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}