LACE.*
THE history of Ikee is at least as important as the history of gems, which has employed some of the wisest pens, and Mrs. Bury Palliser has executed her task with a kind of loving care. Describing first of all the invention and then the manufacture of lace, she has culled from a thousand books, memoirs, inventories, histories of discoveries, and trade accounts, all the paragraphs and stories and disquisitions bearing upon each particular kind, till we have the complete materials for a history of each sort from guipure to Valenciennes. From the plan of the book the information is of necessity somewhat scrappy and anecdotic, but the woman who reads it through—and what woman who takes it up will not read it through?—will know all about the lace she wears and the lace she can only envy, who invented it, where it is made, the great historical pieces of it said to exist or to have been made, and the reasons why she is bound to give such enormous prices for her trimming. Men would perhaps have been better pleased bad the differences in lace been a little more fully explained, but the book is written for women, and every woman understands lace by intuition, cell tell,'at twelve, stuff made by machine from the genuine article, and, at twenty, distinguish " Aleucon" from " Honiton " without touching the fabric. Beautifully printed and illustrated with patterns, full of anecdote, and brimming over with information, Mrs. Palliser's book is sure of a reception which will make all criticism seem impertinent. Instead of criticizing therefore we shall endeavour to do something much more impu- dent—endeavour to make the subject of lace decently intelligible to those male beings who hitherto have only paid without under- standing their wives or daughters' bills.
Lace is in Europe one of the newest of the permanent luxuries. It does not appear to have been worn by the Roman ladies, whose notion of dress indeed was confined to a long chemise, but it has been in use in the East almost from time immemorial, cer- tainly ever since the invention of muslin, for which no time can be fixed. In Europe, however, it only appeared in the sixteenth century as the latest and most luxuriously expensive form of "cut work" or embroidery upon linen, and the first book of patterns ever circulated was that of a Venetian named Vinciolo, to whom Catherine de Medici, it is said, granted a monopoly in 1585. A packet of this manufacture, which was ornamented with rich geometric patterns or subjects in squares, birds, flowers, and what not, was presented to Mary Stuart in 1567, and is called in her accounts" dentello," the modern name. The popular word, how- ever, was " passoment," which held its ground to the middle of the seventeenth century. Lace has been from the first marked by peculiarities of manufacture, which Mrs. Bury Palliser thus describes:—
" All lace is terminated by two edges, the pearl, picot, or couronno, —a row of little points at equal distances, and the footing or engrelure, —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. Lace is divided into point and pillow. The first is made by the needle on a parchment pattern, and termed needle point, point a l'aiguille, punt° in aca. The word is sometimes incorrectly applied to pillow lace, as
point do Malines, point de Valenciennes, tkc The manner of making pillow lace need hard4 be described. The 'pillow' 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 boles pins are stuck into the cushion. The threads with which the lace is formed are wound upon bobbins,' formerly bones, 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. 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 form- ing the groundwork, according to the design pricked out on the parch- ment. Such has been the pillow, and the method of using it, with but slight variety, for more than three centuries."
The manufacture slowly rose into fashion till in 1763 on the occasion of the baptism of the Duke of York, the Queen sat up on a bed covered with a counterpane ornamented with lace which. had cost 3,783/, say 20,000/. of to-day. Brussels lace in parti- cular became very early an article of considerable export, and proportionably as dear as it is now, when a really fine flounce 13 yards. long by 14 inches wide has been known to cost 6001., or 435/. for the actual manufacture. Of the laces now used almost all are known by the name of the city in which The Iiistory of Lace. By Mrs. Bury Palliser. Londmi: Sampson Low sad Co.
they are prepared, " guipure," a word which is now mis- applied, but which seems originally to have meant only metal lace, being now almost the only exception. The present meaning seems to be extended to any very open and very heavy lace, the original idea being, as it were, maintained in cheaper materials. "Venice point," once so valuable, has disappeared, and the laces now most popularly known are those of Brussels, Geneva, Mechlin, Alencon, Valenciennes, and Honiton, though there are many others which connoisseurs love even more. Brussels lace, "in usage called point d'Angleterre," a name derived apparently from its being forbidden in England in 1662, and therefore smuggled over, can only be made in Bel- gium, many attempts to equal it in other countries having failed, from the difficulty of obtaining a peculiarly fine thread, and also from the hereditary skill of the Brussels workwomen in working raised flowers. Tbe lace is now always worked on the " reseau" ground, made on the pillow, and embroidered with flowers or other patterns either by the hand or on the pillow,. The good specimens are made by seven bands, whose work is combined by the masters alone. These are :—
" 1. Brochelense, or drochelense (Flemish, drocheles), makes the vrai resean.-2. Denteliare (kantwerkes), the footing.-3. Faisense de point d'aignille (needlewerkes), the point flowers.-4. Fonnouse (groundworkes) is charged with the open work (jours) in the plat.-5. Jointeuse or attacheuse (lashwerkes), unites the different sections of the ground together.-6. Platteuse (platwerkes) makes the plat flowers. —7. Striqueuse, or appliqueuse (strikes), is charged with the sewing (application) of the flowers upon the ground."
It is a mistake to suppose that the best Brussels lace is always discoloured. The best is a pure white, the other idea arising• from the dislike of our ancestors to encounter the excessive ex- pense and risk of cleaning it when soiled. They used therefore to wash it in coffee, and declare they liked the dirty yellow tinge which proved to all people that it was too costly to wash. Genoa point, renowned in the seventeenth century, has in our time almost died out, but it was made on the pillow, and its fame seems to have been owing chiefly to an artistic magnificence of design. "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 flat
thread which forms the flower, and gives to this lace the character of embroidery—hence it is sometimes called broderie de Malines." This manufacture has also died out, and genuine speci- mens are therefore valuable from their antiquity as well as their
beauty. Alencon lace is the invention of Madame Gilbert, whose factory was founded by Colbert, and who, despairing of teaching her workwomen the true Italian stitch, struck out a now path for herself, and so hit the fancy of the world that the manu- facture was before the Revolution said to be worth 12,000,000 livres a year. We give a single extract to show the perfection of care with which the costlier lace is made :— " Point d'Alencon is made entirely by band, with a line needle, upon a parchment pattern, in small pieces, afterwards united by invisible seams. Each part is executed by a special workwoman. Formerly it required eighteen different hands to complete a piece of lace; the number, we believe is now reduced to twelve. The design, engraved upon a copper plate, is printed off in divisions upon pieces of parch-. ment ten inches long, each numbered, according to their order. Green parchment is now used, the worker being 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 'reseau' to make the ground, which is of two kinds, bride and resean. The delicate reseau is worked backwards and for- wards from the footing to the picot—of the bride more hereafter. For the flowers the worker supplies herself with a long needle and a fine thread; with these she works the point none (button-hole 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, parchment, and linen together are cut with a sharp razor passed between the two folds of linen, any little defects repaired, and then re- mains the great work of uniting all these segments imperceptibly together. This devolves upon the head of the fabric, and is a work requiring the greatest nicety. An ordinary pair of men's ruffles would be divided into ten pieces, but when the order must ho executed quickly the subdivisions are even greater. The stitch by which these sections are worked is-termed assemblage.' When finished, a steel in- strument, called aficot, is passed into each flower, to polish it, and re- move any inequalities in its surface. The more primitive lobster's claw was used until late years for the same purpose."
The present patterns are admirable copies of flowers, grapes, and ferns, and the mauufacture, after rising and falling several times, is now once more flourishing. In the Exhibition of 1851
there was a flounce valued at 22,000 francs, and in 1859 a dross valued at 200,000 francs (8,000/.) was presented by the Emperor to his wife, and by her given to the Pope as a trimming to his rochet. Valenciennes has been less lucky. The lace was once accounted perfection, and "is altogether made upon the pillow, with one kind of thread for the pattern and the ground. The city-made lace was remarkable for the beauty of its ground, the richness of its design, and evenness of its tissue. From their solidity, les belles et eternelles Valenciennes' became an heirloom in each family. A mother bequeathed them to her daughter as she would now her jewels or her furs." The manufacture, however, died with the monarchy, the last bit of importance having been made in 1840 by the old workers gathered together for the pur- pose of making a present to be given by the city to the Duchess de Nemours. Honiton, the only English lace which has ever attained very general reputation, was probably introduced into Devonshire by the Flemings who fled from the Duke of Alva, and long retained a trace of its Flemish origin in its patterns. They are now chiefly sprigs. "It is to its sprigs that Honiton owes its great reputation. Like the Brussels, they were made separately. At first they were worked in with the pillow, after- wards 'appliqué,' or seWn on the ground." The wedding dress of Her Majesty was made at Honiton, and cost 1,0001., and "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, with Prince's feathers intermixed with ferns, and introduced with the most happy effect." The Exhibition of 1851 injured Honiton, in- troducing a passion for cheapness, which at once injured the quality, and "the Honiton lace at the International Exhibition of 1862, though exquisite in quality and workmanship, could ill bear comparison with the fabrics of France and Belgium. The designs were crowded and spiritless, heavy medallions and clumsy arabesques encircled, with bouquets of flowers, poor imita- tions of nature r It is from this neglect in their patterns that Honiton has fallen in public estimation. While a woman who passes her life in making one Trolly or Valenciennes design acquires a proficiency over those who change their work, the sprig-maker, in course of time, becomes careless, is apt to dis- turb her pattern, misplace her pins, and so depart from her original design that in the course of a few years the sprig is no longer to be recognized." Indeed, the one maxim which is true of all lace is, that price is a necessary, though not a perfect, test of quality. The one merit of the article is, that it is the result of excessive and minute labour work- ing out with the needle an imitation of some natural object— a werk which cannot be rapid except at the sacrifice of nicety, and therefore can never be cheap. To men it has always appeared that lace could be better made with a machine, but women in all countries are agreed that machine-made lace is naught, and that beauty, strength, and grace of " fall " alike depend on manufacture by the hand. It would be a good thing if the work perished utterly out of the world. It adds nothing to art, its beauty being entirely borrowed, and it is made at the price of torture. In almost all countries its sellers have made fortunes, while its makers have starved. The glorious needlewomen of Valenciennes lived in dark cellars, and quitted the work at thirty years old with bleared eyes, while in Brussels rooms are arranged so as to throw only one ray of light on the work, the women often become blind, and though Mrs. Bury Palliser says the wages are high, that is true only of the very first class of workwomen. The ordinary hands get barely a franc a day, out of which they very often have to support their families. There is no thought required, the posture necessary contracts the chest, throws out the shoulders, and droops the head, the eyes grow dim, and there is at first no time, and latterly no inclination, for reasonable exercise. Point lace is as dear bought as any luxury prevalent in the world.
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