CHAPTER II

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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}