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