending complaints of the workers of the mysteries of needlework,
induced the king to ordain the wearing of such "myxte joyned garded or
browdered"[775] articles of lynnen cloth be only allowed when the same be
wrought within "this realm of England, Wales, Berwick, Calais, or the
Marches."[776]
The earliest record we find of laced linen is in the Inventory of Sir
Thomas L'Estrange, of Hunstanton, County of Norfolk, 1519, where it is
entered, "3 elles of Holland cloth, for a shirte for hym, 6 shillings,"
with "a yard of lace for hym, 8d."
In a MS. called "The Boke of Curtasye"--a sort of treatise on etiquette, in
which all grades of society are taught their duties--the chamberlain is
commanded to provide for his master's uprising, a "clene shirte," bordered
with lace and curiously adorned with needlework.
The correspondence, too, of Honor. Lady Lisle, seized by Henry VIII.[777]
as treasonous and dangerous to the State, embraces a hot correspondence
with one Soeur Antoinette de Sevenges, a nun milliner of Dunkirk, on the
important subject of nightcaps,[778] one half dozen of which, she
complains, are far too wide behind, and not of the lozenge (cut) work
pattern she had selected. The nightcaps were in consequence to be changed.
Anne Basset, daughter of the said Lady Lisle, educated in a French convent,
writes earnestly begging for an "edge {291}of perle[779] for her coif and a
tablete (tablier) to ware." Her sister Mary, too, gratefully expresses her
thanks to her mother, in the same year,[780] for the "laced gloves you sent
me by bearer." Calais was still an English possession, and her products,
like those of the Scotch Border fortresses, were held as such.[781]
Lace still appears but sparingly on the scene. Among the Privy Purse
expenses of the king in 1530,[782] we find five shillings and eightpence
paid to Richard Cecyll,[783] Groom of the Robes, for eight pieces of
"yelowe lace, bought for the King's Grace." We have, too, in the Harleian
Inventory,[784] a coif laid over with passamyne of gold and silver.
These "Acts of Apparell," as regards foreign imports, are, however,
somewhat set aside towards the year 1546, when Henry grants a licence in
favour of two Florentine merchants to export for three years' time,
together with other matters, "all manner of fryngys and passements wrought
with gold or silver, or otherwise, and all other new gentillesses of what
facyon or value soever they may be, for the pleasure of our dearest wyeff
the Queen, our nobles, gentlemen, and others."[785] The king, however,
reserves to himself the first view of their merchandise, with the privilege
of selecting anything he may please for his own private use, before their
wares were hawked about the country. The said "dearest wyeff," from the
date of the Act, must have been Katherine Parr; her predecessor, Katherine
Howard, had for some four years slept headless in the vaults of the White
Tower chapel. Of these "gentillesses" the king now began to avail himself.
He selects "trunk sleeves of redd cloth of gold with cut-work;" knitted
gloves of silk, and "handkerchers" edged with gold and silver; his towels
are {292}of diaper, "with Stafford knots," or "knots and roses;" he has
"coverpanes of fyne diaper of Adam and Eve garnished about with a narrow
passamayne of Venice gold and silver; handkerchers of Holland, frynged with
Venice gold, redd and white silk," others of "Flanders worke," and his
shaving cloths trimmed in like fashion.[786] The merchandise of the two
Florentines had found vast favour in the royal eyes. Though these articles
were imported for "our dere wyeff's sake," beyond a "perle edging" to the
coif of the Duchess of Suffolk, and a similar adornment to the tucker of
Jane Seymour,[787] lace seems to have been little employed for female
decoration during the reign of King Henry VIII.
[Illustration: Fig. 120.
FISHER, BISHOP OF ROCHESTER. + 1535. (M. de Versailles.)]
That it was used for the adornment of the ministers of the Church we have
ample evidence. M. Aubry states having seen in London lace belonging to
Cardinal Wolsey. On this matter we have no information; but we know the
surplices were ornamented round the neck, shoulders, and sleeves with
"white work" and cut-work[788] at this period. The specimens we give (Figs.
120, 121) are from a portrait formerly in the Library of the Sorbonne, now
transferred to Versailles, of Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Cardinal Fisher
as he is styled--his cardinal's hat arriving at Dover at the very moment
the head that was to wear it had fallen at Tower Hill.
PLATE LXXVI.
[Illustration: ENGLISH. CUTWORK AND NEEDLE-POINT.--Cross said to have
belonged to Cardinal Wolsey.]
PLATE LXXVII.
[Illustration: ENGLISH. DEVONSHIRE "TROLLY."--First part of nineteenth
century.
Photos by A. Dryden from private collection.]
_To face page 292._
{293}About this time, too, lace gradually dawns upon us in the church
inventories. Among the churchwardens' accounts of St. Mary-at-Hill, date
1554, we find entered a charge of 3s. for making "the Bishopp's (boy
bishop) myter with stuff and lace."[789] The richly-laced corporax cloths
and church linen are sent to be washed by the "Lady Ancress," an
ecclesiastical washerwoman, who is paid by the churchwardens of St.
Margaret's, Westminster, the sum of 8d.; this Lady Ancress, or Anchoress,
being some worn-out old nun who, since the dissolution of the religious
houses, eked out an existence by the art she had once practised within the
walls of her convent.
At the burial of King Edward VI., Sir Edward Waldgrave enters on his
account a charge of fifty yards of gold passement lace for garnishing the
pillars of the church.
[Illustration: Fig. 121.
FISHER, BISHOP OF ROCHESTER.--(M. de Versailles.)]
The sumptuary laws of Henry VIII. were again renewed by Queen Mary:[790] in
them ruffles made or wrought out of England, commonly called cut-work, are
forbidden to anyone under the degree of a baron; while to women of a
station beneath that of a knight's wife, all wreath lace or passement lace
of gold and silver with sleeves, partlet or linen trimmed {294}with purles
of gold and silver, or white-works, alias cut-works, etc., made beyond the
sea, is strictly prohibited. These articles were, it seems, of Flemish
origin, for among the New Year's Gifts presented to Queen Mary, 1556, we
find enumerated as given by Lady Jane Seymour, "a fair smock of white
work,[791] Flanders making." Lace, too, is now in more general use, for on
the same auspicious occasion, Mrs. Penne, King Edward's nurse, gave "six
handkerchers edged with passamayne of golde and silke."[792] Two years
previous to these New Year's Gifts, Sir Thomas Wyatt is described as
wearing, at his execution, "on his head a faire hat of velvet, with broad
bone-work lace about it."[793]
Lace now seems to be called indifferently purle, passamayne or bone-work,
the two first-mentioned terms occurring most frequently. The origin of this
last appellation is generally stated to have been derived from the custom
of using sheep's trotters previous to the invention of wooden bobbins.
Fuller so explains it, and the various dictionaries have followed his
theory. The Devonshire lace-makers, on the other hand, deriving their
knowledge from tradition, declare that when lace-making was first
introduced into their county, pins,[794] so indispensable to their art,
being then sold at a price far beyond their means, the lace-makers, mostly
the wives of fishermen living along the coast, adopted the {295}bones of
fish, which, pared and cut into regular lengths, fully answered as a
substitute. This explanation would seem more probable than that of
employing sheep's trotters for bobbins, which, as from 300 to 400 are often
used at one time on a pillow, must have been both heavy and cumbersome.
Even at the present day pins made from chicken bones continue to be
employed in Spain; and bone pins are still used in Portugal.[795]
Shakespeare, in _Twelfth-Night_, speaks of
"The spinsters and the knitters in the sun,
And the free maids that weave their threads with bone."
"Bone" lace[796] constantly appears in the wardrobe accounts, while bobbin
lace[797] is of less frequent occurrence.
Among the New Year's Gifts presented to Queen Elizabeth, we have from the
Lady Paget "a petticoat of cloth of gold stayned black and white, with a
bone lace of gold and spangles, like the wayves of the sea"; a most
astounding article, with other entries no less remarkable but too numerous
to cite.
{296}In the marriage accounts of Prince Charles[798] we have charged 150
yards of bone lace[799] for six extraordinary ruffs and twelve pairs of
cuffs, against the projected Spanish marriage. The lace was at 9s. a yard.
Sum total, £67 10s.[800] Bone lace is mentioned in the catalogue of King
Charles I.'s pictures, drawn up by Vanderdort,[801] where James I. is
described "without a hat, in a bone lace falling band."[802]
Setting aside wardrobe accounts and inventories, the term constantly
appears both in the literature and the plays of the seventeenth century.
"Buy some quoifs, handkerchiefs, or very good bone lace, mistress?"
cries the pert sempstress when she enters with her basket of wares, in
Green's _Tu Quoque_,[803] showing it to have been at that time the usual
designation.
"You taught her to make shirts and bone lace,"
says someone in the _City Madam_.[804]
Again, describing a thrifty wife, Loveless, in _The Scornful Lady_,[805]
exclaims--
"She cuts cambric to a thread, weaves bone lace, and quilts balls
admirably."
The same term is used in the _Tatler_[806] and _Spectator_,[807] {297}and
in the list of prizes given, in 1752, by the Society of Anti-Gallicans, we
find, "Six pieces of bone lace for men's ruffles." It continued to be
applied in the Acts of Parliament and notices relative to lace, nearly to
the end of the eighteenth century.[808] After a time, the sheep's trotters
or bones having been universally replaced by bobbins of turned box-wood,
the term fell into disuse, though it is still retained in Belgium and
Germany.
From the reign of Queen Mary onwards, frequent mention is made of parchment
lace (see pp. 297-298), a term most generally associated with gold and
silver, otherwise we should consider it as merely referring to needle-made
lace, which is worked on a parchment pattern.
But to return to Queen Mary Tudor. We have among the "late Queen Mary's
clothes" an entry of "compas"[809] lace; probably an early name for lace of
geometric pattern. Open-work edging of gold and passamaine lace also occur;
and on her gala robes lace of "Venys gold," as well as "vales of black
network," a fabric to which her sister, Queen Elizabeth, was most partial;
partlets,[810] dressings, shadowes, and pynners "de opere rete," appearing
constantly in her accounts.[811]
It was at this period, during the reign of Henry VIII. and Mary, a peculiar
and universally prevalent fashion, varying in degrees of eccentricity and
extravagance, to slash the garment so as to show glimpses of some
contrasting underdress. Dresses thus slashed, or puffed, banded, "pinched,"
stiff with heavy gold and metal braid or embroidery, required but little
additional adornment of lace.[812] The falling collar, which was worn in
the early part of the sixteenth century, before the Elizabethan ruff
(introduced from France about 1560), was, however, frequently edged with
lace of geometric pattern.
Early in the sixteenth century the dresses of the ladies {298}fitted
closely to the figure, with long skirts open in front to display the
underdress; and were made low and cut square about the neck. Sometimes,
however, the dresses were worn high with short waists and a small falling
collar. Somewhat later, when the dresses were made open at the girdle, a
partlet--a kind of habit-shirt--was worn beneath them, and carried to the
throat.[813]
Entries of lace in the wardrobe accounts are, however, few and
inconsiderable until the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
PLATE LXXVIII.
[Illustration: MARIE DE LORRAINE, 1515-1560. DAUGHTER OF DUC DE GUISE,
MARRIED JAMES V. OF SCOTLAND, 1538. This picture was probably painted
before she left France, by an unknown French artist. National Portrait
Gallery.
Photo by Walker and Cockerell.]
_To face page 298._
{299}CHAPTER XXIII.
QUEEN ELIZABETH.
"By land and sea a Virgin Queen I reign,
And spurn to dust both Antichrist and Spain."--Old Masque.
"Tell me, Dorinda, why so gay?
Why such embroidery, fringe and lace?
Can any dresses find a way
To stop the approaches of decay
And mend a ruined face?"--Lord Dorset.
Up to the present time our mention of lace, both in the Statutes and the
Royal Wardrobe Accounts, has been but scanty. Suddenly, in the days of the
Virgin Queen, both the Privy Expenses and the Inventories of New Year's
Gifts overflow with notices of passaments, drawn-work, cut-work, crown
lace,[814] bone lace for ruffs, Spanish chain, byas,[815] parchment,
hollow,[816] billament,[817] and diamond {300}lace[818] in endless, and to
us, we must own, most incomprehensible variety.
The Surtees' _Wills and Inventories_ add to our list the laces Waborne[819]
and many others. Lace was no longer confined to the court and high
nobility, but, as these inventories show, it had already found its way into
the general shops and stores of the provincial towns. In that of John
Johnston, merchant, of Darlington, already cited, we have twelve yards of
"loom" lace, value four shillings, black silk lace, "statute" lace, etc.,
all mixed up with entries of pepper, hornbooks, sugar-candy, and spangles.
About the same date, in the inventory taken after the death of James
Backhouse, of Kirby-in-Lonsdale, are found enumerated "In y^e great
shoppe," thread lace at 16s. per gross; four dozen and four "pyrled" lace,
four shillings; four quarterns of statching (stitching or seaming?) lace;
lace edging; crown lace; hollow lace; copper lace; gold and silver chean
(chain) lace, etc. This last-mentioned merchant's store appears to have
been one of the best-furnished provincial shops of the period. That of John
Farbeck, of Durham, mercer, taken thirty years later, adds to our list
seventy-eight yards of velvet lace, coloured silk, chayne lace, "coorld"
lace, petticoat lace, all cheek by jowl with Venys gold and turpentine.
To follow the "stitches" and "works" quoted in the Wardrobe Accounts of
Elizabeth--all made out in Latin, of which we sincerely trust, for the
honour of Ascham, the {301}Queen herself was guiltless--would be but as the
inventory of a haberdasher's shop.
We have white stitch, "opus ret' alb," of which she had a kirtle, "pro le
hemmynge et edginge" of which, with "laqueo coronat' de auro et arg'"--gold
and silver crown lace--and "laqueo alb' lat' bon' operat' super
oss'"--broad white lace worked upon bone--she pays the sum of 35s.[820]
Then there is the Spanish stitch, already mentioned as introduced by Queen
Katherine, and true stitch,[821] laid-work,[822] net-work, black-work,[823]
white-work, and cut-work.
Of chain-stitch we have many entries, such as Six caules of knot-work,
worked with chain-stitch and bound "cum tapem" (tape), of sister's (nun's)
thread.[824] A scarf of white stitch-work appears also among the New Year's
Gifts.
As regards the use, however, of these ornaments, the Queen stood no
nonsense. Luxury for herself was quite a different affair from that of the
people; for, on finding that the London apprentices had adopted the white
stitching and garding as a decoration for their collars, she put a stop to
all such finery by ordering[825] the first transgressor to be publicly
whipped in the hall of his Company.
Laid-work, which maybe answers to our modern plumetis, or simply signified
a braid-work, adorned the royal garters, "Frauncie," which worked "cum
laidwork," stitched and trimmed "in ambobus lateribus" with gold and silver
lace, from which hung silver pendants, "tufted cum serico color," cost her
Majesty thirty-three shillings the pair.[826]
{302}The description of these right royal articles appears to have given as
much trouble to describe as it does ourselves to translate the meaning of
her accountant.
The drawn-work, "opus tract'," seems to have been but a drawing of thread
worked over silk. We have smocks thus wrought and decorated "cum lez ruffs
et wrestbands."[827]
In addition to the already enumerated laces of Queen Elizabeth are the
bride laces of Coventry blue,[828] worn and given to the guests at
weddings, mentioned in the _Masques_ of Ben Jonson:[829]--
"CLOD.--And I have lost, beside my purse, my best bride-lace I had at
Joan Turnips' wedding.
"FRANCES.--Ay, and I have lost my thimble and a skein of Coventry blue I
had to work Gregory Litchfield a handkerchief."
When the Queen visited Kenilworth in 1577, a Bridall took place for the
pastime of her Majesty. "First," writes the Chancellor, "came all the lusty
lads and bold bachelors of the parish, every wight with his blue
bridesman's bride lace upon a braunch of green broom." What these bride
laces exactly were we cannot now tell. They continued in fashion till the
Puritans put down all festivals, ruined the {303}commerce of Coventry, and
the fabric of blue thread ceased for ever. It was probably a showy kind of
coarse trimming, like that implied by Mopsa in the _Winter's Tale_, when
she says--
"You promised me a tawdry lace:"[830]
articles which, judging from the song of Autolycus--
"Will you buy any tape,
Or lace for your cape?"
were already hawked about among the pedlars' wares throughout the country:
one of the "many laces" mentioned by Shakespeare.[831]
Dismissing, then, her stitches, her laces, and the 3,000 gowns she left in
her wardrobe behind her--for, as Shakespeare says, "Fashion wears out more
apparel than the man"[832]--we must confine ourselves to those articles
immediately under our notice, cut-work, bone lace, and purle.
Cut-work--"opus scissum," as it is termed by the Keeper of the Great
Wardrobe--was used by Queen Elizabeth to the greatest extent. She wore it
on her ruffs, "with lilies of the like, set with small seed pearl"; on her
doublets, "flourished with squares of silver owes"; on her forepart of
lawn, "flourished with silver and spangles";[833] on her
{304}cushion-cloths,[834] her veils, her tooth-cloths,[835] her smocks and
her nightcaps.[836] All nourished, spangled, and edged in a manner so
stupendous as to defy description. It was dizened out in one of these
last-named articles[837] that young Gilbert Talbot, son of Lord Shrewsbury,
caught a sight of the Queen while walking in the tilt-yard. Queen Elizabeth
at the window in her nightcap! What a goodly sight! That evening she gave
Talbot a good flap on the forehead, and told her chamberlain how the youth
had seen her "unready and in her night stuff," and how ashamed she was
thereof.
Cut-work first appears in the New Year's Offerings of 1577-8, where, among
the most distinguished of the givers, we find the name of Sir Philip
Sidney, who on one occasion offers to his royal mistress a suit of ruffs of
cut-work, on another a smock--strange presents according to our modern
ideas. We read, however, that the offering of the youthful hero gave no
offence, but was most graciously received. Singular enough, there is no
entry of cut-work in the Great Wardrobe Accounts before that of 1584-5,
where there is a charge for mending, washing and starching a bodice and
cuffs of good white lawn, worked in divers places with broad spaces of
Italian cut-work, 20 shillings,[838] and another for the same operation to
a veil of white cut-work trimmed with needlework lace.[839] Cut-work was
probably still a rarity; and really, on reading the quantity offered to
Elizabeth on each recurring new year, there was scarcely any necessity for
her to purchase it herself. By the year 1586-7 the Queen's stock had
apparently diminished. Now, for the first time, she invests the sum of
sixty shillings in six yards of good ruff lawn, well worked, with cut-work,
and edged with good white lace.[840] {305}From this date the Great Wardrobe
Accounts swarm with entries such as a "sut' de lez ruffes de lawne," with
spaces of "opere sciss',"[841] "un' caule de lawne alb' sciss' cum le
edge," of similar work;[842] a "toga cum traine de opere sciss';"[843] all
minutely detailed in the most excruciating gibberish. Sometimes the
cut-work is of Italian[844] fabric, sometimes of Flanders;[845] the ruffs
edged with bone lace,[846] needle lace,[847] or purle.[848]
The needle lace is described as "curiously worked," "operat' cum acu
curiose fact'," at 32s. the yard.[849] The dearest is specified as
Italian.[850] We give a specimen (Coloured Plate XV.) of English
workmanship, said to be of this period, which is very elaborate.[851]
The thread used for lace is termed "filo soror," or nun's thread, such as
was fabricated in the convents of Flanders and Italy.[852] If, however,
Lydgate, in his ballad of "London Lackpenny," is an authority, that of
Paris was most prized:--
"Another he taked me by his hand,
Here is Paris thredde, the finest in the land."
Queen Elizabeth was not patriotic; she got and wore her {306}bone lace from
whom she could, and from all countries. If she did not patronize English
manufacture, on the other hand, she did not encourage foreign artizans; for
when, in 1572, the Flemish refugees desired an asylum in England, they were
forcibly expelled from her shores. In the census of 1571, giving the names
of all the strangers in the City of London,[853] including the two makers
of Billament lace already cited, we have but four foreigners of the lace
craft: one described as "Mary Jurdaine, widow, of the French nation, and
maker of purled lace"; the other, the before-mentioned "Callys de Hove, of
Burgundy."[854]
Various Acts[855] were issued during the reign of Elizabeth in order to
suppress the inordinate use of apparel. That of May, 1562,[856] though
corrected by Cecil himself, less summary than that framed against the
"white-work" of the apprentice boys, was of little or no avail.
In 1568 a complaint was made to the Queen against the frauds practised by
the "16 appointed waiters," in reference to the importation of
haberdashery, etc., by which it appears that her Majesty was a loser of "5
or 600 l. by yere at least" in the customs on "parsement, cap rebone bone
lace, cheyne lace," etc.,[857] but with what effect we know not. The annual
import of these articles is therein stated at £10,000, an enormous increase
since the year 1559, when, among the "necessary and unnecessary wares"
brought into the port of London,[858] together with "babies" (dolls),
"glasses to looke in," "glasses to drinke in," pottes, gingerbread,
cabbages, and other matters, we find enumerated, "Laces of all sortes, £775
6s. 8d.," just one-half less than the more necessary, though less refined
item of "eles fresh and salt."[859]
In 1573 Elizabeth again endeavoured to suppress "the silk glittering with
silver and gold lace," but in vain.
{307}The Queen was a great lover of foreign novelties. All will call to
mind how she overhauled the French finery of poor Mary Stuart[860] on its
way to her prison, purloining and selecting for her own use any
new-fashioned article she craved. We even find Cecil, on the sly, penning a
letter to Sir Henry Norris, her Majesty's envoy to the court of France,
"that the Queen's Majesty would fain have a tailor that has skill to make
her apparel both after the French and Italian manner, and she thinketh you
might use some means to obtain such one as suiteth the Queen without
mentioning any manner of request in the Queen's Majesty's name." His lady
wife is to get one privately, without the knowledge coming to the Queen
Mother's ears, "as she does not want to be beholden to her."
It is not to be wondered at, then, that the New Year's Gifts and Great
Wardrobe Accounts[861] teem with entries of "doublets of peche satten all
over covered with cut-work and lyned with a lace of Venyse gold,[862]
kyrtells of white satten embroidered with purles of gold-like clouds, and
layed round about with a bone lace of Venys gold."[863] This gold lace
appears upon her petticoats everywhere varied by bone lace of Venys
silver.[864]
That the Queen drew much fine thread point from the same locality her
portraits testify, especially that preserved in the royal gallery of
Gripsholm, in Sweden, once the property of her ill-fated admirer, Eric XIV.
She wears a ruff, cuffs, tucker, and apron of geometric lace, of exquisite
fineness, stained of a pale citron colour, similar to the liquid invented
by Mrs. Turner, of Overbury memory, or, maybe, adopted from the
saffron-tinted smocks of the Irish, the wearing of which she herself had
prohibited. We find among her entries laces of Jean[865] and Spanish lace;
she did not even disdain bone lace of copper, and copper and silver {308}at
18d. the ounce.[866] Some of her furnishers are English. One Wylliam Bowll
supplies the Queen with "lace of crowne purle."[867] Of her sylkwoman,
Alice Mountague, she has bone lace wrought with silver and spangles, sold
by the owner at nine shillings.[868]
The Queen's smocks are entered as wrought with black work and edged with
bone lace of gold of various kinds. We have ourselves seen a smock said to
have been transmitted as an heirloom in one family from generation to
generation.[869] It is of linen cloth embroidered in red silk, with her
favourite pattern of oak-leaves and butterflies (Fig. 122). Many entries of
these articles, besides that of Sir Philip Sidney's, appear among the New
Year's Gifts.[870]
[Illustration: Fig. 122.
QUEEN ELIZABETH'S SMOCK.]
It was then the custom for the sponsors to give {309}"christening shirts,"
with little bands and cuffs edged with laces of gold and various kinds--a
relic of the ancient custom of presenting white clothes to the neophytes
when converted to Christianity. The "bearing cloth,"[871] as the mantle
used to cover the child when carried to baptism was called,[872] was also
richly trimmed with lace and cut-work, and the Tree of Knowledge, the Holy
Dove (Fig. 123), or the Flowerpot of the Annunciation (Fig. 124), was
worked in "hollie-work" on the crown of the infant's cap or "biggin."
[Illustration: Fig. 123.]
[Illustration: Fig. 124.]
CHRISTENING CAPS, NEEDLE-MADE BRUSSELS.--Eighteenth century.
Aprons, too, of lace appeared in this reign. The Queen, as we have
mentioned, wears one in her portrait at Gripsholm.[873]
"Those aprons white, of finest thread,
So choicelie tied, so dearly bought;
So finely fringed, so nicely spread;
So quaintly cut, so richly wrought,"
writes the author of _Pleasant Quippes for Upstart Gentlewomen_, {310}in
1596. The fashion continued to the end of the eighteenth century.
Laced handkerchiefs now came into fashion. "Maydes and gentlewomen," writes
Stowe, "gave to their favourites, as tokens of their love, little
handkerchiefs of about three or four inches square, wrought round about,"
with a button at each corner.[874] The best were edged with a small gold
lace. Gentlemen wore them in their hats as favours of their mistresses.
Some cost sixpence, some twelvepence, and the richest sixteenpence.
Of the difference between purles and true lace it is difficult now to
decide. The former word is of frequent occurrence among the New Year's
Gifts, where we have "sleeves covered all over with purle,"[875] and, in
one case, the sleeves are offered unmade, with "a piece of purle upon a
paper to edge them."[876] It was yet an article of great value and worthy
almost of entail, for, in 1573, Elizabeth Sedgwicke, of Wathrape, widow,
bequeaths to her daughter Lassells, of Walbron, "an edge of perlle for a
remembrance, desirying her to give it to one of her daughters."[877]
We now turn, before quitting the sixteenth century, to that most portentous
of all fabrications--Queen Elizabeth's ruff.
In the time of the Plantagenets Flemish tastes prevailed. With the Tudors,
Katherine of Aragon, on her marriage with Prince Arthur, introduced the
Spanish fashions, and the inventories from Henry VIII. downwards are filled
with Spanish work, Spanish stitch, and so forth. Queen Elizabeth leant to
the French and Italian modes, and during the Stuarts they were universally
adopted.
The ruff was first introduced into England about the reign of Philip and
Mary. These sovereigns are both represented on the Great Seal of England
with small ruffs about {311}their necks, and with diminutive ones of the
same form encircling the wrists.[878] This Spanish ruff was not ornamented
with lace. On the succession of Queen Elizabeth the ruff had increased to a
large size, as we see portrayed on her Great Seal.
The art of starching, though known to the manufacturers of Flanders, did
not reach England until 1564, when the Queen first set up a coach. Her
coachman, named Gwyllam Boenen, was a Dutchman; his wife understood the art
of starching, a secret she seems exclusively to have possessed, and of
which the Queen availed herself until the arrival, some time after, of
Madame Dinghen van der Plasse, who, with her husband, came from Flanders
"for their better safeties,"[879] and set up as a clear-starcher in London.
"The most curious wives," says Stowe, "now made themselves ruffs of
cambric, and sent them to Madame Dinghen to be starched, who charged high
prices. After a time they made themselves ruffs of lawn, and thereupon
arose a general scoff, or by-word, that shortly they would make their ruffs
of spiders' webs." Mrs. Dinghen at last took their daughters as her pupils.
Her usual terms were from four to five pounds for teaching them to starch,
and one pound for the art of seething starch.[880] The nobility patronised
her, but the commonalty looked on her as the evil one, and called her
famous liquid "devil's broth."
To keep the ruff erect, bewired[881] and starched though it be, was a
troublesome affair--its falling a cause of agony to the wearer.
"Not so close, thy breath will draw my ruff,"
exclaims the fop. The tools used in starching and fluting {312}ruffs were
called setting-sticks, struts and poking-sticks: the two first were made of
wood or bone, the poking-stick of iron, and heated in the fire. By this
heated tool the fold acquired that accurate and seemly order which
constituted the beauty of this very preposterous attire. It was about the
year 1576, according to Stowe, the making of poking-sticks began. They
figure in the expenses of Elizabeth, who, in 1592, pays to her blacksmith,
one Thomas Larkin, "pro 2 de lez setting-stickes at 2s. 6d." the sum of
5s.[882]
We have frequent allusion to the article in the plays of the day:--[883]
"Your ruff must stand in print, and for that purpose, get poking-sticks
with fair long handles, lest they scorch your hands."[884]
Again, in _Laugh and Lie Down_--[885]
"There she sat with her poking-stick, stiffening a fall."
When the use of starch and poking-sticks had rendered the arrangement of a
ruff easy, the size began rapidly to increase. "Both men and women wore
them intolerably large, being a quarter of a yard deep, and twelve lengths
in a ruff."[886] In London this fashion was termed the French ruff; in
France, on the other hand, it was called "the English monster."[887] Queen
Elizabeth wore hers higher and stiffer than anyone in Europe, save the
Queen of Navarre, for she had a "yellow throat," and was desirous to
conceal it.[888] Woe betide any fair lady of the court who dared let her
white skin appear uncovered in the presence of majesty. Her ruffs were made
of the finest cut-work, enriched with gold, silver, and even precious
stones. Though she consumed endless yards of cut-work, purle, needlework
lace, bone lace of gold, of silver, enriched with pearls, and bugles,
{313}and spangles in the fabrication of the "three-piled ruff,"[889] she by
no means extended such liberty to her subjects, for she selected grave
citizens and placed them at every gate of the city to cut the ruffs if they
exceeded the prescribed depth. These "pillars of pride" form a numerous
item among the New Year's Gifts. Each lady seems to have racked her brain
to invent some novelty as yet unheard of to gratify the Queen's vanity. On
the new year 1559-60, the Countess of Worcester offers a ruff of lawn
cut-work set with twenty small knots like mullets, garnished with small
sparks of rubies and pearls.[890]
The cut-work ruff is decorated or enriched with ornament of every
description. Nothing could be too gorgeous or too extravagant.[891] Great
was the wrath of old Philip Stubbes[892] at these monstrosities, which,
standing out a quarter of a yard or more, "if Æolus with his blasts or
Neptune with his stormes chaunce to hit upon the crazie bark or their
bruised ruffes, then they goe flip flap in the winde like ragges that flew
abroade, lying upon their shoulders like the dishclout of a slut. But wot
ye what? the devill, as he, in the fulnesse of his malice, first invented
these great ruffes," etc., with a great deal more, which, as it comes
rather under the head of costume than lace, we omit, as foreign to our
subject.
Lace has always been made of human hair, and of this we have frequent
mention in the expenses of Queen Elizabeth. We believe the invention to be
far older than her reign, for there is frequent allusion to it in the early
romaunces. In the _Chevalier aux ij Epées_ (MS. Bib. Nat.), a lady requires
of King Ris that he should present her with a mantle fringed with the
beards of nine conquered kings, and hemmed with that of King Arthur, who
was yet to conquer. The mantle is to have "de sa barbe le tassel." {314}The
entries of Elizabeth, however, are of a less heroic nature; and though we
are well aware it was the custom of old ladies to weave into lace their
silver-grey locks, and much as the fashion of hair bracelets and chains
prevails, in Queen Elizabeth's case, setting aside all sentiment, we cannot
help fancying the "laquei fact' de crine brayded cum lez risinge
puffs,"[893] as well as the "devices fact' de crine similiter les scallop
shells,"[894] to have been nothing more than "stuffings"--false additions,
to swell the majesty of the royal "pirrywygge."
That point tresse, as this hair-lace is called, was known in her day, we
have evidence in the Chartley inventory of Mary Stuart, in which is
mentioned, "Un petit quarré fait à point tresse ouvré par la vieille
Comtesse de Lennox elle estant à la Tour"; a tribute of affection the old
countess would scarcely have offered to her daughter-in-law had she
regarded her as implicated in the murder of her son. The writer saw at
Chantilly an aged lace-maker employed in making a lace ground of hair on
the pillow, used, she was informed, by wig-makers to give the parting of
the hair; but the fabric must be identical with the point tresse sent by
the mother of Darnley to the Queen of Scots. Point tresse, when made out of
the hair of aged people, is occasionally to be met with on the Continent,
where, from its rarity, it fetches a high price. Some districts gained a
reputation for their work, according to Turner:--"And Bedford's matrons
wove their snowy locks." It may be detected by the glittering of the hair
when held up to catch the sunbeams, or by frizzing when exposed to the test
of fire, instead of blazing.
With this mention of point tresse we conclude the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
{315}CHAPTER XXIV.
JAMES I. TO THE RESTORATION.
----
JAMES I.
"Now up aloft I mount unto the Ruffe,
Which into foolish mortals pride doth puffe;
Yet Ruffe's antiquity is here but small:
Within these eighty years not one at all.
For the 8th Henry, as I understand,
Was the first king that ever wore a Band,
And but a falling band plaine with a hem,
All other people knew no use of them."
Taylor, "Water-Poet." 1640.
The ruff single, double, three piled, and Dædalian,[895] to the delight of
the satirists, retained its sway during the early days of King James I. It
was the "commode" of the eighteenth--the crinoline of the nineteenth
century. Every play teems with allusions to this monstrosity. One compares
it to
"A pinched lanthorn
Which schoolboys made in winter;"[896]
while a second[897] talks of a
"Starched ruff, like a new pigeon-house."
The lover, in the play of the _Antiquary_,[898] complains to his mistress
in pathetic terms--
"Do you not remember how you fooled me, and set me to pin pleats in your
ruff two hours together?"
{316}Stubbes stood not alone in his anathemas. The dignitaries of the
Church of England waxed wroth, and violent were their pulpit invectives.
"Fashion," emphatically preached John King,[899] Bishop of London, "has
brought in deep ruffs[900] and shallow ruffs, thick ruffs and thin ruffs,
double ruffs and no ruffs. When the Judge of quick and dead shall appear,
he will not know those who have so defaced the fashion he hath created."
The Bishop of Exeter, too, Joseph Hall, a good man, but no prophet, little
wotting how lace-making would furnish bread and comfort to the women of his
own diocese for centuries to come, in a sermon preached at the Spitel,
after a long vituperation against its profaneness, concludes with these
words: "But if none of our persuasions can prevail, hear this, ye garish
popinjays of our time, if ye will not be ashamed to clothe yourselves after
this shameless fashion, Heaven shall clothe you with shame and confusion.
Hear this, ye plaister-faced Jezabels, if ye will not leave your daubs and
your washes, Heaven will one day wash them off with fire and brimstone."
Whether these denunciations had the effect of lessening the ruffs we know
not; probably it only rendered them more exaggerated.
Of these offending adjuncts to the toilet of both sexes we have fine
illustrations in the paintings of the day, as well as in the monuments of
our cathedrals and churches.[901] They were composed of the finest
geometric lace, such as we see portrayed in the works of Vinciolo and
others. The artists of the day took particular pleasure in depicting them
with the most exquisite minuteness.
These ruffs must have proved expensive for the wearer, though in James I.'s
time, as Ben Jonson has it, men thought little of "turning four or five
hundred acres of their best land into two or three trunks of apparel."[902]
According to the Wardrobe Accounts,[903] "twenty-five yards of fyne bone
lace" was required to edge a ruff, without counting the ground, composed
either of lace squares or cut-work. Queen Anne, his consort, pays £5 for
her wrought ruff, for "shewing" which eighteen yards of fine lace are
purchased at 5s. 8d.[904]
PLATE LXXIX.
[Illustration: MARY SIDNEY, COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE, IN 1614.
1555?--1621.--Probably by Marc Gheeraedts. National Portrait Gallery.
Photo by Walker and Cockerell.]
_To face page 316._
{317}The ruffs of the City ladye were kept downe by the old sumptuary law
of Elizabeth.
"See, now, that you have not your 'city ruff' on, Mistress Sue," says
Mistress Simple in the _City Match_.[905]
The Overbury murder (1613), and hanging of Mrs. Turner at Tyburn in 1615,
are usually said, on the authority of Howel,[906] to have put an end to the
fashion of yellow ruffs, but the following extracts show they were worn for
some years later.
As late as 1620 the yellow starch, supposed to give a rich hue to the lace
and cut-work of which ruffs were "built," gave scandal to the clergy. The
Dean of Westminster ordered no lady or gentleman wearing yellow ruffs to be
admitted into any pew in his church; but finding this "ill taken," and the
King "moved in it," he ate his own words, and declared it to be all a
mistake.[907] This fashion, again, gave great offence even in France. Since
the English[908] {318}alliance, writes the _Courtisane à la Mode_,
1625,[909] "cette mode Anglaise sera cause qu'il pourra advenir une cherté
sur le safran qui fera que les Bretons et les Poitevins seront contraints
de manger leur beurre blanc et non pas jaune, comme ils sont accoutumés."
The Bishops, who first denounced the ruff, themselves held to the fashion
long after it had been set aside by all other professions. Folks were not
patriotic in their tastes, as in more modern days; they loved to go "as far
as Paris to fetch over a fashion and come back again."[910]
The lace of Flanders, with the costly points and cut-works of Italy,[911]
now became the rage, and continued so for nigh two centuries. Ben Jonson
speaks of the "ruffs and cuffs of Flanders,"[912] while Lord Bacon,
indignant at the female caprice of the day, writes to Sir George
Villiers:--"Our English dames are much given to the wearing of costly
laces, and if they may be brought from Italy, or France, or Flanders, they
are in much esteem; whereas, if like laces were made by the English, so
much thread would make a yard of lace, being put into that manufacture,
would be five times, or perhaps ten or twenty times the value."[913] But
Bacon had far better have looked at home, for he had himself, when
Chancellor, granted an exclusive patent to Sir Giles Mompesson, the
original of Sir Giles Overreach, for the monopoly of the sale and
manufacture of gold and silver thread, the abuses of which caused in part
his fall.[914]
James had half ruined the commerce of England by the granting of
monopolies, which, says Sir John Culpepper, are "as numerous as the frogs
of Egypt. They have got possession of our dwellings, they sip in our cups,
they dip in our {319}dish. They sit by our fire. We find them in the
dye-vat, wash-bowl, and powdering-tub, etc.; they have marked and sealed us
from head to foot."[915] The bone-lace trade suffered alike with other
handicrafts.[916] In 1606 James had already given a license to the Earl of
Suffolk[917] for the import of gold and silver lace. In 1621, alarmed by
the general complaints throughout the kingdom,[918] a proposition was made
"for the erection of an Office of Pomp, to promote home manufactures," and
to repress pride by levying taxes on all articles of luxury.[919] What
became of the Pomp Office we cannot pretend to say: the following year we
are somewhat taken aback by a petition[920] from two Dutchmen, of Dort,
showing "that the manufacture of gold and silver thread, purle, etc., in
England" was "a great waste of bullion," the said Dutchmen being, we may
infer, of opinion that it was more to their advantage to import such
articles themselves. After a lapse of three years the petition is
granted.[921] In the midst of all this granting and rescinding of
monopolies, we hear in the month of April, 1623, how the decay of the
bone-lace trade at Great Marlow caused great poverty.[922]
Though the laces of Flanders and Italy were much patronised by the court
and high nobility, Queen Anne of Denmark appears to have given some
protection to the fabrics of the country. Poor Queen Anne! When, on the
news of Elizabeth's death, James hurried off to England, a correspondence
took place between the King and the English Privy Council regarding the
Queen's outfit, James considering, {320}and wisely--for the Scotch court
was always out of elbows--that his wife's wardrobe was totally unfit to be
produced in London. To remedy the deficiency, the Council forwarded to the
Queen, by the hands of her newly-named ladies, a quantity of Elizabeth's
old gowns and ruffs, wherewith to make a creditable appearance on her
arrival in England. Elizabeth had died at the age of seventy, wizened,
decayed, and yellow--Anne, young and comely, had but just attained her
twenty-sixth year. The rage of the high-spirited dame knew no bounds; she
stormed with indignation--wear the clothes she must, for there were no
others--so in revenge she refused to appoint any of the ladies, save Lady
Bedford, though nominated by the King, to serve about her person in
England. On her arrival she bought a considerable quantity of linen, and as
with the exception of one article,[923] purchased from a "French mann," her
"nidell purle worke," her "white worke," her "small nidell worke," her
"pece of lawin to bee a ruffe," with "eighteen yards of fine lace to shewe
(sew) the ruffe," the "Great Bone" lace, and "Little Bone" lace were
purchased at Winchester and Basing, towns bordering on the lace-making
counties, leading us to infer them to have been of English
manufacture.[924]
The bill of laced linen purchased at the "Queen's lying down" on the birth
of the Princess Sophia, in 1606, amounts to the sum of £614 5s. 8d.[925] In
this we have no mention of any foreign-made laces. The child lived but
three days. Her little monument, of cradle-form, with lace-trimmed
coverlets and sheets (Fig. 125), stands close to the recumbent effigy of
her sister Mary[926] (Fig. 126), with ruff, collar, and cap of geometric
lace, in the north aisle of Henry VII.'s Chapel.[927]
PLATE LXXX.
[Illustration: HENRY WRIOTHESLEY, THIRD EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON,
1573-1624.--Probably painted in Holland about 1620, by Michiel Van
Miereveldt. National Portrait Gallery.
Photo by Walker and Cockerell.]
_To face page 320._
{321}[Illustration: Fig. 125.
MONUMENT OF THE PRINCESS SOPHIA. + 1606. FOURTH DAUGHTER OF JAMES I.
(Westminster Abbey.)]
After a time--epoch of the Spanish marriage[928]--the ruff {322}gave way to
the "falling band," so familiar to us in the portraits of Rubens and
Vandyke.
"There is such a deal of pinning these ruffs, when a fine clean fall is
worth them all," says the Malcontent. "If you should chance to take a nap
in the afternoon, your falling band requires no poking-stick to recover
it."[929] Cut-work still continued in high favour; it was worn on every
article of linen, from the richly-wrought collar to the nightcap. The
Medicean ruff or gorget of the Countess of Pembroke ("Sidney's sister,
Pembroke's mother"), with its elaborate border of swans (Fig. 127), is a
good illustration of the fashion of her time.
[Illustration: Fig. 126.
MONUMENT OF THE PRINCESS MARY. + 1607. THIRD DAUGHTER OF JAMES I.
(Westminster Abbey.)]
Among the early entries of Prince Charles, we have four nightcaps of
cut-work, £7,[930] for making two of which for his {323}Highness, garnished
with gold and silver lace, Patrick Burke receives £15;[931] but these
modest entries are quite put to shame by those of his royal father, who,
for ten yards of needlework lace "pro le edginge" of his "galiriculis vulgo
nightcaps," pays £16 13s. 4d.[932] Well might the Water-Poet exclaim--
"A nightcap is a garment of high state."[933]
[Illustration: Fig. 127.
MARY, COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE. + 1621. (From her portrait in Walpole's _Royal
and Noble Authors_.)]
When Queen Anne died, in 1619, we have an elaborate {324}account of her
funeral,[934] and of the sum paid to Dorothy Speckart for dressing a hearse
effigy with a large veil, wired and edged with peak lace and lawn,
curiously cut in flowers, etc. Laced linen, however, was already discarded
in mourning attire, for we find in the charges for the king's mourning
ruffs, an edging at 14d. the piece is alone recorded.[935]
Towards the end of James I.'s reign a singular custom came into fashion,
brought in by the Puritan ladies, that of representing religious subjects,
both in lace, cut-work, and embroidery, a fashion hitherto confined to
church vestments. We find constant allusions to it in the dramatists of the
day. Thus, in the _City Match_,[936] we read--
"She works religious petticoats, for flowers
She'll make church histories. Her needle doth
So sanctify my cushionets, besides
My smock sleeves have such holy embroideries,
And are so learned, that I fear in time
All my apparel will be quoted by
Some pious instructor."
Again, in the _Custom of the Country_--[937]
"Sure you should not be
Without a neat historical shirt."
{325}We find in a Scotch inventory[938] of the seventeenth century: "Of
Holland scheittes ii pair, quhairof i pair schewit (sewed) with hollie
work."[939]
The entries of this reign, beyond the "hollie work," picked[940] and
seaming[941] lace, contain little of any novelty; all articles of the
toilet were characterised by a most reckless extravagance.
"There is not a gentleman now in the fashion," says Peacham,[942] "whose
band of Italian cut-work now standeth him not in the least three or four
pounds. Yes, a semster in Holborn told me that there are of threescore
pounds." We read how two-thirds of a woman's dower was often expended in
the purchase of cut-work and Flanders lace.
In the warrant of the Great Wardrobe for the marriage expenses of the
ill-fated Princess Elizabeth, on which occasion it is recorded of poor
Arabella Stuart, the "Lady Arabella, though still in the Tower, has shewn
her joy by buying four new gowns, one of which cost £1,500,"[943] in
addition to "gold cheine laze, silver spangled, silver looped, myllen bone
lace, drawneworke poynte, black silk Naples lace," etc., all in the most
astonishing quantity, we have the astounding entry of 1,692 ounces of
silver bone lace.[944] No wonder, in {326}after days, the Princess caused
so much anxiety to the Palatine's Privy Purse, Colonel Schomberg, who in
vain implores her to have her linen and lace bought beforehand, and paid at
every fair.[945] "You brought," he writes, "£3,000 worth of linen from
England, and have bought £1,000 worth here," and yet "you are ill
provided."[946]
CHARLES I.
"Embroider'd stockings, cut-work smocks and shirts."
--Ben Jonson.
Ruffs may literally be said to have gone out with James I. His son Charles
is represented on the coins of the two first years of his reign in a stiff
starched ruff;[947] in the fourth and fifth we see the ruff unstarched,
falling down on his shoulders,[948] and afterwards, the falling band (Fig.
128) was generally adopted, and worn by all classes save the judges, who
stuck to the ruff as a mark of dignity and decorum, till superseded by the
peruke.[949]
PLATE LXXXI.
[Illustration: ELIZABETH, PRINCESS PALATINE, GRANDDAUGHTER OF JAMES I.,
1618-1680.--Probably about 1638. By Gerard Honthorst. National Portrait
Gallery.
Photo by Walker and Cockerell.]
_To face page 326._
{327}[Illustration: Fig. 128.
FALLING COLLAR OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.--(After Abraham Bosse.)]
Even loyal Oxford, conscientious to a hair's-breadth--always behind the
rest of the world--when Whitelock, in 1635, addresses the Quarter Sessions
arrayed in the new fashion, owned "one may speak as good sense in a falling
band as in a ruff." The change did not, however, diminish the extravagance
of the age. The bills for the King's lace and linen, which in the year 1625
amounted to £1,000, in course of time rose to £1,500.[950] Falling bands of
Flanders bone lace and cut-work appear constantly in the accounts.[951] As
the foreign materials are carefully specified (it was one of these
articles, then a novelty, that Queen Anne of Denmark "bought of the French
Mann"), we may infer much of the bobbin or bone lace to have been of home
produce. As Ben Jonson says, "Rich apparel has strong virtues." It is, he
adds, "the birdlime of fools." There was, indeed, no article of toilet at
this period which was not encircled with lace--towels, sheets, shirts,
caps, cushions, boots (Fig. 129), cuffs (Fig. 130)--and, as too often
occurs in the case of excessive luxury, when the bills came in money was
wanting to {328}discharge them, Julian Elliott, the royal lace merchant,
seldom receiving more than half her account, and in 1630--nothing.[952]
There were, as Shakespeare says,
"Bonds entered into
For gay apparel against the triumph day."[953]
The quantity of needlework purl consumed on the king's hunting collars,
"colares pro venatione," scarcely appears credible. One entry alone makes
994 yards for 12 collars and 24 pairs of cuffs.[954] Again, 600 yards of
fine bone lace is charged for trimming the ruffs of the King's
night-clothes.[955]
[Illustration: Fig. 129.
From an Engraving of Abraham Bosse.]
[Illustration: Fig. 130.
From an Engraving of Abraham Bosse.]
The art of lace-making was now carried to great perfection in England; so
much so, that the lease of twenty-one years, granted in 1627 to Dame
Barbara Villiers, of the duties on gold and silver thread, became a
terrible loss to the holder, who, in 1629, petitions for a discharge of
£437 10s. arrears due to the Crown. The prayer is favourably received by
the officers of the Customs, to whom it was referred, who answer they
"conceive those duties will decay, for the invention of making Venice gold
and silver lace within the kingdom is come to that perfection, that it will
be made here more cheap than it can be brought from beyond seas."[956] The
fancy for foreign articles still prevailed. "Among the goods brought in by
Tristram Stephens," writes Sir John Hippisley, from Dover Castle, "are the
bravest French bandes that ever I did see for ladies--they be fit for the
Queen."[957]
[Illustration: Fig. 131.
ENGLISH NEEDLE-MADE LACE.
_To face page 328._]
{329}Gold lace was exported in considerable quantities to India in the days
of James I.;[958] and now, in 1631, we find the "riband roses," edged with
lace, notified among the articles allowed to be exported. These lace
rosette-trimmed shoes were in vogue in the time of James I., and when first
brought to that monarch he refused to adopt the fashion, asking, "If they
wanted to make a ruffe-footed dove of him." They were afterwards worn in
all the extravagance of the French court. (See France to Louis XIV.). Mr.
Brooks, in his speech in the House of Commons against costly apparel (18
James I.), says, "Nowadays, the roses worn by Members of the House on their
shoes are more than their father's apparel." Peacham speaks of "shoe ties,
that goe under the name of roses, from thirty shillings to three, four, and
five pounds the pair. Yea, a gallant of the time, not long since, paid
thirty pounds for a pair.[959] Well might Taylor say they
"Wear a farm in shoe-strings edged with gold,
And spangled garters worth a copyhold."
It was not till the year 1635 that an effort was made for {330}the
protection of our home fabrics, "at the request and for the benefit of the
makers of those goods in and near London, and other parts of the realm, now
brought to great want and necessity, occasioned by the excessive
importation of these foreign wares." Foreign "Purles, Cutworks, or
Bone-laces, or any commodities laced or edged therewith," are strictly
prohibited. Orders are also given that all purles, cut-works, and bone
laces English made are to be taken to a house near the sign of the "Red
Hart" in Fore Street, without Cripplegate, and there sealed by Thomas Smith
or his deputy.[960]
An Act the same year prohibits the use of "gold or silver purles" except
manufactured in foreign parts, and especially forbids the melting down any
coin of the realm.
The manufacture of bone lace in England had now much improved, and was held
in high estimation in France. We hear of Henrietta Maria sending ribbons,
lace, and other fashions from England, in 1636, as a present to her
sister-in-law, Anne of Austria;[961] while, in a letter dated February 7th,
1636, the Countess of Leicester writes to her husband, then in France, who
had requested her to procure him some fine bone lace of English make:--"The
present for the Queen of France I will be careful to provide, but it cannot
be handsome for that proportion of money which you do mention; for these
bone laces, if they be good, are dear, and I will send the best, for the
honor of my nation and my own credit."
Referring to the same demand, the Countess again writes to her lord, May
18th, 1637, Leicester House:--"All my present for the Queen of France is
provided, which I have done with great care and some trouble; the expenses
I cannot yet directly tell you, but I think it will be about £120, for the
bone laces are extremely dear. I intend to {331}send it by Monsieur
Ruvigny, for most of the things are of new fashion, and if I should keep
them they would be less acceptable, for what is new now will quickly grow
common, such things being sent over almost every week."
We can have no better evidence of the improvement in the English lace
manufacture than these two letters.
An Act of 1638 for reforming abuses in the manufacture of lace, by which
competent persons are appointed, whether natives or strangers, "who shall
be of the Church of England," can scarcely have been advantageous to the
community.
Lace, since the Reformation, had disappeared from the garments of the
Church. In the search warrants made after Jesuits and priests of the Roman
faith, it now occasionally peeps out. In an inventory of goods seized at
the house of some Jesuit priests at Clerkenwell, in 1627, we find--"One
faire Alb of cambric, with needle worke purles about the skirts, necke, and
bandes."
Smuggling, too, had appeared upon the scene. In 1621 information is laid,
how Nicholas Peeter, master of the "Greyhound, of Apsom," had landed at
Dover sundry packets of cut-workes and bone laces without paying the
Customs.[962]
But the
"Rebatoes, ribbands, cuffs, ruffs, falls,
Scarfes, feathers, fans, maskes, muffs, laces, cauls,"[963]
of King Charles's court were soon to disperse at the now outbreaking
Revolution. The Herrn Maior Frau (Lady Mayoress), the noble English lady
depicted by Hollar,[964] must now lay aside her whisk, edged with broad
lace of needle point, and no longer hie to St. Martin's for lace:[965] she
must content herself with a plain attire.
"Sempsters with ruffs and cuffs, and quoifs and caules
And falls,"[966]
must be dismissed. Smocks of three pounds a-piece,[967] {332}wrought
smocks,[968] are no longer worn by all--much less those "seam'd thro' with
cutwork,"[969] or "lace to her smocks, broad seaming laces,"[970] which,
groans one of the Puritan writers, "is horrible to think of."
The ruff and cuffs of Flanders, gold lace cut-work and silver lace of
curle,[971] needle point, and fine gartering with blown roses,[972] are now
suppressed under Puritan rule.
The "fop" whom Henry Fitz-Geoffrey describes as having
"An attractive lace
And whalebone bodies for the better grace,"
must now think twice before he wears it.[973]
The officer, whom the poor soldier apostrophises as shining--
"One blaze of plate about you, which puts out
Our eyes when we march 'gainst the sunne, and armes you
Compleatly with your own gold lace, which is
Laid on so thick, that your own trimmings doe
Render you engine proof, without more arms"--[974]
must no longer boast of
"This shirt five times victorious I have fought under,
And cut through squadrons of your curious Cut-work,
As I will do through mine."[975]
In the Roundhead army he will scarce deign to comb his cropped locks. All
is now dingy, of a sad colour, soberly in character with the tone of the
times.
PLATE LXXXII.
[Illustration: JAMES HARRINGTON, Author of "Oceana," 1611-1677. Between
1630-1640. By Gerard Honthorst. National Portrait Gallery.
Photo by Walker and Cockerell.]
_To face page 332._
{333}THE COMMONWEALTH.
The rule of the Puritans was a sad time for lace-makers, as regards the
middle and lower classes: every village festival, all amusement was put
down, bride laces and Mayings--all were vanity.
With respect to the upper classes, the Puritan ladies, as well as the men
of birth, had no fancy for exchanging the rich dress of the Stuart Court
for that of the Roundheads. Sir Thomas Fairfax, father of the General, is
described as wearing a buff coat, richly ornamented with silver lace, his
trunk hose trimmed with costly Flanders lace, his breastplate partly
concealed by a falling collar of the same material. The foreign Ambassadors
of the Parliament disdained the Puritan fashions. Lady Fanshaw describes
her husband as wearing at the Court of Madrid, on some State occasion, "his
linen very fine, laced with very rich Flanders lace."[976]
Indeed, it was not till the arrival of the Spanish envoy, the first
accredited to the Protectorate of Cromwell, that Harrison begged Colonel
Hutchinson and Lord Warwick to set an example to other nations at the
audience, and not appear in gold and silver lace. Colonel Hutchinson,
though he saw no harm in a rich dress, yet not to appear offensive, came
next day in a plain black suit, as did the other gentlemen, when, to the
astonishment of all, Harrison appeared in a scarlet coat so laden with
"clinquaint" and lace as to hide the material of which it was made,
showing, remarks Mrs. Hutchinson, "his godly speeches were only made that
he might appear braver above the rest in the eyes of the strangers."
Nor did the mother of Cromwell lay aside these adornments. She wore a
handkerchief, of which the broad point-lace alone could be seen, and her
green velvet cardinal was edged with broad gold lace.[977] Cromwell
himself, when once in power, became more particular in his dress; and if he
lived as a Puritan, his body after death was more gorgeously attired than
that of any deceased sovereign, with purple velvet, ermine, and the richest
Flanders lace.[978] His effigy, {334}carved by one Symonds, was clad in a
fine shirt of Holland, richly laced; he wore bands and cuffs of the same
materials, and his clothes were covered with gold lace.[979]
The more we read the more we feel convinced that the dislike manifested by
the Puritan leaders to lace and other luxuries was but a political
necessity, in order to follow the spirit of the age.
As an illustration of this opinion we may cite that in the account of the
disbursements of the Committee of Safety, 1660, a political _jeu d'esprit_
which preceded the Restoration, we find entered for Lady Lambert--
"Item, for seven new whisks lac'd with Flanders lace of the last Edition,
each whisk is valued at fifty pound, £350."
Followed up by--
"Six new Flanders lac'd smocks, £300."
The whisk, as the gorget was now termed, was as great an object of
extravagance to the women as was the falling band to the men. It continued
in fashion during the reign of Charles II., and is often mentioned as lost
or stolen among the advertisements in the public journals of the day. In
the _Mercurius Publicus_, May 8th, 1662, we find: "A cambric whisk with
Flanders lace, about a quarter of a yard broad, and a lace turning up about
an inch broad, with a stock in the neck, and a strap hanging down before,
was lost between the new Palace and Whitehall. Reward, 30_s_." Again, in
_The Newes_, June 20th, 1664: "Lost, a Tiffany whisk, with a great lace
down, and a little one up, large Flowers, and open Work, with a Roul for
the head and Peak."
{335}CHAPTER XXV.
CHARLES II. TO THE HOUSE OF HANOVER.
----
CHARLES II.
"The dangling knee-fringe, and the bib-cravat."
--Dryden. _Prologue._ 1674.
The taste for luxury only required the restoration of the Stuarts to burst
out in full vigour.
The following year Charles II. issued a proclamation[980] enforcing the Act
of his father prohibiting the entry of foreign bone lace; but, far from
acting as he preached, he purchases Flanders lace at eighteen shillings the
yard, for the trimming of his fine lawn "collobium sindonis,"[981] a sort
of surplice worn during the ceremony of the anointment at the coronation.
The hand-spinners of gold wire, thread lace, and spangles of the City of
London, no longer puritanically inclined, now speak out boldly. "Having
heard a report the Parliament intend to pass an Act against the wearing of
their manufacture, they hope it intends the reform, not the destruction of
their craft, for by it many thousands would be ruined. Let every person,"
say they, "be prohibited from wearing gold, silver, and thread lace--that
will encourage the gentry to do so."[982]
In 1662 is passed an Act prohibiting the importation of foreign bone lace,
cut-works, etc., setting forth, "Whereas many poor children have attained
great dexterity in the {336}making thereof, the persons so employed have
served most parts of the kingdom with bone lace, and for the carrying out
of the same trade have caused much thread to be brought into the country,
whereby the customs have been greatly advanced, until of late large
quantities of bone lace, cut-work, etc., were brought into the kingdom and
sold contrary to the former Statutes and the proclamation of November last;
all such bone lace is to be forfeited, and a penalty of £100 paid by the
offender."[983]
This same Act only occasioned the more smuggling of lace from Flanders, for
the point made in England had never attained the beauty of Brussels, and
indeed, wherever fine lace is mentioned at this period it is always of
foreign fabric. That Charles himself was of this opinion there can be no
doubt, for in the very same year he grants to one John Eaton a license to
import such quantities of lace "made beyond the seas, as may be for the
wear of the Queen, our dear Mother the Queen, our dear brother James, Duke
of York," and the rest of the royal family. The permission is softened down
by the words, "And to the end the same may be patterns for the manufacture
of these commodities here, notwithstanding the late Statute forbidding
their importation."[984] Charles had evidently received his lessons in the
school of Mazarin. As the galleries of the cardinal were filled with
sculptures, paintings, and majolica--rich produce of Italian art, as
patterns for France, "per mostra di farne in Francia"--so the king's "pilea
nocturna," pillow-beres, cravats, were trimmed with the points of
Venice[985] and Flanders, at the rate of £600 per annum, for the sake of
improving the lace manufacture of England.
The introduction of the flowing wig, with its long curls covering the
shoulders, gave a final blow to the falling band; {337}the ends floating
and tied in front could alone be visible. In time they diminished in size,
and the remains are still seen in the laced bands of the lawyer, when in
full dress, and the homely bordered cambric slips used by the clergy. The
laced cravat now introduced continued in fashion until about the year
1735.[986]
It was at its height when Pepys writes in his diary: "Lord's Day, Oct. 19,
1662. Put on my new lace band, and so neat it is that I am resolved my
great expense shall be lace bands, and it will set off anything else the
more." The band was edged with the broadest lace. In the _Newes_, January
7th, 1663, we find: "Lost, a laced band, the lace a quarter of a yard deep,
and the band marked in the stock with a B."
Mrs. Pepys--more thrifty soul--"wears her green petticoat of Florence
satin, with white and black gimp lace of her own putting on (making), which
is very pretty."
The custom, already common in France, of ladies making their own lace,
excites the ire of the writer of _Britannia Languens_, in his "Discourse
upon Trade."[987] "The manufacture of linen,"[988] he says, "was once the
huswifery of English ladies, gentlewomen, and other women;" now "the
huswifery women of England employ themselves in making an ill sort of lace,
which serves no national or natural necessity."
The days of Puritan simplicity were at an end.
"Instead of homespun coifs were seen
Good pinners edged with Colberteen."[989]
The laced cravat succeeded the falling collar. Lace handkerchiefs[990] were
the fashion, and
"Gloves laced and trimmed as fine as Nell's."[991]
{338}Laced aprons, which even found their way to the homes of the Anglican
clergy, and appear advertised as "Stolen from the vicarage house at
Amersham in Oxfordshire: An apron of needlework lace, the middle being
Network, another Apron laced with cut and slash lace."[992]
The newspapers crowd with losses of lace, and rarer--finds.[993]
They give us, however, no clue to the home manufacture. "A pasteboard box
full of laced linen, and a little portmanteau with some white and grey Bone
lace,"[994] would seem to signify a lace much made two hundred years ago,
of which we have ourselves seen specimens from Dalecarlia, a sort of
guipure, upon which the pattern is formed by the introduction of an
unbleached thread, which comes out in full relief--a fancy more curious
than pretty.
The petticoats of the ladies of King Charles's court have received due
honour at the hands of Pepys, whose prying eyes seem to have been
everywhere. On May 21 of the same year he so complacently admired himself
in his new lace band, he writes down: "My wife and I to my Lord's lodging;
where she and I staid walking in White Hall Gardens. And in the Privy
Garden saw the finest smocks and linnen petticoats of my Lady
Castlemaine's, laced with rich lace at the bottom, that ever I saw; and it
did me good to look at them."
Speaking of the ladies' attire of this age, Evelyn says:--
"Another quilted white and red,
With a broad Flanders lace below;
Four pairs of bas de soye shot through {339}
With silver; diamond buckles too,
For garters, and as rich for shoe.
Twice twelve day smocks of Holland fine,
With cambric sleeves rich Point to joyn
(For she despises Colbertine);
Twelve more for night, all Flanders lac'd,
Or else she'll think herself disgrac'd.
The same her night gown must adorn,
With two Point waistcoats for the morn;
Of pocket mouchoirs, nose to drain,
A dozen laced, a dozen plain;
Three night gowns of rich Indian stuff;
Four cushion-cloths are scarce enough
Of Point and Flanders,"[995] etc.
It is difficult now to ascertain what description of lace was that styled
Colbertine.[996] It is constantly alluded to by the writers of the period.
Randle Holme (1688) styles it, "A kind of open lace with a square
grounding."[997] Evelyn himself, in his _Fop's Dictionary_ (1690), gives,
"Colbertine, a lace resembling net-work of the fabric of Monsieur Colbert,
superintendent of the French King's manufactures;" and the _Ladies'
Dictionary_, 1694, repeats his definition. This is more incomprehensible
still, point d'Alençon being the lace that can be specially styled of "the
fabric" of Colbert, and Colbertine appears to have been a coarse
production.[998] Swift talks of knowing
"The difference between
Rich Flanders lace and Colberteen."[999]
Congreve makes Lady Westport say--[1000]
"Go hang out an old Frisonier gorget with a yard of yellow Colberteen."
And a traveller, in 1691,[1001] speaking of Paris, writes:--"You shall see
here the finer sort of people flaunting it in tawdry gauze or Colbertine, a
parcel of coarse staring ribbons; but ten of their holyday habits shall not
amount to what a citizen's wife of London wears on her head every day."
{340}JAMES II.
The reign of James II., short and troubled, brought but little change in
the fashion of the day; more prominence, however, was given to the lace
cravats, which were worn loosely round the throat, and with their ends
hanging down over the upper part of the vest.
Charles II., in the last year of his reign, spends £20 12s. for a new
cravat to be worn "on the birthday of his dear brother,"[1002] and James
expends £29 upon one of Venice point to appear in on that of his queen.
Frequent entries of lace for the attendants of the Chapel Royal form items
in the Royal Wardrobe Accounts.
Ruffles, night-rails, and cravats of point d'Espagne and de Venise now
figure in Gazettes,[1003] but "Flanders lace is still in high estimation,"
writes somebody, in 1668, "and even fans are made of it."
Then James II. fled, and years after we find him dying at St. Germains
in--a laced nightcap. "This cap was called a 'toquet,' and put on when the
king was in extremis, as a compliment to Louis XIV." "It was the court
etiquette for all the Royals," writes Madame, in her _Memoirs_, "to die
with a nightcap on." The toquet of King James may still be seen by the
curious, adorning a wax model of the king's head, preserved as a relic in
the Museum of Dunkirk.[1004]
Out of mingled gratitude, we suppose, for the hospitality she had received
at the French court, and the protection of the angels, which, she writes,
"I experienced once when I {341}set fire to my lace night cornet, which was
burned to the very head without singeing a single hair"--good Queen Mary of
Modena, who shone so brightly in her days of adversity, died, _selon les
règles_, coeffed in like fashion.
With this notice we finish the St. Germains reign of King James the Second.
WILLIAM III.
"Long wigs,
Steinkirk cravats."
--Congreve. _Love for Love._
In William III.'s reign, the full shirt-sleeves, with their lace ruffles,
were shown at the wrists, and the loose neckcloths had long pendent ends
terminating in lace, if they were not entirely made of that material. The
hat, too, was edged with gold lace, and for summer wear the gloves were
edged with lace.
Women's sleeves, at first short, wide and lace-edged, showing the delicate
sleeves of the under garment, soon became tight, and were prolonged to the
wrists, where they terminated in deep and wide upturned cuffs, whence
drooped a profusion of lace lappets and ruffles.
The hair, combed up, and with an inclination backwards from the forehead,
was surmounted by a strata of ribbon and lace, sometimes intermingled with
feathers, and a kerchief or scarf of some very light material was permitted
to hang down to the waist, or below it.
In 1698 the English Parliament passed another Act "for rendering the laws
more effectual for preventing the importation of foreign Bone lace, Loom
lace, Needlework Point, and Cutwork,"[1005] with a penalty of 20s. per
yard, and forfeiture. This Act caused such excitement among the convents
and béguinages of Flanders that the Government, at that time under the
dominion of Spain, prohibited, by way of retaliation, the importation of
English wool. In consequence of the general distress occasioned by this
edict {342}among the woolstaplers of England, the Act prohibiting the
importation of foreign lace into England was repealed,[1006] so far as
related to the Spanish Low Countries. England was the loser by this
Custom-House war.[1007]
Dress, after the Revolution, partook of the stately sobriety of the House
of Nassau, but lace was extensively worn. Queen Mary favoured that
wonderful erection, already spoken of in our chapter on France,[1008] the
tower or fontange, more generally called, certainly not from its
convenience, the "commode," with its piled tiers of lace and ribbon, and
the long hanging pinners, celebrated by Prior in his "Tale of the Widow and
her Cat":--
"He scratch'd the maid, he stole the cream,
He tore her best lac'd pinner."
Their Flanders lace heads, with the engageantes[1009] or ruffles, and the
dress covered with lace frills and flounces--"every part of the garment in
curl"--caused a lady, says the _Spectator_, to resemble "a Friesland
hen."[1010]
Never yet were such sums expended on lace as in the days of William and
Mary. The lace bill of the Queen, signed by Lady Derby, Mistress of the
Robes, for the year 1694, amounts to the enormous sum of £1,918.[1011]
Among the most extravagant entries we find:--
£. s. d.
21 yards of lace for 12 pillow beres, at 52s. 54 12 0
16 yards of lace for 2 toylights (toilets), at £12 192 0 0
24 yards for 6 handkerchiefs, at £4 10s. 108 0 0
30 yards for 6 night shifts, at 62s. 93 0 0
6 yards for 2 combing cloths, at £14 84 0 0
3½ yards for a combing cloth at £17 53 2 6 {343}
3-1/8 do. at £14 42 0 0
An apron of lace 17 0 0
None of the lace furnished by Mr. Bampton, thread lace provider and
milliner to the court, for the Queen's engageantes and ruffles, however,
seems to have exceeded £5 10_s_. the yard. There is little new in this
account. The lace is entered as scalloped,[1012] ruffled, loopt: lace
purle[1013] still lingers on; catgut, too, appears for the first
time,[1014] as well as raised point[1015] and needlework.[1016] The Queen's
pinners are mentioned as Mazzarined;[1017] some fashion named in honour of
the once fair Hortense, who ended her exiled life in England.
"What do you lack, ladies fair, Mazzarine hoods, Fontanges,
girdles?"[1018]
King William himself, early imbued with the Dutch taste for lace, exceeded,
we may say, his wife in the extravagance of his lace bills; for though the
lace account for 1690 is noted only at £1,603, it increases annually until
the year 1695-6, when the entries amount to the astonishing sum of £2,459
19s.[1019] Among the items charged will be found:--
£. s. d.
To six point cravats 158 0 0
To eight do. for hunting 85 0 0
54 yds. for 6 barbing cloths 270 0 0
63 yds. for 6 combing cloths 283 10 0
117 yards of "scissæ teniæ" (cut-work)
for trimming 12 pockethandfs 485 14 3
78 yds. for 24 cravats, at £8 10s. 663 0 0
{344}In this right royal account of expenditure we find mention of
"cockscombe laciniæ," of which the King consumes 344 yards.[1020] What this
may be we cannot say, as it is described as "green and white"; otherwise we
might have supposed it some kind of Venice point, the little pearl-edged
raised patterns of which are designated by Randle Holme as "cockscombs."
More coquet than a woman, we find an exchange effected with Henry Furness,
"Mercatori," of various laces, purchased for his handkerchiefs and razor
cloths, which, laid by during the two years of "lugubris" for his beloved
consort, the Queen--during which period he had used razor cloths with broad
hems and no lace--had become "obsolete"--quite out of fashion. To effect
this exchange the King pays the sum of £178 12s. 6d., the lace purchased
for the six new razor cloths amounting to £270. In the same page we find
him, now out of mourning, expending £499 10s. for lace to trim his
twenty-four new nightshirts, "indusiis nocturnis."
With such royal patronage, no wonder the lace trade prospered, and that,
within ten years of William's death, Defoe should quote the point lace of
Blandford as selling at £30 the yard.
PLATE LXXXIII.
[Illustration: JAMES, THE OLD PRETENDER, 1688-1766, WITH HIS SISTER
PRINCESS LOUISA, 1692-1712. In 1695. By Nicolas de Largillière. National
Portrait Gallery.
Photo by Walker and Cockerell.]
_To face page 344._
{345}We have already told how the fashion of the laced Steinkirk found as
much favour in England[1021] as in France. Many people still possess, among
their family relics, long oval-shaped brooches of topaz or Bristol stones,
and wonder what they were used for. These old-fashioned articles of
jewellery were worn to fasten (when not passed through the button-hole) the
lace Steinkirk, so prevalent not only among the nobility, but worn by all
classes. If the dialogue between Sir Nicholas Dainty and Major-General
Blunt, as given in Shadwell's play, be correct, the volunteers of King
William's day were not behind the military in elegance:--
"SIR NICHOLAS.--I must make great haste, I shall ne'er get my Points and
Laces done up time enough.
"MAJ. GEN. B.--What say'st, young fellow? Points and Laces for camps?
"SIR NICH.--Yes, Points and Laces; why, I carry two laundresses on
purpose.... Would you have a gentleman go undress'd in a camp? Do you
think I would see a camp if there was no dressing? Why, I have two
campaign suits, one trimmed with Flanders lace, and the other with rich
Point.
"MAJ. GEN. B.--Campaign suits with lace and Point!"[1022]
In Westminster Abbey, where, as somewhat disrespectfully, say the Brothers
Popplewell,[1023] the images of William and Mary
"Stand upright in a press, with their bodies made of wax,
A globe and a wand in either hand and their robes upon their backs"--
the lace tucker and double sleeves of Queen Mary are of the finest raised
Venice point, resembling Fig. 29; King William likewise wears a rich lace
cravat and ruffles.[1024]
In a memorandum (carta d'informazione) given to the Venetian ambassadors
about to proceed to England, 1696, they are to be provided with very
handsome collars of the finest Venetian point, which, it is added, is also
the best present to make.[1025]
Before concluding the subject of the lace-bearing heroes, we may as well
state here that the English soldiers rivalled the cavaliers of France in
the richness of their points till the extinction of hair-powder (the
wearing of which in the army consumes, says some indignant writer, flour
enough to feed 600,000 persons per annum), when the lace cravat was
replaced by the stiff and cumbersome stock. Speaking of {346}these military
dandies, writes the _World_: "Nor can I behold the lace and the waste of
finery in their clothing but in the same light as the silver plates and
ornaments on a coffin; indeed, I am apt to impute their going to battle so
trimmed and adorned to the same reason a once fine lady painted her cheeks
just before she expired, that she might not look frightful when she was
dead."
"To war the troops advance,
Adorned and trim like females for the dance.
Down sinks Lothario, sent by one dire blow,
A well-dress'd hero to the shades below."
As the justice's daughter says to her mamma, in Sheridan's _St. Patrick's
Day_:--
"Dear; to think how the sweet fellows sleep on the ground, and fight in
silk stockings and lace ruffles."
Lace had now become an article worthy the attention of the light-fingered
gentry. The jewels worn by our great-grandmothers of the eighteenth
century, though mounted in the most exquisite taste, were for the most part
false--Bristol or Alençon "diamonds," paste, or "Strass." Lace, on the
other hand, was a sure commodity and easily disposed of. At the robbery of
Lady Anderson's house in Red Lion Square during a fire, in 1700, the family
of George Heneage, Esq., on a visit, are recorded to have lost--"A head
with fine loopt lace, of very great value; a Flanders lace hood; a pair of
double ruffles and tuckers; two laced aprons, one point, the other Flanders
lace; and a large black lace scarf embroidered in gold."
Again, at an opera row some years later, the number of caps, ruffles, and
heads enumerated as stolen by the pickpockets is quite fabulous. So expert
had they become, that when first the ladies took to wearing powdered wigs,
they dexterously cut open the leather backs of the hack coaches and carried
off wig, head and all, before the rifled occupant had the slightest idea of
their attack.[1026] To remedy the evil, the police request all ladies for
the future to sit with their backs to the horses.[1027]
{347}QUEEN ANNE.
"PARLEY.--Oh, Sir, there's the prettiest fashion lately come over! so
airy, so French, and all that! The Pinners are double ruffled with twelve
plaits of a side, and open all from the face; the hair is frizzled up all
round head, and stands as stiff as a bodkin. Then the Favourites hang
loose upon the temple with a languishing lock in the middle. Then the
Caule is extremely wide, and over all is a Cornet rais'd very high and
all the Lappets behind."--Farquhar. _Sir Harry Wildair._
Queen Anne, though less extravagant than her sister, was scarcely more
patriotic. The point purchased for her coronation,[1028] though it cost but
£64 13s. 9d., was of Flanders growth. The bill is made out to the royal
laceman of King William's day, now Sir Henry Furnesse, knight and merchant.
The Queen, too, in her gratitude, conferred a pension of £100 upon one Mrs.
Abrahat, the royal clear-starcher; "because," writes the Duchess of
Marlborough, "she had washed the Queen's heads for twenty pounds a year
when she was princess."
In 1706 Anne again repeals the Acts which prohibit Flanders lace, with the
clear understanding that nothing be construed into allowing the importation
of lace made in "the dominions of the French King";[1029] an edict in
itself sufficient to bring the points of France into the highest
fashion.[1030]
"France," writes an essayist, "is the wardrobe of the world;" nay, "the
English have so great an esteem for the workmanship of the French refugees,
that hardly a thing vends without a Gallic name."[1031]
To the refugees from Alençon and elsewhere, expelled by the cruel edict of
Louis XIV., we owe the visible improvement of our laces in the eighteenth
century.
Up to the present time we have had mention only of {348}"Flanders lace" in
general. In the reign of Queen Anne the points of "Macklin" and Brussels
are first noted down in the Royal Wardrobe Accounts. In 1710 her Majesty
pays for 26 yards of fine edged Brussels lace £151.[1032] "Mais, l'appétit
vient en mangeant." The bill of Margareta Jolly, for the year 1712, for the
furnishing of Mechlin and Brussels lace alone, amounts to the somewhat
extravagant sum of £1,418 14_s_. Taking the average price of the "Lace
chanter on Ludgate Hill," articles of daily use were costly enough. "One
Brussels head is valued at £40; a grounded Brussels head, £30; one looped
Brussels, £30." These objects, high as the price may seem, lasted a woman's
life. People in the last century did not care for variety, they contented
themselves with a few good articles; hence among the objects given in 1719,
as necessary to a lady of fashion, we merely find:--
£ s. d.
A French point or Flanders head and ruffles 80 0 0
A ditto handkerchief 10 0 0
A black French laced hood 5 5 0
When the Princess Mary, daughter of George II., married, she had but four
fine laced Brussels heads, two loopt and two grounded, two extremely fine
point ones, with ruffles and lappets, six French caps and ruffles.[1033]
Two point lace cravats were considered as a full supply for any gentleman.
Even young extravagant Lord Bedford, who, at eighteen years of age, found
he could not spend less than £6,000 a year at Rome, when on the grand tour,
only charges his mother, Rachel Lady Russell, with that number.[1034]
The high commode,[1035] with its lace rising tier upon tier, which made the
wits about town declare the ladies "carried Bow steeple upon their heads,"
of a sudden collapsed in Queen Anne's reign. It had shot up to a most
extravagant height, "insomuch that the female part of our species were
{349}much taller than the men. We appeared," says the _Spectator_,[1036]
"as grasshoppers before them."[1037]
In 1711 Anne forbade the entry of gold and silver lace,[1038] of which the
consumption had become most preposterous,[1039] under pain of forfeiture
and the fine of £100. Ladies wore even cherry-coloured stays trimmed with
the forbidden fabric.[1040] The point of Spain had the preference over
thread lace for state garments, heads and ruffles excepted; and as late as
1763, when the Dowager Lady Effingham was robbed of her coronation robes,
among the wonderful finery detailed there is no mention of thread lace.
The commerce of Flanders, notwithstanding the French taste, seemed now on a
comfortable footing. "The Flander-kins," writes the _British Merchant_ in
1713, "are gone off from wool, which we have got, to lace and linen.... We
have learned better, I hope, by our unsuccessful attempt to prohibit the
Flanders laces, which made the Flemings retaliate upon us, and lessened our
exportation of woollen manufactures by several £100,000 per annum."[1041]
Men looked upon lace as a necessary article to their wives' equipment.
Addison declares that when the China mania first came in, women exchanged
their Flanders point for punch-bowls and mandarins, thus picking their
husbands' pockets, who is often purchasing a huge china vase when he
fancies that he is buying a fine head for his wife.[1042] Indeed, they
could scarcely grumble, as a good wig cost from forty to fifty guineas--to
say nothing of their own lace ties and {350}ruffles. Only an old antiquary
like Sir Thomas Clayton could note down in his accounts:--"Lace and
fal-lalls,[1043] and a large looking-glass to see her old ugly face
in--frivolous expenses to please my proud lady."
{351}CHAPTER XXVI.
GEORGE I. AND II.
----
GEORGE I.
"Wisdom with periwigs, with cassocks grace,
Courage with swords, gentility with lace."--_Connoisseur._
The accession of the House of Hanover brought but little change either in
the fashions or the fabrics. In 1717 the King published an edict regarding
the hawking of lace, but the world was too much taken up with the Old
Pretender and the court of St. Germains; the King, too, was often absent,
preferring greatly his German dominions.
We now hear a great deal of lace ruffles; they were worn long and falling.
Lord Bolingbroke, who enraged Queen Anne by his untidy dress--"she
supposed, forsooth, he would some day come to court in his nightcap"--is
described as having his cravat of point lace, and his hands hidden by
exaggerated ruffles of the same material. In good old Jacobite times, these
weeping ruffles served as well to conceal notes--"poulets"--passed from one
wary politician to another, as they did the French sharpers to juggle and
cheat at cards.
Lace continued the mania of the day. "Since your fantastical geers came in
with wires, ribbons, and laces, and your furbelows with three hundred yards
in a gown and petticoat, there has not been a good housewife in the
nation,"[1044] writes an indignant dramatist. The lover was made to bribe
the Abigail of his mistress with a piece of Flanders lace[1045]--an
offering not to be resisted. Lace appeared {352}at baptisms,[1046] at
marriages, as well as at burials, of which more hereafter--even at the Old
Bailey, where one Miss Margaret Caroline Rudd, a beauty of the day, tried
for forgery, quite moved her jurors to tears, and nigh gained her acquittal
by the taste of her elegantly-laced stomacher, the lace robings of her
dress, and single lace flounce, her long pendulous ruffles, hanging from
the elbow, heard, fluttering in her agitation, by the court; but, in spite
of these allurements, Margaret Caroline Rudd was hanged.
Every woman, writes Swift,[1047] is
"In choosing lace a critic nice,
Knows to a groat the lowest price."
Together, they
"Of caps and ruffles hold the grave debate,
As of their lives they would decide the fate."
Again, he says:--
"And when you are among yourselves, how naturally, after the first
compliments, do you entertain yourselves with the price and choice of lace,
apply your hands to each other's lappets and ruffles, as if the whole
business of your life and the public concern depended on the cut of your
petticoats."[1048]
Even wise Mrs. Elizabeth Montague, who wrote epistles about the ancients,
and instead of going to a ball, sat at home and read Sophocles, exclaims to
her sister--"Surely your heroic spirit will prefer a beau's hand in
Brussels lace to a stubborn Scævola without an arm."
PLATE LXXXIV.
[Illustration: JOHN LAW, THE PARIS BANKER, Author of the Mississippi
Scheme, 1671-1729.--In cravat of Point de France, between 1708-20. Painted
by Belle. National Portrait Gallery.
Photo by Walker and Cockerell.]
_To face page 352._
{353}In the middle of the nineteenth century it was the fashion that no
young lady should wear lace previous to her marriage. In the reign of
George II. etiquette was different, for we find the Duchess of Portland
presenting Mrs. Montague, then a girl, with a lace head and ruffles.
Wrathfully do the satirists of the day rail against the expense of
"The powder, patches, and the pins,
The ribbon, jewels, and the rings,
The lace, the paint, and warlike things
That make up all their magazines,"[1049]
and the consequent distress of the lace merchants, to whom ladies are
indebted for thousands. After a drawing-room, in which the fair population
appeared in "borrowed," _i.e._, unpaid lace,[1050] one of the chief lacemen
became well-nigh bankrupt. Duns besieged the houses of the great:--
"By mercers, lacemen, mantua-makers press'd;
But most for ready cash, for play distress'd,
Where can she turn?"[1051]
The _Connoisseur_, describing the reckless extravagance of one of these
ladies, writes:--"The lady played till all her ready money was gone, staked
her cap and lost it, afterwards her handkerchief. He then staked both cap
and handkerchief against her tucker, which, to his pique, she gained." When
enumerating the various causes of suicide, he proposes "that an annual bill
or report should be made out, giving the different causes which have led to
the act." Among others, in his proposed "Bill of Suicide," he gives French
claret, French lace, French cooks, etc.
The men, though scarcely coming up to the standard of Sir Courtly
Nice,[1052] who has all his bands and linen made in Holland and washed at
Haarlem, were just as extravagant as the ladies.
{354}GEORGE II.
"'How well this ribband's glass becomes your face,'
She cries in rapture; 'then so sweet a lace!
How charmingly you look!'"
--Lady M. W. Montagu. _Town Eclogues._
For court and state occasions Brussels lace still held its sway.
In the reign of George II. we read how, at the drawing-room of 1735, fine
escalloped Brussels laced heads, triple ditto laced ruffles,[1053] lappets
hooked up with diamond solitaires, found favour. At the next the ladies
wore heads dressed English, _i.e._, bow of fine Brussels lace of exceeding
rich patterns, with the same amount of laced ruffles and lappets. Gold
flounces were also worn.
Speaking of the passion for Brussels lace, Postlethwait indignantly
observes:--"'Tis but a few years since England expended upon foreign lace
and linen not less than two millions yearly. As lace in particular is the
manufacture of nuns, our British ladies may as well endow monasteries as
wear Flanders lace, for these Popish nuns are maintained by Protestant
contributions."[1054]
Patriotism, it would appear, did come into vogue in the year 1736, when at
the marriage of Frederick, Prince of Wales, the bride is described as
wearing a night-dress of superb lace, the bridegroom a cap of similar
material. All the laces worn by the court on this occasion are announced to
have been of English manufacture, with the exception of that of the Duke of
Marlborough, who appeared in point d'Espagne. The bride, however, does not
profit by this high example, for shortly after we read, in the _Memoirs of
Madame Palatine_, of the secretary of Sir Luke Schaub being drugged at
Paris by an impostor, and robbed of some money sent to defray the purchase
of some French lace ruffles for the Princess of Wales.
{355}It was of native-made laces, we may infer, Mrs. Delany writes in the
same year:--"Thanks for your apron. Brussels nor Mechlin ever produced
anything prettier."
It appears somewhat strange that patriotism, as regards native
manufactures, should have received an impulse during the reign of that most
uninteresting though gallant little monarch, the second George of
Brunswick.[1055] But patriotism has its evils, for, writes an essayist,
"some ladies now squander away all their money in fine laces, because it
sets a great many poor people to work."[1056]
Ten years previous to the death of King George II. was founded, with a view
to correct the prevalent taste for foreign manufactures,[1057] the Society
of Anti-Gallicans, who held their quarterly meetings, and distributed
prizes for bone, point lace, and other articles of English
manufacture.[1058]
This society, which continued in great activity for many years, proved most
beneficial to the lace-making trade. It excited also a spirit of emulation
among gentlewomen of the middle class, who were glad in the course of the
year to add to a small income by making the finer kinds of needle-point,
which, on account of their elaborate workmanship, could be produced only in
foreign convents or by {356}persons whose maintenance did not entirely
depend upon the work of their hands.
Towards the year 1756 certain changes in the fashion of the day now again
mark the period, for--
"Dress still varying, most to form confined,
Shifts like the sands, the sport of every wind."
"Long lappets, the horse-shoe cap, the Brussels head, and the prudish mob
pinned under the chin, have all had their day," says the _Connoisseur_ in
1754. Now we have first mention of lace cardinals; trollopies or
slammerkins[1059] come in at the same period, with treble ruffles to the
cuffs; writers talk, too, of a "gentle dame in blonde lace," blonde being
as yet a newly-introduced manufacture.
Though history may only be all false,[1060] as Sir Robert Walpole said to
that "cynic in lace ruffles," his son Horace, yet the newspapers are to be
depended upon for the fashion of the day, or, as Lady Mary would say, "for
what new whim adorns the ruffle."[1061]
The lace apron,[1062] worn since the days of Queen Elizabeth, continued to
hold its own till the end of the eighteenth century, though some considered
it an appendage scarcely consistent with the dignity of polite society. The
anecdote of Beau Nash, who held these articles in the strongest aversion,
has been often related. "He absolutely excluded," says his biographer, "all
who ventured to appear at the Assembly Room at Bath so attired. I have
known him at a ball night strip the Duchess of Queensberry, and throw her
apron on one of the hinder benches among the ladies' women, observing that
none but Abigails appeared in white aprons; though that apron was of the
costliest point, and cost two hundred guineas."[1063]
{357}George II. did his best to promote the fabrics of his country, but at
this period smuggling increased with fearful rapidity. It was a war to the
knife between the revenue officer and society at large: all classes
combined, town ladies of high degree with waiting-maids and the common
sailor, to avoid the obnoxious duties and cheat the Government. To this
subject we devote the following chapter.
{358}CHAPTER XXVII.
SMUGGLING.
"May that mistaken taste be starv'd to reason,
That does not think French fashions--English treason.
Souse their cook's talent, and cut short their tailors;
Wear your own lace; eat beef like Vernon's sailors."
--Aaron Hill. 1754.
We have had occasional mention of this kindly-looked-upon offence, in the
carrying out of which many a reckless seaman paid the penalty of his life
in the latter part of the eighteenth century.
From 1700 downwards, though the edicts prohibiting the entry of Flanders
lace were repealed, the points of France, Spain and Venice, with other
fabrics of note, were still excluded from our ports. "England," writes
Anderson,[1064] "brings home in a smuggling way from France much fine lace
and other prohibited fopperies." Prohibition went for nothing; foreign lace
ladies would have, and if they could not smuggle it themselves, the
smuggler brought it to them. It was not till 1751 that the Customs appear
to have used undue severity as regards the entries, prying into people's
houses, and exercising a surveillance of so strict a nature as to render
the chance to evade their watchfulness a very madness on the part of all
degrees. In short, there was not a female within ten miles of a seaport,
writes an essayist, that was in possession of a Mechlin lace cap or pinner
but they examined her title to it.
Lord Chesterfield, whose opinion that "dress is a very silly thing, but it
is much more silly not to be dressed according to your station," was more
than acted up to, referring to the strictness of the Customs, writes to his
son {359}in 1751, when coming over on a short visit: "Bring only two or
three of your laced shirts, and the rest plain ones."
The revenue officers made frequent visits to the tailors' shops, and
confiscated whatever articles they found of foreign manufacture.
On January 19th, 1752, a considerable quantity of foreign lace, gold and
silver, seized at a tailor's, who paid the penalty of £100, was publicly
burnt.[1065]
George III., who really from his coming to the throne endeavoured to
protect English manufactures, ordered, in 1764, all the stuffs and laces
worn at the marriage of his sister, the Princess Augusta, to the Duke of
Brunswick, to be of English manufacture. To this decree the nobility paid
little attention. Three days previous to the marriage a descent was made by
the Customs on the court milliner of the day, and nearly the whole of the
clothes, silver, gold stuffs and lace, carried off, to the dismay of the
modiste, as well as of the ladies deprived of their finery. The disgusted
French milliner retired with a fortune of £11,000 to Versailles, where she
purchased a villa, which, in base ingratitude to the English court, she
called "La Folie des Dames Anglaises." In May of the same year three
wedding garments, together with a large seizure of French lace, weighing
nearly 100 lbs., were burnt at Mr. Coxe's refinery, conformably to the Act
of Parliament. The following birthday, warned by the foregoing mischances,
the nobility appeared in clothes and laces entirely of British manufacture.
Every paper tells how lace and ruffles of great value, sold on the previous
day, had been seized in a hackney coach, between St. Paul's and Covent
Garden; how a lady of rank was stopped in her chair and relieved of French
lace to a large amount; or how a poor woman, carelessly picking a quartern
loaf as she walked along, was arrested, and the loaf found to contain £200
worth of lace. Even ladies when walking had their black lace mittens cut
off their hands, the officers supposing them to be of French manufacture;
and lastly, a Turk's turban, of most Mameluke dimensions, was found,
containing a stuffing of £90 worth of lace. Books, {360}bottles, babies,
false-bottomed boxes, umbrellas, daily poured out their treasures to the
lynx-eyed officers.
In May, 1765, the lace-makers joined the procession of the silk-workers of
Spitalfields to Westminster, bearing flags and banners, to which were
attached long floating pieces of French lace, demanding of the Lords
redress, and the total exclusion of foreign goods. On receiving an answer
that it was too late, they must wait till next Session, the assemblage
declared that they would not be put off by promises; they broke the Duke of
Bedford's palings on their way home, and threatened to burn the premises of
Mr. Carr, an obnoxious draper. At the next levée they once more assembled
before St. James's, but, finding the dresses of the nobility to be all of
right English stuff, retired satisfied, without further clamour.
The papers of the year 1764 teem with accounts of seizures made by the
Customs. Among the confiscated effects of a person of the highest quality
are enumerated: "16 black à-la-mode cloaks, trimmed with lace; 44 French
lace caps; 11 black laced handkerchiefs; 6 lace hats; 6 ditto aprons; 10
pairs of ruffles; 6 pairs of ladies' blonde ditto, and 25 gentlemen's."
Eleven yards of edging and 6 pairs of ruffles are extracted from the pocket
of the footman. Everybody smuggled. A gentleman attached to the Spanish
Embassy is unloaded of 36 dozen shirts, with fine Dresden ruffles and
jabots, and endless lace, in pieces, for ladies' wear. These articles had
escaped the vigilance of the officers at Dover, but were seized on his
arrival by the coach at Southwark. Though Prime Ministers in those days
accepted bribes, the Custom-house officers seem to have done their
duty.[1066]
When the body of his Grace the Duke of Devonshire was brought over from
France, where he died, the officers, to the anger of his servants, not
content with opening and searching the coffin, poked the corpse with a
stick to ascertain if it was a real body; but the trick of smuggling in
coffins was too {361}old to be attempted. Forty years before, when a
deceased clergyman was conveyed from the Low Countries for interment, the
body of the corpse was found to have disappeared, and to have been replaced
by Flanders lace of immense value--the head and hands and feet alone
remaining. This discovery did not, however, prevent the High Sheriff of
Westminster from running--and that successfully--£6,000 worth of French
lace in the coffin of Bishop Atterbury,[1067] when his body was brought
over from Calais for interment.
Towards the close of the French war, in the nineteenth century, smuggling
of lace again became more rife than ever. It was in vain the authorities
stopped the travelling carriages on their road from seaport towns to
London, rifled the baggage of the unfortunate passengers by the mail at
Rochester and Canterbury; they were generally outwitted, though spies in
the pay of the Customs were ever on the watch.
Mrs. Palliser had in her possession a Brussels veil of great beauty, which
narrowly escaped seizure. It belonged to a lady who was in the habit of
accompanying her husband, for many years member for one of the Cinque
Ports. The day after the election she was about to leave for London,
somewhat nervous as to the fate of a Brussels veil she had purchased of a
smuggler for a hundred guineas; when, at a dinner-party, it was announced
that Lady Ellenborough, wife of the Lord Chief Justice, had been stopped
near Dover, and a large quantity of valuable lace seized concealed in the
lining of her carriage. Dismayed at the news, the lady imparted her trouble
to a gentleman at her side, who immediately offered to take charge of the
lace and convey it to London, remarking that "no one would suspect him, as
he was a bachelor." Turning round suddenly, she observed one of the hired
waiters to smile, and at once settling him to be a spy, she loudly accepted
the offer; but that night, before going to bed, secretly caused the veil to
be sewn up in the waistcoat of the newly-elected M.P., in such a manner
that it filled the hollow of his back. Next morning they started, and
reached London in safety, while her friend, who remained two days later,
was stopped, and underwent {362}a rigorous but unsuccessful examination
from the Customhouse officers.
The free trade principles of the nineteenth century put a more effectual
stop to smuggling than all the activity of revenue officers, spies, and
informers, or even laws framed for the punishment of the offenders.
{363}CHAPTER XXVIII.
GEORGE III.
"In clothes, cheap handsomeness doth bear the bell,
Wisdome's a trimmer thing than shop e'er gave.
Say not then, This with that lace will do well;
But, This with my discretion will be brave.
Much curiousnesse is a perpetual wooing,
Nothing with labour, fully long a doing."
--Herbert, "The Church Porch."
In 1760 commences the reign of George III. The King was patriotic, and did
his best to encourage the fabrics of his country.
From the year 1761 various Acts were passed for the benefit of the
lace-makers: the last, that of 1806, "increases the duties on foreign
laces."[1068]
Queen Charlotte, on her first landing in England, wore, in compliment to
the subjects of her royal consort, a fly cap richly trimmed, with lappets
of British lace, and a dress of similar manufacture.
The Englishman, however, regardless of the Anti-Gallicans, preferred his
"Macklin" and his Brussels to all the finest productions of Devonshire or
Newport-Pagnel.
Ruffles,[1069] according to the fashion of Tavistock Street and St.
James's, in May, 1773, still continued long, dipped in the sauce alike by
clown and cavalier.[1070]
"The beau,
A critic styled in point of dress,
Harangues on fashion, point, and lace."
{364}A man was known by his "points"; he collected lace, as, in these more
athletic days, a gentleman prides himself on his pointers or his horses. We
read in the journals of the time how, on the day after Lord George Gordon's
riots, a report ran through London that the Earl of Effingham, having
joined the rioters, had been mortally wounded, and his body thrown into the
Thames. He had been recognised, folks declared, by his point lace
ruffles.[1071]
Mr. Damer, less known than his wife, the talented sculptor and friend of
Horace Walpole, appeared three times a day in a new suit, and at his
death[1072] left a wardrobe which sold for £15,000.[1073] Well might it
have been said of him--
"We sacrifice to dress, till household joys
And comforts cease. Dress drains our cellars dry,
And keeps our larder bare; puts out our fires,
And introduces hunger, frost, and woe,
Where peace and hospitality might reign."[1074]
There was "no difference between the nobleman and city 'prentice, except
that the latter was sometimes the greater beau," writes the _Female
Spectator_.[1075]
"His hands must be covered with fine Brussels lace."[1076]
Painters of the eighteenth century loved to adorn their portraits with the
finest fabrics of Venice and Flanders; modern artists consider such
decorations as far too much trouble. "Over the chimney-piece," writes one
of the essayists, describing a citizen's country box, "was my friend's
portrait, which was drawn bolt upright in a full-bottomed periwig, a laced
cravat, with the fringed ends appearing through the button-hole (Steinkirk
fashion). Indeed, one would almost wonder how and where people managed to
afford so rich a selection of laces in their days, did it not call to mind
the demand of the Vicaress of Wakefield 'to have as many pearls and
diamonds put into her picture as could be given for the money.'"
{365}Ruffles were equally worn by the ladies:--[1077]
"Frizzle your elbows with ruffles sixteen;
Furl off your lawn apron with flounces in rows."[1078]
Indeed, if we may judge by the intellectual conversation overheard and
accurately noted down by Miss Burney,[1079] at Miss Monckton's (Lady Cork)
party, court ruffles were inconvenient to wear:--
"'You can't think how I am encumbered with these nasty ruffles,' said Mrs.
Hampden.
"'And I dined in them,' says the other. 'Only think!'
"'Oh!' answered Mrs. Hampden, 'it really puts me out of spirits.'"
Both ladies were dressed for a party at Cumberland House, and ill at ease
in the costume prescribed by etiquette.
About 1770 the sleeves of the ladies' dresses were tight on the upper arm,
where they suddenly became very large, and, drooping at the elbow, they
terminated in rich fringes of lace ruffles. A few years later the sleeves
expanded from the shoulders till they became a succession of constantly
enlarging ruffles and lappets, and again, before 1780, they became tight
throughout, with small cuffs and no lace at the elbows, when they were worn
with long gloves.
Our history of English lace is now drawing to a close; but, before quitting
the subject, we must, however, make some allusion to the custom prevalent
here, as in all countries, of using lace as a decoration to grave-clothes.
In the chapter devoted to Greece, we have mentioned how much lace is still
taken from the tombs of the Ionian Islands, washed, mended, or, more often,
as a proof of its authenticity, sold in a most disgusting state to the
purchaser. The custom was prevalent at Malta, as the lines of Beaumont and
Fletcher testify:--
"In her best habit, as the custom is,
You know, in Malta, with all ceremonies,
She's buried in the family monument,
I' the temple of St. John."[1080]
{366}At Palermo you may see the mummies thus adorned in the celebrated
catacombs of the Capuchin convent.[1081]
In Denmark,[1082] Sweden, and the north of Europe[1083] the custom was
general. The mass of lace in the tomb of the once fair Aurora Königsmarck,
at Quedlenburg, would in itself be a fortune. She sleeps clad in the
richest point d'Angleterre, Malines, and guipure. Setting aside the jewels
which still glitter around her parchment form, no daughter of Pharaoh was
ever so richly swathed.[1084]
In Spain it is related as the privilege of a grandee: all people of a lower
rank are interred in the habit of some religious order.[1085]
Taking the grave-clothes of St. Cuthbert as an example, we believe the same
custom to have prevailed in England from the earliest times.[1086]
{367}Mrs. Oldfield, the celebrated actress, who died in 1730, caused
herself to be thus interred. The lines of Pope have long since immortalised
the story:--
"Odious! in woollen! 'twould a saint provoke!
(Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke.)
No, let a charming chintz and Brussels lace
Wrap my cold limbs, and shade my lifeless face;
One would not, sure, be frightful when one's dead--
And--Betty--give this cheek a little red."
"She was laid in her coffin," says her maid, "in a very fine Brussels lace
head, a Holland shift with a tucker of double ruffles, and a pair of new
kid gloves." Previous to her interment in Westminster Abbey she lay in
state in the Jerusalem Chamber.[1087] For Mrs. Oldfield in her lifetime was
a great judge of lace, and treasured a statuette of the Earl of Stratford,
finely carved in ivory by Grinling Gibbons, more, it is supposed, for the
beauty of its lace Vandyke collar[1088] than any other sentiment.
In 1763 another instance is recorded in the _London Magazine_ of a young
lady buried in her wedding clothes, point lace tucker, handkerchief,
ruffles and apron; also a fine point lappet head. From this period we
happily hear no more of such extravagances.
Passing from interments and shrouds to more lively matters, we must quote
the opinion of that Colossus of the eighteenth century, Dr. Johnson, who
was too apt to talk on matters of taste and art, of which he was no
competent judge. "A Brussels trimming," he declaims to Mrs. Piozzi, "is
like bread sauce; it takes away the glow of colour from the gown, and gives
you nothing instead of it: but sauce was invented to heighten the flavour
of our food, and trimming is an ornament to the manteau or it is
nothing."[1089] A man whose culinary ideas did not soar higher than bread
sauce could scarcely pronounce on the relative effect and beauty of point
lace.
If England had leant towards the products of France, in {368}1788, an
Anglomania ran riot at Paris. Ladies wore a cap of mixed lace, English and
French, which they styled the "Union of France and England." On the
appearance of the French Revolution, the classic style of dress--its India
muslins and transparent gauzes--caused the ancient points to fall into
neglect. From this time dates the decline of the lace fabric throughout
Europe.
Point still appeared at court and on state occasions, such as on the
marriage of the Princess Caroline of Wales, 1795, but as an article of
daily use it gradually disappeared from the wardrobes of all classes. A
scrupulous feeling also arose in ladies' minds as to the propriety of
wearing articles of so costly a nature, forgetting how many thousands of
women gained a livelihood by its manufacture. Mrs. Hannah More, among the
first, in her _Coelebs in Search of a Wife_, alludes to the frivolity of
the taste, when the little child exclaiming "at the beautiful lace with
which the frock of another was trimmed, and which she was sure her mamma
had given her for being good," remarks, "A profitable and, doubtless,
lasting and inseparable association was thus formed in the child's mind
between lace and goodness."
Whether in consequence of the French Revolution, or from the caprice of
fashion, "real" lace--worse off than the passements and points of 1634,
when in revolt--now underwent the most degrading vicissitudes. Indeed, so
thoroughly was the taste for lace at this epoch gone by, that in many
families collections of great value were, at the death of their respective
owners, handed over as rubbish to the waiting maid.[1090] Many ladies
recollect in their youth to have tricked out their dolls in the finest
Alençon point, which would now sell at a price far beyond their purses.
Among the few who, in England, unseduced by frippery blonde, never
neglected to preserve their collections entire, was the Duchess of
{369}Gloucester, whose lace was esteemed among the most magnificent in
Europe.
When the taste of the age again turned towards the rich fabrics of the
preceding centuries, much lace, both black and white, was found in the
country farm-houses, preserved as remembrances of deceased patrons by old
family dependants. Sometimes the hoard had been forgotten, and was again
routed out from old wardrobes and chests, where it had lain unheeded for
years. Much was recovered from theatrical wardrobes and the masquerade
shops, and the Church, no longer in its temporal glory, both in Italy,
Spain and Germany, gladly parted with what, to them, was of small value
compared with the high price given for it by amateurs. In Italy perhaps the
finest fabrics of Milan, Genoa, and Venice had fared best, from the custom
which prevailed of sewing up family lace in rolls of linen to ensure its
preservation.
After years of neglect lace became a "mania." In England the literary
ladies were the first to take it up. Sydney Lady Morgan and Lady Stepney
quarrelled weekly on the respective value and richness of their points. The
former at one time commenced a history of the lace fabric, though what was
the ultimate fate of the MS. the author is unable to state. The Countess of
Blessington, at her death, left several chests filled with the finest
antique lace of all descriptions.
The "dames du grand monde," both in England and France, now began to wear
lace. But, strange as it may seem, never at any period did they appear to
so little advantage as during the counter-revolution of the lace period.
Lace was the fashion, and wear it somehow they would, though that somehow
often gave them an appearance, as the French say, _du dernier ridicule_,
simply from an ignorance displayed in the manner of arranging it. That lace
was old seemed sufficient to satisfy all parties. They covered their
dresses with odds and ends of all fabrics, without attention either to date
or texture. One English lady appeared at a ball given by the French Embassy
at Rome, boasting that she wore on the tablier of her dress every
description of lace, from point coupé of the fifteenth to Alençon of the
eighteenth century. The Count of Syracuse was accustomed to say: "The
English ladies buy a scrap {370}of lace as a souvenir of every town they
pass through, till they reach Naples, then sew it on their dresses, and
make one grande toilette of the whole to honour our first ball at the
Academia Nobile."
The taste for lace has again become universal, and the quality now produced
renders it within the reach of all classes of society; and though by some
the taste may be condemned, it gives employment to thousands and ten
thousands of women, who find it more profitable and better adapted to their
strength than the field labour which forms the occupation of the women in
agricultural districts. To these last, in a general point of view, the
lace-maker of our southern counties, who works at home in her own cottage,
is superior, both in education, refinement, and morality:--
"Here the needle plies its busy task;
The pattern grows, the well-depicted flower,
Wrought patiently into the snowy lawn,
Unfolds its bosom; buds, and leaves, and sprigs,
And curling tendrils, gracefully dispos'd,
Follow the nimble fingers of the fair--
A wreath that cannot fade, of flowers that blow
With most success when all besides decay."[1091]
{371}CHAPTER XXIX.
THE LACE MANUFACTURERS OF ENGLAND.
"Yon cottager, who weaves at her own door,
Pillow and bobbins all her little store;
Content though mean, and cheerful if not gay,
Shuffling her threads about the livelong day:
Just earns a scanty pittance, and at night
Lies down secure, her heart and pocket light."--Cowper.
The bone lace manufactures of England in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries appear to have extended over a much wider area than they occupy
in the present day. From Cambridge to the adjacent counties of Northampton
and Hertfordshire, by Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, and Oxfordshire, the
trade spread over the southern counties[1092] of Wiltshire,
Somersetshire,[1093] Hampshire, and Dorset, to the more secluded valleys of
Devon--the county which still sustains the ancient reputation of "English
point"--terminating at Launceston, on the Cornish coast.
Various offsets from these fabrics were established in Wales.[1094]
Ripon,[1095] an isolated manufactory, represented the {372}lace industry of
York; while the dependent islands of Man,[1096] Wight[1097] and
Jersey,[1098] may be supposed to have derived their learning from the
smugglers who frequented their coast, rather than from the teaching of the
Protestant refugees[1099] who sought an asylum on the shores of Britain.
Many of these fabrics now belong to the past, consigned to oblivion even in
the very counties where they once flourished. In describing, therefore, the
lace manufactures of the United Kingdom, we shall confine ourselves to
those which still remain, alluding only slightly to such as were {373}once
of note, and of which the existence is confirmed by the testimony of
contemporary writers.
The "women of the mystery of thread-working" would appear to have made lace
in London,[1100] and of their complaints and grievances our public records
bear goodly evidence. Of the products of their needle we know little or
nothing.
Various Flemings and Burgundians established themselves in the City; and
though the emigrants, for the most part, betook themselves to the adjoining
counties, the craft, till the end of the eighteenth century, may be said to
have held fair commerce in the capital.
[Illustration: Fig. 132.
RIPON.]
The London fabric can scarcely be looked upon as a staple trade in itself,
mixed up as it was with lace-cleaning and lace-washing--an occupation first
established by the ejected nuns.[1101] Much point, too, was made by poor
gentlewomen, as the records of the Anti-Gallican Society testify. "A
strange infatuation," says a writer of the eighteenth century, "prevailed
in the capital for many years among the class called demi-fashionables of
sending their daughters to convents in France for education, if that could
be so termed which amounted to a learning to work in lace. The Revolution,
however, put {374}an end to this practice." It is owing to this French
education that the fine needle points were so extensively made in England;
though this occupation, however, did not seem to belong to any one county
in particular; for the reader who runs his eye over the proceedings of the
Anti-Gallican Society will find prizes to have been awarded to gentlewomen
from all parts--from the town of Leominster in Herefordshire to Broughton
in Leicestershire, or Stourton in Gloucester.[1102] Needle point, in
contradistinction to bone lace, was an occupation confined to no special
locality.
In 1764 the attention of the nobility seems to have been first directed
towards the employment of the indigent poor, and, indeed, the better
classes in the metropolis, in the making of bone lace and point;[1103] and
in 1775, sanctioned by the patronage of Queen Charlotte, the Princesses,
the Princess Amelia, and various members of the aristocracy, an institution
was formed in Marylebone Lane, and also in James Street, Westminster, "for
employing the female infants of the poor in the blond and black silk
lace-making and thread laces." More than 300 girls attended the school.
"They gave," says the _Annual Register_, "such a proof of their capacity
that many who had not been there more than six months carried home to their
parents from 5s. to 7s. a month, with expectation of getting more as they
improve."
From this time we hear no more of the making of lace, either point or bone,
in the metropolis.
PLATE LXXXV.
[Illustration: ENGLISH, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. BOBBIN LACE.--First half of
nineteenth century. Widths: 3, 3, 3, 4 in. The property of Mrs. Ellis, The
Vicarage, Much Wenlock.]
_To face page 374._
{375}CHAPTER XXX.
BEDFORDSHIRE, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, AND NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.[1104]
----
BEDFORDSHIRE.
"He wears a stuff whose thread is coarse and round
But trimmed with curious lace."--Herbert.
It would be a difficult matter now to determine when and by whom
lace-making was first introduced into the counties of Bedfordshire and
Buckingham. Authors, for the most part, have been glad to assign its
introduction to the Flemings,[1105] a nation to whose successive
emigrations England owes much of her manufacturing greatness. Originally
the laces were of old, wavy, graceful Flemish designs.
On the other hand, certain traditions handed down in the county villages of
a good Queen who protected their craft, the annual festival of the
workers--in the palmy days of the trade a matter of great moment--combined
with the residence of that unhappy Queen, for the space of two years[1106]
at her jointure manor of Ampthill,[1107] lead us rather to infer {376}that
the art of lace-making, as it then existed, was first imparted to the
peasantry of Bedfordshire, as a means of subsistence, through the charity
of Queen Katherine of Aragon. In the chapter devoted to needlework we have
already alluded to the proficiency of this Queen in all arts connected with
the needle, to the "trials of needlework" established by her mother, Queen
Isabella, at which she, as a girl, had assisted. It is related, also, that
during her[1108] sojourn at Ampthill, "she passed her time, when not at her
devotions, with her gentlewomen, working with her own hands something
wrought in needlework, costly and artificially, which she intended for the
honour of God to bestow on some of the churches."[1109]
"The country people," continues her contemporary, "began to love her
exceedingly. They visited her out of pure respect, and she received the
tokens of regard they daily showed her most sweetly and graciously." The
love borne by the peasantry to the Queen, the sympathy shown to her in her
days of trouble and disgrace, most likely met with its reward; and we
believe Katherine to have taught them an art which, aided no doubt by the
later introduction of the pillow and the improvements of the refugees, has
now, for the space of nigh three centuries, been the staple employment of
the female population of Bedfordshire and the adjoining counties. Until the
latter half of the nineteenth century--though, like all such festivals in
the present age, gradually dying out--the lace-makers still held "Cattern's
day,"[1110] November 25th, as the holiday of their craft, kept, they say,
"in memory of good Queen Katherine, who, when the trade was dull, burnt all
her lace and ordered new to be made. The ladies of the court {377}followed
her example, and the fabric once more revived." "Ainsi s'écrit l'histoire";
and this garbled version may rest on as much foundation as most of the
folk-lore current throughout the provinces.
Speaking of Bedfordshire, Defoe writes: "Thro' the whole south part of this
country, as far as the borders of Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire, the
people are taken up with the manufacture of bone lace, in which they are
wonderfully exercised and improved within these few years
past"[1111]--probably since the arrival of the French settlers after the
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. At the same period the author of the
_Magna Britannia_[1112] states that at Woburn "lace of a high price is made
in considerable quantities." Savary and Peuchet both declare the town of
Bedford alone to have contained 500 lace-workers.
In 1863, as Mrs. Palliser wrote: "The lace schools of Bedfordshire are far
more considerable than those in Devonshire. Four or five may frequently be
found in the same village, numbering from twenty to thirty children each,
and they are considered sufficiently important to be visited by Government
inspectors. Their work is mostly purchased by large dealers, who make their
arrangements with the instructress: the children are not bound for a term,
as in the southern counties. Boys formerly attended the lace schools, but
now they go at an early age to the fields."
These lace-schools are now things of the past. In some cases, however, in
the lace counties, the County Council Technical Education Committee have
supplemented private efforts with grants for classes to teach the lace
industry.
The wages of a lace-worker average a shilling a day; under press of
business, caused by the demand for some fashionable article, they sometimes
rise to one shilling and sixpence.
{378}BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.
Though the first establishment of the fabric may have been in the sister
county, the workers of Buckingham appear early to have gained the lion's
share of public estimation for the produce of their pillows, and the
manufacture flourished, till, suffering from the monopolies of James I., we
read how--In the year 1623, April 8th, a petition was addressed from Great
Marlow to the High Sheriff of Bucks, representing the distress of the
people from "the bone-lace making being much decayed."[1113]
Three years later, 1626, Sir Henry Borlase founds and endows the free
school of Great Marlow for twenty-four boys to read, write, and cast
accounts; and for twenty-four girls "to knit, spin, and make bone lace";
and here at Great Marlow the trade flourished, all English, and even French
authors[1114] citing its "manufactures de dentelles au fuseau" as the
staple produce of the town, and its surrounding villages, which sold lace,
however, they pronounce as "inférieure à celle de Flandres."
During the seventeenth century the trade continued to advance, and Fuller
testifies to its once more prosperous condition in Bucks, towards the year
1640. "No handicrafts of note," he writes, "(save what are common to other
countries) are used therein, except any will instance in bone lace, much
thereof being made about Owldney, in this county, though more, I believe,
in Devonshire, where we shall meet more properly therewith."[1115] Olney,
as it is now written, a small market town, for many years the residence of
Cowper, known by its twenty-four-arched bridge, now no more, "of wearisome
but needful length" spanning the Ouse--Olney, together with the fellow
towns of Newport-Pagnel and Aylesbury, are much quoted by the authorities
of the last century, though, as is too often the case in books of travels
and statistics, one writer copies from another the information derived from
a preceding author. Defoe, however, who visited each county in detail,
quotes "Ouldney as possessing a considerable manufacture of bone lace";
{379}while a letter from the poet Cowper to the Rev. John Newton, in 1780,
enclosing a petition to Lord Dartmouth in favour of the lace-makers,
declares that "hundreds in this little town are upon the point of starving,
and that the most unremitting industry is barely sufficient to keep them
from it." A distress caused, we may infer, by some caprice of fashion.
"The lace manufacture is still carried on," says Lysons,[1116] "to a great
extent in and about Olney, where veils and other lace of the finer sorts
are made, and great fortunes are said to be acquired by the factors.
Lace-making is in no part of the country so general as at Hanslape and in
its immediate vicinity; but it prevails from fifteen to twenty miles round
in every direction. At Hanslape not fewer than 800 out of a population of
1275 were employed in it in the year 1801. Children are put to the
lace-schools at, or soon after, five years of age. At eleven or twelve
years of age they are all able to maintain themselves without any
assistance; both girls and boys are taught to make it, and some men when
grown up follow no other employment; others, when out of work, find it a
good resource, and can earn as much as the generality of day labourers. The
lace made in Hanslape is from sixpence to two guineas a yard in value. It
is calculated that from £8000 to £9000 net profit is annually brought into
the parish by the lace manufacture."
The bone lace of Stoney Stratford[1117] and Aylesbury are both quoted by
Defoe, and the produce of the latter city is mentioned with praise. He
writes: "Many of the poor here are employed in making lace for edgings, not
much inferior to those from Flanders; but it is some pleasure to us to
observe that the English are not the only nation in the world which admires
foreign manufactures above its own, since the French, who gave fashions to
most nations, buy and sell the finest laces at Paris under the name of
'dentelles d'Angleterre' or 'English laces.'"[1118]
In the southern part of Buckinghamshire the hundreds of Burnham and
Desborough were especially noted for the {380}art, the lace-workers
producing handsome lace of the finest quality, and about the year 1680
lace-making was one of the principal employments in High Wycombe.[1119]
But Newport-Pagnel, whether from its more central position, or being of
greater commercial importance, is the town which receives most praise from
all contemporary authors. "This town," says the _Magna Britannia_ in 1720,
"is a sort of staple for bone lace, of which more is thought to be made
here than any town in England; that commodity is brought to as great
perfection almost as in Flanders." "Newport-Pagnel," writes Defoe, "carries
on a great trade in bone lace, and the same manufacture employs all the
neighbouring villages"; while Don Manuel Gonzales,[1120] in 1730, speaks of
its lace as little inferior to that of Flanders, which assertion he may
have probably copied from previous writers.
{381}[Illustration: Fig. 133.
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE TROLLY.]
At one of the earliest meetings of the Anti-Gallican Society, 1752, Admiral
Vernon in the chair, the first prize to the maker of the best piece of
English bone lace was awarded to Mr. William Marriott, of Newport-Pagnel,
Bucks. The principal lace-dealers in London were invited to give their
opinion, and they allowed it to be the best ever made in England.
Emboldened by this success, we read how, in 1761, Earl Temple, Lord
Lieutenant of Bucks, having been requested by Richard Lowndes, Esq., one of
the Knights of the Shire, on behalf of the lace-makers, to present to the
King a pair of fine lace ruffles, made by Messrs. Milward and Company, at
Newport-Pagnel, in the same county, his Majesty, after looking at them and
asking many questions respecting this branch of trade, was most graciously
pleased to express himself that the inclination of his own heart naturally
led him to set a high value on every endeavour to further English
manufactures, and whatever had such recommendation would be preferred by
him to works of possibly higher perfection made in any other country.[1121]
From this period Newport-Pagnel is cited as {382}one of the most noted
towns in the kingdom for making bone lace.[1122]
As in other places, much complaint was made of the unhealthy state of the
lace-working population, and of the injury sustained by long sitting in the
vitiated air of the cottages.[1123]
[Illustration: Fig. 134.
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE "POINT."]
In Pennant's _Journey from Chester to London_ (in 1782), he notices in
Towcester that, "this town is supported by the great concourse of
passengers, and by a manufacture of lace, and a small one of silk
stockings. The first was {383}imported from Flanders, and carried on with
much success in this place, and still more in the neighbouring county"
(Buckinghamshire).
[Illustration: Fig. 135.
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE "POINT."]
At the end of the eighteenth century, the Revolution again drove many of
the poorer French to seek refuge on our shores, as they had done a century
before; and we find stated in the _Annual Register_ of 1794: "A number of
ingenious French emigrants have found employment in Bucks, Bedfordshire,
and the adjacent counties, in the manufacturing of lace, and it is
expected, through the means of these artificers, considerable improvements
will be introduced into the method of making English lace."
Figs. 134 and 135 represent the "point" ground, which won the laces of the
midland counties their reputation. (See NORTHAMPTONSHIRE for additional
matter.)
{384}NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.
The laces of Northampton do not appear to have attracted the notice of the
writers of the eighteenth century so much as those of the sister counties.
Anderson mentions that Kettering has "a considerable trade in lace"; and
Lysons, later, observes that lace is made at Cheney. Certainly, the
productions of this county a century back were of exquisite beauty, as we
can bear testimony from the specimens in a pattern-book inherited by Mr.
Cardwell, the well-known lace merchant of Northampton, from his predecessor
in the trade, which we have had an opportunity of examining. We have also
received examples from various localities in Bedfordshire and
Buckinghamshire, and as there is much similarity in the products of the
three counties, we shall, perhaps, better describe them by treating of them
all collectively.
The earliest English lace was naturally the old Flemish, the pattern wavy
and graceful, the ground well executed. Fig. 136, which we select as an
example, is a specimen we received, with many others, of old Newport-Pagnel
lace, given by Mrs. Bell, of that town, where her family has been
established from time immemorial. Mrs. Bell could carry these laces back to
the year 1780, when they were bequeathed to her father by an aged relative
who had long been in the lace trade. The packets remain for the most part
entire. The custom of "storing" lace was common among the country-people.
Next in antiquity is Fig. 137, a lace of Flemish design, with the fine
Brussels ground. This is among the Northamptonshire laces already alluded
to.
Many of the early patterns appear to have been run or worked in with the
needle on the net ground (Fig. 138).
PLATE LXXXVI.
[Illustration: ENGLISH, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. BOBBIN LACE.--End of nineteenth
century. Widths: 1¾, 5¼ and 2 in.
Photo by A. Dryden from a private collection.]
_To face page 384._
{385}In 1778, according to M'Culloch,[1124] was introduced the "point"
ground, as it is locally termed, from which period dates the staple pillow
lace trade of these counties. This ground is beautifully clear, the
patterns well executed: we doubt if Fig. 139 could be surpassed in beauty
by lace of any foreign manufacture. Much of this point ground was made by
men.
[Illustration: Fig. 136.
OLD FLEMISH.--(Newport-Pagnel.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 137.
OLD BRUSSELS.--(Northampton.)]
The principal branch of the lace trade was the making of "baby lace," as
those narrow laces were called, most specially employed for the adorning of
infants' caps (Figs. 140, 141, 142). The "point" ground was used, the
patterns taken from those of Lille and Mechlin--hence the laces of
Buckingham and Bedfordshire have often been styled "English Lille." Though
the fashion in the mother-country passed away, the American ladies held to
the trimmed infant's cap until the breaking out of the Civil War; and up to
that date large quantities of "baby lace" were exported to America, the
finer sorts varying from five shillings to seven shillings and sixpence a
yard, still retaining their ancient name of "points."
{386}[Illustration: Fig. 138.
"RUN" LACE.--(Newport-Pagnel.)]
Many other descriptions of grounds were made--wire (Fig. 143), double, and
trolly, in every kind of quality and width. In the making of the finer
sorts of edging as many as 200 threads would be employed.
[Illustration: Fig. 139.
ENGLISH "POINT."--(Northampton.)]
On the breaking out of the war with France, the closing of our ports to
French goods gave an impetus to the trade, and the manufacturers undertook
to supply the English {387}market with lace similar to that of Normandy and
the sea-coast villages of France; hence a sort of "fausse" Valenciennes,
called the "French ground." But true Valenciennes was also fabricated so
fine (Fig. 144) as to rival the products of French Hainault. It was made in
considerable quantities, until the expertness of the smuggler and the
cessation of the war caused it to be laid aside.
[Illustration: Fig. 140.
"BABY" LACE.--(Northampton.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 141.
"BABY" LACE.--(Beds.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 142.
"BABY" LACE.--(Bucks.)]
One-third of the lace-workers of Northampton were {388}employed, previous
to the introduction of machine-made net, in making quillings on the pillow.
During the Regency, a "point" lace, with the "cloth" or "toilé" on the
edge, for many years was in fashion, and, in compliment to the Prince, was
named by the loyal manufacturers "Regency Point." It was a durable and
handsome lace (Fig. 145).
[Illustration: Fig. 143.
WIRE GROUND.--(Northampton.)]
Towards the year 1830, insertions found their way to the public taste (Fig.
146).
Till the middle of the nineteenth century, in lace-making districts, almost
the only schools were the lace schools--and there were several in most
villages--where lace-making was the principal thing taught and a little
reading added. I am indebted to Mrs. Roberts, formerly of Spratton, near
Northampton, for the following description, which she kindly allows me to
reprint.
[Illustration: Fig. 144.
VALENCIENNES.--(Northampton.)]
{389}[Illustration: Fig. 145.
REGENCY POINT.--(Bedford.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 146.
INSERTION.--(Bedford.)]
"The following are the few particulars of the old lace school for which
this village was at one time famous. Indeed, it may be borne in mind that,
owing to the great interest taken in education by a former squire and a
former vicar, Spratton fifty years ago was far ahead of its neighbours in
the matter of education; and the Spratton school and Mr. Pridmore, the
Spratton schoolmaster, with his somewhat strict discipline, were well
known, not only to the children of Spratton, but to the boys and girls of
most of the adjacent villages. But the lace school was, no doubt, a
commercial institution, and I think it will be admitted that the hours were
long and the work severe. The girls left the {390}day school at the age of
eight years, and joined the lace school, and here the hours were from 6
A.M. to 6 P.M. in the summer, and from 8 A.M. to 8 P.M. in the winter. Half
an hour was allowed for breakfast and for tea, and one hour for dinner, so
that there were ten hours for actual work. The girls had to stick ten pins
a minute, or six hundred an hour; and if at the end of the day they were
five pins behind, they had to work for another hour. On Saturdays, however,
they had a half-holiday, working only to the dinner-hour. They counted to
themselves every pin they stuck, and at every fiftieth pin they called out
the time, and the girls used to race each other as to who should call out
first.
"They paid twopence a week (or threepence in winter) for lights, and in
return they received the money realised from the sale of the lace they
made, and they could earn about sixpence a day. Pay-day was a great event;
it came once a month.
"In the evenings eighteen girls worked by one tallow candle, value one
penny; the 'candle-stool' stood about as high as an ordinary table with
four legs. In the middle of this was what was known as the 'pole-board,'
with six holes in a circle and one in the centre. In the centre hole was a
long stick with a socket for the candle at one end and peg-holes through
the sides, so that it could be raised or lowered at will. In the other six
holes were placed pieces of wood hollowed out like a cup, and into each of
these was placed a bottle made of very thin glass and filled with
water.[1125] These bottles acted as strong condensers or lenses, and the
eighteen girls sat round the table, three to each bottle, their stools
being upon different levels, the highest nearest the bottle, which threw
the light down upon the work like a burning-glass. In the day-time as many
as thirty girls, and sometimes boys, would work in a room about twelve feet
square, with two windows, and in the winter they could have no fire for
lack of room." The makers of the best laces would sit nearest the light,
and so on in order of merit.
A "down" in Northamptonshire is the parchment {391}pattern, generally about
twelve inches long. In Buckinghamshire they have two "eachs" ten inches
long, and putting one in front of the other, so work round the pillow,
which to many commends itself as a better plan than having one "down" and
moving the lace back on reaching the end of the "down." The pillow is a
hard round cushion, stuffed with straw and well hammered to make it hard
for the bobbins to rattle on. It is then covered with the butcher-blue
"pillow-cloth" all over; a "lace cloth" of the same, for the lace to lie
on, goes over the top; then follows the lace-paper to pin it in as made,
covered with the "lacing," which is a strip of bright print. The "hinder"
of blue linen covers up all behind, the "worker" keeping the parchment
clean in front where the hands rest. A bobbin bag and scissors are then
tied on one side and a pin-cushion on the top; a cloth "heller" is thrown
over the whole when not used.
The pins are fine brass ones made on purpose;[1126] the bobbins are of
various sizes and makes--very fine for fine lace, heavier and twisted round
with strips of brass for coarser laces and gimp for the threads, which are
the tracing ones, dividing the different characters of patterns; some are
of bone with words tattoed round in columns. The usual bobbin is plain
turned wood, with coloured beads at the end for the necessary weight. The
number varies from twenty to five hundred, according to the width of the
pattern.[1127]
{392}The Exhibition of 1851 gave a sudden impulse to the traders, and from
that period the lace industry rapidly developed. At this time was
introduced the Maltese guipures and the "plaited" laces, a variety grafted
on the old Maltese (Fig. 147). Five years later appears the first specimen
of the raised plait, now so thoroughly established in the market. At the
time Queen Victoria's trousseau was made, in which only English lace was
used, the prices paid were so enormous that men made lace in the fields. In
those days the parchments on which the patterns were pricked were worth
their weight in gold; many were extremely old and their owners were very
jealous of others copying their patterns. But, of late years, we hear of so
little store being set by these parchments that they were actually boiled
down to make glue.
[Illustration: Fig. 147.
PLAITED LACE.--(Bedford.)]
The decay which threatened almost total extinction of the industry belongs
to the last twenty years. The contributory causes were several, chiefly the
rapid development of machinery, which enabled large quantities to be sold
at lower rates than the hand-workers could starve on, while the quality of
the manufactured goods was good enough for the {393}large public that
required lace to last but a short time. Foreign competition, the higher
wages required by all, and the many new employments opening to women took
away the young people from the villages. In 1874 more than thirty young
lace-women left a village of four hundred inhabitants to seek work
elsewhere. The old workers gave up making good laces and supplied the
popular demand with Maltese, which grew more and more inferior both in
design and quality of thread, and gradually the old workers died out and no
new ones took their places. The Lace Association has been started with the
object of stimulating and improving the local manufacture of pillow lace,
of providing lace-workers with greater facilities for the sale of their
work at more remunerative prices. Its aim is also to save the old designs
of the "point" lace and discourage the coarse Maltese, to get new designs
copied from old laces, and insist on only the best thread being used,[1128]
and good workmanship, and finally, to bring the lace before the public, and
send it direct from worker to the purchaser, thus enabling the former to
get the full value, saving the large profits which the dealers, buying for
the shopkeepers, intercept for their own advantage.
[Illustration: Fig. 148.
RAISED PLAIT.--Bedford.]
Pillow lace was also made to some extent in Derbyshire.
{394}SUFFOLK.
Suffolk has produced bobbin-made laces of little artistic value. The
patterns in most of the specimens in the Victoria and Albert Museum
collection are derived from simple Mechlin, Lille, and Valenciennes
patterns. "The make of the lace resembles that of Buckinghamshire laces,
and that of the Norman laces of the present time. The entire collection
displays varied combinations of six ways of twisting and plaiting
thread."[1129]
PLATE LXXXVII.
[Illustration: ENGLISH, SUFFOLK. BOBBIN LACE.--Nineteenth century.
Resembling inferior Buckinghamshire, also Normandy and Saxony laces.
Victoria and Albert Museum.]
_To face page 394._
{395}CHAPTER XXXI.
WILTSHIRE AND DORSETSHIRE.
From Wiltshire and Dorset, counties in the eighteenth century renowned for
their lace, the trade has now passed away; a few workers may yet be found
in the retired sea-side village of Charmouth, and these are diminishing
fast.
Of the Wiltshire manufactures we know but little, even from tradition, save
that the art did once prevail. Peuchet alludes to it. When Sir Edward
Hungerford attacked Wardour Castle in Wiltshire, Lady Arundel, describing
the destruction of the leaden pipes by the soldiers, says, "They cut up the
pipe and sold it, as these men's wives in North Wiltshire do bone lace, at
sixpence a yard."
One Mary Hurdle, of Marlborough, in the time of Charles II., tells us in
her "Memoirs"[1130] that, being left an orphan, she was apprenticed by the
chief magistrate to a maker of bone lace for eight years, and after that
period of servitude she apprenticed herself for five years more.
Again, at the time of the Great Plague, cautions are issued by the Mayor of
Marlborough to all parents and masters how they send their children and
servants to school or abroad in making bone lace or otherwise, in any
public house, place, or school used for that purpose.[1131]
In the proceedings of the Anti-Gallican Society it is recorded that the
second prize for needle point ruffles was, in 1751, awarded to Mrs.
Elizabeth Waterman, of the episcopal city of Salisbury. Such are the scanty
notices we have been able to glean of the once flourishing lace trade in
Wiltshire.
{396}Dorset, on the other hand, holds a high place in the annals of
lace-making, three separate towns, in their day--Blandford, Sherborne, and
Lyme Regis--disputing the palm of excellence for their productions.
Of Blandford the earliest mention we find is in Owen's _Magna Britannica_
of 1720, where he states: "The manufacture of this town was heretofore
'band-strings,' which were once risen to a good price, but now times hath
brought both bands themselves and their strings out of use, and so the
inhabitants have turned their hands to making straw works and bone lace,
which perhaps may come to nothing, if the fickle humour of fashionmongers
take to wearing Flanders lace."
Only four years later Defoe writes of Blandford:--"This city is chiefly
famous for making the finest bone lace in England, and where they showed us
some so exquisitely fine as I think I never saw better in Flanders, France,
or Italy, and which, they said, they rated above £30 sterling a yard; but
it is most certain that they make exceeding rich lace in this county, such
as no part of England can equal." In the edition of 1762, Defoe adds, "This
was the state and trade of the town when I was there in my first journey;
but on June 4, 1731, the whole town, except twenty-six houses, was consumed
by fire, together with the church."
Postlethwayt,[1132] Hutchins,[1133] Lysons, and Knight (_Imperial
Cyclopædia_) all tell the same story. Peuchet cites the Blandford laces as
"comparables à celles qu'on fait en Flandres (excepté Bruxelles), en
France, et même dans les Etats de Venise"; and Anderson mentions Blandford
as "a well-built town, surpassing all England in fine lace." More reliance
is to be placed on the two last-named authorities than the former, who have
evidently copied Defoe without troubling themselves to inquire more deeply
into the matter.
[Illustration: Fig. 149.
ENGLISH NEEDLE-MADE LACE, REPRESENTING THE DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH ARMADA.
_To face page 396._]
{397}It is generally supposed that the trade gradually declined after the
great fire of 1731, when it was replaced by the manufacture of buttons, and
no record of its former existence can be found among the present
inhabitants of the place.[1134]
Fig. 149 represents a curious piece of lace, preserved as an heirloom in a
family in Dorsetshire. It formerly belonged to Queen Charlotte, and, when
purchased by the present owner, had a label attached to it, "Queen
Elizabeth's lace," with the tradition that it was made in commemoration of
the defeat of the Spanish Armada, as the ships, dolphins, and national
emblems testify. At this we beg to demur, as no similar lace was made at
that period; but we do not doubt its having been made in honour of that
victory, for the building is decidedly old Tilbury Fort, familiar to all by
the pencil of Stanfield. But the lace is point d'Argentan, as we see by the
hexagonal "bride" ground and the workmanship of the pattern. None but the
best lace-workers could have made it; it was probably the handiwork of some
English lady, or the pattern, designed in England, may have been sent to
Argentan to execute, perhaps as a present to Queen Charlotte.
"Since the Reformation the clothing trade declined," writes Defoe, of
Sherborne. "Before 1700, making buttons, haberdashery wares, and bone laces
employed a great many hands"; which said piece of information is repeated
word for word in the _Imperial Cyclopædia_. Other authors, such as
Anderson, declare, at a far later date, Sherborne to carry on a good trade
in lace, and how, up to 1780, much blonde, both white and black, and of
various colours, was made there, of which a supply was sent to all markets.
From the latter end of the eighteenth century, the lace trade of Sherborne
declined, and gradually died out.
The points of Lyme Regis rivalled, in the eighteenth century, those of
Honiton and Blandford, and when the trade of the last-named town passed
away, Lyme and Honiton laces held their own, side by side, in the London
market. The fabric of Lyme Regis, for a period, came more before the public
eye, for that old, deserted, and half-forgotten mercantile city, in the
eighteenth century, once more raised its head as a fashionable
watering-place. Prizes were awarded by the {398}Anti-Gallican Society[1135]
to Miss Mary Channon, of Lyme Regis, and her fellow-townswoman, Miss Mary
Ben, for ruffles of needle point and bone lace. The reputation of the
fabric, too, of Lyme Regis reached even the court; and when Queen Charlotte
first set foot on English ground, she wore a head and lappets of Dorset
manufacture. Some years later a splendid lace dress was made for her
Majesty by the workers of Lyme, which, says the annalist of our southern
coast,[1136] gave great satisfaction at court. The makers of this costly
product, however, received but fourpence a day for their work.
The laces of Lyme, like all good articles, were expensive. A narrow piece
set quite plain round an old woman's cap would cost four guineas, nor was
five guineas a yard considered an exorbitant price.
It was a favourite custom at Lyme for lovers to have their initials
entwined and worked together on a piece of ornamental lace.
The making of such expensive lace being scarcely found remunerative, the
trade gradually expired; and when the order for the marriage lace of Queen
Victoria reached the southern counties, not one lace-maker was to be found
to aid in the work in the once flourishing town of Lyme Regis.
{399}CHAPTER XXXII.
DEVONSHIRE.
"Bone lace and Cyder."--_Anderson._
"At Axminster, you may be furnished with fyne flax thread there spunne.
At Honyton and Bradninch with bone lace much in request."--Westcote.
HONITON.
The lace industry found its way to Devonshire, if the generally-accepted
theory be correct, by the Flemish refugees flying from the persecutions of
the Duke of Alva. There is much probability to support the theory, and some
names,[1137] of undoubted Flemish origin, appear among the entries of the
church registers still preserved at Honiton, towards the latter end of the
sixteenth century--names all handed down to their descendants in the
present generation, and in these families the fabric has continued for a
long lapse of years. On the other hand, if there had been any considerable
number of Flemings in Devonshire, they would surely have founded a company
of their Reformed Church, and no reference is found in the published books
of the archives of the London Dutch Church of any such company in
Devonshire, whereas references abound to places in the Eastern Counties and
Midlands where Flemings were settled. Lace was made on the pillow in the
Low Countries by the middle of the sixteenth century, so by the date of the
Alva persecution (1568-77) the people might have learned it in sufficient
numbers to start it wherever they set up their new home. Up to that date in
England lace was made with the needle,[1138] {400}and it was not till we
read of "bone-lace" that it may be taken to mean pillow-lace. The term
"bone," according to Fuller, was applied from the custom of using sheep's
trotters as bobbins. In Devonshire, however, the tradition is that, owing
to the high price of pins, the lace-makers, being within reach of the sea,
made use of fish-bones, and thus pillow-lace became "bone-lace." The term
"bobbin" came into use soon afterwards, but was not so universal as "bone";
it occurs in the Wardrobe Accounts and Royal inventories (where one entry
runs, "In ye shoppe, 4 oz. and ½ of Bobbing lace, 6s. 4d.").
Although the earliest known MS.[1139] giving an account of the different
towns in Devon makes no mention of lace, we find from it that Mrs.
Minifie,[1140] one of the earliest-named lace-makers, was an Englishwoman.
Queen Elizabeth was much addicted to the collecting and wearing of
beautiful clothes; but no mention of English lace by name seems to occur in
the inventories and accounts, and the earliest mention of Honiton lace is
by Westcote, who, writing about 1620, speaks of "bone lace much in request"
being made at Honiton and Bradninch; and again referring to Honiton.
"Here," says he, "is made abundance of bone lace, a pretty toye now greatly
in request; and therefore the town may say with merry Martial--
"In praise for toyes such as this
Honiton second to none is."
The oft-cited inscription let into a raised tombstone, near the wall of old
Honiton church, together with Westcote, {401}prove the industry to have
been well established in the reign of James I. The inscription runs--
"Here lyeth y^e body of James Rodge, of Honinton, in y^e County of
Devonshire (Bonelace Siller, hath given unto the poore of Honinton
P'ishe, the benyfitt of £100 for ever), who deceased y^e 27 of July A^o
D^i 1617 AETATAE SVAE 50. Remember the Poore."
There have been traditions that Rodge was a valet who accompanied his
master abroad, and there learning the fine Flemish stitches, taught some
Devonshire women on his return home, and was enabled to make a comfortable
competence by their work, bequeathing a sum of money to the poor of
Honiton; but it is more probable that he was an ordinary dealer.
Westcote,[1141] who wrote about the year 1620, when noticing bone lace,
does not speak of it as a new manufacture; the trade had already taken root
and flourished, for, including the above-mentioned Rodge, the three
earliest bone lace makers of the seventeenth century on record all at their
decease bequeathed sums of money for the benefit of their indigent
townspeople, viz., Mrs. Minifie,[1142] before mentioned, who died in 1617,
and Thomas Humphrey, of Honiton, laceman, who willed in the year 1658 £20
towards the purchase of certain tenements, a notice of which benefaction is
recorded on a painted board above the gallery of the old parish church.
By this time English lace had advanced in public estimation. In the year
1660 a royal ordinance of France provided that a mark should be affixed to
thread lace imported from England as well as on that of Flanders; and we
have already told elsewhere how the Earl of Essex procures, through his
countess, bone lace to a considerable amount as a present to Queen Anne of
Austria.
Speaking of bone lace, writes Fuller in his _Worthies_: "Much of this is
made in and about Honyton, and weekly returned to London.... Modern is the
use thereof in England, and that not exceeding the middle of the reign of
{402}Queen Elizabeth. Let it not be condemned for a superfluous wearing
because it doth neither hide, nor heat, seeing it doth adorn. Besides,
though private persons pay for it, it stands the State in nothing; not
expensive of bullion like other lace, costing nothing save a little thread
descanted on by art and industry. Hereby many children, who otherwise would
be burthensome to the parish, prove beneficial to their parents. Yea, many
lame in their limbs and impotent in their arms, if able in their fingers,
gain a livelihood thereby; not to say that it saveth some thousands of
pounds yearly, formerly sent over seas to fetch lace from Flanders."
The English were always ready to protect their own trades and manufactures,
and various were the Acts passed to prohibit the importation of foreign
lace, for the encouragement of home workers. In 1698 it was proposed to
repeal the last preceding prohibition; and, from the text of a petition
sent to the House of Commons, some interesting light is thrown on the
extent of the trade at that time.
"The making of Bone-lace has been an ancient Manufacture of England, and
the Wisdom of our Parliaments all along thought it the Interest of this
Kingdom to prohibit its Importation from Foreign Parts.... This has revived
the said Languishing Manufacture, and there are now above one hundred
thousand in England who get their living by it, and earn by mere Labour
£500,000 a year, according to the lowest computation that can be made; and
the Persons employed on it are, for the most part, Women and children who
have no other means of Subsistence. The English are now arrived to make as
good lace in Fineness and all other respects as any that is wrought in
Flanders, and particularly since the last Act, so great an improvement is
made that way that in Buckinghamshire, the highest prized lace they used to
make was about eight shillings per yard, and now they make lace there of
above thirty shillings per yard, and in Dorsetshire and Devonshire they now
make lace worth six pound per yard....
"... The Lace Manufacture in England is the greatest, next to the woollen,
and maintains a multitude of People, which otherwise the Parishes must, and
that would soon prove a heavy burthen, even to those concerned in the
Woollen Manufacture. On the Resolution, which shall be taken in this affair
depends the Well-being, or ruin of numerous families in their Country. Many
laws have been made to set our Poor on Work, and it is to be hoped none
will be made to take away work from Multitudes who are already
employed."[1143]
PLATE LXXXVIII.
[Illustration: ENGLISH, DEVONSHIRE. REPRODUCTIONS OF OLD HONITON WITH THE
VRAI RÉSEAU.--Made under Mrs. Fowler's direction. Widths about 4 inches.
Photo by A. Dryden.]
_To face page 402._
{403}Even in 1655, when the variety of points furnished matter for a letter
from the members of the Baptist Church assembled at Bridgewater, the
"Beleeven men," unwilling to injure so nourishing a commerce, merely
censure "points and more laces than are required on garments," and these
they desired might be proceeded against "with all sweetness and tenderness
and long-suffering."[1144] The conciliatory measures of the Puritans,
maybe, affected the trade less than the doing of Lord Cambury and Lord
Churchill's dragoons in the suppression of Monmouth's rebellion in 1680, by
which time the lace-making art was carried on in many small country places
in Devon. They pillaged the lace-makers right and left, and, when quartered
at Colyton,[1145] these unruly soldiers broke into the house of one William
Bard, a dealer in bone lace, and there stole merchandise to the amount of
£325 17s. 9d.[1146]
"The valuable manufactures of lace, for which the inhabitants of Devon have
long been conspicuous, are extending now from Exmouth to Torbay,"[1147]
writes Defoe in 1724. {404}These must, however, have received a check as
regards the export trade, for, says Savary, who wrote about the same date,
"Depuis qu'on imite les dentelles nommées point d'Angleterre en Flandres,
Picardie et Champagne, on n'en tire plus de Londres pour la France."
Great distress, too, is said to have existed among the Honiton lace-makers
after the two great fires of 1756 and 1767. The second was of so
devastating a character that the town had to be rebuilt. Shawe declares,
writing at the end of the eighteenth century: "For its present condition
Honiton is indebted to that dreadful fire which reduced three parts of it
to ashes. The houses now wear a pleasing aspect, and the principal street,
extending from east to west, is paved in a remarkable manner, forming a
canal, well shouldered up on each side with pebbles and green turf, which
holds a stream of clear water with a square dipping place opposite each
door, a mark of cleanliness and convenience I never saw before."
[Illustration: Fig. 150.]
Three years previous to the Great Fire,[1148] among a number of premiums
awarded by the Anti-Gallican Society for the encouragement of our lace
trade, the first prize of fifteen guineas is bestowed upon Mrs. Lydia
Maynard, of Honiton, "in token of six pairs of ladies' lappets of
unprecedented beauty, exhibited by her." About this time we read {405}in
Bowen's _Geography_[1149] that at Honiton: "the people are chiefly employed
in the manufactory of lace, the broadest sort that is made in England, of
which great quantities are sent to London." "It acquired," says Lysons,
"some years since, the name of Bath Brussels lace."
To give a precise description of the earliest Devonshire lace would now be
impossible. The bone or bobbin lace at first consisted of a small and
simple imitation of the beautiful Venetian geometrical cut-works and
points, mere narrow strips made by coarse threads plaited and interlaced.
They became wider and more elaborate as the workers gained experience.
Specimens may be seen on two Devonshire monuments, though whether the lace
of the district is imitated on the effigies is another matter; in any case
similar patterns were probably made there at the time. One is on the
monument of Lady Pole, in Colyton Church, where the lady's cape is edged
with three rows of bone lace. The other, which is in excellent
preservation, is on the recumbent effigy of Lady Doddridge (a member of the
Bampfylde family) in Exeter Cathedral, her cuffs and tucker being adorned
with geometric lace of a good pattern. Both belong to the first part of the
seventeenth century.
In the same Cathedral is the monument of Bishop Stafford.[1150] His collar
appears to be of a net-work, embroidered in patterns of graceful design
(Fig. 151).
Belgium was noted for her linens and delicately spun flax. In consequence
the Flemings soon departed from the style of their Italian masters, and
made laces of their own fine threads. They worked out their own designs
also, and being great gardeners and fond of flowers, it naturally came
about that they composed devices of blossoms and foliage.
{406}[Illustration: Fig. 151.
MONUMENT OF BISHOP STAFFORD, EXETER CATHEDRAL.]
These alterations in course of time found their way to England, there being
much intercourse between their brethren here established and those
remaining in Flanders. The lace continued to get finer and closer in
texture, the flax thread being required so fine that it became necessary to
spin it in damp underground cellars. That the workers in England could not
compete successfully against the foreigner with their home-made threads we
find over and over again. They also altered the Brussels designs, and
instead of the beautiful "fillings" and open-work stitches, substituted
heavy guipure bars. By this period "cordonnet" or "gimp" had come into use
in Brussels lace. The "_vrai réseau_" or pillow-net ground, succeeded the
"bride" about the end of the seventeenth century. This fashion enabled the
flowers to be made separately and worked in with the net afterwards, or
rather the net was worked into the flowers on the pillow. It was from the
introduction of these separate sprigs that Honiton lace was able to compete
with Brussels. The pattern in Fig. 153 is sewn on the plain pillow
ground,[1151] which was very beautiful and regular, but very expensive. It
was made of the finest thread procured from Antwerp, the market price of
which, in 1790, was £70 per pound,[1152] and an old lace-maker told the
author her father {407}had, during the war, paid a hundred guineas a pound
to the smugglers for this highly-prized and then almost unattainable
commodity.
Nor were the lace-worker's gains less remunerative. She would receive as
much as eighteen shillings a yard for the workmanship alone of a piece of
this elaborate net, measuring scarce two inches in width;[1153] and one of
the old lace-dealers showed Mrs. Treadwin a piece of ground eighteen inches
square, for the making of which she was paid fifteen pounds shortly before
the establishment of the machine net manufacture.[1154] The price of lace
was proportionately high. A Honiton veil would often cost a hundred
guineas.
[Illustration: Fig. 152.
MONUMENT OF LADY DODDRIDGE. + 1614. (Exeter Cathedral.)]
The Flemish character of Fig. 158 is unmistakable. The {408}design of the
flower vase resembles those of the old Angleterre à bride, and in execution
this specimen may fairly warrant a comparison with the productions of
Brabant. If really of English make, we should place its fabrication at the
beginning of the eighteenth century, for it was long before the Devonshire
lace-makers could rival in beauty the "cordonnet" of the Flemish workers.
Fig. 154 is an example of the pattern worked in the favourite design of the
butterfly and the acorn, already familiar to us in the old point
d'Angleterre and in the smock of Queen Elizabeth.
[Illustration: Fig. 153.]
The American War had an evil effect upon the lace trade, and still worse
was the French Revolution, which was followed by the fashion of classical
dress. Lace became no longer necessary to a lady's wardrobe, and the demand
for it declined to a serious extent for the workers. Worse than these,
however, was the introduction of the machine net, the first factory being
set up at Tiverton in 1815. Lysons writes shortly afterwards in 1822: "The
manufactory of lace has much declined, although the lace still retains its
superiority. Some years ago, at which time it was much patronised by the
Royal family, the manufacturers of Honiton employed 2,400 hands in the town
and in the neighbouring villages, but they do not now employ above 300."
For twenty years the lace trade suffered the greatest depression, and the
Honiton lace-workers, forsaking the designs of their forefathers,
introduced a most hideous set of patterns, designed, as they said, "out of
their own heads." "Turkey tails," "frying pans," "bullocks' hearts," and
the most senseless sprigs and borderings took the place of the graceful
compositions of the old school. Not a leaf, not a flower was copied from
nature. Anxious to introduce a purer taste, Queen Adelaide, to whom a
petition had been sent on behalf of the distressed lace-makers, gave the
order for a dress to be made of Honiton sprigs,[1155] and commanded that
the flowers should all be copied from nature. The order was executed by
Mrs. Davey, of Honiton. The skirt was encircled with a wreath of elegantly
designed sprigs, the initial of each flower forming the name of her
Majesty.[1156]
[Illustration: Fig. 154.
OLD DEVONSHIRE.
_To face page 408._]
{409}The example of the Queen found new followers, and when, in the
progress of time, the wedding lace was required for Queen Victoria, it was
with difficulty the necessary number of workers could be obtained to make
it. It was undertaken by Miss Jane Bidney, who caused the work to be
executed in the small fishing hamlet of Beer[1157] and its environs. The
dress cost £1,000. It was composed entirely of Honiton sprigs, connected on
the pillow by a variety of open-work stitches; but the patterns were
immediately destroyed, so it cannot be described.
The bridal dresses of their Royal Highnesses the Princess Royal, the
Princess Alice, and the Princess of Wales were all of Honiton point, the
patterns consisting of the national flowers, the latter with prince's
feathers intermixed with ferns, and introduced with the most happy effect.
The application of Honiton sprigs upon bobbin net has been of late years
almost entirely superseded by the modern guipure (Fig. 155). The sprigs,
when made, are sewn upon a piece of blue paper, and then united either on
the pillow by "cut-works" or "purlings," or else joined with the needle by
various stitches--lacet point, réseau, cut-work, and buttonhole stitch (the
most effective of all). Purling is made by the yard. The Honiton guipure
has an original character almost unique. The large pieces surpass in
richness and {410}perfection any lace of the same kind made in Belgium. The
reliefs are embroidered with the greatest delicacy, and the beauty of the
workmanship is exquisite; and whereas the guipure applications of Belgium
require to be whitened with lead, the Honiton workers give up their lace in
all its original brilliancy and whiteness.[1158] The fault in the Honiton
lace has been its crowded and spiritless designs, but in these great
improvement was manifested in the Exhibition of 1867.
Captain Marryat took much pains during a residence at Sidmouth to procure
for the lace-makers new patterns of flowers, insects, and other natural
objects. The younger members of the community accepted with gratitude these
new patterns, and one even reproduced a piece of braidwork in imitation of
Spanish point, and also a collar from Vecellio's book, in a manner most
creditable to her ingenuity. In consequence of this movement, some
gentlemen connected with the Bath and West of England Society[1159]
proposed that an exhibition should take place at the Annual Agricultural
Show, held at Clifton, of Honiton lace, "designs strictly after nature."
Prizes to the amount of £100 were given. The exhibition was most
successful. Queen Victoria expressed a desire that the articles exhibited
should be sent to Windsor for her inspection, and graciously commanded that
two flounces with a corresponding length of trimming lace should be made
for her. A design executed by Miss Cecilia Marryat having been approved of
by her Majesty, the order for the lace was given to Mrs. Hayman, of
Sidmouth. (Fig. 156 is from one of the honeysuckle sprigs selected.)
[Illustration: Fig. 155.
HONITON GUIPURE.
_To face page 410._]
{411}The Honiton lace-makers show great aptitude in imitating the Brussels
designs, and[1160] through the efforts of Mrs. Treadwin have succeeded in
reproducing the ancient lace in the most wonderful manner. Fig. 158 is a
lappet in the Brussels style shown in the International Exhibition of 1874.
Mrs. Treadwin produced admirable specimens after the pillow-made lace of
Genoa and Flanders, and also a reproduction of the Venetian point in
relief.
[Illustration: Fig. 156.
HONEYSUCKLE SPRIG OF MODERN HONITON.]
A new branch of industry has lately opened to the Devonshire
lace-maker--that of restoring or re-making old lace. The splendid mantles,
tunics, and flounces which enrich the shop-windows of the great
lace-dealers of London are mostly concocted from old fragments by the
Devonshire lace-workers. It is curious to see the ingenuity they display in
re-arranging the "old rags"--and such they are--sent from London for
restoration. Carefully cutting out the {412}designs of the old work, they
sew them upon a paper pattern of the shape required. The "modes," or fancy
stitches, are dexterously restored, any deficient flower supplied, and the
whole joined together on the pillow.
[Illustration: Fig. 157.
OLD DEVONSHIRE POINT.]
TROLLY LACE.
Trolly lace comes next in order. It was quite different from anything else
made in Devonshire, and resembled many of the laces made in the midlands at
the present time. It was made of coarse British thread, and with heavier
and larger bobbins, and worked straight on round and round the pillow. The
origin of "Trolly" was undoubtedly Flemish, but it is said to have reached
Devonshire at the time of the French Revolution, through the Normandy
peasants, driven by want of employment from their own country, where lace
was a great industry during the eighteenth century. The origin of "trolly"
is from the Flemish "Trolle Kant," where the design was outlined with a
thick thread, or, possibly, it may be derived from a corruption of the
French _toilé_, applied to distinguish a flat linen pattern from the ground
or _treille_, a general term for a net ground. It is now almost extinct in
Devonshire, remaining in the hands of the midland counties,[1161] where it
more properly belongs.[1162]
[Illustration: Fig. 158.
LAPPET MADE BY THE LATE MRS. TREADWIN, OF EXETER, 1864.
_To face page 412._]
{413}Trolly lace was not the work of women alone. In the flourishing days
of its manufacture, every boy, until he had attained the age of fifteen,
and was competent to work in the fields, attended the lace schools
daily.[1163] A lace-maker of Sidmouth, in 1869, had learned her craft at
the village dame school,[1164] in company with many boys. The men,
especially the sailor returned from sea, would again resume the employment
of their boyhood, in their hours of leisure, and the labourer, seated at
his pillow on a summer's evening, would add to his weekly gains.
Mrs. Treadwin, in her younger days, saw some twenty-four men lace-makers in
her native village of Woodbury, two of whom, Palmer by name, were still
surviving in 1869, and one of these worked at his pillow so late as 1820.
Captain Marryat also succeeded in finding out a man of sixty, one James
Gooding, dweller in Salcombe parish, near Sidmouth, who had in his day been
a lace-maker of some reputation. "I have made hundreds of yards in my
time," he said, "both wide and narrow, but never worked regularly at my
pillow after sixteen years of age." Delighted to exhibit the craft of his
boyhood, he hunted out his patterns, {414}and, setting to work, produced a
piece of trolly edging, which soon found a place in the albums of sundry
lace-collecting ladies, the last specimen of man-worked lace likely to be
fabricated in the county of Devon.[1165]
The lace schools of this time were a great feature, there being many in
every village, and as few other schools existed, boys in addition to the
girls of the place attended and learnt the industry. The usual mode of
procedure was this. The children commenced attending at the age of five to
seven, and were apprenticed to the mistress for an average of two years,
who sold all their work for her trouble: they then paid sixpence a week for
a time and had their own lace, then threepence, and so on, according to the
amount of teaching they still required. The young children went first from
ten to twelve in the morning, to accustom them to work by degrees. At
Honiton the full hours were from eight to eight in the summer and in the
depth of winter, but in the spring and autumn less, on account of the
light, as candles were begun only on September 3rd--Nutting day--till
Shrovetide. The old rhyme runs:--
"Be the Shrovetide high or low,
Out the candle we will blow."
At Sidbury it was _de rigueur_ that directly a young girl married, however
young, she wore a cap, but till then the lace-makers were famous for the
beautiful dressing of their hair. When school began they stood up in a
circle to read the "verses." If any of them read "jokily," they were given
a penalty, and likewise for idleness--so much extra work. In nearly all
schools they were taught reading from the Bible, and in some they learnt
writing; but all these are now things of the past.
[Illustration: Fig. 159.
VENETIAN RELIEF IN POINT.--Reproduced by the late Mrs. Treadwin.
_To face page 414._]
{415}Speaking of the occupation of lace-making, Cooke, in his _Topography
of Devon_, observes: "It has been humanely remarked as a melancholy
consideration that so much health and comfort are sacrificed to the
production of this beautiful though not necessary article of decoration.
The sallow complexion, the weakly frame and the general appearance of
languor and debility of the operatives, are sad and decisive proofs of the
pernicious nature of the employment. The small unwholesome rooms in which
numbers of these females, especially during their apprenticeship, are
crowded together are great aggravations of the evil." He continues at some
length, as indeed do many writers of the eighteenth century, to descant on
this evil, but times are changed, sanitary laws and the love of fresh air
have done much to remedy the mischief.[1166] The pillows, too, are raised
higher than formerly, by which means the stooping, so injurious to health,
is avoided. Old lace-makers will tell stories of the cruel severities
practised on the children in the dame schools of their day--of the length
of time they sat without daring to move from the pillow, of prolonged
punishments imposed on idle apprentices, and other barbarities, but these
are now tales of the past.[1167]
Ever since the Great Exhibition of 1851 drew attention to the industry,
different persons have been trying to encourage both better design and
better manufacture, but {416}the majority of the people have sought a
livelihood by meeting the extensive demand for cheap laces. Good patterns,
good thread, and good work have been thrown aside, the workers and small
dealers recking little of the fact that they themselves were ruining the
trade as much as the competition of machinery and machine-made lace, and
tarnishing the fair name of Honiton throughout the world, among those able
to love and appreciate a beautiful art. Fortunately there are some to lead
and direct in the right path, and all honour must be given to Mrs.
Treadwin, who started reproducing old laces. She and her clever workers
turned out the most exquisite copies of old Venetian rose point,
Valenciennes, or Flemish. Her successor, Miss Herbert, carries it on; and
while we have Mrs. Fowler and her school at Honiton, and Miss Radford at
Sidmouth, it would be easier to say what the heads and hands of the Devon
lace-workers could not do than to enumerate the many beautiful stitches and
patterns they achieve; needlepoint or pillow, tape guipure or _vrai
réseau_--there are able fingers to suit all tastes.[1168]
Mrs. Fowler, of Honiton, has made a spirited attempt to teach some young
people.[1169] She employs women and girls all the year round, who work
under the Factory Acts. The girls are taught needlework in addition, and to
put together the sprigs made by the out-workers, the arrangement of which
requires great taste and careful superintendence. The County Council grants
courses of lessons in various places, some for all ages, others for
children.[1170] The Italian laces made at Beer is a new branch, established
by Miss Bowdon, and ably carried on by Miss Audrey Trevelyan of Seaton.
This Italian lace is made entirely on the pillow, and the way in which the
women of Beer have picked up the stitches and mode of making speaks volumes
for their skilfulness and adaptability. There are still a good number of
workers left in this most picturesque village.[1171]
PLATE LXXXIX.
[Illustration: ENGLISH, DEVONSHIRE. MADE AT BEER FOR THE PARIS EXHIBITION
OF 1900.--Miss A. Trevelyan adapted an Italian design to the old Honiton
stitches.]
_To face page 416._
{417}A beautiful county and a beautiful art have come down to us hand in
hand. Let us do our best to prevent the one being marred and the other
lost, and keep them both together to be a joy and a pleasure for all time.
JAPAN.
The versatile Japanese have copied the Honiton method of making bobbin
lace. The Government have encouraged a school at Yokohama for pillow lace
making, under the supervision of an English lady, where they turn out lace
of a distinctive Japanese character.
{418}CHAPTER XXXIII.
SCOTLAND.
"With the pearlin above her brow."--Old Scotch Song.
"Pearlin-lace as fine as spiders' webs."--_Heart of Midlothian._
From her constant intercourse with France, lace must have been early known
in Scotland.
Of its use for ecclesiastical purposes, at a period when it was still
unknown to the laity, we have evidence in the mutilated effigy of a
crosiered ecclesiastic which once stood in a niche of the now ruined abbey
church of Arbroath. The lace which adorns the robes of this figure is very
elaborately and sharply chiselled, and when first discovered, still
preserved some remains of the gold leaf with which it had been ornamented.
In the Inventories of King James V. we find constant mention of "pasment"
of gold and silver,[1172] as well as an entry of--"Ane gown of fresit
clayth of gold, with pasment of perle of gold smyth wark lynit with cramasy
sating."[1173] And we have other proofs,[1174] in addition to the testimony
of Sir Walter Scott, as given in the Monastery,[1175] that pasments of gold
and silver as well as "purle," were already in daily use during King
James's reign.
{419}Indeed, as early as 1575 the General Assembly of Scotland found
necessary, as did the bishops in Denmark, to express its mind as to the
style of dress befitting the clergy, and prohibit "all begares (gardes) of
velvet on gown, hose, or coat, all superfluous cut-out work, all sewing on
of pasments and laces."
A parchment, too, found in the cabinet of the Countess of Mar,[1176]
entitled "The Passement Bond," signed by the Duke of Lennox and other
nobles, by which they engaged themselves to leave off wearing "passement,"
as a matter of expense and superfluity, shows that luxury in dress had
early found its way into Scotland.
Notwithstanding these entries, it was not until the arrival of Mary Stuart
in her northern dominions that lace in all its varieties appears. The
inventory of the Queen's effects in 1567, printed by the Bannatyne Club,
gives entries of passements, guimpeure d'or, and guimpeure d'argent,[1177]
with which her "robes de satin blanc et jaune" were "bordées" and
"chamarées." Each style of embroidery and lace is designated by its special
name. There is the "natte d'argent faite par entrelatz, passement d'or et
d'argent fait à jour, chamarré de bisette,"[1178] etc.
The word dentelle, as told elsewhere,[1179] occurs but once.
We have also alluded to the will made by the Queen previous to the birth of
James VI., and her bequest of her "ouvrages maschés."[1180] A relic of this
expression is yet found in the word "mawsch," or "masch," as the pinking of
silk and muslin is termed in Scotland, an advertisement of which
{420}accomplishment "done here" was seen a few years ago in the
shop-windows of the old town of Edinburgh.
In the Palace of Holyrood is still exhibited a small basket lined with blue
silk, and trimmed with a bone lace of rudely-spun flax, run on with a
ribbon of the same colour, recorded to be an offering sent by Queen
Elizabeth to her cousin previous to the birth of her godchild. Antiquaries
assert the story to be a fable. Whether the lace be of the time or not, as
a work of art it is of no credit to any country.
How Queen Mary, in her youth, was instructed in the arts of point coupé and
lacis, according to the works of Vinciolo, has been already related.[1181]
Of her talents as a needlewoman there is ample proof in the numerous beds,
screens, etc., treasured as relics in the houses of the nobles where she
was held captive. She knitted head-dresses of gold "réseille," with cuffs
and collars[1182] en suite,[1183] to say nothing of nightcaps, and sent
them as presents to Elizabeth,[1184] all of which, we are told, the Queen
received most graciously. Mary, in her early portraits as Dauphine of
France, wears no thread lace. Much fine gold embroidered with passament
enriches her dresses; her sleeves are of gold rézeuil. In those of a later
date, like that taken when in Lochleven Castle, her veil is bordered with a
narrow bone lace--as yet a rarity--may be one of the same noted in the
Inventory of 1578, as "Fyve litell vaills of wovin rasour (réseau) of
threde, ane meekle twa of thame, passmentit with perle and black
silk."[1185]
When the Queen of Scots ascended the scaffold "she wore {421}on her head,"
writes Burleigh's reporter, "a dressing of lawn edged with bone lace," and
"a vest of lawn fastened to her caul," edged with the same material. This
lace-edged veil was long preserved as a relic in the exiled Stuart family,
until Cardinal York bequeathed it to Sir John Cox Hippisley. Miss
Pigott[1186] describes it of "transparent zephyr gauze, with a light check
or plaid pattern interwoven with gold; the form as that of a long
scarf."[1187] Sir John, when exhibiting the veil at Baden, had the
indiscretion to throw it over the Queen of Bavaria's head. The Queen
shuddered at the omen, threw off the veil, and retired precipitately from
the apartment, evidently in great alarm.
"Cuttit out werk," collars of "hollie crisp," quaiffs of woven
thread,[1188] cornettes of layn (linen) sewit with cuttit out werk of gold,
wovin collars of threde, follow in quick succession. The cuttit out werk is
mostly wrought in gold, silver, cramoisi, or black silk.[1189] The Queen's
"towell claiths" are adorned in similar manner.[1190]
The Chartley Inventory of 1568[1191] is rich in works of point coupé and
rézeuil, in which are portrayed with the needle figures of birds, fishes,
beasts, and flowers, "couppés chascune en son carré." The Queen exercised
much ingenuity in her labours, varying the pattern according to her taste.
In the list are noted fifty-two specimens of flowers designed after nature,
"tirés au naturel;" 124 birds; as well as sixteen sorts of four-footed
beasts, "entre lesquelles y ha un lyon assailant un sanglier;" with
fifty-two fishes, all of {422}divers sorts--giving good proofs of the poor
prisoner's industry. As to the designs after nature, with all respect to
the memory of Queen Mary, the lions, cocks, and fishes of the sixteenth
century which have come under our notice, require a student of mediæval
needlework rather than a naturalist, to pronounce upon their identity.
James VI. of Scotland, reared in a hotbed of Calvinism, had not the means,
even if he had the inclination, to indulge in much luxury in dress. Certain
necessary entries of braid pasmentis of gold, gold clinquant, braid
pasmentis, cramoisi, for the ornamenting of clokkis, coittis, breikis, and
roobes of the King, with "Twa unce and ane half pasmentis of gold and
silver to werk the headis of the fokkis," made up the amount of expense
sanctioned for the royal wedding;[1192] while 34 ells braid pasmentis of
gold to trim a robe for "his Majesties darrest bedfellow the Quene for her
coronation,"[1193] gives but a poor idea of the luxury of the Scottish
court.
Various enactments[1194] were passed during the reign of James VI. against
"unnecessary sumptuousness in men's apparel," by which no one except
noblemen, lords of session, prelates, etc., were allowed to wear silver or
gold lace. Provosts were permitted to wear silk, but no lace pearlin or
pasmenterie, only a "watling silk lace" on the seams.[1195] No one but the
above same privileged persons were to have pearlin on their ruffles,
sarkis, napkins, and sokkis, and that pearlin to be made in the kingdom of
Scotland. This Act, dated 1621, is the first mention we have found of
Scottish-made lace.
James VI. having granted to one James Bannatyne of Leith a patent for the
"importing of foraine pearlin" into the country, in consequence of the
great complaint of the embroiderers in 1639, this patent is rescinded, and
the King forbids the entry of all "foraine pearlin."
The word lace does not exist in the Scotch language. "Pearlin" is the term
used in old documents, defined in the {423}dictionaries to be "a species of
lace made with thread." In the old Scotch songs it frequently
occurs:--[1196]
"Then, round the ring she dealt them ane by ane,
Clean in her pearlin keck, and gown alane."
--_Ross Helonora._
Again--
"We maun hae pearlins and mabbies and cocks,
And some other things that ladies call smocks."
As the latter articles may appear more familiar to the world in general
than "kecks," and "mabbies," and "cocks," we may as well explain a "pearlin
keck" to signify a linen cap with a lace border; a "mabbie," a mob; a
"cock," or cock-up, no more eccentric head-dress than the lofty fontanges
or commode of the eighteenth century.
Again, in _Rob Roy_ we have the term "pearlin:" when Bailie Nicol Jarvie
piteously pleads to his kinswoman, Helen Macgregor, he says--
"I hae been serviceable to Rob before now, forbye a set of pearlins I
sent yoursell when you were gaun to be married."
The recollection of these delicate attentions, however, has little effect
on the Highland chieftainess, who threatens to have him chopped up, if ill
befalls her lord, into as many square pieces as compose the Macgregor
tartan, or throw him neck and heels into the Highland loch.
Montrose, we read, sent his lace ruffles to be starched and dressed before
they were sewn on the embroidered sark he had made only to wear at his
execution. "Pearlin" was provided for him which cost £10 an ell.
The close-fitting velvet cap, enriched with lace, appears in the
seventeenth century to have been adopted by the lawyers of the Scotch
courts. An example may be seen in the portrait of Sir Thomas Hope, Lord
Advocate of Scotland, who died in 1646, which hangs in the Hall of the
Advocates of Edinburgh. Another (Fig. 160) appears in the engraving of Sir
Alexander Gibson, Bart., Lord Durie, one of the Lords of Session, who died
two years previously.
In 1672, when lace--"point lace made of {424}thread"--came under the ban of
the Covenanters, with a penalty of "500 merks toties quoties," the wearing
such vanities on liveries is strictly forbidden; servants, however, are
allowed to wear out their masters' and mistresses' old clothes.
In 1674, his Majesty, understanding that the manufacture of "pearlin and
whyt lace made of thread (whereby many people gain their livelihood) was
thereby much prejudiced and impaired, declares that from henceforth it
shall be free to all and every person within this kingdom to wear 'whyt
lace,' as well as the privileged persons above mentioned." Finding these
exclusions of little or no avail, in January, 1685, the Act remits the
wearing of lace, both native and foreign, to all folks living.
[Illustration: Fig. 160.
SIR ALEXANDER GIBSON, BART. (Lord Durie, Lord of Session. + 1644.)]
The dead now came under the scrutiny of the Scotch Parliament, who order
all lace or poynt, gold or silver, to be disused at interments, under the
penalty of 300 pounds Scots.[1197]
From the united effects of poverty, Covenanters and {425}legislation, after
the departure of the court for England, luxury, small though it was,
declined in Edinburgh.
It was not till 1680, when James II., as Duke of York, accompanied by Mary
of Modena and his "duteous" daughter Anne, visited the Scotch capital, that
anything like gaiety or dress can be said to have surprised the
strait-laced population.
Dryden, sneering at the barbarism of the Scotch capital, writes, in the
prologue to a play delivered at Oxford, referring to a portion of the troop
that accompanied the court to Scotland--
"Laced linen there would be a dangerous thing;
It might perhaps a new rebellion bring--
The Scot who wore it would be chosen king."
The Highlander, however, when in full dress, did not disdain to adopt the
falling band and ruffles of guipure or Flanders lace.
The advertisements and inventories of the first years of the eighteenth
century give us little reason to imagine any change had been effected in
the homely habits of the people.
At the marriage of a daughter of Thomas Smythe, of Methuen, in 1701, to Sir
Thomas Moncrieffe, the bride had a head-suit and ruffles of cut-work which
cost nearly six pounds ten shillings.[1198] Few and scanty advertisements
of roups of "white thread lace" appear in the journals of the day.[1199]
And in such a state matters continued till the Jacobites, {426}going and
coming from St. Germains, introduced French fashions and luxuries as yet
unheard of in the then aristocratic Canongate.
It sounds strange to a traveller, as he wanders among these now deserted
closes of Edinburgh, to read of the gay doings and of the grand people who,
in the last century, dwelt within these poor-looking abodes. A difficult
matter it must have been to the Jacobite beauties, whose hoop (from 1725-8)
measured nine yards in circumference, to mount the narrow winding
staircases of their dwellings; and this very difficulty gave rise to a
luxury of underclothing almost unknown in England or elsewhere. Every lady
wore a petticoat trimmed with the richest point lace. Nor was it only the
jupe that was lace-trimmed. Besides
"Twa lappets at her head, that flaunted gallantlie,"
ladies extended the luxury to finely-laced garters.
In 1720 the bubble Company "for the trading in Flanders laces" appears
advertised in the Scotch papers in large and attractive letters. We
strongly doubt, however, it having gained any shareholders among the
prudent population of Edinburgh.
The prohibition of lace made in the dominions of the French king[1200] was
a boon to the Jacobites, and many a lady, and gentleman too, became
wondrous loyal to the exiled family, bribed by a packet from St. Germains.
In the first year of George II., says the _Gazette_,[1201] a parcel of rich
lace was secretly brought to the Duke of Devonshire, by a mistake in the
similarity of the title. On being opened, hidden among the folds, was found
a miniature portrait of the Pretender, set round with large diamonds. The
packet was addressed to a noble lord high in office, one of the most
zealous converts to loyalty.[1202]
{427}Smuggling was universal in Scotland in the reigns of George I. and
George II., for the people, unaccustomed to imposts, and regarding them as
an unjust aggression upon their ancient liberties, made no scruple to elude
the customs whenever it was possible so to do.
It was smuggling that originated the Porteous riots of 1736; and in his
description of the excited mob, Sir Walter Scott makes Miss Grizel Dalmahoy
exclaim--"They have ta'en awa' our Parliament. They hae oppressed our
trade. Our gentles will hardly allow that a Scots needle can sew ruffles on
a sark or lace on an owerlay."[1203]
{428}CHAPTER XXXIV.
LACE MANUFACTURES OF SCOTLAND.
"Sae put on your pearlins, Marion,
And kirtle o' the cramasie."--Scottish Song.
During the treasonable year of 1745 Scotland was far too occupied with her
risings and executions to give much attention to her national industry. Up
to that time considerable pains had been taken to improve the spinning of
fine thread, prizes had been awarded, and the art taught in schools and
other charitable institutions.
It was not till the middle of the eighteenth century that Anne, Duchess of
Hamilton, known to Society by tradition as "one of the beautiful Miss
Gunnings," seeing lace-makers at work when travelling on the Continent,
thought employment might be given to the women of her own country by
introducing the art into Scotland. The Duchess therefore brought over women
from France, and caused them to teach the girls in her schools how to make
"bunt lace," as it was termed.
Sir John Sinclair thus notices the fabric:--"A small manufacture of thread
lace has long been carried on here. At an early period it was the
occupation of a good many women, but, from the fluctuation of fashion, it
has fallen greatly into disuse. Fashion again revived the demand, and the
late Duchess of Hamilton, afterwards of Argyle, found still some
lace-workers remaining, to whom her own demand, and that of those who
followed her example, gave employment. To these her Grace added twelve
orphan girls, who were clothed, maintained, and taught at her expense.
Others learned the art, and while the demand lasted, the manufacture
employed a good many hands. Though the number is again diminished, there
are still above forty at the business, who {429}make handsome laces of
different patterns, besides those who work occasionally for themselves or
their friends. Perhaps, under the patronage of the present respectable
duchess, the manufacture of Hamilton lace may again become as flourishing
as ever."[1204]
"The Duchess of Hamilton," says the _Edinburgh Amusement_ of 1752, "has
ordered a home to be set up in Hamilton for the reception of twelve poor
girls and a mistress. The girls are to be taken in at the age of seven,
clothed, fed, taught to spin, make lace, etc., and dismissed at fourteen."
The work of the fair Duchess throve, for, in 1754, we read how--"The
Duchess of Hamilton has now the pleasure to see the good effects of her
charity. Her Grace's small orphan family have, by spinning, gained a sum of
money, and lately presented the Duke and Duchess with a double piece of
Holland, and some suits of exceeding fine lace ruffles, of their own
manufacture, which their Graces did them the honour to wear on the Duke's
birthday, July 14, and which vied with anything worn on the occasion,
though there was a splendid company present. The yarn of which the ruffles
were made weighed only ten drops each hank."[1205]
It was probably owing to the influence of this impulsive Irishwoman that,
in the year 1754, was founded The Select Society of Edinburgh for
encouraging the arts and manufactures of Scotland, headed by the Duke of
Hamilton. This society was contemporary with the Anti-Gallican in England
and the Dublin Society, though we believe, in this case, Dublin can claim
precedence over the capital of North Britain.
At a meeting of the society it was moved that "The annual importation of
worked ruffles and of bone lace and edging into this country is
considerable. By proper encouragement we might be supplied at home with
these ornaments. It was therefore resolved--
"That a premium be assigned to all superior merit in such work; such a one
as may be a mark of respect to women of fashion, and may also be of some
solid advantage to those whose laudable industry contributes to their own
support.
{430}"For the best imitation of Dresden work, or a pair of men's ruffles, a
prize of £5 5s.
"For the best bone lace, not under twenty yards, £5 5s. The gainers of
these two best articles may have the money or a gold medal, at their
option."
As may be supposed, the newly-founded fabric of the Duchess was not passed
over by a society of which the Duke himself was the patron. In the year
1757 we have among the prizes adjudged one of two guineas to Anne
Henderson, of Hamilton, "for the whitest and best and finest lace, commonly
called Hamilton lace, not under two yards." A prize had already been
offered in 1755,[1206] but, as stated the following year, "no lace was
given in." Prizes continued in 1758 and 1759 to be given for the produce of
Hamilton; in the last year to the value of four guineas.[1207]
The early death of the Duke of Hamilton; and the second marriage of the
Duchess, did not in any way impede the progress of Hamilton lace, for, as
late as 1778, we read in Locke's _Essays on the Scotch Commerce_--"The lace
manufactory, under the patronage of the amiable Duchess of Hamilton (now
Argyle), goes on with success and spirit."
With respect to the quality of this Hamilton lace, laudable as were the
efforts of the Duchess, she succeeded in producing but a very coarse
fabric. The specimens which have come under our notice are edgings of the
commonest description, of a coarse thread, always of the lozenge pattern
(Fig. 161); being strong and firm, it was used for nightcaps, never for
dresses, and justified the description of a lady who described it as of
little account, and spoke of it as "only Hamilton."
It appears that the Edinburgh Society died a natural death about 1764, but,
notwithstanding the untimely demise of this patriotic club, a strong
impetus had been given to the {431}lace-makers of Scotland.[1208]
Lace-making was introduced into the schools, and, what was better far, many
daughters of the smaller gentry and scions of noble Jacobite houses, ruined
by the catastrophe of 1745, either added to their incomes or supported
themselves wholly by the making of the finer points. This custom seems to
have been general, and, in alluding to it, Mrs. Calderwood speaks of the
"helplessness" of the English women in comparison to the Scotch.
In the journals of the day we have constant advertisements, informing the
public of the advantages to be gained by the useful arts imparted to their
offspring in their establishments, inserted by ladies of gentle blood--for
the Scotchwomen of the last century no more disdained to employ themselves
in the training of youth than does now a French dame de qualité to place
herself at the head of the Sacré-Coeur, or some other convent devoted to
educational purposes.[1209]
[Illustration: Fig. 161.
HAMILTON.]
The entry of all foreign laces was excluded by law. The {432}Scotch nation
of the Hanoverian persuasion were wrath at the frivolity of the Jacobite
party. "£400,000 have been sent out of the country during the last year,"
writes the _Edinburgh Advertiser_ of 1764, "to support our exiled
countrymen in France, where they learn nothing but folly and extravagance."
English laces were not included in the prohibition. In 1763, that "neat
shop near the Stinking Style, in the Lukenbooths," held by Mr. James
Baillie, advertises "Trollies, English laces, and pearl edgings." Four
years later, black silk lace and guipure are added to the stock, "mennuet,"
and very cheap bone lace.[1210]
Great efforts, and with success, were made for the improvement of the
thread manufacture, for the purchase of which article at Lille £200,000
were annually sent from Scotland to France. Badly-spun yarn was seized and
burned by the stamp master; of this we have frequent mention.[1211]
Peuchet, speaking of Scotland, says:--"Il s'est formé près d'Edinbourg une
manufacture de fil de dentelle. On prétend que le fil de cette manufacture
sert à faire des dentelles qui non-seulement égalent en beauté celles qui
sont fabriquées avec le fil de l'étranger, mais encore les surpassent en
durée. Cet avantage serait d'autant plus grand que l'importation de ce fil
de l'étranger occasionne aux habitans de ce royaume une perte annuelle de
£100,000."[1212]
Whether about the year 1775 any change had taken place in the legislation
of the customs of Scotland, and they had become regulated by English law,
we cannot say, but suddenly constant advertisements of Brussels lace and
fine point appear in the _Gazette_, and this at the very time Loch {433}was
doing his best to stir up once more Scotch patriotism with regard to
manufactures.[1213]
The Scotch Foresters set the example at their meeting in 1766, and then--we
hear nothing more on the matter.
The _Weekly Magazine_ of 1776 strongly recommends the art of lace-making as
one calculated to flourish in Scotland, young girls beginning to learn at
eight years of age, adding: "The directors of the hospital of Glasgow have
already sent twenty-three girls to be taught by Madame Puteau,[1214] a
native of Lisle, now residing at Renfrew; you will find the lace of Renfrew
cheaper, as good and as neat as those imported from Brussels, Lisle, and
Antwerp." David Loch also mentions the success of the young Glasgow
lace-makers, who made lace, he says, from 10d. to 4s. 6d. per yard. He
adds: "It is a pleasure to see them at work. I saw them ten days ago." He
recommends the managers of the Workhouse of the Canongate to adopt the same
plan: adding, they need not send to Glasgow for teachers, as there are
plenty at the Orphan Hospital at Edinburgh capable of undertaking the
office. Of the lace fabricated at Glasgow we know nothing, save from an
advertisement in the _Caledonian Mercury_ of 1778, where one William Smith,
"Lace-maker," at the Greenhead, Glasgow, informs the public he has for some
years "made and bleached candlewicks." Anderson and Loch did not agree on
the subject of lace-making, the former considering it an unstable fabric,
too easily affected by the caprices of fashion.[1215]
{434}Be that as it may, the manufacture of thread for lace alone employed
five hundred machines, each machine occupying thirty-six persons: the value
of the thread produced annually £175,000. Loch adds, that in consequence of
the cheapness of provisions, Scotland, as a country, is better adapted to
lace-making than England. In consequence of Loch's remarks, his Majesty's
Board of Trustees for the Fisheries and Manufactures, after asking a number
of questions, determined to give proper encouragement and have mistresses
for teaching the different kinds of lace made in England and France, and
oblige them to take girls of the poorer class, some from the hospitals, and
the mistress for five years to have the benefit of their work. A girl might
earn from 10d. to 1s. per day. They gave a salary to an experienced person
from Lisle for the purpose of teaching the making of thread; his wife to
instruct in lace-making. With the records of 1788 end all mention of
lace-making in Scotland.[1216]
{435}CHAPTER XXXV.
IRELAND.
"The undoubted aptitude for lace-making of the women of
Ireland."--_Juror's Report, International Exhibition._ 1862.
"It is peculiarly interesting to note the various foreign influences
which have done their part in the creation of Irish lace. Italian and
Flemish, Greek, French and English, all have lent their aid."--A. Loyd.
_The Queen_, Feb. 6th, 1897.
Little is known of the early state of manufactures in Ireland, save that
the art of needlework was held in high estimation.
By the sumptuary laws of King Mogha Nuadhad, killed at the Battle of
Maylean, A.D. 192, we learn that the value of a queen's raiment, should she
bring a suitable dowry, ought to amount to the cost of six cows; but of
what the said raiment consisted history is dark.
The same record, however, informs us that the price of a mantle, wrought
with the needle, should be "a young bullock or steer."[1217] This hooded
mantle is described by Giraldus Cambrensis as composed of various pieces of
cloth, striped, and worked in squares by the needle; maybe a species of
cut-work.
Morgan, who wrote in 1588, declares the saffron-tinted shirts of the Irish
to contain from twenty to thirty ells of linen. No wonder they are
described--
"With pleates on pleates they pleated are,
As thick as pleates may lie."[1218]
It was in such guise the Irish appeared at court before Queen
Elizabeth,[1219] and from them the yellow starch of Mrs. Turner may have
derived its origin. The Irish, however, {436}produced the dye not from
saffron, but from a lichen gathered on the rocks. Be that as it may, the
Government prohibited its use, and the shirts were reduced in quantity to
six ells,[1220] for the making of which "new-fangled pair of Gally-cushes,"
_i.e._, English shirts, as we find by the Corporation Book of Kilkenny
(1537), eighteenpence was charged if done with silk or cut-work. Ninepence
extra was charged for every ounce of silk worked in.
An Irish smock wrought with silk and gold was considered an object worthy
of a king's wardrobe, as the inventory of King Edward IV.[1221]
attests:--"Item, one Irishe smocke wrought with gold and silke."
The Rebellion at an end, a friendly intercourse, as regards fashion, was
kept up between the English and the Irish. The ruff of geometric design,
falling band, and cravat of Flanders lace, all appeared in due succession.
The Irish, always lovers of pomp and show, early used lace at the
interments of the great, as appears from an anecdote related in a letter of
Mr. O'Halloran:--"The late Lord Glandore told me," he writes, "that when a
boy, under a spacious tomb in the ruined monastery at his seat, Ardfert
Abbey (Co. Kerry), he perceived something white. He drew it forth, and it
proved to be a shroud of Flanders lace, the covering of some person long
deceased."
In the beginning of the eighteenth century a patriotic feeling arose among
the Irish, who joined hand in hand to encourage the productions of their
own country. Swift was among the first to support the movement, and in a
prologue he composed, in 1721, to a play acted for the benefit of the Irish
weavers, he says:--
"Since waiting-women, like exacting jades,
Hold up the prices of their old brocades,
We'll dress in manufactures made at home."
PLATE XC.
[Illustration: IRISH, YOUGHAL.--Needle-point fan mount, made at the
Presentation Convent, Youghal, for H.R.H. Princess Maud of Wales on her
marriage, 1896. Width in centre 8½ in.
Photo in Victoria and Albert Museum.]
_To face page 436._
{437}Shortly afterwards, at a meeting, he proposed the following
resolution:--
"That the ladies wear Irish manufactures. There is brought annually into
this kingdom near £90,000 worth of silk, whereof the greater part is
manufactured; £30,000 more is expended in muslin, holland, cambric, and
calico. What the price of lace amounts to is not easy to be collected from
the Custom-house book, being a kind of goods that, taking up little room,
is easily run; but, considering the prodigious price of a woman's
head-dress at ten, twelve, twenty pounds a yard, it must be very great."
Though a club of patriots had been formed in Ireland since the beginning of
the eighteenth century, called the Dublin Society, they were not
incorporated by charter until the year 1749; hence many of their records
are lost, and we are unable to ascertain the precise period at which they
took upon themselves the encouragement of the bone lace trade in Ireland.
From their _Transactions_ we learn that, so early as the year 1743, the
annual value of the bone lace manufactured by the children of the
workhouses of the city of Dublin amounted to £164 14s. 10½d.[1222] In
consequence of this success, the society ordain that £34 2s. 6d. be given
to the Lady Arabella Denny to distribute among the children, for their
encouragement in making bone lace. Indeed, to such a pitch were the
productions of the needle already brought in Ireland, that in the same
year, 1743, the Dublin Society gave Robert Baker, of Rollin Street, Dublin,
a prize of £10 for his imitation of Brussels lace ruffles, which are
described as being most exquisite both in design and workmanship. This
Brussels lace of Irish growth was much prized by the patriots.[1223] From
this time the Dublin Society acted under their good genius, the Lady
Arabella Denny. The prizes they awarded were liberal, and success attended
their efforts.
In 1755 we find a prize of £2 15s. 6d. awarded to {438}Susanna Hunt, of
Fishamble Street, aged eleven, for a piece of lace most extraordinarily
well wrought. Miss Elinor Brereton, of Raheenduff, Queen's County, for the
best imitation of Brussels lace with the needle, £7. On the same occasion
Miss Martha M'Cullow, of Cork Bridge, gains the prize of £5 for "Dresden
point." Miss Mary Gibson has £2 for "Cheyne Lace,"[1224] of which we have
scarcely heard mention since the days of Queen Elizabeth.
Bone lace had never in any quantity been imported from England. In 1703 but
2,333 yards, valuing only £116 13s., or 1s. per yard, passed through the
Irish Custom House. Ireland, like the rest of the United Kingdom, received
her points either from France or Flanders.
The thread used in the Irish fabric was derived from Hamburg, of which, in
1765, 2,573 lbs. were imported.
It was in this same year the Irish club of young gentlemen refused, by
unanimous consent, to toast or consider beautiful any lady who should wear
French lace or indulge in foreign fopperies.
During the two succeeding years the lace of various kinds exhibited by the
workhouse children was greatly approved of, and the thanks of the Society
offered to the Lady Arabella Denny.[1225]
Prizes given to the children, to the amount of £34 2s. 6d.; the same for
bone lace made by other manufacturers; and one half the sum is also to be
applied to "thread lace made with knitting needles."
A certain Mrs. Rachel Armstrong, of Inistioge (Co. Kilkenny), is also
awarded a prize of £11 7s. 6d. "for having caused a considerable quantity
of bone lace to be made by girls whom she has instructed and employed in
the work." Among the premiums granted to "poor gentlewomen" we find: To
Miss Jane Knox, for an apron of elegant pattern and curiously wrought, £6
16s. 6d., and silver medals to two ladies who, we suppose, are above
{439}receiving money as a reward. The Society recommend that the bone lace
made be exposed for sale in the warehouses of the Irish Silk Company. In
consequence of the emulation excited among all classes, advertisements
appear in the _Dublin News_ of ladies "very capable of instructing young
misses in fine lace-making, needlework point, broderie en tambour, all in
the genteelest taste."
Lady Arabella stood not alone as a patroness of the art. In 1770 we read
how "a considerable quantity of bone lace of extraordinary fineness and
elegance of pattern, made at Castlebar in the Co. of Mayo, being produced
to the Society, and it appearing that the manufacture of bone lace was
founded, and is at present supported there by Lady Bingham, it was ordered
that the sum of £25 be paid into the hands of her ladyship, to be disposed
of in such encouragements as she shall judge will most effectually conduce
to the carrying on and improvement of the said manufacture at Castlebar."
The thanks of the Society are at the same time voted to her ladyship. In
consequence of the large quantity fabricated, after the lapse of a few
years the Society, in 1773, found themselves compelled to put some bounds
to their liberality. No prizes are given for any lace exhibited at less
than 11s. 4½d. the yard, and that only to those not resident in the city of
Dublin or within five miles of it. Twenty per cent. will be given on the
value of the lace, provided it shall not exceed £500 in value. The Society
do not, however, withdraw the annual premium of £30 for the products of the
"famishing children" of the city of Dublin workhouse,[1226] always directed
by the indefatigable Lady Arabella Denny.[1227] From that period we hear no
more of the Dublin Society and its prizes awarded for point, Dresden,
Brussels, or bone lace.
The manufacture of gold and silver lace having met with considerable
success, the Irish Parliament, in 1778, gave it their protection by passing
an Act prohibiting the entry of all such commodities either from England or
foreign parts.
{440}And now for forty years and more history is silent on the subject of
lace-making by the "famishing children" of the Emerald Isle.[1228]
No existing Irish lace industry is as old as the appliqué lace which has
been made in the neighbourhood of Carrickmacross since the year 1820. The
process of its manufacture is simple enough, for the pattern is cut from
cambric and applied to net with point stitches. Many accounts have been
given of its origin. Some assign its genesis to India or to Persia, while
the Florentine historian, Vasari, claims the artist Botticelli as its
inventor. In any case, there can be no doubt that vast quantities were
produced in Italy from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries. Such a
specimen it was that Mrs. Grey Porter, wife of the then rector of
Dunnamoyne, taught her servant, Anne Steadman, to copy, and also spread the
art amongst the peasant women in the neighbourhood with such success that
Miss Reid, of Rahans, gathered together the young women round Culloville
and taught them to make lace on the same model. The girls flocked in from
the surrounding districts to learn the work. It was, however, only
dependent on private orders, and gradually suffered from over-production,
and threatened to die out, until it was revived after the great famine of
1846. By Mr. Tristram Kennedy, the manager of the Bath estate, and Captain
Morant, the agent of the Shirley estate, a vacant house was turned into a
school, and this gave rise to the Bath and Shirley School, which has done
so much to hand down this industry to the present day. Some samples of
Brussels and guipure lace were brought to the school, where the teacher had
them remodelled and placed in the hands of the best workers: and
Carrickmacross became identified with some of the finest "guipure" that
Ireland has produced.[1229]
In the year 1829 the manufacture of Limerick tambour lace was first
established in Ireland. Tambour work is of Eastern origin, and was known in
China, Persia, India and {441}Turkey long before it spread to the United
Kingdom. This work is still extensively carried on in the East, where it is
much appreciated for its varied colours, as well as the labour expended
upon it. Until the middle of the last century, tambour lace was unknown in
Europe, with the exception of Turkey. It was about that time it was
introduced into Saxony and Switzerland, but the knowledge of the art of
making the lace did not reach England until 1820. Lace, in the strictest
sense of the word, it cannot be termed. It is called tambour from the fact
that the frame on which it is worked bears some resemblance to a drum-head
or tambourine. On this is stretched a piece of Brussels or Nottingham net.
A floss thread or cotton is then drawn by a hooked or tambour needle
through the meshes of the net, and the design formed from a paper drawing
which is placed before the worker. _Run_ lace is of a finer and lighter
character. The pattern is formed on the net with finer thread, which is not
drawn in with the tambour, but run in with the point needle. (This
description of lace was made in Nottinghamshire during the eighteenth
century, and appears to have been copied from foreign designs, chiefly from
those of Lille.) It came into fashion after Nottingham machine net had made
the work possible, and is still called by old people Nottingham lace. This
fabric was first introduced into Ireland by one Charles Walker,[1230] a
native of Oxfordshire, who brought over twenty-four girls as teachers, and
commenced manufacturing at a place in Limerick called Mount Kennet. His
goods were made entirely for one house in St. Paul's Churchyard, until that
house became bankrupt in 1834, after which a traveller was sent through
England, Scotland and Ireland to take orders. Her Excellency Lady Normanby,
wife of the Lord Lieutenant, gave great encouragement to the fabric,
causing dresses to be made, not only for herself, but also for Her Majesty
the Queen of the {442}Belgians, and the Grand Duchess of Baden. The
subsequent history of Limerick laces bears a close resemblance to that of
the other Irish lace industries. Mr. Charles Walker died in 1842. Many of
his workers returned to England;[1231] the stimulus of constant supervision
was gone; old designs deteriorated from inferior copying, and new designs
were not forthcoming. It was mainly due to the Convent of the Good Shepherd
that this lace industry was saved from absolute extinction. Mrs. R. V.
O'Brien has, however, done valuable service in its revival by her energy in
establishing and maintaining the Limerick lace training school, which may
be said to owe its origin to a lecture delivered by Mr. Alan S. Cole at the
Limerick Chamber of Commerce in September, 1888, where photographs of
ancient and modern lace and a loan collection of Limerick lace was shown.
In this collection the work of the early days of Limerick, when the design
was of the highest order, was contrasted with the more modern
specimens.[1232]
The first attempt to adapt the point de Venise to the necessities of the
Irish people was made at Tynan, in Co. Armagh, on the borders of Tyrone.
Mrs. Maclean, the wife of the Rev. William Maclean, then rector of the
parish, was the owner of some old point de Venise, and she resolved to turn
her collection to some practical use. The lace was examined and
re-examined, until the secret workings underlying every stitch, every
picot, every filling, and every relief, had been grasped and understood.
Steps were taken in 1849 to teach the people this industry, and by 1851 a
handsome flounce was ready, which was purchased by Lord John George
Beresford, then Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland. It was
exhibited at the great exhibition of that year in London, and attracted a
large amount of attention, and brought many orders in its train. The
business was thus considerably extended and enlarged, and the Primate and
his nieces, Mrs. Eden and Mrs. Dunbar, did all they could to promote the
sale of the work. The good fortune and prosperity of Tynan was, however,
but of a temporary character. The Rev. William Maclean died in 1865, and,
with his death, the local industry died out from want of supervision and
organisation.
PLATE XCI.
[Illustration: IRISH, CARRICKMACROSS. INSERTION AND BORDER OF APPLIQUÉ
LACE, made at the Bath and Shirley Schools. End of nineteenth century.
Width of insertion, 6 in.; border, 9¼ in.
Victoria and Albert Museum.]
PLATE XCII.
[Illustration: IRISH. LIMERICK LACE. TAMBOUR EMBROIDERY ON NET, made at
Kinsale. End of nineteenth century. Width, 17 in.
Victoria and Albert Museum.]
_To face page 442._
{443}Irish point[1233] also owes its genesis to the failure of the potato
crop in 1846, and its original inspiration was given by a piece of point de
Milan which fell into the hands of Mother Mary Ann Smith, of the
Presentation Convent at Youghal, Co. Cork. She there conceived the idea of
setting up an industry for the children attending the convent school. She
studied the lace which had come into her possession, examined the process
by which it had been made, unravelled the threads one by one, and at last
succeeded in mastering its many details. She then selected some of the
convent children who had shown a taste for fine needlework, and taught them
separately what she herself learned. The convent school was opened in 1852.
The main characteristic of this lace is that it is worked entirely with the
needle.
Though Irish point lace owes its origin to Youghal Convent, its workers
have done much to spread their art in other parts of Ireland, and in few
districts more effectually than in the neighbourhood of Kenmare, Co. Kerry,
where the late Mother Abbess O'Hagan introduced the industry into the
Convent of the Poor Clares in 1861. The work is {444}based upon the same
lines, though the Kenmare work claims as its speciality that it is entirely
worked in linen thread, while at Youghal cotton is occasionally used. The
Convent of the Poor Clares devote themselves chiefly to the production of
flat point, appliqué, and guipure laces. Many other convents and lace
centres in Ireland have had their teachers from Youghal and Kenmare. Flat
point has been made for fifty years under the supervision of the Carmelite
convent at New Ross, Co. Wexford, though the workers are now better known
for their adaptation of Venetian rose point and the perfection to which
they have brought their crochet than for their plain Irish point. For the
first ten years the Carmelite nuns confined their attention to cut-work,
flat point, and net lace. As the workers grew more expert, a heavy rose
point was introduced. This style proved too heavy for the fashion; hence it
was that, in 1865, the nuns turned their attention to finer work.
It was about that time that a travelling Jewish pedlar called at the
convent with a miscellaneous assortment of antique vestments, old books,
and other curiosities, among which were some broken pieces of old rose
point lace. The then Prioress, the late Mother Augustine Dalton, purchased
the specimens from the Jew, as she realised that they would give her the
opportunity she wanted of varying the quality of the lace, and making the
design finer and lighter in the future than it had been in the past. For
weeks and for months she devoted herself to the task of ripping up
portions, stitch by stitch, until she had mastered every detail. From this
time dates the production of that fine rose point for which the convent at
New Ross has deservedly earned so high a reputation. This rose point has
gone on increasing in fineness of quality and in beauty of design. The
defects in the earlier specimens were mainly due to the want of artistic
culture in the girls, who could neither appreciate nor render the graceful
sweeps and curves, nor the branching stems.
Irish crochet is another widespread national industry. Its main centres
have been Cork in the South and Monaghan in the North of Ireland. The
industry can be traced as far back as 1845, when the sisters of the
Ursuline convent at Blackrock, Co. Cork, received £90 for the work done by
the poor children in their schools. It may indeed be said that {445}the
growth of this great industry spread from this centre; so much so, that
within the space of a few years it formed part of the educational system of
almost every convent in the land, and spread from the southern shores of
Co. Cork to Wexford, to Monaghan and to Sligo.
Cork City was itself the natural centre of the industry, which extended so
far and wide through the country that some thirty years ago there were no
less than 12,000 women in the neighbourhood of Cork engaged in making
crochet, lace collars, and edgings after Spanish and Venetian patterns. On
the outbreak of the Franco-German war a further impetus was given to the
industry, when the supply of Continental laces was cut off. Several years
of unique prosperity followed, until the competition of the machine-made
work of Nottingham and Switzerland ousted the Irish crochet from the
market. At the present there has been a reaction against the usurpation by
machinery of the place that art ought to occupy, and the Cork work is now
once more coming to the fore.
As Cork has been the centre on the South, so is Clones in the North, and
yet the industry which has for so many years done so much for the people of
Monaghan owes its origin to the philanthropic efforts of Mrs. W. C.
Roberts, of Thornton, Co. Kildare, who helped the poor to ward off the
worst attacks of the famine of 1847 by the production of guipure and point
de Venise crochet. After a few years of prosperity, the industry languished
and disappeared from the neighbourhood, but twenty-four of the best-trained
and most efficient of Mrs. Roberts's workers were sent out to other
centres. One of these came to Mrs. Hand, the wife of the then Rector of
Clones. This parish is the biggest in the county, and the poor from the
surrounding mountains flocked down to learn the crochet; and knotted and
lifted as well as ordinary guipure, Greek and Spanish, and also Jesuit
lace[1234] has been produced with the crochet-needle in Clones, which still
continues to be the most important centre of the industry.
At the Killarney Presentation Convent at Newton Barry,[1235] and Cappoquin,
drawn linen work in the style of {446}the Italian reticella, and at
Parsonstown pillow laces of the same character as Honiton are made. In
Ardee, a novel lace is made with braid and cord.[1236]
The rose point lace is often called "Innishmacsaint" from the village in
the county of Fermanagh where the industry was transplanted on the death of
the Rev. W. Maclean, of Tynan, by his daughter, who went to live with her
sister, Mrs. George Tottenham, the wife of the rector. What was Tynan's
misfortune proved a boon to Innishmacsaint, and it became the chief centre
of the Irish rose point industry. Both the heavier and finer kinds are made
there. As at Tynan, the art of making the lace has been learnt by the
unravelling and close examination of Venetian point.
As in English work, some of the Irish is spoilt by the woolly cotton
thread. Foreign lace likewise in these days suffers from the same fault.
The workmanship at the present time can be so good that every effort ought
to be made to use only fine silky linen thread. In Ireland, where flax can
be grown, there should be no excuse for employing any other.
PLATE XCIII.
[Illustration: IRISH. CROCHET LACE.--End of nineteenth century. Width of
cuff, 5 in.; length of plastron, 12 in. Victoria and Albert Museum.]
_To face page 446._
{447}CHAPTER XXXVI.
BOBBIN NET AND MACHINE-MADE LACE.
[Illustration: Fig. 162.
ARMS OF THE FRAME-WORK KNITTERS' COMPANY.]
BOBBIN NET.
A sketch of the history of lace would be incomplete without a few words on
bobbin net and machine lace, manufactures which have risen to so much
importance both in England and France, and have placed lace within the
reach of all classes of society. The subject has been so ably treated by
Mr. Felkin that we refer our readers to his excellent work for its full
history.[1237]
This manufacture has its epochs:--
1768. Net first made by machinery.
1809. Invention of bobbin net.
1837. The Jacquard system applied to the bobbin net machine.
It has been already told how Barbara Uttmann made a plain thread net in
Germany three centuries before any attempt was made to produce it by
machinery.[1238]
This invention is usually assigned to Hammond, a stocking framework knitter
of Nottingham, who, examining one day the broad lace on his wife's cap,
thought he could {448}apply his machine to the production of a similar
article.[1239] His attempt so far succeeded that, by means of the
stocking-frame invented the previous century,[1240] he produced, 1768, not
lace, but a kind of knitting, of running loops or stitches, like that
afterwards known as "Brussels ground." In 1777, Else and Harvey introduced
at Nottingham the "pin" or point net machine, so named because made on
sharp pins or points. "Point net" was afterwards improved, and the
"barleycorn" introduced: "square" and "spider net" appear in succession.
But with all these improvements machinery had not yet arrived at producing
a solid net, it was still only knitting, a single thread passing from one
end of the frame to the other; and if a thread broke the work was
unravelled; the threads, therefore, required to be gummed together, to give
stiffness and solidity to the net. To remedy this evil, the warp or chain
machine was invented, uniting the knitter's and the weaver's mechanism.
Vandyke,[1241] a Flemish workman, and three Englishmen dispute the
invention. This new machine was again improved and made "Mechlin net," from
which the machine took its name.
For forty years from Hammond's first attempt on the stocking-frame, endless
efforts were made to arrive at imitating the ground of pillow lace, and
there are few manufactures in which so much capital has been expended, and
so much invention called forth. Each projector fancied {449}he had
discovered the true stitch, and patents after patents were taken out,
resulting mostly in disappointment.
The machine for making "bobbin" net was invented by John Heathcoat, son of
a farmer at Longwhatton (Leicestershire). After serving his apprenticeship
he settled at Nottingham, and while occupied in putting together stocking
and net machines, gave his attention to improving the Mechlin net
frame.[1242] In 1809, in conjunction with Mr. Lacy, he took out a patent
for fourteen years for his new and highly ingenious bobbin net machine,
which he called Old Loughborough, after the town to which he then removed.
"Bobbin net" was so named because the threads are wound upon bobbins.[1243]
It was "twisted" instead of "looped" net. Heathcoat began by making net
little more than an inch in width,[1244] and afterwards succeeded in
producing it a yard wide. There are now machines which make it three yards
and a half in width.[1245]
In 1811 that vandal association called the Luddites[1246] entered his
manufactory and destroyed twenty-seven of his machines, of the value of
£8,000. Indignant at their conduct he removed to Tiverton,[1247] in
Devonshire.
{450}In 1818 the first power machines were put to work, and the year 1823
is memorable for the "bobbin net fever." Mr. Heathcoat's patent having
expired, all Nottingham went mad. Everyone wished to make bobbin net.
Numerous individuals, clergymen, lawyers, doctors, and others, readily
embarked capital in so tempting a speculation. Prices fell in proportion as
production increased; but the demand was immense, and the Nottingham lace
frame became the organ of general supply, rivalling and supplanting in
plain nets the most finished productions of France and the
Netherlands.[1248] Dr. Ure says: "It was no uncommon thing for an artisan
to leave his usual calling and betake himself to a lace frame, of which he
was part proprietor, and realize, by working upon it, twenty, thirty, nay,
even forty shillings a day. In consequence of such wonderful gains,
Nottingham, with Loughborough and the adjoining villages, became the scene
of an epidemic mania. Many, though nearly void of mechanical genius or the
constructive talent, tormented themselves night and day with projects of
bobbins, pushers, lockers, point-bars, and needles of every various form,
till their minds got permanently bewildered. Several lost their senses
altogether, and some, after cherishing visions of wealth as in the olden
time of alchemy, finding their schemes abortive, sank into despair and
committed suicide." Such is the history of the bobbin net[1249] invention
in England.[1250]
{451}We now pass on to
FRANCE.
"To the great trading nation, to the great manufacturing nation, no
progress which any portion of the human race can make in knowledge, in
taste for the conveniences of life, or in the wealth by which these
conveniences are produced, can be matter of indifference."--Macaulay.
Since the failure[1251] of Lee, in 1610, to introduce the stocking-frame
into France, that country remained ignorant of a manufacture which was
daily progressing in England, on whom she was dependent for stockings and
for net.
In 1778 Caillen attempted a kind of net "tricot dentelle," for which he
obtained a gratuity from the Academy of £40, but his method did not
succeed; it was, like the first efforts of our countrymen, only knitting.
In 1784 Louis XVI. sent the Duke de Liancourt to England to study the
improvements in the stocking and net machinery, and to bring back a frame.
He was accompanied by Rhumbolt, who worked in a manufactory at Nottingham,
and having acquired the art, returned to France. Monarchy had fallen, but
the French Republic, 1793-4, granted Rhumbolt the sum of 110,000 francs
(£4,400). The machine he brought with him was the point net.[1252]
The cessation of all commercial intercourse prevented France from keeping
pace with the improvements making in England; yet, singularly enough, at
the beginning of the nineteenth century more net was manufactured in France
than in England. At the time of the Peace of Amiens (1802) there were 2,000
frames in Lyons and Nîmes, while there were scarcely 1,200 in England; but
the superiority of the English net was incontestable, so, to protect the
national manufacture, Napoleon prohibited the importation. This of course
increased its demand; the net was in request in proportion as it was
prohibited. The best mart for Nottingham was the French market, so the
Nottingham net trade took every means to pass their produce into France.
{452}Hayne, one of the proprietors of the "barley-corn" net, had gone to
Paris to make arrangements for smuggling it over, when the war broke out,
and he was detained. Napoleon proposed that he should set up a machine in
France; but he preferred continuing his illicit trade, which he carried on
with great success until 1809, when his own agent informed against him, his
goods were seized and burned, and having in one seizure lost £60,000
(1,500,000 fr.), he was completely ruined, and fled to England.[1253]
The French manufacturers took out various patents for the improvement of
their "Mechlin" machines, and one was taken, in 1809, for making a crossed
net called "fond de glace"; but the same year Heathcoat producing the
bobbin net machine, the inventors could not sustain the competition.
Every attempt was made to get over bobbin net machines; but the export of
English machinery was punished by transportation, and the Nottingham
manufacturers established at their own expense a line of surveillance to
prevent the bobbin net machines from going out. In spite of all these
precautions, Cutts, an old workman of Heathcoat's, contrived to elude their
vigilance, and, in 1815, to import a machine to Valenciennes, whence he
removed it to Douai, where he entered into partnership with M. Thomassin.
In 1816 they produced the first bobbin net dress made in France. It was
embroidered by hand by a workwoman of Douai, and presented by the makers to
the Duchesse d'Angoulême. About the end of the year 1816 James Clark
introduced a machine into Calais, which he passed in pieces by means of
some French sailors. These two were the first bobbin net machines set up in
France.
It is not within our limits to follow the Calais lace manufacturers through
their progress; suffice it to say that it was in 1817 that the first bobbin
net machine worked, concealed from all eyes, at Saint-Pierre-lez-Calais,
now, if not the rival of Nottingham, at least the great {453}centre of the
bobbin net and machinery lace manufactures in France.[1254]
St. Quentin, Douai, Cambrai, Rouen, Caen, have all in turn been the seats
of the tulle manufacture. Some of these fabrics are extinct; the others
have a very limited trade compared with Saint-Pierre and Lyons.
At Lyons silk net is mostly made.[1255] Dating from 1791, various patents
have been taken out for its manufacture. These silk nets were embroidered
at Condrieu (Rhône), and were (the black especially for veils and mantles)
much esteemed, particularly in Spain.
In 1825 the "tulle bobine grenadine," black and white, was brought out by
M. Doguin, who afterwards used the fine silks, and invented that popular
material first called "zephyr," since "illusion." His son, in 1838, brought
out the "tulle Bruxelles."
BELGIUM.
In 1834[1256] eight bobbin net machines were set up in Brussels by Mr.
Washer, for the purpose of making the double and triple twisted net, upon
which the pillow flowers are sewn to produce the Brussels application lace.
Mr. Washer devoted himself exclusively to the making of the extra fine
mesh, training up workmen specially to this minute work. In a few years he
succeeded in excelling the English manufacture; and this net, universally
known as "Brussels net," has nearly superseded the expensive pillow ground,
and has thereby materially decreased the price of Brussels lace. It is made
of English cotton, stated, in the specimens exhibited in 1867, as costing
£44 per pound.
{454}MACHINERY LACE.
"Qui sait si le métier à tulle ne sera pas un jour, en quelque sorte, un
vrai coussin de dentellière, et les bobines de véritables fuseaux
manoeuvrés par des mains mécaniques."--Aubry, in 1851.
If England boasts the invention of bobbin net, to France must be assigned
the application of the Jacquard system to the net-frame, and consequently
the invention of machinery lace. Shawls and large pieces in "run lace," as
it is termed, had previously been made after this manner at Nottingham and
Derby. The pattern proposed to be "run in" is printed by means of engraved
wood blocks on the ground, which, if white, is of cotton; if black, of
silk. The ground is stretched on a frame; the "lace-runner" places her left
hand under the net, and with the right works the pattern. The filling up of
the interior is termed either "fining" or "open-working," as the original
meshes of the net are brought to a smaller or larger size by the
needle.[1257]
In 1820 Symes, of Nottingham, invented a pattern which he called "Grecian"
net. This was followed by the "spot," or "point d'esprit," and various
other fancy nets--bullet-hole, tattings, and others.
The Jacquard system had been used at Lyons with the Mechlin frame in 1823-4
for making patterned net and embroidered blondes. This suggested the
possibility of applying the Jacquard cards to making lace, and in 1836 to
1838 Mr. Ferguson,[1258] by applying it to the circular bobbin net frame,
brought out the black silk net called "dentelle de Cambrai," an imitation
of Chantilly. The pattern was woven by the machine, the brodé or relief
"run in."
Various patents[1259] were immediately taken out in England and France.
Nottingham and Saint-Pierre-lez-Calais rival {455}each other in the variety
of their productions. At the International Exhibition of 1867 Nottingham
exhibited Spanish laces, most faithful copies of the costly pillow-made
Barcelona; imitations of Mechlin, the brodé and picot executed by hand;
Brussels needle-point; Caen blondes, and Valenciennes rivalling those of
Calais; also Cluny and the black laces of Chantilly and Mirecourt.
The French, by adopting what is technically termed eight "motives," produce
their lace of a finer make and more complex pattern. The Calais lace is an
admirable copy of the square-grounded Valenciennes, and is the staple trade
of the manufacture. Calais also produces blondes, black and white, silver
and gold, the white nearly approaching in brilliancy and whiteness the
famed productions of Caen, which, by their cheapness, they have expelled
from competition. She also imitates the woollen laces of Le Puy, together
with black and white laces innumerable.
"Broadly speaking, lace-making by machinery is more nearly like the pillow
lace-making process than that of needle-point. The machine continues to
twist any desired threads around one another. In pillow lace-making,
besides twisting, we have plaiting, and this plaiting has not been
reproduced by the majority of lace machines. Quite recently, however, a
French machine, called the 'Dentellière,' has been invented to do the
plaiting. A description of this machine has been published in _La Nature_
(March 3rd, 1881).
"Whilst the ordinary lace-making machine belongs to the family of weaving
machines, the Dentellière more nearly resembles the pillow of a lace-worker
with the threads arranged over the pillow. In general appearance it looks
something like a large semicircular frame-work of iron--with thousands of
threads from the outer semicircle converging to the centre, representing
the table or pillow. Over this central table is the apparatus which holds
the end threads side by side, and which regulates the plaiting of them. The
cost of producing lace in this manner is said to be greater at present than
by hand."[1260]
{456}Almost every description of lace is now fabricated by machinery;[1261]
and it is often no easy task, even for a practised eye, to detect the
difference. Still, we must ever be of opinion that the most finished
productions of the frame never possess the touch, the finish, or the beauty
of the laces made by hand. The invention of machine-made lace has this
peculiarity--it has not diminished the demand for the finer fabrics of the
pillow and the needle. On the contrary, the rich have sought more eagerly
than ever the exquisite works of Brussels and Alençon, since machinery has
brought the wearing of lace within the reach of all classes of society.
[Illustration: Fig. 163.
THE LAGETTA, OR LACE-BARK TREE.]
The inner bark of the Lagetta, or Lace-bark tree[1262] of Jamaica, may be
separated into thin layers, and then into distinct meshes, bearing some
resemblance to lace (Fig. 163). Of this material a cravat and ruffles were
presented to King Charles II. by the Governor of Jamaica; and at the
Exhibition of 1851 a dress of the same fibre was presented to Queen
Victoria, which her Majesty was graciously pleased to accept.
{457}Caterpillars have been made to spin lace veils by the ingenious
contrivance of a gentleman of Munich.[1263] These veils are not strong, but
surprisingly light--one, a yard square, would scarcely weigh five grains,
whilst a patent net veil of the same size weighs 262.
Asbestos has also been woven into lace: and a specimen of this mineral lace
is, we have been told, in the Cabinet of Natural History at the Garden of
Plants, Paris.
{459}APPENDIX.
_The Notes marked with an * show that the works referred to have been
examined by the Author._[1264]
1.
[Sidenote: 1527. _Cologne. P. Quentell._]
Eyn new kunstlich boich, dair yn. C. vnd. xxxviij. figuren, monster ad'
stalen befonden, wie man na der rechter art, Lauffer werck, Spansche
stich, mit der nälen, vort vp der Ramen, vnd vp der laden, borden
wirckenn sall, wilche stalen all etzo samen verbessert synt, vnd vyl
kunstlicher gemacht, d[=a] dye eirsten, &c. Sere nutzlich allen wapen
sticker, frauwen, ionfferen, vnd met ger, dair uns solch kunst lichtlich
tzu leren.
D Gedruckt tzu Collen vp dem Doemhoff dwrch Peter Quentell.
Anno. M. D. XXXVJJ.[1265]
Small 8vo, 22 ff., 42 plates.
Title in Gothic letters; beneath, woodcuts representing women at work.
On the back of the leaf, a large escutcheon, the three crowns of
Cologne in chief; supporters, a lion and a griffin. Below, "O Foelix
Colonia. 1527."
The patterns consist of mediæval and arabesque borders, alphabets,
etc., some on white, others on black grounds. Some with counted
stitches.
Quentell refers to a previous edition. Brunet and the Marquis d'Adda
mention a copy, 1529, with the portrait of Charles V., and a second
edition 1532.
2.
[Sidenote: 1527. _Cologne. P. Quinty._]
Liure noveau et subtil touchant lart et sci[=e]ce tant de brouderie
fronssures, tapisseries c[=o]me aultres mestiers qu[=o] fait alesguille,
soit au petit mestier, aultelisse ou sur toille clere, tresvtile et
necessaire a toutes, gens usans des mestiers et ars {460}dessuld, ou
semblables, ou il y ha C. et. xxxviij patrons de diuers ouvraiges faich
per art et proportion.
En primere a culoge (Cologne) par matrepiere quinty demor[=a]t denpre
leglie de iii roies.[1266]
The same cut as the preceding, with the arms of Cologne, which seems to
have been engraved for a great Bible printed by Quentell, in 1527, and
is no guide for the date. Figs. 164, 165.
[Illustration: Fig. 164.
METRE P. QUINTY.--Cologne, 1527.]
[Illustration: Fig. 165.
METRE P. QUINTY.--Cologne, 1527.]
3.
[Sidenote: 1530. _Venice. A. Taglienti_]
Opera nuova che insegna a le D[=o]ne a cuscire: a racc[=a]mare: e a
disegnar a ciascuno: Et la ditta opera sara di grande utilita ad ogni
artista: per esser il disegno ad ogniuno necessario: la qual e ititolata
esempio di rac[=a]mi.[1267]
4to, 23 ff., 36 plates.
Title in red Gothic letters; beneath four woodcuts representing women
at work. Two pages of dedication to the ladies, by Giovanni Antonio
Taglienti, in which he says his book is for the instruction of each
"valorosa donna & tutte altre donzelle, con gli huomini insieme &
fanciulli, liquali si dilettarano de imparar a disegnar, cuscir, &
raccammar."
{461}Then follows a most miscellaneous collection of what he terms, in
his dedication, "fregi, frisi, tondi maravigliosi, groppi moreschi et
arabeschi, ucelli volanti, fiori, lettere antique, maiuscoli, & le
francesche," etc., three pages very much like the pictures in a child's
spelling book, rounds (tondi) for cushions, and two pages representing
hearts and scrolls; hearts transfixed, one with an arrow, another with
a sword, a third torn open by two hands, motto on the scroll:--
"La virtù, al huomo sempre li resta
Nè morte nol pò privar di questa."
On the other page hearts transfixed by two arrows, with two eyes above:
"Occhi piangete accompagnete il core. Inclita virtus." Then follow six
pages of instructions, from which we learn the various stitches in
which these wonderful patterns may be executed, "damaschino, rilevato,
a filo, sopra punto, ingaseato, Ciprioto, croceato, pugliese, scritto,
incroceato, in aere, fatto su la rate, a magliata, desfilato, & di
racammo," to be sewn in various coloured silks, gold and silver thread,
or black silk, for "collari di huomo & di donna, camisciole con
pettorali, frisi di contorni di letti, entemelle di cuscini, frisi di
alcun boccassino, & scufie," etc. On the last page, "Stampa in Vineggia
per Giovan Antonio Tagliente & i Fratelli de Sabbio. 1530." Brunet
gives an edition dated 1528.
4.
[Sidenote: 1530. _Paris F. Pelegrin._]
La fleur de la science de pourtraicture et patrons de broderie. Facon
arabicque, et ytalique. Cum priviligio regis.
Frontispiece. Title in Gothic letters. A large figure of Sol (?), with
a yoke, his feet chained, a ball, maybe the Earth, at the end of the
chain. In one hand he holds a scroll with the legend, "Exitus acta
probat." Privilege of "Francoys par la grace de Dieu roy de France," to
"Francisque pelegrin de Florence," to publish "ung livre de fueillages,
entrelatz et ouvraiges moresques, et Damasquins," for six years.
"D[=o]ne a bordeaulx le xvii. jour de Juing. L'an de grace mil cinq
cens tr[=e]te Et de nostre regne le seiziesme."
Ce present livre a este imprime a paris par jaques nyverd. Le iv. jour
daoust. Lan de grace mil cinq c[=e]s xxx. Pour noble h[=o]me messire
Francisque Pelegrin de florence.
On les vend a paris En la grant rue sainct Anthoyne devant les
tournelles. Au logis de monseigneur le comte de Carpes. Par messire
Fr[=a]cisque pelegrin de florence.[1268]
Small fol., 62 ff., 58 plates, consisting of graceful moresque
patterns, no animals or natural objects represented. At plate 33,
surrounded by arabesques, is an N, the initial of the printer.
5.
[Sidenote: 1529. _Venice. N. Zoppino._]
Esemplario di lavori: dove le tenere fanciulle & altre donne nobile
potranno facilment imparare il modo & ordine di lavorare, cusire,
racamare, & finalmente far tutte quelle gentillezze & lodevoli opere, le
quali pò fare una donna virtuosa con laco in {462}mano, con li suoi
compasse & misure. Vinezia, per Nicolo D'Aristotile detto Zoppino
MDXXIX. 8vo.[1269] 46 plates.
The Cav^{re} Merli quotes another edition, date 1530, in the possession
of the Avvocato Francesco Pianesani, and another he believes of 1529.
6.
[Sidenote: 1532. _Venice. N. Zoppino._]
Convivio delle belle Donne, dove con li. Nuovi raccami, &c. In fine:
Finisce il convivio delle, &c. Nuovamente stampato in Vinegia, per
Nicolo d'Aristotile, detto Zoppino del mese d'Agosto. MDXXXII.
In 4to, ff. 24.[1270]
7.
[Sidenote: 1537. _Venice. N. Zoppino._]
Gli universali de i belli Recami antichi, et moderni, ne i quali un
pellegrino ingegno, si di huomo come di donna potra in questa nostra eta
con l'ago vertuosamente esercitar si. Non ancora da alcuni dati altri
inluce.
Frontispiece, two ladies at work; dedication to "gli virtuosi Giovani
et gentilissime Fanciulle." At the end styles himself "Nicolo
d'Aristotile detto Zoppino." March, 1537.
In 4to, ff. 25, printed on both sides.[1271]
8.
[Sidenote: 1534. _Augsburg. Schartzemberger._]
Ain New Formbüchlin bin ich gnandt
Allen Künstlern noch unbekandt
Sih mich (lieber kauffer) recht an,
Findst drefftlich in diser kunff stan
Sch[=o]n gschnierlet, geböglet, auf gladt,
Und gold, auch sch[=o]n von premen stadt,
Es gibt dir ain prem unb ain kledyt.
Wenn mans recht aussainander schneydt,
Das kanst schneyden auss der Ellen,
Von Samat, Seyden, wie manss wolle,
Ich mag braucht wern in allem landt,
Wen man mich ers[=u]cht mit verstandt.
(At the end.)
Gedruckt in der Kaiserlichen Riechstatt, Augspurg, durch Johan
Schartzemberger. Fomschneyder. 1534.[1272]
Small obl., 20 ff., 38 plates.
Frontispiece. Title in black Gothic letters, at the foot three subjects
of women at work, printed in red.
The patterns, consisting of graceful arabesque borders, are also in red
(Figs. 166, 167, 168).
[Illustration: Fig. 166.
PATTERN BOOK.--Augsburg, 1534.]
[Illustration: Fig. 167.
PATTERN BOOK.--Augsburg, 1534.]
_To face page 462._
{463}[Illustration: Fig. 168.
AUGSBURG. 1534.]
9.
[Sidenote: _N. D. Antwerp. W. Vorsterman._]
A neawe treatys: as c[=o]cernynge the excellency of the nedle worcke
spânisshe stitche and weavynge in the frame, very necessary to al theym
wiche desyre the perfect knowledge of seamstry, quiltinge and brodry
worke, côteinynge an cxxxviij figures or tables, so playnli made & set
tout in portrature, the whiche is difficyll; and natôly for crafts m[=e]
but also for gentlewem[=e] & and iôge damosels that therein may obtayne
greater conynge delyte and pleasure.
These books be to sell at Andwarp in the golden Unycorne at Will[=m]
Vorstermans.
Gheprent tot Antwerpen in die camerstrate in den gulden eenhoren bey
Willem Vorsterman.[1273]
8vo, 24 ff., 46 plates.
Title in Gothic letters, with figures.
P. 1, dorso: Woodcut of a woman at work and a man sitting by her side.
Patterns mediæval, small black squares, arabesques, etc.
Vorsterman worked from 1514 to 1542.[1274]
10.
[Sidenote: 1542. _Venice._]
Giardinetto novo di punti tagliati et gropposi, per exercitio et
ornamento delle donne. Ven. 1542, in 4to.[1275]
{464}11.
[Sidenote: 1543. _Venice._]
Esemplare che insegna alle donne el modo di cucire. Venetia, 1543.[1276]
12.
[Sidenote: 1544. _Venice._]
Il Specchio di pensiere (_sic_), delle belle donne dove si vede varie
sorti di punti, cioè, punti tagliati, gropposi, &c. Venetia, 1544.
In 4to.[1277]
13.
[Sidenote: 1544. _Venice._]
Ornamento delle belle donne et virtuose: Opere in cui troverai varie
sorti di frisi con li quali si potra ornar ciascun donna. Ven.
1544.[1278]
14.
[Sidenote: 1546. _Paris. Gormont._]
Le livre de moresques, tres utile et necessaire à tous orfevres,
tailleurs, graveurs, painctres, tapissiers, brodeurs, lingieres et femmes
qui besongnent de l'aiguille. Paris. Gormont, 1546. Fig. en bois.[1279]
15.
[Sidenote: 1549. _Lyon. P. de Ste. Lucie._]
La fleur des patrons de lingerie, a deux endroitz, a point croise, a
point couche, et a point picque, en fil dor, fil darg[=e]t, & fil de
soye, ou aultre en quelque ouvraige que ce soit, en comprenant lart de
broderie et tissuterie. Imprimees a Lyon, en la maison de Pierre de
saincte Lucie (dict le Prince, Pres nostre Dame de Confort).[1280]
(At the end.)
Imprimé à Lyon par Piarre de saincte Lucie, dict le Prince. 1549.
8vo, 12 ff., 21 plates.
Frontispiece. Title in Gothic letters, with woodcuts representing
people at work. Below, two women sitting at frames; above, two others;
and between, a man with a frame in his hand. On each side a shield, one
with crowned heart, on the other a lion, three fleurs de lys in chief.
Patterns mediæval. At the end, the device of the printer, a mountain,
on the top of which is a city against which a youth is placing his
hand: motto, "Spero." At the foot of the mountain a cavern in which is
seated a Fury. This device is engraved No. 616 in Silvestre, who gives
1530 to 1555 as the date of Pierre de Saincte Lucie.
{465}16.
[Sidenote: _N. D. Lyon. P. de Ste. Lucie._]
Livre nouveau, dict patrons de lingerie, cest assavoir a deux endroitz, a
point croise, point couche & point picque, en fil dor, dargent, de soye &
autres, en quelque ouvrage que ce soit: comprenant lart de Broderie &
Tissoterie. Imprimees a Lyon, chez Pierre de Saincte Lucie, pres nostre
Dame de Confort.[1281]
8vo, 24 ff., 44 plates.
Frontispiece. Title in Gothic letters; the same shields as the
preceding; two women at work. Patterns mediæval. At the end the same
device.
The copy of the Arsenal is a different impression. Instead of
"Imprimees," &c, we have, "On les vend," etc.
17.
[Sidenote: _N. D. Lyon. P. de Ste. Lucia._]
Patrons de diverses manieres
Inventez tressubtilement
Duysans a Brodeurs et Lingieres
Et a ceusy lesquelz vrayement
Veullent par bon entendement
User Dantique, et Roboesque,
Frize et Moderne proprement,
En comprenant aussi Moresque.
A tous massons, menuisiers, & verriers
Feront prouffit ces pourtraictz largement
Aux orpheures, et gentilz tapissiers
A ieunes gens aussi semblablement
Oublier point ne veuly auscunement
C[=o]trepointiers & les tailleurs dymages
Et tissotiers lesquelz pareillement
Par ces patrons acquerront heritages.
Imprimees a Lyon, par Pierre de Saincte Lucie, dict le Prince, pres
nostre Dame de Confort.[1282]
8vo, 16 ff., 31 plates. Title in Gothic letters. Patterns mediæval.
The copy at the Arsenal is a later impression. "On les vend a Lyon, par
Pierre de saincte Lucie, en la maison du deffunct Prince, pres," etc.
It has only 12 ff., and 23 plates.
18.
[Sidenote: _N. D. Lyon. Le Prince._]
Sensuyuent lis patrons de messire Antoine Belin, Reclus de sainct Martial
de Lyon. Item plusieurs autres beaulx Patrons nouveaulx, qui out este
inventez par Jeban Mayol Carme de Lyon.
On les vend à Lyon, chez le Prince.[1283]
{466}Small 8vo, 6 ff., 85 plates. Copy at the Arsenal has 12 ff.
The same device of the printer in the frontispiece and at the end of
the book. "Finis."
One of the patterns represents St. Margaret holding the cross to a
dragon, but in these four books the designs are copied from each other,
and are many of them repetitions of Quinty.
19.
[Sidenote: _N. D. Lyon. D. Celle._]
Ce livre est plaisant et utile
A gens qui besongnent de leguille
Pour comprendre legèrement
Damoyselle bourgoyse ou fille
Femmes qui out l'esperit agille
Ne scauroint faillir nullement
Corrige est nouvellement
Dung ho[=n]este ho[=m]e par bon zelle
Son nom est Dominicque Celle
Qui a tous lecteurs shumylie
Domicille a en Italie.
En Thoulouse a prins sa naissance.
Mise il a son intelligence
A lamender subtillement
Taillé il est totallement
Par Jehan coste de rue merciere
A Lyon et consequemment
Quatre vingtz fassons a vrayement
Tous de differente maniere.[1284]
28 ff., 27 plates. Title in Gothic letters. Dedication to the Reader,
in which it states the book is for the profit of "tant hommes que
femmes." Patterns mediæval. At the end of the Preface, "Finis coronat
opus."
20.
[Sidenote: _N. D. Venice. G. A. Vavassore._]
Esemplario di lavori: che insegna alle d[=o]ne il modo e ordine di
lavorare: cusire: e racámare: e finalm[=e]te far tutte [=q]lle opere
degne di memoria: lequale po fare una donna virtuosa con laco in mano. Et
uno documento che insegna al c[=o]pratore accio sia ben servito.[1285]
In 8vo, 25 ff., printed on both sides, 48 plates. Title in red Gothic
characters, framed round by six woodcuts similar to that of Vorsterman;
at the foot, "fiorio Vavasore fecit."
Then follows the "Documento per el compratore," and an Address to
Ladies and Readers, by "Giovandrea Vavassore detto Guadagnino," saying
that he had already "fatti alcuni libri di esempli di diverse sorte."
There is no date to this copy; but in the library of Prince Messimo, at
Rome, is a copy dated Venice, 18 Feb., 1546, containing 50 plates; and
Brunet quotes an edition, "Stampato in Vinezia, 1556;" Cav. Merli also
possesses an edition of the same date. Mr. E. Arnold has also a copy
with the same date.
The patterns are mediæval, on black grounds, with counted stitches, a
large flower pot, mermaid, Paschal lamb, and a double plate
representing Orpheus playing to the beasts.
{467}21.
[Sidenote: _N. D. Venice. G. A. Vavassore._]
Essemplario novo di pin di cento variate mostre di qualunque orte
bellissime per cusire intitolato Fontana di gli essempli.
Oblong 8vo. No date. 16 ff., 28 plates.
In the frontispiece is a fountain with the motto, "Solicitudo est mater
divitiarum," and on each side of the fountain--
"Donne donzelle ch Per farvi eterne alla.
El cusir seguite Fonte venite."
On the back of the frontispiece is the Dedication, headed, "Il
Pelliciolo alla molta magnifica Madona Chiara Lipomana;" the page
finished by a sonnet; in the last leaf, "Avviso alle virtuose donne et
a qualunque lettore Giovanni Andrea Vavassore detto Guadagnino." Says
he has "negli tempi passati fatto imprimere molto e varie sorte
d'essemplari di mostre," etc. At the foot, "Nuovamente stampato."[1286]
This work is also described by Count Cicognara with the same title,
only with the date 1550. In the Bibliotheca Communitativa, Bologna, is
a copy of the same date. In this last edition the author writes his
name Valvassore.
22.
[Sidenote: _N. D. Venice. G. A. Vavassore._]
Vavassore Gio. Andrea. Opera nova Universal intitulata corona di ricammi;
Dove le venerande donne e fanciulle: trovera[=n]o di varie opere [per]
fare colari di camisiola & torni[=a][=e]nti di letti [=e]ternelle di
cuscini boccasini schufioni: cordlli di piu sorte; et molte opere per
rec[=a]matori [per] dipitore poreuesi: (_sic_) de lequale opere o vero
esempli ciascuno le potra pore in opera sec[=o]do el suo bisogno: con
gratia novamente stampata ne la inclita citta di vineggia per Giovanni
Andrea Vavassore detto Guadagni[=o]. 36 pp., sm. 4to.
13 ff., 52 designs, none of which are repetitions of the
preceding.[1287]
23.
[Sidenote: _N. D. Venice. G. A. Vavassore._]
Vavassore Gio. Andrea detto Guadagnino. Opera nova, etc. ... dove le
venerande donne et fanciulle trovaranno di varie opere et molte opere per
recamatori et per dipintori; etc. Nuovamente stampata, etc.[1288]
Quite a different collection from the preceding. A little of everything
in this volume.
Zoan Andrea Vavassore was the pupil in drawing and engraving of Andrea
Mantegna. Towards the beginning of the sixteenth century, he worked on
his own account, and his engravings are much sought after. So greedy
was he of gain as to obtain for him the name of Guadigno, in Venetian
patois, "covetous." He lived to a great age.
{468}24.
[Sidenote: _N. D. A. Paganino._]
Libro questo di rechami per el quale se impara in diversi modi l'ordine e
il modo de recamare, cosa non mai più fatta n' è stata mostrata.
By Alessandro Paganino.[1289]
20 plates, with a long explanation how these works are done.
(Communicated by Prince Massimo.)
25.
[Sidenote: _N. D. Paris Vve. Ruelle._]
Patrons pour Brodeurs, Lingieres, Massons, Verriers, et autres gens
d'esprit. A Paris. Pour la Veuve Jean Ruelle, rue S. Jacques, à
l'enseigne Sainct Nicolas.[1290]
4to, 23 ff., 32 plates of mediæval designs. Ornamented title-page.
26.
[Sidenote: 1548. _Venice. M. Pagan._]
Il specchio di pensieri delle belle et virtudiose donne, dove si vede
varie sorti di Punti, cioè punti tagliati, punti gropposi, punti in rede,
et punti in Stuora. MDXLVIII. Stamp. in Venetia, per Mathio Pagan in
frezzaria, in le case nove Tien per insegna la fede.[1291]
16 ff.
27.
[Sidenote: 1551. _Venice. M. Pagan._]
1. L'honesto Essempio del vertuoso desiderio che hanno le donne di nobile
ingegno circa lo imparare i punti tagliati e fogliami. In Venetia per
Mathio Pagan in Frezaria al segno della Fedo, M.D.L.[1292]
In the V. and A. Museum is a copy dated 1550.
28.
[Sidenote: 1551. _Venice. M. Pagan._]
Giardineto novo di Punti tagliati et gropposi, per esurcitio et ornamento
delle donne. At the end, Venetia, Mathio Pagan in Frezzaria, in le case
nove (tien per insegna della Fede) MDLI. Dedication, Alla signora
Lucretia, Romana Mathio Pagan, salute.[1293] See also No. 38.
29.
[Sidenote: 1554. _Dubois._]
Variarum protractionum quas vulgo Maurusias vocant omnium antehac
excusarum libellus longe copiasissimus pictoribus, aurifabris,
polymilariis, barbaricariis variisque id genus {469}artificibus etiam acu
operantibus utilissimus nuncque primen in lucem editus anno 1554.
Balthazar Sylvius (Dubois) fecit.
Jo. Theodoret, Jo. Israel de Bry excud.[1294]
In 4to, ff. 23, copperplate.
30.
[Sidenote: 1555. _Padua. Fra Hieronimo._]
Triompho di Lavori a Fogliami de i quali si puo far ponti in aere; opera
d' Fra Hieronimo da Cividal di Frioli, de l'Ordine de i Servi di
Osservantia. Cum gratia et privileggio per anni xi.[1295]
Obl. 4to, 14 ff., 22 pl.
Ornamental title-page. On the top, a female seated in a triumphal car
drawn by unicorns, with attendants. On each side of the title are women
teaching children to work.
P. 1, dorso. Dedication of the author, "Alla Magnifica & Illustre
Signora Isabella Contessa Canossa," whose "Immortal Triompho" is
represented in the above woodcut. Fra Hieronimo speaks of preparing
"più alte e divine imprese."
Then follow three pages of verses in terzette, and p. 3, dorso, the
impresa of the printer, a lion rampant, holding a sword in his fore
paws. Below, "In Padou per Jacobo Fabriano, ad instantia de Fra
Hieronimo da Cividal di Frioli: de l'Ordine de i Servi di Osservantia
1555."
31.
[Sidenote: 1556. _Venice. Torello._]
Lucidario di ricami di Guiseppe Torello. Venezia, 1556.
In 4to.
32.
[Sidenote: 1556. _Strasburg. H. Hoffman._]
New Modelbüch, allen Nägerin, unnd Sydenstickern sehr nutzlich zü
branchë, vor nye in Druck aussgangen durch Hans Hoffman, Burger und
formschneider zu Strassburg. At the end, Zu Strassburg Gedruckt am
Kommarckt durch Jacob Frölich. 1556. 4to.[1296]
4to. A to G in fours. (28 leaves.)
Title printed in red and black. On it a woodcut of two women, one
engaged in embroidery, the other fringing her some stuff. The last leaf
(Giiii.) has on the recto a woodcut of a woman at a frame, the verso
blank.
33.
[Sidenote: _N. D. Zurich. C. Froschover._]
Nüw Modelbüch, allerley gattungen Däntelschnür, so diser zyt in hoch
Tütschlanden geng und brüchig sind, zu underricht jren Leertöchteren unnd
allen anderen schurwirckeren zu Zurych {470}und wo die sind, yetz nüwlich
zübereit, und erstmals in truch verfergket durch R. M.[1297]
No place or date, but as appears, both from the title and preface, to
be printed at Zurich, by Christopher Froschover. The date probably from
1530 to 1540.
4to. Signatures A to F in fours. 24 leaves. On the title a woodcut of
two women working at lace pillows.
34.
[Sidenote: _N. D. Frankfort._]
Modelbüch Welscher, Ober und Niderlandischer Arbait. Getruckt zü
Franckfort.
No date, but probably at least as early as 1530. 4to. Signatures A to D
in fours. 20 leaves.
Title enclosed in an elegant woodcut border.
35.
[Sidenote: 1537. _Frankfort. C. Egenolffs._]
Modelbüch, von erhabener unnd flacher Arbait, Auff der Ramen, Laden, und
nach der Zale.
Getruckt zu Franckfort, Bei Christian Egenolffs, Erben.
The date, 1537, occurs on one of the patterns. 4to. AA to HH in fours.
32 leaves. Title in a woodcut border. 178 patterns.
36.
[Sidenote: 1571. _Frankfort on the Mayn. N. Baseus._]
New Modelbüch.
Von allerhandt Art, Nehens und Stickens, jetzt mit viellerley Welscher
Arbeyt, Mödel und Stahlen, allen Steinmetzen, Seidenstickern und Neterin,
sehr nützlich und kunstlich, von newem zugericht.
Getruckt zu Frankfurt am Mayn, 1571.
Device and motto of Nicolas Baseus on title-page. Sm. 4to. (Library V.
and A. Museum.)
37.
[Sidenote: 1568. _Frankfort on the Mayn. N. Baseus._]
Das new Modelbüch, &c.
Franckfurt am Mayn, 1568, 4to. Printer, Nicholas Baseus, ff. 40.
38.
[Sidenote: 1569. _Frankfort on the Mayn._]
Modelbüch; Zweiter Theil: Franckfurt am Mayn, 1569.
4to, ff. 44. Nos. 36 and 37 are cited by the Marquis d'Adda.
{471}39.
[Sidenote: 1558. _Venice. M. Pagan._]
La Gloria et l'honore de ponti tagliati et ponti in aere Venezia per
Mathio Pagan in Frezzeria al segno della Fede. 1558.[1298]
16 plates. Dedicated to Vittoria Farnese, Duchess of Urbino.
40.
[Sidenote: _N. D. Venice._]
Il Monte. Opera nova di recami intitolata il monte, nella quale si
ritrova varie, & diverse sorti di mostre, di punti in aiere, à fogliami.
Dove le belle & virtuose Donne protranno fare ogni sorte di lavoro,
accommodate alle vera forma misura & grandezza, che debbono essere ne mai
piu per l'adietro da alcuno vedute. Opera non men bella che utile, &
necessaria.[1299]
Below, the impresa of the printer, an eagle with its young; motto,
"Virtute parta sibi non tantum." In Venetia.
4to, 16 ff., 29 plates of bold scroll borders.
41.
[Sidenote: 1559. _Venice. G. A. Bindoni._]
Il Monte (libro secondo) Opera dove ogni bella donna potrà fare ogni
sorte di lavori cioè colari, fazzoletti, maneghetti, avertadure
(berthes), &c., in Venetia, 1560.[1300]
Printer's mark and motto as No. 39: afterwards the dedication dated
1559, "à Vittoria da Cordova Gio. Ant. Bindoni," in which he states "Ho
preso arditamente di presentarvi questo secondo Monte." 4to. ff. 16.
42.
[Sidenote: 1558. _Venice._]
Bellezze de recami et dessegni opera novo non men bella che utile, e
necessaria et non più veduta in luce. Venezia, 1558.[1301]
Ob. 4to. 20 plates of patterns.
43.
[Sidenote: 1558. _Venice. I. Foresto._]
Lo Splendore delle virtuose giovani con varie mostre di fogliami e punti
in aere. Venezia. Per Iseppo Foresto in calle dell'acqua a S. Zulian all'
insegno del Pellegrino, 1558.[1302]
16 plates.
{472}44.
[Sidenote: 1559. _Venice._]
Trionfo di Virtù Libro novo da cucir, con fogliami, ponti a fili, ponti
cruciati, &c. Venezia, 1559.[1303]
16 plates.
45.
[Sidenote: _N. D._]
Burato.
Consisting of four leaves, with patterns of canvas (tela chiara), in
squares, for works in "punta" of various widths, with instructions how
to increase or diminish the patterns. See CUTWORK.
On the back of the last page is printed in large characters, "P. Alex.
Pag. (Paganinus). Benacensis F. Bena. V. V."[1304]
46.
[Sidenote: _N. D._]
Burato ... con nova maestria, gratiose donne, novo artificio vi apporto.
A second edition without date. 4to, ff. 59; frontispiece, ladies at
work, verso, Triumph of Fame. Four books of designs of great elegance
and taste. The Marquis d'Adda assigns them to Vavassore.
47.
[Sidenote: _N. D. A. Passerotti._]
Passerotti Aurelio Pittore Bolognese dissegnatore e miniatore figlio di
Bartolommeo Passerotti circa al 1560. Libro Primo di lavorieri alle molto
illustre et virtuosissime gentildonne Bolognesi. Libro secondo alle molto
magnifici et virtuosissimi signori.[1305]
In fol. obl.
67 ff., including two dedications and a frontispiece. Designs for
embroidery, etc., drawn with a pen. In the title-page of the first book
is the device of a sunflower, "Non san questi occhi volgere altrove."
48.
[Sidenote: 1557. _Venice._]
Le Pompe. Opera nova di recami dove trovansi varie mostre di punto in
aere. Venezia, 1557.[1306]
Probably an earlier impression of the following. 4to, ff. 16.
49.
[Sidenote: 1559.]
Le Pompe, opera nova nella quale si ritrovano varie, & diverse sorti di
mostre, per poter far Cordelle over Bindelle, d' Oro, di Seta, di Filo,
overo di altra cosa di Dove le belle et virtuose donne potranno fare ogni
sorte di lavoro, cioè merli di diverse sorte, Cavezzi, Colari,
Maneghetti, & tutte quelle cose {473}che le piaceranno. Opera non men
bella, che utile, & necessaria. E non più veduta in luce. 1559.[1307]
Below, the same impresa of the eagle, as in "Il Monte," Nos. 39 and 40.
8vo, 16 ff., 30 plates.
A great variety of borders and indented patterns (merli). (Fig. 169.)
"Si vendeno alla Libraria della Gatta."
[Illustration: Fig. 169.
LE POMPE, 1559.]
In the Cat. d'Estrées is noted, "Le Pompe, Opera nella quale si
retrovano diverse sorti di mostse per poter far cordelle, Bindelle,
d'oro di seta, di filo. 1559, fig." Probably the same work.
50.
[Sidenote: 1560. _Venice._]
Le Pompe, Libro secondo. Opera nuova nella quale si ritrovana varie e
diverse sorti di Mostre, per poter fare Cordelle, ovver Bindelle, d'Oro,
di Seta, di Filo, ovvero di altra cosa. Dove {474}le belle & virtuose
Donne potranno far ogni sorte di lavoro, coèi Merli di diverse sorte,
Cavezzi, Colari, Maneghetti & tutte quelle cose che li piaceno. Opera hon
men bello che utile & necessaria e non più veduta in luce.
Impresa of the printer, "Pegasus," and below, In "Venetia 1560."
Obl. 8vo, 16 ff., 29 plates.[1308]
Mrs. Stisted's copy is dated 1562, and there is one at Vienna, in the
Imperial Library, of the same date.
51.
[Sidenote: 1563. _Venice. J. Calepino._]
Splendore delle virtuose giovani dove si contengono molte, & varie mostre
a fogliami cio è punti in aere, et punti tagliati, bellissimi, & con tale
arteficio, che li punti tagliati serveno alli punti in aere. Et da quella
ch' è sopragasi far si possono, medesimamente molte altre.
In Venetia Appresso Jeronimo Calepino, 1563.[1309]
8vo, 20 ff., 35 plates of scroll patterns in the style of "Il Monte."
Dedication "Alla molto honorata M. Anzola ingegniera succera mia
digniss." Francesco Calepino, wishing, he says, to "ristampare la
presente opera," he dedicates it to her. In Bib. Melzi, Milan, a copy
dated 1567.
52.
[Sidenote: 1563. _Venice. J. Calepino._]
Lucidario di recami, nel qual si contengono molte, & varie sorti di
disegni. A punti in aere et punti tagliati, & a fogliami, & con figure &
di più altre maniere, come al presente si usano non più venute in luce
Per lequali ogni elevato ingegno potrà in diversi modi commodissimamente
servirsi. In Venetia, Appresso Ieronimo Calepino, 1563.[1310]
8vo, 16 ff., 29 plates of flowing borders like the preceding.
53.
[Sidenote: 1564. _Venice._]
I Frutti opera nuova intitulata i frutti de i punti in stuora, a
fogliami, nella quale si ritrova varie, et diverse sorti di mostre di
ponti in Stuora, a fogliami, & punti in gasii & in punti in
Trezola.[1311] Dove ogni bella et virtuosa donna potrà fare ogni sorte di
lavoro, cioè fazoletti, colari, maneghetti, Merli, Frisi, Cavezzi,
Intimelle, overo forelle, avertadure da camise, & altre sorti di lavori,
come piu a pieno potrai vedere, ne mei per l' adietro d' alcun altro
fatte & poste in luce.
{475}Opera non men bella, che utile et necessaria a ciascuna virtuosa
gentildonna. In Vinegia, 1564.[1312]
Obl. 8vo, 16 ff., 30 plates of patterns either in dots or small
squares.
54.
[Sidenote: 1564. _Paris._]
Patrons pour brodeurs, lingières, massons, verriers, et autres gens
d'esperit; nouvellement imprimé, à Paris, rue Saint-Jacques, à la
Queue-de Regnard M.DLXIIII.[1313]
55.
[Sidenote: 1564. _Venice. D. de Franceschi._]
Fede (Opere nova) intitulata: Dei Recami nella quale si contiene varie
diverse sorte di mostre di punti scritto, tagliato, in Stuora, in Rede,
&c. In Venetia, appresso Domenico de Franceschi in Frezzaria, all'
insegna della Regina. M.DLVIII.
In 4to, ff. 16. In his _Avis au Lecteur_, Franceschi alludes to three
other works he had published, styled _La Regina_, _La Serena_, and _La
Speranza_.
56.
[Sidenote: 1564. _Venice. D. de Franceschi._]
Serena opera nova di recami, nella quale si ritrova varie et diverse
sorte di punti in stuora et punti a filo. In Venetia, Domenico di
Franceschi. 1564.
Obl. 4to, ff. 16. Nos. 55 and 56 cited by Marquis d'Adda.
57.
[Sidenote: 1581. _Lyon. J. Ostans._]
Le trésor des patrons, contenant diverses sortes de broderies et
lingeries; pour coudre avec grande facilité et pour ouvrer en diverses
sortes de piquer avec l'ésguille, pulveriser par dessus et faire ouvrages
de toutes sortes de points &ct par Jean Ostans. Lyon, Ben. Rigaud. 1581,
in 4-to.[1314]
58.
[Sidenote: 1567. _Venice. J. Ostans._]
Ostans Giovanni. La vera perfettione del disegno di varie sorti di
Recami, et di cucire, &c. ... punti a fogliami punti tagliati punti a
fili et rimessi punti in cruciati, punti a stuora, et ogni altra arte che
dia opera a disegni. Fatta nuovamente per Gio. Ostans. Vittoria, con
gratia et privilegio dell' Illus. {476}Senato Venetiano per anni.[1315]
In Venetia appresso Gio. Ostans, 1567.
4to obl., 4 cahiers of 8 ff., 74 plates. Letter of Ostans to Lucretia
Contarini; verso, an engraving of Lucretia Romana, surrounded by her
women, signed Jose. Sal. (Joseph Salviati), who furnished the design,
two sonnets, and Aves. A striking example of the borrowing between
France and Italy in the sixteenth century, probably of the school of
Fontainebleau. Grotesques like A. du Cerceau, scrolls after E. de
Laulne, fresco of figures from G. Tory. Brunet describes a copy dated
1591.
59.
[Sidenote: 1584. _Venice. Valvassore's heirs._]
Ostans. La vera perfettione del desegno &ct. Venetia M.DLXXXIIII.,
presso gli heredi Valvassori e Gio. Dom. Micheli al segno dell'
Ippogrifo.
In 4to obl. (Cited by Marquis d'Adda.)
60.
[Sidenote: 1582. _B. Tabin._]
Neues Künstlicher, Modelbuch von allerhand artlichen und gerechten
Mödeln, &c., bei B. Tabin.[1316]
61.
[Sidenote: _Paris._ 1584. _D. de Sera._]
Le livre de Lingerie, composé par Maistre Dominique de Sera, Italien,
enseignant le noble & gentil art de l'esguille, pour besongner en tous
points: utile & profitable à toutes Dames & Damoyselles, pour passer le
temps, & euiter oysiveté.
Nouvellement augmenté, & enrichi, de plusieurs excelents & divers
patrons, tant du point coupé, raiseau, que passement, de l'invention de
M. Jean Cousin, Peintre à Paris.
A Paris. Chez Hierosme de Marnef, & la veufve de Guillaume Cauellat, au
mont S. Hilaire à l'enseigne du Pelican. 1584. Avec privilege du
Roy.[1317]
In the Cat. d'Estrées; No. 8848, is _Livre de Pourtraicture de Jean
Cousin_. Paris, 1637, in 4 fig.
4to, 28 ff., 51 plates of mediæval design.
Frontispiece, three women and a child at work, on each side of the
title a man and a woman at work under a trifoliated canopy.
Privilege for three years to H. de Marnef, "juré libraire en
l'Université de Paris."
"L'auteur aux lecteurs." He takes his pen to portray what he has seen
"en Italie, Espagne, Romanie, Allemagne, & autre païs, dont je ne fais
aucune mention à cause de trop longue plexite," that he gives at
{477}least eighty designs for the use and singular profit of many,
"hommes tant que femmes." Below, "Finis coronat opus."
Then follows a "Balade" of 28 lines. On the last page, the impresa of
Cavellat, a pelican in its piety, "Mors in me vita in me."
62.
[Sidenote: 1596. _G. Frano._]
Frano Gio. Libro delle mostre da ceuser per le donne.
16 engravings on wood and 8 on copper. (Cited by Marquis d'Adda.)
63.
[Sidenote: _Bologna. A. Parisini._]
Danieli Bartholomeo Recamatore libro di diversi disegni per Collari,
punti per Fazzoletti et Reticelle divarie sorte. Agostino Parisini forma
in Bologna.
15 leaves obl. 8vo, entirely engraved au burin, towards the end of the
sixteenth century.[1318]
64.
[Sidenote: _N. D._]
Ornamento delle belle et virtuose donne opera nova nella quale troverrai
varie sorti di frisi, con li quali si potra ornar ciascuna donna, & ogni
letti con ponti tagliato, ponti gropposi, & ogni altra sorte di ponti per
fare quelle belle opere che si appartengono alle virtuose & lodevoli
fanciulle.
On a scutcheon, with 3 figures below, "Libro Primo." Lib. Victoria and
Albert Museum.
65.
[Sidenote: 1587. _Paris. 1st Edit. 1st Part. F. Vinciolo._]
Les singuliers et nouveaux pourtraicts et ouvrages de Lingerie. Servans
de patrons à faire toutes sortes de poincts, couppé, Lacis & autres.
Dedie a la Royne. Nouvellement inventez, au proffit & c[=o]tentement, des
nobles Dames & Damoiselles & autres gentils esprits, amateurs d'un tel
art. Par le Seigneur Federic (_sic_) de Vinciolo Venitien. A Paris. Par
Iean le Clerc le ieune, ruë Chartiere, au Chef Sainct Denis. 1587. Avec
privilege du Roy.[1319]
[Sidenote: _2nd Part._]
Les singuliers et nouveaux pourtraicts et ouvrages de Lingerie ou est
representé les sept planettes, & plusieurs autres figures & pourtraitz
servans de patrons à faire de plusieurs sortes de Lacis. Nouvellement
inventez, au proffit & c[=o]tentement des nobles Dames & Damoiselles &
autres gentils esprits, amateurs d'un tel art. Par le Seigneur Federic de
Vinciolo Venitien. A Paris. Par Iean le Clerc le ieune, ruë Chartiere, au
Chef Sainct Denis. 1587. Avec privilege du Roi.
(At the end.)
Privilege for nine years to "Iean le Clerc le ieune, 'tailleur
d'histoires,' à Paris," signed 27 June, 1587. "De l'Imprimerie de David
le Clerc Rue Frementel à l'Estoille d'Or."
{478}4to.
The first part consists of 40 ff., 36 of patterns and 4 preliminary
pages.
P. 1. The title-page with decorated border, in which are two ladies at
work. (See Title-page of this work.)
P. 2. Dedication of "Le Seigneur Federic de Vinciolo aux Benevolles
Lecteurs," in which he sets forth that several authors before him
having published certain patterns for work that "les Seigneurs, Dames,
& Damoyselles ont eu pour agréable," he, to show "la bonne volonté que
je porte à la France, laquelle m'ayant été douce et favorable, depuis
certain temps que j'ay quitté Venize, païs de ma nativité," wish to
portray the present "pourtraicts d'ouvrages magnifiques tous
differ[=e]s, & non encor usitez en cette c[=o]tree ni aultres, & que
j'ay tenus cachés & inc[=o]gnus jusques à maintenant," feeling assured
that if the first you had seen "on engendré quelque fruit & utilité,
ceux cy en aporteront d'avantage," and if I see this my invention
pleases you, I will "vous faire participer d'un aultre seconde bande
d'ouvrages."
P. 3. Dedication "A la Royne," Louise de Vaudemont, by Le Clerc, saying
that having received from Italy some rare and singular patterns, and
"ouvrages de l'ingerie & en ay[=a]t inv[=e]te quelques uns, selon mon
petit sçavoir, j'ay pensé puis que ces choses là appartienent
principallement aux Dames," that he cannot do better than present them
to the Queen, as if these patterns are useful (as he hears some less
perfect and more rudely sketched have served and profited before), they
ought to be offered to her Majesty. Signed last day of May, 1587.
P. 4. A sonnet.
AUX DAMES ET DAMOISELLES.
"L'un sefforce à gaigner le coeur des gr[=a]ds seigneurs
Pour posséder enfin une exquise richesse,
L'autre aspire aux Estats pour monter en altesse,
Et l'autre par la guerre alléche les honneurs.
Quand à moy, seulement pour chasser mes langueurs,
Je me sen satisfait de vivre en petitesse,
Et de faire si bien, qu'aux dames je délaisse
Un grand contentement en mes graves labeurs.
Prenez doncques en gré (mes Dames), je vous prie,
Ces pourtrais ouvragez lesquelz je vous dédie,
Pour tromper vos ennuis, et l'esprit employer.
En ceste nouveauté, pourrés beaucoup apprendre,
Et maistresses en fin en cest oeuvre vous rendre.
Le travail est plaisant. Si grand est le loyer."
"_Morir assidouamente per virtu,_
_Non morirè._"
Then follow the 36 patterns set off in white on a black ground, viz.,
20 "Ouvrages de point Couppé," the first plate with the double [Greek:
ll], according to the fashion introduced by Francis I. of using Greek
monograms, standing for Queen Louise. On the second page are two
escutcheons, one of France, the other with the letter H for Henry III.
Then follow eight "Passemens de point Couppé," which are succeeded by
eight more "Ouvrages de point Couppé."
Part 2, 24 ff. Same decorated frontispiece and 22 plates of subjects in
squares for stitches like the German patterns of the present day. These
consist of the Seven Planets, Sol, Luna, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus
and Saturn. Four in squares of various designs; two of Amorini shooting
stags and birds; Neptune and the winds; an arabesque with impresa of a
column with circle and double triangle; five borders and squares, and
{479}two "bordures à carreaux," diamond-shaped meshes. The last page
contains the Extract from the Privilege.
This is the original edition of Vinciolo, of which we know but one copy
existing--that in the Library at Rouen.
It was followed the same year by two other editions, with
alterations.[1320]
66.
[Sidenote: 1587. _2nd Ed. 1st Part. F. Vinciolo._]
Les singuliers et nouveaux pourtraicts pour les ouvrages de Lingerie.
Nouvellement augmentez de plusieurs differens pourtraits servans de
patrons à faire toutes sortes poincts couppé, Lacis, et autres reseau de
poinct conté. Dedié à la Royne. Le tout inventé, au proffit &
contentement des nobles Dames & Damoiselles & autres gentils esprits,
amateurs d'un tel art. Par le Seigneur Federic de Vinciolo Venitien. A.
Paris. Par Iean le Clerc le ieune, ruë Chartiere, au Chef Sainct Denis,
pres le college de Coqueret. Avec privilege du Roy. 1587.
[Sidenote: _2nd part._]
Les singuliers et nouveaux pourtraicts pour les ouvrages de Lingerie ou
avons augm[=e]té plusieurs nouveaux & differens portraitz de reseau, tout
point conté, plusieurs nouvelles bordures et autres sortes differentes.
Nouvellement inventez au proffit & c[=o]tentement des nobles Dames &
Damoiselles & autres gentils esprits amateurs d'un tel art. Par le
Seigneur Federick de Vinciolo Venitien. A Paris. Par Iean le Clerc le
ieune, Ruë Chartiere, au Chef Sainct Denis, pres le college de Coqueret.
Avec privilege du Roy. 1587.[1321]
1st Part, 40 ff. The same frontispiece, dedications, date, and sonnet,
as the first, the same number of patterns, only the eight styled in the
first "Passemens" are here all called, like the others, "Ouvrages" de
point couppé. (See Fig. 4.)
2nd Part, 32 ff. This part has 30 patterns, comprising the 24 of the
first edition, and six additional ones, consisting of squares and two
hunting subjects.
67.
[Sidenote: 1587. _3rd Edit. No. 1. Parts 1 and 2._]
Les singuliers et nouveaux Pourtraicts, du Seigneur Federic de Vinciolo
Venitien, pour toutes sortes d'ouvrages de Lingerie. Dedie a la Royne.
Derechef et pour la troisieme fois augmentez Outre le reseau premier et
le point couppé et lacis, de plusieurs beaux et differens portrais de
reseau de point c[=o]té avec le nombre des mailles, choze non encor veue
ni inventée. {480}A Paris. Par Iean le Clerc le ieune, ruë Chartiere, au
Chef Sainct Denis, pres le College de Coqueret. Avec privilege du Roy.
1587.[1322]
This must be the first impression of the third edition.
[Sidenote: 1588. _3rd Edit. No. 2. 1st Part._]
Les singuliers et nouveaux pourtraicts, du Seigneur Federic de Vinciolo
Venitien, pour toutes sortes d'ouvrages de Lingerie. Dedié a la Royne.
Derechef et pour la troisiesme fois augmentez, outre le reseau premier &
le point couppé & lacis, de plusieurs beaux et differens portrais de
reseau de point c[=o]té, avec le nombre des mailles, chose non encor
veuë, ny inventée. A Paris. Par Iean le Clerc le ieune, au mont Saint
Hilaire, du Chef Sainct Denis, pres le Clos Bruneau. Avec privilege du
Roy. 1588.[1323]
68.
[Sidenote: _2nd Part._]
Les singuliers et nouveaux pourtraicts, du Seigneur Federic de Vinciolo
Venitien, pour toutes sortes d'ouvrages de Lingerie. Dedié a la Royne.
Derechef et pour la troisiesme fois augmentez, outre le reseau premier &
le point couppé & lacis, de plusieurs beaux et differens portrais de
reseau de point c[=o]té, avec le nombre des mailles, chose non encor
veuë, ny inventée. A Paris. Par Iean le Clerc le ieune, au mont Saint
Hilaire, au Chef Sainct Denis, pres le Clos Bruneau. Avec privilege du
Roy. 1588.[1324]
This must be subsequent to the Brussels impression, as Jean le Clerc
has changed his address.
In the third edition, dorso of pp. 1 and 2, we have the addition of
portraits of Louise de Vaudemont and Henry III., with a complimentary
stanza of four lines under each.
In his Advertisement au lecteur, Vinciolo says that having promised,
since the first impression of his book, to give a "nouvelle bande
d'ouvrages," and not to disappoint certain ladies who have complained
that he has not made "du reseau assez beau à leur fantaisie," I have
wished for the third time to place before their eyes many new and
different patterns of "reseau de point conté que j'ay cousus et
attachez à la fin de mes premières figures," beneath which I have put
the number and quantity of the stitches. Same dedication and sonnet as
before. Privilege for nine years dated Paris, 25 May, 1587. "De
l'Imprimerie de David le Clerc, ruë S. Jacques, au petit Bec, devant le
College de Marmouttier."
1st Part, 40 ff., 36 plates, 27 of point couppé, two stomachers, and
seven "Passemens" de point couppé; the same lettered "Ouvrages" as in
the preceding impression.
2nd Part, 36 ff., 50 plates. The thirty already published in the second
edition, after which follow the twenty additional of "reseau de point
conté," announced in the Preface, consisting of "6 Quarrés, 2 Coins de
{481}Mouchoir, 2 Bordures, 6 animals: Lion, Pelican, Unicorn, Stag,
Peacock, and Griffon"; and the Four Seasons. "Déesse des fleurs,
representant le Printemps," etc.
These last twenty have the number of stitches given. (See Fig. 5.)
On the last page is an escutcheon with the arms of France and Poland.
69.
[Sidenote: 1588. _3rd Edit. No. 3. Parts 1 and 2._]
A later impression still.
Same title, date, portraits, dedication, and sonnet, only the Privilege
is dated "ce douzième jour de Novembre 1587. De l'Imprimerie de David
le Clerc, Rue S. Jaques, aux trois Mores."[1325]
34 ff. 30 plates, 1st part; 50 plates in 2nd.
70.
[Sidenote: 1595. _3rd Edit. No. 4. Parts 1 and 2._]
Les singuliers et nouveaux pourtraicts, du Seigneur Frederic de Vinciolo,
Venitien, pour toutes sortes d'ouvrages de Lingerie. Dedie à la Royne
Douairière de France.
De Rechef et pour la troisiesme fois augmentez, outre le reseau premier &
le point couppé & lacis, de plusieurs beaux & differens portrais de
reseau de point c[=o]té, avec le nombre des mailles, chose non encore
veuë ny inventée.
A Paris. Par Iean le Clerc, ruë Saint Jean de Latran, à la Salemandre.
Avec privilege du Roy. 1595.[1326]
This impression is dedicated to Louise de Vaudemont, now "Reine
Douairière," Henry III. having died in 1589.
71.
[Sidenote: 1606. _3rd Edit. No 5. Parts 1 and 2._]
The same title as that of 1595--differing only in date.[1327]
Privilege for six years, "donné à Mantes, le 3 Juillet 1593." At the
foot, "De l'Imprimerie de David le Clerc au Petit Corbeil 1606."
The 1st part has 32 ff. and 36 plates; 32 "Ouvrages de poinct couppé,"
and 4 stomachers.
The 2nd part 46 plates, same as those of 1588, only four less.
On the last page the escutcheon of France and Navarre.
72.
[Sidenote: 1589. _4th Edit. Turin. Parts 1 and 2._]
Les singuliers et nouveaux pourtraicts, du Seigneur Federic de Vinciolo
Venitien, pour toutes sortes d'ouvrages de Lingerie. Dedie a la Royne.
Derechef et pour la quatrieme fois augmentez, outre le reseau premier et
le point couppé et lacis, de plusieurs beaux et differens portrais de
reseau de point conté, avec le nombre de mailles, chose non encore veue
ni inventee. A Thurin. Par Eleazaro Thomysi. 1589.[1328]
Described in Cat. Cicognara with the date 1658. The 1st part 44 ff. and
39 plates; the 2nd with 36 plates.
{482}The editions of 1613 and 1623 are described in their chronological
order. Nos. 64 and 71.
That of 1603 we have not seen; but M. Leber states it to be equally
rich with that of 1623.
The copies of Vinciolo in the Bodleian bear the dates of 1588, 1603,
and 1612.
Baron Pichon has a copy of an impression of 1612.
One at Bordeaux, in the Bib. de la Ville, is dated 1588.
In a book sale at Antwerp, March, 1864, there was sold the following:--
Lot 528. _Livre de Patrons de Lingerie dediè a la Royne, nouvellement
invente par le seign^r Frederic de Vinciolo, Venitien._ Paris, Jean le
Clerc, 1598.--_Les singuliers et nouveaux pourtraicts pour toutes
sortes d'ouvrages de Lingerie._ Paris, _Ibid._, 1598.--_Les secondes
oeuvres et subtiles inventions de Lingerie._ Paris, _Ibid._,
1598.--_Nouveaux pourtraicts de Point coupé et Dantelles en petite
moyenne et grande forme._ A. Montbeliard, Jacques Foillet, 1598. 4 tom.
1 vol. in-4. v. anc. fig. sur bois.
It went for 440 francs to a Mr. Ross. We do not know the editions of
1598.
As M. Leber observes, the various editions of Vinciolo, published by Le
Clerc and his widow, from 1587 to 1623, and perhaps later, are only
impressions more or less varied of the two distinct books, the one of
point coupé, the other of lacis.
The work of Vinciolo has been reprinted in several countries. In
England it has been translated and published by Wolfe. (See No. 72.) At
Liege, by Jean de Glen. (See No. 79.) Mr. Douce says that it was
reprinted "at Strasburg, 1596, and at Basle, 1599, with a second part,
which is rare, and sometimes contains a portrait by Gaultier of
Catherine de Bourbon."
In the Bib. Nat. (Grav. B. c. 22), a volume headed _Vinciolo (Federigo)
Peintre Venitien et ses imitateurs_, contains, with "La pratique,"
etc., of Mignerak (See No. 93), a German copy of the "nouveaux
pourtraits," the work printed by Ludwig Künigs, at Basle, 1599 (See No.
85); and a German work headed "Broderies sur filet," 50 plates engraved
upon copper.
73.
[Sidenote: 1591. _London. Wolf._]
New and singular patternes and workes of Linnen. Serving for patternes to
make all sortes of Lace edging and Cut-workes. Newly invented for the
profite and contentment of Ladies, Gentlewomen, and others that are
desirous of this Arte. London: Imprinted by J. Wolfe and Edward White,
1591.[1329]
EPISTLE TO THE READER.
Having framed a body of the best and rarest manner in true perfection
of sundrie sortes of deuises or workes, as well for frame-workes as
other needle-workes, I devised with all diligence and industrious
studie to sattisfy the gentle mindes of vertuous women by bringing to
light things never before as yet seene nor committed to print; All
which devises are soe framed in due proportion as taking them in order,
the one is formed or made by the other, and soe proceedeth forward;
Whereby with more {483}ease they may be sewed and wrought in Cloth, and
keeping true accompt of the threads, maintaine the bewtey of the worke.
And more, who desyrith to bring the worke into a lesser forme, let them
make the squares lesse. And if greater, then inlarge them, and so may
you worke in divers sortes, either by stitch, pouncing, or pouldering
upon the same as you please. Alsoe it is to be understood that these
squares serve not onely for cut-workes, but alsoe for all other manner
of seweing or stitching, noteing withall that they are made to keepe
the work or deuise in good order and even proportion--And even if ye
will that squares be greater, make of two, one, four, two, and soe they
will be larger. And in this manner may you proceed in all.
God prosper your desires.
Then follows the dedication:
To the Right Worshipful Gentlewoman, Mistress Susan Saltonstall, wife
to the right Worshipfull Mr. Richard Saltonstall, Alderman of the City
of London (afterwards Lord Mayor, and knighted in 1597).
It being my chance (Right Worshipfull) to lighten upon certaine
paternes of cut-worke and others brought out of Foreign Countries which
have bin greatly accepted of by divers Ladies and Gentlewomen of
sundrie nations and consequently of the common people; This seemed unto
mee a sufficient instance and argument to bestowe likewise some paines
for the publishing thereof, But being in suspense of the dedication two
causes induced mee to imbolden myselfe to present it unto your
acceptation and patronage: First because that rare devises and
inventions are for the most part more agreeable and gratefuller
accepted, than ordinarie and common things, although of great price and
value, Secondlie because these workes belong chiefly to Gentlewomen for
to passe away their time in vertuous exercises Wherefore to fit and
accommodate the dedication aright to the contents and subject of the
book I thought it not amisse to offer it unto your worship in token of
thankfullness for so many benefites which I have received so
bountifullie at your hands Assuring myselfe moreover that as these
patternes will bring sufficient contentment and profite to all
well-willers, that are desirous of this Arte, soe they shall for ever
acknowledge themselves to be beholden chiefly unto you, being the
chiefest occasion of the publishing and setting forthe thereof. And
therefore uppon hope that you will take these inventions in good parte,
which in time I am purposed (If God permit) to increase and augment
with more paternes of worke. In the meantime I pray God give to your
Worship a happie prosperous and long life with a full accomplishment of
all your vertuous desires.
Your worshipps most dutiful
Servant and Kinsman,
ADRIAN POYNTZ.
74.
[Sidenote: 1591. _Bologna. T. Pasini._]
Fiori di ricami nuovamente posti in luce ne i quali sono varii, et
diversi dissegni di lavori; Come Merli, Bauari, Manichetti, & altre sorti
di opere, che al presente sono in uso, utilissimi ad ogni stato di Donne.
Seconda Impressione.
Impresa of Mercury. Below--
In Bologna, per Giovanni Rossi. MDXCI. Ad instanza di Tomaso
Pasini.[1330]
{484}Obl. 8vo, 20 ff., 18 plates like Vecellio, one "bavaro."
Dedicated by the author to "La Signora Silveria Rossi Ghisolieri."
Mostly indented patterns on black grounds.
75.
[Sidenote: 1591. _Venice. F. di Franceschi._]
Prima Parte de' fiori, e disegni di varie sorti di Ricami moderni come
merli, bavari, manichetti, & altri nobili lavori che al presente sono in
uso.
A figure of Peace. Below--
In Venetia, Appresso Francesco di Franceschi Senese all' insegna della
Pace 1591.[1331]
Obl. 8vo, 20 ff., 17 plates in the style of Vecellio.
Dedication to "La Signora Gabriella Zeno Michele," signed "Di Venetia
alli 19 di Marzo, 1591, Giovanbattista Ciotti." The last plate a figure
of Fortune, with "Finis in Venetia 1591. Appresso Nicolo Moretti, ad
instantia di Francesco di Franceschi."
76.
[Sidenote: 1591. _Venice. F. di Franceschi._]
La vera perfettione del disegno di varie sorti di ricami & di cucire ogni
sorti de punti à foglami, punti tagliati, punti a fili & rimessi, punti
incrociati, punti à stuoro & ogn' altre arte, che dia opera à disegni. E
di nuovo aggiuntovi varie sorti di merli, e mostre, che al presente sono
in uso & in pratica.
Impresa of Peace differing from the preceding.
In Venetia, Appresso Francesco di Franceschi Senese all' insegna della
Pace. 1591.[1332]
Obl. 8vo, 86 ff., 72 plates.
Dedicated to "Signora Lucretia Contarini, per matrimonio Priula Nobile
Gentildonna Venetiana," by Giovanni Ostans.
A woodcut of Lucretia working with her maidens, signed Jose Sol. 1557.
Patterns, Small Squares, Gorgets, Youth, Paris, Pyramus and Thisbe,
Arabesques, Grotesques, and an Alphabet.
On the last leaf, dorso, A. B. C. D. "tutte sono quaderni." A figure
again of Peace, and "In Ven. 1590."
77.
[Sidenote: 1592. _Venice. 1st Book. C. Vecellio._]
Corona delle nobili et virtuose donne. Libro primo. Nel quale si dimostra
in varij Dissegni, tutti le sorti di Mostre di punti tagliati, punti in
aria, punti à Reticello, e d' ogni altra {485}sorte cosi per Freggi come
per Merli, & Rosette, che con l' Aco si usano hoggidì per tutta l'
Europa. Et molte delle quali Mostre possono servire anchora per Opere à
Mazzette. Aggiuntivi in questa Quarta impressione molti bellissimi
dissegni non mai più veduti.
Then follows the printer's impresa of the stork and serpent.
"Voluptatum et malorum effetuu dissipatio," with a lady at work on each
side, and below--
Con privilegio. In Venetia, Appresso Cesare Vecellio in Frezzaria nelle
Case de' Preti. 1592.[1333]
Which is repeated in the 2nd and 3rd Books.
Obl. 4to, 32 ff., 28 plates.
Dedication of Vecellio "Alla Clarissima, et Illustrissima Signora,
Viena Vendramina Nani, dignatissima Consorte dell' Illust^{amo} Sig.
Polo Nani, il Procurator di S. Marco," in which he refers to his work
on costume, and says that he dedicates this book to her for the delight
she takes in these works and "in farne essercitar le donne di casa sua,
ricetto delle piu virtuose giovani che hoggidì vivano in questa città."
Signed: Venice, Jan. 20, 1591.
Beautiful designs, among which are three corners for handkerchiefs, the
last lettered: "Diverse inventioni p. cantoni dee fazoletti."
On Plate 3, within a point coupé border, is a statue of Venus standing
upon a tortoise, with other figures, and above, "Conviensi, che della
Donna la bontà, & non la bellezza sia divulgata," and underneath:--
"Veneer io son, de le mirabil mani
Del dotto Fidia d' un bel marmo finta.
In me vedete atti gentili, e humani,
Ch' esser dè Donna à gentilezza accinta.
Io sopra una Testugine dimora,
Perchè stia in Casa, e sia tacita ogn' hora."
[Sidenote: _2nd Book._]
Corona delle nobili et virtuose donne. Libro secondo.
Nel quale si dimostra in varij Dissegni, tutte le sorti di Mostre de
puute tagliati, punti in aria, punti à Reticello, e d' ogni altra sorte,
cosi per Freggi, come per Merli, & Rosette, che con l' Aco si usano
hoggidì per tutta l' Europa. Et molti delle quali Mostre possono servire
anchora per Opere à Mazzette. Aggiuntivi in questa Quarta Impressione
molti bellissimi dissegni non mai più veduti. Con Privilegio. In Venetia,
Appresso Cesare Vecellio, in Frezzaria nelle Case de' Preti. 1592.
28 ff., 26 plates.
The dedication of this and the next book, though differently worded,
are addressed to the same lady as the first. This is dated Jan. 24,
1591.
Among the patterns are two designs for handkerchiefs, and on the last
plate a statue of Vesta, within a point coupé border.
[Sidenote: _3rd Book._]
Corono delle nobili et virtuose donne. Libro terzo. Nel {486}quale si
dimostra in varii dissegni molte sorti di Mostri di Punti in Aria, Punti
tagliati, Punti a reticello, and ancora di picciole; cosi per Freggi,
come per Merli, & Rosette, che con l' Aco si usano hoggidi per tutta
l'Europa. Con alcune altre inventione di Bavari all' usanza Venetiana.
Opera nouva e non più in luce. Con privilegio. In Venetia Appresso Cesare
Vecellio, stà in Frezzaria nelle Case de' Petri. 1592.
Dedication dated June 15, 1591. Vecellio says he has added "alcune
inventioni di bavari all' usanza nostra." In the copy (Bib. de
l'Arsenal, 11,955 _bis_) are added instructions to transfer the
patterns upon parchment without injuring the book. The last plate shows
how to reduce the patterns and how to prick them (Fig. 170). This is
sometimes given at the end of the first book instead of the third.
28 ff., 26 plates, two of bavari.
[Illustration: Fig. 170.
MANNER OF PRICKING THE PATTERN.--(Vecellio.)]
On Pl. 27, woman with a torch and Cupid. At Pl. 28, in a point coupé
border, is a fox holding the bust of a lady, the conceit of which is
explained by the verses to be, that sense is better than beauty:--
"Trovò la Volpe d' un Scultore eletto
Una testa sì ben formata, tale,
Che sol le manca Spirito havresti detto,
Tanto l' industria, e l' arteficio vale,
La prende in man, poi dice; O che perfetto
Capo, e gentil; ma voto è d' inteletto."
78.
[Sidenote: 1594. _Venice. C. Vecellio._]
Gioiello della corona per le nobili e virtuose donne. Libro quarto. Nel
quale si dimostra altri nuovi bellissimi Dissegni di tutte le sorte di
Mostre di Punti in Aria, Punti tagliati & Punti à Reticello; così per
Freggi, come per Merli, & Rosette, che con l' Aco si usano hoggidì per
tutta l' Europa. Et molte delle quali mostre possono servire anchora per
opere à Mazzette Nuovament posto in luce con molte bellissime inventioni
non mai più usate, nè vedute. Con privilegio. In Venetia, Appresso Cesare
Vecellio, in Frezzaria nella Casa de i Preti. 1594.
Same impresa of the stork and serpent.
Dedicated to the Sign. Isabella Palavicina Lupi Marchesa di Soragana,
dated "Venetia alli 20 Novembrio 1592." Cesare Vecellio. 30
plates.[1334]
{487}Vecellio, author of the _Corona_ and _Gioiello_, also published a
work on costume styled _Degli Habiti Antichi et Moderni_. _In Venezia_,
1590. _Presso Damian Zenero._ In the frontispiece is a salamander; on
the last leaf a figure of Vesta. It has been reproduced by F. Didot,
Paris.
He was not, as is often incorrectly stated, a relation, or even of the
same family as Titian.
These are the earliest impressions we have had an opportunity of
examining of Vecellio's works, which appear to have been widely
circulated. The Bib. de l'Arsenal possesses two copies of the _Corona_
(No. 11,955), from which we have described. In the other (No. 11,155
_bis_), Book 1 "ultima," Book 2 "quarta," are both dated 1593; and Book
3 "nuovamente ristampata la quarta volta," 1592. The plates all the
same.
The Library of Rouen (No. 1,315) has a volume containing the _Corona_
and _Gioiello_. Book 1 "quarta Imp.," Book 2 "ultima," both dated 1594;
and Book 3 "quinta," 1593. The _Gioiello_, 1593.
In the Bodleian is a copy of the three books, date 1592; and another,
date 1561, was in the possession of the late Mrs. Dennistoun of
Dennistoun.
At Venice, in the Doge's Library, is a volume containing the three
books of the _Corona_ and the _Gioiello_, dated 1593.
Mrs. Stisted, Bagni di Lucca, also possesses the three books of the
Corona, dated 1597, and the Gioiello, 1592.
At Bologna the Library has one volume, containing the first and second
books only, evidently the original impressions. The titles are the same
as the above, only to each is affixed, "Opera nuova e non più data in
luce," and "Stampata per gli Hered' della Regina. 1591. An instantia di
Cesare Vecellio, Stà in Frezzaria."
The same Library also possesses a volume, with the three books of the
_Corona_, the first and third "ottava," the second "quarta," and the
_Gioiello_, "nuovamente posto in luce." All "In Venetia appresso gli
heredi di Cesare Vecellio, in Frezzaria. 1608."
At Vienna, in the new Museum for Art and Industry, is a copy of the
five books, dated 1601.[1335]
Cav. Merli cites from a copy of the four books, dated 1600.
The various impressions, therefore, date from 1591 to 1608.
We see these different parts, like those of Vinciolo and all these old
collections, have been printed and reprinted independently of each
other, since the third part was at its fifth impression in 1593, while
the first, which ought to have preceded it, was only at its fourth in
1594.[1336]
79.
[Sidenote: 1593. _St. Gall. G. Strauben._]
New Model Buch darinnen allerley Gattung schöner Modeln der newen
aussgeschitnen Arbeit auff Krägen, Hempter, Jakelet und dergleichen zu
newen, so zuvor in Teutschlandt nicht gesehen. Allen thugentsamen Frawen
und Jungkfrawen, Nätterinnen, auch allen audern so lust zu solcher
kunstlichen Arbeit haben, sehr dienstlich.
{488}Getruckt in uerlegung George Strauben, von S. Gallem, Anno
1593.[1337]
_Translation._
New Patternbook, in which are all sorts of beautiful patterns of the new
cutwork for collars, shirts, jackets, and such like, such as never before
were seen in Germany. Most useful to all virtuous dames and such artistic
works, very respectfully dedicated.
Printed for the publisher, G. Strauben.
A reprint of the third book of Vecellio's Corona.
80.
[Sidenote: _N.D. Lindau am Bodensee._]
Neu Model-Buch, darinnen allerley gattung schöner Modeln der neuen, etc.
Probably a reprint of No. 79.
27 plates.
81.
[Sidenote: 1597. _Liége. J. de Glen._]
Les singuliers et nouveaux pourtraits, pour toutes sortes de lingeries de
Jean de Glen, dediés à Madame Loyse de Perez; à Liége, chez Jean de Glen,
l'an 1597.[1338]
Obl. 4to, 39 plates, mostly borrowed from Vinciolo, as well as the
title.
82.
[Sidenote: 1596. _Florence. M. Florini._]
Fior di Ricami nuovamente porti in luce. Fiorenze, 1596, ad instanza di
Mattheo Florini.
4to obl., 24 plates and 2 leaves of text.[1339]
83.
[Sidenote: 1603. _Siena. M. Florini._]
Fiori di Ricami nuovamente porti in luce nei quali sono varie et diversi
disegni di lavori, como merli, bavari, manichetti e altre sorte di opera.
Siena, appresso Matteo Florini, 1603.
4to obl., 24 pages.[1340]
84.
[Sidenote: 1603. _Siena. M. Florini._]
Giojello, &c. Nel quale si di mostra altri novi bellissimi disegni di
tutte le sorte, di mostre &c. ... di punti &c., cosi {489}per fregi come
per merli et rosette che con l' aco si usanno hoggi di per tutte l'
Europa. Opere a Mazzetto nuovamente posta in luce con motte bellissime
inventioni non mai più usate ne vedute. In Siena, Matteo Florini MDCIII.
4to obl. (Cited by Marquis d'Adda.)
85.
[Sidenote: 1597. _Nuremberg. B. Laimoxen._]
Schön neues Modelbuch von allerley lüstigen Mödeln naczunehen zu würken
un zu sticke; gemacht im Jar Ch. 1597, zu Nürmberg, bey Balthaser
Laimoxen zu erfragen.[1341]
_Translation._
Fine new Patternbook of all sorts of pleasant patterns for sewing,
working, and embroidering: made in the year of Christ 1597, at Nurmberg:
to be had of Balthasar Laimoxen.
Obl. fol., 27 ff.
5 sheets, title-page, and poem, signed J. S. (Johann Sibmacher.)
Mr. Gruner has communicated to us a work with the same title, dated
1591.[1342]
86.
[Sidenote: 1598. _Montbéliard. J. Foillet._]
Nouveaux pourctraicts de point coupé et dantelles en petite moyenne et
grande forme nouvellement inventez & mis en lumiere Imprimé a Montbéliard
par Jacques Foillet (|)|)xciix (1598).[1343]
Small 4to, 82 ff., 78 plates.
Frontispiece with borders composed of squares of point coupé.
"Avertissement aux dames," of three pages, stating these works are all
composed of "point devant l'esguille, de point en toille, en bouclages,
& de cordonnages." The writer gives patterns of roses of all sizes,
"very little, middling, large, and very large," with from one to nine
_pertuis_, or openings, holes. Also Carreaux in different forms, and
lastly _dantelles_. "Je n'ay voulu omettre de vous dire que pour faire
des dantelles, il vous fault jetter un fil de la grandeur que desiré
faire vos dantelles, & les cordonner, puis jetter les fils au dedans,
qui fera tendre le cordon & lui donnera la forme carrée, ronde, ou
telle forme que desires, ce qu'estant faict vous paracheverès
facilement. Enoultre vous verrez qu'estant bien petites deviennent peu
a peu bien grandes jusques a la fin. Elles vous enricheront &
embelliront vos ouvrages en les applicant aux bords d'iceux."
Directions, we confess, perfectly enigmatical to us. The author
finishes by exhorting the ladies to imitate Minerva and Arachne, "qui
ont acquis un grand renom, pour avoir (c[=o]me à l'envie l'une de
l'autre) travaillé de l'esguille."
The avertissement is followed by an "Exhortation aux jeunes filles." in
verse, of 21 lines, beginning--
"Si nuisible est aux humains la paresse," etc.
40 patterns of "roses," of point coupé.
{490}And 18 of "Carreaux," variously disposed.
Then follow 20 patterns of lace, of "bien petites, petites, moyennes, &
grosses," all "au point devant l'Esguille." (See Figs. 8 to 12.)
At the end: "La fin courone l'oeuvre." This is the earliest
pattern-book in which the word "dantelle" occurs.
87.
[Sidenote: 1598. _Montbéliard. J. Foillet._]
New Modelbuch darinnen allerley ausgeschnittene Arbeit, in kleiner,
mittelmässiger und grosser form erst neulich erfunden. Allen tugenden
Frawen vnnd Jungfrawen sehr nutzlich. Gedruckt zu Mumpelgarten durch
Jacob Foillet, 1598.[1344]
88.
[Sidenote: 1599. _Basle._]
Fewrnew Modelbuch von allerhandt Künstlicher Arbeidt, nämlich Gestricht,
Aussgezogen, Aussgeschnitten, Gewiefflet, Gesticht, Gewirckt, und Geneyt:
von Wollen, Garn, Faden, oder Seyden: auff der Laden, und Sonderlich auff
den Ramen, Jetzt Erstmals in Teutschlandt an Tag gebracht: Zu Ehren und
Gl[=u]cklicher Zeitvetreibung allen dugentsamen Frawen, und Jungfrawen
Nächerinen, auch allen andern, so lust zu solcher Kunstlicher Arbeit
haben sehr dienstlich. Getruckt zu Basel.
In verlegung Ludwig K[=u]nigs MDXCIX.[1345]
Small obl., 33 ff., 32 plates.
Frontispiece border of point coupé. Title in Gothic red and black.
Patterns, mostly borders, number of stitches given, "Mit xxxxvii.,
Bengen," etc. "Ende dieses modelbuchs."
89.
[Sidenote: 1601. _Paris._]
Béle Prérie contenant divers caracters, et differentes sortes de lettres
alphabetiques, à sçavoir lettres Romaines, de formes, lettres pour
appliquer sur le reseuil ou lassis, et autres pour marquer sur toile et
linges, par Pier. le Bé. Paris, 1601.[1346]
In 4to obl.
90.
[Sidenote: 1601. _Nuremberg. Sibmacher._]
Modelbuch in Kupfer gemacht, Nürmberg, bei Michel Kuisner, 1601, by J.
Sibmacher.[1347]
91.
[Sidenote: 1604. _Nuremberg. J. Sibmacher._]
Newes Modelbûch fûr Kûpfer gemacht, darinnen allerhand art newen Model
von dem Mittel und Dick ausgeschniden duer {491}Arbeit auch andern
kunstlichen Nahework zu gebrauchen mit Fluss fur druck verfertigt. Mit
Röm. Kais. Maj trentich Nürmberg 1604.[1348]
_Translation._
New book of patterns (on copper) in which are copied out all kinds of new
patterns for thick and thin materials, to be used also in the making of
other artistic needlework.
Obl. 4to, 58 plates carefully engraved upon copper.
Title-page surrounded by a richly ornamented border, with two figures,
one sewing, the other at embroidery; also a second ornamented
frontispiece, dedication to Maria Elizabeth, Electress Palatine, dated
1601. Nuremberg, J. Sibmacher, citizen and engraver.
Then follow five pages of dialogue, given page 6, note 24, and 227.
A printed title to the next plate. "The following pattern may be worked
in several different ways, with a woven seam, a flat, round, or crossed
Jew stitch."[1349] It is probably meant for cut-work made on thin
materials.
Then follow 58 leaves of patterns, the greater number of which have the
number of rows written over each pattern. Pl. 38, with two patterns, is
inscribed, "The following patterns are for thick cut-work." In the
upper pattern, on the first leaf, are the arms of the Palatine; on the
second, those of Juliers and Mark.
92.
[Sidenote: 1600. _Venice. I. C. Parasole._]
Pretiosa gemma delle virtuose donne dove si vedono bellissimi lavori di
ponti in aria, reticella, di maglia e piombini disegnati da Isabella
Catanea Parasole. E di nuovo dati in luce da Luchino Gargano con alcuni
altri bellissimi lavori nuovamente inventati. Stampata in Venetia ad
instantia di Luchino Gargano MDC.[1350] See also No. 99.
93.
[Sidenote: _N. D._]
Allerhand Model zum Stricken un Nähen.[1351]
Obl. 4to, 64 plates. No date.
94.
[Sidenote: 1604. _Padua. P. P. Fozzi._]
A book of models for point coupé and embroidery, published at Padua,
October 1st, 1604, by Pietro Paolo Fozzi. "Romano."[1352]
95.
[Sidenote: 1605. _Frankfort on the Mayn. S. Latomus._]
Schön newes Modelbuch von 500 schönen aussor wählten, Kunstlichen, so wol
Italiähnischen, Frantzösischen, {492}Niederländischen, Engelländischen,
als Teutschen Mödeln, Allen, Näher.... hstichern, &c., zu nutz. (_Some of
the words are illegible._)
Livre des Modelles fort utile à tous ceux qui besoignent à l'esguille.
At the foot of last page recto is, "Franckfurt am Mayn, bey Sigismund
Latomus, 1605."[1353]
Small obl. 100 plates (Fig. 171), and coloured title-page with figures.
[Illustration: Fig. 171.
FRANKFORT-ON-THE-MAIN, 1605.]
In the first plate is an escutcheon with this monogram (Fig. 172)
surrounded with embroidery.
[Illustration: Fig. 172.
MONOGRAM.]
In the Nuremberg copy it is at p. 83.
96.
[Sidenote: 1607. _Frankfort on the Mayn. S. Latomus._]
Schön newes Modelbuch, Von hundert vnd achtzig schönen kunstreichen vnd
gerechten Mödeln, Teutsche vnd Welsche, welche auff mancherley Art können
geneet werden, als mit Zopffnath, Creutz vnnd Judenstich, auch auff Laden
zu wircken: Dessgleichen von ausserlesenen Zinnigen oder Spitzen. Allen
Seydenstickern, Mödelwirckerin, Näderin, vnd solcher Arbeitgeflissenen
Weibsbildern sehr dienstlich, vnd zu andern Mustern {493}anleytlich vnd
verstendig. Franckfurt am Mayn, In Verlegung Sigismundi Latomi.
M.D.C.VII.[1354]
Small 4to obl. 180 patterns.
Sheets A-O (the last has only 3 leaves). On the title-page are two
ladies, one working at a pillow, the other at a frame; in the
back-ground, other women employed at various works. Another copy dated
1629. Mr. Arnold and Mr. F. S. Ellis.
97.
[Sidenote: 1605. _Paris. M. Mignerak._]
La pratique de l'aiguille industrieuse du très excellent Milour Matthias
Mignerak Anglois, ouvrier fort expert en toute sorte de lingerie ou sont
tracez Divers compartimens de carrez tous differans en grandeur et
invention avec les plus exquises bordures, desseins d'ordonnances qui se
soient veux jusques à ce jourd'hui tant poetiques historiques, qu'au tres
ouvrages de point de rebord. Ensemble Les nouvelles invencions Françoises
pour ce qui est de devotion et contemplation. A la Tres-Chrestiene Roine
de France et de Navarre. Avec privilege 1605 du Roy.[1355]
A Paris, par Jean Leclerc, rue St.-Jean de Latran, à la Salamandre
roialle.
EXTRACT FROM "DISCOURS DU LACIS."
"Ce chef d'oeuvre divin n'est pas à l'adventure
Mais par art composé, par nombre, et par mesure;
Il commence par un, et va multipliant
Le nombre de ses trouz qu'un noeud va reliant,
Sans perdre aucunement des nombres d'entresuitte,
Croissant, et decroissant d'une mesme conduitte:
Et ainsi qu'il commence il acheve par un,
Du monde le principe et le terme commun.
Si l'on veut sans faillir cet ouvrage parfaire,
Il faut multiplier, adjouster, et soustraire:
Il faut bien promptement assembler, et partir,
Qui veut un beau Lacis inegal compartir.
Mais se peut il trouver, souz la voute azurée,
Chose plus justement en tous sens mesurée?
Ouvrage ou il y ait tant de proportions,
De figures, de traicts et de dimensions?
D'un point premièrement une ligne l'on tire,
Puis le filet courbé un cercle va descrire,
Et du cercle noué se trouve le quarré
Pour lequel retrouver tant d'esprits ont erré.
De six mailles se faict une figure egale,
De trois costez esgaux, pour forme pyramidale:
Et l'ouvrage croissant, s'en forme promptement
{494}
Une autre dont les deux sont egaux seulement.
Si l'on tire un des coings, se forme une figure.
D'un triangle en tout sens, d'inegale mesure.
Le moule plus tiré faict les angles pointuz,
Et l'ouvrage estendu faict les angles obtuz.
De mailles à la fin un beau quarré se faict,
Composé de quarrez, tout egal, et parfaict,
Quarré qui toutesfois se forme variable,
Or en lozange, et or en figure de table.
La bande de Lacis recouvert, à nos yeux,
Est comme un beau pourtraict de l'escharpe des cieux,
Dont chaque endroit ouvré nous represente un signe,
Le milieu, les degrez de l'Eclyptique ligne;
Le quarré, des vertus le symbole, et signal
De science du livre et bonnet doctoral,
Nous va representant l'Eglise et la Justice.
La façon de lacer figure l'exercice
D'enfiler une bague on bien l'art d'escrimer.
. . . . .
Le lacis recouvert sert de filet aux dames
Pour les hommes suprendre et enlacer leurs ames,
Elles en font collets, coiffures, et mouchoirs,
Des tentures de lits, tauayoles, pignoirs,
Et maint autre ornement dont elles les enlacent,
C'est pourquoi en laçant les femmes ne se lassent."
In 4to, 76 ff., 72 plates.
Frontispiece: Two ladies, with frames in their hands, labelled "Diana"
and "Pallas." On the top, an escutcheon per pale France and Medicis,
supported by Cupids. Beneath, Cupids with distaff and winding reels.
Between the sides of a pair of scissors is a cushion on which is
extended a piece of lacis, a "marguerite" in progress. (See Fig. 6.)
Above, "Petrus Firens fecit, I. le Clerc excud." Below, "A Paris par
Jean le Clerc Rue St. Jean de Latran à la Salamandre royalle."
Dedication of Jean le Clerc "A la royne," then Marie de Medicis,
stating: "J'avois recouvré d'un personnage Anglois tres-expert en toute
sorte de Lingerie;" but who this Milour Mignerak may be, history tells
not.
Then follows the "Discours du Lacis," a poem, of which we give an
extract.
The privilege is signed Aug. 2, 1605.
The patterns consist of the Queen's arms and cypher, 4 Scripture
subjects: Adam and Eve, the annunciation, Ecce Homo, and Magdalen; 4
Elements, 4 Seasons; Roman Charity, Lucretia, Venus, and "Pluye d'or;"
6 Arbes à fruit, 6 Pots à fleurs, 30 Carrés grands, moyens et petits; 6
Bordures, and, what is quite a novelty, 6 "Passements faits au fuseau."
(See Fig. 13): the first mention of pillow lace in any of the French
pattern-books.
98.
[Sidenote: 1613. _Paris. F. Vinciolo._]
Les secondes oeuvres, et subtiles inventions de Lingerie du Seigneur
Federic de Vinçiolo Venitien; nouvellement augmenté de plusieurs carrez
de point de rebort. Dediée à Madame, soeur unique du roy. Ou sont
representees plusieurs figures de Reseau, nombres de Carrez et Bordures
tous differents, le tout de poinct conté, avec autres sortes de Carrez de
nouvelles inventions non encore vues.
{495}A Paris. Par Jean le Clerc, rue sainct Jean de Latran, à la
Salemandre, 1613. Avec privilege du Roy.[1356]
A scarce and valuable volume, the fullest edition of the second part of
Vinciolo's work.
4to, 68 ff., 61 plates.
It contains a--
SONNET AUX DAMES & DAMOYSELLES.
"Esprits rarement beaux qui fuyez la paresse,
Je vous fais un present qui la pourra chasser,
Quand vous desirez de gayement passer
Vostre temps, et monstrer de vostre main l'adresse.
Le present est utile et plein de gentillesse,
Il monstre les moyens de bien entrelasser.
Et faire au point couppé tout ce qu'on peut penser.
Cet exercise plaist à Pallas la Deesse.
Par ses enseignemens, avec l'esguille on fait
Des fleurons, des oyseaux, en ouvrage parfait,
Des chiffres et des noeuds, tels que l'amour desire.
Aymez cet exercise, et vous y occupez,
Et puis vous cognoistrez que sur les points couppez
En diverses façons quelque portrait se tire."
The author's address to the reader, and a
Dedication to "Madame, soeur unique du roy" (Catherine de Bourbon,
sister of Henry IV., married, 1599, to the Duc de Bar), signed by Le
Clerc.
On the second plates are her arms, a lozenge, France and Navarre with
crown and cordelière, and the same lozenge also surmounts the decorated
frontispiece, supported on either side by a genius (?) working at a
frame and point coupé drapery.
7 Scripture subjects: The Salutation, St. Sacrement, Passion,
Crucifixion, Adoration of the Kings, etc.; the number of the stitches
given to each.
2 Stomachers, and various patterns of "carrez " and borders. 2 of
"Point de rebort."
At the end is the "Discours du Lacis," already printed by Mignerak.
99.
[Sidenote: 1616. _Rome. E. C. Parasole._]
Teatro delle nobili et virtuose donne, dove si rappresentano varij
disegni di lavori novamente inventati et disegnati da Elisabetta Catanea
Parasole Romana.
Dedicata alla Serenissima Principessa Donna Elisabetta Borbona d'
Austria, Principessa di Spagna, da E. C. Parasole. Data di Roma a di 5
Marzo 1616.[1357] Other editions, 1620, 1625, and 1636. The last is
dedicated to the Grand Duchess of {496}Tuscany, and has the Medici and
Della Rovere arms in the title-page.
Obl. 4to, 47 ff., 46 plates (44 in Prince Massimo's copy) beautifully
executed, the titles printed to each plate, as "Lavori di punti in
aria, Merletti di ponti reticella, Merletti a piombini," etc. (See Fig.
15.)
100.
[Sidenote: 1600. _Venice. I. C. Parasole._]
Pretiosa gemme delle virtuose donne dore si vedono bellisimi lavori di
ponto in aria, reticella, dimaglia e piombini disegnati da Isabella
Catanea Parasole. E di nuovo dati in luce da Luchino Gargano con alcuni
altri bellisimi lavori nuovamente inventate. Stampata in Venetea ad
instantia de Luchino Gargano MDC.[1358]
101.
[Sidenote: 1625. _Rome. I. C. Parasole._]
Gemma pretiosa delle virtuose donne, dore si vedono bellisimi lavori de
Ponti in Aria, Reticella, di Maglia, e Piombini disegnatida Isabella
Catanea Parasole.
In Rome, appreso Guliegno Facciotti, 1625.
102.
[Sidenote: 1618. _Frankfort on the Mayn. D. Meyer._]
Zierat Buch, von allerhandt Kutschnur, Schleyer deckel, Krägen,
Leibgürtel, Passmenten, Händschug, Wehrgeheng und Schubenehen,
Messerscheyden, Secklen, Früchten, Blumen und ands. mehr.
Allen Perlenbefftern, Nederin, Lehrinngen und andern welche lust zu
dieser Kunst tragen, sehr nützlich.
Inn diese Format zusammen ordiniert und gsetzt durch Daniel Meyer
Mahlern. 1ster Theil.
Franckfuhrt am Mayn, bey Eberhardt Kusern zu finden.
11 ff., 9 plates.
_Translation._
Decoration book of all sorts of Cords, Veil covers, Collars, Belts,
Laces, Gloves, Shoulder knots, shoe-seams (?), Knife sheaths, Bags,
Fruit, Flowers, and other things besides. Very useful to all
Beadworkers, Seamstresses, Apprentices, and others, who take a pleasure
or are fond of this art. Arranged and put into this form by D. M. M.
1st part.
103.
[Sidenote: 1619. _Leipsic. A. Bretschneider._]
New Modelb[)u]ch Darinnen allerley kunstliche Virsirung und Müster
artiger Z[)u]ege und schöner Bl[)u]mmen zu zierlichen Ueberschlagen,
Haupt Schurtz Schn[)u]ptüchern Hauben Handschuhen, Uhren (?) gehenzen,
Kampfütern [)u]nd dergleichen auf Muhler naht und Seidenst[)u]cker arbeit
gantz Kunstlich gemahlt {497}und vorgerissen, dergleichen sie bevorn noch
nie in Druck ausgegangen. 16 Leipzicht 19.
Inn Verleg[)u]ng Henning Grosseren, de J[)u]ngeren Andreas Bretschneider
Mahller.[1359]
_Translation._
New pattern-book, in which all sorts of artistic ornamentations and
patterns of pretty stuffs and beautiful flowers for covers for Head,
Aprons, and Pocket-handkerchiefs, Caps, Gloves, Clock cases, Comb
Cases, and such like, artistically sketched from painter and silk
embroiderer's work, and which have never before gone out of print.
Small folio, 53 plates, and half a sheet of text, containing the
dedication of the work to Madame Catherine von Dorstats, née Löser.
There appear to be 3 plates wanting.
104.
[Sidenote: 1624. _London._]
A Schole House for the Needle. 1624.[1360]
Obl. 4to. Was sold at the White Knight's sale for £3 15s.
105.
[Sidenote: 1620. _Venice. Lugretia Romana._]
Corona delle nobili et virtuose donne. Libro terzo. Nel quale si dimostra
in varii dissegni tutte le sorti di Mostre di punti tagliati e punti in
aria, punti Fiamenghi, punti a Retcello, e d' ogn' altra sorte, Cosi per
Fregi, per merli e Rosette, che con Aco si viano hoggidi per lutta
l'Europa. E molte delle quali Mostre porsono Serviri ancora per opera à
Mozzete. Con le dichiarationi a le Mostre a' Lavori fatti da Lugretia
Romana. In Venetia, appresso Allessandro de Vecchi, 1620.[1361]
27 ff., obl. 8vo.
106.
[Sidenote: 1625. _Venice. Lugretia Romana._]
Corona delle Nobili et Virtuose Donne, Libro primo, nel quale si dimostra
in varij Dissegni tutte le sorti di Mostre di punti tagliati, punti in
Aria, punti Fiamenghi, punti a Reticello, e d' ogni altre sorte, cosi per
Freggi, per Merli, e Rosette, che con l' Aco si usano per tutta l'Europa.
E molte delle quali Mostre possono servire ancora per opere a Mazzete.
Con le dichiarazioni a le Mostre, a Lavori fatti da Lugretia Romana.
In Venetia appresso Alessandro de Vecchi MDCXXV. Si vendono in Venetia al
Ponte de' Baretteri alla libreria delle tre Rose.[1362]
Lady Wilton, in her _Art of Needlework_, quotes a copy dated 1620.
Obl. 4to, ff. 27. Portrait of Maria d'Aragon.
{498}107.
[Sidenote: _N. D. Venice. Lucretia Romana._]
Ornamento nobile, per ogni gentil matrona, dove si contiene bavari, frisi
d' infinita bellezza, lavori, per Linzuoli, Traverse, e Facuoli, Piena di
Figure, Ninfe, Satiri, Grotesche, Fontane, Musiche, Caccie di Cervi,
Uccelli, ed altri Animali. Con ponti in aria, fiamenghi, et tagliati, con
Adornamenti bellissimi, da imperare, per ogni Virtuosa Donna, che si
diletta di perfettamente cucire. Opera, per Pittori, Scultori, e
disegnatori giovevole alle lor professioni, Fatta da Lucretia Romana, il
quinto volume di Suoi lavori. Dedicato alle Virtuose donne, in
Venetia.[1363]
Fol., 20 plates.
Frontispiece, in point coupé frame. A woman in classic attire is
represented under a Doric porch, standing on a tortoise, symbol of a
home-loving woman. (See No. 77.) She holds a ball of thread in her
hand. Behind, on the left, are two women at work; on the right, a
sculptor chiselling a statue of Minerva.
The plates, which are rich and beautiful, are each accompanied by a
short explanation, as "Degna de esser portata de ogni imperatrice;"
"Hopera bellissima che per il piu il Signora Duchesa et altre Signore
si servano per li suoi Lavori;" "Questa bellissima Rosette usano auco
le gentildonne Venetiane da far traverse," etc. (Fig. 173.)
The bavari are executed in three different stitches: punto d' aieri, p.
flamingo, and p. tagliato. This author and Vecellio give Flemish
patterns (punti Fiamenghi). They consist mostly of rosettes and stars
(gotico).
108.
[Sidenote: 1623. _Paris._]
Les excellents eschantillons, patrons et modelles du Seigneur Federic de
Vinciolo Venitien, pour apprendre à faire toutes sortes d'ouvrages de
Lingerie, de Poinct couppé, grands et petits passements à jour, et
dentelles exquises. Dediez à la Royne. A Paris. Chez la Veufve Jean le
Clerc, ruë Sainct Jean de Latran, à la Salamandre Royalle. Avec Privilege
du Roy, 1623.[1364]
In 4to, 56 ff.
The old frontispiece and same "Avertissement."
Dedication to the Queen, Anne of Austria.
The Goddess Pallas invented "les ouvrages de lingerie, le poinct
couppé, les grands and petits passements à jour, toutes sortes de
dentelles, tant pour se desennuyer que se parer, par l'artifice de ses
ingenieuses mains. Araciné s'y adonna, and bien qu'inferieure se
voulant comparer à elle & en venir à l'experience, mais sa presomption
fut chastiée." Many illustrious ladies have delighted in this "honneste
exercise." Fastrade and Constance, wives of the Emperor Charlemagne and
of King Robert, "s'employèrent de cette manufacture, & de leurs
ouvrages ornèrent les églises & les autels." This royal "mestier" has
reached perfection through the works of Vinciolo. I reprint and again
increase his work, which I dedicate to your Majesty, to whom I presume
they will be agreeable; the subject of which it treats is "une
invention de déesse & une occupation de Royne--vous estant autant Royne
des vertus que vous l'estes de deux royaumes." Signed, "la Veufve de
feu Iean le Clerc."
Same sonnet.
Privilege for six years, dated Paris, last day of March, 1623.
55 ff., 58 plates, 24 ouvrages de point couppé and 8 of "Passements au
fuzeau" (see Figs. 14 and 15), and alphabet.
[Illustration: Fig. 173.
BAVARO DI PONTO D' AERE.--Con belissime figure ed altri flori.
"BAVARI."--From _Ornamento mobile_ of Lucretia Romana.
_To face page 498._]
{499}109.
A Schole Howse for the Needle. Teaching by sundry sortes of patterns and
examples of different kindes, how to compose many faire workes; which
being set in order and forme according to the skill and understanding of
the workwoman will, no doubt, yield profit unto such as live by the
needle and give good content to adorne the worthy. London printed in Shoe
Lane at the "Faulcon" by Richard Shorleyker, 1632.
TO THE READER.
Gentle Reader, I would have you know that the Diversities of Examples
which you shall find in this "Schoole-howse for the Needle" are only
but patternes which serve but to helpe and inlarge your invention. But
for the disposing of them into forme and order of Workes that I leave
to your own skill and understanding. Whose ingenious and well practised
wits will soe readily (I doubt not) compose them into such beautiful
formes as will be able to give content, both to the workers and the
wearers of them. And againe for your behoafe I have in the end of this
booke made two scales or checker patternes which by enlarging or
contracting into greater or lesser squares you may enlarge or make
lesser any of the saide patternes and examples in the booke or any
other whatever.
VALE!
And because I would not have any one mistaken in any of these patternes
contayned in this Booke, for some peradventure will look to find workes
set out in order as they should be wrought with the needle or florished
upon the Tent, &c. But as I have said before in the beginning of this
Booke, that, that is here published are only but diversitie of
patternes, out of which the workwoman is to take her choice of one or
more at her pleasure and so have them drawne out into forme and order
of worke. Of which skill if it may be I would have serving-men (such as
have time enough) to practice and be skilful in which will be quickly
learned if they would, with a little patience applie their mindes to
practise it. A quarter of the time that they spend in playing at cards,
tables, quaffing and drinking would make them excellent in this
knowledge especially such as are ingenious and indued with good wits,
as for the most part all of them have; Againe it is a thing that no
doubt would yield them both praise and profit, beside the pleasure and
delight it would be unto them, and a good inducement to drawe on others
of their own ranke and qualitie to the like practice and imitation.
110.
[Sidenote: 1632. _London._]
Here followeth certaine patternes of Cut-workes; and but once Printed
before. Also sundry sorts of Spots, as Flowers, Birds, and Fishes, &c.,
and will fitly serve to be wrought, some {500}with Gould, some with
Silke, and some with Gewell (_sic_) or otherwise at your pleasure.
London; Pinted (_sic_) in Shoe-lane, at the signe of the Faulcon, by
Richard Shorleyker. 1632.[1365]
Obl. 4to.
The copy in the Bodleian is probably due to the above. It has no date
and varies in title: "Newly invented and never published before," with
"crewell in coullers," etc.; and "Never but once published before."
Printed by Rich. Shorleyker.
33 patterns and title.
111.
[Sidenote: 1640.]
The needles excellency, a new booke wherein are divers admirable workes
wrought with the needle. Newly invented and cut in copper for the
pleasure and profit of the industrious. Printed for James Boler, &c.,
1640.[1366]
"Beneath this title is a neat engraving of three ladies in a flower
garden, under the names of Wisdom, Industrie, and Follie. Prefixed to
the patterns are sundry poems in a commendation of the needle, and
describing the characters of ladies who have been eminent for their
skill in needlework, among whom are Queen Elizabeth and the Countess of
Pembroke. These poems were composed by John Taylor, the Water Poet. It
appears the work had gone through twelve impressions.... From the
costume of a lady and gentleman in one of the patterns, it appears to
have been originally published in the reign of James I."--(Douce.) From
this description of the frontispiece, it seems to be copied from
Sibmacher.
"The Needle's Excellency, or a new Book of Patterns, with a poem by
John Taylor, in Praise of the Needle." London, 1640. Obl. 4to, engraved
title, and 28 plates of patterns. Sold, 1771, £6 17s. 6d. (Lowndes,
_Bibliographer's Manual_. New edit., by H. Bohn). Another copy of the
same date, marked 12th edition, is in the Library of King's College,
Cambridge. It consists of title, four leaves with the poem, subscribed
John Taylor, and 31 leaves of copper cuts of patterns.
112.
[Sidenote: 1642 _Pistoja. P. A. Fortunato._]
Le Pompe di Minerva, per le nobili e virtuose donne che con industriosa
mano di trattenersi dilettano di far Rezze, maglia quadra, punti in aria,
punti in tagliati, punti a reticello, cosi per fregio come per merletti e
rosette di varie sorti, si come oggidi con l'aco di lavorar usati per
tutto l'Europa, arrichite di bellissimi et vaghi intagli cavati da più
celebri autori di tal professione. In Pistoja, per Piero A. Fortunato.
In 8vo obl., dedicated to Caterina Giraldini, in Cellesi. August 20
1642.[1367]
{501}113.
[Sidenote: 1666. _Nuremberg._]
Dass Neue Modelbuch von schönen Nädereyen, Ladengewerk und Soterleins
arbeit. Ander theil. Nürnberg, bey Paulus Fürsten Kunsthändler.
Obl. 4to, 3 sheets of text, 50 plates.
Dedicated to the Princess Rosina Helena. Nürnberg, March 20,
1666.[1368]
114.
In the Bib. Imp. (Gravures, L. h. 4. c.) is a vol. lettered "Guipure,
gravures burin," containing a collection of patterns engraved on
copper, 43 plates, four of which are double, pasted in the book,
without title or date. Pomegranates, narcissus, lilies, carnations,
most of them labelled "Kreutzstick, Frantzösischenstick, and
Fadengewürck" (thread work), the number of stitches given, with Clocks
(Zwickel) of stockings and other patterns.
115.
[Sidenote: 1676. _Nuremberg. C. Gerharts._]
Model Buch, dritter Theil von unterschiedlicher Vögeln, Blumen und
Früchten &cte. Von und in Verlegung Rosina Helena Fürtin. Nürnberg,
Christoff Gerharts, 1676.
4to obl., engraved title and printed list; 42 wood plates, 4 large.
116.
[Sidenote: 1722. _Paris._]
Methode pour faire une infinité de desseins differens, avec des carreaux
mi-partis de deux couleurs par une ligne diagnonale ou observations du
père Dominique Donat, religieux carme de la province de Touleuse sur une
mémoire inserée dans l'histoire de l'Académie royale des sciences à
Paris, l'année 1704, presenté par le Rev. Père Sebastien Truchet. Paris,
1722.[1369]
72 geometric squares, with directions how to make them useful to
architects, painters, embroiderers, "tous ceux qui se servent de
l'aiguille," and others.
117.
[Sidenote: 1784. _Nuremberg and Leipzig. Christoph Weigel._]
Neues Neta- und Strickbuch fur das schöne Geschlecht, worinnen allerhand
Zierrathen, wie auch viele neue Zwickel, nebst Buchstaben und Zahlen,
sowohl zum Nähen als Stricken in zierlichen Nissen und Mustern befindlich
sind. Mit vielen Kupfertafeln. Nürnberg und Leipzig, der Christoph Weigel
und Schneider. 1784.[1370]
{502}118.
[Sidenote: _N. D. Nuremberg. F. M. Helmin._]
Continuation der kunst- und fleisz-übenden Nadel-Ergötzung oder des neu
ersonnenen besondern Nehe-Buchs dritter Theil, worinnen fleiszige
Liebhaberinnen deeser nöthig und nützlichen Wissenchaft, ihr kunstliches
Nadel-Exercitium, beij unterschiedlich vorfallenden Belegenheiten zu
haben allerhand noch nie vorgeko[=m]ene Muster zu Deso gebrauch, vorlegt
und en die Hand gegeben werden von Fr. Margaretha Helmin, zu finden in
Nürnberg bei Joh. Christoph Weigel. Nürnburg. No date.[1371]
Oblong fol.
119.
[Sidenote: _N. D. Nuremberg. J. Chr. Weigel._]
Zierlich webende Minerva, oder neu erfundenes Kunst- und Bild-Buch der
Weber- und Zeichner-Arbeit, worinnen treue Anweisung geschieht, wie man
kunstlich wirken und schöne Arbeit verfertigen soll, von der
vierschäfftigen an, bis auf zwey und dreissig-schafftige. Nurnberg
(Johann Christoph Weigel). No date.[1372]
49 plates in sheets.
{503}GLOSSARY OF TERMS.
_Bars._ See _Brides_.
_Bead Edge._ A simple heading for pillow lace.
_Bobbins._ Small elongated wooden or bone reels on which the thread is
wound for the purpose of lace-making. They are frequently ornamented with
patterns pricked or stained, and polished. They are weighted with "gingles"
or "jingles" (_i.e._, beads, coins, seals, seeds, or various articles).
_Brides._ A small strip or connection (1) of threads overcast with
buttonhole stitches, or (2) of twisted or plaited threads. It is used
instead of a ground-work of net; the word is French, its English equivalent
being _pearl-tie_. The French word is chiefly employed.
_Brides ornées_ = brides ornamented with picots, loops, or pearls.
_Buttonhole Stitch._ One of the chief stitches in needle-made lace; also
known as _close stitch_, _Point noué_, and _Punto a Feston_.
_Cartisane._ A strip of parchment or vellum covered with silk or gold or
metal thread, used to form a pattern.
_Close Stitch_ = Buttonhole stitch.
_Cordonnet._ The outline to ornamental forms. The cordonnet consists (1) of
a single thread, or (2) of several threads worked together to give the
appearance of one large thread, or (3) of a thread or horsehair overcast
with buttonhole stitches. In England called _gimp_.
_Couronnes._ Ornaments to the cordonnet. When they ornament the raised
cordonnet in the body of the pattern they are known as _fleurs volantes_.
_Coxcombs_ = Bars.
_Dentélé_ = Scalloped border.
_Droschel._ Flemish word used in Belgium for net-ground made with bobbins.
_Dressed Pillow._ A term used by bobbin-lace makers to intimate that all
accessories necessary are in their proper positions.[1373]
{504}_Edge._ There are two edges to lace; the outer, which in trimmings and
flounces is either scalloped or ornamented with picots, and the _engrêlure_
or _footing_.
_Engrêlure_ = Footing, or heading, of a lace, used to sew the lace on to
the material it is to decorate.
_Entoilage._ French term for a plain mesh ground or galloon.[1374]
_Fil de Crin._ A thick or heavy outline or cordonnet.[1374]
_Fil de Trace._ The name by which the outlines of needle-made laces are
distinguished.[1374]
_Fillings._ A word occasionally used for _modes_ or _jours_; fancy stitches
employed to fill in enclosed spaces in needle-made and bobbin laces.[1374]
_Flax._ Is composed of the filaments of the fibrous portion of _Linum
usitatissimum_, an annual, native of Europe, and from it linen thread is
spun. That of Flanders is the best for lace-making.
_Fleurs Volantes._ See _Couronnes_.
_Fond._ Identical with _champ_, _entoilage_, and _treille_. The groundwork
of needle-point or bobbin lace as distinct from the toilé or pattern which
it surrounds and supports. Grounds are divided into _fonds claires_,
_brides claires_, and _brides ornées_. The _fond claires_ include the
_Réseau_ or net-patterned grounds. _Fond de Neige_ is also known as _Oeil
de Perdrix_.
_Fond Simple._ Sometimes called _Point de Lille_; is the purest, lightest,
and most transparent of all grounds. The sides of the meshes are not partly
plaited as in Brussels and Mechlin, nor wholly plaited as in Valenciennes
and Chioggia; but four of the sides are formed by twisting two threads
round each other, and the remaining two sides by simply crossing of the
threads over each other. [See _Grounds_.][1374]
_Footing._ See _Engrêlure_.
_Gimp._ The _pattern_ which rests on the ground or is held together by
brides. The work should not, however be confounded with the material gimp,
which was formerly called _guipure_.
In Honiton and the Midlands, the word denotes the coarse glazed thread used
to raise certain edges of the design.[1374]
_Gingles._ A name given in Buckinghamshire, etc., to the bunches of
coloured beads hung on to bobbins by means of brass wire, in order to give
extra weight and so increase the tension of the threads.[1374]
{505}_Groppo_ [Italian]. A knot or tie.
_Grounds._ The grounds of laces are divided into two classes, one being
called the _bride_, the other the _Réseau_. The _bride_ ground is formed
with plain or ornamental bars, in order to connect the ornaments forming
the pattern. The _Réseau_ ground is a net made with the needle or with
bobbins, to connect the ornaments forming the pattern.
_Guipure._ A lace-like trimming of twisted threads. The word is now used to
loosely describe many laces of coarse pattern. _Guipure d'Art_ is the name
given to modern darned netting.[1375]
_Heading_ = _Footing_, _engrêlure_.
_Jours._ Ornamental devices occurring in various parts of a piece of lace.
The earliest forms of _jours_ may be seen in Venetian point lace, where
they are introduced into the centre of a flower or other such device.
[_Modes_ are identical with _jours_.]
_Legs_ = Bars.
_Mat_, or _Math_. The closely-plaited portions of flowers or leaves in
bobbin-made lace; also the closely-worked portion of any lace.[1375]
_Modes._ See _Jours_.
_Oeil de Perdrix._ See _Fond_.
_Orris._ A corruption of Arras. The term is now used to denote galloon for
upholstering purposes. In the eighteenth century it was applied to laces of
gold and silver.[1375]
_Passement._ Until the seventeenth century, laces, bands, and gimps were
called _passements à l'aiguille_; bobbin laces, _passements au fuseau_. At
present the word denotes the pricked pattern on parchment upon which both
needle-point and bobbin laces are worked.
_Passementerie._ Now used for all kinds of fringes, ribbons, and gimp for
dress trimmings.
_Pearls_, or _Purls_ = _Bars_.
_Pearl edge_, or _Purl edge_. A narrow thread edge of projecting loops used
to sew upon lace as a finish to the edge.[1375]
_Pearlin_, or _Pearling_ [Scotch]. Lace.
_Picot._ Minute loops worked on to the edge of a _bride_ or _cordonnet_, or
added as an enrichment to a flower--as in the case of rose point, in which
_picots_ play an important part.
{506}_Pillow Lace._ Lace made on the pillow, by twisting and plaiting
threads. The French term is _dentelle au fuseau_.
_Pizzo_ [Italian]. Lace.
_Ply_ = A single untwisted thread.
_Point Lace._ Lace made with the point of the needle. The French term is
_Point à l'aiguille_. The term point has been misused to describe varieties
of lace, such as _Point d'Angleterre_, _Point de Malines_, etc., which are
laces made on the pillow, and not with the point of the needle.
_Point de Raccroc._ A stitch used by lace-makers to join _réseau_ ground.
_Point Noué_ = Buttonhole stitch.
_Point Plat._ A French term for flat point executed without a raised
cordonnet or outline cord.[1376]
_Pricked._ The term used in pillow lace-making to denote the special
marking out of the pattern upon parchment.
_Pricker._ A short instrument used in bobbin lace to prick holes in the
pattern to receive the pins.[1376]
_Punto a Feston_ = Buttonhole stitch.
_Purls_ = _Brides_.
_Purlings_ = A stitch used in Honiton guipure to unite the bobbin-made
sprigs.[1376]
_Réseau._ Ground of small regular meshes made on the pillow in various
manners, and made by the point of the needle in fewer and less elaborate
manners. The French term, as here given, is generally used in preference to
any English equivalent.
_Réseau Rosacé._ See _Argentella_ (Ch. ARGENTAN).
_Rouissage._ The process of steeping the flax preparatory to its being spun
for lace-making.
_Rezél_, _Reseuil._ See LACIS, Chap. II.
_Runners._ The name by which the bobbins which work across a pattern in
bobbin lace are known.
_Sam cloth._ Old name for a sampler.
{507}INDEX
Aberdeen, qualifications of schoolmistress of, 431 n1209
Aberdein, Mrs. Frank, cited, 400 n1140
Abrahat, Mrs., pensioned by Queen Anne, 347
Abrantès, Duchesse d', 105, 128 n343, 185 n542, 186 and n545, 237 n638
Abruzzi, the, lace-making in, 68
Addison, cited, 349
Addo, Marquis d', 459 n1264
Adelaide, Queen, 409 and n1155, n1156
Adélaïde de France, 182
Adelhaïs, Queen (wife of Hugh Capet), 5
Agriculture, women employed in, lace-makers contrasted with, 370
Aquesseau, Chancellor d', quoted, 264
Alb lace, at Granada, 92
Albert, Archduke of Austria, 113 n326
------ Museum (Exeter), tallies in, 78 n242
Albissola, lace manufacture at, 75, 77 and n240, 78, 79 and n246
Alcuid, embroidery taught by, 6
Alenches, 249
Alençon
numbers of lace-workers at Chantilly and, (1851), 257 n688,
refugees from, in 18th century, 347
--------, Duke d', 140 n395
-------- lace (see Point d'Alençon)
Alice, Princess, bridal dress of, 409
Almagro, lace industry at, 102 and n297, 103 n305
Aloe thread, Florentine use of, 93 n273
---- thread lace
Greek, 86
Italian, 79 and n245
Portuguese, 107
Spanish, 91, 93, 99, 101
Alost Valenciennes, ground stitch of, 133
Altar-cloths,
alternate designs on, 24
Bock collection, in, 23
Prague, at (by Anne of Bohemia), 9
Altar frontal in point conté, (Mrs. Hailstone's), 23
Altenburg, 268
Alva, Duke of, 366 n1085
Alvin, M., 480 n1322
Amelia, Princess, 128
America,
impulse given to lace industry by U.S., 187
lace imported to, from--
Bailleul, 241
England (baby lace) 385
Grammont, 134
Italy, 75, 79
Mirecourt, 253
Portugal, 106
Saxony, 263
Spain, 102
Puritan lace-makers in, 372 n1099
war with, effect of, on lace trade, 408
Amsterdam, establishment of lace fabric at, 259
Anderson, quoted, 74, 83, 101, 124, 271,288, 371 n1093, 384, 396;
cited, 264 n709, 265 n713, 286, 397
--------, Lady, robbery at house of, 346
Angoulême, Duchesse d', 196
Anne of Austria,
influence of, on French fashions, 147, 150
Mechlin veil of, 125-126 and n356
pattern-book dedicated to, 144, 498
pilgrimage to Thierzac, 248
presents of English lace from Henrietta Maria to, 330 and n961, 401
---- of Bohemia, Queen (wife of Richard II.), altar-cloth by, 9
---- of Denmark,
cost of lace of, 317 and n904, 320 and n925
Elizabeth's old clothes presented to, 320
English home industries encouraged by, 319
foreign lace purchased by, 327
funeral of, 325 and n934
---- of England (Queen Anne)
household management of, 174 n516
Mechlin lace of, 126 and n360
period of, 347-350
Anspach, 265
--------, Margrave of, 178
Anti-Gallican Society
Edinburgh and Dublin Societies contemporaneous with, 429
prizes awarded by, 119, 262, 297, 355 and n1058, 374 and nn, 380, 395,
398, 404
records of, cited, 373
Antwerp
book sale at (1864), 482
Brussels lace made at, 130
Mechlin lace made at, 125
-------- lace
arrêt concerning (1688), 129 n365
Brussels lace compared with, 118
first mention of, 129 and n367
Spanish market for, 129-130
-------- lace-makers, in London (1618-1688), 129 n366
Anzola, M., 474
Application lace, 122;
flowers, 252
Appliqueuse, work of, 122
Aprons, laced, 309 and n873, 338, 356 and n1062
Aranda, Madame d', 98 n280
Arbroath, effigy formerly in church of, 418
Ardee, braid and cord lace made at, 446
Ardfert Abbey, lace shroud found at, 436
Argentan, 202 and n569
-------- lace. _See_ Point d'Argentan
Argentella, 78 n244, 193 and n555
Argentine of Dorset, 310 n877
Argyle, Duchess of. _See_ Hamilton
Armada pattern lace of Queen Charlotte, 397
Armstrong, Mrs. Rachel, 438
Arnold, E., cited, 466, 469 n1286, 471 n1299
Arras
early industries of, 239
gold lace of, 240
lace industry of, 238-240
lace of, compared with that of Lille, 235, 240;
with that of Mirecourt, 252
number of lace workers (1851), 257 n688
Arundel, Countess of, 12
--------, Lady, quoted, 395
Assizes, Maiden, custom of presenting laced gloves at, 337 n991
Asti, Baroness A. d', 79
Athens, white silk lace of, 86
Atterbury, Bishop, lace smuggled in coffin of, 361
Auberville, M. Dupont, exhibits by, 58;
cited, 78
Aubry, Felix, quoted, 132 n376, 160 n466, 228 n614, 231, 257 n688;
cited, 184, 285, 292
Audiganne, A., cited, 228 n614
Augsburg, 266, 267
Augusta, Princess, marriage of, 359
Aumale, Madame d', 183
Aurillac, 154, 246-250
Austria
Albert Archduke, 113 n326
Anne of. _See_ Anne
lace of, 268
Auto-da-fè, lace worn at, 100
Auvergne
ancient names preserved in, 246 n658
lace exhibited (1867), 246
Maltese guipures made in, 88
mignonette made in (1665), 35
number of lace-makers in (1851), 257 n688
petition of lace-makers in (1767), 64
thread used in, 245
--------, Mgr. de la Tour d', 183
Auvray, quoted, 224 n611
Avaux, M. le Comte d', 155
Avrillion, Mlle., 177 n526;
cited, 184 n541
Axmouth, lace-workers of, 409 n1157
Aylesbury, lace industry of, 378, 379
Baby lace, 385
Babylon, embroidery of, 3
Backhouse, James, 300
Bacon, Lord, 318
Baden, Princess of, 178
Bailey's Dictionary, quoted, 303 n830
Bailleul, 241 and n647, 257 n688
Baillie, James, 432
Baker, Robert, 437
Baldachino in Italian lace, 66
"Ballad of Hardyknute" quoted, 24
Bamberg, collection of German Point at, 267
Bampton, Mr., 343
Bands
Falling. _See_ Falling Bands
Lawyers', 337
Bannatyne, James, 422
Baptism ceremony, excess of lace at, 352 n1046
Barante, M. de, cited, 111
Barbara, Princess of Portugal (1729), 105
Barbes, 168 n496, 180 and n533
------ pleines, 234 and n627, n628
Barcelona,
lace industry of, 91, 101 and n294, 103 n305
pillows used at, 103 n305
silk of, used in Maltese lace-making, 88;
used for blondes, 103
Bard, William, 403
Barleycorn net, 448
Barry, Madame Du. _See_ du Barry
Bars, Genoese lace joined by, 74, 75 n236
Baseus, N., 470
Basing, lace purchased at, by Anne of Denmark, 320
Basset, Anne, 290
------, Mary, 291
Bassompierre, 142
Bath and West of England Society, 410 and n1159
Bath Brussels lace, 405
Baucher, Canon, 226
Bauta, 57 and n193
Bavari, 55
Bavaria, Queen of, 421
Bavière, Isabeau de, 139 n393
Bay, Rudolf, 274
Bayeux,
black lace of, 214, 226
Chantilly shawls made at, 215
lace industry, establishment of, 226;
Lefébure's development of, 228;
number of lace-makers engaged in, 228 n614
mignonette made at (1665), 35 n109
point d'Alençon of, 200
point de Marli of, 225 and n613
point de raccroc of, 120
Spanish silk laces contrasted with those of, 103
Tapestry, 6
Bayman, Mrs., 107
Bayonne, linen work of (1679), 79 n248
Beale, Mrs., thefts from, 349
Bearing cloths, 309 and n871
Beau Nash on aprons, 356
Beaucaire, fair at, 43 n136
Beaufort, Duchesse of, edicts ignored by, 142;
extracts from inventory of, 143 and n413, n414, n415.
Beauharnais, Eugène, 123 n351
Beaumont and Fletcher, quoted, 292 n788, 296 and n805, 315 and n896, 324,
363 n1070, 365
Beauregard, 248 and n664
Becket, Thomas à, 202 and n569
Beckford, quoted, 90, 98 n280
Beckmann, quoted, 92 n267
Bedford, number of lace-makers in, 377
--------, Lady, 320
--------, Duke of, 360
--------, Lord, 348
Bedfordshire lace, 88, 375-377, 385
Beds, lace trimmings for, 27 n84, 98 and n280
Beer (Devon), lace-workers at, 409 and n1157, 416 n1169, 417 and n1171
Beggars' lace, 34
Béguinage, 126, 130, 133
"Bèle, Prerie," 144
Belev lace, 283
Belgium (See also Flanders and Brabant)
lace industry (_See also_ Antwerp, Brussels etc.)
application exported to France, annual value of, 252
centres of, before 1665, 44 n144
development of, 138
female education in, 112-113
guipures made by, 410
importance of, 112 and n324
numbers employed in (1861), 112
pillow lace. _See_ Valenciennes
Valenciennes industry transferred to, 232
lace schools in, 113-115
linens and flax of, 405-407
pedlar lace-sellers in, 44 and n143
smuggling lace of, into France, 116
thread, fineness of, 119 n339
weaving of lace in fourteenth century in, 109
Bell, Mrs., old lace of, 384
Bellière, M. de la, 130 and n368
Bellini, lace in picture by, 47
Ben, Miss Mary, 398
Beni Hassan, figures at, 1
Beresford, Lord John George, 443
Berkeley, Bishop, quoted, 371 n1092
Berlin, number of lace fabrics in (_circ._ 1685), 264
Bernhardi, N. R., cited, 497 n1359
Berry lace industry, 256
Berthe (mother of Charlemagne), 5
Bertin, Mlle., 181
Bertini, Cav., 462 n1270
Bess of Hardwick, 11
Béziers, Bishop of, 154, 155
Bible printed by Quentell, 460
Bidney, Miss Jane, 409
Bigazzi, M., 468 n1293, 471 n1300
Billament lace, 48 and n159, 299 and n817
Binche, royal edict concerning, 135 and n381
------ lace, 118, 135 and n383, 136, 212
Bindoni, G. A., 471
Bingham, Lady, 439
Bisette (bizette), 33 and n102, 210, 256
Bishops, denouncement of ruffs by, 316-317;
ruffs worn by, 318
Black lace
Caen fabric, 225
Caen, Bayeux and Chantilly, similarity of fabrics of, 226
Calvados, 223
Chantilly fabric, 212-215 and n584, 226
East Flanders fabric, 134
England, imported to, from Low Countries, 117 n330;
fashion introduced into, 153 n444;
Lille fabric popular in, 237
fond d'Alençon, ground, 214
France, fashion introduced into, 153-154
Le Puy fabric, 245
Liège fabric, 137 n391
Lille fabric, 236, 237
loom-made, 432 n1212
masks of, 177
Saxony fabric, 263
Turin, at court of, 153 n445
Blanche of Lancaster, 285 n755
Blandford, lace industry of, 344, 396 and nn, 397 n1134
Blessington, Countess of, lace collection of, 369
Blois, Mlle. de, 161-162 and n472
Blonde de fil, 34 and n108, 237
Blonde-workers, wages of, 225
Blondes
Almagro, at, 102 n297
Barcelona silk used for, 103
Caen, of, 224
Catalonian, 102
England, introduction of manufacture into, in George II.'s time, 356;
made at Sherborne, 397
French court, at, 182
Genoese manufacture of, 75
Le Puy, of, 245
Spanish, 103 n305
Vélay, of, 244
white, 214
Bobbin lace (_See also_ Pillow lace)
Belgian, 123
bobbins used for, 296 n798
pillow lace a term for, 32
point duchesse, 123
royal inventories, mentioned in, 295 n797
value of, per oz. (Queen Elizabeth's time), 295 n797
------ net
English machine-made, 447-450
France, first made in, 187
Bobbins
description of, 32, 33, 295 n795, 391 and n1127
Honiton, at, 415 n1166
long, used for bobbin lace, 296 n798
materials used for, 32, 74 n235
number of, 33 n101
Peniche, at, 106 n314
Bock, Dr., collection of, 23 and n74, 24
Boenen, G., 311
Bohemia, modern lace of, 262
Boileau, quoted, 159
Boislaunay, Epoux Malbiche de, 206
_Boke of Curtasye_, quoted, 290
Bolbec lace, 218
Bolingbroke, Lord, 351
Bologna, lace-making at, 68, 81 n248
Bonald, Cardinal de, 183
Bone, bobbins made of, 74 n235
---- lace
bobbin lace distinguished from, 296 n798
explanation of term, 400
---- pins (_See also_ Bobbins), 295 n795
Bone-work, why so called, 294
Bonzy, Monseigneur de, 154-155
Books, parchment patterns on covers of, 77
Boot tops, 145, 150
Bordeaux fair, 43 n136
Borlase, Sir Henry, 378.
Bosse, Abraham, engravings by, 146, 147, 149
Bottles used as light reflectors, 390 and n1125
Boufflers, Governor, 236.
Bourbon, Catherine de, 144, 482, 494
--------, Duchesse de, extracts from the inventory of, 120 n344, 125
n354, 128 n364, 162 n475, 168 n496, 169 n497, 174 n519, 195 n560
Bourg-Argental, 224
Bourges, 5, 256
--------, Archbishop of, 118 and n336
Bourgogne, Duc de, 99 n283
Bowdon, Miss, 417
Bowen, Emanuel, quoted, 405
Bowes, Sir Robert, 38, 298
Bowie, J., 430 n1207
Bowll, William, 308.
Boys as lace-makers, 263, 377, 413, 414
Brabant (_See also_ Belgium)
lace-workers from, settled at Tönder, 274
point de Sedan, attributed to, 254
Brabant lace. _See_ Brussels, Mechlin, etc.
Braid, lace a term used for, 26
------ lace (Devonshire), 414 n1156
------ and cord lace, 446.
Braidwork, in imitation of Spanish point, 410 and n1159
Branscombe, lace-workers of, 409 n1138
Brazil, lace of, 108.
Brazza, Contessa di, cited, 71 n222, 75 n237, 78 n244;
quoted, 75 n236;
lace school under direction of, 81 n248
Bremen, refusal of, to receive strangers, 264
Brennar, Mr., 442 n1232
Brereton, Miss Elinor, 438
Bretagne, 229 and n617
Bretschneider, A., 496
Briattes, Jean-Ph., 225 n613
Bribes of lace, 351 n1045
Bridal veils, 78
Bride ground. _See_ Argentan ground.
------ lace, 302 and n829
Brides
definition of, 31 and n91
Milanese lace, in, 75 n237
Spanish point, in, 58
thread guipures, in, 39, 40
_vrai réseau_ the successor of, 406
Bridgewater Baptist Church, manifesto of, 403 and n1144
"Britannia Languens" (1680), cited, 54 and n183, 192
Brittany, 229 and n617
Brithnoth, exploits of, in embroidery, 6
Broderie des Indes, 229
-------- de Malines. _See_ Mechlin lace
Brooks, Mr., speech of, quoted, 329.
Brotherton, Mr., invention of lace loom by, 432 n1212
Brown, Rawdon, cited, 345 n1025
Bruce, Mr. Collingwood, cited, 6
Bruges
collection of lace at, 138
export trade with France, value of, 241
guipure de Flandres of, 123, 133
Valenciennes made at, character of, 232 n624
Brunet, H., cited, 161 n472, 236 n633, 459, 461, 476;
quoted, 466
Brunfaut, M. Duhayon, 131 and n374
Brussels lace
Alençon, 200
application, rivalry of Mirecourt, 252
arrêt concerning (1688), 129 n365
branches of industry, 123
Brussels the only place for, 118
colour of, 121
compared with--
Alençon, 199;
Binche, 135;
Lille, 237;
point de France, 194;
St. Trond, 137;
Saxony needle point, 263
Cretan mesh work compared with, 87
designing of, 122
English Court fashion for, in George II.'s time, 354
exported as "English point," 117
flowers of, 121
grounds of, 120;
Mechlin ground distinguished from, 125
Honiton imitations of, 405, 406, 410
made at Antwerp, 130;
at Chimay, 135
manufacture described, 31, 118, 119;
titles of workers of various processes in, 122
Marie Louise, Empress, presented with, 124
patterns of, 122;
date of earliest patterns, 116
point de Bruxelles. _See_ Point d'Angleterre
popular establishment for English buyers, 124
price per pound, 119 n339;
causes of high price, 118, 119;
comparative cost of ground, 120;
price of flounce of, 124 n352
thread used in, 118 and n338;
fineness of 119 n339
value of, from one pound of flax, 120;
intrinsic value of, 124 n352
veil of, presented to Empress Josephine, 123 n351;
smuggled, 361
Venetian wear of, 57 and n192
-------- -lace-makers, point de raccroc of, 120
-------- net, 120 n345
Bruyel, Nicholas de, 111
Buckingham, Duchess of, 345 n1024
Buckinghamshire lace, 378-383;
value of, 402
Buffon, ruffles of, 173
Bulgarini, Francesea, 68 and n213
Bullock, Consul, quoted, 89
Bunt lace, 428
Buoy, lace seized in, 360 n1066
Burano
Alençon point made at, 62, 200
Argentan made at, 62, 208
English thread used at, 394 n1128
number of lace-workers at, 394 n1128
revival of lace industry at, 58-62
Burato, 53
Burgoigne, 205 n573, 216 n594
Burgundy, lace industry of, 255 and n684, n685;
lace-makers from, in London, 373
--------, Duke of (Charles the Bold), 111
--------, Dukes of, inventory of, quoted, 82
--------, Duchess of, 167 n492
Burke, Patrick, 323
Burnet, Bishop, quoted, 13
Burnham (Buckinghamshire), lace industry of, 379
Burning of badly-spun yarn, 432 and n1211
Butterfly and acorn design, 308, 408
Byas, 299 and n815
Byzantine Empire, origin of lace traced to, 45
Cabanillas, cited, 102
Cadenetas, 95
Calderwood, Mrs., cited, 127, 431;
quoted, 118 and n337, 137, 260;
Dresden ruffles of, 262
Caen
black lace of, 226
blonde lace of, patterns, 224;
quality, 224;
rise and fall of industry, 225
Chantilly industry outrivalled by, 215;
Chantilly made at, 224
number of lace-makers employed in (1847), 225;
(after 1848), 228 n614
price of lace of, 224
Cahanet, 226
Calais, machine-made blondes of, 225
Calepino, T., 474
Callot, engravings of, 146
Calthorpe, Lady, 37, 297
Calvados lace industry, 213, 223, 226, 228 and n614, 257 n688
Cambray, Archbishop of, 173 and n508
Cambrensis, Giraldus, cited, 435
Cambury, Lord, 403
Campan, Mme. de, 180 n533
Campane, 34 and n104, n106, 51
Campanner, 343 n1017
Campany, cited, 99
Campos, Father Fr. Marcos Antonio de, quoted, 95
Candy, thread lace from, 38
Canetille, 36
"Canons," 153 and n441
Canossa, Contessa, 469
Cant, Miss Anne, 430 n1207
Cantor Lectures on the Art of Lace-making, cited, 2 n7
Cantu, lace-making at, 66, 80
Capefigue, quoted, 166
Card-sharping aided by ruffles, 171, 351
Cardinals, 356 and n1059
Cardwell, Mr., 384
Carew, Sir G., 308 n870
Carpaccio, lace in pictures of, 47
Carpentier, Madame, 226
Carrêno, lace rare in paintings of, 98
Carrickmacross, lace industry at, 440
Carrouges, 206
Cartisan, 36
Cary, John, quoted, 849 n1325
Castanaga, M. de, 167
Castlebar, lace industry at, 439
Catalonia, blonde made at, 101;
blonde mantillas of, 88, 226
Catgut lace, 343, 430 n1207
Catherine de Bourbon, 144, 482, 494
---------- of Braganza, 43 n137
---------- de Médecis,
bed of, 22
bizette of, 33 n102
Florentine lace probably introduced into France by, 67
lace-making at court of, 140 and n395
needlework of, 11
Vinciolo patronised by, 11, 17
Cattern's Day, 376
Cauellat, Veuve, 476
Cavenne, Citoyen, 137 n390
Cayette, V. P., cited, 140 n397
Cecil, letter from, regarding French tailors, quoted, 307
Cecyll, Richard, 291
Celle, D., 466
Cephalonia, Ionian lace at, 86
Cerceau, A. du, 476
Ceylon, pillow-laces of, 88
Challus, Anne, 184 n540
Chambrières, 8
Champagne, lace industry of, 253-255
Chandos, infant daughter of Duke of, 352 n1046
--------, Lady, 294 n791, 297 n811, 307 n862, 308 n867
Channel Islands, lace industry in, 372 n1098
Channon, Miss Mary, 398
"Chansons a toile", 8 and n29
Chantilly
number of lace-workers at Alençon and, (1851), 257 n688
point tresse made at, 314
---------- lace
black, 226
Caen manufacture of, 224
Genoese imitation of, 75
industry of, 212-215
Saxony lace compared with, 263
Spanish silk laces contrasted with, 103
Spanish and Portuguese imitation of, 106
Charles I. (England)
Carisbrook clothing expenses of, 372 n1097
carpet bag trimmings of, 38, 298
extravagance of, 326, 327 and n950, 328
Great Wardrobe Account, quoted, 253 and n678, n679, 205 n612
marriage accounts, 296
period of, 326-332
picture catalogue of, cited, 296
-------- II. (England)
Collobium sindonis of, 335 and n981
Flanders lace, importation of, prohibited by, 125
foreign lace imported by, 336 and n985
period of, 335-339
silver parchment lace of, 38, 298 and n841
--------, Prince (England), accounts of, cited, 322, 325 n940, n941
-------- V. (Belgium)
cap of, 113
lace-making encouraged by, 113
portrait of, in Quentell's pattern book, 459
-------- VIII. (France), 139 n393
-------- IX. (Sweden), 279
-------- X., 143 n412
-------- the Bold, 111
Charleville lace, 183 n539, 254 and n680
Charlotte, Queen
Armada pattern lace of, 397
British lace worn by, 363, 398
favourite lace of, 128
lace industry started by, 374
sponsor to children of aristocracy, 352 n1046
Charmouth, lace-workers at, 395
Charollais, Mlle. de,
inventory of, quoted, 125 n353, 129 n364, 162 n475, 175 n520, 135
ruffles of, 233 n626
Chat, 181 and n536
Château de Madrid, lace factory at, 158, 210 and n584
-------- -Renaud lace, 254
-------- -Thierry, lace industry at, 157 n459, 253
Châtel-sur-Moselle, 251 and n671
Châtelain, Simon, 100 and n287
----------, Zacharie, 259
Chaucer, quoted, 15 and n50
Chaumont, 251 n673
Chauvin, Pierre, 230
Cheney, lace industry at, 384
Chesterfield, Lord, quoted, 358
Cheveux de la reine, 181 and n535
Chevreuse, Madame de, 168
Cheyne lace, 438
Chiavari
_Macramé_ of, 79
tape guipure of, 75
Chicago Exhibition. _See under_ Exhibitions
Chichester, Lady Hamilton, 87 and n262
Chick, Mrs., 407 n1153
Chigi-Giovanelli, Princess, 61
Children as lace-makers, 103 n305, 107, 155, 209, 377, 438
Chili lace, 108
Chimay lace, 134-135
China
drawn work of, 46
silk lace not in demand in, 89
------, lace exchanged for, 349
Choïsy, Abbé de, 167
Christening shirts of Queen Elizabeth's reign, 308 and n872
Christian IV. of Denmark, 68, 272-274
Christina, Queen, 73 n230
Church of England
appointment of parsons of, for reform of lace-making abuses, 331
inventories of, lace mentioned in, 293
ruffs worn by Bishops, 318;
sermons against ruffs, 316
------ of France, extravagance of prelates (Louis XVI.), 182-183
Churchill, Lord, 403
Cibber, Colley, cited, 344 n1021
Cicognara, Count, 467 and n1286
Ciglia family, Maltese lace made by, 88
Cinq Mars, boots and collarette of, 145
Ciprioto, 82 n252
Cistercians, 7
"City Match," quoted, 324
Clarke, Jane, 443 n1233
Claver, Alice, 288
Clayton, Sir Thomas, accounts of, quoted, 350
Clement VII., Pope, 62
-------- IX., Pope, 70
-------- X., Pope, 172 n505
Clément, M., 226
Clermont, Mlle. de, inventory of, quoted 128 n363, 195 n560, 207 n578
Clonard Abbey, effigy in, 437 n1222
Clones, lace and crochet industry of, 445
Cluny, Musée de, punto a relievo in, 51
------ lace
Le Puy Fabric, 246 n659
Mirecourt fabric, 252
Coccolia, lace school at, 81 n249
Cochon, cited, 256 n686
Cock (fontange), 423
----, Hieronymus, 493 n1354
Cockscombes, 344
Code Michaud, 148
Coggeshall (Essex), lace made at, 441 n1230
Coigny, Duchesse de, 123 n351
"Col rabattu," 145
Colbert, Chevalier
Aurillac lace of, 248
chief director of trade, 158 n461
death of, 192
development of lace industry by, 154;
extract from letter to M. le Comte d'Avaux, 155
difficulties in establishing lace factories, 158 and n461, n462
fabrics attempted by, 255, 256
fabrics established by, at
Arras, 239 and n644
Aurillac, 247
Château de Madrid, 158, 210 n584
Le Quesnoy, 230
Loudun, 256
Huguenots protected by, 100
inventory of, quoted, 218 n596, 259 n692
Mazarin, correspondence with, concerning lace, referred to, 150-151
ordinance of, 54
point d'Alençon established by, 188
points de France, established by, 33, 111
Raffy, Madame, letter from, quoted, 202
Colbertine, 337, 339 and n996, n997, n998
Colchester, complaints of, regarding foreign lace-makers, 324 n935
Cole, A. S.
cited, 91-92 and n268, 446 n1236;
quoted, 193 n555, 203 n570
Kinsale lace revival due to, 442 and n1232
Collaert, engraving by, 109 n319
Collars, hunting, 328
Collectors of lace, 364
Cologne pattern book, 268
Colombière, Vulson de la, quoted, 73, 149 and n435
Colporteurs, lace sold by, 44 and n142, n143
Colyton
military thieves at, 403
tomb in church of, 403 n1145
Commode. _See_ Fontange
Commonwealth, the, needlework in the time of, 13
Compas lace, 297 and n809
Compton, Lord, cited, 296 n800
Conclave, the holy, laces of, 70
Condé, Princesse de, inventory of, quoted, 125 n355, 161 n468, 168 n496,
169 n497, 174 n519, n520, 195 n558
Congreve, cited, 344 n1021;
quoted, 339
Contarini, Lucretia, 476, 484
Conti, Prince de,
marriage-toilette of, 161-162 and n472
point d'Aurillac cloak of, 248
Contrada del Pizzo, 59
Connet, lace trade at, 270.
Cooke, quoted, 414
Copper lace (St. Martin's), 331 n965
Coral point, 51
Coralline, Point de Venise copied from, 49-50
Cordonnet, 87, 406, 408
Corfu, Greek lace made at, 85
Cork, crochet industry of, 444, 445
"Corona" of Vecellio. _See_ Vecellio
Cotgrave, quoted, 33 n102, 36 n112
Cotton lace, 187
------ weaving, at Ghent, 134
Couronne (picot), 31 and n92
Courtrai, flax grown at, 118 n338
-------- lace. _See under_ Valenciennes lace
Cousin, Jean, 476
Couvin lace, 138 n392
Covenanters, sumptuary enactments of, 424
Coventry blue, 302
Cow-houses, lace worked in lofts over, 224
Cowper, quoted, 364, 370, 379
Coxcombs, 31
Cranfield, Sir Lyonell, cited, 324 n934
Crâponne fabric, 246
Cravat, laced
introduction of, 337
origin of, 42 n135
stock the successor of, 345
Creaden, the Queen of, 437 n1223
Créquy, M. de, 143
------, Madame de, quoted, 175
------, Marquise de, quoted, 173 n511, 250 and n668
Crete, lace manufacture of, 86-87
Crochet, Irish, 444-445
-------- hook used in Genoese guipures, etc., 74
-------- needle, used in Punto di Rapallo, 75 n237
Cromwell, Oliver, dress of, 333, 334
Crown lace, 299 and n814
Croïy, Duc de, 366 n1083
Crusaders, art of lace-making, traced to, 45 n148
Cuença, 246
Cuipure (guipure), 37
Culpepper, Sir John, quoted, 318-319
Cunningham, quoted, 308 n866
Curragh point, 443 and n1233
Curtius, M., 143 and n412
"Custom of the Country" quoted, 324
Cut-work
ecclesiastical use of, 15
Elizabeth's use of, 303-305
Italian, 325
James I.'s time, 322, 325
lace known as, 2
name explained, 19
pall of, used in Dieppe, 25
Ricci's "Last Supper" depicted in, 79 n248
smocks adorned with, 25
toile d'honneur of, use at St. Lo, 25
Cyprus, needlework of, 82
d'Abranthès, Duchesse, 105, 128 n343, 185 n542, 186 and n545, 237 n638
d'Addo, Marquis, 459 n1264, 467 n1287, n1288, 469 n1294, 470, 472, 475,
476 and n1315, 477
Daedalian ruffs, 315 and n895
Daimeries, Mme., quoted, 138 n392
Dalecarlian lace, 68, 281, 282, 338
Dalrymple, Miss Jenny, 263
Dalton, Mother Augustine, 444
Damer, Mr., 364
Dammartin lace, 212
Dangean, quoted, 167, 178
Dantelle (dentelle), first occurrence of word, 490
d'Aranda, Madame, 98 n280
Darned netting, 20, 21
Dartmouth, Lord, 379
Dauphin, ceremony at birth of, 162 n474
Davies, Barber Surgeon, quoted, 70
Davies' _Epigrams_ quoted, 323 n933
Davey, Mrs., 409
Dawson, Mrs., 446 n1235
de la Motte, Maréchal, 29, 126 and n357
de Lonlay, Eugène, cited, 208
de Staël, Madame, 180
Deaf and dumb, net lace used by, in Sardinia, 81 n248
Debts for lace, 353 and n1050.
Decker, T., quoted, 315 n895
Defoe, quoted, 43 n140, 171 n503, 377 and n1111, 378, 379, 380 and n1119,
396, 397, 403;
cited, 344
Delaney, Mrs., quoted, 120 n344, 121, 355;
cited, 413 n1161
Denbert, Bishop of Durham, 6
Denmark
cut-work of, 276, 277
embroidered tulle of, 229
grave-clothes, lace adorned in, 275, 366 and n1082
lace industry. (_See also_ Schleswig and Tönder)
export trade, 274 n736
lace postmen, 274, 277
origin of, 272
protected by Christian IV., 274
quality of lace, 275
Wulff's revival of, 276 and n739
Dennistoun, Mrs., 58-59, 487
Denny, Lady Arabella, 437, 438 and n1225, 439 and n1227
Dentelière, work of, 122
Dentelle, definition of term, 27 and n80
-------- à la Reine, 259 and n692
-------- à la Vierge, 220
"Dépit Amoureux" quoted, 32
Derby Alice, Countess of, effigy of, 321 n927
------, Lady, 342
------ rib, 448 n1239
Derbyshire, pillow lace made in, 393
Derode, V., quoted, 236 n630, n633
Desborough, lace industry of, 379
Desmarquets, cited, 219 n603
Desmond, Countess of, 437 n1222
Desnos, Joseph Odolant, quoted, on establishment of point d'Alençon, 155
n455
------, Odolent, quoted, on invention and establishment of point
d'Alençon, 155-157
Despierres, Mme., quoted, 157 n457, n458, 159 n464, 195 n557, 204 n571,
307;
cited, 192 n552, 203
d'Este, Madame Anne Bellorio, 61
family, auctions of, cited, 46
Devonshire
bone pins used in, 294
lace of. _See_ Honiton, Trolly
villages in, noted for lace-making in 1698, 403 n1143;
those now engaged in, 403 n1147
----------, Duke of, coffin of, searched for lace, 360
----------, Duke of, Jacobite lace brought to, 426
Diamond lace, 299-300 and n818
"Diarium Vadstenoense" 278
Didot, F., 487
Dieppe
cut-work, pall used in, 25
lace industry of, 218-220, 223
------ lace, 183 n539
Dieudonné--
quoted, 225 n613, 231;
cited 237 n639
Dijon, Valenciennes made at, 255
Dike, Ric. 319 n918
Dinant muslin-work, 138 n392
Dinghen, Madame, 311
Doddridge, Lady, effigy of, 405
Doge's horn in Italian laces, 66
Dogs as lace-smugglers, 116 and n329
Dolls dressed in French fashions, 170 and n500, n501
"Don Quixote," cited, 98 n281
Donat, Père, 501
Donchéry lace, 254
Doran, Dr., anecdote related by, 186
Dorsetshire lace, 396-398;
value of, 402
Dorstats, Madame Catherine von, 497
Douairière de la Ferté, Duchesse, 175-176
Double ground, 386
Douce, Mrs., cited, 500 n1366
Douglas, Bp., letters of, quoted, 265 and n720
Dover, refugee lace-makers at, 324 n935
"Down," 390
Draper, Mrs., 13
Drawn-work,
method of, 25
Sicilian, 81
South American, 188
wire, 72
Dresden lace, 262, 263, 430 and n1207
Drocheleuse, work of, 122
Droschel, 119
Drouais, 168
Dryden, quoted, 425
Du Barry, Madame
accounts of, quoted, 34 n106, 120 and n341, n343, n344, 126 n356, 129
n364, 162 n475, 168 n496, 175 n520, 178 n529, 181 n534, 195, 207 and
n577, 231 and n621, n622, 233 n625, n626
Indian muslin bought by, 179
inventories of, quoted, 213 n592, 250 n666, n667
Du Haillan, 142 n408
Dublin Society, The, 429, 437-439
Dubois, C., cited, 137 n389, 138 n392
------, 468
Duchesse lace, 123
Dulaure, cited, 173 and n513
Dumont, manufactory of, 211
------, Mlle., 105 n312
Dunbar, Mrs., 443
Dunkirk, James II.'s cap in Museum at, 340 and n1004
Duponchel (Du Ponchel), 205, 207 n576
Dupont, M., cited, 204
Duras, Duc de, 207 n577
------, Duchesse de, 213 and n591
Duref Henri, cited, 247
Durham, St. Cuthbert's cope and maniple at, 7;
his grave-clothes, 14, 15, 366
Durie, Lord, engraving of, 423
Dussen, B. v. d., cited, 133 and n378
Duthie, Mlle., 181
Duval, M., 224
Dysart, Countess of, 344 n991
"Each," 391
_Eagle_ (French vessel), seizure of, 101
Earnings and wages of lace-workers
Alençon, 192
Arras (1788), 239;
(1851), 240
Bedfordshire, 377
blonde-workers, 225
Denmark (1848), 277 n741
Devonshire, 414, 416 n1168;
Honiton, 407 and n1153
Dorsetshire, 398
Flemish thread-spinners', 119
France, average (1851), 257 n688;
their savings, 159 n464
Genoa, 77, 78
Mechlin, 127
Mirecourt, 252 n675, 253
Normandy, 223, 228 n614
Northamptonshire (Spratton), 390
Scotland, 434
Spain, 102
Switzerland, 270
Val, 233, 234 n627
Vélay, 244
Ypres Valenciennes, 131 n373
Eaton, John, 336
------, Prestwick, letters from, cited, 98 n282
Ecclesiastical lace
Athenian--for Jewish Church, 86
Burano school allowed to copy, 62
decline of, since the Reformation, 331
Greek, 83
Ionian, 86
Italian, 47 and n154
Katherine of Aragon's work of, 376 and n1108
Maltese, 88
Scotch, 418, 419
Spanish, 90, 92
washing of, 373 n1101
Ecouen lace, 210 n589
Eden, Mrs., 443
Edgithe, Queen, 6
Edict of Nantes, Revocation of
effect on lace industry (France and other countries), 192, 212, 254,
258
settlement of fugitives in Germany, 264-265
Edinburgh Society for Encouraging the Arts and Manufactures of Scotland,
262, 263, 429, 430 and nn
Edward the Elder, daughters of, 6
Edward III.
pins for his daughter's trousseau, 294 n794
thread veils of time of, 285.
Edward IV.
Irish smock of, 436
wardrobe accounts of, quoted, 288
Edward VI., funeral lace of, 293
Effingham, Dowager Lady, 349
----------, Earl of, 364
Egenolffs, C., 470
Egyptians (Ancient), embroidery of, 1
Ekenmark, cited, 280 n748
Elberfeld, 265
Eleanor of Austria, 262 n701
Elgin marbles, designs in, 3
Elizabeth, Princess (wife of Elector Palatine), 71, 325
---------- of Austria (Elisabetta Borbona d'Austria), 495
---------- of Bohemia, 294 n794
---------- of Denmark, 272
----------, Queen
anecdote referring to, 38, 297
cost of lace for revels at court of, 308 n871
cut-work of, 303-305
false hair of, 314 and n894, n895
foreign tastes of, 305, 307, 310
Irish at court of, 435
laces of, 299-300;
lace made from human hair, 313;
Genoa and Spanish lace, 307;
parchment lace, 298;
cost of lace furnished to, 308
New Year's gifts to, 294 n791, 295, 303 n833, 304 n834, n835, n836,
n837, 307 and n862, 308 n867, n870, 310 n875, n876
old clothes of, presented to Anne of Denmark, 320
presents to, from Mary Stuart, 420 and n1184;
from the Baroness Aletti, 421 n1187
ruffs of, 310-313;
316 n901
skill of, in needlework, 500
smock made by, 10 and n32;
smocks of, 308, 408
stocking-frame inventor discouraged by, 448 n1240
wardrobe accounts of, cited, 72;
quoted, 92, 98 n282, 297 and n811, 299 and n814, n815, n816, n817,
300-301 and n820, n821, n824, n826, 302 and n827, 304 n834, n838, 307
and n861, n865, 309 n873, 311 n880, 312 n882, 314 n895, 372 n1098
----------, reign of
christening shirts and bearing cloths of, 308-309
habits of people in, 310 n877
importation of pins (annual) in, 294 n794
lace, use of, in, 300
laced handkerchiefs of, 310 and n874
measures against luxury of the people, 301
sumptuary laws, 306 and n855
value of lace and thread imported (1559 and 1568), 306 and n859
Venice lace of, 48 and n154
---------- of York, Queen, 9 n30, 48, 289
Elliott, Julian, 328
Embroider, Italian and Spanish term for, 45 and n147
Embroidery
Anglo-Saxon, 5-7
Babylonian, Sidonian and Phrygian, 3 and n13
drawn-thread work, 25
ecclesiastical, 4-7.
Egyptian, 1
Greek, 2, 3 and n8
Jewish, 2
Spanish, 103
Embroidered lace, Genoese, 77
Engageantes, 168
Enghien lace, 134
"Engines" for lace-making, 324 n935
England (_for_ counties, towns, etc., _see their titles_)
French fashions, method of obtaining, 170
frugality of nation, in Queen Elizabeth's reign, 310 n877
lace in
account of (_See also_ names of sovereigns), 285 _et seq._
date of establishment of industry, 286-288;
origin of, 111;
centres of, before 1665, 44 n144;
impossibility of competing with Belgium, 138
earliest mention of, 285
Flanders, trade with (1768), 115;
Flemish lace. _See_ that title
foreign, prohibited, 125, 289-290, 341, 347;
imported, 245, 251, 288, 291
smuggling of. _See that title_
Protestant refugees in, trades of, 297-298
Reformation, decline of ecclesiastical lace since, 331
sumptuary laws. _See that title_
Vinciolo published in, 482
Engrêlure, 31, 168 n496
Entoilage, 30, 250
Épinal, 251
Equipage de bain, 168
Eric XIV. (Sweden), 307
Ericksholm, 280
---------- Castle, 279
Erikson, Gustaf, 280
Erzgebirge lace, 263
Essex, Earl of, 401
Este, Madame Anne Belloris, d', 61
---- family, archives of, cited, 46
Etrepagny lace, 213 n589
Eu lace, 183 n539, 218, 221-222
Eugénie, Empress, 198
Evans, Mrs., 308 n869
Evelyn, quoted, 13, 43, 168 n496, 338, 339;
cited, 57
Exeter, Bishop of, 316
------, Elizabeth, Duchess of, 285 n755
Exhibitions
Chicago World's Fair
Honiton lace at, 416 n1169
Italian lace at, 46 n150
Colonial and Indian Exhibition (1886),
Cyprian lace at, 82
Industry, 1808, point d'Argentan at, 208
(1851), Alençon flounce at, 197-198;
lace industry developed since, 392
(1855) (Paris)
Alençon point dress at, 198
equipage of King of Rome at, 196
needle-point dress at, 245
(1859) (French). Report--cost of Brussels lace, 119 n339
(1862) (International)
Spanish exhibits at, 103-104
threads, comparative fineness of, 119 n339
Wadstena lace at, 280
1867 (Paris)
Alençon point dress at, 200
Burano laces at, 58
Honiton lace at, 410
macramé shown at, 79
Mechlin lace at, 125
oyah at, 87
point gaze at, 123
Valenciennes lace at, 131 and n373
1874 (International)
Austrian lace at, 268
Brussels lappet at, 411
Russian towels at, 283
Valenciennes lace at, 131
1889, point d' Alençon at, 201
1900 (Paris), 268
Eyesight, effect of lace-making on, 112 n324
Fairfax, Sir Thomas, 333
Fairs, 43 and n136, n137, n140, 326 n945
Falbala, 167 and n492
Falcon, T., 246
Fallals, 350 and n1043
Falling bands, 321 n928, 322, 326, 327, 334, 336
Fambri, Signor, 61
"Fameuse poupée," 170
Fanciulle, 462
Fanshaw, Lady, quoted, 333
Farbeck, John, 300
Favier-Duboulay, correspondence of, with Colbert, re lace industry at
Alençon, 155 and n454, 189
Feather-stitch, 8
Fécamp lace, 218
Félibien, D. M., quoted, 141 n402
Félice, G. de, quoted, 150 n437
Félin Narciso, quoted, 91, 99
Felkin, Mr., cited, 447
Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, 92, 93, 96
Feret quoted, 219 and n604
Ferguson, Mr., cited, 250 and n665
Fernandez, Don Manuel, 102
Ferrara
archives of, quoted, 46 and n150
Venetian lace-worker at, 78 n243
Fielding quoted, 354 n1053
Filet brodé à reprises, 20
Fillesae, Marie, 157 n458
Fillings, 31
Filo di freta (_See also_ Aloe thread), 79 n245
Firenzuola cited, 46 n152, 47, 57 n172;
quoted, 66 and n207
Fisher, Bishop, 292
Fitz-Geoffrey (Geffery), Henry, quoted, 317 n908, 332
Flanders
emigration of lace-makers from, preventive legislation, 111-112;
emigrants in London, 373;
in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, 375 and n1105;
in Devonshire, 399 and nn, 400 n1140;
expelled from England (1572), 306
lace. _See_ Flemish lace.
lace school in, description of, 114-115
Spanish imports of dentelles d'Angleterre from, 98
thread imported from, complaint regarding, 324 n935
water-glass reflectors used in, 390 n1125
--------, East, lace of, 133-134
--------, West
lace workers of, 133 and n378
Valenciennes lace of. _See_ Valenciennes Flax
age of, 259 n697
cotton substituted for, 187
spinning of, in damp cellars, 405
Fleming, Lady, 10
Flemish lace. (_See also_ Belgium _and_ Brabant)
arrêt concerning (1688), 129 n365
Barcelona lace imitated from, 91, 99
black lace exported, 117 n330
cargo of smuggling vessel (1678), 117
coffin containing, 61
Danish imitation of, 275
England
bribes for Jacobites in, 351 n1045
exportation to, prohibited, 125, 341
fashionable in, 318, 325, 327, 340
imitations in, 384, 404;
Honiton reproductions, 411, 416
trade with (1768), 115
France, popularity in (Louis XIV.), 150;
trade (seventeenth century), annual value of, in passemens, 209 n583;
prohibited, 142
importance of industry of, 111
Liège, 136-137
"Malines," a term for, 125
origin of, 109
types of, 115-116
white work, 294 and n791
Flemish names in Colyton (Devon), 403 n1145
Fleurens, 270
Fleury, Cardinal, quoted, 176
Florence
gold lace from, Spanish exclusion of, 92
Greek lace made at, 85
industrial schools in, lace work of, 81 n248
lace industry of, account of, 66-68;
"fine dantelle de," 27
Le Puy, imports from, 245 n657
Florentine merchants, allowed to trade in England (circ. 1546), 291
Florini, M., 488
_Flying Postman_ advertisement in, 129
"Flys," 416 n1170
Foillet, J., 489, 490
Fonneuse, work of, 122
Fontange (Commode)
"cock" the Scotch term for, 423
description of, 168 n486, 342, 350 n1043
extinction of mode, 166, 348 and n1035
story of, 164
Fontana, Lavinia, lace in picture by, 47 n153
Fontenay, lace, 212 n589
Fontenelle le Liqueur, 229 and n615
Fonthill, sale of lace at, 162 n475
Foote, quoted, 171 n503
Footing, 31, 168 n496
Forbes, Miss Betsey, 432 n1209
Forçade, M. de la, cited, 340 n1004
Force, P. de la, cited, 254 and n682
Foresto, I., 471
Fortunato, P. A., 500
Foskewe, Sir John, 22
_Four P's, The_, cited, 43 n139
Fournier, quoted, 209 n583
"Fourpenny Spot," 372 n1095
Fowke, Mr., cited, 6 and n23
Fowler, Mrs., lace school of, 416 and n1169
Fozzi, P. P., 491
France. _For_ districts, towns, etc., _see their titles_
bobbin net introduced into, 187
customs of French ladies, 168-170
états Généraux (1789), action of, regarding lace, 183
extravagant cost of lace ornaments (Louis XIV.), 153
Fairs in, 43 n136
Fashions
fashion dolls, 170 and n500, n501
Italian influence on, 139 and n393
Louis XIV., under, 167
first appearance of lace in, 139 n393
First Empire
Brussels lace at court of, 123
lace industry under, 184
morning costume under, 185
point d'Alençon patterns under, 199 and n566
Florentine lace used in (1545), 67
imports of lace from, to England, forbidden by Queen Anne, 347
Italian guipures exported to, 75
Italy, relations with (16th century), 476
lace industry in. _See_ French lace industry
lace-makers from, brought to teach Scotch girls, 428
ladies, addiction of, to needlework, 9, 24;
as lace-makers, 163
men as embroiderers in, 13
point d'Espagne consumed in, 90;
made in, 100
points de Venise from, 54
Quintain named from Brittany town, 19
lace industry improved by, 383
refugees from, to Channel Islands, 372 n1098;
to England, 324 n935
Revolution in, effect of, on lace trade, 183 and n539, 223, 249, 368,
408
Second Empire, point d'Alençon patterns under, 199
Spanish imports of lace from, 101
sumptuary laws in, 138 and n354, n355, 147 and n429, 149, 154 and n451
tariff (1664), Liège lace mentioned in, 137
war with, effect of, on English lace industry, 386, 387
yellow starch, attitude towards, 318 and n909
France and Navarre, Queen of, pattern book dedicated to, 493
Franceschi, Francesco di, 475, 484
Francis I.
Aurillac lace of, 247
pattern book dedicated to, 461
Frankfort-on-the-Maine
fair at, 43 n136, 326 n945
pattern book published at, 267
Frano, G., 477
Frederick, Prince of Wales, 354
---------- IV., 274
---------- William of Brandenburg, 264
French lace industry
centres of, before 1665, 44 n144
cheap lace, 187 and n546
Colbert's development
establishment and history of the company (1668-1675), 157-158
establishment of point d'Alençon, 155-157
immigration of Venetian workers, 159 n465
principal centres, 159 n464
pupils sent to Venice, 154-155 and n454
First Empire, under, 184
foreign trade
Bruges, annual value of, with, 241;
with Flanders, 209 n583;
Valenciennes trade with Belgium, 132 n376
Germany, with, 265
prohibition of, with Flanders, 142
rivalry of Holland in, 258
smuggling from Belgium, 116;
from Switzerland, 270
statistics regarding (18th century), 160 n466
number of lace-makers in (present day), 188;
table of (1851), 257 n688
Paris lace-workers, confirmation of statutes of, 150 n437
pattern books, 144 and n420, n421, n422, n423
patterns imitated in Denmark, 275
pillow lace manufacture, extension of (17th century), 159
point d'Espagne, 100
Protestants prohibited from selling lace, 150 n437
varieties of lace made in (1665), 33-35
width of lace restricted, 152-153
Freyburg, 268
Freytag, G., quoted, 265 n718
Friesland hens, ladies likened to, 342
Frondeurs, extravagance of, 150
Froschover, Christopher, pattern book of, 271
Fugio lace, 74
Fuller, quoted, 378, 401
Furnesse, Sir Henry, 344, 347
Fuseaux, dentelle à, 32 n98
Gabrielle de Bourbon, 8 n28
----------, Madame, 49, 142, 143 and n413, n414, n415
Gaguef lace, 281
_Gan, Le_, quoted, 24
Gantes, Mlles., 250
Garden, Lord, quoted, 119
Garnica, John de, 113 n325
Garnier, Joseph, cited, 255 n685
Garnitures de lit, 174 and n519, n520
Garters
Queen Elizabeth's cost per pair, 301
trimmed with point, 145
Gaston, Duke of Orleans, 8 n27
Gaudronnées collerettes, 17
Geneva, rivalry of, with Mirecourt, 252
Genoa
Albergo de' Poveri, macramé made at, 79
collars of, 74
earnings of lace-workers, 77, 78
embroidered lace of, 77;
embroidered tulle, 229
gold work of, 47, 72
guipures of, 74
lace of
Cardinal Mazarin's purchase of, 150, 151
Honiton reproduction of, 411
point de Gênes, 41, 42, 72, 73 and n230, 74
Queen Elizabeth's, 307 and n865
lace trade in, chiefly pillow, 47, 74;
decline of, 74
silk work of, 72
sumptuary laws in, 73
Tessada, Signore, old lace of, 72 n225
Genoa, Duchess of, 78 n244
Gentili family, bridal veil made for, 78
Geometrical patterns
cuffs of (Queen Mary's), 113
Cretan, 86
Greek lace, 20, 85
ruffs of, 316
Swedish, 25
Vecellio's, 111
Vinciolo's, 18
George I.
Mechlin cravat of, 126 and n361
period of, 351-353
wardrobe account of, 240 and n645
------ II., period of, 354-357
------ III.
English manufactures protected by, 359, 363 and n1068, 381
period of, 363-370
sponsor to children of aristocracy, 352 n1046
------ IV., wardrobe of, 364 n1073
Geharts, C., 501
Germany
fairs in, 43 n136, n140
guipures imported into, 36
lace imported into, 245, 251, 254
lace industry
centres of, before 1665, 44 n144
export trade with France, 265
North and South
Edict of Nantes Revocation--emigration of fugitives into, 264-265
religion of lace-workers, 264
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, 264
Nuremberg (_See that title_)
origin of, 111
pattern-books, 266-268
Saxony (_see that title_)
luxury, outbreak of, 265-266
Geslin, Simon, 193
_Gespeldewerkte kant_, 32 n98
Ghent lace
Brussels lace compared with, 118
manufacture of, 133-134
trade replaced by cotton-weaving, 134
Valenciennes made at Ghent, character of, 231 n624
Ghisolieri, La Signora Silveria Rossi, 484
Gibbons, Grinling, lace carvings of, 367 and n1088
Gibson, Sir Alexander, engraving of, 423
------, Miss Mary, 438
Gigliucci, Countess, fragment of drawn work possessed by, 69
Gilbert, Madame, 155 and n455, 156, 157 and n458
Gimp
Brussels lace, in, 406
method of making, 33
silk, at Ragusa, 84
Gioiello, 486
Giraldini, Catherina, 500
Gisors lace industry, 209, 213 n589, 215
Glairo, Mlle. U., 235
Glandore, Lord, 436
Glen, Jean de, 136, 482, 488 and n1338
----, Miss, 431 n1209
Gloucester, Duchess of, lace collection of, 369
Gloves, laced, 337 and n991
Goats' hair lace, 245
Godard, Jean, quoted, 24, 146 n425
Goderonné, term explained, 17 n57
Godric, 6
Gohory, Anne, 183 n540
Golbertain (Colbertine), 339 n996
Golconda, King of, 322 n928, 329 and n958
Gold lace (_See also_ Aurillac lace)
Arras, of, 240
England, imported to
fifteenth-sixteenth centuries, 288, 289, 307
monopoly in, under James I., 318
prohibited, by Queen Anne, 349;
by George II., 355 n1057;
confiscation and burning of, 359
France, popularity in, 139, 141, 146, 154;
of Paris, 211-212
Genoa, wearing prohibited in, 73
Hamburg, of, 264
Holland, introduction into, 259
India, imported into, 322 n928, 329 and n958
Ireland, importation to, prohibited, 439
Jewish manufacture of, 92
Lyons, of, 256
Ragusa, at, 84
Russia, of, 283
Scotland, wearing in, prohibited, 422
Sicily, of, 80
Spain, of, 92, 100-102, 248
Sweden, of, 280
Zurich, of, 271
---- guipure work, Swedish, 277-278
---- purles, 330
---- thread
duties on, leased to Dame Villiers, 328
Italian (fourteenth century), 72
---- wire, protest by handspinners of, 335
Golden Horn, 273
Goldoni, cited, 57 n192
Goldsmith, quoted, 70 n218
Gomberdière, Marquis de la, quoted, 209 and n582
Gonzales, Don Manuel, cited, 380 and n1120, 403 n1146
Gooding, James, 413, 414
Gorget (whisk), 334
Gormont, 464
Goudronné, term explained, 17 n57
Gozo, Maltese lace made at, 88
Grafton, Duchess of, 344 n1021, 349 n1037
Gramite, 46 n150
Grammont lace, 134
Granada, lace alb in cathedral of, 92, 93
Granson, battle of, 111
Grave-clothes
Duke of Alva's, 366 n1085
Ionian lace sold from, 86
lace decorations of, 365-367
St. Cuthbert's, 14, 15, 366
Gravelle, attempt to establish fabric by, 207
Great Marlow
bone lace trade of, 319
lace school at, 378
Great Wardrobe Accounts, where kept, 299 n816
Greek lace. (_See also_ Cyprus _and_ Ragusa)
Devonshire imitation of, 414 n1165
Italian cut-work so called, 20
Milan point, 65
reticella so called, 50, 85
Greeks (ancient), embroidery of, 2, 3 and n8
Green, quoted, 296
------ silk lace, 291 n783
Greene, Mrs., quoted, 321 n926
Gremial, 70 n217
Grey, Lady Jane, anecdote of, 38, 297
Grillé, 30 n89
Gripsholm, portrait of Queen Elizabeth at, 307
Gropari (punto a gropo), 52
Gros point de Venise. _See_ Point de Venise, rose point
---- René, 32
Groslay lace, 210, 213 n589
Ground
absent in certain laces, 31
kinds of, 30
round, 39
Gruner, Mr., cited, 476 n1316, 487 n1335, 489
Gruuthus mansion, collection at, 138
Gueuse, 33, 34, 41, 42
Guibray fair, 43 n136
Guipure
Flemish, 123, 133
Genoese, 74
Honiton (modern), 409, 410
Maltese, 88
method of making, materials, uses, 35-40
modern, 39, 40
parchment lace probably English term for, 37-38
point de Venise, 49
tape, 39, 75
Turkish, 87
Gunning, Miss (Duchess of Hamilton), 425 n1199, 428, 429
Gurbert, cited, 219 n602
Gustavus Adolphus, 282
Gustaf Vasa, 279, 280
Guyard, Sieur Mathieu, 204-205
Guyenne, annual consumption of Le Puy lace in, 245 n657
Haag, cited, 265 n714, 269 n725
Haarlem thread, 216 n595, 223 n608, 245, 259 and n695, n697
Hailstone, Mrs., 23
Hainault, laces, 134 _et seq._;
lace flowers, 121
Hair
false, of Queen Elizabeth's time, 314 and nn
fashion of wearing, 341
lace made from, 313;
horse-hair used in Alençon, 194;
goats'-hair and rabbits'-hair lace, 245
wigs, 336, 349
Hal, flax grown at, 118
Haliwell, quoted, 297 n809
Halle lace, 265
Hamburg point, 264
Hamilton, Anne, Duchess of (Miss Gunning), 425 n1199, 428, 429
--------, Lady Jane, 123 n351
Hamilton lace, 430
-------- net-work (modern), 434 n1216
Hamlet on the French stage, 186
Hammond, machine-net invented by, 447
Hand, Mrs., 445
Handkerchiefs, laced, 310 and n874, 337
Hangkow, lace made in, 89
Hanmer, Sir Thomas, 349 n1037
Hanover fabrics, 265
Hanslope lace industry, 380 n1119
Harefield church, sculptured lace on effigy in, 321 n927
Harent, Ignace, 230
Harrison, Major, rich dress of, 333
Hartruide, Madame, 279
Hartshorne, Albert, cited, 321 n927
Hatfield, old needlework at, 11
Hathaway family, embroidered bed linen of, 325 n941
Hauslaub, General von, 263
Havre lace, 183 n539, 217 n595, 218;
number of lace-makers (1692), 216, 218
Hay, Lord, 64
Hayman, Mrs., 410
Head, R. E., quoted, 391 n1127
Headdresses (_See also_ Fontange)
Louis XIV. styles, 164-166
mignonette lace used for, 35
prices of "heads," 348
Roman, 165 n486
"Heller," 391
Helmin, Fr. Margaretha, 502
Henderson, Anne, 430
Heneage, George, 346
Henrietta Maria
inventory of, cited, 29 and n87, 146 n426
present from, to Anne of Austria, 330 and n961
Henry II. (England), 37, 202 and n569
-------- (France), introduces lace ruff, 139, 140 and n393, 262 n701
Henry III. (England), 37, 43;
portrait in Pattern Book, 480
---------- (France), 140 and n396, 141
Henry IV. (France)
fashion dolls sent by, to Marie de Médicis, 170 n501
Isle of Paris industry, probable connection with, 210
measures of, against luxury of dress, 141-142 and n405
shirt worn by, when assassinated, 142-143 and n412
------ VI., laces in fashion in time of, 286 and n761
------ VII., lace of time of, 288, 289 and n772
------ VIII.
Act for the true making of pins, 294 n794
foreign lace allowed in England by, 67, 291
inventory of, cited, 372 n1098;
quoted, 104
lace of, 64, 289, 291-292 and n772
sumptuary laws of, 436 and n1220
wardrobe account of, quoted, 289 and n768, n769
------, Prince (1607), 296 n798
Herault, Chancellor, 143 and n416
Herbert, Miss, 416
Herbouville, cited, 131 n371
Herculaneum, drawn wire lace found at, 72
Hergosse, M. de, 177 n525
Hesse, Landgrave, French fugitives received by, 265 and n711
Hieronimo, Fra., 469
High Wycombe, lace industry of, 380
Hippisley, Sir John Cox, quoted, 329;
veil bequeathed to, 421
Hispano-Moresque point de Gênes frisé, 74
Hoche, General, 13
Hoffmann, Hans, 469
Holcroft, Mr., 169 n499
Hölesom, 280
Holidays in Roman Catholic countries, 102 n302
Holland
Dutch extravagance in lace, 260
Haarlem thread, advantage of, to, 259 and n695, n697
lace imported into, 251, 254
lace industry in, 258-260 and n689
rivalry with French lace trade, 258
Hollie work, 325 and n939
Hollow lace, 299 and n816
Holme, Randle, cited, 31, 344;
quoted, 251, 296 n799, 339
Holstein, daughter of Duke John of, 275
Holyrood Palace, lace trimmed basket in, 420
Honfleur lace, 183 n539, 218
Honiton, lace school at, 414
-------- lace
account of, 399-411
bobbins and pillows used in, 415 n1166
Bruges lace a rival to, 133
guipure, 40
Indian contrasted with, 89
Japanese imitations of, 417
point duchesse compared with, 123
-------- lace-makers, skill of, 417 n1171
Hope, Sir Thomas, portrait of, 423
Horsehair used in making Alençon, 194
Hôtel Rambouillet, dressed dolls of, 170
Hove, Callys de, 306
Howel's Letters, quoted, 317 n906
Hubert, Soeur, cited, 220 n606
Hugo, Victor, quoted, 135, 164;
cited, 136 n384
Humphrey, Thomas, 401
Hungarian lace, 268
Hungerford, Sir Edward, 395
Hunt, Susanna, 438
Hurdle, Mary, 395
Hutchins, quoted, 396 n1133
Hutchinson, Colonel, 333
----------, Mrs., Memoirs of, cited, 12
Hutton, Sir Timothy, 71
Iberian lace, 104
Ile de France. _See_ Isle de France
India
lace exported to, 241, 251, 253, 322 n928, 329 and n958
pillow-laces of, 88 and n263, 89
India Museum, pillow laces in, 89
Indian muslin, 179-180
------ work of Denmark, 275
Innishmacsaint, 446
Innocent IV., Pope, 7
Inquisition, lace-trimmed banner of, 100
Insertion, 388
Ionian Isles
lace manufacture of, 85
lace from tombs of, 365
Ipsden, Vicar of, MS. in possession of, 286 n761
Ireland
Bath and Shirley School, 440
club against "foreign fopperies," 438
Dublin Society, the, 429, 437, 439
lace industry in, 436-446;
Maltese guipures made in, 88;
Irish point, 443 and n1233
prize offered by, for Dresden point, 262
sumptuary laws in, 435, 436 and n1220
yellow dye of, 307, 435, 436
Iron Mask, 166 n490
Isabella, Infanta, 113
--------, Princess (Sweden), 279 n746
"Isabelle" tint, 121
Ischia lace, 71, 263 and n705
Isle de France
lace industry in
centres of (17th century), 209 and n582, 210
Chantilly, 212-215
cheap laces, 210
Dumont's fabric, 211
Huguenots engaged in, 209
Spanish imports of lace from, 99
Israel, J., 469
Italians, dishonesty of, in lace trade (Henry VII.'s time), 48, 67, 288
Italy (_For_ towns, etc., _see their titles_)
France, relations with, 16th century, 476
invention of lace claimed by, 109;
of point lace, 45
lace imported by, 245, 251 n670
lace of (_See also_ Point _and_ Punto)
centres of manufacture before 1665, 44 n144
England, fashionable in, 318;
imitated in, 416 n1169, 417
Greek lace manufacture, centres of, 85
Points in relief of, counterfeits of, 105
Spanish point attributed to, 93, 97
lace schools of, 81 n249
revolutions in, lace seized during, 51 and n175
silk gimp specimens from, 85
Swiss lace from, origin of, 269
white thread made in, 49 n165
Jabot, 172
Jacobites, 425, 426
James I.
gold purle manufacture prohibited by, 319 and n921
Great Wardrobe Account, 311 n878, 317 and n903, 318 nl7
Honiton lace industry in time of, 401
lace of, 64
monopolies granted by, 318-319, 378
period of, 315-326
ruffs under, 315-318
------ II.
Edinburgh visited by, 425
period of, 340
------ V. (of Scotland), 372 n1098, 418 and n1172
------ VI. (of Scotland), 422 and n1195
------, Jacques, 205
Jane Seymour, 292
Japan, Honiton lace imitated in, 417
Jean lace. _See_ Genoa lace
Jerphanion, Sieur, 244
Jersey, Isle of, lace industry of, 372 and n1097
Jesuit lace, 445 and n1234
Jesuits, inventory of, cited, 331
Jesurum, Cav. Michelangelo, 62
Jew stick, 491 and n1349
Jewellery of 18th century, 346
Jews
Athenian lace used by, 86
embroidery of (ancient), 2
gold and silver lace made by, 92 and n270
Jingles of bobbins, 391 n1127
Johan Adolf, Prince, 282
Johnson, Dr., quoted, 367
Jointeuse, work of, 122
Jolly, Margareta, 348
Jonson, Ben, quoted, 43 n139, 302, 313 n890, 316 and n922, 318 n910,
n912, 327
Josephine, Empress, 123 n351, 177 n526
Jours, 31
Judith of Bavaria, 5
Junius, Hadrianus, 114 n327
Junot, Madame. _See_ Abrantès, Duchesse d'
Jurdaine, Mary, 306
Jutland lace industry, 274
Katherine of Aragon, Queen
Bedfordshire lace-industry attributed to, 375 and n1106, n1107, 376
needlework of, 9, 10 and n32
portrait of, 129 n367
Spanish fashions introduced by 10 n32, 310
----------, Queen (wife of Charles II.), 43
---------- Parr, Queen, 10 n34
Keck, 423
Keller, Dr. Ferd, 270 n728
Kenmare, lace industry of, 443, 444
Kennedy, Tristram, 440
Kettering, lace industry of, 384
Killigrew, quoted, 318 n908
Kilravock, Mistress Margaret, daughter of the Baron of, 425 n1198
Kinsale, lace industry at, 422 n1187
Knight, cited, 396
------, Miss, quoted, 264
Knole, old needlework at, 11
Knotted fringe, 13 and n47
-------- lace, 52, 68
Knox, Miss Jane, 438
Koehler, statuette by, 262
Königsmarck, Aurora, lace in tomb of, 366
La Boord, Madame, 43
La Chaise-Dieu, lace industry at, 249
"La Fontange," story of, 164
La Mancha, lace factory at, 102
La Motte, Maréchal, 29, 126 and n357
La Perrière, 155 n454, 157 n458
"La Providence" nuns, 226
La Vallière, 154, 464 n1280
Laborde, cited, 151 n438
Lace (_See also_ Old lace)
Biblical meaning of term, 2
definition of term, 26
foreign equivalent of term, 26 n77
manufactures of, before 1665, 44 n144
parts of, 30
point and pillow, 32
---- Association, aims of, 393
Laced handkerchiefs, 310 and n874
Lace-makers, ill-health of, 415
Lacis
Aurillac, 248
book of (1587), 18
definition of, 20 and n61, 21
_Don Quixote_, mentioned in, 98 n281
German, 264
Punto a maglia quadra, 52
Sicilian, 81
Tuscan, 68
Ladies as lace-makers, 163, 337, 355, 373, 374 and n1103
Ladomie, M., cited, 170 n501
Laffemas, quoted, 209 n583
Laid work, 301
Laimoxen, Balthasar, 489
Lalande, cited, 64
Lalma, 246
Lamb represented in lace, 21
Lamballe, Princesse de, 213
Lappets. _See_ Barbe
Larkin, Thomas, 312
Laroche, lace made at, 137
Larruga, cited, 101
Lassels, cited, 70;
quoted, 73
Latomus, Sigismund, 267, 491, 492
Lauber, Miss Jacobina, 282
Laulne, E. de, 476
Launceston, lace-making at, 371 n1094
Laval, Geneviève, 183 n540
Laybach, 268
Le Prince, 465
Le Puy
lace industry of
cheap laces, 246
descriptions of lace of, 245
export trade, 245;
value of annual export, 245 and n657
Haarlem thread used in, 245
import duties decreased, 244 and n653
numbers employed in, 242;
(1851), 257 n688;
in making Valenciennes, 245
sumptuary laws (seventeenth century), effect of, on, 243
lace schools of, 246 and n659
museum at, 246
Valenciennes lace at, 230 and n619
Le Quesnoy lace, 157 n459, 230
Lead, bobbins made of, 74 n235
Leber, M., cited, 487 n1336
Lee, Rev. William, 448 n1240
Lefébure, A.
blondes mates exported by, 226
point d'Argentan revived by, 208
quoted, 75 n237, 155 n453, 158 n463, 159 n464, 194, 200;
cited, 228, 250, 269 n724
teaching improved by, 227
Leicester, Countess of, 330
Leipsic, fair, 196 and n563; fabrics (1685), 265
Lennox, Countess of, 314
------, Duke of, 419 and n1176
Léonard, 181
Lepage, M., 134
L'Estoille, P. de, quoted, 141 n399
L'Estrange, Sir Thomas, 290
_Letters of a Lady's Travels in Spain_, quoted, 97-98
Leu, Sieur de la, manufactory of, 205-206
Liedts, Baroness, 138
Liège lace
account of industry, 136-137
point de Sedan, connected with, 254
price of (1701), 136 n386
Lierre
Mechlin lace made at, 125
pictures in St. Gomar, 109 n317
Light reflectors, bottles used as, 390 and n1125
Liguria, guipures of, 74
Lille
lace
compared with Spanish lace, 103;
with Arras, 235, 240;
with Valenciennes, Brussels and Mechlin, 237
cost of thread, 237 and n637
England, popularity in, 237 and n640;
Bedfordshire lace called "English Lille," 385
ground, 236-237
modern, 238
lace-industry
antiquity of, 235
decline of, 238
dress of lace-makers, 235 and n630
French duty on lace (1761), 237 n635
mignonette made (1665), 35
numbers employed in (1723), 237 n640;
(1788), 238, 257 n688
rivalry with Mirecourt, 252
value of (1788), 238
lace-workers, daily amount produced by, 233
thread, fineness of, 119 n339;
price of, 192 n553, 237 and n637;
export of, to Scotland, 432
Limerick lace, 440, 441 and n1230, 442 n1231, n1232;
lace school, 442
Limousin, 250
Lincoln, maiden assize at, 338 n991
Linen
embroidery of, 14
macramé, 79 and n248
Lisbon, lace factories at, 105
Lisle, Lady, 290 and n780
Loch, David, quoted, 433 and n1214;
cited, 434
Locke, quoted, 430
Loisel, Franç., Phelyplaux, 125 n354, 174 n520
Lombard peasants, lace worn by, 64
London
foreigners in (1571-1688), 129 n366, 299 n817, 306 and n853;
complaint of women against introduction of foreign merchants, 286;
complaints against foreign lace-makers, 324 n935
lace-making in, 373
------, Bishop of, sermon by, against ruffs, quoted, 316 and n899
------ _Chronicle_, cited, 4
------ _Gazette_, quoted, 11 n39, 126
Long Island, lace-making by Protestant settlers in, 372 n1099
Lonlay, Eugène de, cited, 208
Lonrai (Lonray), lace factory at, 155 n455, 156 and n457;
sale of stock, 196
------, Marquise de, 157 n457
_Lord Thomas_ (ballad), quoted, 15
L'Orme, Marion de, quoted, 125
Lorraine, lace industry (_see also_ Mirecourt), 251 and n672, n673;
Mignonette made (1665), 35;
numbers employed (1851), 257 n688
--------, Queen Louise de, 144
Lost property, advertisements for, 337 and n990, 338 and n992, 342 n1010
Loucelles, Abbé Suhard de, 226
Loudun, 256
Louis XI., 139 n393
------ XIII.
collar made at Venice for, 194
death of, 149
Flemish conquests of, 230 and n618
luxury and fashions of time of, 144-147
------ XIV.
census of (1684), 131
cravats presented to ambassadors by, 163
death of, effect on Alençon industry, 192
fashions of reign of, 161 _et seq._
fête at Marly, 163
Flemish conquests of, 230 and n618
gold and silver lace of period of, 154
Paris lace commerce under, 211
sumptuary laws of, 152
------ XV.
Court of, 172 and n505
fashions under
black lace masks, 177
jabots, 172-173
mourning, 178
relevailles of Parisian ladies, 174
ruffles, 171-173
point d'Alençon patterns under, 198-199 and n566
trousseau of eldest daughter of, 176
------ XVI.
fashions under, 179-181
phraseology of time of, 181
point d'Alençon patterns under, 199 and n566
ruffles of, 172 n508
Louisa, Queen (Sweden), 279
Louise de Vaudemont, Queen, 18, 478, 480
Louvain, pictures and altar piece at, 109, 110 and n317
--------, Widow, attempt of, to establish manufacture at Mortagne, 206
Louvres, lace-making at, 209
-------- en-Parisis lace, 212 n589
Lovat, Lady, 426 n1202
Low Countries. _See names of countries_
Lowndes, cited, 497 n1360, 500
--------, Richard, 380
Lubec, 264
Lucca, gold lace, 92
Lude, Duchesse de, 167 and n495
Luxada, cited, 75
Luxembourg, M. de, 167
----------, Maréchale de, 180
Luynes, Duc de, Memoirs of, quoted, 174 and n518, 176 n522
Luzarches lace, 212
Lydgate, quoted, 305
Lygum Kloster, 274 n736, 276 n738
Lyme Regis, lace industry of, 396-398
Lyons lace, 256
Lysons, cited, 384, 396; quoted, 405, 408
Mabbie, 423
Macaulay, John, 439 n1227
McCulloch, cited, 384
----------, E., cited, 224 n610
McCullow, Miss Martha, 438
Mache, 22 n70
Machine net, introduction of, 408
Machinery--"engines" of foreigners for lace-making, 324 n935
Maclean, Rev. William, 442, 443
McPherson, quoted, 112 n324
Macramé, 52, 79 and n247
Madden, Sir Fred., quoted, 297 n812
Madeira, laces of, 106, 107 and n316
Madras, Maltese-like lace made in, 88 n263
Madrid, lace factory at, 102
Magnus, Prince (Sweden), 280
Maidstone, complaints of, regarding imported Flemish thread, 324 n935
Mailly, Madame, 250
Maine, Madame de, 167
Maintenon, Madame de, 168, 183;
letter to, quoted, 99;
lace factory of, 163;
letter from, quoted, 172 and n506
_Malcontent_, quoted, 322
Malines exhibition, voile de bénédiction at, 195 n561, 251 n674
-------- lace. _See_ Mechlin lace
Malta, grave-clothes lace-trimmed at, 365
Maltese lace
account of industry, 87 and n262, 88
Danish manufacture of, 275
English manufacture of, 392, 393, 414 n1165
Greek lace similar to, 86
Guipure, 40
Madeira manufacture of, 107 n316
Saxon manufacture of, 263
Man, Isle of, lace industry of, 372 and n1096
Manchester thread, 119 n339
Manchettes. _See_ Ruffles
Manegetti di ponto Fiamengo, 111
Manilla grass thread-work, 89 n265
Mantegna, Andrea, 467
Mantillas, 226
Manzoni, Count, cited, 488 n1340
Mar, Countess of, 419 and n1176
Marcello, Countess Andriana, 61
Marche lace, 68, 138 n392
Marcq, Catherine de, 157 n458, 158 n460, 190
Mare, de la, cited, 148 n431, 152 n440
Margaret of Austria, 23 n74
Margherita, Queen of Italy, 61, 62
Margot, Reine, 11, 22, 49, 141, 142
Marguerite de France, 11 n36, 22, 27, 33 n102
Maria d'Aragon, portrait of, in pattern book, 497
------ Elizabeth, Electress Palatine, 491
Marie Antoinette
autograph letter, referred to, 213
fans and laces distributed by, 180
fashion at court of, 179-180
gazette of (1782), 181 n537
point de Marli worn by, 225
sale of lace of, 183
------ Louise, Brussels lace presented to, 124;
lace trousseau of, 184, 196
------ Theresa, 259 and n699
Marnef, Hierosme de, 496
Marillac, Maréchal de, 147 n428, 265 n715
Marini, cited, 58
Marlborough, lace industry at, 395
Marli, 180 and n532
Marly, fête at, 163
Marriott, William, 380
Marryat, Captain, cited, 413;
lace industry assisted by, 410
--------, Mrs., 500 n1365
--------, Miss Cecilia, 410
Marsan, Comte de, 210 and n585
------, Mlle. de, 211
Mary, Princess, daughter of George II., 348
---- I.
accounts of, quoted, 297
gift of Spanish work to, 10 n32;
Flanders work to, 294
interment of, 180
present to Lady Calthorpe, 297
ruffs of, 310
sumptuary laws, 293
---- of Burgundy, 135
----, Queen of Hungary, 113
---- de Médicis
collarette of, 143-144
death of, 149
fashion dolls sent to, 170 n501
pattern book dedicated to, 22, 494
point de Gennes of, 72
sumptuary law published by, 144 and n419;
evaded by, 149 and n434
Mary of Modena, Queen, 341, 425
---- II.
fontange of, 342
knotted fringe worked by, 13 and n47
lace bills of, quoted, 168 n496
Mechlin ruffles of, 126 and n364
---- Stuart
dentelle of, 27
finery of, overhauled by Elizabeth, 307 and n860
guipures of, 37 and n120, 38
inventories of, cited, 21, 33 n102, 302 n828, 314, 325 n939, 372 n1098
needlework done by, 10, 11, 420, 421
ruff on effigy of, 316 n901
wardrobe of, 419 and n1177, 420 and n1182, 421
will of, 22
Masch (Mawsch) 22 and n70, 419
Massillon, encouragement of lace industry by, 243
Massimo, Prince, reference to library of, 466, 468 n1290, 495 n1357
Massinger, quoted, 265 n717, 296 and n804
Matignon, Mlle, de, 176
Matilda, Empress, Bayeux Tapestry ascribed to, 6 n22
--------, Queen, Bayeux Tapestry ascribed to, 6 and n23
Matsys, Quentin, 109, 110
Matthew of Paris, anecdote by, 7
Maximilian, King of the Romans, 289
Maynard, Mrs. Lydia, 404
Mayne, Jasper, quoted, 317 and n905, 324 and n936
Mazarin, Cardinal, 143 n412, 150, 151 and n439, 248
Mazzarine, 343 and n1017
Mechlin lace
arrêt concerning (1688), 129 n365
"Broderie de Malines" a term for, 125
characteristic of, 31, 125
compared with Bayeux lace, 228;
with Brussels, 118;
with Cretan mesh work, 87;
with Lille, 237;
with point de Dieppe, 218;
with St. Trond, 137;
with Valenciennes, 233
decline of manufacture, 125
description of, 124-125
earliest references to, 125-126
English fashion for, 126
grounds in, 125
imperial layette (1856), in, 198
Lille, pattern adopted at, 238
points de France rivalled by, 177-178
Pope's apron bordered with, 70
Turnhout manufacture of, 125, 131
uses of, 127-128
varieties included by term (1665), 35
---- net, 448
Medici collars, 56
Médicis family (_See also_ Katherine _and_ Mary), influence on fashions,
139
Melville, Sir Robert, 37
_Memoirs of Madame Palatine_, cited, 354
Men as lace workers
Chili, 108
England, 392;
south, 371 n1092;
Northamptonshire, 385;
Devonshire, 413, 414
France, 155
Madeira, 107 n316
Normandy (soldiers), 225
Saxony, 263
work of, compared with that of women, 263
Menin lace, 232 n624
Menzikoff, Prince, funeral of daughter of, 366 n1083
Meran blonde, 256
Mercier, Baron, lace school of, 196
----, S., quoted, 121 and n348, 170 n500, 171 and n502
Méric lace, 212
Merli, Cav. Antonio, cited, 46 and n150, 47, 50, 462, 466, 468 n1291,
n1292, 487
Merli à piombini, 32 n98
Mermaid's lace, 49
Meshes, Cretan skill in, 86
Messina, lace work at, 81
Metal laces, Sicilian, 86
Mexico, mantillas exported to, 226
Meyer, Daniel, 496
Mézières lace, 183 n539, 253, 254
Mezzo punto, 58
Michel, Francisque, cited, 104;
quoted, 251 n669
----, Pfarrer, 266
Michele, La Sig. Gabriella Zeno, 484
Middleton, quoted, 312 n884
Mignerak, Milour, pattern book of, 21, 22, 29, 493
Mignonette, 34 and n107, 35 and nn, 210, 237, 251
Milan
Albissola lace bought for Napoleon I.'s coronation at, 78
Cantu the centre of lace of, 66
cathedral, lace camicie in underground chapel of, 66
early record of Italian lace belonging to, 63
Genoese lace contrasted with lace of, 75 n236
Greek lace made at, 85
Old Milan point, 65
punto di Napoli contrasted with point of, 71
réseau of points of, 66
wire lace industry at, 72
Milward & Co., 380
Minas Geraes, lace of, 108
Minifie, Mrs., 400 and n1140, 401 and n1142
Mirecourt lace, 212, 238, 251-253, 257 n688
Misson, F. M., cited, 54 n186;
quoted, 267
Mitchell, Mr. and Mrs., advertisement of school of, 431 n1209
Modano, Tuscan, 52, 68
Modène, Duchess of
inventory of, quoted, 120 n344, 121 n347, 128 n363, 135 and n383, 175
n520, 213 and n590
ruffles of, 233
Modes, 31
Molière, quoted, 152, 153 n442, 173 n515
Mompesson, Sir Giles, 318 and n914
Monaghan, crochet industry of, 444, 445
Moncrieffe, Sir Thomas, 425
Monks, needlework done by, 12 and n40
Mons lace, 134-135
"Monsieur de Paris," 173
Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley, 57, 59, 73;
quoted, 128, 356 and n1061
Montague, Mrs. Elizabeth, quoted, 352
---- R., account entry by, 335 n982
Montargis, 256
Montbéliard, pattern-book published at, 28
Montchrestien, cited, 209 n583
Monteagle, Lord, 10 n32
Monteleon, Princess of, 98
Monthulay, family, 204
---- Sieur de, 205, 206
Montmorency, lace-making at, 209, 213 n589
Montrose, pearlin of, 423
Moorish lace, 104
Moors, Spanish lace-making attributed to, 45
Morant, Captain, 440
More, Mrs. Hannah, quoted, 368
Moreau, General, 13
Moretti, Nicolo, 484
Morgan, cited, 435
---- Sydney, Lady, 369
Morges lace, 212 n589
Morin, M.A., cited, 220 n606
Mortagne, 206
Moryson, Agnes, quoted, 55, 70, 73, 87, 258, 265, 268, 274
Moscow, lace school at, 284
Motteville, Mme., quoted, 154 n447
Mountague, Alice, 308
Mourning, lace discarded in, in James I.'s time, 324
Murat, Caroline, 183
---- laces, 248, 249
Mzeresk lace, 283
Nanduti, 108
Nani, Signora Viena Vendramina, 485
Nankin silk thread, 223 n608
Naples
Greek lace made at, 85
lace from a palace at, 51 n175
lace of, 70-71;
lace work of industrial school at, 83 n352
Napoleon
bed made for, 196
favourite laces of, 128, 184
lace industry encouraged by, 123-124, 183-185, 196;
attempt to revive Valenciennes, 231.
Nardendal, custom of natives of, 283
National Gallery portraits, illustrations of ruffs in, 316 n901
Navarre, Queen of, accounts of, quoted, 67, 141 n406, 142 n409, n411
Needle lace (_See also_ Point à l'aiguille)
Alençon known as "needle-point," 195
Irish, 443
method of making, 32
Queen Elizabeth's, 305
Nelson, Lord, anecdote of, 264
Nemours, Duchesse de, 235
Nesmond, Marquis de, 117 and n331
Netherlands. _See_ Flanders, Belgium, Holland _and_ Brabant
Netting, 20, 21, 52;
machine net, 408
Neufchâtel lace industry, 270 and n726
Neville, Mary, marriage clothes of, 291 n779
New Ross convent, lace made at, 444
Newport Pagnel lace, 375 n1105, 378, 382, 384
Newton, Rev. John, letter from Cowper to, 379
Nicholas, Edward, 329 n957
-------- Susanne, 329 n957
Nichols, quoted, 294 n791, 303 n833
Nicolas, Etienne, 160 n466
Night caps, 323
Noailles, Madame de, anecdote of, 180 n533
Normanby, Lady, 441
Normandy
lace industry of. (_See also_ Calvados _and_ Dieppe)
centres of, 216, 218
French Revolution, effect of, 223
mignonette made (1665), 35
numbers employed in different localities, 228 n614;
(1851), 257 n688
value of, 228 n614
peasant women, Valenciennes bought by, 235
Norris, Sir Henry, 307
Northamptonshire lace, 384-393
Nosegays, lace trimmings for, 55
Nottingham lace, 441;
Isle of Wight lace compared with, 372 n1097;
machine-made blondes, 225;
imitation mantillas, 227
Novgorod, fabric at, 283
Nuns, lace washed by, 373 and n1101
---- as lace-makers
Flanders, 354
Italy, 47 and n154;
Burano, 58;
Florence, 67, 68;
Cantu, 80
Portugal, 105, 107
Spain, 93
Nuremberg, 266, 267
Oberkirch, Baroness de, extract from Memoires of, 182
O'Brien, Mrs. R. V., 442
O'Hagan, Mother Abbess, 443
O'Halloran, Mr., 436
Old lace
indifference to, 368 and n1090
mania for, 369
restoration of, 411, 412
Oldfield, Mrs., 367
Olney, lace industry of, 378, 380 n1119
Opus tract, 302
Orfreys, 3 n13
Orléans, Duchesse d', quoted, 166 n489
-------- Dukes of, inventories of, quoted, 120 n342, n344, 221 and n607
Orléanois lace industry, 256
Orsa lace, 281
Ostans, Giovanni, 484
------ Jean, 475
Oudenarde lace, 134
Our Lady of La Solidad, costly robes of, 90
--- ---- of Loreto, laces of, not described, 69
Overbury murder, 317
Oxford, opinion of, on falling bands, 326
------ Countess of, 9 n31
Oyah (Turkish crochet), 45, 87
Pagan, Mathio, 468, 471
Paganino, Alessandro, 468
Paganinus, P. A., 472
Paget, Lady, 295
Pagodes, 168 n496
Paintings, earliest in which lace occurs, 47;
lace in paintings of 18th century, 222, 364
Palatine, Count, 326
-------- Madame, 168;
Memoires of, quoted, 178
Pale of rose point, 51 and n174
Palermo
grave clothes at, 366 and n1081
sculptured lace in villa near, 71
Palestine, lace-making at, 59 and n195
Pandore, la grande, 170
Parasole, Elisabetta Catanea, 495
-------- Isabella Catanea, 491, 496
Parchment lace, 37 and n122, 38 and n126, n129, n131, 297, 298
Paris
churches, lace of, 120 n342, 161 n467, n469
English laces in demand at (1788), 368, 379
exhibitions. _See under_ Exhibitions
lace industry
Binche and Mirecourt flowers applied at, 212
Bisette made (1665), 33 and n102
commerce of lace under Louis XIV, 211 and n587
Dumont's fabric, 211
factories round, 209
guipures made (1665), 36 and n114
mignonette made (1655), 35
numbers employed (1851), 257 n688
passementiers privileged in, 44
pattern books in, 12 and n43
Parisini, Agostino, 477
Partlet, 297 n810
Pasax, Marquis de, 190
Pasini, Tomaso, 483
Pasment in Scotland, 418
Pasolini, Countess, 81 n248
Passament (passement)
definition of term, 26 and n79, 27
guipure a kind of, 36
references to, 27-29
"Passement Bond, The," 419
Passerotti, Aurelio, 472
Pattern-books
Belgium
Antwerp (n. d.), 130, 463
Liège (1597), 136, 488
cut-works, of (1591), 20 n62
earliest dated, 18;
earliest known, 376 n1108
England
London (1591), 482;
(1624), 497;
(1632), 499;
(1640), 500
Northampton, 384
France
Lyon (n. d.), 92 n269, 465, 466;
(1549) 92 n269, 144, 464;
(1581), 475
Mignerak's, 21, 22, 29, 144, 493
Montbéliard (1598), 28, 489, 490
Paris, in Bibliothèque Impériale, 12 n43;
in St. Geneviève's library, 12;
(n. d.), 468;
(1530) 144, 461;
(1546), 464;
(1564), 475;
(1584), 476;
(1587), 17, 18, 477;
(1587, 1588, 1595, 1606), 479-481;
(1601), 20 n62, 490;
(1605), 493;
(1613), 494;
(1623), 498;
(1722), 501
Germany
Augsburg (1534), 267, 462
Cologne (1527), 268, 459
Frankfort (n.d.), 470;
(1537), 470
Frankfort-on-the-Maine (1568, 1569, 1571), 470;
(1605), 267, 491;
(1607), 492;
(1618), 496
Leipsic (1619), 496
Lindau am Bodensee (n.d.), 488
Nuremberg (n.d.) 502;
(1597), 489;
(1601, 1604), 266, 490;
(1666), 501;
(1676), 501
Nuremberg and Leipzig, (1784), 501
Strasburg (1556), 469
gold and silver lace, of, 92
Italy
Bologna (n.d.), 477;
(1591), 483
Florence (1596), 488
Padua (1555), 469;
(1604), 491
Pistoja (1642), 53 n181, 85, 92 n269, 500
Rome (1616), 495;
(1625), 496
Siena (1603), 488
Turin (1589), 481
Venice (n.d.), 466, 471, 498;
(1529), 461;
(1530), 53 n179, 460;
(1532), 462;
(1537), 462;
(1542), 463;
(1543, 1544), 464;
(1548), 53 n179, 468;
(1551), 468;
(1556), 469;
(1557), 472;
(1558), 471;
(1559), 92 n269, 471, 472;
(1560), 473;
(1563), 474;
(1564), 53 n179, 54 n182, 474, 475;
(1567), 475;
(1584), 476;
(1591), 53 n179, 54 n182, 484;
(1592) (Corona of Vecellio), 50 n167, 54 n182, 484;
(1594), 486;
(1600), 68, 491, 496;
(1620 and 1625), 54 n182, 497
Samplars a substitute for, 22-23
Switzerland
Basle (1599), 271, 490
St. Gall (1593), 271, 487
Zurich, 271, 469
unknown points in, 54 n182
Vienna Museum, in, 263
Pauline, Princess, 184, 185
Pays de Caux, 216
Peacham, quoted, 325, 329
Pearl (picot), 31
------ ties, 31
Pearlin, 422, 423
Pedlars, lace trade carried on by, 43 and n139, 44 and n142, n143
Pelegrin, Francisque, pattern book of, 144, 461
Pelican represented in lace, 21
Pellestrina, revival of pillow lace at, 62
Pembroke, Countess of, 322, 500
Peniche
bobbins used at, 106 n314
lace industry of, 107 and n315
Pennant, quoted, 382;
cited, 431 n1208
Penne, Mrs., 294
Penshurst, old needlework at, 11
Penthièvre, Duc de
Eu lace patronised by, 221
inventory of, quoted, 117 n333, 195 n549
wardrobe account of, quoted, 172 and n510, n511, 211 n588
Peplos, embroidery of, 3 n8
_Pepys' Diary_, quoted, 153 n444, 337, 338
Persia, drawn-work of, 45
Peru and Mexico, lace imported to, from Le Puy, 245
Perugia, Torchon made at, 81 n248
Peter the Great, 283
Petersen, Anders, 280
Petre, Madame, of Gefle, information supplied by, 282 n750
Peuchet, cited, 132, 224, 256, 265, 377, 395;
quoted, 216 n595, 218 n600, 220 n605, 225, 237 n640, 239, 244, 245 and
n657, 268, 396, 432
"Pharsalia" quoted, 25
Philip II. (Spain), 67, 310
------ III. (Spain), 97
Philippa, Queen, 278, 285 and n754
Philippine Islands, Manilla grass threadwork of, 89 n265
Phrygians, embroidery of, 3 and n13
Pianesani, Francesco, 462
Picard, M., 490 n1346
Picchetti, Marie, 79
Pichon, Baron J., 482, 493 n1355, 495 n1356
Pickleman, Jungfrau, 266
Pickpockets, 346
Picot (pearl), 31 and n92
Pigott, Miss, quoted, 421
Pillows
Barcelona, 103 n305
description of, 391
foreign names for, 32 n99
Honiton, 415 n1156
Pillow guipure, 116
------ lace (bobbin lace)
Austrian, 268
bobbin lace, so called 32
Ceylon, of, 88
foreign names for, 32 n98
France, extension of industry in (seventeenth century), 159;
trade crisis (1818), 187;
fabric at Château de Madrid, 210 n584;
gold lace of Paris, 212;
first mentioned in French pattern-books, 494
Genoese, 74
Germany, introduction into, 260
Madeira, at, 107
Mechlin. _See that title_
method of making, 32-33
origin of, 29, 109
Peniche, at, 107
Russian, 283 and n751
Spanish, 103 n305
Valenciennes. _See that title_
------ net, 150
------ -beres, 16 and n56
Pin net machine, 448
Pinheiro, Dona Maria Bordallo, letter from, quoted, 107 n315
Pins for lace-making, 391 and n1126;
State papers concerning, 294 n794
Pinwork lace, 294 n794
Piper Countess Elizabeth, 280
Pisa, lace work of industrial school at, 81 n248
Pitt, French fashions excluded by, 170
Pizzo, 74
Plaited laces, 392
Platteuse, work of, 122
Plissés à la vieille, 127
Pluymers, Jean, 158 n460
Point (stitch), kinds of, 32
------ lace
invention of, claimed by Italy, 45
misuse of term, 32
varieties of, 33-35
------ à l'aiguille, 121;
gazée, 123. _See also_ Needle point
------ d'Alençon
Argentella, 193 and n555
Bayeux manufacture of, 228
Burano manufacture of, 62
compared, with point d'Argentan, 203, 204 and n571;
with Brussels, 194, 199;
with Colbertine, 339;
with point Gaze, 123;
with Sedan lace, 254
dress of, purchased by Emperor Napoleon, 198
earliest use of name, 195 and n557, n558, n560
grounds in, 193
imperial layette of, 198
industry
Argentan, connection with, 204
centres of, 200
decline of, causes for, 192
early account of, 188-189
Edict of Nantes, effect of revocation of, 258
establishment of, 155-157 and n455
export trade, 192
method of manufacture, 192-194
Napoleon's patronage of, 196
number of lace-workers (1698), 191;
(1786), 195;
(1788), 192 n552;
(1830), 196
origin of, 111 n323
quality of lace-work, 159 n464, 187, 194
revival of, 155 and n454, 196-197
value of (1786 and 1801), 195; (1830), 196
invention and establishment of, 155-157 and n455
lappet of, from Genoa, 78 and n244
"nun's work," 11 n39
patterns, 190-191;
dates of, 198-200;
Venice patterns copied, 191
season for, 178
shaded tints introduced in, 201 and n567
specimens of, exhibited, 200, 201
time required in making, 198, 201
Venetian réseau, relation to, 58-59
"vilain," 191 n551
------ d'Angleterre
Angleterre à bride, 408
Aurillac manufacture of, 247
Burano manufacture of, 62
butterfly and acorn pattern in, 408
France, fashionable in, 118 and n336
history of, 117 and n332, and n333
point de France rivalled by, 178
------ d'Argentan
"Argentella" possibly a name for, 78 n244
Armada pattern lace worked in, 397
Burano manufacture of, 62
characteristic of, 207
compared, with point d'Alençon, 203, 204 and n571;
with point gaze, 123;
with Venetian lace, 203, 204 n571
description of, 203
ground in, 203 and n570, 204 n571, 207-208
industry
Alençon, connection with, 204
embroidery, replaced by, 208 n580
Guyard's revival of, 204-205
number of lace workers (c. 1744), 205;
(1786), 195
rival houses, 205
value, annual (1786 and 1801), 195;
(1788), 207
reference to (1738), 195 and n559
season for, 178
------ d'Aurillac. 154, 246-249
------ de Bourgogne, 255
------ de Brabant, 138 n392
------ de Bruxelles. _See_ Point d'Angleterre
------ à carreaux, 32
------ à chaînette, 32
------ des champs (point de Paris), 35
------ Colbert, 188 n548, 228
------ coupé (couppé), 17-18, 49, 140 _et seq._
------ de Dieppe. _See_ Dieppe
------ double (point de Paris), 35
------ duchesse, 123
------ d'Espagne. (_See also_ Gold lace)
brides in, 58
definition of, 90
England, importation to, prohibited, 358;
Honiton imitation of, 410
Irish imitation of, 443 n1233
point d'Aurillac compared with, 248
Portuguese laces compared with, 98, 106
Queen Elizabeth's, 307
references to, 98-99 n283, n285, 100, 103 n306, 354
------ d'esprit, 32 and n94, 229
------ de Flandre (_See also_ Flemish lace), 111, 144-145
------ de France. (_See also_ Point d'Alençon)
description of, made at Alençon, 190
designs in, 158 n463
équipage, de bain of, 168
falbalas of, 167 and n492
industry
centres of, 157 n459, 159 n459, 210-211 and n584
Dumont, Mlle., foundress of, 105 n312
establishment and history of company, 157-158 and n459
Flanders, effect on, 111
method of working pattern in, 31 n91
ordinance of 1665, 157 and n459
rivals to, 177-178
popularity in France and England, 161-162
references to, 157 n459, 159 n464, 195 and n557, n558, n559, n560
------ de Galle, thread lace from, 88
------ Gaze, characteristics of, 123
------ de Gênes (Genoa)
collerette, 141
France, prohibited in, 148 n431, 154 and n451
history of, 72-73 and n230, 74
"Révolte des Passemens," mentioned in, 41,42
------ de Hongrie, 265
------ of Italy, first appearance in France, 144-145
------ de Marli. _See under_ Bayeux, lace industry.
------ de Milan, Irish imitation of, 443
------ de Moscow, 284
------ de neige (punto neve), 32 and n97, 51
------ de Paris, 32 and n93, 35, 210, 212
------ plat, 105 n313, 118, 121 and n347, 122 and n350;
appliqué, 123
------ de raccroc, 120, 184, 226
------ de Raguse, 41, 83 and n254, 84
------ à la Reine, 32
------ de Sedan. _See_ Sedan
------ tresse, 314
------ de Venise
Alençon imitations of, 191
characteristics, 123
England, importation to, prohibited, 358
France, prohibited in, 154 and n451
Guipure, 40
Irish imitation of, 442
Mary II., image of, shown wearing, 345
Mazarin's purchase of, 150, 151
Moscow imitations of, 284
origin of, 49-50
point à l'aiguille gazée so called, 123
point de Raguse so called, 83
resemblance of, to point d'Argentan, 203, 204 n591;
to Le Puy lace, 245;
to point de Sedan, 254
"Révolte des Passemens," mentioned in, 41
rose point (raised), 51 and n175, 62;
price of, 57;
Honiton reproduction of, 411, 416;
Irish reproduction of, 443 n1233, 444
Spanish conventual lace compared with, 93
theft of, 105 and n313
------ de Venise à réseau, 57, 58
Pointeuse, work of, 122
Points, lace known as, 2
Poitou, 256
Poking-sticks, 312
Poland
Alençon, trade with, 192 and n553
point de Sedan imported to, 254
Pole, Lady, effigy of, 403 n1145, 405
Polignac, Madame de, 180
Polychrome lace, 62-63
Pomfret, Countess of, 99 n285
Pommereu, M. de, quoted, 191 and n550
Pomp office, 319
Pompadour, Madame de, 184 n540
_Pompe di Minerva, Le_, cited, 53 n181, 85, 92 n269
Ponchel, du. _See_ Duponchel
Pont-l'Evêque lace, 183 n539
Ponthièvre, Duke de, 100 and n288
Ponto fiamengho, 111
Pontoppidan, quoted, 274 n736
Pontus de Gardia, 280
Pope, quoted, 367
----, the, apron worn by, for feet-washing ceremony, 70 and n217
Popplewell Brothers, quoted, 345
Porlin, quoted, 306 n854
Porter, Mrs. Grey, 440
Portland, Duchess of, 353
Portugal
American imports of lace from, 106
bone pins used in, 295
guipures exported to, 36
lace-making in, 105-107 and nn
Le Puy, lace imported from, 245
sumptuary laws in, 105
Postlethwait, quoted, 354; cited, 396
Pot lace, 130 and n369
Potter, Amy, 366 n1086
Poussin lace, 219
Poyntz, Adrian, 482
Prague, altar-cloth at, 9
Pridmore, Mr., 389
Princess Royal, bridal dress of, 409
Prior, quoted, 342
Prison-made lace, 81 and n248
Protection to English-made laces, etc., by English sovereigns
Charles I., 330
Charles II., 335
George III., 359, 363 and n1068
William III., 341
Puisieux lace, 212 n589
Puissieux, Madame de, 49 and n162, 73
Pultenarian collars, 253.
Punto in aria (Burano point), 46, 51 and n171, 58, 62
Punto di cartella (cordella), 50
------ a gropo, 52
------ a maglia quadra (lacis), 52
------ de mosquito e de transillas, 99
------ di Napoli, 71
------ neve (point de neige), 32 and n97, 51
------ pugliese, 71 n222
------ di Rapallo, 75 n237
------ reale, 50
------ a relievo (rose point--_See under_ Point de Venise)
------ a reticella, 50 and n168
------ ricamento a maglia quadra, 21
------ tagliato (cut-work), 51
------ tagliato a fogliami, 51 and n172, 62
------ tirato (drawn work), 53 and n181
------ a Vermicelli, 75 n237
Purle lace, 310 and n875, n876, n877
Purling, 409
Purls, lace known as, 2
Puritans, lace industry under, in England, 332-334;
in America, 372 n1099
Puteau, Madame, 433 and n1214
Queensberry, Duchess of, 356
Quentell, P., 459
Quicherat, 139
Quilles, 127, 168 n496
Quintain, 19 and n60, 20
Quinty, M., 268
------, P., 459
Rabat, 141 and n403
Rabbits' hair, lace of 245.
Radcliffe, Lady, 310 n875
Radford, Miss, lace school of, 416 and n1169
Raffy, Madame, 157 n458, 202
Ragusa, cut-works and laces of, 82-83
Rapallo,
number of lace-workers at (1862), 76
Vermicelli lace from, 74, 75 and nn
Ratcliff, Lady, 294 n791
Rättwik lace, 281
Ravenna, lace school near, 81 n248
Rawert, cited, 274 n732, 277 n741
Ray, cited, 67
Réaux, Tallemant des, quoted 49;
cited, 83
Rebecq-Rognon, flax grown at, 118
Récamier, Madame, 185
Regency point, 388
Regnard, quoted, 126 and n358, 167 n494
Regnier, quoted, 141
Reid, Miss, 440
Reiffenberg, Baron, cited, 109 and n318
Relevailles of Parisian ladies, 174
Religious subjects in lace, etc, 324
Renaissance, cut-work of, 17
René, Maître, 140 n395
Renfrew, lace industry at, 433
Réseau (réseuil, rézel, rézeuil)
Don Quixote, mentioned in, 98 n281
methods of making, 120-121
needle-made by hand, 406 n1151
nosacé, 78
specimens of rézeuil d'or, 23 n74
uses of, 21
Venetian, relation of, to Alençon, 58-59
Restoring of old lace, 411, 412
Reticella (Italian)
designs in, 68
Irish imitation of, 446
Retz, Cardinal de, 62
Revel, grave-clothes in church at, 366 n1083
"Révolte des Passemens, La," quoted, 40 and n134, 43, 104;
cited, 83, 188
Rheims lace, 253
Rhodes, silk guipure of, 87
Riano, J. F., quoted, 93
Riazan lace, 283
Riband roses, 329 and n959
Ricci, Sebastian, cut work shown in "Last Supper" of, 79 n248
Rich, B., quoted, 317 n908
Richard II., statutes of, 216 n597
-------- III., 48, 294 n794
Richelieu, Duke, 144, 149
----------, Maréchal de, 171
Ripon, lace-making at, 371 and n1095
Riviera (_See also_ Albissola, Rapallo, Santa Margherita), lace
manufacture of, 75, 79 and n245
_Rob Roy_ cited, 423
Roberts, Mrs., 445;
account of lace school supplied by, 388-390
Robinson Crusoe, Flanders lace bought by, 134 n379
Rodge, James, 401
Roger, Widow, 207
Rohan, Catherine de, 212
------ family, 182
Roland, cited, 36 n113
------ de la Platière, quoted, 154 n451, 223 n608;
cited, 245 n656
Romagna, lace-making in, 68
Romana, Lucretia, 498
------, Lugretia, 497
Romans, embroidery used by, 3 and n13, 4 n14
Rome, Greek lace made at, 85
----, King of, 196
Rondonneau, M., 152 n440
Rose point of Venice. _See under_ Point de Venise
Rosenborg Palace Museum, 273
Rosina Helena, Princess, 501
Ross, Mr., 482
Rossi, Giovanni, 483
Roumanian embroidery, 71 n222
Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 270
Rowlands, quoted, 289 n773
Rudd, Margaret Caroline, 352
Rue, Abbé, cited, 6
Ruel, Sieur, 155
Ruelle, Veuve, 468
Ruff
cut-work, of, 312-313
England, introduction into, 310
falling band the successor to, 326
France, in, 139-141 and n399
James I., under, 315-318
Medicean, 322
Nuremberg, 267
sermons against the, 316
starching and fluting of, 311-312
Ruffles
fashion of, in George I.'s time, 351
ladies wearers of, 365 and n1077
long, in George III.'s time, 363 and n1070
making of, 194
origin of weeping, 171
Valenciennes industry affected by disappearance of, 231
Run lace, 441
Russell, Lady Rachel, 348
Russia
embroidery of, 71 n222
lace imported to, from Alençon, 192, 199;
from Saxony, 263
lace industry in, 283-284
Ruvigne, M., 331
Rymer, cited, 291 n785
Sabbio, Fratelli de, 461
Sabenqua, 97
Sabière, M. de, 172 n505
Saffron Walden fair, 43 n137
Sainte-Aignau, M. de, 216
Saint-Albin, Mgr. C. de, 173 and n508
St. Aligre, 247-248 and n663
Saint-Brice lace, 213 n589
St. Bridget, lace introduced into Sweden by, 278 and n743
St. Cuthbert
cope and maniple of, 7
grave-clothes of, 14-15, 366
St. Denis lace, 210
St. Dunstan, embroideries designed by, 5
St. Eustadiole, 5
Saint François Régis, 243
St. Gervais, 207 n577
St. Giselle, 5 n18
St. Lawrence, Lady, 310 n876
St. Lo, cut-work toile d'honneur used at, 25
St. Louis, hospital at Argentan, 207
St. Margaret's, Westminster, lady ancress of, 293
St. Martin's lace, 331 n965
St. Mary at Hill, 293, 302 n828
Saint Maximien, lace of, 212
St. Nicholas, flax grown at, 118 n338
Saint-Pierre-les-Champs, lace of, 213 n589
St. Simon, quoted, 73, 166
St. Trond, lace industry of, 137 and n390, n391
Salcombe, male lace-maker at, 413
Saltonstall, Mistress Susan, 483
Salviati, Joseph, 476
Samcloths, 23 and n73
Samplars, 9 n30, 23 and n73
Sandford, cited, 285 n754
Sandwich, Lady, 166
Sta. Lucie, Pierre de, 464, 465
Santa Margherita
number of lace-workers at (1862), 76
Vermicelli lace from, 74, 75 and nn
Saracens, Italian lace-making attributed to, 45
Sarcelles lace, 213 n589
Sardinia
deaf and dumb lace-workers in, 81 n248
Le Puy, annual value of lace brought from, 245 n657
Saule, Marchesa Barbaretta, 78 n244
Savary, quoted, 36 and n111, 54, 64, 126, 133, 255, 257 n687, 404;
cited, 74, 118 n338, 125, 129, 135, 192, 210, 244, 246 n661, 247, 253
n677, 254 n681, n683, 262, 377
Savinière, quoted, 153 and n443
Savoie, Don Philippe, 143
Savona, 77 n240, 79 n246
Savonarola, quoted, 67
Saxony lace industry
Barbara Uttman's work, 260-262
cheap lace of, 246
degeneration of, 263
Dresden lace, 262-263
modern, 263
numbers employed (sixteenth century), 261
patterns imitated in Denmark, 275
revenue from (sixteenth century), 261
treillis d'Allemagne, mention, of, in French inventories, 262 and n701
Scandinavian Museum, Copenhagen, 275
Scandinavians, lace work of, 4
Scarpariola, Cencia, 59, 61
Scarron, quoted, 177
--------, Veuve, 163
Schartzemberger, Johan, 462
Schleswig lace industry, quality of lace, 275;
number of fabrics (1840), 277
----------, North, lace of, 272, 273;
districts of lace industry, 276 n738
"Schole House for the Needle, A," 499
Schomberg, Col., quoted, 326 and n946
Schools, Lace
Devonshire, 414, 415 and n1167, 416
Italian, 81 n248
Spratton, 388, 390
Schoulthem, Mr. Hey, quoted, 133-134 and n380
Schwartzenburg, John, 267
Scotch servant on old lace, 368 n1090
Scotland
lace manufacture of, 422, 425 n1199, 428-434
sumptuary laws in, 422 and n1195, 424
Scott, Sir Walter, quoted, 418 n1175, 427 and n1202
_Scottish Advertiser_ (1769), quoted, 35
Sculptured lace
coloured marbles, in, 71
Harefield church, in, 321 n927
Seaming lace, 107, 325 n941, 332
Sedan lace, 183 n539, 253, 254
Sedgewicke, Elizabeth, 310
Sedley, Sir Charles, 13 and n47
Séez black laces, 196 and n562
Séguin, quoted, 113 n325, 139 n393; cited, 254
Select Society of Edinburgh, The, 429, 430 and nn
_Sempere Historia del Lujo_, quoted, 102
Senior, Hannah, 12
Sera, Dominique de, cited, 92;
Pattern Book of, 476
Sevenges, Madame de, 290
Sévigné, Madame de
bequest to, 183 n540
quoted, 154 n448, 162 n477, 366 n1084
Seville lace, 101
Sewell, quoted, 294 n794
Seymour, Lady Jane, 294
Sforza family, documents of, cited, 46, 50 n168, 63, 74 n235
Shadwell, quoted, 343, 345
Shakespeare, laces mentioned by, 295, 303 and n831;
quoted, 309 n871
_Shakespeare Memorial, A_, quoted, 325 n941
Shandowes, Lady. _See_ Chandos
Shawe, quoted, 404
Sherborne, lace industry of, 396, 397
Sheridan, quoted, 346
Shirts
adornments of, 15-16
Irish, 307, 435
Queen Elizabeth's present of, to her brother, 10
Spanish omission of, 97 n279
Shoes, lace rosette-trimmed, 329
Shrewsbury, Countess of, 11
Siam, King of (1614), 12
Sibmacher, 266, 490
Sicily, lace manufacture of, 80-81
Sicotière, Leon de la, 208 n579
Sidbury, lace school at, 414;
lace lessons at, 416 n1170
Sidford, lace lessons at, 4l6 n34
Sidmouth, lace school at, 416 and n1169
Sidney, Sir Philip, 304
Sidonian embroidery, 3
Siena lace, 68
Silk guipure. _See_ Guipure
---- lace
Almagro, at, 102 n297
Chinese, 89
Cretan, 86
Ragusa, at (gimp), 84
Watling, 422
Silver lace (_See also_ Aurillac lace)
England, importation to, prohibited by, Queen Anne, 349;
George II., 335 n993;
confiscation and burning of foreign, 359
Hamburg, 264
Holland, introduction into, 259
India, exported to, 322 n928, 329 and n958
Ireland, exportation to, prohibited, 439
Large purchase of, by Lady Arabella Stuart, 325
Lyons, at, 256
Ragusa, at, 84
Scotland, wearing prohibited in, 422
Spanish, 100-102, 154, 211, 212
Zurich, 271
------ net-work, collar of, 82
------ purles, prohibition of English made, 330 330
------ thread, duties on, leased to Dame Villiers, 328
Silvestre, cited, 463 n1274, 464
Simiane, Madame de
English point belonging to, 118 and n335
inventory of, quoted, 153 n444, 218 and n599
Sinclair, Sir John, quoted, 133-134 and n380, 428
--------, Miss Katherine, 419 n1176
_Sir Courtly Nice_, cited, 353 and n1052
Skelton, quoted, 251 n669
Skippin, quoted, 49 n165, cited, 72
Slammerkins, 356 and n1059
Slavonian peasants' work, 268
Sleeves, 341, 365
Sloper, Catherine, epitaph on, 13
Smith, Mother Mary Anne, 443
Smocks
adornments of, 15
labourers' cut-work insertion on, 25
Smuggling of lace, account of, 357-362;
of point de Bruxelles, 117;
in 1621, 331;
in Charles II's time, 336;
Isle of Man a centre for, 372;
to Scotland, 427
---------- of thread, 407
Smyrna, silk guipure of, 87
Smythe, Thomas, 425
Society of Anti-Gallicans. _See_ Anti-Gallican
-------- of Polite Arts, 262 n702
Sol, José, 484
Soldiers
lace made by, 225
rich laces of English, 345, 346
Sonderburg, vault of Schleswig-Holstein family at, 366 n1082
Sonnettes, 34 n104
Sophie de France, 168
------, Grand Duchess, 268
Soragana, Marchesa di, 486
Sorbière, Mons. de, 70
Souche, Lady, 309 n870
South Kensington Museum, Cretan laces in, 86
Southey, quoted, 303 n830
Spacing lace, 325 n941
Spain
America, lace exported to, 102
bone pins used in, 295
conventual lace work of, 93
earnings of lace-makers in, 102
embroidery of, 8 n28, 10 and n32
French fashions influenced by, 147
gold and silver lace, use and manufactures of, 100-102;
imported to, 212
grave clothes of grandees in, 366 and n1085
guipures imported to, 36
holidays in, 102 n302
lace imported to, from--
Albissola, 77
Chantilly, 214
Dieppe, 219
Ghent, 133
Isle de France, 209
Le Puy, 245 and n657
Lorraine, 251
Marseilles, 101
Paris, 36, 212
Maestranza, the, uniforms of, 100
mantilla, kinds of, 102-103 and n305;
mantillas exported to, 226
manufacture of lace in, centres of, before 1665, 44 n144
Moresse, dentelles de, 104
numbers of lace-makers in, 99, 101, 102 n294, n297, 104
point of. _See_ Point d'Espagne
shirts frequently unworn in (1686), 97 n279
sumptuary laws of, 90, 97, 101
two kinds of lace made in, 103 n305
Spangles, 335;
of bobbins, 391 n1127
Spanish-American colonies, Chantilly lace exported to, 214
-------- Indies,
Brabant lace exported to, 129
guipures exported to, 36
Le Puy lace, annual consumption of, 245 n657
Spelle werk, 32 n98
Spenser, quoted, 303 n830
Spider net, 448
------ -work, 20
Spiral design, 7
Spratton, lace school at, 388-390
Staël, Madame de, 180
Stafford, Bishop, monument of, 405 and n1150
Stair, Lord, 99 n285
Starch, yellow, 307, 317 and n906, 435
Starching, introduction of, into England, 311;
tools used for fluting and, 311-312
Steadman, Anne, 440
Steenbeck, 274
Steinkirk lace, 167 and n491, 344 and n1021, 345, 364
Stephens, quoted, 302 n828
Stepney, Lady, 369
Sterne, cited, 172
Stisted, Mrs., cited, 474 and n1308, 487
Stock, lace cravat succeeded by, 345
Stockholm museums, lace in, 282
Stone, quoted, 140
Stoney Stratford, lace industry of, 375 n1105, 379 and n1117
Stothard, Mrs., quoted, 216 n594
Stowe, cited, 294 n793;
quoted, 310, 311 and n879, 312
Strafford, statuette of Earl of, 367
Strasburg, Archbishops of. _See_ Rohan family.
Stratford-upon-Avon, embroidered bed linen at, 325 n941
Strauben, George, 271, 487
Strickland, Miss, quoted, 420 n1184
Striqueuse, work of, 122
Strutt, Jedediah, 448 n1239
Strype, quoted, 38, 297 and n813
Stuart, Arabella, 325
------, Mary, _See_ Mary Stuart
Stubbes, quoted, 16, 313 and n892
Stuora, 53 and n179
Sturbridge fair, 43 and n140
Stures family, 282
Suffolk, Duchess, 292
--------, Earl of, 319 and n917, n918
--------, lace industry of, 394
Sully, 142, 210
Sumptuary laws
Denmark, 274 and n733, n735
England, 285, 286, 288, 289, 290 and n776, 291, 293, 306 and n855, 319
France, 64, 141 and n404, n405, 144, 147 and n429, 148 and n431, 152,
154 and n450, 158 and n460, 212, 243
Genoa, 73
Ireland (192 A.D.), 435, 436 and n1220
Portugal, 105
"Révolte des Passemens, La," 40-43
Scotland, 422 and n1195, 424
Spain, 90, 97, 101
Turkey, 87
Venice, 48, 57, 79 n245
Zurich, 270
Sweden
cut-work in, 25, 280
grave-clothes, lace adorned, 366
lace industry,
bobbin lace of, 280
established at Wadstena, 278
growth of, 279
peasant lace work for home use, 281-282
Spanish point and guipure in museums, 282
sheets, laced, 280
Swift, quoted, 124, 339, 349 n1037, 352, 436
Swinburne, Thos. (1572), 301 n822
---------- (1775), quoted, 101
---------- (1786), quoted, 176
Switzerland, lace industry in,
French refugees, settlement of, 269
mignonette made (1665), 35
Neufchâtel. _See that title_
origin of, 269
pattern books, 271
statistics of, 270 and n727
Zurich sumptuary laws, 270-271
Sylvius, Balthazar, 469
Syon Monastery cope, 7
Syracuse, Count of, quoted, 369
Tabin, B., 476
Taglienti, pattern-book of, 50 n168, 51 n171, 52 n176, n178, 53 n181, 71
n222, 82 n252, 460
Talavera de la Regna, lace made at, 101
Talbot, Gilbert, 304
Tallies, 78 and n154
Talma lace, 186
Talon, 158 n460
Tambour work,
Hamilton, 434 n1216
Irish, 440, 441 and n1230, 442 n1231
oriental, 440, 441
Tape lace, 116, 414 n1165
Tapestry, Greek lace a substitute for, 85-86
Tarnete (trina), 46
_Tatler_, quoted, 296 n806
Tatting, Manilla grass, 89 n265
Tax-books, Genoese, cited, 72 n224
Taylor, John, quoted, 323 and n933, 329;
cited 500
Temple, Earl, 380
Tessada, Signore, old lace of, 72 n225, 73 n232;
cited, 76 n238
Têtes de More (de mort, de moire), 36 and n113
Thelusson, Symphorien, 269
Theodoret, J., 469
Thierzac, lacis at, 248
Thomond, Earl of, 12
Thomsen, Prof., quoted, 272
Thomysi, Eleazaro, 481
Thread, importance of using fine (_see also under_ Lille), 393 and n1104,
446
------ lace
Cyprian, 82
hand spinners of, protest by, 335
importation of, prohibited by George III., 355 n1047
Thynne, quoted, 298 n816
Tickell, quoted, 169 n497
Tighe, Mr., cited, 440 n1228
Tiverton, first machine net factory at, 408
Toilé, 30 and n89
Toile d'arraignée, Paraguayan, 108
Toledo, Donna Teresa de, 103
Tombs. _See_ Grave-clothes
Tönder lace industry, 274, 275, 277 and n740, n742
Toquet, 340
Torchon
Milanese, 66
prison-made at Perugia, 81 n248
Saxony fabric, 263
Sicilian, 81
Spanish, 102 n297
Torello, 469
Torteroli, Sig. Don Tommaso, 79 n246
Tory, G., 476
Tottenham, Mrs. George, 446
Toul, "tulle" probably derived from, 250-251 and n669
Tournantes, 168 n496
Tournay, flax grown at, 118 n338
Tours, cope presented to Church of St. Martin at, 5
Towcester, lace industry at, 382
Travancore, pillow-laces of, 88
Treadwin, Mrs.
cited, 401 n1140, 407, 413
Honiton lace industry, efforts for, 410, 411, 416
Trevelyan, Miss Audrey, 417
Trezola, 474 n1311
Trina, 46 and n150, n152
Trolle Bonde, Count, 282
------ kant, 115-116
Trollopies, 356 and n1059
Trolly ground, 386
------ lace, 371 n1095, 412-414
Trotman, Acting Consul, cited, 89
Trousse, Mlle. de la, cited, 40 n134
Troyaux, Mons., 124
Tucker, Mrs. Marwood, 407 n1154
Tulle (town), manufactures of, 250
Tulle
embroidered, 229
German manufacture of, 250
lace discarded in favour of, 187
Marie Antoinette, at Court of, 180
origin of name, 250
predecessor of, 225
Turkey
oyah made in, 45, 87
silk gimp specimens from, 85
sumptuary laws in, 87
tambour work in, 441
Turn, 401 n1140
Turner, Mrs., yellow starch invented by, 307, 317 and n906, 435
Turnhout, Mechlin lace made at, 125;
number of fabrics (1803), 131
Turin, fashion at Court of, 153 n445
Tuscan lacis, 52-53, 68
Tussaud, Madame, 143 n412
Twopenny, Mr. W., 286 n761
Tynan lace industry, 442, 443
Tyrol (Austrian) lace industry, 268
Udine, lace school at, 81 n248
Unbleached thread, pattern worked in, 338
Underclothing lace-trimmed, in Scotland, 426
United States. _See_ America
Urbino, lace making in, 68
Urbino, Duchess, 471
Ursins, Madame des, 99, 172
Ustariz, quoted, 102
Uttman, Barbara, 260-262, 447
Val de Travers, rivalry with Mirecourt, 252, 270
Valcameos, 246
Valencia
gold and silver lace made at, 101
saints' images decked in lace at, 100
Valenciennes Lace
compared with Binche, 135;
with Dutch, 260;
with Eu lace, 221;
with Isle of Man lace, 372 n1096;
with Lille, 237;
with Mechlin, 233;
with point de Dieppe, 220;
with Welsh lace, 371 n1094
cost of (1788), 234 and n627
fault of, 235 n629
Honiton reproduction of, 416
industry
centres of, 132;
after French Revolution, 231 n624;
expense and labour in making, 233;
cost of thread, 234 n627
decline of, 231
establishment of, date, 230
French Revolution, effect of, 183 n539
method of working pattern in, 31
numbers employed (18th century), 230;
(1790 and 1851), 231;
at Ypres (1684 and 1850), 131
period of highest merit, 234-235
time required in producing, 233-234
value of Belgium monopoly, 132 and n376
wages and conditions of work, 233
point a misnomer for, 32
réseau of, 66
varieties of
Alost (ground stitch), 133
Bailleul, 241
Bohemia, 268
Bruges, 132-133
Courtrai, width of, 131 n373;
compared with Ypres, 132;
ground stitch, 133 n377;
character of, 232 n624
Dijon, 255
fausses Valenciennes, manufactories of, 241, 387
Ghent (ground stitch), 133 n377
Le Puy, 230 and n619, 245
vrai Valenciennes, 231 and n624
Ypres, description of, 131, 231 n624;
value of, 131 n373;
ground and pattern, 131-133
Valentine de Milan, 139 n393
Valets, extravagance of, 173 and n514
Valguarnera, Prince, 71
Valladolid, lace-trimmed banner at, 100
Valois line, influence of, on French fashions, 139
_Valuables of Glenurquhy_, quoted, 325 and n938
Valvassore's heirs, pattern book of, 476
Van Even, Edward, cited, 110 n320
Van Eyck, Jacob, quoted, 111 and n322
Van Londonzeel, Assuerus, 111
Vandyke edges, origin of term, 448 n1241
Vatican, laces of, 70
Vavassore, Giovanni Andrea, 466, 467, 472
Vecellio
cited, 71 and n221
Corona of, 8 n28, 29, 50 n167, 111, 484, 486
Veils, bridal, 78;
English, fourteenth century, 285
Vélay lace industry (_See also_ Le Puy), fifteenth century, 242;
18th century, 244;
thread used, 245
Venezuela, lace of, 108
Venice
Billament lace of, 48 and n159
blonde, formerly made in, 59 n195
Brussels lace worn at, 57 and n192
Colbert, ordinance of, trade affected by, 54
collar made for Louis XIII. at, 194
emigration of workers restricted, 159 n465
English imports from, 43, 288, 307 n863, n864;
prohibited, 358
fashion dolls at St. Mark's fair, 170 n501
frauds of lace-makers in, 48, 67, 288
gold work of, 288, 307 n863, n864
Greek lace made at, 85
Medici collars made at, 56
numbers employed on lace-making in, 63
Point of. _See_ Point de Venise
polychrome lace, introduction of, 62-63
sumptuary laws in, 48, 57, 79 n245
Swiss lace from, origin of, 269
travellers' allusions to products of, 55, 57
varieties of lace supplied by, 50-53, 57-58
Verbruggen, 129 n367
Verceilles, 249
Verghetti, 56
Vermicelli lace, 74
Verney Papers, quoted, 319 n916
Verona, St. John, life of, executed in needlework at, 8 n26
Veronese, Paul, _macramé_ in picture, by, 79 n248
Verulam, Lord, 101 and n289
Viarmes lace, 212
Victoria, Queen
Honiton lace flounces ordered by, 410
Isle of Wight lace patronised by, 372 n1097
State liveries of, 174 n516
trousseau of, 392, 409
Victoria and Albert Museum
Alençon in, 193 n555
Bock exhibits in, 23 n74
Cyprian lace in, 82
Danish embroideries in, 275
Genoese lappet in, 78 and n244
German specimens in, 264;
Nuremberg ruffs, 267
Hungarian peasant lace in, 268
Irish imitation Venetian point in, 443 n1233
lacis borders in, 20-21
Norwegian cut-work in, 280 n747
pale of rose point in, 51
Paraguayan drawn-work at, 108
pattern-books in, 467 n1287, 468, 470, 477, 488 n1337, 490 n1344, 497
n1361, 501 n1370, 502 n1371
Slavonian peasants' work in, 268
Suffolk laces in, 394
Syon Monastery cope in, 7
tape lace in, 116
Villemarqué, cited, 229 n616
Villiers, Dame Barbara, 328
--------, Sir Edward, 319 n918
--------, Sir George, 318
Villiers-le-Bel, lace-making at, 209, 213 n589
Vimoutier, 204
Vinciolo, Frederick
Katharine de Médicis the patroness of, 11,17
pattern book of, 49, 136, 144, 477-482, 487, 494
Virginière, Blaise de, quoted, 140, 141 and n401
Vittoria, Sister Felice, 93
Volant, origin of name, 168 n496
Vologda lace, 283
Voltaire, quoted, 166 n490
Vorsterman, William, 180, 463
Vos, Martin de, engravings after, 106 and n268
Vrai réseau, bride succeeded by, 406
Vrillière, Mgr. de la, 162 n475
Waborne lace, 300 and n819
Wace, Robert, cited, 202
Wadstena lace industry, 278-280
Wages of lace-workers. _See_ Earnings
Wakefield, quoted, 440 n1228
Waldgrave, Sir Edward, 293
Wales, lace-making in, 371 and n1094
------, Princess of, 409
Walker, Charles, 441 and n1230, 442
Walpole, cited, 297 n808, 356 and n1060
Walsingham, 307 n860, 420 n1182
----------, Lady Audrye, 64, 320 n925
Wareham, lace found in Scandinavian barrow near, 4
Warwick, Lord, 333
Warton, J., quoted, 121 and n349
Washing of ecclesiastical lace, 373 n1101
Waterloo, hospital for English wounded at, 124
Waterman, Mrs. Elizabeth, 395
Watling silk lace, 422
Watt, cited, 482 n1329
Weaving Book, 280
Webb, Mr., 51
Weber, cited, 280 n758
Weigel, Christoph, 501
------, Joh. Christoph, 502
Weisse, C., cited, 259 n693, 264 n707
West Indies, Spanish lace sold in, 102 n294
Westcote, quoted, 400;
cited, 401
Westminster
procession of lace-makers to, 360
St. Margaret's, lace washing from, 373 n1101
------------, Dean of, forbids yellow starch, 317
------------ Abbey
epitaph in cloisters of, 13
lace on images in, 316 n901, 345
Westphalia
Jutland industry improved by workers from, 274
thread, fineness of, 119 n339
Whisks, 334
Whitcomb, John, widow of, 17
White, Edward, 482
------ Knight's sale, 497
Wieselgren, H., cited, 493 n1354
Wight, Isle of, lace industry of, 372 and n1097
Wigs,
cost of, 349
falling bands put out of fashion by, 336
Wilhelmina of Bayreuth, 99 n283
Willemin, cited, 475 n1313
William III., period of, 341-346
-------- of Malmesbury, quoted, 6
-------- of Normandy, 6-7
-------- of Poictiers, quoted, 7
-------- the Silent, 260
Willingham, Geo., letter to, cited, 98 n282
Wilton, Lady, cited, 497
Wiltshire and Dorsetshire lace, 395-398
Winchester, lace purchased at, by Anne of Denmark, 320
----------, Lady Marquis of, 309 n870
Wire, gold and silver lace made from, 72
---- ground, 386
Wiseman, Cardinal, lace alb used by, 92-93
Wolfe, I., 482
Wolsey, Cardinal, lace of, 292
Women, lace work of, compared with that of men, 263
Woodbury
Maltese lace imitation made at, 414 n1165
men lace-makers at, 413
Woollen manufacture in England
lace manufacture next to, in 1698, 402
loss to, from edict against Flanders lace 341, 342, 349
Worcester, Countess of, 313
Wotton, Sir Henry, 136 n385
Wraxall, cited, 105, 142;
quoted, 263
Wulff, Jens, 276 and n739
Wyatt, Sir Thomas, 294
Wyriot, Madame, 205
Yarranton, Andrew, quoted, 114-115 and n327;
cited 259 n696
Yemenis, M., cited, 488 n1339
Yokohama, lace school at, 417
Yorck lace, 138 n392
York, Cardinal, 421
Youghal Convent, lace-making at, 443, 444
Young, A., cited, 192 n552, 207, 223, 224, 244;
quoted, 234 n627, 239
Ypres Valenciennes. _See under_ Valenciennes
Yriarte, Charles, cited, 159 n465
Zante, Greek lace made at, 85
Zedler, cited, 57
Zoppino, Nicolo, 461, 462
Zouch, Lord, cited, 136 n385
Zurich, sumptuary laws of, 270 and n728
LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
DUKE STREET, STAMFORD STREET, S.E., AND 28, GREAT WINDMILL STREET. W.
Notes
[1] Wilkinson's _Ancient Egyptians_, vol. iii., p. 134. (See
Illustration.)
[2] Herodotus, ii. 182; iii. 47.
[3] Ezekiel, who takes up the cry of lamentation for "Tyrus, situate at
the entry of the sea," a merchant of the people for many isles,
exclaims, "The merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad were thy
merchants. These were thy merchants in all sorts of things, in blue
cloths and broidered works, and in chests of rich apparel." Another
part of the same chapter mentions galley sails of fine linen "with
broidered work from Egypt."--Ezekiel xxvii.
[4] Exodus xxvi.; xxvii.; xxxiv. 2; Isaiah iii. 18; 1 Kings vii. 17.
[5] Exodus xxxviii. 23.
[6] Again, in the song of Deborah, the mother of Sisera says, "Have they
not divided the prey?... to Sisera a prey of divers colours of
needlework, of divers colours of needlework on both sides."--Judges
v. 30.
[7] Cantor Lectures on the Art of Lace-making. A. S. Cole (London,
1881).
[8] At Athens the maidens who took part in the procession of the
Panathenaea embroidered the veil or _peplos_ upon which the deeds of
the goddess were embroidered. The sacred _peplos_ borne on the mast
of a ship rolled on wheels in the Panathenaic festival "was destined
for the sacred wooden idol, Athene Polias, which stood on the
Erechtheus. This _peplos_ was a woven mantle renewed every five
years. On the ground, which is described as dark violet, and also as
saffron-coloured, was inwoven the battle of the gods and the
giants." (See page 47, _British Museum Catalogue to the Sculptures
of the Parthenon_.)
[9] Pliny, _Hist. Nat._, viii. 74. "Colores diversos picturae intexere
Babylon maxime celebravit et nomen imposuit."
[10] Maspero, _The Dawn of Civilisation in Egypt and Chaldaea_ (ed. Prof.
Sayce).
[11] Lefébure, _Embroidery and Lace_ (trans. A. S. Cole).
[12] Lucan, _Pharsalia_, Book X.
[13] The Romans denominated such embroideries _phrygionae_, and the
embroiderer _phrygio_. Golden embroideries were specified as
_auriphrygium_. This word is the root of the French _orfroi_
(orfreys).
[14] Mrs. Palliser quotes an extract from the author of _Letters from
Italy_, who, speaking of the cabinet at Portici, mentions an elegant
marble statue of Diana "dressed after the purple gowns worn by the
Roman ladies; the garment is edged with a lace exactly resembling
point; it is an inch and a half broad, and has been painted purple."
By an Englishwoman (Mrs. Millar) in the years 1770 and 1771 (London,
1777).
[15] Strutt.
[16] Lefébure, _Embroidery and Lace_.
[17] Mrs. Bury Palliser, "Embroidery," _Encyclopædia Britannica_.
[18] St. Giselle, Berthe's sister, founded many convents in Aquitaine and
Provence, and taught the nuns all manner of needlework (Lefébure,
_Embroidery and Lace_).
[19] _Chronique Rimée_, by Philippe Mouskés.
[20] Lefébure, _Embroidery and Lace_.
[21] Mrs. Palliser, "Embroidery," _Encyclopædia Britannica_.
[22] It has been suggested that the embroidery was done by William's
granddaughter, the Empress Matilda, widow in 1125 of Henry V.,
Emperor of Germany, and wife, by her second marriage, of Geoffrey,
Count of Anjou (Lefébure).
[23] Mr. Fowke states that the tradition which would make the tapestry
the handiwork of Queen Matilda cannot be traced further back than
1803, when the tapestry was sent to Paris for exhibition.
[24] Matt. Par., _Hist. Angl._, p. 473, Edit. Paris, 1644.
[25] Mrs. Palliser, "Embroidery," _Encyclopædia Britannica_.
[26] At Verona an artist took twenty-six years to execute in needlework
the life of St. John, after the designs of Pollajuolo.
[27] "Gaston, Duke of Orleans, established hot-houses and botanical
gardens, which he filled with rare exotics to supply the needle with
new forms and richer tints" (Lefébure).
[28] We read, for instance, that Gabrielle de Bourbon, wife of Louis de
la Trémouille, "jamais n'estoit oyseuse, mais s'employoit une partie
de la journée en broderies et autres menus ouvrages appartenant à
telles dames, et y occupoit ses demoyselles dont avoit bonne
quantité, et de grosses, riches, et illustres maisons."--_Panegyric
de Loys de la Trèmoille par Jean Bouchet._
Again Vecellio dedicates his "Corona" to Signora Nanni, not only on
account of the pleasure she takes in works of the needle, but for
"il diletto che prende in farne essercitar le donne de casa sua,
ricetto delle più virtuose giovani che hoggidi vivono in questa
città."
"It is usual here," writes a lady from Madrid in 1679, "for good
families to put their daughters to ladies, by whom they are employed
to embroider in gold and silver, or various colours, or in silk,
about the shift, neck, and hands."
"I jor fist es chambre son pere,
Une estole et i amict pere,
De soie et d'or molt soutilment,
Si i fait ententivement
Mainte croisette et mainte estoile,
Et dist ceste chancon à toile."
--_Roman de la Violette._
"One day, seated in her father's room, she was skilfully working a
stole and amict in silk and gold, and she was making in it, with
great care, many a little cross and many a little star, singing all
the while this _chanson à toile_."
[30] In one of Edward I. we find a charge of eight shillings for silk
bought for the embroidery work of Margaret, the King's daughter, and
another for four ounces of silk, two hundred ounces of gold thread,
a spindle, etc.--_Liber de Garderoba, 23 Edw. I._, Public Record
Office.
In one of Edward III. the sum of £2 7s. 2d. is expended in the
purchase of gold thread, silk, etc., for his second daughter
Joanna.--_Liber Garderobae, 12-16 Edw. III._, Public Record Office.
Elizabeth of York worked much at her needle. In the account of her
household, preserved in the Public Record Office, every page of
which is signed by Queen Elizabeth herself, we find--
"To Evan Petreson joiner, for the stuff and making of 4 working
stools for the Queen; price of the stool 16 pence--5s. 4d.
"To Thomas Fissch, for an elne of linen cloth for a samplar for the
queen, 8d."
In the Inventory 4 Edward VI., 1552 (Harl. MSS. No. 1419), are
entries of--
"Item, XII. samplars" (p. 419).
"Item, one samplar of Normandie canvas, wrought with green and black
silk" (p. 524).
"A book of parchment containing diverses patternes" (p. 474),
probably purchases for his sisters.
[31] See, for instance, the interesting account of the Countess of
Oxford, given by Miss Strickland in her _Life of Queen Elizabeth of
York_.
[32] These are alluded to in the dialogue between Industria and Ignavia,
as given in Sibmacher's "Modelbuch," 1601 (French translation): "La
vieille dame raconte l'histoire des concours de travail à l'aiguille
chez les anciens Espagnols; comme Isabelle, femme de Ferdinand, a
hautement estimé les travaux de l'aiguille."
The "Spanish stitch," so often mentioned, was brought in by
Katharine, on her marriage with Prince Arthur, in 1501. We have
constantly in her wardrobe accounts sheets and pillow-beres,
"wrought with Spanish work of black silk at the edge."
In the Inventory of Lord Monteagle, 1523 (Public Record Office,) are
"eight partlets, three garnished with gold, the rest with Spanish
work."
In 1556, among the New Year's gifts presented to Queen Mary Tudor,
most of the smocks are "wrought with black silk, Spanish fashion."
In the Great Wardrobe Accounts of Queen Elizabeth, 3 & 4, Public
Record Office, we have "sixteen yards of Spanish work for ruffs."
"Twelve tooth cloths, with the Spanish stitch, edged with gold and
silver bone lace."--_Ibid._ Eliz. 5 & 6.
The Spanish stitch appears in France with Henry II., 1557. "Pour la
façon d'ung gaban avec ung grant collet chamarrez à l'Espaignolle de
passement blanc," etc.--_Comptes de l'Argentier du Roy._ Archives
Nat. K. K. 106.
[33] Taylor, the Water Poet, _Katharine of Aragon_.
[34] The industry of Henry's last queen was as great as that of his
first. Specimens still exist at Sizergh Castle, Westmoreland, of
Katharine Parr's needlework--a counterpane and a toilet cover. An
astrologer, who cast her nativity, foretold she would be a queen; so
when a child, on her mother requiring her to work, she would
exclaim, "My hands are ordained to touch crowns and sceptres, not
needles and spindles."
[35] _Dames Illustres._
[36] The "Reine des Marguerites," the learned sister of Francis I., was
not less accomplished with her needle, and entries for working
materials appear in her accounts up to the year of her death, 1549.
"Trois marcs d'or et d'argent fournis par Jehan Danes, pour servir
aux ouvraiges de la dicte dame."--_Livre de dépenses de Marguerite
d'Angoulême_, par le Comte de la Ferrière-Percy. Paris, 1862.
"Elle addonoit son courage
A faire maint bel ouvrage
Dessus la toile, et encor
A joindre la soye et l'or.
Vous d'un pareil exercise
Mariez par artifice
Dessus la toile en maint trait
L'or et la soie en pourtrait."
--_Ode à la Royne de Navarre_, liv. ii., od. vii.
[38] 1380. "Oeuvre de nonnain."--_Inventaire de Charles V._
[39] "My grandmother, who had other lace, called this" (some needlepoint)
"nun's work."--_Extract from a letter from the Isle of Man_, 1862.
"A butcher's wife showed Miss O---- a piece of Alençon point, which
she called 'nun's work.'"--_Extract from a letter from Scotland_,
1863.
1698, May. In the _London Gazette_, in the advertisement of a sale
by auction, among other "rich goods," we find "nun's work," but the
term here probably applies to netting, for in the _Protestant Post
Boy_ of March 15th, 1692, is advertised as lost "A nun's work purse
wrought with gold thread."
1763. In the _Edinburgh Advertiser_ appears, "Imported from the
Grand Canaries, into Scotland, nun's work."
[40] As, for instance, "the imbrothering" of the monks of the monastery
of Wolstrope, in Lincolnshire.
[41] _Livre de Lingerie._ Dom. de Sera, 1581. "Donne, donzelle, con gli
huomini."--Taglienti, 1530. Patterns which "les Seigneurs, Dames,
et Damoiselles ont eu pour agréables."--Vinciolo, 1587.
[42] Jehan Mayol, carme de Lyon; Fra Hieronimo, dell' Ordine dei Servi;
Père Dominique, religieux carme, and others.
[43] One in the Bibliothèque Impériale is from the "Monasterio St.
Germani à Pratis."
[44] He died in 1595. _Lives of the Earl and Countess of Arundel_, from
the original MS. by the Duke of Norfolk. London, 1857.
[45] P. R. O. Calendar of State Papers. Domestic. Charles I. Vol. clxix.
12.
[46] P. R. O. Calendar of State Papers. Colonial. No. 789.
[47] See his epigram, "The Royal Knotter," about the queen,
"Who, when she rides in coach abroad
Is always knotting threads."
[48] Translated from the _Libellus de Admirandis beati Cuthberti
Miraculis_ of Reginald, monk of Durham, by Rev. J. Rain. Durham,
1855.
[49] _Chronicle of John Hardyng_, circ. 1470.
[50] Temp. Rich. II. In their garments "so much pouncing of chesell to
make holes, so much dragging (zigzagging) of sheers," etc.--_Good
Parson_, Chaucer.
[51] Percy, _Reliques of Ancient Poetry_, vol. iii.
[52] _Anatomie of Abuses_, by Philip Stubbes, 1583.
[53] _The Shyp of Folys of the Worlde_, translated out of Latin by Alex.
Barclay, 1508.
[54] The inventories of all nations abound in mention of these costly
articles. The "smocks" of Katharine of Aragon "for to lay in," were
wrought about the collar with gold and silk. Lord Monteagle, 1523,
had "two fine smocks of cambric wrought with gold." (Inv. P. R. O.)
Among the New Year's Gifts offered to Queen Mary Tudor by the
Duchess of Somerset (1556), we find a smock wrought over with silk,
and collar and ruffles of damask, gold purl, and silver. Again, in
the household expenses of Marguerite de France, 1545, we find a
charge of "4 livres 12 sols, pour une garniture de chemise ouvré de
soye cramoisie pour madicte dame."--(Bib. Imp. MSS. Fonds François,
10,394.) About the same date (G. W. A. Eliz. 1 & 2, 1558-59) appear
charges for lengthening one smocke of drawne work, 20s. Six white
smockes edged with white needlework lace, 10s. To overcasting and
edging 4 smockes of drawn work with ruffs, wristbands, and collars,
three of them with black work, and three of them with red, etc. At
the funeral of Henry II. of France, 1559, the effigy was described
as attired in "une chemise de toile de Hollande, bordée au col et
aux manches d'ouvraige fort excellent."--Godefroy, _Le Cérémonial de
France_, 1610.
[55] See FRANCE.
[56] The pillow-bere has always been an object of luxury, a custom not
yet extinct in France, where the "taies d'oreiller, brodées aux
armes," and trimmed with a rich point, form an important feature in
a modern trousseau. In the inventory of Margaret of Austria, the
gentle governess of the Low Countries, are noted--
"Quatre toyes d'oraillers ouvrées d'or et de soye cramoysie et de
verde.
"Autres quatres toyes d'oraillers faites et ouvrées d'or et de soye
bleu à losanges qui ont estées données à Madame par dom Diego de
Cabrera."--_Corr. de l'Empereur Maximilien I. et de Marguerite
d'Autriche_, par M. Leglay. Paris, 1839.
Edward VI. has (Harl. MSS. 1419) "18 pillow-beres of hollande with
brode seams of silk of sundry coloured needlework." And again, "One
pillow-bere of fine hollande wrought with a brode seam of Venice
gold and silver, and silk nedlework."
And Lady Zouche presents Queen Elizabeth, as a New Year's gift, with
"One pair of pillow-beares of Holland work, wrought with black silk
drawne work."--Nichol's _Royal Progresses_.
[57] _Goderonné_--_goudronné_, incorrectly derived from pitch
(_goudron_), has no relation to stiffness or starch, but is used to
designate the fluted pattern so much in vogue in the sixteenth
century--the "gadrooned" edge of silversmiths.
1588. Il avait une fraise empesée et godronnée à gros godrons, au
bout de laquelle il y avoit de belle et grande dentelle, les
manchettes estoient goudronnées de mesme.
[58] They are introduced into the Title page of this work.
[59] See APPENDIX.
[60] "Quintain, quintin, French lawne." Randle Cotgrave. _Dictionarie of
the French and English tongues._ 1611.
"26 virges de Kanting pro sudariis pro ille 47/8."--_G. W. A.
Charles II._, 1683-4.
[61] Lacis, espèce d'ouvrage de fil ou de soie fait en forme de filet ou
de réseuil dont les brins étaient entre-lacez les uns dans les
autres.--_Dict. d'Ant. Furetière_, 1684.
[62] Béle Prerie contenant differentes sortes de lettres, etc., pour
appliquer sur le réseuil ou lassis. Paris, 1601. See APPENDIX.
[63] So, in the Epistle to the Reader, in a Pattern-book for Cut-works
(London, J. Wolfe & Edward White, 1591), the author writes of his
designs:--
"All which devises are soe framed in due proportion as taking them
in order the one is formed or made by the other, and soe proceedeth
forward; whereby with more ease they may be sewed and wrought in
cloth, and keeping true accompt of the threads, maintaine the bewtey
of the worke. And more, who desyreth to bring the work into a lesser
forme, let them make the squares lesse. And if greater, then inlarge
them, and so may you worke in divers sortes, either by stitch,
pouncing or pouldering upon the same as you please. Alsoe it is to
be understood that these squares serve not only for cut-workes, but
alsoe for all other manner of seweing or stitching."--(See APPENDIX,
No. 72).
[64] _Pratique de l'aiguille industrieuse du très excellent Milour
Matthias Mignerak_, etc. Paris, 1605. See APPENDIX.
[65] The inventories of Charles de Bourbon, ob. 1613, with that of his
wife, the Countess of Soissons, made after her death, 1644 (Bib.
Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 11,426), alone prove how much this _réseuil_ was in
vogue for furniture during the seventeenth century.
"Item un pavilion de thoille de lin à bende de reseuil blang et noir
faict par carel prisé, vi. l. t. (livres tournois).
"Item quatre pentes de ciel de cotton blanc à carreaux.
"Item trois pentes de ciel de thoille de lin à carreaux et raiseuil
recouvert avec le dossier pareil estoffe, et petit carreau à point
couppé garny de leur frange, le fonds du ciel de thoille de lin,
trois custodes et une bonne grace et un drap pareille thoille de lin
à bandes de reseuil recouvert ... prisé xviii. l. t."--_Inv. de
Charles de Bourbon._
"Item une autre tapisserie de rezeuil de thoile blanche en huit
pièces contenant ensemble vingt aulnes on environ sur deux aulnes
trois quarts de haute.
"Item une autre tenture de tapisserie de rézeau tout de leine (lin)
appliquée sur de la toille blanche en sept pièces contenant dix-huit
aulnes de cours sur trois aulnes de haute.
"Item trois pantes, fonds de dossier, les deux fourreaux de piliers,
la converture de parade, le tout en point couppé et toillé.
"Item, une garniture de lict blanc, faict par carré d'ouvrage de
poinct couppé, le tout garny avec la couverte de parade, prisé la
somme de soixante livres tournois."--_Inv. de la Comtesse de
Soissons._
[66] Dated 20 Feb., 1587. Now in the Record Office, Edinburgh.
[67] 1781. "Dix-huit Pales de differentes grandeurs, tous de toile garnis
tant de petite dentelle que de filet brodé."--_Inv. de l'Eglise de
S. Gervais._ Arch. Nat. L.L. 654.
[68] _Point and Pillow Lace_, by A. M. S. (London, 1899).
[69] In the Record Office, Edinburgh.
[70] "Mache, the Masches (meshes) or holes of a net between the thread
and thread" (Cotgrave).
[71] _Comptes de la Reine de Navarre_, 1577. Arch. Nat. K.K. 162.
[72] _Inventory of Catherine de Médicis_, Bonaffé.
[73] Randle Holme, in _The School Mistris Terms of Art for all her Ways
of Sewing_, has "A Samcloth, vulgarly, a Samplar."
[74] In the Bock collection, part of which has since been bought for the
Victoria and Albert Museum, are specimens of "rézeuil d'or," or
network with patterns worked in with gold thread and coloured silks.
Such were the richly-wrought "serviettes sur filez d'or" of Margaret
of Austria.
"Autre servyette de Cabes (Cadiz) ouvrée d'or, d'argent sur fillez
et bordée d'or et de gris.
"Autre serviette à Cabes de soye grise et verde à ouvrage de fillez
bordée d'une tresse de verd et gris."--Inventory already quoted.
[75] "Le Gan," de Jean Godard, Parisien, 1588.
[76] Descriptive Catalogue of the Collections of Tapestry and Embroidery
in the South Kensington Museum (p. 5).
[77] Lace. French, _dentelle_; German, _Spitzen_; Italian, _merletto_,
_trina_; Genoa, _pizzo_; Spanish, _encaje_; Dutch, _kanten_.
[78] Statute 3 Edw. IV. c. iii.
[79] "Passement, a lace or lacing."--_Cotgrave_.
[80] Not in those of Rob. Estienne, 1549; Frère de l'Aval, 1549; or
Nicot, 1606. Cotgrave has, "Dentelle, small edging (and indented),
bone-lace, or needlework." In Dict. de l'Académie, 1694, we find,
"Dentelle, sorte de passement à jour et à mailles tres fines ainsi
nommé parceque les premières qu'on fit etoient dentelées."
[81] _Comptes de l'Argentier du Roi_, 1557.--Arch. Nat. K. K. 106.
"Passement de fine soie noire dentelle d'un costé." "Passement
blanc," "grise," also occur.
[82] _Argenterie de la Reine_, 1556.--Arch. Nat. K. K. 118.
[83] _Dépenses de la maison de Madame Marguerite de France, soeur du
Roi._--Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 10,394, fol. 62.
[84] "Plus de delivré une pacque de petite dentelle qui est estez cousu
ensemble pour mettre sur les coutures des rideaux des ditz litz
contenant 80 aunes."--Rec. Off., Edin. This custom of trimming the
seams of bed-curtains with a lace indented on both sides was common
throughout Europe. In the Chartley Inv. of Mary Stuart, 1586, one of
the Vasquines (jackets) is described, "Autre de satin noir
descouppée a descouppemie dentelés."
[85] 1577. "Pour deux aulnes de passement d'argent a hautte dantelle pour
mettre à ung renvers, au pris de soixante solz l'aulne.
"Pour une aulne de dentelle pour faire deux cornettes pour servir à
la dicte dame, quatre livres."--_Cptes. de la Reine de Navarre._
Arch. Nat. K. K. 162.
[86] See APPENDIX.
[87] "Petits et grands passements; id. à l'esguille; id. faict au
mestier; id. de Flandres à poinctes; id. orangé à jour; id. de
Flandres satiné;" with "reseuil, dantelles, grandes et petites, or,
argent," etc.--_Inv. de Madame, soeur du Roi._ Arch. Nat. K. K. 234.
So late as 1645, in the inventory of the church of St. Médard at
Paris (Arch de l'Emp. L. L. 858), the word is used. We find, "Quatre
tours de chaire de thoille baptiste, ung beau surplis pour le
predicateur, six autres, cinq corporaulx," all "à grand passement."
Also, "deux petits corporaulx à petit passement," and "trois tours
de chaire garnyz de grand passement à dentelle."
[88] _Inv. apres le decès de Mgr. le Maréchal de La Motte._--Bib. Nat.
MSS. F. Fr. 11,426.
[89] The French terms are more comprehensive:--
Champ, fond travaillé à jour.
Toilé, fleurs entièrement remplies, formant un tissu sans jour.
Grillé, grillage, plein. Also flowers--but distinguished from toilé
by having little square spaces between the thread (_grillé_,
grating), the work not being so compact.
"On appelle couleuvre, une blond dont le toilé continue serpente
entre deux rangs de grillage."--_Roland de la Platière_ (the
Girondin). Art. Dentelle, _Encyclopédie Méthodique_. Paris, 1780.
[90] _Storehouse of Armory and Blason._ 1688.
[91] "Brides--petits tissus de fil qui servent à joindre les fleurs les
unes avec les autres dans l'espèce de dentelle qu'on appelle Point
de France, de Venise, de Malines."--_Dict de l'Académie._
[92] "Une robe et tablier, garnis d'une dentelle d'Angleterre à
picot."--_Inv. de decès de la Duchesse de Bourbon._ Arch. Nat. X.
10,064.
[93] "Une chemisette de toile d'hollande garnye de point de
Paris."--_Inv. d'Anne d'Escoubleau, Baronne de Sourdis, veuve de
François de Simiane._ 1681. Arch. Nat. M. M. 802.
[94] "Cette dernière sorte de point se fait aux fuseaux."--_Dict. du P.
Richelet._ Lyon. 1759.
[95] _Dict. d'Ant. Furetière._ Augmenté par M. Basnage. La Haye, 1727.
[96] 1656.
[97] 1651. "Huit aulnes de toile commune garnies de neige."--_Inv. des
emubles de la Sacristie de l'Oratoire de Jésus, à Paris._ Bib. Nat.
MSS. F. Fr. 8621.
"Neuf autres petites nappes; les deux premières de toile unie; la
troisième à dentelle quallifié de neige."--_Ibid._
[98] French, _dentelle à fuseaux_; Italian, _merli a piombini_; Dutch,
_gespeldewerkte kant_; Old Flemish, _spelle werk_.
[99] French, _carreau_, _cousin_, _oreiller_; Italian, _tombolo_; Venice,
_ballon_; Spanish, _mundillo_.
[100] See Chapter XXIV.
[101] The number of bobbins is generally equal to 50 to each square inch.
If the lace be one inch wide, it will have 625 meshes in each square
inch, or 22,500 in a yard. The work, therefore, goes on very slowly,
though generally performed with the greatest dexterity.
[102] At Gisors, Saint-Denis, Montmorency, and Villiers-le-Bel.--Savary,
_Grand Dict. du Commerce_, 1720.
Cotgrave gives, "Bisette, a plate (of gold, silver, or copper)
wherewith some kinds of stuffes are stripped." Oudin, "Feuille ou
paillette d'or ou d'argent." In these significations it frequently
occurs. We find with numerous others:
"1545. 55 sols pour une once bizette d'argent pour mectre à des
colletz."
"Six aulnes bizette de soie noire pour mettre sur une robbe, lv.
s.," in the Accounts of Madame Marguerite de France. (Bib. Nat.)
"1557. Bizette de soye incarnatte et jaulne pour chamarrer ung
pourpoint de satin rouge" of Henry II.--_Cptes. de l'Argentier du
Roi._ Arch. Nat. K. K. 106.
"1579. Petite bizette d'or fin dentellez des deux costez pour servir
à desmanches de satin cramoisy" of Catherine de
Médicis.--_Trésorerie de la royne mère du roy._ Arch. Nat. K. K.
115.
In the Chartley Inv. 1586, of Mary Stuart, is mentioned, "Un plotton
de bisette noire."
[103] _Dict. de l'Académie._
[104] Campane, from sonnette, clochette, même grêlot. "Les sonnettes dont
on charge les habits pour ornement. Les festons qu'on met aux
étoffes et aux dentelles."--_Oudin._
[105] Public Record Office.
[106] In the last century it was much the fashion to trim the scalloped
edges of a broader lace with a narrower, which was called to
"campaner."
1720. "Une garniture de teste à trois pièces de dentelle
d'Angleterre à raiseau, garni autour d'une campane à dents."--_Inv.
de la Duchesse de Bourbon._
1741. "Une paire de manches à trois rangs de Malines à raizeau
campanée."--_Inv. de decès de Mademoiselle Marie Anne de Bourbon de
Clermont._ Arch. Nat. X. 11,071. (Daughter of Mademoiselle de Nantes
and Louis Duke de Bourbon.)
"Une coëffure de Malines à raizeau à deux pièces campanée."--_Ibid._
In the lace bills of Madame du Barry, preserved in the Bib. Nat.,
are various entries of Angleterre et point à l'aiguille, "campanée
des deux côtés" for ruffles, camisoles, etc.
[107] 1759. "Huit palatines tant points que mignonettes."--_Inv. de decès
de Louise Henriette de Bourbon-Conty, Princesse du Sang, Duchesse de
Orléans._ Arch. Nat. X. 10,077.
"Trente-vingt paires de manchettes, quatre coëffures, le tout tant
de differents points qu'Angleterre, mignonettes que
tulles."--_Ibid._
[108] 1758. "Une paire de manchettes à trois rangs de blonde de fil sur
entoilage."--_Inv. de Mademoiselle Louise Anne de Bourbon Condé de
Charollais_ (sister of Mademoiselle de Clermont). Arch. Nat. X.
10,076.
1761. "Fichus garnis à trois rangs de blonde de fil sur
entoilage."--_Inv. de Charlotte Aglaë d'Orléans, Princesse du Sang,
Duchesse de Modène_ (daughter of the Regent).
1789. Ruffles of blonde de fil appear also in the _Inv. de decès de
Monseigneur le Duc de Duras_. Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 11,440.
[109] Mostly at Bayeux.
[110] "On employe aussi pour les coëffures de la mignonette, et on a
tellement perfectionné cette dentelle, que estant peu de chose dans
son commencement est devenue de consequence et même très chère,
j'entends, la plus fine qu'on fait sur de beaux patrons."--_Le
Mercure Galant_, 1699.
[111] "Guiper. Tordre les fils pendans d'une frange par le moyen de
l'instrument qu'on nomme guipoir, fer crochu d'un côté, et chargé de
l'autre d'un petit morceau de plomb pour lui donner du
poids."--Savary.
[112] "Guipure. A grosse black thread covered or whipped about with
silk."--Cotgrave.
"Guipure. Manière de dentelle de soie où il y a des figures de rose
ou d'autres fleurs, et qui sert à parer les jupes des dames.... Sa
jupe est pleine de guipure."--_Dict. du P. Richelet._ 1759.
[113] Roland. We cannot help thinking this a mistake. In the statutes of
the Passementiers, we find mention of buttons "à têtes de mort," or
would it rather be "tête de moire," from the black moire hoods
(têtes) worn by the Italian women, which were often edged with a
narrow guipure?
[114] Les lieux en France où il se fait le plus de guipures, sont
Saint-Denis-en-France, Villiers-le-Bel, Ecouën, Arcelles,
Saint-Brice, Groslait, Montmorency, Tremblay, Villepinte, etc.
[115] The sale of Guipures belonged to the master mercers, the workmanship
to the passementiers boutonniers. We find in the _Livre Commode ou
les Adresses de la Ville de Paris_ for 1692, that "Guipures et
galons de soye se vendent sur le Petit Pont et rue aux Febvres, où
l'on vend aussi des galons de livrées."
[116] Godefroy. _Le Cérémonial de France_, 1610. _Sacre du Roy Henry
II._, 1547.
[117] In 1549. _Ibid._
[118] _Traité des Marques Nationales_, dar M. Beneton de Morange de
Peyrins. Paris, 1739.
[119] In the Record Office, Edinburgh.
[120] Une robe de velours vert couverte de Broderies, gimpeures, et
cordons d'or et d'argent, et bordée d'un passement de même.
Une robe veluat cramoisi bandée de broderie de guimpeure d'argent.
Une robe de satin blanc chamarrée de broderie faite de guimpeure
d'or.
Id. de satin jaune toute couverte de broderye gumpeure, etc.
Robe de weloux noyr semée geynpeurs d'or.
[121] _Dictionnaire de l'Académie._
[122] 1536-44. Sir Fred. Madden.
2 payr of sleeves whereof one of gold w^h p'chemene lace, etc.
2 prs. of sleves w^h pchmyn lase, 8/6.
[123] _Ecclesiastical Memoirs_, iii. 2, 167.
[124] State Papers, vol. 82, P. R. O.
[125] Surtees' Society, Durham, "Wills and Inventories."
[126] 1572. Thynne, in his _Debate between Pride and Lowliness_, describes
a coat "layd upon with parchment lace withoute."
[127] B. M. Add. MSS. No. 5751.
[128] Roll. 1607. P. R. O.
[129] _Ibid._ 1626. 11 nightcaps of coloured satin, laid on thick, with
gold and silver parchment lace, 41. 9. 9.
[130] Roll. 1630.
[131] "Eidem pro novemdecem vir[=g] et di[=m] aureæ et argenteæ
pergame[=n] laciniæ pondent sexdecim un[=c] 2/[dram] 1/[scruple]
venet. ... pro consua[=t] ad ornan[=d] duas sedes utroque latere
thronæ in domo Parliament."--_Gt. Ward. Acc._ Car. II. xxx. and
xxxi. = 1678-9.
In 1672-73 is an entry for "2 virgis teniæ pergame[=n]."
[132] Surtees' "Inventories."
[133] Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 8621.
[134] _In the Recueil de pièces les plus agréables de ce temps, composées
par divers autheurs._ Paris, chez Charles Sercy, MDCLXI.
The poem is dedicated to Mademoiselle de la Trousse, cousin of
Madame de Sévigné, and was probably written by one of her coterie.
[135] The Cravates or Croates soldiers had a band of stuff round their
throats to support an amulet they wore as a charm to protect them
from sabre-cuts. What began in superstition ended in fashion.
[136] These were, in France, Guibray, Beaucaire, and Bordeaux; in Germany,
Frankfort; in Italy, Novi.
[137] All articles of luxury were to be met with at the provincial fairs.
When, in 1671, Catherine of Braganza, the Duchess of Richmond, and
the Duke of Buckingham, visited Saffron Walden fair, the Queen asked
for a pair of yellow stockings, and Sir Bernard Gascoyne, for a pair
of gloves stitched with blue.
[138] 10 Hen. III., Devon's _Issues of the Exchequer_.
[139] "No lace-woman," says Ben Jonson, "that brings French masks and
cut-works." That lace was sold by pedlars in the time of Henry
VIII., we find from a play, "The Four P's," written in 1544, by John
Heywood. Among the contents of a pedlar's box are given "lasses
knotted," "laces round and flat for women's heads," "sleeve laces,"
etc.
On opening the box of the murdered pedlar (_Fool of Quality_, 1766),
"they found therein silk, linen, laces," etc.
[140] Defoe describes Sturbridge fair as the greatest of all Europe.
"Nor," says he, "are the fairs of Leipsig in Saxony, the Mart at
Frankfort-on-the-Maine, or the fair of Nuremburg or Augsburg, any
way comparable to this fair of Sturbridge."
In 1423, the citizens of London and the suburbs being accused of
sending works of "embroidery of gold, or silver, of Cipre, or of
gold of Luk, togedre with Spanish Laton of insuffisant stuff to the
fayres of Sturesbrugg, Ely, Oxenford, and Salisbury"--in fact, of
palming off inferior goods for country use--"all such are
forfeited."--_Rot. Parl._, 2 Hen. VI., nu. 49.
[141] "Lingua, or the Combat of the Tongue." A Comedy. 1607.
[142] This system of colporteurs dates from the early Greeks. They are
termed both in Greek and Hebrew, "des voyageurs."
[143] "She came to the house under the pretence of offering some lace,
holland, and fine tea, remarkably cheap."--_Female Spectator._ 1757.
[144] The centres of the lace manufacture before 1665 were:--
BELGIUM Brussels, Mechlin, Antwerp, Liége, Louvain, Binche,
Bruges, Ghent, Ypres, Courtray, etc.
FRANCE (Spread over more than ten Provinces)--
Artois Arras (Pas-de-Calais).
French Flanders Lille, Valenciennes, Bailleul (Nord).
Normandy Dieppe, Le Hâvre (Seine-Inférieure).
Ile de France Paris and its environs.
Auvergne Aurillac (Cantal).
Velay Le Puy (Haute-Loire).
Lorraine Mirecourt (Vosges).
Burgundy Dijon (Côte-d'or).
Champagne Charleville, Sedan (Ardennes).
Lyonnais Lyon (Rhône).
Poitou Loudun (Vienne).
Languedoc Muret (Haute-Garonne).
ITALY Genoa, Venice, Milan, Ragusa, etc.
SPAIN La Mancha, and in Catalonia especially.
GERMANY Saxony, Bohemia, Hungary, Denmark, and Principality of
Gotha.
ENGLAND Counties of Bedford, Bucks, Dorset, and Devon.
[145] _Industrial Arts of the Nineteenth Century_, Digby Wyatt.
[146] Francesco Nardi. _Sull' Origine dell' Arte del Ricamo._ Padova,
1839.
[147] _Ricamare. Recamar._
[148] The traditions of the Low Countries also point to an Eastern origin,
assigning the introduction of lace-making to the Crusaders, on their
return from the Holy Land.
[149] _Origine ed Uso delle Trine a filo di refe_ (thread), 1864.
Privately printed.
[150] 1469.--Io, Battista de Nicollo d'Andrea da Ferrara, debio avere per
mia manifatura et reve per cuxere et candelle per inzirare.... It.
per desgramitare e refilare e inzirare e ripezare e reapicare le
gramite a camixi quatordece per li signori calonexi, et per li,
mansonarij le qual gramite staxea malissimamente, p. che alcune
persone le a guaste, Lire 1 10. It. per reve et p. candelle, L. 0 5.
1469.--I, Baptist de Nicollo of Andrea da Ferrara, having owing to
me for my making, and thread to sew, and candles to wax.... Item,
for untrimming and re-weaving and waxing and refixing and rejoining
the trimmings of fourteen albs for the canons and attendants of the
church, the which trimmings were in a very bad state, because some
persons had spoiled them, L. 1 10. It. for thread and wax, L. 0 5.
These trimmings (gramite), Cav. Merli thinks, were probably "trine."
"At Chicago was exhibited the first kind of net used in Italy as
lace on garments. It is made of a very fine linen or silk mesh,
stiffened with wax and embroidered in silk thread. It was in use
during the fourteenth century, and part of the fifteenth" (_Guide to
New and Old Lace in Italy_, C. di Brazza, 1893). This is probably
the gramite, or trimmings of the albs, mentioned in the account book
formerly belonging to the Cathedral of Ferrara, and now preserved in
the Municipal Archives of that city.
[151] See MILAN.
[152] _Trina_, like our word lace, is used in a general sense for braid or
passement. Florio, in his Dictionary (_A Worlde of Words_, John
Florio, London, 1598), gives _Trine_--cuts, snips, pincke worke on
garments; and _Trinci_--gardings, fringings, lacings, etc., or other
ornaments of garments.
_Merlo_, _merletto_, are the more modern terms for lace. We find the
first as early as the poet Firenzuola (see FLORENCE). It does not
occur in any pattern book of an older date than the "Fiori da
Ricami" of Pasini, and the two works of Francesco de' Franceschi,
all printed in 1591.
[153] The laces, both white and gold, depicted in the celebrated picture
of the Visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon, by Lavinia Fontana,
now in the Lambeccari Gallery, executed in the sixteenth century,
prove that white lace was in general use in the Italian Courts at
that epoch.
[154] At present, if you show an Italian a piece of old lace, he will
exclaim, "Opera di monache; roba di chiesa."
[155] Statute 2, Henry VI., 1423. The first great treaty between the
Venetians and Henry VII. was in 1507.
[156] _Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York_, 1502. P. R. O. Also
published by Sir H. Nicolas.
[157] Inv. Henry VIII.
[158] Gremio, when suing for Bianca, enumerates among his wealth in ivory
coffers stuffed, "Turkey cushions bossed with pearl; valance of
Venice gold in needlework."--_Taming of the Shrew._
[159] "One jerkyn of cloth of silver with long cuts down righte, bound
with a billament lace of Venice silver and black silk."--_Robes of
the late King_ (Edward VI.).
[160] "A smock of cambrik wrought about the collar and sleeves with black
silke; the ruffe wrought with Venice gold and edged with a small
bone lace of Venice gold."--_Christmas Presents to the Queen_, by
Sir G. Carew. "7 ounces of Venice 'laquei bone' of gold and black
silk; lace ruff edged with Venice gold lace," etc. _G. W. A. Eliz.,
passim_, P. R. O.
[161] 1587.
[162] Madame de Puissieux died in 1677, at the age of eighty.
[163] Venice points are not mentioned by name till the ordinance of 1654.
See GREEK ISLANDS.
[164] _Hudibras._
[165] Italy we believe to have furnished her own thread. "Fine white or
nun's thread is made by the Augustine nuns of Crema, twisted after
the same manner as the silk of Bolonia," writes Skippin, 1651.
[166] _Halimedia opuntia_, Linn.
[167] That most frequently met with is the Corona of Vecellio. See
APPENDIX.
[168] First mentioned in the Sforza Inventory, 1493 (see MILAN); not in
the pattern-books till Vecellio, 1592; but Taglienti (1530) gives
"su la rete," and "Il specchio di Pensieri" (1548), "purito in
rede."
[169] Plate V.
[170] First given in the _Honesto Esempio_. 1550 and _passim_.
[171] Mentioned by Taglienti (1530), and afterwards in the _Trionfo_
(1555), and _passim_.
[172] Given in _Il Monte_, circ. 1550, but described by Firenzuola
earlier. See FLORENCE.
[173] See Chap. III., notes 104 and 106.
[174] "Toile de la Pale."--A pasteboard about eight inches square,
enclosed in cambric or lace, used to cover the paten when laid over
the cup.
[175] The whole furniture of a room taken from a palace at Naples,
comprising curtains, and vallance of a bed, window curtains, toilet,
etc., of straw-coloured laces, reticella, embroidered netting, etc.;
the price asked was 18,000 francs = £720. There was also much of the
rose point, and a handkerchief bordered with beautiful flat Venetian
point of the same colour, forming part of a trousseau. 700 francs =
£28.
[176] Taglienti (1530) has _groppi_, _moreschi_, and _arabeschi_; and _Il
Specchio_ (1548), _ponti gropposi_. See also the Sforza Inventory,
1493.
[177] See GENOA.
[178] Taglienti (1530) gives _a magliata_, Parasole (1600) _lavori di
maglia_.
[179] _Punti a stuora_ occur in _Il Specchio_ (1548), _I Frutti_ (1564),
and in the _Vera Perfettione_ (1591) the word _stuora_ (modern,
_stuoja_) means also a mat of plaited rushes, which some of these
interlaced patterns may be intended to imitate.
[180] _Burato._ See APPENDIX.
[181] There are many patterns for this work in _Le Pompe di Minerva_,
1642. Taglienti (1530) has _desfilato_ among his _punti_.
[182] Many other points are enumerated in the pattern-books, of which we
know nothing, such as _gasii_ (_I Frutti_, 1564), _trezola_
(_Ibid_), _rimessi_ (_Vera Perfettione_, 1591), _opere a mazzette_
(Vecellio, 1591, and Lucretia Bomana, N.D.).
[183] _Tracts on Trade of the Seventeenth Century_, published by
MacCulloch, at the expense of Lord Monteagle. 1856.
[184] Venice point forms a considerable item in the expenses of Charles
II. and his brother James.
[185] Venice noted "for needlework laces, called points."--_Travels Thro'
Italy and France_, by J. Ray. 1738.
[186] Misson, F. M., _Nouveau Voyage d'Italie_, 4me édition. La Haye,
1702.
[187] _Origine delle Feste Veneziane_, da Giustina R. Michiel. Milano,
1829.
[188] _An Itinerary, containing his Ten Yeeres Travel through Germany,
Bohmerland, Switzerland, Netherland, Denmark, Poland, Italy, Turkey,
France, England, Scotland, and Ireland._ Lond., 1617.
[189] 1591.
[190] See, in APPENDIX, designs for _bavari_ by Lucrezia.
[191] The entry of the Venetian ambassador, Mocenigo, is described in the
_Mercure Galant_, 1709:--
"Il avoit un rabat de point de Venise.... Sa robe de damas noir avec
des grandes manches qui pendoient par derrière. Cette robe etoit
garnie de dentelle noir."
[192] _Letters from Italy._ So, in a play of Goldoni, who wrote in the
middle of the last century, the lady has a Brussels (Angleterre)
head-dress.
Don Flaminio: "Mi par bellisima cotesto pizzo Barbara: E un punto
d'Inghilterra che ha qualche merito."--_Gli Amori di Zelinda e
Lindoro._
In Goldoni's plays all the ladies make lace on the pillow
(_ballon_), so the art of making the needle Venice point was
probably at an end.
[193] "La plus belle dentelle noire fait l'espèce de camail qui, sous un
chapeau noir emplumé, couvre leurs épaules et leur tête."--Madame du
Boccage, 1735. _Lettres sur l'Italie._
"Quella specie de lungo capuocio di finissimo merlo pur nero,
chiamato bauta."--Michiel.
[194] "L'île de Burano où l'on fabrique les dentelles."--Quadri, _Huit
Jours à Venise_.
[195] _Technical History of Venetian Laces_, Urbani de Gheltof. Translated
by Lady Layard. Venice, 1882.
_Origines de la Dentelle de Venise et l'École de Burano._ Venice,
1897.
Traditions of lace-making were kept alive in Venice, Cantu and
Liguria during the first half of the nineteenth century by the
manufacture of an inferior quality of _blonde_, once extensively
made at Venice, which has since died out, owing to the revival in
the production of thread-lace and guipures at Palestrina.
[196] "Velleto (veil) uno d'oro filato.
"Payro uno fodrete (pillow-case) di cambria lavorate a gugia (à
l'aiguille).
"Lenzuolo (sheet) uno di revo di tele (linen thread), cinque
lavorato a punto.
"Peza una de tarnete (trina) d'argento facte a stelle.
"Lenzolo uno de tele, quatro lavorato a _radexelo_ (reticello).
"Peze quatro de _radexela_ per mettere ad uno moscheto (zanzariere,
mosquito curtain).
"Tarneta una d'oro et seda negra facta da ossi (bones).
"Pecto uno d'oro facto _a grupi_.
"Lavoro uno de rechamo facto _a grupi_ dove era suso le pere de
Madona Biancha.
"Binda una lavorata a poncto de doii fuxi (two bobbins) per uno
lenzolo."--_Instrumento di divizione tre le sorelle Angela ed
Ippolita Sforza Visconti_, di Milano, 1493, Giorno di Giovedì, 12
Settembre.
[197] "La mità de uno fagotto quale aveva dentro certi dissegni da
lavorare le donne."
[198] Harl. MS. No. 1419.
[199] Roll. P. R. O.
[200] P. R. O.
[201] De la Mare, _Traité de la Police_.
[202] "Statuts, Ordonnances et Reglemens de la Communauté des Maistres
Passementiers, etc., de Paris, confirmez sur les anciens Statuts du
23 mars 1558." Paris, 1719.
[203] _Grand Dictionnaire Universel du Commerce._ 1723.
[204] _Voyage en Italie._ 1765.
[205] Peuchet, J., _Dictionnaire Universel de la Géographie Commerçante._
Paris, An vii. = 1799.
[206] _Letters from Italy_, by a lady. 1770.
"Questo collar scolpì la donna mia
De basso rilevar, ch' Aracne mai,
E chi la vinse nol faria più bello.
Mira quel bel fogliame, ch' un acanto
Sembra, che sopra un mur vada carponi.
Mira quei fior, ch' un candido ne cade
Vicino al seme, apr' or la bocia l'altro.
Quei cordiglin, che'l legan d'ognitorno,
Come rilevan ben! mostrando ch' ella
E' la vera maestra di quest' arte,
Com ben compartiti son quei punti!
Ve' come son ugual quei bottoncelli,
Come s' alzano in guisa d'un bel colle
L'un come l' altro!...
Questi merli da man, questi trafori
Fece pur ella, et questo punto a spina,
Che mette in mezzo questo cordoncello,
Ella il fe pure, ella lo fece."
--_Elegia sopra un Collaretto_,
Firenzuola (circ. 1520).
[208] Rymer's _Foedera_ (38 Hen. VIII. = 1546).
[209] 4 Hen. VII. = 1488-89.
[210] _Compte des dépenses de la maison de Madame Marguerite de France,
Soeur du Roi._--Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 10,394.
[211] _Comptes de la Reine de Navarre._--Arch. Nat., K. K. 170.
[212] In 1535.
[213] She died in 1862.
[214] See VENICE, 1.
[215] _Inventaire du Trésor de N. D. de Lorette._--Bib. Nat. MSS.
[216] _Letters from Italy._
[217] The _gremial_, or apron, placed on the lap of the Roman Catholic
bishops when performing sacred functions in a sitting
posture.--Pugin's _Glossary of Ecclesiastical Ornament_.
[218] This reminds one of the lines of Goldsmith, in his poem, "The Haunch
of Venison," the giving of venison to hungry poets who were in want
of mutton; he says:
"Such dainties to send them their health it would hurt;
It's like sending them ruffles when wanting a shirt."
[219] _A true Relation of the Travailes, and most miserable Captivitie of
W. Davies._ Lond., 1614.
[220] _An Italian Voyage, or a Complete Journey through Italy_, by Rich.
Lassels, Gent. 2nd edit., Lond., 1698. A reprint, with additions by
another hand, of the original edition. Paris, 1670. Lowndes'
_Bibliographer's Manual_. Bohn's new edit.
[221] "Portano alcune vesti di tela di lino sottile, lunghe fino in terra,
con maniche larghe assai, attorno alle quali sono attaccati alcuni
merletti lavorati di refe sottilissimo."--Habiti di donna dell'
Isola d' Ischia. _Degli Habiti Antichi e Moderni di Diverse Parti
del Mondo di Cesare Vecellio._ Venezia, 1590.
[222] We have among the points given by Taglienti (1530), "pugliese." Lace
is still made in Puglia and the other southern provinces of Naples
and in Sicily.
The Contessa di Brazza says that Punto Pugliese resembled Russian
and Roumanian embroidery.
[223] Brydone, _Tour through Sicily_. 1773.
[224] From the tax-books preserved in the Archives of S. George, it
appears that a tax upon gold thread of four danari upon every lira
in value of the worked material was levied, which between 1411 and
1420 amounted to L. 73,387. From which period this industry rapidly
declined, and the workers emigrated.--Merli.
[225] Signore Tessada, the great lace fabricant of Genoa, carries back the
manufacture of Italian lace as early as the year 1400, and forwarded
to the author specimens which he declares to be of that date.
[226] "Laqueo serico Jeano de coloribus, ad 5s. per doz." _G. W. A.
Eliz._--16 & 17 and 19 & 20. P. R. O.
[227] Dated 1639.
[228] _Garderobe de feue Madame._ 1646. Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 11,426.
[229] Le Vray Théatre d'Honneur et de Chevalerie. Paris, 1648.
[230] Queen Christina is described by the Grande Mademoiselle, on the
occasion of her visit, as wearing "au cou, un mouchoir de point de
Gênes, noué avec un ruban couleur de feu."--_Mém. de Mademoiselle de
Montpensier._
"Item, ung peignoir, tablier et cornette de toile baptiste garnie de
point de Gênes."--1644. _Inv. de la Comtesse de Soissons._
"Un petit manteau brodé et son collet de point de Gênes."--_The
Chevalier d'Albret._
"Linge, bijoux et points de Gênes."--Loret, _Muse Historique_. 1650.
"Item, ung autre mouchoir de point de Gênes."--_Inv. du Maréchal de
La Motte._ 1657.
[231] _Mém._, t. xiv., p. 286.
[232] Signore Tessada has in his possession a pair of gold lappets of very
beautiful design, made at Genoa about the year 1700.
[233] _Letters from Italy._ 1770.
[234] Cavasco. _Statistique de Gênes._ 1840.
[235] The bobbins appear to have been made in Italy of various materials.
We have _Merletti a fusi_, in which case they are of wood. The
Sforza inventory gives _a doii fuxi_, "two bobbins," then _a ossi_,
"of bone," and, lastly, _a piombini_; and it is very certain that
lead was used for bobbins in Italy. See PARASOLE (1600).
[236] _Memorie Storiche di Santa Margherita._ Genoese pillow-laces are not
made with the réseau, but joined by bars. Of Milan lace it is said,
"It resembles Genoese pillow-lace in having the same scrolls and
flowers formed by a ribbon in close stitch, with a _mesh_ or _tulle_
ground, whereas the Genoese lace is held together by bars."--C. di
Brazza, _Old and New Lace in Italy_ (1893).
[237] Lefébure writes, "A version of these Milanese laces has been
produced by using tape for the scroll forms and flowers, and filling
in the open portions between the tapes by needlework stitches." The
C. di Brazza calls similar lace _Punto di Rapallo_ or _Liguria_, a
lace formed by a ribbon or braid of close lace following the outline
of the design with fancy gauze stitches made by knotting with a
crochet needle. The special characteristic of this lace is that the
braid is constantly thrown over what has gone before. The design is
connected by brides. A modification, where the braid is very fine
and narrow, and the turnings extremely complicated, and enriched by
no fancy stitches between, is _Punto a Vermicelli_.--_Old and New
Lace in Italy._
[238] Communicated by Sig. Gio. Tessada, Junr., of Genoa.
[239] Gandolfi, _Considerazioni Agrario_.
[240] A small borgo, about an hour's drive from Savona, on the road
leading to Genoa.
[241] Cav. Merli.
[242] In the Albert Museum of Exeter are several of these tallies marked
with the names of their owners--Bianca, Maria Crocera, and others.
[243] "Many skilful lace-makers in Italy have for some time imitated the
old laces and sold them as such to travellers. A Venetian
lace-worker, now residing at Ferrara, can copy any old lace known"
(Mrs. Palliser, 1864).
[244] This lappet, 357-68, in the Victoria and Albert Museum collection,
was described by Mrs. Palliser as "Argentella," and supposed to be
of Genoese workmanship. "Formerly much of it was to be met with in
the curiosity shops of that city, but now it is of rare occurrence.
The Duchess of Genoa possesses a splendid flounce of the same lace,
with the Doria eagle introduced into the pattern. It formerly
belonged to the Marchesa Barbaretta Saule" (Mrs. Palliser, _History
of Lace_, 1864). Contessa di Brazza suggests that Argentella was the
Italian for Argentan.
[245] Called by the people of the Riviera, _filo del baccalà di
Castellaro_. Aloe fibre was formerly used for thread (Letter of Sig.
C. G. Schiappapietra). It is also styled _filo di freta_ in the
Venetian sumptuary ordinances.
[246] The Author has to express her grateful thanks to Signore Don Tommaso
Torteroli, librarian to the city of Savona, and the author of an
interesting pamphlet (_Storia dei Merletti di Genova lavorati in
Albissola_, Sinigaglia, 1863), for specimens of the ancient laces of
Albissola, and many other valuable communications.
[247] A word of Arabic derivation, used for denoting a fringe for
trimming, whether cotton, thread, or silk.
[248] This custom of ornamenting the ends of the threads of linen was from
the earliest times common, and is still occasionally met with both
in the north and south of Europe. "At Bayonne they make the finest
of linen, some of which is made open like network, and the thread is
finer than hair" (_Ingenious and Diverting Letters of a Lady's
Travels in Spain_, London, 1679).
There is a painting of the "Last Supper" at Hampton Court Palace, by
Sebastian Ricci, in which the tablecloth is edged with cut-work; and
in the great picture in the Louvre, by Paul Veronese, of the supper
at the house of Simon the Canaanite, the ends of the tablecloth are
likewise fringed and braided like the _macramé_.
[249] LACE SCHOOLS IN ITALY.--At Coccolia, near Ravenna, Countess Pasolini
founded a school on her property to teach and employ the peasant
women and copy antique designs. Another more recently established
school near Udine, in the province of Friuli, is under the direction
of the Contessa di Brazza. Among charitable institutions which
interest themselves in the lace industry are the Industrial School
of SS. Ecce Homo at Naples, and San Ramiri at Pisa, which was
originally founded by the Grand Dukes of Tuscany in the middle of
the eighteenth century to teach weaving. This industry, and that of
straw-plaiting, met with no success, and the school gradually
developed into an industrial school in the modern sense. There are
many schools on the same system in Florence, and one (San Pelegrino)
at Bologna. At Sassari, in Sardinia, the deaf and dumb children in
the great institution of the "Figlie di Maria" are taught to make
net lace. Torchon and Brussels pillow lace is worked under the
direction of the Sisters of Providence in the women's prison at
Perugia.
[250] Laborde, _Glossaire_. Paris, 1853.
[251] Statute 2 Hen. VI., c. x., 1423.
[252] Taglienti (1530) among his _punti_ gives _Ciprioto_ (an embroidery
stitch).
[253] _Description de Raguse_ (Bib. Nat. MSS., F.Fr. 10,772).
[254] Points de Raguse--first mentioned in an Edict of January, 1654, by
which the king raises for his own profit one quarter of the value of
the "passems, dentelles, points coupez de Flandres, pointinars,
points de Venise, de Raguse, de Gênes," etc. (_Recueil des Lois
Françaises_). Again, the Ordinance of August, 1665, establishes the
points de France, "en la manière des points qui se font à Venise,
Gênes, Raguse, et autres pays étrangers," recited in the _Arrêt_ of
Oct. 12th, 1666.--De Lamare, _Traité de la Police_.
[255] See VENICE.
[256] In 1661.
[257] See head of chapter.
[258] In 1667.
[259] See APPENDIX.
[260] _A Descriptive Catalogue of the Collections of Lace in the Victoria
and Albert Museum_, by the late Mrs. Bury Palliser. Third edition,
revised and enlarged by A. S. Cole.
[261] _Edinburgh Advertiser_, 1764.
[262] There is no corroboration of Mrs. Palliser's statement above that
lace was ever made in Malta; if so, it would have been of the
Genoese geometrical kind, of which Lady Hamilton Chichester adapted
the designs and evolved what is now known as Maltese lace by the aid
of workers imported from Genoa. The Maltese cross has been
introduced into the designs as a distinguishing mark.
[263] "A lace of similar character (Maltese) has also been made
successfully in the missionary schools at Madras" (Mrs. Palliser).
[264] Lefébure, _Embroidery and Lace_.
[265] In the Philippine Islands the natives work Manilla grass into a sort
of drawn thread-work or tatting.
[266] 1756. _Point d'Espagne hats._--Connoisseur.
[267] Beckmann, in his _History of Inventions_, says that "It was a
fashion to give the name of Spanish to all kinds of novelties, such
as Spanish flies, Spanish wax, Spanish green, Spanish grass, Spanish
seed, and others."
[268] A. S. Cole. "Cantor Lectures on the Art of Lace-Making."
[269] _Livre Nouveau de Patrons_ and _Fleurs des Patrons_ give various
stitches to be executed "en fil d'or, d'argent, de soie, et
d'autres." Both printed at Lyons. The first has no date; the
second, 1549. _Le Pompe_, Venezia, 1559, has "diversi sorti di
mostre per poter far, d'oro, di sete, di filo," etc.
[270] "Not many years since, a family at Cadiz, of Jewish extraction,
still enjoyed the monopoly of manufacturing gold and silver
lace."--_Letter from Spain_, 1863. _Merletto Polichrome_, or
parti-coloured lace, was also invented and perfected by the Jews,
and was made in silk of various colours, representing fruit and
flowers. This industry has been revived in Venice, and carried to
great perfection.
[271] Senor J. F. Riano. _The Industrial Arts in Spain._--"Lace."
[272] "Spain has 8,932 convents, containing 94,000 nuns and
monks."--Townsend, J., _Journey Through Spain in the Years 1786 and
1787_.
[273] The aloe thread is now used in Florence for sewing the straw-plait.
[274] Barcelona, 1892, page 225, quoted by Signor J. F. Riano. Date of
book 1592.
[275] A. S. Cole, _Ancient Needle-point and Pillow-Lace_.
[276] This ordinance even extended to foreign courts. We read in the
Mercure _Galant_, 1679, of the Spanish ambassadress, "Elle etoit
vestue de drap noir avec de la dentelle de soye; elle n'avait ni
dentelle ni linge autour de sa gorge."
[277] _Mercure François._
[278] They have also provided--
"14 ruffs & 14 pairs of
cuffs laced, at 20s. £14
For lacing 8 hats for the
footmen with silver
parchment lace, at 3s. £1 4s."
_Extraordinary Expenses of his Highness to Spain_, 1623. P. R. O.
[279] Doctor Monçada, in 1660, and Osorio, in 1686, reckoned more than
three millions of Spaniards who, though well dressed, wore no
shirts.--_Townsend's Spain._
[280] Speaking of the apartment of Madame d'Aranda, Beckford writes: "Her
bed was of the richest blue velvet, trimmed with point lace."
[281] Our English translation of _Don Quixote_ has led some authors into
adducing a passage as an evidence that the art of making bone lace
was already known in Cervantes' day. "Sanchica," writes Theresa
Pança to her husband, the newly-appointed Governor of Baratava,
"makes bone lace, and gets eight maravedis a day, which she drops
into a tin box to help towards household stuff. But now that she is
a governor's daughter, you will give her a fortune, and she will not
have to work for it." In referring to the original Spanish we find
the words rendered bone lace are "puntas de randas," signifying
works of lacis or réseuil--"ouvrage de lacis ou réseuil."--Oudin.
_Trésor des Deux Langues Fr. et Esp._ (1660).
[282] As early as the Great Wardrobe Account of Queen Elizabeth, 1587, P.
R. O., we have a charge for bobbin lace of Spanish silk, "cum uñ
tag," for the mantle, 10s. 8d.
In a letter from Prestwick Eaton to Geo. Willingham, 1631, the
writer sends 1000 reals (£25), and in return desires him to send,
together with a mastiff dog, some black satin lace for a Spanish
suit.--_State Papers, Domestic_, Car. I., P. R. O.
[283] 1697. Marriage of Mademoiselle and the King of Spain. The Queen,
says the _Mercure_, wore "une mante de point d'Espagne d'or, neuf
aunes de long." 1698. Fête at Versailles on the marriage of the Duc
de Bourgogne. "La Duchesse de Bourgogne pourtoit un petit tablier de
point d'Espagne de mille pistoles."--_Galérie de l'ancienne Cour; ou
Mém. des Règnes de Louis XIV. et Louis XV._, 1788.
1722. Ball at the Tuileries. "Tous les seigneurs etaient en habits
de drap d'or ou d'argent garnis de points d'Espagne, avec des noeuds
d'épaule, et tout l'ajustement à proportion. Les moindres etaient de
velours, avec des points d'Espagne d'or et d'argent."--_Journal de
Barbier_, 1718-62.
1722. "J'ai vu en même temps le carosse que le roi fait faire pour
entrer dans Reims, il sera aussi d'une grande magnificence. Le
dedans est tout garni d'un velours à ramage de points d'Espagne
d'or."--_Ibid._
1731. Speaking of her wedding-dress, Wilhelmina of Bayreuth, the
witty sister of Frederick the Great, writes: "Ma robe étoit d'une
étoffe d'or fort riche, avec un point d'Espagne d'or, et ma queue
étoit de douze aunes de long."--_Mémoires._
1751. Fête at Versailles on the birth of the Duc de Bourgogne. The
coats of the "gens de cour, en étoffes d'or de grand prix ou en
velours de tout couleurs, brodés d'or, ou garnis de point d'Espagne
d'or."--_Journal de Barbier._
[284] _Fenix de Cataluña, compendio desus Antiguas Grandezas y Medio para
Renovarlas_, Barcelona, 1683, p. 75.
[285] In the reign of William and Mary, we find, in a lace-man's bill of
the Queen, a charge for forty-seven yards of rich, broad, scalloped,
embossed point de Spain; and her shoes are trimmed with gold and
silver lace.--B. M., Add. MSS.; No. 5751.
At the entry of Lord Stair into Paris, 1719, his servants' hats are
described as laced with Spanish point, their sleeves laced with
picked silver lace, and dented at the edge with lace.--_Edinburgh
Courant._
In 1740, the Countess of Pomfret, speaking of the Princess Mary's
wedding clothes, writes: "That for the wedding night is silver
tissue, faced at the bottom before with pink-coloured satin, trimmed
with silver point d'Espagne."--_Letters of the Countess of Hartford
to the Countess of Pomfret_, 1740.
[286] Marquis de la Gombardière, 1634, _Nouveau Réglement Général des
Finances_, etc.
[287] "Eighty children and grandchildren attended his funeral in defiance
of the Edict of 19th Sept., 1664, and were heavily fined."--_La
France Protestante_, par M. M. Haag. Paris, 1846-59.
[288] Garderobe de S. A. S. Mgr. le Duc de Penthièvre. Arch. Nat. K. K.
390-1.
[289] Lord Verulam on the treaty of commerce with the Emperor Maximilian.
[290] _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1745.
[291] Peyron, 1789.
[292] Madrid, 1775.
[293] _Itinéraire de l'Espagne_, Comte Alph. de Laborde, t. v.
[294] Peuchet (_Dictionnaire Universel de la Géographie Commerçante_, An.
vii. = 1799), speaking of Barcelona, says their laces are "façon de
France," but inferior in beauty and quality. The fabrication is
considerable, employing 2,000 women in the towns and villages east
of Barcelona. They are sold in Castile, Andalusia, and principally
in the Indies.
[295] Madrid, 1788. Vol. ii, p. 149.
[296] _Ibid._ Vol. xvii., p. 294.
[297] "The manufacture of silk lace or blonde in Almagro occupies from
12,000 to 13,000 people" (Mrs. Palliser, 1869). Modern torchon laces
are still made at Almagro to a very large extent (1901).
[298] Madrid, 1788.
[299] Madrid, 1797.
[300] Senor Juan F. Riano, _The Industrial Arts in Spain_, "Lace" (London,
1879).
[301] _Theory of Commerce_, from the Spanish of Don. Ger. de Ustariz
(Lond., 1751).
[302] When the holidays of the Roman Catholic church are deducted, the
work-days of the people amount only to 260 in the course of the
year--fifty less than in a Protestant country.
[303] Ford, _Handbook of Spain_.
[304] 1869.
[305] "Now there are only two kinds of lace made in Spain; 'encaje de
blonda,' mantillas, scarves, lace-ties, etc., in white and black;
these are manufactured in Barcelona, on long pillows stuffed with
long straw quite hard, covered with yellow or light blue linen. The
lace is worked on a cardboard pattern, and with 'fuseaux' like the
French torchon lace, the only difference being that the pillow is
long and narrow and without the revolving cylinder in the centre, so
that when making a long piece, or lace by the yard, the pins have to
be taken out when you get to the bottom of the pillow, and the work
removed to the top and continued. The mantillas, etc., are worked by
pieces; that is to say, the border, flowers, and large designs, and
are afterwards joined by the veil stitch.
"The second is 'encaje de Almagro'--little children of six and seven
years old are taught to make it."--_Letter from Spain_, 1901.
[306] "On met de la dentelle brodée de couleur de points d'Espagne aux
jupes"--_Mercure Galant._
[307] _Recherches sur le Commerce, la Fabrication et l'Usage des Etoffes
de Soie, etc., pendant le Moyen Age._ Paris, 1839.
[308] Taglienti, Venice, 1530.
[309] Paris, 1546.
[310] Pelegrin de Florence, Paris, 1530.
[311] _Magazin de Londres_, 1749.
[312] Mademoiselle Dumont, foundress of the point de France fabric, in the
Rue St. Denis, quitted Paris after some years and retired to
Portugal: whether she there introduced her art is more than the
author can affirm.
[313] It was probably a variety of point de Venise. A few years ago a
specimen of point plat was exhibited in London with a Portuguese
inscription and designs of figures in costumes of _circ._ 1600.
See Plate IX.
[314] The bobbins from Peniche, one of the few places in Portugal where
pillow-lace is still made, are remarkably pretty. They are of ivory,
agreeably mellowed by time and constant handling, and their slender
tapering shafts and bulbous ends are decorated simply but tastefully
with soft-tinted staining. In size they are small, measuring from
three and a quarter to three and a half inches long, and these
proportions are extremely good. Another variety of Peniche bobbin is
made of dark brown, boldly-grained wood. The lace-makers work on a
long cylindrical cushion--the _almofada_--fastened to a high,
basket-work stand, light enough to be easily moved from place to
place.--R. E. Head, "Some Notes on Lace-Bobbins," _The Reliquary_,
July, 1900.
[315] _The Queen_, August, 1872.
"The places in Portugal where the lace industry is chiefly exercised
are Peniche, Vianna do Castello, Setubal, a village in Algarve
called Faro, and at the present time Lisbon, where, under the help
and patronage of H. M. the Queen, a lace dépot has been instituted,
in which I have worked for ten years, seeking to raise the
Portuguese lace industry to an art. The designs being entirely my
own original ones, I am trying to give them a character in unison
with the general idea of the architecture throughout the country. I
obtained gold medals for my work at the Exhibitions of 1894 at
Antwerp and 1900 at Paris, besides others at Lisbon."--Letter from
Dona Maria Bordallo Pinheiro, head of the Lace Industry Department
at Lisbon, 1901.
[316] "There are now seven families employed in the fabrication of Maltese
lace, which is made almost entirely by men; the women occupy
themselves in the open-work embroidery of muslin" (1869).
[317] Those in the collegiate church of St. Peter's, at Louvain, and in
the church of St. Gomar, at Lierre (Antwerp Prov.).--Aubry.
[318] Baron Reiffenberg, in _Mémoires de l'Académie de Bruxelles_. 1820.
[319] Engraved by Collaert. Bib. Nat. Grav.
[320] _Louvain dans le passé et dans le présent, formation de la ville,
événements memorables, territoire, topographie, institutions,
monuments, oeuvres d'art_, page 330, by Edward van Even, published
1895.
[321] M. de Barante.
[322] It goes on: "For the maiden, seated at her work, plies her fingers
rapidly, and flashes the smooth balls and thousand threads into the
circle. Often she fastens with her hand the innumerable needles, to
bring out the various figures of the pattern; often, again, she
unfastens them; and in this her amusement makes as much profit as
the man earns by the sweat of his brow; and no maiden ever complains
at even of the length of the day. The issue is a fine web, open to
the air with many an aperture, which feeds the pride of the whole
globe; which encircles with its fine border cloaks and tuckers, and
shows grandly round the throats and hands of kings; and, what is
more surprising, this web is of the lightness of a feather, which in
its price is too heavy for our purses. Go, ye men, inflamed with the
desire of the Golden Fleece, endure so many dangers by land, so many
at sea, whilst the woman, remaining in her Brabantine home, prepares
Phrygian fleeces by peaceful assiduity."--_Jacobi Eyckii
Antwerpiensis Urbium Belgicarum Centuria._ Antw. 1651. 1 vol., 4to.
Bib. Royale, Brussels.
[323] Alençon excepted.
[324] It is said to destroy the eyesight. "I was told by a gentleman well
acquainted with Flanders," says McPherson, "that they were
generally almost blind before thirty years of age."--_History of
Commerce_, 1785.
[325] Together with the cap is preserved a parchment with this
inscription: "Gorro que perteneccio à Carlos Quinto, emperad. Guarda
lo, hijo mio, es memoria de Juhan de Garnica." ("Cap which belonged
to the Emperor Charles V. Keep it, my son, in remembrance of John de
Garnica"). J. de Garnica was treasurer to Philip II.
Séguin, however, is of opinion that this cap belonged to one of
Charles V.'s successors:--
"Ce bonnet ... a dû appartenir très certainement à un de ses
successeurs (of Charles V.), à cause que ce bonnet se trouve coupé
et encadré par un petit entre-deux de guipure au fuseau, façon point
de Gênes, qui ne pouvait pas avoir été fait du temps de Charles
Quint."--Séguin, _La Dentelle_.
[326] Married, 1599, Albert, Archduke of Austria.
[327] By Andrew Yarranton, Gent. London, 1677. A proposal to erect schools
for teaching and improving the linen manufacture as they do "in
Flanders and Holland, where little girls from six years old upwards
learn to employ their fingers." Hadrianus Junius, a most learned
writer, in his description of the Netherlands, highly extols the
fine needlework and linen called cambric of the Belgian nuns, which
in whiteness rivals the snow, in texture satin, and in price the
sea-silk--Byssus, or beard of the Pinna.
[328] An old term, still used in Scotland, for gossip, chatter.
[329] These dogs were of large size, and able to carry from 22 to 26 lbs.
They also conveyed tobacco. The Swiss dogs smuggle watches.
[330] Black lace was also imported at this period from the Low Countries.
Among the articles advertised as lost, in the _Newsman_ of May 26th,
1664, is, "A black lute-string gown with a black Flanders lace."
[331] Mercure Galant. 1678.
[332] "Le corsage et les manches étaient bordés d'une blanche et légère
dentelle, sortie à coup sûr des meilleures manufactures
d'Angleterre."
[333] We have, however, one entry in the Wardrobe Accounts of the Duc de
Penthièvre: "1738. Onze aunes d'Angleterre de Flandre."
[334] _Mercure Galant._ 1678.
[335] "Deux paires de manchettes et une cravatte de point
d'Angleterre."--_Inventaire d'Anne d'Escoubleau, Baronne de Sourdis,
veuve de François de Simiane._ Arch. Nat. M. M. 802.
[336] _Inv. après le decès de Mgr. Mich. Philippine de la Vrillière,
Patriarche, Archevêque de Bourges_, 1694. Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr.
11,426.
"Une toilette et sa touaille avec un peignoir de point
d'Angleterre."--_Inv. de decès de Mademoiselle de Charollais._ 1758.
Arch. Nat.
[337] _Mrs. Calderwood's Journey through Holland and Belgium_, 1756.
Printed by the Maitland Club.
[338] Flax is also cultivated solely for lace and cambric thread at St.
Nicholas, Tournay, and Courtrai. The process of steeping
(_rouissage_) principally takes place at Courtrai, the clearness of
the waters of the Lys rendering them peculiarly fitted for the
purpose. Savary states that fine thread was first spun at Mechlin.
[339] It is often sold at £240 per lb., and in the Report of the French
Exhibition of 1859 it is mentioned as high as £500 (25,000fr. the
kilogramme). No wonder that so much thread is made by machinery, and
that Scotch cotton thread is so generally used, except for the
choicest laces. But machine-made thread has never attained the
fineness of that made by hand. Of those in the Exhibition of 1862,
the finest Lille was 800 leas (a technical term for a reel of 300
yards), the Brussels 600, the Manchester 700; whereas in Westphalia
and Belgium hand-spun threads as fine as 800 to 1000 are spun for
costly laces. The writer has seen specimens, in the Museum at Lille,
equal to 1200 of machinery; but this industry is so poorly
remunerated, that the number of skilful hand-spinners is fast
diminishing.
[340] _Dictionnaire du Citoyen._ 1761.
[341] _Comptes de Madame du Barry._ Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 8157 and 8.
[342] "Trois aubes de batiste garnies de grande dentelle de gros point
d'Angleterre."--_Inv. des Meubles, etc., de Louis, Duc d'Orléans,
decedé 4 fev. 1752._ (Son of the Regent.) Arch. Nat. X. 10,075.
"Deux aubes de point d'Angleterre servant à Messieurs les curez.
"Une autre aube à dentelle de gros point servant aussy à M. le
curé."--_Inventaire et Description de l'Argenterie, Vermeil Doré,
Ornemens, Linge, etc., appartenant à l'Oeuvre et Fabrique de
l'église Saint-Merry à Paris._ 1714. Arch. Nat. L.L. 859.
[343] "Une coëffure à une pièce d'Angleterre bride et réseau."--_Comptes
de Madame du Barry._
"1 aune et quart d'Angleterre mêlé."--_Ibid._
[344] Mrs. Delany writes ("Corr.," vol. 2): The laces "I have pitched on
for you are charming; it is grounded Brussels."
"Deux tours de gorge à raiseau, un tour de camisolle à
bride."--1720. _Inv. de la Duchesse de Bourbon._ Arch. Nat. X.
10,062-4.
"Six peignoirs de toille fine garnis par en haut d'une vielle
dentelle d'Angleterre à raiseau."--_Inv. de decès de Monsieur
Philippe petit fils de France, Duc d'Orléans, Regent du Royaume,
decedé 2 décembre, 1723._ Arch. Nat. X. 10,067.
The "fond écaillé" often occurs.
"Une coëffure à une pièce de point à l'écaille;
"Une paire de manchettes de cour de point à raizeau, et deux devants
de corps de point à brides à écailles."--1761. _Inv. de la Duchesse
de Modène._ Arch. Nat. X. 10,082.
"Deux barbes, rayon, et fond d'Angleterre superfin fond
écaillé."--_Comptes de Madame du Barry._ See her _Angleterre_, Chap.
XI. note 26.
[345] To which machinery has added a third, the tulle or Brussels net.
[346] The needleground is three times as expensive as the pillow, because
the needle is passed four times into each mesh, whereas in the
pillow it is not passed at all.
[347] "Trois oreillers, l'un de toille blanche picquée garnis autour de
chacun d'un point plat."--_Inv. de la Duchesse de Modène._
[348] _Tableau de Paris_, par S. Mercier. Amsterdam, 1782.
[349] "Fashion." J. Warton.
[350] Brussels lace-makers divide the plat into three parts, the "mat,"
the close part answering to the French _toilé_ (Chapter III.); _gaze
au fuseau_, in which small interstices appear, French _grillé_, and
the _jours_, or open work.
[351] The veil presented by the city of Brussels to the Empress Josephine
was sold in 1816 by Eugene Beauharnais to Lady Jane Hamilton. It is
described to have been of such ample dimensions that, when placed on
Lady Jane's head--who was upwards of six feet high--it trained on
the ground. The texture of the réseau was exquisitely fine. In each
corner was the imperial crown and cypher, encircled with wreaths of
flowers. This _chef d'oeuvre_ passed into the possession of Lady
Jane's daughter, the Duchesse de Coigny.
[352] To afford an idea of the intrinsic value of Brussels lace, we give
an estimate of the expense of a fine flounce (_volant_), of _vrai
réseau mélangé_ (point and plat), 12 metres long by 35 centimetres
wide (13¼ yards by 14 inches)--
Fr.
Cost of the plat 1,885.75
Needle-point 5,000
Open-work, _jours_ (_fonnage_) 390
Appliqué (_stricage_) 800
Ground (_réseau_) 2,782
Footing (_engrêlure_) 1.27
---------
Total 10,859.02
---------
= £434 7 6
Equals £36 3s. 9d. the metre, and the selling price would be about
£50 16s., which would make the flounces amount to £609 12s.
[353] "Une paire de manchettes de dentelle de Malines brodée."
"Quatre bonnets de nuit garnis de Malines brodée."--_Inv. de decès
de Mademoiselle de Charollais._ 1758.
[354] _Inv. de la Duchesse de Bourbon._ 1720.
"1704. Deux fichus garnis de dentelle de Malines à bride ou rézeau.
"Une cravatte avec les manchettes de point de Malines à bride.
"Deux autres cravattes de dentelle de Malines à rézeau et trois
paires de manchettes de pareille dentelle."--_Inv. de Franç.
Phelypeaux Loisel._ Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 11,459.
[355] _Inv. de decès de Madame Anne, Palatine de Bavière, Princesse de
Condé._ 1723. Arch. de Nat. X. 10,065.
[356] In the accounts of Madame du Barry, we have "Malines bâtarde à
bordure."
[357] _Inv. après le decès de Mgr. le Maréchal de la Motte._ Bib. Nat.
MSS. F. Fr. 11,426. "Quatre paires de manchettes garnyes de
passement tant de Venise, Gennes, et de Malines."
[358] _Voyage en Flandre._ 1681.
[359] B. M. Add. MSS. No. 5751.
[360] Gr. Ward. Acc. P. R. O.
[361] _Ibid._
[362] "On chamarre les jupes en quiles de dentelles plissées."--_Mercure
Galant._ 1678.
"Un volant dentelle d'Angleterre plissée."--_Extraordinaire du
Mercure. Quartier d'Esté._ 1678.
[363] "1741. Une coiffure de nuit de Malines à raizeau campanée de deux
pièces.
"Une paire de manches de Malines brodée a raizeau campanée, un tour
de gorge, et une garniture de corset."--_Inv. de Mademoiselle de
Clermont._
"1761. Une paire de manches de Malines bridés non campanée, tour de
gorge, et garniture de corset."--_Inv. de la Duchesse de Modène._
[364] "1720. Une garniture de teste à trois pièces de dentelle de Malines
à bride.
"Deux peignoirs de toile d'Hollande garnis de dentelle, l'une
d'Angleterre à bride et l'autre de Maline à raiseau."--_Inv. de la
Duchesse de Bourbon._ "1750. Une dormeuse de Malines."--_Inv. de
Mademoiselle de Charollais._
"1770. 5½ grande hauteur de Malines pour une paire de manchettes,
264 francs.
"1 au. jabot pour le tour de gorge, 16.
"5 au. ¼ Malines pour garnir 3 chemises au nègre à 12 fr." (The
wretch Zamor who denounced her.)--_Comptes de Madame du Barry._
"1788. 6 tayes d'oreiller garnies de Malines."--_Etat de ce qui a
été fourni pour le renouvellement de Mgr. le Dauphin._ Arch. Nat. K.
505, No. 20.
"1792. 2 tayes d'oreillier garnis de maline."--_Notes du linge du
çi-devant Roi. Ibid._ No. 8.
"1792. 24 fichus de batiste garnis de Maline.
"2 taye d'orilier garnis de Maline."--_Renouvellement de M. le Duc.
de Normandie. Ibid._
[365] An Arrêt, dated 14 Aug., 1688, requires that "toutes les dentelles
de fil d'Anvers, Bruxelles, Malines et autres lieux de la Flandre
Espagnolle," shall enter only by Rousselars and Condé, and pay a
duty of 40 livres per lb.--Arch. Nat. _Coll. Rondonneau._
[366] In the list of foreign Protestants resident in England, 1618 to
1688, we find in London, Aldersgate Ward, Jacob Johnson, born at
Antwerp, lace-maker, and Antony du Veal, lace-weaver, born in Turny
(Tournay).
[367] This portrait has been engraved by Verbruggen, who gives it as that
of Catherine of Aragon.
[368] _Mercure Galant_, 1696.
[369] The flower-pot was a symbol of the Annunciation. In the early
representations of the appearance of the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin
Mary, lilies are placed either in his hand, or set as an accessory
in a vase. As Romanism declined, the angel disappeared, and the lily
pot became a vase of flowers; subsequently the Virgin was omitted,
and there remained only the vase of flowers.
[370] See APPENDIX.
[371] _Tableau Statistique du Dép. des Deux-Nèthes_, par le Citoyen
Herbouville. An X. = 1802.
[372] Their names are given: Veuves Mesele, Papegay, and Turck.
[373] Ypres Valenciennes was exhibited at £80 (the metre). The lace-maker,
working twelve hours a day, could scarcely produce one-third of an
inch a week. It would take her twelve years to complete a length of
six or seven metres, her daily earnings averaging two to three
francs. Ypres makes the widest Valenciennes of any manufacture
except Courtrai, whence was exhibited a half shawl (pointe) of
Valenciennes.
[374] M. Duhayon Brunfaut, of Ypres.
[375] _Treille_ is the general term for the ground (_réseau_) throughout
Belgium and the Dép. du Nord.
[376] France alone buys of Belgium more Valenciennes than all the other
countries united; upwards of 12 millions of francs
(£480,000).--Aubry.
[377] At Ghent two turns and a half, and at Courtrai three and a half.
Each town has its own peculiar stitch.
[378] _L'Industrie Dentellière Belge_, par B. v. d. Dussen, Bruxelles,
1860.
[379] Robinson Crusoe, when at Lisbon, sends "some Flanders lace of a good
value" as a present to the wife and daughter of his partner in the
Brazils.
[380] _Answer to Sir John Sinclair_, by Mr. H. Schoulthem, concerning the
manufactures of Ghent. 1815.
[381] Arch. de Nat., Coll. Rondonneau.
[382] _Point and Pillow Lace_, A. M. S. London, 1899.
[383] "Une paire de manchettes de cour de dentelle de Binche;
"Trois paires de manchettes à trois rangs de dentelle de Binche;
"Deux fichus de mousseline bordées de dentelle de Binche;
"Deux devants de corps de dentelle de Binche."--Arch. de Nat. X.,
10,082.
[384] "M. Victor Hugo told the Author he had, in his younger days, seen
Binch guipure of great beauty."--Mrs. Palliser, 1869.
[385] Letter of Sir Henry Wotton to Lord Zouch.--State Papers, Domestic,
Jas. I., P. R. O.
[386] In the _Bulletin de l'Institut Archéologique_, Liègois XVIII., 1885,
is a copy of a contract dated January 23rd, 1634, whereby a
lace-maker of Liège, Barbe Bonneville, undertakes for 25 florins,
current money, to teach a young girl lace-making.
Again, in the copy of a Namur Act of November, 1701, a merchant of
Namur orders from a Liègois "3 pieces of needle-made lace called
Venice point," to sell at the rate of 5½ florins, 4½ florins, and
one écu respectively.
[387] Arch. de Nat., Coll. Rondonneau.
[388] "Caïeteresses," from _caïets_, bobbins.
[389] _Exposition de Liège_, par Chanoine Dubois, 1881.
[390] _Statistique du dép. de la Meuse-Inf._, par le Citoyen Cavenne. An.
X.
[391] Liège in the seventeenth century numbered 1600 workers, and produced
black and white laces which it exported to England, Germany and
France. The rich clergy of the country also bought a large quantity.
At the time of the Exhibition held there in 1881 the fabric had so
declined that it was impossible to find a single piece of lace that
had been made in the town.
[392] _Fil tiré_, drawn and embroidered muslin-work so fine as to be
classed with lace, was made in Dinant in the religious communities
of the city and the "pays" of Dinant before the French Revolution.
At Marche lace with flowers worked directly on the réseau is made,
and the lace of Yorck is also imitated--a lace characterised by
additions worked on to the lace, giving relief to the
flowers.--_Exposition de Liège_, par Chanoine Dubois, 1881. The list
of Belgian laces also includes "Les points de Brabant, plus mats, et
plus remplis que les points de Flandres; les differentes dentelles
de fantaisie, non classées, puis les grosses dentelles de Couvin, en
soie noire, qui servaient jadis à garnir les pelisses des femmes de
l'Entre Sambre-et-Meuse."--_La Dentelle de Belgique_, par Mme.
Daimeries, 1893.
[393] Italian fashions appeared early in France. Isabeau de Bavière,
wearer of the oriental _hennin_, and Valentine de Milan, first
introduced the rich tissues of Italy. Louis XI. sent for workmen
from Milan, Venice, and Pistoja, to whom he granted various
privileges, which Charles VIII. confirmed.
Lace, according to Séguin, first appears in a portrait of Henri II.
at Versailles, a portrait painted in the latter years of his reign.
"Les deux portraits de Francois I^{er} qui sont au Louvre n'en
laissent pas soupçonner l'usage de son temps. Aucun des autres
portraits historiques qui y sont, non plus que ceux des galeries de
Versailles de la même époque, n'en attestent l'existence, et le
premier où on la découvre est un portrait de Henri II à Versailles,
qui a dû être peint vers les dernières années de son règne. Le col,
brodé d'entrelacs de couleur, est bordé d'une petite dentelle bien
simple et bien modeste. Nous possédons des portraits authentiques
antérieurs au milieu du XVI^e siècle, des specimens incontestés des
costumes qui ont précédé cette époque, aucun de ces nombreux témoins
n'atteste son existence.
"Il faut reconnaître que l'origine de la dentelle n'est pas
antérieure au milieu du XVI^e siècle."--Séguin, _La Dentelle_.
Paris, 1875.
[394] In Ulpian Fulwell's _Interlude_, 1568, Nichol Newfangle says--
"I learn to make gowns with long sleeves and wings,
I learn to make ruffs like calves' chitterlings."
[395] The Queen was accused by her enemies of having, by the aid of Maître
René, "empoisonneur en titre," terminated the life of Queen Jeanne
de Navarre, in 1571, by a perfumed ruff (not gloves--_Description de
la Vie de Catherine de Médicis_); and her favourite son, the Duke
d'Alençon, was said, cir. 1575, to have tried to suborn a valet to
take away the life of his brother Henry by scratching him in the
back of his neck with a poisoned pin when fastening his fraise.
[396] _Satyre Menippée._ Paris, 1593.
[397] _Chronologie Novenaire_, Vict. P. Cayet.
[398] "S'ils se tournoient, chacun se reculoit, crainte de gater leurs
fraizes."--_Satyre Menippée._
"Le col ne se tourne à leur aise
Dans le long reply de leur fraise."
--_Vertus et Propriétés des Mignons_, 1576.
[399] "Ces beaux mignons portoient ... leur fraizes de chemise de toute
d'atour empesez et longues d'un demi-pied, de façon qu'à voir leurs
testes dessus leurs fraizes, il sembloit que ce fut le chef de Saint
Jean dans un plat."--_Journal de Henri III._, Pierre de l'Estoille.
[400] _Perroniana._ Cologne, 1691.
[401] "Goudronnées en tuyaux d'orgue, fraisées en choux crépus, et grandes
comme des meules de moulin."--_Blaise de Viginière._
"La fraize veaudelisée à six étages."--_La Mode qui Court._ Paris,
n.d.
[402] "Appelez par les Espagnols 'lechuguillas' ou petites laitues, à
cause du rapport de ces gaudrons repliées avec les fraisures de la
laitue."--_Histoire de la Ville de Paris_, D. Mich. Félibien.
[403] "1575. Le roy alloit tous les jours faire ses aumônes et ses prières
en grande devotion, laissant ses chemises à grands goderons, dont il
estoit auparavant si curieux, pour en prendre à collet renversé a
l'Italienne."--_Journal de Henri III._, Pierre de l'Estoille.
[404] No less than ten were sent forth by the Valois kings, from 1549 to
1583.
[405] These were dated 1594, 1600, 1601, and 1606.
[406] Copper used instead of gold thread for embroidery or lace. The term
was equally applied to false silver thread.
"1582. Dix escus pour dix aulnes de gaze blanche rayée d'argent
clinquant pour faire ung voille à la Boullonnoise."--_Comptes de la
Reine de Navarre._ Arch. Nat. K. K. 170.
[407] Regnier, Math., _Ses Satyres._ 1642.
[408] The observation was not new. A Remonstrance to Catherine de Médicis,
1586, complains that "leurs moulins, leurs terres, leurs prez, leurs
bois et leurs revenuz, se coulent en broderies, pourfilures,
passemens, franges, tortis, canetilles, recameurs, chenettes,
picqueurs, arrièrepoins, etc., qu'on invente de jour à
autre."--_Discours sur l'extrême cherté, etc., presenté à la Mère du
Roi, par un sien fidelle Serviteur (Du Haillan)._ Bordeaux, 1586.
[409] "1579. Pour avoir remonsté trois fraises à poinct couppé, 15 sols.
"Pour avoir monté cinq fraizes à poinct couppé sur linomple, les
avoir ourllés et couzeus à la petite cordellière et au poinct noué à
raison de 30 sols pour chacune.
"Pour la façon de sept rabatz ourllés à double arrièrepoinct et
couzu le passement au dessus.
"1580. Pour avoir faict d'ung mouchoir ouvré deux rabatz, 20 sols.
"Pour deux pieces de poinct couppé pour servir à ladicte dame, VI
livres.
"Pour dix huict aulnes de passement blanc pour mestre à des fraizes
à trois escus l'aulne."
1582. The account for this year contains entries for "passement
faict à lesguille," "grand passement," "passement faict au mestier,"
etc.--_Comptes de la Reine de Navarre._ Arch. Nat.
[410] "Vingt trois chemizes de toile fine à ouvrage de fil d'or et soye de
plusieurs coulleurs, aux manchettes coulet et coutures.
"Ung chemize à ouvrage de soye noire.
"Quatre chemizes les trois à ouvrage d'or et d'argent et soye
bleu."--_Inv. des meubles qui ont estés portés à Paris._ 1602. Arch.
Nat.
[411] "1577. A Jehan Dupré, linger, demeurant à Paris, la somme de
soixante douze livres tournois à luy or donnée pour son payement de
quatre layz d'ouvraige à poinct couppé pour faire une garniture de
chemise pour servir à mon dict segneur, à raison de 18 liv.
chacune."--_Comptes de la Reine de Navarre._ Arch. Nat. K. K. 162,
fol. 655.
[412] "This shirt," he adds, "is well attested. It became the perquisite
of the king's first valet de chambre. At the extinction of his
descendants, it was exposed to sale."--_Memoirs._
A rival shirt turned up (c. 1860) at Madame Tussaud's with "the real
blood" still visible. Monsieur Curtius, uncle of Madame Tussaud,
purchased it at an auction of effects once the property of Cardinal
Mazarin. Charles X. offered 200 guineas for it.
[413] "Item, cinq mouchoirs d'ouvrages d'or, d'argent et soye, prisez
ensemble cent escuz.
"Item, deux tauayelles aussi ouvrage d'or, d'argent et soye, prisées
cent escuz.
"Item, trois tauayelles blanches de rezeuil, prisées ensemble trente
escuz.
"Item, une paire de manches de point coupé et enrichies d'argent,
prisez vingt escuz.
"Item, deux mouchoirs blancz de point coupé, prisez ensemble vingt
escuz.
"Toutes lesquelles tauayelles et mouchoirs cy dessus trouvez dans un
coffre de bahu que la dicte defunte dame faisoit ordinairement
porter avec elle a la court sont demeurez entre les mains du S^r de
Beringhen, suivant le commandement qu'il en avoit de sa majesté pour
les representer à icelle, ce qu'il a promis de faire."--_Inventaire
apres le decès de Gabrielle d'Estrées._ 1599. Arch. Nat. K. K. 157,
fol. 17.
[414] "Item, un lit d'yvoire à filletz noirs de Padoue, garny de son estuy
de cuir rouge."--_Ibid._
[415] "Item, une autre tenture de cabinet de carré de rezeau brodurée et
montans recouvert de feuillages de fil avec des carrez de thoile
plaine, prisé et estimé la somme de cent escus Soleil.
"Item, dix sept carrez de thoile de Hollande en broderie d'or et
d'argent fait a deux endroictz, prisez et estimez à 85 escus.
"Item, un autre pavilion tout de rezeil avec le chapiteau de fleurs
et feuillages....
"Item, un autre en neuf fait par carrez de point coupé."--_Ibid._
fols. 46 and 47.
[416] "Manchettes et collets enrichys de point couppé."--_Inventaire apres
le decès de Messire Philippe Herault, Comte de Cheverny, Chancelier
de France._ 1599. Bib. Nat. MSS. F. 11,424.
[417] In 1598. Vulson de la Colombière, _Vray Théatre d'Honneur et de
Chevalerie_. 1647.
[418] _Satyrique de la Court._ 1613.
[419] _Histoire de la Mère et du Fils_, from 1616 to 19. Amsterdam, 1729.
[420] _Livre nouveau dict Patrons de Lingerie, etc._
_Patrons de diverses Manières, etc._ (Title in rhyme.)
_S'ensuyvent les Patrons de Mesire Antoine Belin._
_Ce Livre est plaisant et utile._ (Title in rhyme.)
[421] _La Fleur des Patrons de Lingerie._
[422] _Tresor des Patrons._ J. Ostans.
[423] _Le Livre de Moresques_ (1546), _Livre de Lingerie_, Dom. de Sera
(1584), and _Patrons pour Brodeurs_ (no date), were also printed at
Paris.
The last book on this kind of work printed at Paris is styled,
_Méthode pour faire des Desseins avec des Carreaux, etc._, by Père
Dominique Donat, religieux carme. 1722.
[424] A point de Venise alb, of rose point, said to be of this period, is
in the Musée de Cluny.
[425] "Quelques autres de frangez Bordent leur riche cuir, qui vient des
lieux estranges."--_Le Gan_, de Jean Godard, Parisien. 1588.
[426] "1619. Deux paires de rozes à soulliers garnies de dentelle
d'or."--_Inv. de Madame Soeur du Roi._ (Henrietta Maria.) Arch. Nat.
[427] _Satyrique de la Court._
[428] The inventory of the unfortunate Maréchal de Marillac, beheaded
1632, has "broderye et poinctz d'Espagnes d'or, argent et soye;
rabats et collets de point couppé; taffetas nacarat garnye de
dantelle d'argent; pour-poinct passementé de dantelle de canetille
de Flandre," etc.--Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 11,426.
[429] 1620, Feb. 8th. "Déclaration portant deffenses de porter des
clinquants, passements, broderies," etc.--Arch. Nat. G. G. G.
1623, March 20th. "Déclaration qui defend l'usage des étoffes d'or,"
etc.--_Recueil des anciennes Lois Françaises._ T. 16, 107.
1625, Sept. 30th. Déclaration prohibits the wearing of "collets,
fraizes, manchettes, et autres linges des passements, Point coupez
et Dentelles, comme aussi des Broderies et Decoupures sur quentin ou
autre toile."--Bib. Nat. L. i. 8.
[430] _Consolation des Dames sur la Reformation des passemens._ 1620.
[431] Again, 1633, Nov. 18th. Déclaration restricts the prohibition;
permits "passements manufacturés dans le royaume qui n'excederont 9
ll. l'aune."--Arch. Nat. G. G. G.
1634, May 30th. "Lettres patentes pour la reformation du luxe des
habits," prohibits "dentelles, passements et broderies" on boots,
carriages, etc. (British Museum).
1636, April 3rd. "Déclaration contre le Luxe." Again prohibits both
foreign and home-made points coupés, etc., under pain of banishment
for five years, confiscation, and a fine of 6000 francs.--De la
Mare, _Traité de la Police_.
1639, Nov. 24th. Fresh prohibition, points de Gênes specially
mentioned. Not to wear on the collar, cuffs, or boots, "autres
choses que de la toile simple sans aucune façon."--Arch. Nat. G. G.
G.
[432] _Le Courtisan Reformé, suivant l'Edit. de l'année 1633_; and again,
_Le Jardin de la Noblesse Françoise dans lequel ce peut cueillir
leur manière de Vettement_. 1629.
[433] April, 1636.
[434] 1631. _Trésorerie de la Reine Marie de Médicis._--Arch. Nat. K. K.
191.
[435] Vulson de la Colombière, _Pompes qu'on pratique aux obséques des
Rois de France_.
[436] _Mémoires de Guy Joly_, from 1648 to 1665.
[437] About this period a special Act had confirmed the Statutes of the
Maîtres Passementiers of Paris. By Article 21, they are privileged
to make every sort of passement or lace, "sur l'oreiller, aux
fuzeaux, aux épingles, et à la main," on condition the material,
gold, silver, thread, or silk, be "de toutes fines ou de toutes
fausses." The sale of thread and lace was allowed to the Lingères,
but by an Arrêt of the Parliament of Paris, 1665, no one could be a
marchande lingère unless she had made profession of the "religion
catholique, apostolique, et romaine," a condition worthy of the
times. "Il n'y fut," writes Gilles de Felice, in his _Histoire des
Protestants de France_, "pas jusqu'à la corporation des lingères qui
ne s'en allât remontrer au conseil que leur communauté, ayant été
instituée par saint Louis, no pouvait admettre d'hérétiques, et
cette réclamation fut gravement confirmée par un arrêt du 21 août,
1665."
[438] Dated November 19th, 1653. The letter is given in full by the
Marquis de Laborde in _Le Palais Mazarin_. Paris, 1845.
[439] _Inv. fait apres la mort du Cardinal Mazarin_, 1661.--Bibl. Nat.
MSS. Suite de Mortmart, 37.
[440] It is to be found at the Archives National, or in the Library of the
Cour de Cassation. In the Archives National is a small collection of
ordinances relative to lace collected by M. Rondonneau, extending
from 1666 to 1773. It is very difficult to get at all the
ordinances. Many are printed in De la Mare (_Traité de la Police_);
but the most complete work is the _Recueil général des anciennes
Lois françaises, depuis l'an 420 jusqu'à la Révolution de 1789_, par
MM. Isambert, Ducrusy, et Taillandier. Paris, 1829. The ordinances
bear two dates, that of their issue and of their registry.
[441] This "canon," originally called "bas de bottes," was a circle of
linen or other stuff fastened below the knee, widening at the bottom
so as to fill the enlargement of the boot, and when trimmed with
lace, having the appearance of a ruffle.
[442] _Dictionnaire des Précieuses._ 1660. Molière likewise ridicules
them:--
"Et de ces grands canons, où, comme des entraves,
On met tous les matins les deux jambes esclaves."
--_L'École des Maris._
And again, in _L'École des Femmes_:
"Ils ont de grands canons, force rubans et plumes."
[443] _Les Délices de la France_, par M. Savinière d'Alquié. 1670.
[444] The fashion of wearing black lace was introduced into England in the
reign of Charles II. "Anon the house grew full, and the candles lit,
and it was a glorious sight to see our Mistress Stewart in black and
white lace, and her head and shoulders dressed with
diamonds."--Pepys's _Diary._
"The French have increased among us many considerable trades, such
as black and white lace."--_England's Great Happiness_, etc.
Dialogue between Content and Complaint. 1677.
"Item, un autre habit de grosse moire garny de dantelle d'Angleterre
noire."--1691. _Inv. de Madame de Simiane._ Arch. Nat., M. M. 802.
[445] "Of this custom, a relic may still be found at the Court of Turin,
where ladies wear lappets of black lace. Not many years since, the
wife of a Russian minister, persisting to appear in a suit of
Brussels point, was courteously requested by the Grand Chamberlain
to retire" (1869).
[446] _Chroniques de l'Oeil-de-Boeuf._
[447] Madame de Motteville is not complimentary to the ladies of the
Spanish Court: "Elles avoient peu de linge," she writes, "et leurs
dentelles nous parurent laides."--_Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire
d'Anne d'Autriche._
[448] Madame de Sévigné mentions these dresses: "Avez-vous ouï parler des
transparens?... de robes noires transparentes ou des belles
dentelles d'Angleterre."--_Lettres._
[449] 1690. _Chroniques de l'Oeil-de-Boeuf._
[450] 1661, May 27; 1662, Jan. 1; 1664, May 31, Sept. 18, and Dec. 12.
[451] "On fabriquait précédemment ces espèces de dentelles guipures, dont
on ornait les aubes des prêtres, les rochets des évêques et les
jupons des femmes de qualité."--_Roland de la Platière._ The
articles on lace by Roland and Savary have been copied by all
succeeding writers on the subject.
[452] Mgr. de Bonzy, Dec. 20, 1664. _Correspondance administrative sous
Colbert_, vol. 3.
[453] Lefébure.
[454] "Il y a très longtemps que le point coupé se faict icy, qui a son
débit selon le temps; mais qu'une femme nommée La Perrière (sic),
fort habile à ces ouvrages, trouva il y a quelques années le moyen
d'imiter les points de Venise, en sorte qu'elle y vint à telle
perfection que ceux qu'elle faisoit ne devaient rien aux estrangers.
Pour faire ces ouvrages il luy falloit enseigner plusieurs petites
filles auxquelles elle montroit à faire ce point ... à présent je
vous puis asseurer qu'il y a plus de 8,000 personnes qui y
travaillent dans Alençon, dans Seèz, dans Argentan, Falaise....
"Monseigneur, c'est une manne, et une vraie bénédiction du ciel qui
s'est espandue sur tout ce pays, dans lequel les petitz enfants
mesmes de sept ans trouvent moyen de gaigner leur vie. Les
vieillards y travaillent et les petites bergerettes des champs y
travaillent mêmes."--_Letter from Favier-Duboulay, intendant
d'Alençon since 1644._ Correspondance administrative sous le règne
de Louis XIV (quoted by Madame Despierres), vol. 3.
[455] In 1842 M. Joseph Odolant Desnos, grandson of this author, writes,
"Ce fut une dame Gilberte, qui avait fait son apprentissage à
Venise, et était native d'Alençon. Dès qu'elle fut à ses ordres, ce
ministre (Colbert) la logea dans le magnifique château de Lonrai,
qu'il possédait près d'Alençon."--_Annuaire de l'Orne._
[456] _Mémoires historiques sur la ville d'Alençon_, M. Odolant Desnos.
Alençon, 1787.
[457] "Le château de Lonrai ne passa dans la maison de Colbert que par le
mariage de Catherine Thérèse de Matignon, Marquise de Lonrai, avec
Jean-Baptiste Colbert, fils ainé du grand Colbert, le 6e septembre
1678" (_i.e._, fourteen years after the establishment of points de
France at Alençon) --Madame Despierres, _Histoire de point
d'Alençon_.
[458] Madame Despierres, after an exhaustive study of the mass of
documentary evidence on this point, gives as her opinion that--
"(1) La première personne qui à Alençon imita le point de Venise, et
par conséquent créa le point d'Alençon, fut Mme La Perrière, vers
1650, et non Mme Gilbert.
"(2) La préposée-directrice des manufactures de point de France des
différentes villes du royaume qui a établi les bureaux à Alençon,
fut Catherine de Marcq, et non pas une dame Gilbert.
"(3) Les préposées mises à la tête de l'établissement d'Alençon
étaient Mme Raffy et Marie Fillesae, dont les noms ne répondent pas
à celui d'une dame Gilbert."--_Madame Despierres, Histoire de point
d'Alençon._
[459] Mrs. Palliser sought in vain for this ordinance in the Library of
the Cour de Cassation, where it is stated to be, by the authors of
the "Recueil général des anciennes Lois françaises, depuis l'an 420
jusqu'à la Révolution de 1789"; but fortunately it is recited in a
subsequent act, dated Oct. 12, 1666 (Arch. Nat., Coll. Rondonneau),
by which it appears that the declaration ordered the establishment
in "les villes de Quesnoy, Arras, Reims, Sedan, Château-Thierry,
Loudun, Alençon, Aurillac, et autres du royaume, de la manufacture
de toutes sortes d'ouvrages de fil, tant à l'éguille qu'au coussin,
en la manière des points qui se font à Venise, Gennes, Raguse, et
autres pays estrangers, qui seroient appellés points de France," by
which it would appear the term point de France did not exclusively
belong to the productions of Alençon. After the company was
dissolved in 1675 the name of point de France was applied to point
d'Alençon alone. In a subsequent arrêt it is set forth that the
entrepreneurs have caused to be brought in great numbers the best
workers from Venice and other foreign cities, and have distributed
them over Le Quesnoy and the above-mentioned towns, and that now are
made in France "des ouvrages de fil si exquis, qu'ils esgallent,
mesme surpassent en beauté les estrangers."--_Bibl. de la Cour de
Cassation._
What became of these manufactures at Le Quesnoy and Château-Thierry,
of which not a tradition remains?
[460] Talon, "secrétaire du cabinet," was one of the first members. We
find by an arrêt, Feb. 15, 1667, that this patent had already been
infringed. On the petition of Jean Pluymers, Paul, and Catherine de
Marcq, "entrepreneurs" of the fabric of points de France, his
Majesty confirms to them the sole privilege of making and selling
the said points.--Arch. Nat., Coll. Rondonneau. Nov. 17 of the same
year appears a fresh prohibition of wearing or selling the
passements, lace, and other works in thread of Venice, Genoa, and
other foreign countries (British Museum), and March 17, 1668,
"Itératives" prohibitions to wear these, either new or "commencé
d'user," as injurious to a manufacture of point which gives
subsistence to a number of persons in the kingdom.--_Ibid._ Again,
Aug. 19, 1669, a fresh arrêt in consequence of complaints that the
workers are suborned and work concealed in Paris, etc.--Arch Nat.,
Coll. Rondonneau.
[461] Colbert said to Louis XIV.: "There will always be found fools enough
to purchase the manufactures of France, though France should be
prohibited from purchasing those of other countries." The King
agreed with the minister, whom he made chief director of the trade
and manufactures of the kingdom.
[462] A favourite saying of Colbert.
[463] The artists who furnished designs for all works undertaken for the
court of Louis XIV. must have supplied designs for the lace
manufactures: "In the accounts of the King's buildings is the entry
of a payment due to Bailly, the painter, for several days' work with
other painters in making designs for embroideries and points
d'Espagne" (Lefébure).
[464] The principal centres of lace-making were Aurillac, Sedan, Rheims,
Le Quesnoy, Alençon, Arras, and Loudun, and the name "Points de
France" was given without distinction to all laces made at these
towns; preference was given in choosing these centres to those towns
already engaged in lace-making. Alençon produced the most brilliant
results, for from the beginning of the seventeenth century the town
had been engaged in needle-point lace, and some of the lace-makers
earned high wages, and showed great aptitude for the art. In her
_Histoire du Point d'Alençon_, Madame Despierres has made some
interesting extracts from various marriage contracts and wills:--
"A notable instance is that of a family named Barbot, the mother
having amassed 500 livres. Her daughter, Marthe Barbot, married
Michel Mercier, sieur de la Perrière, and brought him a
wedding-portion of 300 livres, the earnings of her industry; while
her sister Suzanne Barbot's wedding-portion, upon her marriage with
Paul Ternouillet, amounted to 6,000 livres, earned in making
cut-works and works en _velin_ (needle-point lace done on a
parchment pattern), which command a high price" (Lefébure).
[465] The Venetian Senate, according to Charles Yriarte, regarded this
emigration of workers to France as a crime against the State, and
issued the following decree:--
"If any artist or handicraftsman practises his art in any foreign
land to the detriment of the Republic, orders to return will be sent
him; if he disobeys them, his nearest of kin will be put into
prison, in order that through his interest in their welfare his
obedience may be compelled. If he comes back, his past offence will
be condoned, and employment for him will be found in Venice; but if,
notwithstanding the imprisonment of his nearest of kin, he
obstinately decides to continue living abroad, an emissary will be
commissioned to kill him, and his next of kin will only be liberated
upon his death."
[466] To afford an idea of the importance of the lace trade in France at
the beginning of the eighteenth century, and of the immense
consumption of lace in France, we give the following statistics:--In
1707, the collection of the duties of lace was under-farmed to one
Étienne Nicolas, for the annual sum of 201,000 livres. The duty then
was of 50 livres per lb. weight of lace, so that there entered
annually into France above 400,000 lbs. of lace, which, estimating
at the lowest 1,000 lbs. of lace to be worth 1,000 livres, would
represent 4 millions of that epoch. Taking into calculation that
fraud was extensively practised, that the points of Venice and
Genoa, being prohibited, could not appear in the receipts; and that,
on the other part, the under-farmer did not pay the farmer-general
the 201,000 livres without the certainty of profit to himself, we
must admit that the figure, though high, is far from representing
the value of the foreign laces which entered France at that period.
We think that 8 millions (£320,000) would be below the true
figure.--_Rapport sur les Dentelles fait à la Commission française
de l'Exposition Universelle de Londres_, 1851. Felix Aubry. The best
history of lace published.
[467] "Deux tours de chaire de point de France donnez depuis quelques
années par deux dames de la paroisse."--_Inv. de l'église de
Saint-Merry, à Paris._ Arch. Nat. L. L. 859.
[468] _Inv. de Madame Anne Palatine de Bavière, Princesse de
Condé._--_Ibid._ X. 10,065.
[469] _Inv. de l'église de Saint-Gervais, à Paris._--_Ibid._ L. L. 854.
[470] The saints, too, came in for their share of the booty.
"There was St. Winifred," writes a traveller of the day, "in a point
commode with a large scarf on and a loup in hand, as tho' she were
going to mass. St. Denis, with a laced hat and embroidered coat and
sash, like a captain of the guards."--_Six Weeks in France._ 1691.
[471] "Toille de Hollande, avec des grands points de France."--_Le
Cérémonial de la Nomination de Monseigneur le Dauphin._ 1668. Arch.
Nat. K. K. 1431.
[472] _Le Mercure Galant._ Juillet, 1688. This periodical, which we shall
have occasion so frequently to quote, was begun in 1672, and
continued to July, 1716. It comprises, with the _Extraordinaires_,
571 vols. in 12mo.
_Le Mercure de France_, from 1717 to 1792, consists of 777
vols.--Brunet. Manuel de Libraire.
[473] _Le Mercure Galant._
[474] It was the custom, at the birth of a Dauphin, for the papal nuncio
to go to the palace and present to the new-born child "les langes
benites," or consecrated layette, on behalf of his Holiness the
Pope. The shirts, handkerchiefs, and other linen, were by
half-dozens, and trimmed with the richest point. This custom dates
as early as the birth of Louis XIII. Mercier describes the ceremony
of carrying the layette to Versailles in the time of Louis XV.--_Vie
du Dauphin, père de Louis XVI._ Paris, 1858.
[475] In the Lancaster state bedroom, at Fonthill, was sold in 1823: "A
state bed quilt of Brussels point, for 100 guineas, and a Brussels
toilet cover for 30 guineas."--Fonthill. Sale Catalogue.
"1694. Une toilette de satin violet picquée garny d'un point
d'Espagne d'or à deux carreaux de mesme satin et aussi
piqué."--_Inv. de Mgr. de la Vrillière, Patriarche, Archevêque de
Bourges._ Bib. Nat.
"1743. Une toilette et son bonhomme garnie d'une vieille dentelle
d'Angleterre."--_Inv. de la Duchesse de Bourbon._
"1758. Une toilette avec sa touaille de point fort vieux
d'Alençon."--_Inv. de Mademoiselle de Charollois._
"1770. Une tres belle toilette de point d'Argentan, en son surtout
de 9,000 livres.
"Une tres belle toilette d'Angleterre, et son surtout de
9,000."--_Cptes. de Madame du Barry._
[476] "On voit toujours des jupes de point de France."--_Mercure Galant_,
1686.
"Corsets chamarrés de point de France."--_Ibid._
[477] Madame de Sévigné describes Mademoiselle de Blois as "belle comme un
ange," with "un tablier et une bavette de point de
France."--_Lettres._ Paris, 27 Jan., 1674.
[478] "Garnis de point de France formant une manière de rose
antique."--_Mercure Galant._ 1677.
[479] In the Extraordinaire du _Mercure_ for 1678, we have, in "habit
d'este," gloves of "point d'Angleterre."
[480] _Mercure Galant._ 1672.
[481] _Ibid._ 1686.
[482] _Mercure Galant._ Fév. 1685.
[483] _Ibid._ 1678.
[484] At the Mazarin Library there are four folio volumes of engravings,
after Bonnard and others, of the costumes of the time of Louis XIV.;
and at the Archives Nat. is a large series preserved in cartons
numbered M. 815 to 823, etc., labelled "Gravures de Modes."
[485] _La Fontange altière._--Boileau.
[486] The wife of Trajan wore this coiffure, and her sister Marcina
Faustina, wife of Antoninus, much regretted the fashion when it went
out. Speaking of this head-dress, says a writer in the _Bibliothèque
Universelle_ of 1693, "On regarde quelque fois des certaines choses
comme tout à fait nouvelles, qui ne sont que des vieilles modes
renouvellées. L'auteur en appelle un exemple dans les coiffures
elevées que portent les femmes aujourd'hui, croyant ajouter par là
quelque chose à leur taille. Les dames Romaines avaient la même
ambition et mettaient des ajustemens de tête tout semblables aux
Commodes et aux Fontanges de ce temps. Juvenal en parle expressément
dans sa Satire VI."
[487] _Galerie de l'ancienne Cour._
[488] "1699. Oct. Le Vendredi 25, il y eut grande toilette chez Madame la
Duchesse de Bourgogne où les dames parurent, pour la première fois,
en coiffures d'une forme nouvelle, c'est à dire beaucoup plus
basses."--_Mercure Galant._
[489] "Corr. de la Duchesse d'Orléans, Princesse Palatine, mère du
Régent."
[490] Speaking of the Iron Mask, Voltaire writes:--"His greatest passion
was for linen of great fineness and for lace."--_Siècle de Louis
XIV._
[491] Fought by Marshal Luxembourg--vieux tapissier de Notre-Dame--against
William of Orange.
[492] Falbala--a deep single flounce of point or gold lace. The _Mercure
Galant_, 1698, describing the Duchess of Burgundy "à la promenade,"
states: "Elle avoit un habit gris de lin en falbala, tout garny de
dentelles d'argent."
"Femme de qualité en Steinkerke et Falbala."--Engraving of 1693.
[493] See ENGLAND.--WILLIAM III.
[494] Regnard.
[495] Dame du palais to Queen Marie Thérèse, and afterwards first lady of
honour to the Duchess of Burgundy. She died 1726.
[496] _Mercure Galant._ 1683.
Again, in 1688, he says: "Les points de Malines sont fort en regne
pour les manches qu'on nomme engageantes. Ou y met des points
très-hauts, fort plissés, avec des pieds."
"Ladies trimmed their _berthes_ and sleeves with lace; when the
sleeves were short they were called _engageantes_; when long,
_pagodes_. Upon skirts laces were worn _volantes_ or as flounces,
whence the name _volant_ or flounce, which has come into use for all
wide laces; these flouncings were draped either in _tournantes_ or
_quilles_, the former laid horizontally, the latter vertically upon
skirts; but in either case these were stitched down on each edge of
the lace, whereas flounces were fastened to dresses by the
_engrêlure_ or footing. Lace _barbes_ and _fontanges_ were used as
head-dresses."
They appear to have been soon introduced into England, for Evelyn,
in his _Mundus Muliebris_, 1690, says: "About her sleeves are
engageants;" and the _Ladies' Dictionary_ of nearly the same date
gives: "Ængageants, double ruffles that fall over the wrist."
In the lace bills of Queen Mary II., we find--
£ s. d.
"1694. 1¾ yd. Point for a
broad pair of Engageants,
at £5 10s. 9 12 6
3½ for a double pair of
ditto, at £5 10s. 19 5 0
1 pair of Point Engageants 30 0 0"
--(B. M., Add. MSS. No. 5751.)
"1720. Six pairs d'engageantes, dont quatre à un rang de dentelle,
et les autres paires à double rang, l'une de dentelle d'Angleterre à
raiseau et l'autre de dentelle à bride."--_Inv. de la Duchesse de
Bourbon._ Arch. Nat.
"1723. Une paire d'engageantes à deux rangs de point plat à
raiseau."--_Inv. d'Anne de Bavière, Princesse de Condé._
"1770. Six rangs d'engageantes de point à l'aiguille," with the same
of point d'Argentan and Angleterre, appear in the lace bills of
Madame du Barry.
[497] "1725. Deux manteaux de bain et deux chemises, aussi de bain, garnis
aux manches de dentelle, l'une à bride, et l'autre à
raiseau."--_Inv. d'Anne de Bavière, Princesse de Condé._
"1743. Ung Tour de baignoir de bazin garny de vieille dentelle.
"Trois linges de baignoire garnis de dentelle."--_Inv. de la
Duchesse de Bourbon._
[498] Describing the duties of the "critic of each bright ruelle," Tickell
says:--
"Oft with varied art, his thoughts digress
On deeper themes--the documents of dress;
With nice discernment, to each style of face
Adapt a ribbon, or suggest a lace;
O'er Granby's cap bid loftier feathers float,
And add new bows to Devon's petticoat."--_Wreath of Fashion._
[499] In the spring of 1802, Mr. Holcroft, when in Paris, received a
polite note from a lady at whose house he visited, requesting to see
him. He went, and was informed by her maid the lady was in her warm
bath, but she would announce his arrival. She returned, and led him
to a kind of closet, where her mistress was up to her chin in water.
He knew the manners of the place, and was not surprised.--_Travels._
[500] Mercier also mentions, in his _Tableau de Paris_, la poupée de la
rue Saint-Honoré: "C'est de Paris que les profondes inventions en
modes donnent des loix à l'univers. La fameuse poupée, le mannequin
precieux, affublé des modes les plus nouvelles ... passe de Paris à
Londres tous les mois, et va de là répandre ses graces dans toute
l'Europe. Il va au Nord et du Midi, il pénètre à Constantinople et à
Petersbourg, et le pli qu'a donné une main françoise se répète chez
toute les nations, humbles observatrices du goût de la rue
Saint-Honoré."
[501] The practice was much more ancient. M. Ladomie asserts that in the
Royal expenses for 1391, figure so many livres for a doll sent to
the Queen of England; in 1496 another, sent to the Queen of Spain;
and in 1571 a third, to the Duchess of Bavaria.
Henry IV. writes in 1600, before his marriage to Marie de Médicis:
"Frontenac tells me that you desire patterns of our fashion in
dress. I send you, therefore, some model dolls."--Miss Freer's
_Henry IV._
It was also the custom of Venice, at the annual fair held in the
Piazza of St. Mark, on the day of the Ascension (a fair which dates
from 1180), to expose in the most conspicuous place of the fair a
rag doll, which served as a model for the fashions for the
year.--Michiel, _Origine delle Feste Veneziani._
[502] _Tableau de Paris._ 1782.
[503] "The French nation are eminent for making a fine outside, when
perhaps they want necessaries, and indeed a gay shop and a mean
stock is like the Frenchman with his laced ruffles without a
shirt."--_The Complete English Tradesman._ Dan. Defoe. Lond., 1726.
Foote, in his Prologue to the _Trip to Paris_, says, "They sold me
some ruffles, and I found the shirts."
[504] _Souvenirs de la Marquise de Créquy._ 1710-1802.
[505] Clement X. was in the habit of making presents of Italian lace, at
that time much prized in France, to M. de Sabière. "He sends
ruffles," said the irritated Frenchman who looked for something more
tangible, "to a man who never has a shirt."
[506] "M. de Vendôme, at his marriage, was quite astonished at putting on
his clean shirt a-day, and fearfully embarrassed at having some
point lace on the one given him to put on at night. Indeed,"
continues she, "you would hardly recognise the taste of the French.
The men are worse than the women. They wish their wives to take
snuff, play, and pay no more attention to their dress." The
exquisite cleanliness of Anne of Austria's court was at an end.
[507] In the old Scotch song of Gilderoy, the famous highwayman, we have
an instance:--
"For Gilderoy, that luve of mine,
Gude faith, I freely bought
A wedding sark of Holland fine,
Wi' silken flowers wrought."
And in an account quoted in the _Reliquary_, July, 1865, is the
charge on Feb. 16, of "six shillings for a cravat for hur
Vallentine."
[508] _Inv. après le decès de Mgr. C. de Saint-Albin, Archevesque de
Cambray._ (Son of the Regent.) 1764. Arch. Nat. M. M. 718.
Louis XVI. had 59 pairs the year before his death: 28 of point, 21
of Valenciennes, and 10 of Angleterre.--_Etat des Effets subsistant
et formant le fond de la garderobe du Roi au 1^{er} Janvier, 1792._
Arch. Nat. K. 506, No. 30.
[509] _Etat d'un Trousseau._ Description des Arts et Métiers. Paris, 1777.
[510] "Deux aunes trois quarts d'Angleterre à bride pour deux paires de
manchettes tournantes, à 45 livres l'aune."--_Garderobe de S. A. S.
Mgr. le Duc de Penthièvre._ 1738. Arch. Nat. K. K. 390.
[511] _Ibid._ The laces for ruffles were of various kinds: point brodé,
point à bride, point à raiseau, point à bride à écaille, point
superfin, point brillant, Angleterre à bride à raiseau, and one pair
of point d'Argentan; Valenciennes pour manchettes de nuit à 42
livres l'aune.
The Duke's wardrobe accounts afford a good specimen of the
extravagance in the decoration of night attire at this period:--
4 au. de point pour collet
et manchettes de la
chemise de nuit et garnir
la coëffe, à 130 ll. 520 ll.
3 au. ¾ dito pour jabot et
fourchettes de nuit et
garnir le devant de la
camisole, à 66 ll. 247 ll. 10s.
Sept douze de point pour
plaquer sur les manches
de camisolle, à
55 ll. 32 ll. 1s.
Then for his nightcaps:--
3 au. Toile fine pour
Coëffes de Nuit 27 ll.
4 au. Dentelles de Malines
pour les tours de
Coëffes, à 20 ll. 80 ll.
5 au. ½ Valenciennes, à
46 ll. 253 ll.
52 au. dito petit point,
pour garnir les Tours,
à 5 ll. 5s. 273 ll.
Pour avoir monté un bonnet
de nuit de point 1 l. 5s.
7 au. de campanne de
point pour chamarrer
la camisolle et le bonnet
de nuit, à 10 ll. 10s. 73 ll. 10s.
The Marquise de Créquy speaks of a night-cap, "à grandes dentelles,"
offered, with la robe de chambre, to the Dauphin, son of Louis XV.,
by the people of the Duke de Grammont, on his having lost his way
hunting, and wandered to the Duke's château.
[512] "Le Parisien qui n'a pas dix mille livres de rente n'a ordinairement
ni draps, ni lit, ni serviettes, ni chemises; mais il a une montre à
repetition, des glaces, des bas de soie, des dentelles."--_Tableau
de Paris._
[513] _Histoire de Paris._
[514] "Ordinairement un laquais de bon ton prend le nom de son maître,
quand il est avec d'autres laquais, il prend aussi ses moeurs, ses
gestes, ses manières.... Le laquais d'un seigneur porte la montre
d'or ciselée, des dentelles, des boucles à brillants,"
etc.--_Tableau de Paris._
[515] _Amusemens des Eaux de Spa._ Amsterdam, 1751.
"Les manches qu'à table on voit tâter la sauce."--_École des maris._
[516] The state liveries of Queen Victoria were most richly embroidered in
gold. They were made in the early part of George II.'s reign, since
which time they have been in use. In the year 1848, the servants
appeared at the royal balls in gold and ruffles of the richest gros
point de France, of the same epoch as their dresses. In 1849, the
lace no longer appeared--probably suppressed by order. Queen Anne,
who was a great martinet in trifles, had her servants marshalled
before her every day, that she might see if their ruffles were clean
and their periwigs dressed.
[517] _Tableau de Paris._
[518] _Mémoires._
[519] "1723. Un couvrepied de toile blanche, picqure de Marseille, garni
autour d'un point en campane de demie aune de hauteur."--_Inv. d'A.
de Bavière, Princesse de Condé._
"1743. Un couvrepied de toile picquée, brodée or et soye, bordé de
trois côtés d'une grande dentelle d'Angleterre et du quatrième d'un
moyen dentelle d'Angleterre à bords.
"Un autre, garni d'une grande et moyenne dentelle de point
d'Alençon.
"Un autre, garni d'un grand point de demie aune de hauteur, brodé,
garni d'une campane en bas.
"Un autre, 'point à bride,'" and many others.--_Inv. de la Duchesse
de Bourbon._
[520] "1704. Deux taies d'oreiller garnies de dentelle, l'une à raiseau,
et l'autre à bride."--_Inv. de F. P. Loisel._ Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr.
11,459.
"1723. Quatre taies d'oreiller, dont trois garnies de differentes
dentelles, et l'autre de Point."--_Inv. d'Anne de Bavière, Princesse
de Condé._
"1755. Deux taies d'oreiller garnies de point d'Alençon."--_Inv. de
Mademoiselle de Charollais._
"1761. Trois taies d'oreiller de dentelle de point à brides."--_Inv.
de la Duchesse de Modène._
"1770. 7 au. 1/8 vraie Valenciennes pour garnir une taie d'oreiller,
à 60 ll. 427 10."--_Comptes de Madame du Barry._
"1707. 7 au. tournante d'Angleterre pour garnir des plottes
(pincushions) à 50 350 00."--_Comptes de Madame du Barry._
"1788. 12 Pelottes garnies de dentelle."--_Ibid._
"6 trousses à peigne garnies de dentelle."--_Fourni pour Mgr. le
Dauphin._ Arch. Nat.
"1792. 6 Pelottes garnies de dentelle."--_Linge du çi-devant Roi.
Ibid._
[521] Souvenirs.
[522] _Mémoires du Due de Luynes._
[523] 1786. _Courts of Europe._
[524] It may be amusing to the reader to learn the laces necessary for
l'État d'un Trousseau, in 1777, as given in the _Description des
Arts de Métiers_: "Une toilette de ville en dentelle; 2 jupons
garnis du même. Une coiffure avec tour de gorge, et le fichu plissé
de point d'Alençon. Un idem de point d'Angleterre. 1 id. de vraie
Valenciennes. Une coiffure dite 'Battant d'oeil' de Malines brodée,
pour le negligé. 6 fichus simples en mousseline à mille fleurs
garnis de dentelle pour le negligé. 12 grands bonnets garnis d'une
petite dentelle pour la nuit. 12 à deux rangs, plus beaux, pour le
jour, en cas d'indisposition. 12 serres-tête garnis d'une petite
dentelle pour la nuit. 2 taies d'oreiller garnies en dentelle. 12
pièces d'estomach garnies d'une petite dentelle. 6 garnitures de
corset. 12 tours de gorge. 12 paires ce manchettes en dentelle. Une
toilette; les volants, au nombre de deux, sont en dentelle; ils ont
5 aunes de tour. Dessus de pelotte, en toile garnie de dentelle,
etc. La Layette: 6 paires de manches pour la mère, garnies de
dentelle. 24 bonnets ronds de 3 ages en dentelle. 12 bavoirs de deux
ages, garnis en dentelle." The layette was furnished together with
the trousseau, because, says a fabricant, "les enfans se font plus
vite que les points."
[525] "1787. Pour achat de 11 au. blonde noire, à 6 10 71 livres 10
sous."--_Comptes de Monsieur Hergosse._
Bib. Nat. MSS., F. Fr. 11,447.
[526] When the Empress Joséphine was at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, a masked
ball was given on the occasion. The ladies, says Mademoiselle
Avrillion, wore short dominoes with their faces covered with a mask,
"le tour des yeux garni d'une petite dentelle noire."--_Mém. de
Mademoiselle Avrillion, première femme de chambre de l'Impératrice._
Paris, 1833.
[527] A few extracts from Madame du Barry's lace accounts will furnish an
idea of her consumption of point d'Angleterre:--
Une toilette d'Angleterre
complette de 8823 livres.
Une parure composée de
deux barbes, rayon et
fond, 6 rangs de manchettes,
1 ½ au. de
ruban fait exprès, 1/3
jabot pour le devant
de tour. Le tout d'Angleterre
superfin de 7000 ----
Un ajustemente d'Angleterre
complet de 3216 ----
Une garniture de peignoir
d'Angleterre de 2342 livres.
Une garniture de fichu
d'Angleterre 388 ----
8 au. d'Angleterre
pour tayes d'oreiller 240
9 ½ au. dito pour
la tête 76
14 au. pied dito pour
la tête 140
---- 456 livres.
[528] "Les dentelles les plus précieuses pour chaque saison."--(Duchesse
d'Abrantès.)
[529] _Mémoires._
[530] _Mém. de la Princesse Palatine, veuve de Monsieur._
[531] "Cuisinières et Tourières." The joke formed the subject of some
clever verses from the Chevalier de Boufflers.
[532] _Marli_, which takes its name from the village between Versailles
and St. Germain, is tulle dotted with small square spots. See page
225.
[533] The _barbe_, or lappet, of whatever form it be, has always, in all
ages and all countries, been a subject of etiquette. At the
interment of Queen Mary Tudor, December 14th, 1558, it is told how
the ladies in the first and second chariots were clad in mourning
apparel, according to their estates, "their barbes above their
chynes." "The 4 ladies on horseback in like manner had their barbes
on their chynes." In the third chariot, "the ladies had their barbes
under their chynes."--State Papers, Domestic, Eliz., vol. 32.
See also the curious extract from Madame de Campan's _Mémoires_:--
"Madame de Noailles était remplie de vertus; mais l'etiquette était
pour elle une sorte d'atmosphère. Un jour je mis, sans le vouloir,
cette pauvre dame dans une angoisse terrible; la reine recevait je
ne sais plus qui. Tout était bien, au moins je le croyais. Je vois
tout-à-coup les yeux de Madame de Noailles attachés sur les miens,
et puis ses deux sourcils se levent jusqu'au haut de son front,
redescendent, remontent. L'agitation de la Comtesse croissait
toujours. La reine s'aperçut de tout ceci ... et me dit alors à
mi-voix: 'Detachez vos barbes, où la comtesse en mourra.'
L'etiquette du costume disait: 'Barbes pendentes.'"
[534] Only in her last lace bill, 1773:
"Une paire de barbes plattes longues de ¾ en blonde fine à fleurs
fond d'Alençon, 36.
"Une blonde grande hauteur à bouquets détachés et à bordure riche.
"6 au. de blonde de grande hauteur façon d'Alençon à coquilles à
mille poix, à 18.
"Une paire de sabots de comtesse de deux rangs de tulle blonde à
festons, fond d'Alençon."--_Comptes de la Comtesse du Barry._ Bib.
Nat. F. Fr. 8157.
Madame du Barry went to the greatest extravagance in lace
ajustements, barbes, collerettes, volants, quilles, coëffes, etc.,
of Argentan, Angleterre, and point à l'aiguille.
[535] The great fashion. The shoes were embroidered in diamonds, which
were scarcely worn on other parts of the dress. The back seam,
trimmed with emeralds, was called "venez-y-voir."
[536] _Souvenirs du Marquis de Valfons_, 1710-1786. A "chat," tippet or
Palatine, so named after the mother of the Regent.
[537] In the National Archives, formerly preserved with the _Livre Rouge_
in the Armorie de Fer, is the _Gazette pour l'année_, 1782, of Marie
Antoinette, consisting of a list of the dresses furnished for the
Queen during the year, drawn up by the Comtesse d'Ossune, her dame
des atours. We find--grands habits, robes sur le grand panier, robes
sur le petit panier, with a pattern of the material affixed to each
entry, and the name of the couturière who made the dress. One
"Lévite" alone appears trimmed with blonde. There is also the
_Gazette_ of Madame Elizabeth, for 1792.
[538] _Mémoires sur la Cour de Louis XVI._
[539] Among these were Sedan, Charleville, Mézières, Dieppe, Havre,
Pont-l'Évêque, Honfleur, Eu, and more than ten neighbouring
villages. The points of Aurillac, Bourgogne, and Murat disappeared;
and worst of all was the loss of the manufacture of Valenciennes.
Laces were also made in Champagne, at Troyes and Domchéry, etc.
[540] 1649. Anne Gohory leaves all her personals to Madame de Sévigné
except her "plus beau mouchoir, le col de point fin de Flandres, et
une juppe de satin à fleurs fond vert, garnye de point fin d'or et
de soie."
1764. Geneviève Laval bequeaths to her sister "une garniture de
dentelle de raiseau à grandes dents, valant au moins quinze livres
l'aune."--Arch. de Nat. Y. 58.
1764. Anne Challus leaves her "belle garniture de dentelle en plein,
manchettes, tour de gorge, palatine et fond."--_Ibid_.
1764. Madame de Pompadour, in her will, says, "Je donne à mes deux
femmes de chambre tout ce qui concerne ma garderobe ... y compris
les dentelles."
[541] _Mém. de Mademoiselle d'Avrillion_.
[542] _Mémoires sur la Restauration_, par Madame la Duchesse d'Abrantès.
[543] _Ibid._ T. v., p. 48.
[544] After the Peace of Amiens, 1801.
[545] _Mémoires de Madame la Duchesse d'Abrantès._
[546] The revival first appeared in the towns which made the cheaper
laces: Caen, Bayeux, Mirecourt, Le Puy, Arras, etc.
[547] "Fil de mulquinerie."
[548] The name _point Colbert_, adopted in memory of the great Minister,
is applied to point laces in high relief.
"La brode a toujours existé dans le point d'Alençon, aussi que dans
le point de Venise, seulement dans le point d'Alençon les reliefs
étaient moins énlevés. On ne mettait pas seulement un fil, mais
trois, cinq, huit ou dix fils, suivant l'épaisseur du relief que
l'on voulait obtenir puis, sur ce bourrage, se faisaient des points
bouclés très serrés de façon que la boucle fut presque sous les fils
formant le relief. C'est ce point que certains fabricants nomment
point Colbert."--Madame Despierres, _Histoire du Point
d'Alençon_.--Page 228, _post_.
[549] In 1673, July, we read in the _Mercure_:--"On fait aussi des
dentelles à grandes brides, comme aux points de fil sans raiseau, et
des dentelles d'Espagne avec des brides claires sans picots; et l'on
fait aux nouveaux points de France des brides qui en sont remplies
d'un nombre infini."
[550] _Mémoire concernant le Généralité d'Alençon_, dressé par M. de
Pommereu. 1698. Bib. Nat. MSS. Fonds Mortemart, No. 89.
[551] Vilain, velin, vellum, from the parchment or vellum upon which it is
made.
"La manufacture des points de France, appelés dans le pays
velin."--Savary, Vol. I., p. 108.
"The expression is still used. When the author inquired at Alençon
the way to the house of Mr. R., a lace manufacturer, she was asked
in return if it was 'Celui qui fait le velin?'"--Mrs. Palliser.
[552] In 1788 Arthur Young states the number of lace-makers at and about
Alençon to be from 8,000 to 9,000."--_Travels in France._
Madame Despierres, however, states that only 500 or 600 lace-workers
left Alençon on the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, _as there
were not 4,000 lace-workers then in the town_.
[553] He deducts 150,000 livres for the raw material, the Lille thread,
which was used at prices ranging from 60 to 1,600 livres per pound;
from 800 to 900 livres for good fine point; but Lille at that time
fabricated thread as high as 1,800 livres per pound.
[554] In 1705 there were ten processes:--(1) Le dessin; (2) le picage; (3)
la trace; (4) les fonds; (5) la dentelure ou bride à picots; (6) la
brode; (7) l'enlevage; (8) l'éboulage; (9) le régalage; (10)
l'assemblage.
Mrs. Palliser gives eighteen processes, and states that this number
is now reduced to twelve. The workwomen were:--(1) The piqueuse; (2)
traceuse; (3) réseleuse; (4) remplisseuse; (5) fondeuse; (6)
modeuse; (7) brodeuse; (8) ébouleuse; (9) régaleuse; (10)
assembleuse; (11) toucheuse; (12) brideuse; (13) boucleuse; (14)
gazeuse; (15) mignonneuse; (16) picoteuse; (17) affineuse; (18)
affiquese.
[555] "The origin of this name Argentella is obscure, but it was presumed
to imply that the lace was worked in Genoa or Venice. There is,
however, no evidence of this type of lace being made there. Another
theory is that Argentella is an Italianised title for the more
delicate examples of point d'Argentan. The character of the lace and
the style of the floral patterns worked upon mesh grounds are those
of Alençon laces." In Specimen 1,373-74 in the Victoria and Albert
Museum collection the cordonnet is done in buttonhole stitches
closely cast over a thread which outlines various forms in the
design--a distinctive mark of point d'Alençon. And the hexagonal
wheel device in this example is often to be seen introduced into
flounces of point d'Alençon, of which other portions are composed of
the ordinary Alençon ground or réseau.--A. S. Cole. Fig. 88 and
Plate LVII.
[556] _Dictionnaire du Citoyen_, Paris, 1761.
[557] Madame Despierres writes on this head that entries of point
d'Alençon occur as early as 1663:--
"1663, 9 juin--contrat entre Georges Rouillon, Greffier, et Marie
Leroy....
"1900 liv. gagnées par son industrie à faire des ouvrages de point
d'Alençon."
[558] _Inv. de Madame Anne Palatine, Princesse de Condé_. See chap. x.
note 468.
[559] In the Inventory of the Duc de Penthièvre, 1738. See chap. xi.
[560] "Une coiffure de point d'Alençon à raiseau."--_Inv. de decès de
Mademoiselle de Clermont_, 1741. Again, 1743, _Inv. de la Duchesse
de Bourbon_. Bib. Nat.
[561] Among the objects of religious art exhibited in 1864 at the General
Assembly of the Catholics of Belgium at Malines was a "voile de
bénédiction," the handkerchief used to cover the ciborium, of point
d'Alençon, with figures of the Virgin, St. Catherine, St. Ursula,
and St. Barbara. It belonged to the Church of St. Christopher at
Charleroi.
[562] Séez has now no records of its manufacture.
[563] _Descr. du Dép. de l'Orne_. An IX. Publiée par ordre du ministre de
l'intérieur.
[564] _Illustrated News_, March 22, 1856.
[565] It only requires to compare Figs. 74, 75, 76, and 80, with Figs. 82
and 83 to see the marked difference in the character of the lace.
[566] "Sous Louis XIV. il y avaient de magnifiques rinceaux, guirlandes,
et cornes d'abondance d'où s'échappent de superbes fleurs. Sous
Louis XV. les fabricants changèrent encore leurs dessins pour
prendre les fleurs qui s'épanouent et s'ensoulent capricieusement
les unes aux autres.
"Le style de Louis XVI. n'a rien de l'ampleur ni de l'élégance des
styles précédents. Les formes sont arrondies; des guirlandes et des
fleurettes sont la base des dessins de cette époque.
"Sous la république et le premier empire, les dessins deviennent
raides" (Madame Despierres.)
[567] This effect is produced by varying the application of the two
stitches used in making the flowers, the _toilé_, which forms the
close tissue, and the _grillé_, the more open part of the pattern.
The system has been adopted in France, Belgium, and England, but
with most success in France.
"Li boen citean de Roem,
E la Jovante de Caem,
E de Falaise e d'Argentoen."
--_Roman de Rou._
[569] Henry founded a chapel at Argentan to St. Thomas of Canterbury.
[570] "The average size of a diagonal, taken from angle to angle, in an
Alençon or so-called Argentan hexagon was about 1/6 of an inch, and
each side of the hexagon was about 1/10 of an inch. An idea of the
minuteness of the work can be formed from the fact that a side of a
hexagon would be overcast with some nine or ten buttonhole stitches"
(A. S. Cole). "So little is the beautiful workmanship of this ground
known or understood, that the author has seen priceless flowers of
Argentan relentlessly cut out and transferred to bobbin net, 'to get
rid of the ugly, old, coarse ground'" (Mrs. Palliser, 1869).
[571] "Les trois sortes de brides comme champ sont exécutées dans ces deux
fabriques, et les points ont été et sont encore faits par les mêmes
procédés de fabrication, et avec les mêmes matières textiles,"
writes Madame Despierres. Mrs. Palliser, on the other hand, was of
opinion that the two manufactures were distinct, "though some
lace-makers near Lignères-la-Doucelle worked for both
establishments. Alençon made the finest réseau; Argentan specially
excelled in the bride. The flowers of Argentan were bolder and
larger in pattern, in higher relief, heavier and coarser than those
of Alençon. The toilé was flatter and more compact. The workmanship
differed in character. On the clear bride ground this lace was more
effective than the minuter workmanship of Alençon; it more resembled
the Venetian. Indeed, so close is its resemblance that many of the
fine garnitures de robe, aprons, and tunics that have survived the
revolutionary storm would be assigned to Venice, did not their
pedigree prove them to be of the Argentan fabric" (Mrs. Palliser,
1869).
[572] Letter of September 19th, 1744.
[573] "Burgoigne, the first part of the dress for the head next the
hair."--_Mundus Muliebris._ 1609. "Burgoigin, the part of the
head-dress that covers up the head."--_Ladies' Dictionary._ 1694. In
Farquhar's comedy of "Sir Harry Wildair," 1700, Parley, when asked
what he had been about, answers, "Sir, I was coming to Mademoiselle
Furbelow, the French milliner, for a new Burgundy for my lady's
head."
[574] The offenders, manufacturers and workwomen, incurred considerable
fines.
[575] Nov. 12th, 1745.
[576] In 1765, under the name of Duponchel.
[577] 1772. Un ajustement de point d'Argentan--
Les 6 rangs manchettes.
1/3 pour devant de gorge.
4 au. 1/3 festonné des
deux costés, le fichu et
une garniture de fichu
de nuit 2,500 livres.
1 au ¾ ruban de point
d'Argentan, à 100 175 ----
Une collerette de point
d'Argentan 360 ----
--(_Comptes de Madame du Barry._)
1781. "Une nappe d'autel garnie d'une tres belle dentelle de point
d'Argentan."--_Inv. de l'Eglise de St. Gervais._ Arch. Nat. L. 654.
1789. "Item, un parement de robe consistant en garniture, deux
paires de manchettes, et fichu, le tout de point d'Argentan." (Dans
la garderobe de Madame.)--_Inv. de decès de Mgr. de Duc de Duras._
Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 11,440.
[578] "Une coiffure bride à picot complete."--_Inv. de decès de
Mademoiselle de Clermont_, 1741.
[579] These details on the manufacture of Argentan have been furnished
from the archives of Alençon through the kindness of M. Léon de la
Sicotière, the learned archæologist of the Department of the Orne
(Mrs. Palliser, 1869).
[580] Embroidery has replaced this industry among the workers of the town
and the hand-spinning of hemp among those of the country.
[581] _Légende du point d'Argentan_, M. Eugène de Lonlay.
[582] _Nouveau Réglement Général sur toutes sortes de Marchandises et
Manufactures qui sont utiles et necessaires dans ce Royaume_, etc.,
par M. le Marquis de la Gomberdière. Paris, 1634. In 8vo.
[583] M. Fournier says that France was at this time tributary to Flanders
for "passemens de fil," very fine and delicately worked. Laffemas,
in his _Réglement Général pour dresser les Manufactures du Royaume_,
1597, estimates the annual cost of these "passemens" of every sort,
silk stockings, etc., at 800,000 crowns. Montchrestien, at above a
million.
[584] This was established by Colbert, and there they made, as well as at
Aurillac, the finest pillow lace in the style of point d'Angleterre.
This manufacture was encouraged by the King and the Court, and its
productions were among the choicest of the points de France.
[585] Youngest son of the Comte d'Harcourt.
[586] Vie de J.-Bap. Colbert. (Printed in the _Archives Curieuses_.)
[587] "Livre commode ou les Adienes de la Ville de Paris" for 1692.
[588] For the introduction of the gold point of Spain into France, see
SPAIN. The manufacture of gold lace in Paris was, however, prior to
Colbert.
"1732, un bord de point d'Espagne d'or de Paris, à fonds de
réseau."--_Garderobe de S. A. S. Mgr. le Duc de Penthièvre._ Arch.
Nat. K. K. 390-1.
[589] In _Statistique de la France_, 1800, the finest silk lace is said to
be made at Fontenay, Puisieux, Morges, and Louvres-en-Parisis. The
coarse and common kinds at Montmorency, Villiers-le-Bel, Sarcelles,
Écouen, Saint-Brice, Groslay, Gisors, Saint-Pierre-les-Champs,
Etrepagny, etc. Peuchet adds: "Il s'y fait dans Paris et ses
environs une grande quantité de dentelles noires dont il se fait des
expéditions considérables." It was this same black silk lace which
raised to so high a reputation the fabrics of Chantilly.
[590] _Inv. de decés de la Duchesse de Modène._ 1761.
[591] _Inv. de decés du Duc de Duras._ 1789.
[592] "Une fraise à deux rangs de blonde tres fine, grande hauteur, 120 l.
"Une paire de sabots de la même blonde, 84 l.
"Un fichu en colonette la fraise garnie à deux rangs d'une tres
belle blonde fond d'Alençon, 120 l.
"Un pouff bordé d'un plissé de blonde tournante fond d'Alençon, à
bouquets tres fins et des bouillons de même blonde." This wonderful
coiffure being finished with "Un beau panache de quatre plumes
couleurs impériales, 108 l."
[593] See preceding note.
[594] "The bourgoin is formed of white, stiffly-starched muslin, covering
a paste-board shape, and rises to a great height above the head,
frequently diminishing in size towards the top, where it finishes in
a circular form. Two long lappets hang from either side towards the
back, composed often of the finest lace. The bourgoins throughout
Normandy are not alike."--_Mrs. Stothard's Tour in Normandy._
[595] This must have included Honfleur and other surrounding localities.
By a paper on the lace trade (_Mém. concernant le Commerce des
Dentelles_, 1704. Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 14,294), we find that the
making of "dentelles de bas prix," employed at Rouen, Dieppe, Le
Havre, and throughout the Pays de Caux, the Bailliage of Caen, at
Lyons, Le Puy, and other parts of France, one quarter of the
population of all classes and ages from six to seventy years. These
laces were all made of Haarlem thread. See HOLLAND.
"The lace-makers of Havre," writes Peuchet, "work both in black and
white points, from 5 sous to 30 francs the ell. They are all
employed by a certain number of dealers, who purchase the produce of
their pillows. Much is transported to foreign countries, even to the
East Indies, the Southern Seas, and the islands of America."
[596] _Dictionnaire Géographique._ T. Corneille. 1707.
[597] _Gravures de Modes._ Arch. Nat. M., 815-23.
[598] "1683. Deux housses de toille piquée avec dentelle du Havre deux
camisolles de pareille toille et de dentelle du Havre."--_Inv. fait
après le decedz de Monseigneur Colbert._ Bib. Nat. MSS. Suite de
Mortemart, 34.
[599] "1651. Un tour d'autel de dentelle du Havre."--_Inv. des meubles de
la Sacristie de l'Oratoire de Jesus, à Paris._ Bib. Nat. MSS. F. F.
8621.
"1681. Une chemisette de toile de Marseille picquée garnye de
dentelle du Havre."--_Inv. d'Anne d'Escoubleau de Sourdis, veuve de
François de Simiane._ Arch. Nat. M. M. 802.
[600] "Les ouvriers n'étant apparemment rappelés par aucune possession
dans cette ville, lorsqu'elle fut rétablie, ils s'y sont établis et
ont transmis leur travail à la postérité."--Peuchet.
[601] Point de Dieppe appears among the already-quoted lace boxes of 1688.
[602] _Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire de la Ville de Dieppe_, composés
en l'année 1761, par Michel-Claude Gurbert. P. 99.
[603] _Mémoires Chronologiques pour servir à l'Histoire de Dieppe_, par M.
Desmarquets. 1785.
[604] _Notices sur Dieppe, Arques_, etc., par P. J. Feret. 1824.
[605] Peuchet, of Dieppe, says: "On ne fait pas la dentelle en roulant les
fuseaux sur le coussin, mais en l'y jetant."
[606] _Almanach de Dieppe pour 1847._
The Author has to express her thanks to Soeur Hubert, of the École
d'Apprentissage de Dentelle, and M. A. Morin, Librarian at Dieppe,
for their communications.
[607] Arch. Nat. X. 10,086.
[608] "The silk came from Nankin by way of London or the East, the black
silk called 'grenadine' was dyed and prepared at Lyons, the thread
was from Haarlem."--Roland de la Platière.
[609] Page 213.
[610] Letter from Edgar McCulloch, Esq., Guernsey.
[611] Blondes appear also to have been made at Le Mans:--
"Cette manufacture qui etoit autrefois entretenue à l'hôpital du
Mans, lui rapportoit un benefice de 4,000 à 5,000 fr. Elle est bien
tombée par la dispersion des anciennes soeurs
hospitalières."--_Stat. du Dép. de la Sarthe_, par le Citoyen L.-M.
Auvray. An X.
[612] The handkerchief of "Paris net" mentioned by Goldsmith.
[613] In the Dép. du Nord, by Jean-Ph. Briatte. "Its fall was owing to the
bad faith of imitators, who substituted a single thread of bad
quality for the double twisted thread of the country."--Dieudonné,
_Statistique de Dép. du Nord_.
In the _Mercure Galant_ for June, 1687, we find the ladies wear
cornettes à la jardinière "de Marly."
[614] _L'Industrie Française depuis la Révolution de Février et
l'Exposition de 1848_, par M. A. Audiganne.
M. Aubry thus divides the lace-makers of Normandy:--
Department of Calvados--
Arrondissement of Caen 25,000
Arr. of Bayeux 15,000
Arr. of Pont-l'Evêque, Falaise,* and Lisieux 10,000
Departments of La Manche and Seine-Inférieure 10,000
------
60,000
The women earn from 50 sous to 25 sous a day, an improvement on the
wages of the last century, which, in the time of Arthur Young,
seldom amounted to 24 sous.
Their products are estimated at from 8 to 10 millions of francs
(£320,000 to £400,000).
* "Falaise, dentelles façon de Dieppe."--Peuchet.
[615] He had run away with the rich heiress of Coadelan.
[616] _Chants populaires de la Bretagne_, par Th. Hersart de la
Villemarqué.
[617] The bringing home of the wedding dress is an event of solemn
importance. The family alone are admitted to see it, and each of
them sprinkles the orange blossoms with which it is trimmed with
holy water placed at the foot of the bed whereon the dress is laid,
and offers up a prayer for the future welfare of the wearer.
[618] French Hainault, French Flanders and Cambrésis (the present Dép. du
Nord), with Artois, were conquests of Louis XIII. and Louis XIV.,
confirmed to France by the treaties of Aix-la-Chapelle (1668) and
Nimeguen (1678).
[619] Photographed in the _Album d'Archéologie Religieuse_. It is supposed
to have been made towards the end of the seventeenth century.
[620] Founded 1630.
[621] "1772. 15 aunes 3-16^{mes} jabot haut de vraie Valencienne, 3,706
livres 17 sous"; and many other similar entries.
[622] "5/8 Bâtarde dito à bordure, à 60 ll., 37 ll. 10 s."--_Comptes de
Madame du Barry._
[623] _Statistique du Dép. du Nord_, par M. Dieudonné, Préfet en 1804.
[624] "Among the various fabrics having the same process of manufacture,
there is not one which produces exactly the same style of lace. The
same pattern, with the same material, whether executed in Belgium,
Saxony, Lille, Arras, Mirecourt, or Le Puy, will always bear the
stamp of the place where it is made. It has never been possible to
transfer any kind of manufacture from one city to another without
there being a marked difference between the productions."--Aubry.
"After the French Revolution, when so many lace-makers fled to
Belgium, Alost, Ypres, Bruges, Ghent, Menin, and Courtrai became the
centres of this industry, and the lace produced in each town has a
distinctive feature in the ground. That made in Ghent is
square-meshed, the bobbins being twisted two and a half times. At
Ypres, which makes a better quality of Valenciennes, the ground is
also square-meshed, but the bobbins are twisted four times. In
Courtrai and Menin the grounds are twisted three and a half times,
and in Bruges, where the ground has a circular mesh, the bobbins are
twisted three times."
[625] In the already quoted _Etat d'un Trousseau_, 1771, among the
necessary articles are enumerated: "Une coëffure, tour de gorge et
le fichu plissé de vraie Valencienne." The trimming of one of Madame
du Barry's pillowcases cost 487 fr.; her lappets, 1,030. The ruffles
of the Duchesse de Modène and Mademoiselle de Charollais are valued
at 200 livres the pair. Du Barry, more extravagant, gives 770 for
hers.
[626] "2 barbes et rayon de vraie valencienne; 3 au. ¾ collet grande
hauteur; 4 au. grand jabot; le tout de la même main, de 2,400
livres."--_Comptes de Madame du Barry._ 1770.
[627] Arthur Young, in 1788, says of Valenciennes: "Laces of 30 to 40
lines' breadth for gentlemen's ruffles is from 160 to 216 livres (£9
9s.) an ell. The quantity for a lady's headdress from 1,000 to
24,000 livres. The women gain from 20 to 30 sous a day. 3,600
persons are employed at Valenciennes, and are an object of 450,000
livres, of which the flax is not more than 1/30. The thread costs
from 24 to 700 livres the pound."
[628] The "barbes pleines" consisted of a pair of lappets from 3 to 5
inches wide each, and half an ell (20 inches) long, with a double
pattern of sprigged flowers and rounded at the ends. A narrow lace 1
½ ell long, called the _Papillon_, with the bande or passe, and the
fond de bonnet, completed the suit.
[629] The fault of the old Valenciennes lace is its colour, never of a
clear white, but inclining to a reddish cast.
[630] "Les dentelières avaient adopté un par-dessus de calamande rayée, un
bonniquet de toile fine plissé à petits canons. Une médaille
d'argent, pendue au cou par un petit liseré noir, complétait leur
costume, qui est arrivé jusqu'à nous; car nous l'avons vu, il n'y a
pas trente ans."--_Hist. de Lille_, par V. Derode. Paris et Lille,
1848.
[631] _Mémoires sur l'Intendance de Flandre._--MS. Bib. de Lille.
[632] Period of the peace of Utrecht when Lille, which had been retaken by
Prince Eugène, was again restored to France.
[633] _Histoire Populaire de Lille._ Henri Brunet. Lille, 1848; and
_Histoire de Lille._ V. Derode.
[634] _Report of the Commissioners for 1851._
[635] As late as 1761 Lille was considered as "foreign" with respect to
France, and her laces made to pay duty according to the tariff of
1664.
In 1708 (31st of July) we have an Arrest du Conseil d'Estat du Roy,
relative to the seizure of seventeen cartons of lace belonging to
one "Mathieu, marchand à l'Isle." Mathieu, in defence, pretends that
"les dentelles avoient esté fabriquées à Haluin (near Lille), terre
de la domination de Sa Majesté."--Arch. Nat. Coll. Rondonneau.
[636] See FLANDERS (WEST), _treille_.
[637] In 1789, thread was 192 francs the kilogramme.
[638] Describing her trousseau, every article of which was trimmed with
Angleterre, Malines, or Valenciennes, she adds: "A cette époque
(1800), on ignorait même l'existence du tulle, les seules dentelles
communes que l'on connût étaient les dentelles de Lille et d'Arras,
qui n'étaient portées que par les femmes les plus
ordinaires."--_Mém. de Madame la Duchesse d'Abrantès._ T. iii.
Certainly the laces of Lille and Arras never appear in the
inventories of the "grandes dames" of the last century.
[639] Dieudonné.
[640] Peuchet states much "fausse Valenciennes, très rapprochée de la
vraie," to have been fabricated in the hospital at Lille, in which
institution there were, in 1723, 700 lace-workers.
[641] A piece of Lille lace contains from 10 to 12 ells.
[642] "L'Abbaye du Vivier, etablie dans la ville d'Arras," Poëme par le
Père Dom Martin du Buisson, in _Mémoires et Pièces pour servir a
l'Histoire de la Ville d'Arras_.--Bib. Nat. MSS., Fonds François,
8,936.
[643] Bib. Nat. MSS., Fonds François, 8,936.
[644] We find in the Colbert Correspondence (1669), the directors of the
General hospital at Arras had enticed lace-workers of point de
France, with a view to establish the manufacture in their hospital,
but the jealousy of the other cities threatening to overthrow their
commerce, they wrote to Colbert for protection.
[645] Gt. Ward. Acc. Geo. I. 1714-15 (P. R. O.), and Acc. of John, Duke of
Montagu, master of the Great Wardrobe, touching the expenses of the
funeral of Queen Anne and the coronation of George I. (P.R.O.)
In 1761 an Act was passed against its being counterfeited, and a
vendor of "Orrice lace" (counterfeit, we suppose) forfeits her
goods.
[646] _Statistique des Gens de Lettres._ 1808. Herbin. T. ii.
[647] A museum of lace has been established at Bailleul.
[648] In 1788, Bailleul, Cassel, and the district of Hazebrouck, had 1351
lace-makers. In 1802 the number had diminished; but it has since
gradually increased. In 1830 there were 2,500. In 1851 there were
already 8,000, dispersed over twenty communes.
[649] Haute-Loire, Cantal, Puy-de-Dôme, and Loire.
[650] 1640.
[651] 1833 and 1848.
[652] By Médecis.
[653] They represent to the king that the laces of the "diocèse du Puy, du
Vélay et de l'Auvergne, dont il se faisait un commerce très
considérable dans les pays étrangers, par les ports de Bordeaux, La
Rochelle et Nantes," ought not to pay the import duties held by the
"cinq grosses fermes."--_Arrest du Conseil d'Estat du Roy_, 6
August, 1707. Arch. Nat. Coll. Rond. They ended by obtaining a duty
of five sous per lb., instead of the 50 livres paid by Flanders and
England, or the ten livres by the laces of Comté, Liège, and
Lorraine.
[654] 1715 and 1716.
[655] See MILAN.
[656] Roland de la Platière.
[657] Three-fourths were consumed in Europe in time of peace:--Sardinia
took 120,000 francs, purchased by the merchants of Turin, once a
year, and then distributed through the country: Florence and Spain,
each 200,000; Guyenne exported by the merchants of Bordeaux 200,000;
500,000 went to the Spanish Indies. The rest was sold in France by
means of colporteurs.--Peuchet.
[658] In Auvergne lace has preserved its ancient names of "passement" and
"pointes," the latter applied especially to needle-made lace. It has
always retained its celebrity for passements or guipures made in
bands. The simplicity of life in the mountains has doubtless been a
factor in the unbroken continuity of the lace-trade.
[659] Le Puy in recent years has named some of its coarse patterns
"guipure de Cluny," after the museum in Paris--a purely fanciful
name.
[660] Savinière d'Alquie.
[661] Savary. Point d'Aurillac is mentioned in the _Révolte des
Passemens_.
[662] _Histoire du point d' Alençon_, Madame Despierres.
[663] "Voile de toile d'argent, garni de grandes dentelles d'or et argent
fin, donné en 1711 pour envelopper le chef de S.
Gaudence."--_Inventaire du Monastère des Bénédictines de St.
Aligre._
[664] In the convents are constantly noted down "point d'Espagne d'or et
argent fin," while in the cathedral of Clermont the chapter
contented itself with "dentelles d'or et argent faux."
[665] "1773. 6 au. de grande entoilage de belle blonde à poix."
[666] "16 au. entoilage à mouches à 11 l., 1761."--_Comptes de Madame du
Barry._
[667] "7 au. de tulle pour hausser les manchettes, à 9 l., 63 l."--1770.
_Cptes. de Madame du Barry._
[668] _Souvenirs de la Marquise de Créquy._
[669] In an old geography we find, "Tulle, Tuille three hundred years
ago."
The word Tule or Tuly occurs in an English inventory of 1315, and
again, in "Sir Gawayn and the Green Knight"; but in both cases the
word seems not to indicate a stuff but rather a locality, probably
Toulouse.--Francisque Michel.
In Skelton's _Garland of Lawrell_, we find, "A skein of tewly silk";
which his commentator, the Rev. A. Dyce, considers to be "dyed of a
red colour."
[670] As early as 1615 there appears to have been a traffic with Italy in
laces, the painter Claude Lorraine being taken to Italy in that year
by his uncle, a carrier and dealer in laces.
[671] Neufchâteau.
[672] The trader who purchases the lace is called "peussemotier."
[673] The Lorraine laces could only enter France by the bureau of
Chaumont, nor could they leave the country without a formal permit
delivered at Monthureux-le-Sec.--Arch. Nat., Coll. Rondonneau.
[674] In a catalogue of the collection of objects of religious art,
exhibited at Mechlin in 1864, we find noticed, "Dentelle pour
rochet, point de Nancy," from the church of St. Charles at Antwerp,
together with various "voiles de bénédiction," laces for rochets and
altar-cloths, of "point de Paris."
[675] The _Tableau Statistique du Dép. des Vosges_, by Citoyen Desgoulles,
An X, says: "Mirecourt is celebrated for its lace fabrics. There are
twenty lace merchants; but the workers are not attached to any
particular house. They buy their own thread, make the lace, and
bring it to the merchants of Mirecourt to purchase. The women follow
this occupation when not engaged in field work; but they only earn
from 25 to 40 centimes a day. Before the Revolution, 7/8 of the
coarse lace was exported to Germany towards Swabia. Of the fine
qualities, France consumed 2/3. The remainder went to the colonies."
[676] So are those of Courseulles (Calvados).
[677] Savary. Sedan was ceded to Louis XIII. in 1642.
[678] "Eidem pro 6 divi[=t] Sedan et Itali[=e] colaris opere scis[=s] et
pro 62 purles opere acuo pro 6 pa[=r] mani[=c] lintea[=r] eisdem,
£116 6s."--Gt. Ward. Acc. Car. I., ix. to xi. P. R. O.
[679] "Eidem pro 6 divi[=t] Pultenarian Sedan de opere scis[=s] colaris et
pro 72 purles divi[=t] opere acuo pro mani[=c] lintea[=r] eisdem,
£106 16s."--Gt. Ward. Acc. Car. I., xi. to xii.
[680] In 1700 there were several lace manufacturers at Charleville, the
principal of whom was named Vigoureux.--_Hist. de Charleville._
Charleville, 1854.
[681] Savary. Ed. 1726.
[682] _Description de la France._ Ed. 1752.
[683] Savary.
[684] John Roberts, of Burgundy, eight years in England, "a knitter of
knotted wool."
Peter de Grue, Burgundian, "knitter of cauls and sleeves."
Callys de Hove, "maker of lace," and Jane his wife, born in
Burgundy.--State Papers, Dom., Eliz. Vol. 84. P.R.O.
[685] M. Joseph Garnier, the learned Archiviste of Dijon, informed Mrs.
Palliser that "les archives de l'hospice Sainte-Anne n'ont conservé
aucune trace de la manufacture de dentelles qui y fut établie. Tout
ce qu'on sait, c'est qu'elle était sous la direction d'un sieur
Helling, et qu'on y fabriquait le point d'Alençon."
[686] _Descr. du Dép. de la Vienne_, par le Citoyen Cochon. An X.
[687] "Ce n'est pas une grande chose que la manufacture de points qui est
établie dans l'hôpital de Bourdeaux."--Savary. Edit. 1726.
[688] Table of the Number of Lace-workers in France in 1851. (From M.
Aubry.)
Manufacture of Chantilly
and Alençon:--
Orne }
Seine-et-Oise }
Eure } 12,500
Seine-et-Marne }
Oise }
Manufacture of Lille, Arras,
and Bailleul:--
Nord }
Pas-de-Calais } 18,000
Manufacture of Normandy,
Caen, and Bayeux:--
Calvados }
Manche } 55,000
Seine-Inférieure }
Manufacture of Lorraine,
Mirecourt:--
Vosges }
Meurthe } 22,000
Manufacture of Auvergne,
Le Puy:--
Cantal }
Haute Loire } 130,000
Loire }
Puy-de-Dôme }
Application-work at Paris}
and Lace-makers } 2,500
-------
Total 240,000
-------
In his _Report on the Universal Exhibition of 1867_, M. Aubry
estimates the number at 200,000--their average wages from 1 to 1½
francs a day of ten hours' labour; some earn as much as 3½ francs.
Almost all work at home, combining the work of the pillow with their
agricultural and household occupations. Lace schools are being
founded throughout the northern lace departments of France, and
prizes and every kind of encouragement given to the pupils by the
Empress, as well as by public authorities and private individuals.
[689] In the Census of 1571, giving the names of all strangers in the city
of London, we find mention but of one Dutchman, Richard Thomas, "a
worker of billament lace."
[690] In 1689 appears an "Arrest du Roi qui ordonne l'exécution d'une
sentence du maître de poste de Rouen, portant confiscation des
dentelles venant d'Amsterdam."--Arch. Nat. Coll. Rondonneau.
[691] 1685.
[692] We have frequent mention of dentelle à la reine previous to its
introduction into Holland.
1619. "Plus une aulne ung tiers de dentelle à la
reyne."--_Trésorerie de Madame, Soeur de Roi._ Arch. Nat. K. K. 234.
1678. "Les dames mettent ordinairement deux cornettes de Point à la
Reyne ou de soie écrue, rarement de Point de France, parce que le
point clair sied mieux au visage."--_Mercure Galant._
1683. "Deux Aubes de toille demie holande garnis de point à la
Reyne."--_Inv. fait apres le decedz de Mgr. Colbert._ Bib. Nat. MSS.
Suite de Mortemart, 34.
[693] C. Weisse. _History of the French Protestant Refugees from the Edict
of Nantes._ Edinburgh, 1854.
[694] Grandson of Simon Châtelain. See Chap. VI.
[695] In the paper already referred to (see NORMANDY) on the lace trade,
in 1704, it is stated the Flemish laces called "dentelles de haut
prix" are made of Lille, Mons and Mechlin thread, sent to bleach at
Haarlem, "as they know not how to bleach them elsewhere." The
"dentelles de bas prix" of Normandy and other parts of France being
made entirely of the cheaper thread of Haarlem itself, an Act, then
just passed, excluding the Haarlem thread, would, if carried out,
annihilate this branch of industry in France.--_Commerce des
Dentelles de Fil._ Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 14,294.
[696] And. Yarranton. 1677.
[697] "Flax is improved by age. The saying was, 'Wool may be kept to dust,
flax to silk.' I have seen flax twenty years old as fine as a
hair."--_Ibid._
[698] _Commerce de la Hollande._ 1768.
[699] _Edinburgh Amusement._
[700] _Six Weeks in the Court and Country of France._ 1691.
[701] Treillis d'Allemagne is early mentioned in the French inventories:--
1543. "Pour une aulne deux tiers trillist d'Allemagne."--_Argenterie
de la Reine_ (_Eléonore d'Autriche_). Arch. Nat. K. K. 104.
1557. "Pour une aulne de treilliz noir d'Allemagne pour garnir la
robbe de damars noir ou il y a de la bizette."--_Comptes de
l'Argentier du Roi_ (_Henry II._). Arch. Nat. K. K. 106.
[702] "At a meeting of the Society of Polite Arts, premiums were given to
a specimen of a new invention imitating Dresden work. It is done
with such success as to imitate all the various stitches of which
Dresden work is composed, with such ingenuity as to surpass the
finest performance with the needle. This specimen, consisting of a
cap and a piece for a long apron, the apron, valued by the
inventress at £2 2s., was declared by the judges worth
£56."--_Annual Register._ 1762.
[703] "Smash go the glasses, aboard pours the wine on circling laces,
Dresden aprons, silvered silks, and rich brocades." And again, "Your
points of Spain, your ruffles of Dresden."--_Fool of Quality._ 1766.
[704] _Caledonian Mercury._ 1760.
[705] Letter from Koestritz. 1863.
[706] In 1713.
[707] Weisse.
[708] Dated Oct. 29, 1685.
[709] Anderson.
[710] Arch. Nat. Coll. Rondonneau.
[711] "Commissions and Privileges granted by Charles I., Landgrave of
Hesse, to the French Protestants, dated Cassel, Dec. 12, 1685."
[712] Peuchet.
[713] Anderson.
[714] _La France Protestante_, par M. M. Haag. Paris 1846-59.
[715] "Item. Dix carrez de tapisserye a poinctz de Hongrye d'or, d'argent
et soye de differends patrons."--1632.
_Inv. après le decès du Maréchal de Marillac._ Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr.
11,424.
[716] Hungary was so styled in the seventeenth century. In a _Relation of
the most famous Kingdoms and Common Weales through the World_,
London, 1608, we find "Hungerland."
[717] "City Madam." Massinger.
[718] _Pictures of German Life in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and
Seventeenth Centuries_, by Gustaf Freytag.
[719] _Merveilleux Amusements des Bains de Bade._ Londres, 1739.
[720] Bishop of Salisbury. "Letters." 1748-9.
[721] _Modelbuch in Kupfen gemacht._ Nürnberg, 1601.
[722] Poppenreuth is about a German mile from Nuremberg.
[723] "Austria."--_Report of the International Exhibition of 1862._
[724] As quoted in Lefébure's _Embroidery and Lace_.
[725] Haag. _La France Protestante._
[726] The Neufchâtel trade extended through the Jura range from the valley
of Lake Joux (Vaud) to Porentruy, near Bâle.
[727] _Statistique de la Suisse._ Picot, de Genève. 1819.
[728] A curious pattern-book has been sent to us, belonging to the
Antiquarian Society of Zurich, through the kindness of its
president, Dr. Ferd. Keller. It contains specimens of a variety of
narrow braids and edgings of a kind of knotted work, but only a few
open-work edgings that could be called lace.
[729] On her marriage, 1515.
[730] "1619. Sept. 11. Paid for a lace, 63 rixd. 11 skillings.
"1620. Oct. 11. Paid to a female lace-worker, 28 rixd.
"Nov. 4. Paid 10 rixd. to a female lace-worker who received her
dismissal.
"Nov. 11. Paid 71 specie dollars to a lace-seller for lace for the
use of the children.
"Paid 33 specie dollars and 18 skill. Lubec money, to the same man
for lace and cambric.
"1625. May 19. Paid 21 rixd. for lace.
"Dec. 20. Paid 25 specie dollars 15 skill. Lubec money, for taffetas
and lace."
[731] 1639.
[732] _Rawert's Report upon the Industry in the Kingdom of Denmark._ 1848.
[733] "The Great Recess."
[734] Two-thirds of a yard.
[735] Dated 1643.
[736] "Tönder lace, fine and middling, made in the districts of Lygum
Kloster, keeps all the peasant girls employed. Thereof is exported
to the German markets and the Baltic, it is supposed, for more than
100,000 rixdollars (£11,110), and the fine thread must be had from
the Netherlands, and sometimes costs 100 rixdollars per
lb."--_Pontoppidan. Economical Balance._ 1759.
[737] "In the Victoria and Albert Museum collection, Denmark is
represented by a few skilful embroideries done on and with fine
linen, muslin and suchlike, which are somewhat similar in appearance
to lace fabrics of Mechlin design."--(A. S. Cole.)
[738] "The lace fabric in North Sleswick in 1840 was divided into two
districts--that of Tönder and Lygum Kloster on the western coasts,
and that of Haderslaben and Apenraade on the east. The quality of
the lace from these last localities is so bad that no Copenhagen
dealers will have it in their shops."--_Report of the Royal
Sleswick-Holstein Government._ 1840.
[739] Mr. Jens Wulff, an eminent lace-dealer, Knight of the Danebrog, who
has made great exertions to revive the lace industry in Denmark.
[740] Tönder lace was celebrated for its durability, the best flax or silk
thread only being used.
[741] "A lace-maker earns from 3½d. to 4½d. per day of sixteen
hours."--_Rawert's Report._ 1848.
[742] The Tönder lace-traders enjoy the privilege of offering their wares
for sale all over Denmark without a license (concession), a
privilege extended to no other industry.
[743] The early perfection of Bridget herself in this employment, if we
may credit the chronicle of the Abbess Margaretha, 1440-46, may be
ascribed to a miraculous origin.
When, at the age of twelve, she was employed at her knitted
lace-work, a fear came over her that she should not finish her work
creditably to herself, and in her anxiety she raised her heart
above. As her aunt came into the chamber she beheld an unknown
maiden sitting opposite to her niece, and aiding her in her task;
she vanished immediately, and when the aunt asked Bridget who had
helped her she know nothing about it, and assured her relation she
had seen no one.
All were astonished at the fineness and perfection of the work, and
kept the lace as of miraculous origin.
[744] _Wadstena Past and Present_ (Förr och Nu).
[745] The letter is dated March 20th, 1544.
[746] In the detailed account of the trousseau furnished to his daughter,
there is no mention of lace; but the author of _One Year in Sweden_
has seen the body of his little granddaughter, the Princess
Isabella, daughter of John III., as it lies in the vault of
Strengnäs, the child's dress and shoes literally covered with gold
and silver lace of a Gothic pattern, fresh and untarnished as though
made yesterday.
[747] In the Victoria and Albert Museum there is a collection of Norwegian
cut-work of the eighteenth century.
[748] Weber. _Bilberbuch._
Leipzig, 1746. _Handbok for unga Fruntimmer_, by Ekenmark.
Stockholm, 1826-28.
[749] Some are twice the width of Fig. 117.
[750] For this information, with a collection of specimens, the author has
to thank Madame Petre of Gefle.
[751] The Russian bobbins are interesting by reason of their archaic
simplicity. Lacking any trace of decoration, whether suggested by
sentimental fancy or artistic taste, they are purely utilitarian,
mere sticks of wood, more or less straight and smooth, and six or
seven inches long.
[752] A depôt has been opened in London, where Russian laces and
embroidery of all kinds are shown.
[753] _Rot. Parl. 37 Edw. III._ Printed. P. 278, Col. 2, No. 26.
[754] See her monument in Westminster Abbey.--Sandford's _Genealogical
History_.
[755] "Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster, wife of John of Gaunt, wears a
quilted silk cap with a three-pointed border of broad lace network."
(Sandford. St. Paul's monument, after Dugdale.) "Elizabeth, Duchess
of Exeter, died 1425 (Sandford, p. 259), wore also a caul of network
with a needlework edging."
[756] In the Statute 2 Rich. II. = 1378, merchant strangers are allowed to
sell in gross and in retail "gold wire or silver wire" and other
such small ware. Neither in this nor in the Treaty 13 Rich. II. =
1390, between England, the Count of Flanders, and "les bonnes Gentz
des Trois bonnes villes de Flandres Gand, Brugges et Ipre" (see
Rymer), is there any mention of lace, which, even if fabricated, was
of too little importance as an article of commerce to deserve
mention save as other "small wares."
[757] Pins not yet being in common use, any lace would be called "work of
the needle."
[758] 3 Edw. IV., cap. iv.
[759] "1463. John Barett bequeaths to 'My Lady Walgrave, my musk ball of
gold with [=p]le and lace.
"'Item, to John Eden, my o gr. of tawny silk with poynts of needle
work--_opus punctatum_.'"--_Bury Wills and Inventories._
[760] Bib. Harl. 2,320.
[761] Such as "Lace Bascon, Lace endented, Lace bordred on both syde, yn o
syde, pykke Lace bordred, Lace Condrak, Lace Dawns, Lace Piol, Lace
covert, Lace coverte doble, Lace compon coverte, Lace maskel, Lace
cheyne brode, Las Cheveron, Lace Oundé, Grene dorge, Lace for
Hattys," etc.
Another MS. of directions for making these same named laces is in
the possession of the Vicar of Ipsden, Oxfordshire, and has been
examined by the author through the kindness of Mr. W. Twopenny.
[762] Bows, loops.
[763] Additional MSS. No. 6,293, small quarto, ff. 38. It contains
instructions for making various laces, letters and "edges," such as
"diamond stiff, fly, cross, long S, figure of 8, spider, hart,"
etc., and at the end:--
"Heare may you see in Letters New
The Love of her that honoreth you.
My love is this,
Presented is
The Love I owe
I cannot showe,
The fall of Kings
Confusion bringes
Not the vallyou but the Love
When this you see
Remember me."
In the British Museum (Lansdowne Roll, No. 22) is a third MS. on the
same subject, a parchment roll written about the time of Charles I.,
containing rules and directions for executing various kinds of
sampler-work, to be wrought in letters, etc., by means of coloured
strings or bows. It has a sort of title in these words, "To know the
use of this Booke it is two folkes worke," meaning that the works
are to be done by two persons.
Probably of this work was the "Brede (braid) of divers colours,
woven by Four Ladies," the subject of some verses by Waller
beginning:--
"Twice twenty slender Virgins' Fingers twine
This curious web, where all their fancies shine.
As Nature them, so they this shade have wrought,
Soft as their Hands, and various as their Thoughts," etc.
[764] 1 Rich. III. = 1483. Act XII.
[765] _Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York,_ and _Wardrobe Accounts
of King Edward IV._, by Sir H. Nicolas.
[766] 1 Rich. III. renews 3 Edw. IV. for ten years, and that of Richard is
continued by 19 Henry VII. for twenty years more.
[767] 4 Hen. VII. = 1488-9.
[768] P.R.O. The same Warrant contains an order to deliver "for the use
and wearing of our right dere daughter the Lady Mary," together with
a black velvet gown, scarlet petticoat, etc., "a nounce of lace for
her kyrtel," and a thousand "pynnes."
[769] In the list of the late King Henry's plate, made 1543, we have some
curious entries, in which the term lace appears:--
"Item, oone picture of a woman made of erthe with a carnation Roobe
knitt with a knott in the lefte shoulder and bare hedid with her
heere rowlid up with a white lace sett in a boxe of wodde.
"Item, oone picture of a woman made of erthe with a carnac[=o]n
garment after the Inglishe tyer and bareheddid with her heare rowled
up with a white lace sett in a boxe of wodde."--P. R. O.
[770] 19 Hen. VII. = 1504.
[771] Sir H. Nicolas.
[772] Statute 1 Hen. VIII. = 1509-10. An act agaynst wearing of costly
Apparell, and again, 6 Hen. VIII. = 1514-15.
"Gard, to trim with lace."--Cotgrave.
"No less than crimson velvet did him grace,
All garded and regarded with gold lace."--Samuel Rowlands, _A Pair
of Spy-Knaves._
"I do forsake these 'broidered gardes,
And all the fashions new."--_The Queen in King Cambisis_, circ.
1615.
[774] Under forfeiture of the same shirt and a fine of 40 shillings.
[775] 7 Hen. VIII. = 1515-16.--"Thacte of Apparell."
[776] 24 Hen. VIII. = 1532-33.--"An Act for Reformation of excess in
Apparel."
[777] In 1539.
[778] Lisle. _Corr._ Vol. i., p. 64. P.R.O. Lord Lisle was Governor of
Calais, whence the letter is dated.
Honor. Lylle to Madame Antoinette
de Sevenges, à Dunkerke.
"Madame,--Je ne vous eusse vollu envoier ceste demi dousaine pour
changier nestoit que tous celles que menvoiez dernierement sont trop
larges, et une dousaine estoit de cestuy ouvrage dont jestis
esmerveillé, veu que je vous avois escript que menvoissiez de
louvrage aux lozenges, vous priant que la demy dousaine que
menvoierez pour ceste demy dousaine soient du dict ouvrage de
lozenge, et quil soient plus estroictes mesmement par devant
nonobstant que lexemple est au contraire."
[779] Among the marriage clothes of Mary Neville, who espoused George
Clifton, 1536, is:--
"A neyge of perle, £1 4s. 0d."
In the pictures, at Hampton Court Palace, of Queens Mary and
Elizabeth, and another of Francis II., all as children, their ruffs
are edged with a very narrow purl.
[780] 1538. Lisle. _Corr._ (P.R.O.)
[781] See Note 776.
[782] Privy Purse Ex. Hen. VIII. 1529-32. Sir H. Nicolas.
[783] Father of Lord Burleigh. There are other similar entries:--"8 pieces
of yellow lace, 9s. 4d." Also, "green silk lace."
1632, "green silk lace" occurs again, as trimming a pair of French
shoes in a "Bill of shoes for Sir Francis Windebank and
family."--State Papers Dom. Vol. 221. P.R.O.
[784] "Inv. of Hen. VIII. and 4 Edw. VI." Harl. MS. 1419, A and B.
[785] 38 Hen. VIII. = 1546. Rymer's _Foedera_. Vol. xv., p. 105.
[786] Harl. MS. 1419. _Passim._
[787] See Holbein's portraits.
[788] "The old cut-work cope."--Beaumont and Fletcher. _The Spanish
Curate._
[789] We read, too, of "3 kyrcheys y^t was given to the kyrk wash," large
as a woman's hood worn at a funeral, highly ornamented with the
needle by pious women, and given to be sold for the good of the
impoverished church, for which the churchwardens of St. Michael,
Spurr Gate, York, received the sum of 5s.
[790] 1 and 2 Ph. and Mary.
[791] "White work" appears also among Queen Elizabeth's New Year's
Gifts:--
"1578. Lady Ratcliff. A veil of white work, with spangles and small
bone lace of silver. A swete bag, being of changeable silk, with a
small bone lace of gold.
"1589. Lady Shandowes (Chandos). A cushion cloth of lawne wrought
with whitework of branches and trees, edged with bone work, wrought
with crowns."--Nichols' _Royal Progresses_.
[792] Roll of New Year's Gifts. 1556.
[793] Stowe, _Queen Mary_. An. 1554.
[794] It is not known when brass wire pins were first made in England, but
it must have been before 1543, in which year a Statute was passed
(35 Hen. VIII.) entitled, "An Act for the True Making of Pynnes," in
which the price is fixed not to exceed 6s. 8d. per 1,000. By an Act
of Rich. III. the importation of pins was prohibited. The early pins
were of boxwood, bone, bronze or silver. In 1347 (_Liber Garderobæ_,
12-16 Edw. III. P. R. O.) we have a charge for 12,000 pins for the
trousseau of Joanna, daughter of Edward III., betrothed to Peter the
Cruel. The young Princess probably escaped a miserable married life
by her decease of the black death at Bordeaux when on her way to
Castille.
The annual import of pins in the time of Elizabeth amounted to
£3,297.--State Papers, Dom., Eliz. Vol. viii. P. R. O.
In Eliz., Q. of Bohemia's Expenses, we find: "Dix mille espingles
dans un papier, 4 florins."--Ger. Corr. No. 41. P. R. O.
"In Holland pillow-lace is called Pinwork lace--Gespelde-werkte
kant."--_Sewell's Eng. and Dutch Dict._
[795] An elderly woman informed the author that she recollects in her
youth, when she learned to make Honiton point of an ancient teacher
of the parish, bone pins were still employed. They were in use until
a recent period, and renounced only on account of their costliness.
The author purchased of a Devonshire lace-maker one, bearing date
1829, with the name tatooed into the bone, the gift of some
long-forgotten youth to her grandmother. These bone or wood bobbins,
some ornamented with glass beads--the more ancient with silver let
in--are the calendar of a lace-worker's life. One records her first
appearance at a neighbouring fair or May meeting; a second was the
first gift of her good man, long cold in his grave; a third the
first prize brought home by her child from the dame school, and
proudly added to her mother's cushion: one and all, as she sits
weaving her threads, are memories of bygone days of hopes and fears,
of joys and sorrows; and, though many a sigh it calls forth, she
cherishes her well-worn cushion as an old friend, and works away,
her present labour lightened by the memory of the past.
[796] Surtees' _Wills and Inv._
"Hearing bone lace value 5s. 4d." is mentioned "in y^e shoppe of
John Johnston, of Darlington, merchant."
[797] 1578. "James Backhouse, of Kirby in Lonsdale. Bobbin lace, 6s. per
ounce."
1597. "John Farbeck, of Durham. In y^e Shoppe, 4 oz. & ½ of Bobbing
lace, 6s. 4d."--_Ibid._
"Bobbin" lace is noted in the Royal Inventories, but not so
frequently as "bone."
"Laqueo ... fact. super lez bobbins."--G. W. A. Eliz., 27 and 28. P.
R. O.
"Three peces teniar bobbin."--_Ibid._ Car. I., vi.
"One pece of bobin lace, 2s.," occurs frequently in the accounts of
Lord Compton, afterwards Earl of Northampton, Master of the Wardrobe
of Prince Charles.--Roll, 1622-23, Extraordinary Expenses, and
others. P. R. O.
[798] In the Ward. Acc. of his brother, Prince Henry, 1607, and the
Warrant to the G. Ward., on his sister the Princess Elizabeth's
marriage, 1612-13, "bone" lace is in endless quantities.
Bobbin lace appears invariably distinguished from bone lace, both
being mentioned in the same inventory. The author one day showed an
old Vandyke Italian edging to a Devonshire lace-worker, asking her
if she could make it. "I think I can," she answered; "it is bobbin
lace." On inquiring the distinction, she said: "Bobbin lace is made
with a coarse thread, and in its manufacture we use long bobbins
instead of the boxwood of ordinary size, which would not hold the
necessary quantity of this thread, though sufficient for the quality
used in making Honiton flowers and Trolly lace."--Mrs. Palliser.
[799] Randle Holme, in his enumeration of terms used in arts, gives: "Bone
lace, wrought with pegs."
The materials used for bobbins in Italy have been already mentioned.
[800] Lord Compton. "Extraordinary Expenses of the Wardrobe of K. Charles,
before and after he was King."--Roll, 1622-26. P. R. O.
[801] An. 1635.
[802] A miniature of Old Hilliard, now in the possession of his Grace the
Duke of Hamilton.
[803] 1614.
[804] Massinger. 1612.
[805] Beaumont and Fletcher.
[806] "The things you follow and make songs on now, should be sent to
knit, or sit down to bobbins or bone-lace."--_Tatler._
[807] "We destroy the symmetry of the human figure, and foolishly combine
to call off the eye from great and real beauties to childish gewgaw
ribbands and bone-lace."--_Spectator._
[808] It is used in Walpole's _New British Traveller_. 1784.
[809] Haliwell gives compas as "a circle; Anglo-Norman."
[810] Partlet, a small ruff or neck-band.
[811] "Eidem pro 4 pec' de opera Rhet' bon' florat' in forma oper' sciss'
ad 24s., £4 16s."--G. W. A. Eliz., 43 to 44.
1578-79. New Year's Gifts. Baroness Shandowes. "A vail of black
network flourished with flowers of silver and a small
bone-lace."--Nichols.
[812] _Encyclopædia Britannica._ Art. _Costume._ Sixteenth Century.
[813] _Encyclopædia Britannica._ Art. _Costume._ Sixteenth century.
[814] Crown lace--so called from the pattern being worked on a succession
of crowns sometimes intermixed with acorns or roses. A relic of this
lace may still be found in the "faux galon" sold by the German Jews,
for the decoration of fancy dresses and theatrical purposes. It is
frequently mentioned. We have:--
"12 yards laquei, called crown lace of black gold and silk."--G. W.
A. Eliz. 4 & 5.
"18 yards crown lace purled with one wreath on one side."--_Ibid._ 5
& 6.
[815] "11 virgis laquei Byas."--_Ibid._ 29 & 30.
[816] Hemming and edging 8 yards of ruff of cambric with white lace called
hollow lace, and various entries of Spanish lace, Fringe, Black
chain, Diamond, knotted, hollow, and others, are scattered through
the earlier Wardrobe Accounts of Queen Elizabeth.
The accounts of the Keepers of the Great Wardrobe, which we shall
have occasion so frequently to cite, are now deposited in the Public
Record Office, to which place they were transferred from the Audit
Office in 1859. They extend from the 1 Elizabeth = 1558 to Oct. 10,
1781, and comprise 160 volumes, written in Latin until 1730-31, when
the account appears in English, and is continued so to the end.
1748-49 is the last account in which the items are given.
[817] Eliz. 30 & 31. Billament lace occurs both in the "shoppes" and
inventories of the day. Among the list of foreigners settled in the
City of London in 1571 (State Papers, Dom., Eliz. Vol 84. P.R.O.),
are: William Crutall, "useth the craft of making byllament lace";
Rich. Thomas, Dutch, "a worker of Billament lace."
In 1573 a country gentleman, by his will deposited in the
Prerogative Court of Canterbury (Brayley and Britton's _Graphic
Illustrations_), bequeaths: "To my son Tyble my short gown faced
with wolf skin and laid with Billements lace."
In John Johnston's shop we have: "3 doz. of velvet Billemunt lace,
12s." In that of John Farbeck, 9 yards of the same. (Surtees' _Wills
and Inv._) Widow Chapman of Newcastle's inventory, 1533, contains:
"One old cassock of broad cloth, with billements lace, 10s."
(_Ibid._)
[818] 95 dozen rich silver double diamond and cross laces occur also in
the _Extraordinary Expenses for Prince Charles's Journey to Spain_.
1623.--P. R. O.
[819] 1571. "In y^e Great Shop, 8 peces of 'waborne' lace, 16d."--_Mr.
John Wilkinson's Goods, of Newcastle, Merchant._
1580. "100 Gross and a half of 'waborne' lace."--_Inv. of Cuthbert
Ellyson._
1549. John de Tronch, Abbot of Kilmainham Priory, is condemned to
pay 100 marks fine for detaining 2 lbs. of Waborne thread, value
3s., and other articles, the property of W. Sacy.
[820] G. W. A. Eliz. 16 & 17.
[821] "Eidem pro 6 manuterg' de camerick operat' cum serico nigra
trustich," etc.--G. W. A. Eliz. 41 & 42, and, again, 44.
[822] 1572. Inventory of Thomas Swinburne of Ealingham, Esq.
"His Apparell."
"A wellwett cote layd with silver las.
"A satten doullet layd with silver las.
"A payr of wellwett sleeves layd with silver las."--Surtees'
_Wills and Inv._
[823] New Year's Gifts. Lady Mary Sidney. "A smock and two pillow beres of
cameryck wrought with black-work and edged with a broad bone-lace of
black sylke."
[824] "Eidem pro 6 caules alb' nodat opat' cu' le chainestich et ligat'
cu' tape de filo soror, ad 14s., 4l. 4s."--G. W. A. Eliz. 41 & 42.
Also in the last year of her reign (1602) we find:--
"Six fine net caules flourished with chaine stitch with sister's
thread."--Wardrobe Accounts. B. M. Add. MSS. No. 5751.
[825] In 1583.
[826] G. W. A. Eliz. 38 & 39. We have it also on ruffs.
"Eidem pro 2 sutes de lez ruffs bon' de la lawne operat' in le laid
work et edged cum ten' bon' ad 70s. per pec', 7l."--G. W. A. Eliz.
43 & 44.
[827] G. W. A. Eliz., last year of her reign. Again--
1600. "Drawing and working with black silk drawne worke, five smocks
of fine holland cloth."--B. M. Add. MSS. No. 5751.
"These Holland smocks as white as snow,
And gorgets brave with drawn-work wrought."
--_Pleasant Quippes for Upstart Newfangled Gentlewomen._ 1596.
[828] As early as 1485 we have in the inventory of St. Mary-at-Hill, "An
altar cloth of diaper, garnished with 3 blue Kays (St. Peter's) at
each end." All the church linen seems to have been embroidered in
blue thread, and so appears to have been the smocks and other linen.
Jenkin, speaking of his sweetheart, says: "She gave me a shirt
collar, wrought over with no counterfeit stuff."
GEORGE: "What! was it gold?"
JENKIN: "Nay, 'twas better than gold."
GEORGE: "What was it?"
JENKIN: "Right Coventry blue."--_Pinner of Wakefield._ 1599.
"It was a simple napkin wrought with Coventry blue."--_Laugh and Lie
Downe, or the Worlde's Folly._ 1605.
"Though he perfume the table with rose cake or appropriate bone-lace
and Coventry blue," writes Stephens in his _Satirical Essays_. 1615.
In the inventory of Mary Stuart, taken at Fotheringay, after her
death, we have: "Furniture for a bedd of black velvet, garnished
with Bleue lace. In the care of Rallay, _alias_ Beauregard."
This blue lace is still to be found on baptismal garments which have
been preserved in old families on the Continent and in England.
[829] The widow of the famous clothier, called Jack of Newbury, is
described when a bride as "led to church between two boys with bride
laces and rosemary tied about their sleeves."
[830] "Tawdry. As Dr. Henshaw and Skinner suppose, of knots and ribbons,
bought at a fair held in St. Audrey's Chapel; fine, without grace or
elegance."--_Bailey's Dict._ 1764.
Southey (_Omniana._ Vol. i., p. 8) says:--
"It was formerly the custom in England for women to wear a necklace
of fine silk called Tawdry lace, from St. Audrey.
"She had in her youth been used to wear carcanets of jewels, and
being afterwards tormented with violent pains in the neck, was wont
to say, that Heaven, in his mercy, had thus punished her for her
love of vanity. She died of a swelling in her neck. Audry (the same
as Ethelrede) was daughter of King Anna, who founded the Abbey of
Ely."
Spenser in the _Shepherd's Calender_, has:--
"Bind your fillets faste
And gird in your waste
For more fineness with a tawdry lace;"
and in the _Faithful Shepherdess_ of Beaumont and Fletcher,
Amaryllis speaks of
"The primrose chaplet, tawdry lace and ring."
[831] A passage already quoted in _Much Ado about Nothing_ shows us that,
in Shakespeare's time, the term "to lace" was generally used as a
verb, denoting to decorate with trimming. Margaret, the tiring
woman, describes the Duchess of Milan's gown as of "Cloth o' gold,
and cuts, and laced with silver."
[832] _Much Ado about Nothing._
[833] New Year's Gifts of Mrs. Wyngfield, Lady Southwell, and Lady
Willoughby.--_Nichols' Royal Progresses._
[834] "Mrs. Edmonds. A cushion cloth of lawn cutwork like leaves, and a
few owes of silver."--New Year's Gifts.
"Eidem pro le edginge unius panni vocat' a quishion cloth de lawne
alb' operat' cum spaces de opere sciss' et pro viii. virg' de Laquei
alb' lat' operat' sup' oss' 33s. 4d."--G. W. A. Eliz. 31 & 32.
[835] "Mistress Twist, the Court laundress. Four toothcloths of Holland
wrought with black silk and edged with bone lace of silver and black
silk."--New Year's Gifts.
[836] "Lady Ratcliffe. A night coyf of white cutwork flourished with
silver and set with spangles."--_Ibid._
[837] "Cropson. A night coyf of cameryk cutwork and spangells, with a
forehead cloth, and a night border of cutwork with bone
lace."--_Ibid._ 1577-8.
[838] "Eidem pro emenda[=c] lavacione et starching unius par' corpor'
(stays) et manic' de lawne alb' bon' deorsum operat' in diversis
locis cum spaciis Lat' de operibus Italic' scis[=s] 20_sh._"--G. W.
A. Eliz. 26-27.
[839] _Ibid._
[840] _Ibid._ 28-29.
[841] G. W. A. Eliz. 29-30.
[842] _Ibid._ 35-36.
[843] _Ibid._ 43-44. "A round kyrtle of cutwork in lawne."--B. M. Add.
MSS. No. 5751.
[844] "One yard of double Italian cutwork a quarter of a yard wide, 55s.
4d."--G. W. A. Eliz. 33 and 34.
"Una virga de opere sciss' lat' de factura Italica, 26s.
8d."--_Ibid._ 29 & 30.
[845] "For one yard of double Flanders cutwork worked with Italian purl,
33s. 4d."--_Ibid._ 33 & 34.
[846] "3 suits of good lawn cutwork ruffs edged with good bone lace
'operat' super oss',' at 70s., 10l. 10s."--_Ibid._ 43 & 44.
[847] "7 virg' Tenie lat' operis acui, ad 6s. 8d., 46s. 8d."--_Ibid._
37-38.
[848] "Eidem pro 2 pectoral' de ope' sciss' fact' de Italic' et Flaundr'
purle, ad 46s."--_Ibid._ 42 & 43.
"Eidem pro 1 virg' de Tenie de opere acuo cum le purle Italic' de
cons' ope' acuo 20s."--G. W. A. Eliz. 40 & 41.
[849] Eliz. 44 = 1603.
[850] "3 yards broad needlework lace of Italy, with the purls of similar
work, at 50s. per yard, 8l. 15s."--_Ibid._ 41-42.
Bone lace varies in price from 40s. the dozen to 11s. 6d. the yard.
Needle-made lace from 6s. 8d. to 50s.--G. W. A. _Passim._
[851] Lace is always called "lacqueus" in the Gt. Wardrobe Accounts up to
1595-6, after which it is rendered "tænia." Both terms seem, like
our "lace" to have been equally applied to silk passements.
"Galons de soye, de l'espèce qui peuvent être dénominés par le terme
latin de 'tæniola.'"
"Laqueus, enlassements de diverses couleurs, galons imitation de ces
chaînes qui les Romains faisoient peindre, dorer et argenter, pour
les rendre plus supportables aux illustres malheureux que le sort
avoit réduit à les porter."--_Traité des Marques Nationales._ Paris,
1739.
[852] "Fine white or nun's thread is made by the Augustine nuns of Crema,"
writes Skippin, 1631.
From the Great Wardrobe Accounts the price appears to have been half
a crown an ounce.
"Eidem pro 2 li. 4 unc.' fili Sororis, ad 2s. 6d. per unciam, 4l.
10s."--Eliz. 34 & 35.
[853] State Papers Domestic. Eliz. Vol. 84. The sum total amounts to
4,287.
[854] See BURGUNDY. "The naturalized French residing in this country are
Normans of the district of Caux, a wicked sort of French, worse than
all the English," writes, in 1553, Stephen Porlin, a French
ecclesiastic, in his _Description of England and Scotland_.
[855] 1559. Oct. 20. Proclamation against excess of apparel.--State
Papers Dom. Eliz. Vol. vii.
1566. Feb. 12.--_Ibid._ Vol. xxxix.
1579. Star Chamber on apparel.
[856] State Papers Dom. Eliz. Vol. xxiii. No. 8.
[857] _Ibid._ Vol. xlvii. No. 49.
[858] _Ibid._ Vol. viii. No. 31.
[859] The value of thread imported amounts to £13,671 13s. 4d.
[860] Walsingham writes: In opening a coffer of the Queen of Scots, he
found certain heades which so pleased certain ladies of his
acquaintance, he had taken the liberty to detain a couple.
[861] "A mantel of lawn cutwork wrought throughout with cutwork of
'pomegranettes, roses, honeysuckles, cum crowns.'"
"A doublet of lawn cutwork worked with 'lez rolls and true loves,'
&c."--G. W. A. Eliz. Last year.
[862] New Year's Gifts. By the Lady Shandowes. 1577-8.
[863] Marquis of Northampton.
[864] Lady Carew. "A cushyn of fine cameryk edged with bone lace of Venice
sylver."
[865] "Laqueus de serico Jeano"--(Genoa). G. W. A. Eliz. 30-1.
[866] 1571. _Revels at Court._ Cunningham.
Some curious entries occur on the occasion of a Masque called "The
Prince" given at court in 1600:--
"For the tooth-drawer:
"To loope leace for his doublet and cassacke, 8s.
"For leace for the corne-cutters suite, 7s.
"For green leace for the tinkers suite, 2s.
"For the mouse-trapp-man:
"6 yards of copper leace to leace _is_ cloake, at 1s. 8d., 10s.
"The Prophet merely wears fringe, 2 Ruffes and cuffes, 3s. 10d."
The subject of the Masque seems lost to posterity.
[867] Lady Chandos, jun. "A cushyn cloth of lawne, wrought with white
worke of branches and trees edged with white bone worke wrought with
crownes."--New Year's Gifts. 1577-8.
[868] 1572. _Revels at Court._
[869] In the possession of Mrs. Evans of Wimbledon.
[870] Sir Gawine Carew. "A smock of cameryke wrought with black work and
edged with bone lace of gold."
Lady Souche. "A smock of cameryke, the ruffs and collar edged with a
bone lace of gold."
The Lady Marquis of Winchester. "A smock of cameryke wrought with
tanny silk and black, the ruffs and collar edged with a bone lace of
silver."--New Year's Gifts. 1578-9.
[871] "A bearing cloth," for the Squire's child, is mentioned in the
_Winter's Tale_.
[872] Many of these Christening robes of lace and point are preserved as
heirlooms in old families; some are of old guipure, others of
Flanders lace, and later of Valenciennes, or needle-point. The bib
formed of guipure padded, with tiny mittens of lace, were also
furnished to complete the suit.
[873] In 1584-5 Queen Elizabeth sends a most wonderful apron to be washed
and starched, of cambric, edged with lace of gold, silver, and
in-grain carnation silk, "operat' super oss'," with "pearl buttons
pro ornatione dict' apron."--G. W. A. Eliz. 26 & 27.
"A handkerchief she had,
All wrought with silke and gold,
Which she, to stay her trickling tears,
Before her eyes did hold."
--"Ballad of George Barwell."
[875] New Year's Gift of Lady Radcliffe. 1561.
[876] New Year's Gift of Lady St. Lawrence.
[877] Surtees' Wills and Inv. "Though the luxury of the court was
excessive, the nation at large were frugal in their habits. Our
Argentine of Dorset was called 'Argentine the Golden,' in
consequence of his buckles, tags, and laces being of gold. Such an
extravagance being looked on as a marvel in the remote hamlets of
the southern counties."
[878] Hence ruffles, diminutive of ruffs. "Ruff cuffs" they are called in
the G. W. A. of James I., 11 & 12.
[879] Stowe's Chron.
[880] Endless are the entries in the Gt. W. Acc. for washing, starching
and mending. The court laundress can have had no sinecure. We find
"le Jup de lawne operat' cum stellis et aristis tritici Anglice
wheateares" (Eliz. 42 & 43), sent to be washed, starched, etc. A
network vail "sciss' totum desuper cum ragged staves." (Leicester's
device. _Ibid._ 29 & 30.) A diploid' (doublet) of cut-work
flourished "cum auro et spangles" (_Ibid._), and more wonderful
still, in the last year of her reign she has washed and starched a
toga "cum traine de la lawne operat' in auro et argento in forma
caudarum pavorum," the identical dress in which she is portrayed in
one of her portraits.
[881] "Eidem pro un ruff bon pynned sup' le wier Franc' c[=u] rhet' aur'
spangled, 70s."--Eliz. 42 & 43.
[882] Gt. W. Acc. Eliz. 33 & 34.
[883] "B.: Where's my ruff and poker?"
"R.: There's your ruff, shall I poke it?"
"B.: So poke my ruff now."--Old Play by P. Dekker. 1602.
Autolycus, among his wares, has "poking-sticks of steel."
"Poked her rebatoes and surveryed her steel."--_Law Tricks._ 1608.
[884] Middleton's Comedy of _Blurt, Master Constable_.
[885] _Or, the World's Folly._ 1605.
[886] Stowe.
[887] _Ibid._
[888] Therefore she wore "chin" ruffs.
"Eidem pro 2 sutes de lez chinne ruffs edged cu' arg., 10s."--Eliz.
42 & 43.
[889] Ben Jonson. _Every Man Out of His Humour._ 1599.
[890] Lady Cromwell. "Three sutes of ruffs of white cutwork edged with a
passamayne of white."
Lady Mary Se'm'. "3 ruffs of lawne cutwork of flowers."
[891] "They are either clogged with gold, silver, or silk laces of stately
price, wrought all over with needleworke, speckeled and sparkeled
here and there with the sunne, the moone, the starres and many other
antiques strange to beholde. Some are wrought with open worke donne
to the midst of the ruffe, and further some with close worke, some
with purled lace so closed and other gewgawes so pestered, as the
ruff is the leest parte of itself."--Stubbe's Description of the
Cut-work Ruff.
[892] _Anatomie of Abuses._ 1583.
[893] "Eidem pro 3 dozin laquei fact' de crine brayded cum lez rising
puffs de crine, ad 36s. le dd., £5 8s."--Eliz. 31 & 32.
The entry occurs frequently.
In _Ibid._ 87 & 38 is a charge "pro 4 pirrywigges de crine," at 16s.
8d. each.
[894] In the G. W. A. of the last year of her reign, Elizabeth had a
variety of devices in false hair. We have:--
"Eidem pro 200 invencionibus factis decrine in forma lez lowpes et
tuftes," at 6d. each; the like number in the form of leaves at 12d.;
12 in form of "lez Peramides," at 3s. 4d.; 24 of Globes, at 12d.,
with hair by the yard, made in lowpes, "crispat' curiose fact',"
curle rotund', and other wonderful "inventions."
[895] "Your trebble-quadruple Dædalian ruffes, nor your stiffe necked
Rebatoes that have more arches for pride to row under than can stand
under five London Bridges."--_The Gul's Hornebooke_, by T. Deckar.
London, 1609.
[896] Beaumont and Fletcher. _Nice Valour._
[897] _Ibid._ _The Blind Lady._ 1661.
[898] 1641.
[899] Called by James I. "the King of Preachers." Ob. 1621
[900] In the _Dumb Knight_, 1608, a woman, speaking of her ruff, says:--
"This is but shallow. I have a ruff is a quarter deep, measured by
the yard."
[901] See the portraits in the National Portrait Gallery of Sir Dudley and
Lady Carleton, by Cornelius Janssens, of the Queen of Bohemia, by
Mirevelt, and of the Countess of Pembroke, by Mark Geerards. In
Westminster Abbey, the effigies of Queen Elizabeth and Mary Queen of
Scots, on their tombs.
[902] _Every Man Out of His Humour_, 1599.
Again, in his _Silent Woman_, he says:--
"She must have that
Rich gown for such a great day, a new one
For the next, a richer for the third; have the chamber filled with
A succession of grooms, footmen, ushers,
And other messengers; besides embroiderers,
Jewellers, tire-women, semsters, feather men,
Perfumers; whilst she feels not how the land
Drops away, nor the acres melt; nor foresees
The change, when the mercer has your woods
For her velvets; never weighs what her pride
Costs, Sir."
[903] "Second Acc. of Sir John Villiers, 1617-8." P. R. O.
"150 yards of fyne bone lace for six extraordinary ruff's provided
against his Majesty's marriage, at 9s., 67s. 10d."--Extraordinary
Expenses. 1622-6. P. R. O.
[904] State Papers Dom., Jac. I. Vol. iii., No. 89. P. R. O.
[905] Jasper Mayne. 1670.
[906] "Mistris Turner, the first inventresse of yellow starch, was
executed in a cobweb lawn ruff of that color at Tyburn, and with her
I believe that yellow starch, which so much disfigured our nation
and rendred them so ridiculous and fantastic, will receive its
funerall."--_Howel's Letters._ 1645.
[907] State Papers Dom., James I. Vol. cxiii. No. 18.
[908] We read that in 1574 the Venetian ladies dyed their lace the colour
of saffron. The fashion may therefore be derived from them.
"He is of England, by his yellow band."--_Notes from Black Fryers._
Henry Fitzgeffery. 1617.
"Now ten or twenty eggs will hardly suffice to starch one of these
yellow bandes."--Barnaby Rich. _The Irish_ _Hubbub, or the English
Hue and Cry._ 1622.
Killigrew, in his play called _The Parson's Wedding_, published in
1664, alludes to the time when "yellow starch and wheel verdingales
were cried down"; and in _The Blind Lady_, a play printed in 1661, a
serving-man says to the maid: "You had once better opinion of me,
though now you wash every day your best handkerchief in yellow
starch."
[909] _La Courtisane à la Mode, selon l'Usage de la Cour de ce Temps._
Paris, 1625.
[910] Carlo, in _Every Man Out of His Humour._ 1599.
[911] "Eidem pro 29 virg' le opere sciss' bon' Italic', ad 35s., £68
5s."--Gt. W. A. Jac. I. 5 & 6.
[912] _The New Inn._
[913] _Advice to Sir George Villiers._
[914] See _Parliamentary History of England._
Sir Giles was proceeded against as "a monopolist and patentee," and
sentenced to be degraded and banished for life.
[915] Speech in Parliament. _Rushout Papers._ Vol. xi., p. 916.
[916] "The office or grant for sealing bone lace was quashed by the King's
proclamation, 1639, dated from his manour of York."--_Verney
Papers._
[917] B. M. _Bib. Lands._ 172, No. 59.
[918] 1604. Sept. 27. Patent to Ric. Dike and others to make Venice gold
and silver thread for 21 years.--State Papers Dom., Jas. I. Vol. ix.
48.
1604. Dec. 30. Lease of the customs on gold and silver
thread.--_Ibid._ Vol. x.
1605. Feb. 2. The same. _Ibid._ Vol. xii.
1611. May 21. Patent to Ric. Dike renewed.--_Ibid._ Vol. lxiii. 9.
In the same year (June 30) we find a re-grant to the Earl of Suffolk
of the moiety of all seizures of Venice gold and silver formerly
granted in the fifth year of the King.--_Ibid._ Vol. lxiv. 66.
In 1622 a lease on the customs on gold and silver thread lace is
given to Sir Edward Villiers.--_Ibid._ Vol. cxxxii. 34.
[919] _Ibid._ Vol. cxxi. 64.
[920] _Ibid._ Vol. cxxxii. 34.
[921] In 1624 King James renews his prohibition against the manufacture of
"gold purles," as tending to the consumption of the coin and bullion
of the kingdom.--_Foedera_, Vol. xvii., p. 605.
[922] Petition. April 8, 1623.--State Papers, Vol. cxlii. 44. See Chap.
xxx.
[923] "Twoe payer of hande rebayters," _i.e._, cuffs.
[924] In the P. R. O. (State Papers Dom., James I. 1603, Sept. Vol. iii.
No. 89) is "A Memorandum of that Misteris Jane Dru[=m]onde her
recyte from Ester Littellye, the furnishinge of her Majesties Linen
Cloth," a long account, in which, among numerous other entries, we
find:--
"It. at Basinge. Twenty four yeardes of small nidle work, at 6s. the
yearde, £7 4s.
"More at Basinge. One ruffe cloth, cumbinge cloth and apron all
shewed with white worke, at 50s. the piece, £7 10s.
"It. one pece of fine lawin to bee a ruffe, £5.
"Item, for 18 yeards of fine lace to shewe the ruffe, at 6s. the
yearde, £5 8s.
"Item, 68 purle of fair needlework, at 20 pence the purle, £5 15s.
4d.
"Item, at Winchester, the 28th of September, one piece of cambrick,
£4.
"Item, for 6 yards of fine purle, at 20s., £6.
"Item, for 4 yards of great bone lace, at 9s. the yard, 36s.
Queen Anne has also a fair wrought sark costing £6, and a cut-work
handkerchief, £12, and 2 pieces of cut-work, ell wide and 2 yards
long, at £2. the length, etc.
[925] _Lady Audrye Walsingham's Account._ 1606.--P. R. O.
[926] Mary, her third daughter, died 1607, not two years of age. Mrs.
Greene quotes from the P. R. O. a note of the "necessaries to be
provided for the child," among which are six large cambric
handkerchiefs, whereof one is to be edged with "fair cut-work to lay
over the child's face"; six veils of lawn, edged with fair bone
lace; six "gathered bibs of fine lawn with ruffles edged with bone
lace," etc. The total value of the lace and cambric required for the
infant's garments is estimated at £300.--_Lives of the Princesses of
England._ Vol. vi., p. 90.
[927] England is rich in monumental effigies decorated with lace--too many
to enumerate. Among them we would instance that of Alice, Countess
of Derby, died 1636, in Harefield Church, Middlesex, in which the
lace is very carefully sculptured.--Communicated by Mr. Albert
Hartshorne.
[928] 1620-1. We have entries of "falling bands" of good cambric, edged
with beautiful bone lace, two dozen stitched and shagged, and
cut-work nightcaps, purchased for James I., in the same account,
with 28s. for "one load of hay to stuff the woolsacks for the
Parliament House."--G. W. Acc. Jac. I. 18 to 19.
In the same year, 1620, an English company exported a large quantity
of gold and silver lace to India for the King of Golconda.
[929] _Malcontent._ 1600.
[930] Extraordinary expenses, 1622-26. P. R. O.
[931] "2nd Acc. of Sir J. Villiers. 1617-18." P. R. O.
[932] Gt. W. A. Jac. I. 6 to 7.
[933] Taylor. 1640:--
"The beau would feign sickness
To show his nightcap fine,
And his wrought pillow overspread with lawn."--Davies. _Epigrams._
[934] "Acc. of Sir Lyonell Cranfield (now Earl of Middlesex), late Master
of the Great Wardrobe, touching the funeral of Queen Anne, who died
2nd March, 1618 (_i.e._ 1619 N. S.). P. R. O.
[935] About this time a complaint is made by the London tradesmen, of the
influx of refugee artizans, "who keepe theire misteries to
themselves, which hath made them bould of late to device engines for
workinge lace, &c., and such wherein one man doth more among them
than seven Englishmen can doe, soe as theire cheape sale of those
commodities beggareth all our English artificers of that trade and
enricheth them," which becomes "scarce tolleruble," they conclude.
Cecil, in consequence, orders a census to be made in 1621. Among the
traders appears "one satten lace maker."
Colchester is bitterly irate against the Dutch strangers, and
complains of one "Jonas Snav, a Bay and Say maker, whose wife
selleth blacke, browne, and white thredde, and all sorts of bone
lace and vatuegardes, which they receive out of Holland. One Isaac
Bowman, an Alyen born, a chirurgeon and merchant, selleth hoppes,
bone lace, and such like, to the great grievance of the free
burgesses."
A nest of refugee lace-makers, "who came out of France by reason of
the late 'trobles' yet continuing," were congregated at Dover
(1621-2). A list of about five-and-twenty "widows, being makers of
Bone lace," is given, and then Mary Tanyer and Margarett Le Moyne,
"maydens and makers of bone lace," wind up the catalogue of the
Dover "Alyens."
The Maidstone authorities complain that the thread-makers' trade is
much decayed by the importation of thread from Flanders.--_List of
Foreign Protestants resident in England._ 1618-88. Printed by the
Camden Society.
[936] Jasper Mayne.
[937] Beaumont and Fletcher.
[938] "Valuables of Glenurquhy, 1640." Innes' _Sketches of Early Scotch
History_.
[939] Collars of Hollie worke appear in the Inventories of Mary Stuart.
[940] "Thomas Hodges, for making ruffe and cuffes for his Highness of
cuttworke edged with a fayre peake purle, £7."--2nd Account of Sir
J. Villiers. Prince Charles. 1617-18. P. R. O.
"40 yards broad peaked lace to edge 6 cupboard cloths, at 4s. a
yard, £8."--_Ibid._
[941] "Seaming" lace and spacing lace appear to have been generally used
at this period to unite the breadths of linen, instead of a seam
sewed. We find them employed for cupboard cloths, cushion cloths,
sheets, shirts, etc., throughout the accounts of King James and
Prince Charles.
"At Stratford-upon-Avon is preserved, in the room where Shakspeare's
wife, Anne Hathaway, was born, an oaken linen chest, containing a
pillow-case and a very large sheet made of homespun linen. Down the
middle of the sheet is an ornamental open or cut-work insertion,
about an inch and a half deep, and the pillow-case is similarly
ornamented. They are marked E. H., and have always been used by the
Hathaway family on special occasions, such as births, deaths, and
marriages. This is still a common custom in Warwickshire; and many
families can proudly show embroidered bed linen, which has been used
on state occasions, and carefully preserved in old carved chests for
three centuries and more."--_A Shakspeare Memorial._ 1864.
[942] _The Truth of the Times._ W. Peacham. 1638.
[943] State Papers Dom. Jas. I. Vol. lxxii. No. 28.
[944] Warrant on the Great Wardrobe. 1612-13. Princess Elizabeth's
marriage.
[945] Frankfort fair, at which most of the German princes made their
purchases.
[946] German Correspondence. 1614-15.--P. R. O.
We find among the accounts of Col. Schomberg and others:--
"To a merchant of Strasbourg, for laces which she had sent from
Italy, 288 rix-dollars." And, in addition to numerous entries of
silver and other laces:--
"Pour dentelle et linge karé pour Madame, 115 florins."
"Donné Madame de Caus pour des mouchoirs à point couppée pour
Madame, £4."
"Une petite dentelle à point couppé, £3," etc.
Point coupé handkerchiefs seem to have been greatly in fashion. Ben
Jonson, "Bartholomew Fair," 1614, mentions them:--
"A cut-work handkerchief she gave me."
[947] See _Snelling's Coins._ Pl. ix. 8, 9, 10.
[948] _Ibid._ Pl. ix. 5, 6, 11.
[949] Evelyn, describing a medal of King Charles I., struck in 1633, says
he wears "a falling band, which new mode succeeded the cumbersome
ruff; but neither did the bishops or the judges give it up so soon,
the Lord Keeper Finch being, I think, the very first."
[950] In 1633, the bills having risen to £1,500 a year, a project is made
for reducing the charge for the King's fine linen and bone lace,
"for his body," again to £1,000 per annum, for which sum it "may be
very well done."--State Papers, Chas. I. Vol. ccxxxiv. No. 83.
[951] "Paid to Smith Wilkinson, for 420 yards of good Flanders bone lace
for 12 day ruffes and 6 night ruffes 'cum cuffes eisdem,' £87 15s.
"For 6 falling bands made of good broad Flanders lace and Cuttworks
with cuffs of the same, £52 16s."--Gt. W. A. Car. I. 6 = 1631.
[952] See G. W. A., Mich., 1629, to April, 1630.
[953] _Twelfth-Night._
[954] G. W. A. Car. I. The Annunciation 9 to Mich. 11.
[955] _Ibid._ 8 and 9.
[956] State Papers Dom. Charles I. Vol. cxlix. No. 31.
[957] In a letter to Mr. Edward Nicholas, Sec. of the Admiralty, March
7th, 1627 (afterwards Sec. of State to Chas. II.).--St. P. D. Chas.
I. Vol. cxxiii. 62.
Among the State Papers (Vol. cxxvi. 70), is a letter from Susan
Nicholas to her "loveing Brother," 1628. About lace for his band,
she writes: "I have sent you your bootehose and could have sent your
lase for your band, but that I did see these lasees which to my
thought did do a greddeale better then that wh you did bespeake, and
the best of them will cost no more then that which is half a crowne
a yard, and so the uppermost will cost you, and the other will cost
18 pence; I did thinke you would rather staye something long for it
then to pay so deare for that wh would make no better show; if you
like either of these, you shall have it sone desptch, for I am
promise to have it made in a fortnight. I have received the monie
from my cousson Hunton. Heare is no news to wright of. Thus with my
best love remembred unto you, I rest your very loving sister,
"SUSANNE NICHOLAS.
"I have sent ye the lase ye foyrst bespoke, to compare them
together, to see which ye like best."
[958] In 1620 an English company exported a large quantity of gold and
silver lace to India for the King of Golconda.
[959] W. Peacham, _Truth of the Times_. 1638.
Hamlet says there are
"Two Provençal roses on my regal shoes."
"When roses in the gardens grow,
And not in ribbons on a shoe;
Now ribbon-roses take such place,
That garden roses want their grace."
--"Friar Bacon's Prophesie." 1604.
"I like," says Evelyn, "the boucle better than the formal
rose."--_Tyrannus, or the Mode._
[960] This proclamation is dated from "our Honour of Hampton Court, 30th
April, 1635."--Rymer's _Foedera_. T. 19, p. 690.
[961] When Anne of Austria was suspected of secret correspondence with
Spain and England, Richelieu sent the Chancellor to question the
Abbess of the Val-de-Grâce with respect to the casket which had been
secretly brought into the monastery. The Abbess (_Vie de la Mère
d'Arbouse_) declared that this same casket came from the Queen of
England, and that it only contained lace, ribbons, and other
trimmings of English fashion, sent by Henrietta Maria as a present
to the Queen.--_Galerie de l'Ancienne Cour._ 1791.
[962] State Papers Dom. Vol. cxxiii. No. 65.
[963] "Rhodon and Iris, a Pastoral." 1631.
[964] "Ornatus Muliebris Anglicanus." 1645.
[965] "You must to the Pawn (Exchange) to buy lawn, to St. Martin for
lace."--_Westward Ho._ 1607.
"A copper lace called St. Martin's lace."--Strype.
[966] Taylor, "Whip of Pride." 1640.
[967] In _Eastward Ho_, 1605, proud Gertrude says: "Smocks of three pound
a smock, are to be born with all."
[968] "Bartholomew Fair." 1614.
"She shewed me gowns and head tires,
Embroidered waistcoats, smocks seam'd thro' with cut-works."
--Beaumont and Fletcher, "Four Plays in One." 1647.
"Who would ha' thought a woman so well harness'd,
Or rather well caparison'd, indeed,
That wears such petticoats, and lace to her smocks,
Broad seaming laces."
--Ben Jonson, _The Devil is an Ass_. 1616.
[971] A suite of russet "laced all over with silver curle
lace."--"Expenses of Robt. Sidney, Earl of Leicester. Temp. Chas.
I."
"This comes of wearing
Scarlet, gold lace and cut-works; your fine gartering
With your blown roses."
--_The Devil is an Ass._
[973] _Notes from Black Fryers._
[974] Jasper Mayne. "Amorous War." 1659.
[975] "The Little French Lawyer."
[976] _Memoirs._
[977] _The Cromwell Family._
[978] Sir Philip Warwick. 1640.
[979] At the Restoration, it was removed from the Abbey and hung out of
the window at Whitehall, and then broken up and destroyed.
[980] 1661, Nov. 20. State Papers. Dom. Charles II. Vol. xliv. P. R. O.
[981] "To William Briers, for making the Colobium Sindonis of fine lawn
laced with fine Flanders lace, 33s. 4d.
"To Valentine Stucky, for 14 yards and a half of very fine Flanders
lace for the same, at 18s. per yard, £12 6s. 6d."--"Acc. of the E.
of Sandwich, Master of the G. W. for the Coronation of King Charles
II. 23 April, 1661." P. R. O.
[982] In the G. W. A. for 29 and 30 occurs a curious entry by the Master
of the Great Wardrobe:--"I doe hereby charge myself with 5,000
Livres by me received in the realm of France for gold and silver
fringes by me there sold, belon^g to a rich embroidered Bed of his
said Majesty, which at one shilling and sevenpence [per] lib.
English. Being the value of the Exchange at that time, amounts to
£395 16s. 8d.
"(Signed) R. MONTAGUE.
"May 28, 1678."
[983] 14 Car. II. c. 13. Statutes at large. The Acts of Charles II. date
from the death of his father; so the year of the Restoration, 1660,
is counted as the thirteenth of his reign.
[984] 1662. State Papers Dom. Charles II. Vol. lv., No. 25. P. R. O.
[985] He pays £194 to his Laceman (Tenentori) for 3 Cravats "de poynt de
Venez," and 24s. per yard for 57 yards of narrow point "teniæ poynt
augustæ," to trim his falling ruffles, "manicis cadentibus,"
etc.--G. W. A. Car. II. 24 and 25.
Later (1676-7) we find charged for "un par manicarum, le poynt,
£14."
[986] When it was replaced by a black ribbon and a bow.
[987] London, 1680.
[988] Authors, however, disagree like the rest of the world. In a tract
called _The Ancient Trades Decayed Repaired Again_, by Sir Roger
L'Estrange (1678), we read: "Nay, if the materials used in a trade
be not of the growth of England, yet, if the trade be to employ the
poor, we should have it bought without money, and brought to us from
beyond the seas where it is made as 'Bone lace.'"
[989] Swift. _Baucis and Philemon._
[990] _Intelligencer_, 1665, June 5. "Lost, six handkerchers wrapt up in a
brown paper, two laced, one point-laced set on tiffany; the two
laced ones had been worn, the other four new."
_London Gazette._ 1672, Dec. 5-9. "Lost, a lawn pocket handkercher
with a broad hem, laced round with a fine Point lace about four
fingers broad, marked with an R in red silk."
[991] Evelyn. It was the custom, at a Maiden Assize, to present the judge
with a pair of "laced gloves." Lord Campbell in 1856, at the Lincoln
Lent Assizes, received from the sheriff a pair of white gloves
richly trimmed with Brussels lace and embroidered, the city arms
embossed in frosted silver on the back.
[992] _London Gazette._ 1677, Jan. 28-31. Again, Oct. 4-8, in the same
year. "Stolen or lost out of the Petworth waggon, a deal box
directed to the Lady Young of Burton in Sussex; there was in it a
fine Point Apron, a suit of thin laced Night clothes," etc.
[993] _London Gazette._ 1675, June 14-17. "A right Point lace with a long
musling neck laced at the ends with a narrow Point about three
fingers broad, and a pair of Point cuffs of the same, worn foul and
never washt, was lost on Monday last."
_Ibid._ 1677, Oct. 22-25. "Found in a ditch, Four laced forehead
cloths. One laced Pinner, one laced Quoif, one pair of laced
ruffels.... Two point aprons and other laced linen."
_Intelligencer._ 1664, Oct. 3. "Lost, A needle work point without a
border, with a great part of the loups cut out, and a quarter of it
new loupt with the needle. £5 reward."
[994] _London Gazette._ 1677, Oct. 8-11.
[995] _Tyrannus, or the Mode._ 1661.
[996] It is written Colberteen, Colbertain, Golbertain, Colbertine.
[997] Colberteen, a lace resembling network, being of the manufacture of
M. Colbert, a French statesman.
[998] A writer in _Notes and Queries_ says: "I recollect this lace worn as
a ruffle fifty years ago. The ground was square and coarse, it had a
fine edge, with a round mesh, on which the pattern was woven. It was
an inferior lace and in every-day wear."
[999] _Cadenus and Vanessa._ See also Young, p. 111.
[1000] _Way of the World._
[1001] _Six Weeks in France._ 1691.
[1002] Gt. W. A. Car. II. 35-36 = 1683-4.
[1003] _Gazette_, July 20, 1682. Lost, a portmanteau full of women's
clothes, among which are enumerated "two pairs of Point d'Espagne
ruffles, a laced night rail and waistcoat, a pair of Point de Venise
ruffles, a black laced scarf," etc.--_Malcolm's Anecdotes of
London._
The lace of James II.'s cravats and ruffles are of point de Venise.
Sex prælant cravatts de lacinia Venetiarum, are charged £141, and 9
yards lace, for six more cravats, £45.
£36 10s. for the cravat of Venice lace to wear on the day of his
Coronation," etc.--G. W. A. Jac. II. 1685-6.
[1004] A writer in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, (October, 1745), mentions:
"In the parlour of the monastery of English Benedictines at Paris, I
was shown the mask of the king's face, taken off immediately after
he was dead, together with the fine laced nightcap he died in." The
cap at Dunkirk is trimmed with Flemish lace (old Mechlin). It must
have passed from Paris to the convent of English Benedictines at
Dunkirk, who left that city in 1793. There is no record how it
became deposited in the Museum.--Communicated by M. de Forçade,
Conservator of the Museu la Dunkirk.
[1005] 9 & 10 Will. III. = 1697-8.
[1006] 11 & 12 Will. III. = 1698-9.
[1007] Smith's _Wealth of Nations_.
[1008] See LOUIS XIV.
[1009] See LOUIS XIV.
[1010] _Spectator_, No. 129. 1711.
"Lost, from behind a Hackney coach, Lombard Street, a grounded lace
night rail."--_London Gazette._ Aug. 8, 1695.
"Lost, two loopt lace Pinners and a pair of double laced ruffles,
bundled up together."--_Ibid._ Jan. 6-10, 1697.
"Taken out of two boxes in Mr. Drouth's waggon ... six cards of
piece lace looped and purled, scolopt heads to most of them ... a
fine Flanders lace head and ruffles, groundwork set on a wier,"
etc.--_Ibid._ April 11-14, 1698.
"Furbelows are not confined to scarfs, but, they must have
furbelow'd gowns, and furbelow'd petticoats, and furbelow'd aprons;
and, as I have heard, furbelow'd smocks too."--_Pleasant Art of
Money-catching._ 1730.
[1011] B. M. Add. MSS. No. 5751.
[1012] "Bought of John Bishop & Jer. Peirie, att y^e Golden Ball, in
Ludgate Hill, 26 April, 1693:
"3 yards ½ of Rich silver rufl'd scollop lace falbala, with a Rich
broad silver Tire Orris at the head, at 7s. 3d. a yard, £25 0s. 6d.
"8 yards of broad scollopped thread lace, at 25s.
"3 yards Rich Paigning (?) Lace, 48s. 8d., £8 14s."
[1013] "9 ½ Fine purle to set on the pinner, at 3s."
[1014] "5 ¾ of fine broad cattgutt border, at 20_s_."
[1015] "1 yard 7/16 Raised Point to put on the top of a pair of sleeves, at
30s."
[1016] "8 yards of Broad Needlework Lace, at 30s."
[1017] "3 yards of lace to Mazzarine y^e pinners, at 25s."
Probably the same as the French "campanner."
[1018] The Milliner, in Shadwell's _Bury Fair_. 1720.
[1019] G. W. A. Will. III. 1688 to 1702. P. R. O.
[1020] _Ibid._ vii. & viii.
[1021] "I hope your Lordship is pleased with your Steinkerk."--Sir John
Vanbrugh. _The Relapse._
In Colley Cibber's _Careless Husband_, Lady Easy takes the Steinkirk
off her neck and lays it on Sir Charles's head when he is asleep.
In _Love's Last Shift_, by the same author (1695), the hero speaks
of being "Strangled in my own Steinkerk."
In _Love for Love_, by Congreve, Sir Novelty enumerates the
Steinkirk, the large button, with other fashions, as created by him.
"I have heard the Steinkirk arrived but two months
ago."--_Spectator_, No. 129.
The "modish spark" wears "a huge Steinkirk, twisted, to the
waist."--1694. _Prologue to First Part of Don Quixote._
Frank Osbaldeston, in _Rob Roy_, is deprived by the Highlanders of
his cravat, "a Steinkirke richly laced."
At Ham House was the portrait of a Countess of Dysart, temp. Anne,
in three-cornered cocked hat, long coat, flapped waistcoat, and
Mechlin Steinkirk.
In the Account Book of Isabella, Duchess of Grafton, daughter of
Lord Arlington, Evelyn's "sweet child"--her portrait hangs in Queen
Mary's Room, Hampton Court--we have: "1709. To a Stinkirk, £1 12s.
3d."
They appear to have been made of other stuffs than lace, for in the
same account, 1708, we have entered: "To a green Steenkirk, £1 1s.
6d."
[1022] _The Volunteers, or the Stock Jobbers._
[1023] "The Tombs in Westminster Abbey," sung by the Brothers Popplewell.
Broadside, 1775.--B. M. Roxburgh Coll.
[1024] King Charles II.'s lace is the same as that of Queen Mary. The
Duchess of Buckingham (the "mad" Duchess, daughter of James II.) has
also very fine raised lace.
[1025] Venice, Bib. St. Mark. Contarini Miscellany. Communicated by Mr.
Rawdon Brown.
[1026] _Weekly Journal._ March, 1717.
[1027] _The Modern Warrior._ 1756.
[1028] Acc. of Ralph, Earl of Montague, Master of the G. W., touching the
Funeral of William III. and Coronation of Queen Anne. P. R. O.
[1029] Statutes at large.--Anne 5 & 6.
[1030] This edict greatly injured the lace trade of France. In the _Atlas
Maritime et Commercial_ of 1727, it states: "I might mention several
other articles of French manufacture which, for want of a market in
England where their chief consumption was, are so much decayed and
in a manner quite sunk. I mean as to exportation, the English having
now set up the same among themselves, such as bone lace."
[1031] _History of Trade._ London, 1702.
[1032] "Pro 14 virgis lautæ Fimbr' Bruxell' laciniæ et 12 virgis dict'
laciniæ pro Reginæ persona, £151."--G. W. A. 1710-11.
[1033] _Letters of the Countess of Hartford to the Countess of Pomfret._
1740.
[1034] _Memoirs of Lady R. Russell._
"My high commode, my damask gown,
My laced shoes of Spanish leather."
--D'Urfey. _The Young Maid's Portion._
[1036] No. 98. 1711.
[1037] After fifteen years' discontinuance it shot up again. Swift, on
meeting the Duchess of Grafton, dining at Sir Thomas Hanmer's, thus
attired, declared she "looked like a mad woman."
[1038] Statutes at large.
[1039] In 1712 Mrs. Beale had stolen from her "a green silk knit waistcoat
with gold and silver flowers all over it, and about 14 yards of gold
and silver thick lace on it"; while another lady was robbed of a
scarlet cloth coat so overlaid with the same lace, it might have
been of any other colour.--_Malcolm's Anecdotes of the Manners and
Customs of London in the Eighteenth Century._
[1040] _Post Boy._ Nov. 15, 1709. Articles Lost.
[1041] _A Discourse on Trade_, by John Cary, merchant of Bristol. 1717.
Again: "What injury was done by the Act 9-10 Will. III. for the more
effectual preventing of importation of foreign bone lace, doth
sufficiently appear by the preamble to that made 10-12 of the same
reign for repealing it three months after the prohibition of our
woollen manufactures in Flanders (which was occasioned by it) should
be taken off; but I don't understand it be yet done, and it may
prove an inevitable loss to the nation."
[1042] _Lover._ No. 10. 1714.
[1043] The ornamental ribbons worn about the dress: "His dress has bows,
and fine fallals."--Evelyn. Sometimes the term appears applied to
the Fontanges or Commode. We read (1691) of "her three-storied
Fladdal."
[1044] _Tunbridge Wells._ 1727.
[1045] In _The Recruiting Officer_ (1781), Lucy the maid says: "Indeed,
Madam the last bribe I had from the Captain was only a small piece
of Flanders lace for a cap." Melinda answers: "Ay, Flanders lace is
a constant present from officers.... They every year bring over a
cargo of lace, to cheat the king of his duty and his subjects of
their honesty." Again, Silvio, in the bill of costs he sends in to
the widow Zelinda, at the termination of his unsuccessful suit,
makes a charge for "a piece of Flanders lace" to Mrs. Abigail, her
woman.--Addison, in _Guardian_, No. 17. 1713.
[1046] "In the next reign, George III. and Queen Charlotte often
condescended to become sponsors to the children of the aristocracy.
To one child their presence was fatal. In 1778 they 'stood' to the
infant daughter of the last Duke and Duchess of Chandos. Cornwallis,
Archbishop of Canterbury, officiated. The baby, overwhelmed by whole
mountains of lace, lay in a dead faint. Her mother was so tender on
the point of etiquette, that she would not let the little incident
trouble a ceremony at which a king and queen were about to endow her
child with the names of Georgiana Charlotte. As Cornwallis gave back
the infant to her nurse, he remarked that it was the quietest baby
he had ever held. Poor victim of ceremony! It was not quite dead,
but dying; in a few unconscious hours it calmly slept away."--"A
Gossip on Royal Christenings." _Cornhill Magazine._ April, 1864.
[1047] "Furniture of a Woman's Mind."
[1048] "Dean Swift to a Young Lady."
[1049] Cowley.
[1050] 1731. _Simile for the Ladies, alluding to the laces worn at the last
Birthday and not paid for._
"In Evening fair you may behold
The Clouds are fringed with borrowed gold,
And this is many a lady's case
Who flaunts about in borrowed lace."
[1051] Jenyns. "The Modern Fine Lady."
[1052] Crown. _Sir Courtly Nice, or It Cannot Be_, a Comedy. 1731.
[1053] "1748. Ruffles of twelve pounds a yard."--_Apology for Mrs. T. C.
Philips._ 1748.
Lace, however, might be had at a more reasonable rate:--
"'I have a fine lac'd suit of pinners,' says Mrs. Thomas, 'that was
my great-grandmother's! that has been worn but twice these forty
years, and my mother told me cost almost four pounds when it was
new, and reaches down hither.'"--"Miss Lucy in Town." Fielding.
[1054] _Dictionary of Commerce._ 1766.
[1055] He was a martinet about his own dress, for his biographer relates
during the last illness of Queen Caroline (1737), though the King
was "visibly affected," remembering he had to meet the foreign
ministers next day, he gave particular directions to his pages "to
see that new ruffles were sewn on his old shirt sleeves, whereby he
might wear a decent air in the eyes of the representatives of
foreign majesty."
[1056] "By a list of linen furnished to the Princesses Louisa and Mary, we
find their night-dresses were trimmed with lace at 10s. per yard,
and while their Royal Highnesses were in bibs, they had six suits of
broad lace for aprons at from £50 to £60 each suit."--_Corr. of the
Countess of Suffolk, Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Caroline._
Observe also the lace-trimmed aprons, ruffles, tuckers, etc., in the
pretty picture of the family of Frederick, Prince of Wales, at
Hampton Court Palace.
[1057] The laws regarding the introduction of lace during this reign
continued much the same until 1749, when the royal assent was given
to an Act preventing the importation or wear of gold, silver, and
thread lace manufactured in foreign parts.
[1058] In the meeting of Nov. 10, 1752, at the "Crown, behind the Royal
Exchange," the Hon. Edward Vernon, grand president, in the chair, it
was agreed that the following premiums should be awarded: "For the
best pair of men's needlework ruffles, to be produced to the
committee in the first week of May next, five guineas; to the
second, three guineas; to the third, two guineas. And for the best
pair of English bone lace for ladies' lappets, to be produced to the
committee in August next, fifteen guineas; to the second, ten
guineas; to the third, five guineas."--_Gentleman's Magazine._
[1059] "Cardinal," a loose cloak after the fashion of a cardinal's
"_trollopée_," a loose flowing gown open in the front, worn as a
morning dress.--Fairholt. "Slammerkin," a sort of loose dress. This
ugly word, in course of time, was used as an adjective, to signify
untidy. Fortunately it is now obsolete.
[1060] "Don't read history to me, for that I know to be false," said Sir R.
Walpole to his son Horace, when he offered to read to him in his
last illness.
[1061] Lady M. W. Montagu. "Letter to Lord Harvey on the King's Birthday."
"The working apron, too, from France,
With all its trim appurtenance."
--"Mundus Muliebris."
[1063] Goldsmith. _Life of Richard Nash, of Bath._ London, 1762.
[1064] 1764.
[1065] _Gentleman's Magazine._
[1066] 1767. "An officer of the customs seized nearly £400 worth of
Flanders lace, artfully concealed in the hollow of a ship's buoy, on
board a French trader, lying off Iron Gate."--_Annual Register._
1772. "27,000 ells of French (Blois?) lace were seized in the port
of Leigh alone."--_Gentleman's Magazine._
[1067] The turbulent Bishop of Rochester, who was arraigned for his
Jacobite intrigues, and died in exile at Paris. 1731.
[1068] If imported in smaller quantities than twelve yards, the duty
imposed was £2 per yard.
"Let the ruffle grace his hand,
Ruffle, pride of Gallic land."
--"The Beau." 1755.
"And dip your wristbands
(For cuffs you've none) as comely in the sauce
As any courtier."
--Beaumont and Fletcher.
[1071] He had retired to the country to be out of the way.
[1072] August, 1776.
[1073] The wardrobe of George IV. was estimated at the same sum.
[1074] Cowper.
[1075] 1757.
[1076] "Monsieur à la Mode." 1753.
"Let of ruffles many a row
Guard your elbows white as snow."
--"The Belle." 1755.
"Gone to a lady of distinction with a Brussels head and
ruffles."--_The Fool of Quality._ 1766.
[1078] "Receipt for Modern Dress." 1753.
[1079] _Recollections of Madame d'Arblay._
[1080] Beaumont and Fletcher. _The Knight of Malta._
[1081] In coffins with glass tops. Some of them date from 1700.
[1082] In the vault of the Schleswig-Holstein family at Sonderburg.
[1083] In the church of Revel lies the Duc de Croÿ, a general of Charles
XII., arrayed in full costume, with a rich flowing tie of fine
guipure; not that he was ever interred--his body had been seized by
his creditors for debt, and there it still remains.
The author of _Letters from a Lady in Russia_ (1775), describing the
funeral of a daughter of Prince Menzikoff, states she was dressed in
a nightgown of silver tissue, on her head a fine laced mob, and a
coronet; round her forehead a ribbon embroidered with her name and
age, etc.
[1084] Alluding to this custom of interring ladies of rank in full dress,
Madame de Sévigné writes to her daughter:--"Mon Dieu, ma chère
enfant, que vos femmes sont sottes, vivantes et mortes! Vous me
faites horreur de cette fontange; quelle profanation! cela sent le
paganisme, ho! cela me dégoûteroit bien de mourir en Provence; il
faudroit que du moins je fusse assuré qu'on ne m'iroit pas chercher
une coëffeuse en même temps qu'un plombier. Ah! vraiment! fi! ne
parlez plus de cela."--Lettre 627. Paris, 13 Déc, 1688.
[1085] Laborde. _Itin. de l'Espagne._ Again, the Duc de Luynes says: "The
Curé of St. Sulpice related to me the fashion in which the Duke of
Alva, who died in Paris in 1739, was by his own will interred. A
shirt of the finest Holland, trimmed with new point lace, the finest
to be had for money; a new coat of Vardez cloth, embroidered in
silver; a new wig; his cane on the right, his sword on the left of
his coffin."--_Mémoires._
[1086] That grave-clothes were lace-trimmed we infer from the following
strange announcement in the _London Gazette_ for August 12th to
15th, 1678: "Whereas decent and fashionable lace shifts and
Dressings for the dead, made of woollen, have been presented to his
Majesty by Amy Potter, widow (the first that put the making of such
things in practice), and his Majesty well liking the same, hath upon
her humble Petition, been graciously pleased to give her leave to
insert this advertisement, that it may be known she now wholly
applies herself in making both lace and plain of all sorts, at
reasonable prices, and lives in Crane Court in the Old Change, near
St. Paul's Church Yard." Again, in November of the same year, we
find another advertisement:--"His Majesty, to increase the woollen
manufacture and to encourage obedience to the late act for burying
in woollen, has granted to Amy Potter the sole privilege of making
all sorts of woollen laces for the decent burial of the dead or
otherwise, for fourteen years, being the first inventor thereof."
[1087] Betterton's _History of the English Stage_. Her kindness to the
poet Savage is well known.
[1088] This seems to have been a spécialité of Gibbons; for we find among
the treasures of Strawberry Hill: "A beautiful cravat, in imitation
of lace, carved by Gibbons, very masterly."--_Hist. and Antiquities
of Twickenham._ London, 1797.
[1089] Mrs. Piozzi's _Memoirs_.
[1090] A lady, who had very fine old lace, bequeathed her "wardrobe and
lace" to some young friends, who, going after her death to take
possession of their legacy, were surprised to find nothing but new
lace. On inquiring of the old faithful Scotch servant what had
become of the old needle points, she said: "Deed it's aw there,
'cept a wheen auld Dudds, black and ragged, I flinged on the fire."
Another collection of old lace met with an equally melancholy fate.
The maid, not liking to give it over to the legatees in its
coffee-coloured hue, sewed it carefully together, and put it in a
strong soap lye on the fire, to simmer all night. When she took it
out in the morning, it was reduced to a jelly! Medea's caldron had
not been more effectual!
[1091] Cowper. "The Winter Evening."
[1092] Bishop Berkeley, in _A Word to the Wise_, writes of the English
labourers in the South of England on a summer's evening "sitting
along the streets of the town or village, each at his own door, with
a cushion before him, making bone lace, and earning more in an
evening's pastime than an Irish family would in a whole day."
[1093] "Wells, bone lace and knitting stockings."--Anderson.
[1094] "Launceston, where are two schools for forty-eight children of both
sexes. The girls are taught to read, sew, and make bone lace, and
they are to have their earnings for encouragement."--_Magna
Britannia._ 1720.
Welsh lace was made at Swansea, Pont-Ardawe, Llanwrtyd, Dufynock,
and Brecon, but never of any beauty, some not unlike a coarse
Valenciennes. "It was much made and worn," said an aged Wesleyan
lady, "by our 'connexion,' and as a child I had all my frocks and
pinafores trimmed with it. It was made in the cottages; each
lace-maker had her own pattern, and carried it out for sale in the
country."
[1095] At what period, and by whom the lace manufactory of Ripon was
founded, we have been unable to ascertain. It was probably a relic
of conventual days, which, after having followed the fashion of each
time, has now gradually died out. In 1842 broad Trolly laces of
French design and fair workmanship were fabricated in the old
cathedral city; where, in the poorer localities near the Bond and
Blossomgate, young women might be seen working their intricate
patterns, with pillows, bobbins, and pins. In 1862 one old woman
alone, says our informant, sustains the memory of the craft, her
produce a lace of a small lozenge-shaped pattern (Fig. 132), that
earliest of all designs, and a narrow edging known in local parlance
by the name of "fourpenny spot."
[1096] Till its annexation to the Crown, the Isle of Man was the great
smuggling depôt for French laces. The traders then removed en masse
to the Channel Isles, there to carry on their traffic. An idiot
called "Peg the Ply" in Castletown (in 1842) was seen working at her
pillow on a summer's evening, the last lace-maker of the island.
Isle of Man lace was a simple Valenciennes edging.
[1097] Isle of Wight lace was honoured by the patronage of Queen Victoria.
The Princess Royal, reports the _Illustrated News_ of May, 1856, at
the drawing-room, on her first presentation, wore a dress of Newport
lace, her train trimmed with the same.
The weariness of incarceration, when at Carisbrook, did not bring on
Charles I. any distaste for rich apparel. Among the charges of 1648,
Sept. and Nov., we find a sum of nigh £800 for suits and cloaks of
black brocade tabby, black unshorn velvet, and black satin, all
lined with plush and trimmed with rich bone lace.
Some bobbin lace was made in the island, but what is known as "Isle
of Wight" resembles "Nottingham" lace. It is made in frames on
machine net, the pattern outlined with a run thread and filled in
with needle-point stitches. Queen Victoria had several lace tippets
made of Isle of Wight lace for the Royal children, and always chose
the Mechlin style of rose pattern. Now (1901) there are only two or
three old women workers left.
[1098] Lace-making was never the staple manufacture of the Channel Islands;
stockings and garments of knitted wool afforded a livelihood to the
natives. We have early mention of these articles in the inventories
of James V. of Scotland and of Mary Stuart. Also in those of Henry
VIII. and Queen Elizabeth, in which last we find (Gt. Ward. Acc., 28
& 29) the charge of 20s. for a pair of "Caligarum nexat' de factura
Garneseie," the upper part and "lez clocks" worked in silk. At the
beginning of the nineteenth century, when the island was inundated
with French refugees, lace-making was introduced with much success
into the Poor-House of St. Heliers. It formed the favourite
occupation of the ladies of the island, some of whom (1863) retain
the patterns and pillows of their mothers, just as they left them.
Of late years many of the old raised Venetian points have been
admirably imitated in "Jersey crochet work."
[1099] The Puritans again, on their part, transferred the fabric to the
other side of the Atlantic, where, says a writer of the eighteenth
century, "very much fine lace was made in Long Island by the
Protestant settlers."
[1100] See Chap. XXII.
[1101] The richly-laced corporax cloths and church linen are sent to be
washed by the "Lady Ancress," an ecclesiastical washerwoman, who is
paid by the churchwardens of St. Margaret's, Westminster, the sum of
8d.; this Lady Ancress, or Anchoress, being some worn-out nun, who,
since the dissolution of the religious houses, eked out an existence
by the art she had once practised within the convent.
[1102] In 1753 prizes were awarded for 14 pairs of curious needlework point
ruffles.
[1103] One society confers a prize of ten guineas upon a "gentlewoman for
an improvement in manufacture by finishing a piece of lace in a very
elegant manner with knitting-needles."
[1104] The lace of the three counties is practically equal--that is, it is
all made in a similar fashion, and the same patterns are met with in
each county. The "point" or "net" ground is met with in all, and
worked level with the pattern in the same way with bobbins.
[1105] Who fled from the Alva persecutions, and settled, first at Cranfield
in Bedfordshire, then at Buckingham, Stoney Stratford, and
Newport-Pagnel, whence the manufacture extended gradually over
Oxford, Northampton, and Cambridge. Many Flemish names are still to
be found in the villages of Bedfordshire.
[1106] Queen Katherine died 1536.
[1107] She retired to Ampthill early in 1531 while her appeal to Rome was
pending, and remained there till the summer of 1533.
[1108] Lace of the heavy Venetian point was already used for ecclesiastical
purposes, though scarcely in general use. The earliest known
pattern-books date from fifteen years previous to the death of
Katherine (1536).
[1109] Dr. Nicolas Harpsfield. Douay, 1622. (In Latin.)
Again we read that at Kimbolton "she plied her needle, drank her
potions, and told her beads."--_Duke of Manchester. Kimbolton
Papers._
[1110] A lady from Ampthill writes (1863): "The feast of St. Katherine is
no longer kept. In the palmy days of the trade both old and young
used to subscribe a sum of money and enjoy a good cup of Bohea and
cake, which they called 'Cattern' cake. After tea they danced and
made merry, and finished the evening with a supper of boiled stuffed
rabbits smothered with onion sauce." The custom of sending about
Cattern cakes was also observed at Kettering, in Northamptonshire.
[1111] _Tour through the whole Island of Great Britain_, by a Gentleman. 3
vols. 1724-27. Several subsequent editions of Defoe were published,
with additions, by Richardson the novelist in 1732, 1742, 1762,
1769, and 1778. The last is "brought down to the present time by a
gentleman of eminence in the literary world."
[1112] _Magna Britannia et Hibernia, or a New Survey of Great Britain,
collected and composed by an impartial hand_, by the Rev. Thos.
Owen. Lond. 1720-31.
[1113] State Papers Dom. Jac. I. Vol. 142. P. R. O.
[1114] Savary and Peuchet.
[1115] _Worthies._ Vol. i., p. 134.
[1116] _Magna Britannia_, Daniel and Samuel Lysons. 1806-22.
[1117] Describing the "lace and edgings" of the tradesman's wife, she has
"from Stoney Stratford the first, and Great Marlow the last."--_The
Complete English Tradesman_, Dan. Defoe. 1726.
[1118] Edition 1762.
[1119] In _Sheahan's History of Bucks_, published in 1862, the following
places are mentioned as being engaged in the industry:--"Bierton
(black and white lace), Cuddington, Haddenham, Great Hampden,
Wendover, Gawcott (black), Beachampton, Marsh Gibbon, Preston
Bisset, Claydon, Grendon, Dorton, Grandborough, Oving (black and
white), Waddesdon, Newport-Pagnell, Bletchley, Hopton, Great
Horwood, Bon Buckhill, Fenny Stratford, Hanslope (where 500 women
and children are employed--about one-third of the population),
Levendon, Great Sandford, Loughton, Melton Keynes, Moulsoe, Newton
Blossomville, Olney, Sherrington, and the adjoining villages, Stoke
Hammond, Wavendon, Great and Little Kimble, Wooleston, Aston Abbots,
Swanbourne, Winslow, Rodnage."
[1120] _The Voyage to Great Britain of Don Manuel Gonzales, late Merchant
of the City of Lisbon._--"Some say Defoe wrote this book himself; it
is evidently from the pen of an Englishman."--_Lowndes'
Bibliographers' Manual._ Bohn's Edition.
[1121] _Annual Register._
[1122] See _Britannia Depicta_, by John Owen, Gent. Lond. 1764, and others.
[1123] In 1785 there appears in the _Gentleman's Magazine_* "An essay on
the cause and prevention of deformity among the lace-makers of Bucks
and North Hants," suggesting improved ventilation and various other
remedies long since adopted by the lace-working population in all
countries.
* In 1761 appeared a previous paper, "to prevent the effects of
stooping and vitiated air," etc.
[1124] _Dict. of Commerce._
[1125] In Flanders also these glasses were made and used. The "mediæval
'ourinals' are alike the retorts of the alchemist and the
water-globes of the poor Flemish flax-thread spinners and lace
makers." _Old English Glasses._ A. Hartshorne.
[1126] The larger pins had heads put to them with seeds of _galium_ locally
called Hariffe or goose-grass; the seeds when fingered became hard
and polished.
[1127] Bobbins are usually made of bone, wood or ivory. English bobbins are
of bone or wood, and especially in the counties of Bedford, Bucks,
and Huntingdon, the set on a lace pillow formed a homely record of
their owner's life. The names of her family, dates and records,
births and marriages and mottoes, were carved, burnt, or stained on
the bobbin, while events of general interest were often commemorated
by the addition of a new bobbin. The _spangles_, _jingles_ (or
_gingles_) fastened to the end of the bobbin have a certain
interest; a waistcoat button and a few coral beads brought from
overseas, a family relic in the shape of an old copper seal, or an
ancient and battered coin--such things as these were often attached
to the ring of brass wire passed through a hole in the bobbin. The
inscriptions on the bobbins are sometimes burned and afterwards
stained, and sometimes "pegged" or traced in tiny leaden studs, and
consist of such mottoes as "Love me Truley" (_sic_), "Buy the Ring,"
"Osborne for Ever," "Queen Caroline," "Let no false Lover win my
heart," "To me, my dear, you may come near," "Lovely Betty," "Dear
Mother," and so forth.--R. E. Head. "Some notes on Lace-Bobbins."
_The Reliquary_, July, 1900.
[1128] Too much stress cannot be laid on the importance of using fine linen
thread. Many well-meant efforts are entirely ruined by the coarse
woolly cotton thread used for what ought to be a fine make of lace.
That good thread can be got in Great Britain is evident from the
fact that the Brussels dealers employ English thread, and sell it to
Venice for the exquisite work of Burano. Needless to say, no
Englishman has attempted to make a bid for the direct custom of the
8,000 lace-workers there employed.
[1129] Catalogue of lace (Victoria and Albert Museum).
[1130] _The Conversion and Experience of Mary Hurll', or Hurdle, of
Marlborough, a maker of bone lace in this town_, by the Rev. ----
Hughes, of that town.
[1131] Waylen's _History of Marlborough_.
[1132] "At Bland, on the Stour, between Salisbury and Dorchester, they made
the finest lace in England, valued at £30 per yard."--_Universal
Dict. of Trade and Commerce._ 1774.
[1133] "Much bone lace was made here, and the finest point in England,
equal, if not superior, to that of Flanders, and valued at £30 per
yard till the beginning of this century."--_Hutchins' Hist. of the
County of Dorset._ 2nd Edition, 1796.
[1134] What this celebrated point was we cannot ascertain. Two samplars
sent to us as Blandford point were of geometric pattern resembling
the samplar, Fig. 5.
[1135] In 1752.
[1136] Roberts' _Hist. of Lyme Regis_.
[1137] Burd, Genest, Raymunds, Brock, Couch, Gerard, Murck, Stocker,
Maynard, Trump, Groot, etc.
[1138] "We may rather infer that laces of silk and coarse thread were
already fabricated in Devonshire, as elsewhere; and that the
Flemings, on their arrival, having introduced the fine thread, then
spun almost exclusively in their own country, from that period the
trade of bone-lace-making flourished in the southern as well as in
the midland counties of England" (Mrs. Palliser, 1869).
[1139] Ker's _Synopsis_, written about the year 1561. Two copies of this
MS. exist, one in the library of Lord Haldon at Haldon House (Co.
Devon), the other in the British Museum. This MS. was never printed,
but served as an authority for Westcote and others.
[1140] "She was a daughter of John Flay, Vicar of Buckrell, near Honiton,
who by will in 1614 bequeaths certain lands to Jerom Minify (_sic_),
son of Jerom Minify, of Burwash, Sussex, who married his only
daughter."--Prince's _Worthies of Devon_. 1701.
Up to a recent date the Honiton lace-makers were mostly of Flemish
origin. Mrs. Stocker, _ob._ 1769; Mr. J. Stocker, + 1788, and four
daughters; Mrs. Mary Stocker, + 179-; Mr. Gerard, + 1799, and
daughter; Mrs. Lydia Maynard (of Anti-Gallican celebrity), + 1786;
Mrs. Ann Brock, + 1815; Mrs. Elizabeth Humphrey, + 1790, whose
family had been in the lace manufacture 150 years and more. The
above list has been furnished to the author by Mrs. Frank Aberdein,
whose grandfather was for many years in the trade. Mrs. Treadwin, of
Exeter, found an old lace-worker using a lace "Turn" for winding
sticks, having the date 1678 rudely carved on the foot, showing how
the trade was continued in the same family from generation to
generation.
[1141] _View of Devon._ T. Westcote.
[1142] Her bequest is called "Minifie's Gift."
[1143] Here follows the numbers of the people in a few places who get their
living by making lace. Among those quoted in Devonshire as
interesting to compare with the present day are:--
"Coumbraligh 65, Sidmont 302, Axmouth 73, Sidbury 321, Buckerall 90,
Farway 70, Utpotery 118, Branscombe Beare and Seaton 326, Honyton
1341, Axminster 60, Otery St. Mary, 814."
[1144] Church Book of the Baptist Chapel of Lyme Regis.
[1145] Colyton and Ottery St. Mary were among the first. Wherever the say
or serge decayed, the lace trade planted itself.
In the church of Colyton, under a fine canopied tomb, repose back to
back in most unsociable fashion the recumbent figures of Sir John
and Lady Pole. "Dame Elizabeth, daughter of Roger How, merchant of
London, ob. 1623," wears a splendid cape of three rows of bone lace
descending to the waist. Her cap is trimmed with the same material.
As this lace may be of Devonshire fabric, we give a wood-cut of the
pattern (Fig. 150).
Sundry Flemish names may still be seen above the shop-windows of
Colyton similar to those of Honiton--Stocker, Murch, Spiller,
Rochett, Boatch, Kettel, Woram, and others.
[1146] Don Manuel Gonzales mentions "bone lace" among the commodities of
Devon.
[1147] The lace manufacture now extends along the coast from the small
watering-place of Seaton, by Beer, Branscombe, Salcombe, Sidmouth,
and Ollerton, to Exmouth, including the Vale of Honiton and the
towns above mentioned.
[1148] 1753.
[1149] _Complete System of Geography._ Emanuel Bowen, 1747.
This extract is repeated verbatim in _England's Gazetteer_, by
Philip Luckombe. London, 1790.
[1150] Died 1398.
[1151] The best _réseau_ was made by hand with the needle, and was much
more expensive.
[1152] Mrs. Aberdein, of Honiton, informed Mrs. Palliser that her father
often paid ninety-five guineas per lb. for the thread from Antwerp
(1869).
[1153] The manner of payment was somewhat Phoenician, reminding one of
Queen Dido and her bargain. The lace ground was spread out on the
counter, and the worker herself desired to cover it with shillings;
and as many coins as found place on her work she carried away as the
fruit of her labour. The author once calculated the cost, after this
fashion, of a small lace veil on real ground, said to be one of the
first ever fabricated. It was 12 inches wide and 30 inches long,
and, making allowance for the shrinking caused by washing, the value
amounted to £20, which proved to be exactly the sum originally paid
for the veil. The ground of this veil, though perfect in its
workmanship, is of a much wider mesh than was made in the last days
of the fabric. It was the property of Mrs. Chick.
[1154] "The last specimen of 'real' ground made in Devon was the marriage
veil of Mrs. Marwood Tucker. It was with the greatest difficulty
workers could be procured to make it. The price paid for the ground
alone was 30 guineas" (1869).
[1155] With the desire of combining the two interests, her Majesty ordered
it to be made on the Brussels (machine-made) ground.
[1156] _A_MARANTH, _D_APHNE, _E_GLANTINE, _L_ILAC, _A_URICULA, _I_VY,
_D_AHLIA, _E_GLANTINE.
[1157] The workers of Beer, Axmouth, and Branscombe, have always been
considered the best in the trade.
[1158] Exposition Universelle de 1867. Rapport du Jury International,
"Dentelles," par Felix Aubry.
[1159] For the encouragement of Agriculture, Arts, Manufactures, and
Commerce. The prizes were offered for the best Sprigs, Nosegays,
Borders for shawls, veils, or collars, Lappets, collars and cuffs,
Pocket-handkerchiefs, etc., "of good workmanship and design, worked
either in Flowers, Fruits, Leaves, or Insects, strictly designed
from nature." Three prizes were awarded for each description of
article. The Society also offered prizes for small application
sprigged veils, and for the best specimens of braidwork, in
imitation of Spanish point.
[1160] _Honiton Lace_, by Mrs. Treadwin. London, 1874. _Honiton
Lace-making_, by Devonia, London, 1874.
[1161] Lappets and scarfs were made of trolly lace from an early date. Mrs.
Delarey, in one of her letters, dated 1756, speaks of a "trolly
head." Trolly lace, before its downfall, has been sold at the
extravagant price of five guineas a yard.
[1162] "Fifty years since Devonshire workers still make a 'Greek' lace, as
they termed it, similar to the 'dentelles torchons' so common
through the Continent. The author has seen specimens of this fabric
in a lace-maker's old pattern-book, once the property of her mother"
(Mrs. Palliser, 1869).
[1163] Though no longer employed at lace-making, the boys in the schools at
Exmouth are instructed in crochet work (1869).
[1164] Of Otterton.
[1165] In Woodbury will be found a small colony of lace-makers who are
employed in making imitation Maltese or Greek lace, a fabric
introduced into Devon by order of her late Majesty the Queen Dowager
on her return from Malta. The workers copy these coarse geometric
laces with great facility and precision. Among the various cheap
articles to which the Devonshire workers have of late directed their
labours is the tape or braid lace, and the shops of the country are
now inundated with their productions in the form of collars and
cuffs (1869.)
[1166] The Honiton pillows are rather smaller than those for
Buckinghamshire lace, and do not have the multiplicity of starched
coverings--only three "pill cloths," one over the top, and another
on each side of the lace in progress; two pieces of horn called
"sliders" go between to take the weight of the bobbins from dragging
the stitches in progress; a small square pin-cushion is on one side,
and stuck into the pillow is the "needle-pin"--a large sewing needle
in a wooden handle, and for picking up loops through which the
bobbins are placed. The pillow has to be frequently turned round in
the course of the work, so that no stand is used, and it is rested
against a table or doorway; and formerly, in the golden days, in
fine weather there would be rows of workers sitting outside their
cottages resting their "pills" against the back of the chair in
front.
The bobbins used in Honiton lace-making are delicately-fashioned
slender things of smooth, close-grained wood, their length averaging
about three and a half inches. They have no "gingles," and none of
the carving and relief inlayings of the Buckinghamshire and
Bedfordshire bobbins; but some of them are curiously stained with a
brown pigment in an irregular pattern resembling the mottlings of
clouded bamboo or those of tortoise-shell.
[1167] "The author has visited many lace-schools in Devon, and though it
might be desired that some philanthropist would introduce the infant
school system of allowing the pupils to march and stretch their
limbs at the expiration of every hour, the children,
notwithstanding, looked ruddy as the apples in their native
orchards; and though the lace-worker may be less robust in
appearance than the farm-servant or the Cheshire milkmaid, her life
is more healthy far than the female operative in our northern
manufactories" (1875).
[1168] "A good lace-maker easily earns her shilling a day, but in most
parts of Devonshire the work is paid by the truck system, many of
the more respectable shops giving one-half in money, the remaining
sixpence to be taken out in tea or clothing, sold often considerably
above their value. Other manufacturers--to their shame, be it
told--pay their workers altogether in grocery, and should the
lace-maker, from illness or any other cause, require an advance in
cash, she is compelled to give work to the value of fourteen-pence
for every shilling she receives. Some few houses pay their workers
in money" (1875).
[1169] Medals were won at the Chicago World's Fair for Devonshire lace by
Mrs. Fowler and Miss Radford, of Sidmouth. The latter has also
received the freedom of the City of London for a beautiful lace fan,
her sprigs being the finest and most exquisite models of flowers and
birds it is possible to produce in lace. A third medal was won by
the Italian laces at Beer.
[1170] Those held at Sidbury and Sidford are very successful, and the
children, ranging in age from, nine to fifteen, come regularly for
their "lace." It is interesting to watch the improvement in the work
of the "flys," the first lesson, and as a rule each child makes
forty to fifty before going on to anything further.
[1171] At Beer, where fishing is the staple industry, in bad fish seasons
the women can earn more than the men; and at Honiton in the hard
winter of 1895 the lace-makers kept themselves and their families,
and were spared applying for relief--all honour to their skill and
self-helpfulness.
[1172] "1539. Ane uther gowne of purpour satyne with ane braid pasment of
gold and silver," etc.
"Twa Spanye cloikis of black freis with ane braid pasment of gold
and silver."
"1542. Three peces of braid pasmentes of gold and
silver."--_Inventories of the Royal Wardrobe and Jewel House._
1488-1606. Edinb. 1815.
[1173] 1542. Same Inv.
[1174] In the Inv. of the Earl of Huntley, 1511-12, there is mention of
dresses "passamenté d'or."
[1175] Chap. X., note.
1537. James V. and Lord Somerville at Holyrood:--"Where are all your
men and attendants, my Lord?"
"Please, your Majesty, they are here"--pointing to the lace which
was on his son and two pages' dress. The King laughed heartily and
surveyed the finery, and bade him "Away with it all, and let him
have his stout band of spears again."
[1176] Croft's _Excerpta Antiqua_.
The Countess of Mar, daughter of the first Duke of Lennox and
granddaughter by her mother's side to Marie Touchet. She was
daughter-in-law to the preceptress of James VI., and in 1593 had the
honour, at the baptism of Prince Henry, of lifting the child from
his bed and delivering him to the Duke of Lennox. A portrait of this
lady, in the high Elizabethan ruff, and with a "forepart" and tucker
of exquisite raised Venice point, hung (circ. 1870) in the
drawing-room of the late Miss Katherine Sinclair.
[1177] "Une robe de velours vert couverté de Broderies, gimpeures, et
cordons d'or et d'argent, et bordée d'un passement de même.
"Une robe veluat cramoisi bandée de broderie de guimpeure d'argent.
"Une robe de satin blanc chamarrée de broderie faite de guimpeure
d'or.
"Id. de satin jaune toute couverte de broderye gumpeure, etc.
"Robe de weloux noyr semée de geynpeurs d'or."--_Inv. of
Lillebourg._ 1561.
[1178] "Chamarrée de bisette."--_Inv. of Lillebourg._ 1561.
"Ane rabbat of wolvin thread with passmentet with silver."
[1179] Chap. III.
[1180] See LACIS, Chap. II.
[1181] See NEEDLEWORK, Chap. I.
[1182] Her lace ruffs Mary appears to have had from France, as we may infer
from a letter written by Walsingham, at Paris, to Burleigh, when the
Queen was captive at Sheffield Castle, 1578: "I have of late granted
a passport to one that conveyeth a box of linen to the Queen of
Scots, who leaveth not this town for three or four days. I think
your Lordship shall see somewhat written on some of the linen
contained in the same, that shall be worth the reading. Her Majesty,
under colour of seeing the fashion of the _ruffes_, may cause the
several parcels of the linen to be held to the fire, whereby the
writing may appear; for I judge there will be some such matter
discovered, which was the cause why I did the more willingly grant
the passport."
[1183] In 1575.
[1184] There was some demur about receiving the nightcaps, for Elizabeth
declared "that great commotions had taken place in the Privy Council
because she had accepted the gifts of the Queen of Scots. They
therefore remained for some time in the hands of La Mothe, the
ambassador, but were finally accepted."--Miss Strickland.
[1185] "Inventaire of our Soveraine Lord and his dearest moder.
1578."--Record Office, Edinburgh.
[1186] _Records of Life_, by Miss H. Pigott. 1839.
[1187] Similar to the New Year's Gift of the Baroness Aletti to Queen
Elizabeth:--
"A veil of lawn cutwork flourished with silver and divers
colours."--Nichols' _Royal Progresses._
[1188] "Twa quaiffs ane of layn and uther of woving thread.
Ane quaiff of layn with twa cornettes sewitt with cuttit out werk of
gold and silver.
Twa pair of cornettes of layn sewitt with cuttit out werk of gold.
Ane wovin collar of thread passementit with incarnit and blew silk
and silver."--_Inv. of 1578._
[1189] "Ane rabbat of cuttit out werk and gold and cramoisie silk with the
handis (cuffs) thereof.
Ane rabbat of cuttit out werk of gold and black silk.
Ane rabbat of cuttit out werk with purpure silk with the handis of
the same."--_Ibid._
[1190] "Twa towell claiths of holane claith sewitt with cuttit out werk and
gold.
Four napkinnes of holane claith and cammaraye sewitt with cuttit out
werk of gold and silver and divers cullours of silk."--_Ibid._
[1191] Published by Prince Labanoff. "Recueil de Lettres de Marie Stuart."
T. vii., p. 247.
[1192] _Marriage Expenses of James VI._, 1589. Published by the Bannatyne
Club.
[1193] _Accounts of the Great Chamberlain of Scotland._ 1590.--Bannatyne
Club.
[1194] In 1581, 1597, and 1621.
[1195] The same privilege was extended to their wives, their eldest sons
with their wives, and their eldest daughters, but not to the younger
children.
[1196] 1633. In the _Account of Expenses for the young Lord of Lorne_, we
find:--
"2 ells Cambridg' at 8s. the ell for ruffles, 16s.
"2 ells of Perling at 30s., the uther at 33s. 4d., £3 3s.
4d."--Innes' _Sketches of Early Scotch History._
[1197] January, 1686.
[1198] "In 1701, when Mistress Margaret, daughter of the Baron of
Kilravock, married, 'flounced muslin and lace for combing cloths,'
appear in her outfit."--Innes' _Sketches_.
[1199] In a pamphlet published 1702, entitled, _An Accompt carried between
England and Scotland_, alluding to the encouragement of the yarn
trade, the author says: "This great improvement can be attested by
the industry of many young gentlewomen that have little or no
portion, by spinning one pound of fine lint, and then breaking it
into fine flax and whitening it. One gentlewoman told me herself
that, by making an ounce or two of it into fine bone lace, it was
worth, or she got, twenty pounds Scots for that part of it; and
might, after same manner, five or eight pounds sterling out of a
pound of lint, that cost her not one shilling sterling. Now if a law
were made not to import any muslin (her Grace the Duchess of
Hamilton still wears our finest Scots muslin as a pattern to
others--she who may wear the finest apparel) and Holland lace, it
would induce and stir up many of all ranks to wear more fine 'Scots
lace,' which would encourage and give bread to many young
gentlewomen and help their fortunes." Then, among the products of
Scotland by which "we may balance any nation," the same writer
mentions "our white thread, and making laces."
"On Tuesday, the 16th inst., will begin the roup of several sorts of
merchants' goods, in the first story of the Turnpyke, above the head
of Bells Wynd, from 9 to 12 and 2 till 5. 'White thread
lace.'"--_Edinburgh Courant._ 1706.
[1200] See Chap. XXV., Queen Anne.
[1201] _Edinburgh Advertiser._ 1764.
[1202] 1745. The following description of Lady Lovat, wife of the rebel
Simon, is a charming picture of a Scotch gentlewoman of the last
century:--
"When at home her dress was a red silk gown with ruffled cuffs and
sleeves puckered like a man's shirt, a fly cap of lace encircling
her head, with a mob cap laid across it, falling down on the cheeks;
her hair dressed and powdered; a lace handkerchief round the neck
and bosom (termed by the Scotch a _Befong_)--a white apron edged
with lace.... Any one who saw her sitting on her chair, so neat,
fresh, and clean, would have taken her for a queen in wax-work
placed in a glass case."--_Heart of Midlothian._
Sir Walter Scott, whose descriptions are invariably drawn from
memory, in his _Chronicles of the Canongate_, describes the
dressing-room of Mrs. Bethune Balliol as exhibiting a superb mirror
framed in silver filigree-work, a beautiful toilet, the cover of
which was of Flanders lace.
[1203] _Heart of Midlothian._
[1204] _Statistical Account of Scotland._ Sir John Sinclair. Edinburgh,
1792. Vol. ii., 198.
[1205] _Edinburgh Amusement._
[1206] 1755. Premium £2 offered. "For the whitest, best, and finest lace,
commonly called Hamilton lace, and of the best pattern, not under
two yards in length and not under three inches in breadth."
[1207] The Edinburgh Society did not confine their rewards to Hamilton
lace; imitation of Dresden, catgut lace, gold, silver, and even
livery lace, each met with its due reward.
1758. For imitation of lace done on catgut, for ruffles, a gold
medal to Miss Anne Cant, Edinburgh.
For a piece of livery lace done to perfection to J. Bowie, 2
guineas.
To W. Bowie for a piece of gold and silver lace, 2 guineas.
[1208] 1769. Pennant, in his _Tour_, mentions among the manufactures of
Scotland thread laces at Leith, Hamilton and Dalkeith.
[1209] In 1762, Dec. 9, a schoolmistress in Dundee, among thirty-one
accomplishments in which she professes to instruct her pupils, such
as "waxwork, boning fowls without cutting the back," etc.,
enumerates, No. 21, "True point or tape lace," as well as "washing
Flanders lace and point."
Again, in 1764, Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell advertise in their
boarding-school "lacework and the washing of blonde laces; the
pupils' own laces washed and got up at home. Terms £24."
At Miss Glen's boarding-school in the Trunk Close, 1768, young
ladies are taught "white and coloured seam and washing of
lace"--gratis.
These lady-teachers were not appointed in Scotland without giving
due proofs of their capacity. In 1758 the magistrates and council of
Aberdeen, being unanimous as to the "strict morality, Dresden work,
modesty, and catgut lace-making," etc., of Miss Betsey Forbes,
elected her to the office of schoolmistress of the city.
In _The Cottagers of Glenburnie_ a lady, Mrs. Mason, tells a long
story of the young laird having torn a suit of lace she was busied
in getting up.
[1210] _Edinburgh Advertiser._
[1211] 1774. "Several punds of badly-spun yarn was burnt by the stamp
master in Montrose." This announcement constantly occurs.
[1212] About this period a Mr. Brotherton, of Leith, seems to have made a
discovery which was but a prelude to the bobbin net. It is thus
described in the _Weekly Magazine_ of 1772:--"A new invention has
lately been discovered by Mr. Brotherton, in Leith, for working
black silk lace or white thread lace on a loom, to imitate any
pattern whatever, and the lace done in this way looks fully as well
as if sewed, and comes much cheaper. It is done any breadth, from
three inches to three-quarters of a yard wide."
[1213] In 1775 Dallas, Barclay & Co., advertise a selling off of fine
point, Brussels thread, blond, and black laces of all kinds, silver
double edged lace, etc.--_Edinburgh Advertiser._
1775. "Black blonde and thread laces, catguts of all sorts, just
arrived from the India House in London in the
Canongate."--_Caledonian Mercury._
"Fashions for January; dresses trimmed with Brussels point or
Mignonette."--_Ibid._ Same year.
[1214] "Madame Puteau carries on a lace manufacture after the manner of
Mechlin and Brussels. She had lately twenty-two apprentices from the
Glasgow Hospital.... Mrs. Puteau has as much merit in this branch as
has her husband in the making of fine thread. This he manufactures
of such a fineness as to be valued at £10 the pound
weight."--_Essays on the Trade, Commerce, Manufactures, Fisheries,
etc., of Scotland._ David Loch. 1778.
[1215] "If you look at the wardrobes of your grandmother, you will perceive
what revolutions have happened in taste of mankind for laces and
other fineries of that sort. How many suits of this kind do you meet
with that cost amazing sums, which are now, and have long since
been, entirely useless. In our own day did we not see that in one
year Brussels laces are most in fashion and purchased at any price,
while the next perhaps they are entirely laid aside, and French or
other thread laces, or fine sewings, the names of which I know not,
highly prized."--_Observations on the National Industry of
Scotland._ Anderson. 1778.
[1216] Lace-making at Hamilton is now a thing of the past, replaced in the
nineteenth century by a tambour network for veils, scarfs and
flounces.
[1217] _Essay on the Dress of the Early Irish._ J. C. Walker. 1788.
[1218] _The Image of Irelande_, by Jhon Derricke. 1578.
[1219] In 1562. See Camden. _Hist. Eliz._
[1220] Henry VIII. 1537. Against Irish fashions. Not "to weare any shirt,
smock, kerchor, bendel, neckerchour, mocket, or linen cappe colored
or dyed with saffron," and not to use more than seven yards of linen
in their shirts or smocks.
[1221] 4 Edw. IV., Harl MSS. No. 1419. _b.-g._ 494.
[1222] That lace ruffs soon appeared in Ireland may be proved by the effigy
on a tomb still extant in the Abbey of Clonard, in which the Dillon
arms are conspicuous, and also by paintings of the St. Lawrence
family, _circ._ 1511, preserved at Howth Castle.
In the portrait at Muckruss of the Countess of Desmond she is
represented with a lace collar. It was taken, as stated at the back
of the portrait, "as she appeared at the court of King James, 1614,
and in y^e 140th year of her age." Thither she went to endeavour to
reverse the attainder of her house.
[1223] At the end of the last century there lived at Creaden, near
Waterford, a lady of the name of Power, lineal descendant of the
kings of Munster, and called the Queen of Creaden. She affected the
dress of the ancient Irish. The border of her coif was of the finest
Irish-made Brussels lace; her jacket of the finest brown cloth
trimmed with gold lace; her petticoat of the finest scarlet cloth
bordered with a row of broad gold lace; all her dress was of Irish
manufacture.
[1224] _Gentleman's and Citizen's Almanack_, by G. Watson. Dublin, 1757.
[1225] "The freedom of the city of Dublin was also conferred upon her,
presented in due form in a silver box as a mark of esteem for her
great charities and constant care of the Foundling children in the
city workhouse."--_Dublin Freeman's Journal_, July 30th, 1765.
[1226] _Gentleman's and Citizen's Almanack_, by Samuel Watson. 1773.
[1227] "The Lady Arabella Denny died 1792, aged 85; she was second daughter
of Thomas Fitzmaurice, Earl of Kerry. The Irish Academy, in
acknowledgment of her patriotic exertions, offered a prize of 100
guineas for the best monody on her death. It was gained by John
Macaulay, Esq."--_Dublin Freeman's Journal_, July 20th, 1766.
[1228] Wakefield writes in 1812: "Lace is not manufactured to a large
extent in Ireland. I saw some poor children who were taught weaving
by the daughters of a clergyman, and Mr. Tighe mentions a school in
Kilkenny where twelve girls were instructed in the art. At
Abbey-leix there is a lace manufacture, but the quantity made is not
of any importance."--_Account of Ireland. Statistical and
Political._ Edw. Wakefield. 1812.
[1229] _Pall Mall Gazette_, May 8th, 1897.
[1230] Walker was a man of literary and artistic tastes, and educated for
the Church, but, marrying the daughter of a lace-manufacturer, he
set up in that business in Essex, working for the London wholesale
trade. He removed next to Limerick, where he continued till 1841,
when he sold the business, but his successor becoming bankrupt, he
never received the purchase money, and died 1842, his ingenuity and
industry ill-rewarded. In some work (we have lost the reference) it
is stated that "Coggeshall, in Essex, made a tambour lace, a sort of
medium between lace and embroidery." Could this be Walker's
manufacture?
[1231] In 1855 the number of workers employed numbered 1,500. In 1869 there
were less than 500. In 1869 Mrs. Palliser writes of the tambour lace
industry: "The existing depression of the trade has been partly
caused by the emigration of girls to America and the colonies, while
glove-making and army clothing employ the rest; and indeed the
manufacture aiming only at cheapness had produced a lace of inferior
quality, without either novelty or beauty of design, from which
cause Limerick lace has fallen into disrepute."
[1232] No account of Limerick lace would be complete which does not make
some reference to the work of the Sisters of Mercy at Kinsale, Co.
Cork, where so much is now being done to revive those industries
which were originally started with the object of coping with the
famine of 1846. This revival is largely due to Mr. A. S. Cole, who
originally suggested the establishment of an art class in connection
with South Kensington, with Mr. Brennar, of the Cork School of Art,
as its master. The studio is in connection with the workroom, which
secures constant touch between the designing, alteration, and
adaptation of patterns and their execution. (_Pall Mall Gazette_,
May 8th, 1897.)
[1233] Various schools have been established throughout Ireland. Lady de
Vere taught the mistress of a school on her own demesne at Curragh,
Co. Limerick, the art of making application flowers, giving her own
Brussels lace as patterns. The work was so good as soon to command a
high price, and the late Queen of the Belgians actually purchased a
dress of it at Harding's, and took it back with her to Brussels, The
fabric is known by the name of "Irish" or "Curragh point."
The school set up at Belfast by the late Jane Clarke exhibited in
1851 beautiful imitations of the old Spanish and Italian points;
amongst others a specimen of the fine raised Venetian point, which
can scarcely be distinguished from the original. It is now in the
Vict. and Albert Museum (1869).
[1234] From the tradition that a Jesuit procured the first Venetian lace
pattern used in Ireland.
[1235] It was in the famine period that the Rector of Headford, Co. Galway,
brought about a revival of the pillow lace, which was known to a few
women in the county--taught, according to the tradition, by a
soldier from foreign parts at some unknown date. This work is now
reviving, thanks to the energetic care of Mrs. Dawson.
[1236] Mr. A. S. Cole gives the following classification of Irish laces:--
There are seven sorts of Irish lace.
1. Flat needle-point lace.
2. Raised needle-point lace.
3. Embroidery on net, either darning or chain-stitch.
4. Cut cambric or linen work in the style of guipure or appliqué
lace.
5. Drawn thread-work in the style of Reticella, and Italian cut
points.
6. Pillow lace in imitation of Devon lace.
7. Crochet.
[1237] _History of Machine-Wrought Hosiery and Lace Manufacture._ W.
Felkin. London, 1867.
[1238] See GERMANY.
[1239] An open stitch on stockings, called the "Derby rib," had been
invented by Jedediah Strutt, in 1758.
[1240] By Rev. William Lee, of Calverton (Nottinghamshire). The romantic
story is well known; but whether actuated, as usually stated, by
pique at the absorbing attention paid to her knitting by a lady,
when he was urging his suit--or, as others more amiably affirm, by a
desire to lighten the labour of his wife, who was obliged to
contribute to their joint support by knitting stockings--certain it
is that it was he who first conceived the idea of the
stocking-frame, and completed it about 1589. His invention met with
no support from Queen Elizabeth, so Lee went to France, where he was
well received by Henry IV.; but the same year Henry was
assassinated, and the Regent withdrawing her protection, Lee died of
grief and disappointment. The arms of the Framework Knitters'
Company (Fig. 162) are a stocking-frame, having for supporters
William Lee in full canonicals and a female holding in her hand
thread and a knitting-needle. After Lee's death his brother returned
to England, where Lee's invention was then appreciated.
Stocking-making became the fashion, everyone tried, it, and people
had their portraits taken with gold and silver needles suspended
round their necks.
[1241] Vandyke had also appended the chain to his stocking-frame, and the
zigzags formed by the ribs of his stockings were called "Vandyke,"
hence the term now generally applied to all indented edges.
[1242] Mechlin net was disused in 1819 from its too great elasticity.
[1243] The "bobbins" on which the thread is wound for the weft consist of
two circular copper plates riveted together, and fixed upon a small
carriage or frame which moves backwards and forwards like a weaver's
shuttle.
[1244] The Old Loughboro' employed sixty movements to form one mesh--a
result now obtained by twelve. It produced 1,000 meshes a
minute--then thought a wonderful achievement, as by the pillow only
five or six can be obtained. A good circular machine now produces
30,000 in the same time.
The quality of bobbin net depends upon the smallness of the meshes,
their equality in size, and the regularity of the hexagons.
[1245] Bobbin net is measured by the "rack," which consists of 240 meshes.
This mode of counting was adopted to avoid the frequent
disagreements about measure which arose between the master and the
workmen in consequence of the elasticity of the net. The exchange of
linen to cotton thread was the source of great regret to the Roman
Catholic clergy, who by ecclesiastical law can only wear albs of
flax.
[1246] This association was formed by Ludlam, or General Ludd, as he was
called, a stocking-frame worker at Nottingham in 1811, when prices
had fallen. The Luddites, their faces covered with a black veil,
armed with swords and pistols, paraded the streets at night, entered
the workshops, and broke the machines with hammers. A thousand
machines were thus destroyed. Soon the net-workers joined them and
made a similar destruction of the bobbin net machines. Although many
were punished, it was only with the return of work that the society
disappeared in 1817.
[1247] Heathcoat represented Tiverton from 1834 to 1859, colleague of Lord
Palmerston.
Steam power was first introduced by Mr. J. Lindley in 1815-16, but
did not come into active operation till 1820; it became general
1822-23.
[1248] McCulloch.
[1249] The most extraordinary changes took place in the price of the
finished articles. Lace which was sold by Heathcoat for 5 guineas a
yard soon after the taking out of his patent can now be equalled at
eighteenpence a yard; quillings, as made by a newly-constructed
machine in 1810, and sold at 4s. 6d., can now be equalled and
excelled at 1½d. a yard; while a certain width of net which brought
£17 per piece 20 years ago is now sold for 7s. (1843). Progressive
value of a square yard of plain cotton bobbin net:
£ s. s. d.
1809 5 0 1830 2 0
1813 2 0 1833 1 4
1815 1 10 1836 0 10
1818 1 0 1842 0 6
1821 0 12 1850 0 4
1824 0 8 1856 0 3
1827 0 4 1862 0 3
_Histoire du Tulle et des Dentelles mécaniques en Angleterre et en
France_, par S. Ferguson fils. Paris, 1862.
"Bobbin net and lace are cleaned from the loose fibres of the cotton
by the ingenious process of gassing, as it is called, invented by
the late Mr. Samuel Hall, of Nottingham. A flame of gas is drawn
through the lace by means of a vacuum above. The sheet of lace
passes to the flame opaque and obscured by loose fibre, and issues
from it bright and clear, not to be distinguished from lace made of
the purest linen thread, and perfectly uninjured by the
flame."--_Journal of the Society of Arts._ Jan., 1864.
[1250] In 1826 Mr. Huskisson's reduction of the duty on French tulle caused
so much distress in Leicester and Nottingham, that ladies were
desired to wear only English tulle at court; and in 1831 Queen
Adelaide appeared at one of her balls in a dress of English silk
net.
[1251] John Hindres, in 1656, first established a stocking-frame in France.
[1252] The net produced was called "Tulle simple et double de Lyon et de
Vienne." The net was single loops, hence the name of "single press,"
given to these primitive frames.
[1253] In 1801 George Armitage took a "point net" machine to Antwerp, and
made several after the same model, thus introducing the manufacture
into Belgium. He next went to Paris, but the wholesale contraband
trade of Hayne left him no hope of success. He afterwards went to
Prussia to set up net and stocking machines. At the age of
eighty-two he started for Australia, where he died, in 1857, aged
eighty-nine.
[1254] The great difficulty encountered by the French manufacturers
consisted in the cotton. France did not furnish cotton higher than
No. 70; the English ranges from 160 to 200. The prohibition of
English cotton obliged them to obtain it by smuggling until 1834,
when it was admitted on paying a duty. Now they make their own, and
are able to rival Nottingham in the prices of their productions. A
great number of Nottingham lace-makers have emigrated to Calais.
[1255] The Caen blond first suggested the idea.
[1256] The first net frame was set up at Brussels in 1801. Others followed
at Termonde, 1817; Ghent, 1828; Sainte Fosse, etc.
[1257] D. Wyatt.
[1258] Mr. Ferguson, the inventor of the bullet-hole, square net (tulle
carré), and wire-ground (point de champ ou de Paris), had
transferred his manufacture, in 1838, from Nottingham to Cambrai,
where, in partnership with M. Jourdan, he made the "dentelle de
Cambrai," and in 1852 the "lama" lace, which differs from the
Cambrai inasmuch as the weft (_trame_) is made of mohair instead of
silk. Mr. Ferguson next established himself at Amiens, where he
brought out the Yak, another mixed lace.
[1259] The first patents were:--
1836. Hind and Draper took out one in France, and 1837 in England.
1838. Ferguson takes a patent at Cambrai under the name of his
partner Jourdan.
1839. Crofton.
1841. Houston and Deverill, for the application of the Jacquard to
the Leaver machine. The great manufactures of Nottingham and Calais
are made on the Leaver Jacquard frame.
The first patterned net was produced, 1780, by E. Frost, the
embroidery made by hand.
[1260] Cantor Lectures on the Art of Lace-Making. A. S. Cole. 1880.
[1261] "The machines now in use are the Circular, Leaver, Transverse Warp
and Pusher. Out of 3,552 machines computed to be in England in 1862
2,448 were at Nottingham."--_International Exhibition, Juror's
Report._
[1262] _Daphne lagetta._
[1263] He makes a paste of the plant which is the usual food of the
caterpillar, and spreads it thinly over a stone or other flat
substance; then with a camel's-hair pencil dipped in olive oil he
draws upon the coating of paste the pattern he wishes the insects to
leave open. The stone being placed in an inclined position, the
caterpillars* are laid at the bottom, and the animals eat and spin
their way up to the top, carefully avoiding every part touched by
the oil, but devouring the rest of the paste.--_Encyclopædia
Britannica._
* _Phalæna pandilla._
[1264] Two interesting papers were published in the _Gazette des Beaux
Arts_ for 1863 and 1864, entitled, "Essai bibliographique sur les
anciens dessins de dentelles, modèles de tapisseries, patrons de
broderies et publiés le xvi. et le xvii. siècle," &c, by the Marquis
Girolamo d'Addo, of Milan.
[1265] Cambridge University Library.
[1266] Paris, Bibliothèque Nat. Gravures, L. h. 13 d.*
[1267] Bib. Nat. V. 1897.*--Genoa. Cav. Merli, 1528 (?).
[1268] Paris, Bib. de l'Arsenal. 11,952.*
[1269] Oxford, Bib. Bodleian.
[1270] Milan, Cavaliere Bertini.
[1271] Venice, Library of St. Mark.
[1272] Bib. Nat. Grav. L. h. 13. e.*
[1273] Bib. de l'Arsenal. 11,951.*
[1274] Silvestre, _Marques Typographiques des Imprimeurs en France, depuis
1470_. Paris, 1853-61.
[1275] Quoted in Cat. Cappi, of Bologna, 1829.
[1276] Quoted in Cat. Cappi, of Bologna, 1829.
[1277] _Ibid._
[1278] _Ibid._
[1279] Cat. Bib. Heber., part vi., p. 258. No. 3,514.
[1280] Paris, Bib. Sainte-Geneviève. V. 634.* Bound in one volume with the
three following. (Nos. 16, 17, and 18.)--Catalogue de Livres
provenant de la Bibliothèque de M. L. D. D. L. V. (Duke de La
Vallière). Paris, 1763. T. xi., No. 2,204.
[1281] Bib. Ste. Geneviève. V. 634.*--Bib. de l'Arsenal. No. 11,953.*--Cat.
d'Estrées. Paris, 1740-46. No. 8,843.3.
[1282] Bib. Ste. Geneviève. V. 634.*--Bib. de l'Arsenal. No. 11,953.*--Cat.
d'Estrées. No. 8,843. 1.
[1283] Bib. Ste. Geneviève. V. 634.*--Bib. de l'Arsenal. No. 11.953.*
[1284] Paris, Bib. Baron Jérôme Pichon.*
[1285] Bib. Nat. Grav. L. h. 4.*
[1286] Bib. Nat. Grav. L. h. 4. a.*--Catalogo ragionato dei libri posseduti
dal Conte di Cicognara. Pisa, 1821. No. 1,818.
[1287] Library V. and A. Museum.--Venice, Lib. St. Mark,--Milan, Bib.
Marquis d'Adda.
[1288] Milan, Bib. Marquis G. d'Adda.
[1289] Rome, Bib. Prince Massimo.
[1290] Bib. de l'Arsenal. 11,954 (with D. de Sera).*
[1291] Genoa, Cav. Merli.
[1292] Quoted by Cav. Merli.
[1293] Florence. M. Bigazzi.
[1294] Paris, Bib. Nat. Milan, Bib. Belgiosa and Marquis d'Adda.
[1295] Bib. de l'Arsenal. 11,953.*--Bologna, Bib. Comm.--Cat. d'Estrées.
8843. No. 2.
[1296] Mr. E. Arnold.
[1297] Royal Library, Munich.
[1298] Cat. Cicognara. 1583. No. 4.
[1299] Bib. de l'Arsenal. No. 11,953.*--Mr. E. Arnold.
[1300] Florence, M. Bigazzi.
[1301] Cat. Cicognara. 1583. No. 1. Bound in one volume, with six others.
[1302] _Ibid._ 1583. No. 5.
[1303] Cat. Cicognara. 1583. No. 6.
[1304] _Ibid._ 1583. No. 7.
[1305] Cat. Cicognara. No. 17
[1306] _Ibid._ 1583. No. 3.
[1307] Bib. de l'Arsenal. 11,953.*
[1308] Bib. de l'Arsenal. 11,953.*--Mrs. Stisted. Bagni di Lucca.
[1309] Bib. Nat. V. 1901.*--Bib. de l'Arsenal. 11,973.*--Cat. d'Estrées.
[1310] Bib. Nat. V. 1901.*--Bib. de l'Arsenal. 11,973.*--Cat. d'Estrées.
[1311] Trezola, in the Riviera dialect, signifies a plait-tresse. "Porta i
capei in trezola." ("She wears her hair plaited.")
[1312] Bib. de l'Arsenal. 11,955 _bis_,* with _Vera Perfettione_ and
_Fiori_ of F. Franceschi, and _Corona_ of Vecellio.
[1313] Quoted by Willemin.
[1314] Quoted in Art. "Tricot et Travaux des Dames."
[1315] Bib. M. d'Adda.
[1316] Dresden, New Museum for Art and Industry. Communicated by Mr.
Gruner.
[1317] Bib. de l'Arsenal. 11,954.*
[1318] Milan. Bib. Marquis Girolamo d'Adda.
[1319] Bib. Rouen. No. 1313. Both Parts in one vol.*
[1320] We have received notice of there being a copy of the original
edition at Turin, in the Library of the University.
[1321] Bib. Nat. Grav. L. h. 2.* (with Part I.): "Ex Bibliotheca
illustrissimi Johannis d'Estrées Cameracensis Archiepiscopi
designati quam Monasterio St. Germani à Pratis legavit. Anno 1718."
[1322] Brussels, Bib. Roy. M. Alvin, Conservateur en Chef.
[1323] Bib. Ste. Geneviève. V. 634.*--Bib. Nat. Grav. L. h. 2. b.*
[1324] Bib. Ste. Geneviève (with 1st Part).*--Bib. Nat. Grav. L. h. 2. b.
(with 1st Part).*
[1325] Bib. de l'Arsenal. 11,954 _bis._*
[1326] British Museum. Grenville Lib. 2584.*
[1327] Bib. Nat. Grav. L. h. 1. a.*
[1328] Brussels, Bib. Roy.--Cat. Cicognara. No. 1822.
[1329] Quoted in Watt's Bibliographia Britannica.
[1330] Bib. de l'Arsenal. No. 11,954 _ter._*
[1331] Bib. de l'Arsenal. 11,955 _bis._*--Bib. Bodleian.
[1332] _Ibid._
[1333] Bib. de l'Arsenal. 11,955* (with Books 2 and 3). _Mazzette_ means
detached bouquets--sprigs.
[1334] Rouen, Bib. Bound in one vol. with the three parts of the _Corona_.*
[1335] Communicated by Mr. Gruner.
[1336] Note of M. Leber, who gives the dates of the dedication of the Rouen
copy as follows:--B. 1, 20 Jan.; B. 2, 24 Jan.; B. 3, 15 June, all
1591. The _Gioiello_, 10 Nov., 1592. The vol. containing the two
works has 101 plates, in addition to 10 leaves of titles,
dedications, etc.
[1337] Victoria and Albert Museum.
[1338] Brussels, Bib. Royale. Jean de Glen is also author of a work
entitled _Des Habits, Moeurs, Ceremonies, Façons de faire, anciennes
& modernes du Monde, par J. de Glen, Linger_. Liége. J. de Glen.
1601. In-8.
[1339] Lyon. M. Yemenis.
[1340] Turin, Count Manzoni.
[1341] Berlin, Royal Library.
[1342] Dresden, New Museum of Art and Industry.
[1343] Bib. Nat. V. 1902,* and Grav. L. h. 3.*--Bib. de l'Arsenal.
11,956.*--Bib. Ste. Geneviève.*
[1344] Victoria and Albert Museum.
[1345] Bib. Nat. Grav. B. c. 22. Vinciolo.*
[1346] Catalogue des Livres de feu M. Picard. 1780. No. 455.
[1347] Brussels, Bib. Royale.
[1348] Nuremberg, German Museum.
[1349] Jew's stitch is given both by Sibmacher and Latomus. (No. 95.) We
do not know what it is.
[1350] Cited by Cav. Merli, in his _Origine delle Trine_.
[1351] Cat. Evans, Strand.
[1352] Paris, Musée de Cluny.*
[1353] Bib. Nat. Grav. L. h. 4. b*.--Nuremberg, German Museum.
[1354] Stockholm. Royal Library. (Communicated by the librarian, Mr. H.
Wieselgren.) In the same library is a work, without title-page or
date, for "broderies et de tous autres besongnant à l'aiguille," by
Hieronymus Cock, containing, with designs of every description, a
few patterns for Spanish point of great beauty.
[1355] Bib. Baron J. Pichon, 2 copies.*--Cat. d'Estrées.--Bib. Nat. Grav.
B. c. 22.* (Title-page wanting.)
[1356] Bib. Rouen. No. 1,314.*--Bib. Baron J. Pichon.*
[1357] Florence, Bib. Prof. Santerelli.--Rome, Bib. Prince Massimo.
[1358] Cat. Evans, Strand.
[1359] Hesse-Cassel, Public Library. Communicated by Mr. N. R. Bernhardi,
the head Librarian.
[1360] Lowndes, _Bibliographer's Manual_. New edit. by Henry Bohn.
[1361] Victoria and Albert Museum.
[1362] Vienna, Imperial Library.
[1363] Brussels, Bib. Roy.
[1364] Bib. Imp. Grav. L. h. 2. a.*--Brussels, Bib. Roy.--Cat. d'Estrées
8847.
[1365] In the possession of Mrs. Marryat. "Maes y dderwen."--Bib. Bodleian.
[1366] Quoted by Mr. Douce (_Illustrations of Shakspeare_).
[1367] S. Marino. M. P. Bonella.
[1368] Berlin, Roy. Library.
[1369] Bib. de l'Arsenal. 11,956 _bis_.*
[1370] Victoria and Albert Museum.
[1371] Victoria and Albert Museum.
[1372] _Ibid._
[1373] _A History of Hand-made Lace._ Mrs. Nevill Jackson and E. Jesurum,
1900.
[1374] _A History of Hand-made Lace._ Mrs. Nevill Jackson and E. Jesurum.
1900.
[1375] _A History of Hand-made Lace._ Mrs. Nevill Jackson and E. Jesurum.
1900.
[1376] _A History of Hand-made Lace._ Mrs. Nevill Jackson and E. Jesurum.
1900.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "History of Lace" ***
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