Chapter VIII: Part 8

LACCOLITE (Gr. [Greek: lakkos], cistern, [Greek: lithos], stone), in geology, the name given by Grove K. Gilbert to intrusive masses of igneous rock possessing a cake-like form, which he first described from the Henry Mountains of southern Utah. Their characteristic is that they have spread out along the bedding planes of the strata, but are not so broad and thin as the sheets or intrusive sills which, consisting usually of basic rocks, have spread over immense distances without attaining any great thickness. Laccolites cover a comparatively small area and have greater thickness. Typically they have a domed upper surface while their base is flat. In the Henry Mountains they are from 1 to 5 m. in diameter and range in thickness up to about 5000 ft. The cause of their peculiar shape appears to be the viscosity of the rock injected, which is usually of intermediate character and comparatively rich in alkalis, belonging to the trachytes and similar lithological types. These are much less fluid than the basalts, and the latter in consequence spread out much more readily along the bedding planes, forming thin flat-topped sills. At each side the laccolites thin out rapidly so that their upper surface slopes steeply to the margins. The strata above them which have been uplifted and bent are often cracked by extension, and as the igneous materials well into the fissures a large number of dikes is produced. At the base of the laccolite, on the other hand, the strata are flat and dikes are rare, though there may be a conduit up which the magma has flowed into the laccolite. The rocks around are often much affected by contact alteration, and great masses of them have sometimes sunk into the laccolite, where they may be partly melted and absorbed.

Gilbert obtained evidence that these laccolites were filled at depths of 7000 to 10,000 ft. and did not reach the surface, giving rise to volcanoes. From the effects on the drainage of the country it seemed probable that above the laccolites the strata swelled up in flattish eminences. Often they occur side by side in groups belonging to a single period, though all the members of each group are not strictly of the same age. One laccolite may be formed on the side of an earlier one, and compound laccolites also occur. When exposed by erosion they give rise to hills, and their appearance varies somewhat with the stage of development.

In the western part of South America laccolites agreeing in all
essential points with those described by Gilbert occur in considerable
numbers and present some diversity of types. Occasionally they are
asymmetrical, or have one steep or vertical side while the other is
gently inclined. In other cases they split into a number of sheets
spreading outwards through the rocks around. But the term laccolite
has also been adopted by geologists in Britain and elsewhere to
describe a variety of intrusive masses not strictly identical in
character with those of the Henry Mountains. Some of these rest on a
curved floor, like the gabbro masses of the Cuillin Hills in Skye;
others are injected along a flattish plane of unconformability where
one system of rocks rests on the upturned and eroded edges of an older
series. An example of the latter class is furnished by the felsite
mass of the Black Hill in the Pentlands, near Edinburgh, which has
followed the line between the Silurian and the Old Red Sandstone,
forcing the rocks upwards without spreading out laterally to any great
extent.

The term laccolite has also been applied to many granite intrusions,
such as those of Cornwall. We know from the evidence of mining shafts
which have been sunk in the country near the edge of these granites
that they slope downwards underground with an angle of twenty to
thirty degrees. They have been proved also to have been injected along
certain wall-marked horizons; so that although the rocks of the
country have been folded in a very complicated manner the granite can
often be shown to adhere closely to certain members of the
stratigraphical sequence for a considerable distance. Hence it is
clear that their upper surfaces are convex and gently arched, and it
is conjectured that the strata must extend below them, though at a
great depth, forming a floor. The definite proof of this has not been
attained for no borings have penetrated the granites and reached
sedimentary rocks beneath them. But often in mountainous countries
where there are deep valleys the bases of great granite laccolites are
exposed to view in the hill sides. These granite sills have a
considerable thickness in proportion to their length, raise the rocks
above them and fill them with dikes, and behave generally like typical
laccolites. In contradistinction to intrusions of this type with a
well-defined floor we may place the batholiths, bysmaliths, plutonic
plugs and stocks, which have vertical margins and apparently descend
to unknown depths. It has been conjectured that masses of this type
eat their way upwards by dissolving the rock above them and absorbing
it, or excavate a passage by breaking up the roof of the space they
occupy while the fragments detached sink downwards and are lost in the
ascending magma. (J. S. F.)

LACE (corresponding to Ital. _merletto_, _trina_; Genoese _pizzo_; Ger. _spitzen_; Fr. _dentelle_; Dutch _kanten_; Span. _encaje_; the English word owes something to the Fr. _lassis_ or _lacis_, but both are connected with the earlier Lat. _laqueus_; early French laces were also called _passements_ or insertions and _dents_ or edgings), the name applied to ornamental open work formed of threads of flax, cotton, silk, gold or silver, and occasionally of mohair or aloe fibre, looped or plaited or twisted together by hand, (1) with a needle, when the work is distinctively known as "needlepoint lace"; (2) with bobbins, pins and a pillow or cushion, when the work is known as "pillow lace"; and (3) by steam-driven machinery, when imitations of both needlepoint and pillow laces are produced. Lace-making implies the production of ornament and fabric concurrently. Without a pattern or design the fabric of lace cannot be made.

The publication of patterns for needlepoint and pillow laces dates from about the middle of the 16th century. Before that period lace described such articles as cords and narrow braids of plaited and twisted threads, used not only to fasten shoes, sleeves and corsets together, but also in a decorative manner to braid the hair, to wind round hats, and to be sewn as trimmings upon costumes. In a Harleian MS. of the time of Henry VI. and Edward IV., about 1471, directions are given for the making of "lace Bascon, lace indented, lace bordered, lace covert, a brode lace, a round lace, a thynne lace, an open lace, lace for hattys," &c. The MS. opens with an illuminated capital letter, in which is the figure of a woman making these articles. The MS. supplies a clear description how threads in combinations of twos, threes, fours, fives, to tens and fifteens, were to be twisted and plaited together. Instead of the pillow, bobbins and pins with which pillow lace soon afterwards was made, the hands were used, each finger of a hand serving as a peg upon which was placed a "bowys" or "bow," or little ball of thread. Each ball might be of different colour from the other. The writer of the MS. says that the first finger next the thumb shall be called A, the next B, and so on. According to the sort of cord or braid to be made, so each of the four fingers, A, B, C, D might be called into service. A "thynne lace" might be made with three threads, and then only fingers A, B, C would be required. A "round" lace, stouter than the "thynne" lace, might require the service of four or more fingers. By occasionally dropping the use of threads from certain fingers a sort of indented lace or braid might be made. But when laces of more importance were wanted, such as a broad lace for "hattys," the fingers on the hands of assistants were required. The smaller cords or "thynne laces," when fastened in simple or fantastic loops along the edges of collars and cuffs, were called "purls" (see the small edge to the collar worn by Catherine de' Medici, Pl. II. fig. 4). In another direction from which some suggestion may be derived as to the evolution of lace-making, notice should be taken of the fact that at an early period the darning of varied ornamental devices, stiff and geometric in treatment into hand-made network of small square meshes (see squares of "lacis," Pl. I. fig. 1) became specialized in many European countries. This is held by some writers to be "opus filatorium," or "opus araneum" (spider work). Examples of this "opus filatorium," said to date from the 13th century exist in public collections. The productions of this darning in the early part of the 16th century came to be known as "punto a maglia quadra" in Italy and as "lacis" in France, and through a growing demand for household and wearing linen, very much of the "lacis" was made in white threads not only in Italy and France but also in Spain. In appearance it is a filmy fabric. With white threads also were the "purlings" above mentioned made, by means of leaden bobbins or "fuxii," and were called "merletti a piombini" (see lower border, Pl. II. fig. 3). Cut and drawn thread linen work (the latter known as "tela tirata" in Italy and as "deshilado" in Spain) were other forms of embroidery as much in vogue as the darning on net and the "purling." The ornament of much of this cut and drawn linen work (see collar of Catherine de' Medici, Pl. II. fig. 4), more restricted in scope than that of the darning on net, was governed by the recurrence of open squares formed by the withdrawal of the threads. Within these squares and rectangles radiating devices usually were worked by means of whipped and buttonhole stitches (Pl. fig. 5). The general effect in the linen was a succession of insertions or borders of plain or enriched reticulations, whence the name "punto a reticella" given to this class of embroidery in Italy. Work of similar style and especially that with whipped stitches was done rather earlier in the Grecian islands, which derived it from Asia Minor and Persia. The close connexion of the Venetian republic with Greece and the eastern islands, as well as its commercial relations with the East, sufficiently explains an early transplanting of this kind of embroidery into Venice, as well as in southern Spain. At Venice besides being called "reticella," cut work was also called "punto tagliato." Once fairly established as home industries such arts were quickly exploited with a beauty and variety of pattern, complexity of stitch and delicacy of execution, until insertions and edgings made independently of any linen as a starting base (see first two borders, Pl. II. fig. 3) came into being under the name of "Punto in aria" (Pl. II. fig. 7). This was the first variety of Venetian and Italian needlepoint lace in the middle of the 16th century,[1] and its appearance then almost coincides in date with that of the "merletti a piombini," which was the earliest Italian cushion or pillow lace (see lower edging, Pl. II. fig. 3).

The many varieties of needlepoint and pillow laces will be touched on under the heading allotted to each of these methods of making lace. Here, however, the general circumstances of their genesis may be briefly alluded to. The activity in cord and braid-making and in the particular sorts of ornamental needlework already mentioned clearly postulated such special labour as was capable of being converted into lace-making. And from the 16th century onwards the stimulus to the industry in Europe was afforded by regular trade demand, coupled with the exertions of those who encouraged their dependents or protegés to give their spare time to remunerative home occupations. Thus the origin and perpetuation of the industry have come to be associated with the women folk of peasants and fishermen in circumstances which present little dissimilarity whether in regard to needle lace workers now making lace in whitewashed cottages and cabins at Youghal and Kenmare in the south of Ireland, or those who produced their "punti in aria" during the 16th century about the lagoons of Venice, or Frenchwomen who made the sumptuous "Points de France" at Alençon and elsewhere in the 17th and 18th centuries; or pillow lace workers to be seen at the present day at little seaside villages tucked away in Devonshire dells, or those who were engaged more than four hundred years ago in "merletti a piombini" in Italian villages or on "Dentelles au fuseau" in Flemish lowlands. The ornamental character, however, of these several laces would be found to differ much; but methods, materials, appliances and opportunities of work would in the main be alike. As fashion in wearing laces extended, so workers came to be drawn together into groups by employers who acted as channels for general trade.[2] Nuns in the past as in the present have also devoted attention to the industry, often providing in the convent precincts workrooms not only for peasant women to carry out commissions in the service of the church or for the trade, but also for the purpose of training children in the art. Elsewhere lace schools have been founded by benefactors or organized by some leading local lace-maker[3] as much for trading as for education. In all this variety of circumstance, development of finer work has depended upon the abilities of the workers being exercised under sound direction, whether derived through their own intuitions, or supplied by intelligent and tasteful employers. Where any such direction has been absent the industry viewed commercially has suffered, its productions being devoid of artistic effect or adaptability to the changing tastes of demand.

It is noteworthy that the two widely distant regions of Europe where pictorial art first flourished and attained high perfection, north Italy and Flanders, were precisely the localities where lace-making first became an industry of importance both from an artistic and from a commercial point of view. Notwithstanding more convincing evidence as to the earlier development of pillow lace making in Italy the invention of pillow lace is often credited to the Flemings; but there is no distinct trace of the time or the locality. In a picture said to exist in the church of St Gomar at Lierre, and sometimes attributed to Quentin Matsys (1495), is introduced a girl apparently working at some sort of lace with pillow, bobbins, &c., which are somewhat similar to the implements in use in more recent times.[4] From the very infancy of Flemish art an active intercourse was maintained between the Low Countries and the great centres of Italian art; and it is therefore only what might be expected that the wonderful examples of the art and handiwork of Venice in lace-making should soon have come to be known to and rivalled among the equally industrious, thriving and artistic Flemings. At the end of the 16th century pattern-books were issued in Flanders having the same general character as those published for the guidance of the Venetian and other Italian lace-makers.

FIG. 1.--PORTION OF A COVERLET COMPOSED OF SQUARES OF "LACIS" OR
DARNED NETTING, DIVIDED BY LINEN CUT-WORK BANDS.

The squares are worked with groups representing the twelve months, and
with scenes from the old Spanish dramatic story "Celestina." Spanish
or Portuguese. 16th century. (Victoria and Albert Museum.)

FIG. 2.--CORNER OF A BED-COVER OF PILLOW-MADE LACE OF A TAPE-LIKE
TEXTURE WITH CHARACTERISTICS IN THE TWISTED AND PLAITED THREADS
RELATING THE WORK TO ITALIAN "MERLETTI A PIOMBINI" OR EARLY ENGLISH
"BONE LACE."

Possibly made in Flanders or Italy during the early part of the 17th
or at the end of the 16th century. The design includes the Imperial
double-headed eagle of Austria with the ancient crown of the German
Empire. (Victoria and Albert Museum.)]

FIG. 3.--THREE VANDYKE OR DENTATED BORDERS OF ITALIAN LACE OF THE LATE
16TH CENTURY.

Style usually called "Reticella" on account of the patterns being
based on repeated squares or reticulations. The two first borders are
of needlepoint work; the lower border is of such pillow lace as was
known in Italy as "merletti a piombini."

FIG. 4.--CATHERINE DE MEDICI, WEARING A LINEN UPTURNED COLLAR OF CUT
WORK AND NEEDLEPOINT LACE.

Louvre. About 1540.

FIG. 5.--CORNER OF A NAPKIN OR HANDKERCHIEF BORDERED WITH "RETICELLA"
NEEDLEPOINT LACE IN THE DESIGN OF WHICH ACORNS AND CARNATIONS ARE
MINGLED WITH GEOMETRIC RADIATIONS.

Probably of English early 17th century.

FIG. 6.--AMELIE ELISABETH, COMTESSE DE HAINAULT, WEARING A RUFF OF
NEEDLEPOINT RETICELLA LACE.

By Morcelse. The Hague. About 1600.

FIG. 7.--BORDER OF FLAT NEEDLEPOINT LACE OF FULLER TEXTURE THAN THAT
OF FIG. 3, AND FROM A FREER STYLE OF DESIGN IN WHICH CONVENTIONALIZED
FLORAL FORMS HELD TOGETHER BY SMALL BARS OR TYES ARE USED.

Style called "Punto in Aria," chiefly on account of its independence
of squares or reticulations. Italian. Early 17th century.

(_Figs._ 4 _and_ 6 _by permission of Messrs Braun, Clement & Co.,
Dornach (Alsace), and Paris_.)]

France and England were not far behind Venice and Flanders in making needle and pillow lace. Henry III. of France (1574-1589) appointed a Venetian, Frederic Vinciolo, pattern maker for varieties of linen needle works and laces to his court. Through the influence of this fertile designer the seeds of a taste for lace in France were principally sown. But the event which _par excellence_ would seem to have fostered the higher development of the French art of lace-making was the aid officially given it in the following century by Louis XIV., acting on the advice of his minister Colbert. Intrigue and diplomacy were put into action to secure the services of Venetian lace-workers; and by an edict dated 1665 the lace-making centres at Alençon, Quesnoy, Arras, Reims, Sedan, Château Thierry, Loudun and elsewhere were selected for the operations of a company in aid of which the state made a contribution of 36,000 francs; at the same time the importation of Venetian, Flemish and other laces was strictly forbidden.[5] The edict contained instructions that the lace-makers should produce all sorts of thread work, such as those done on a pillow or cushion and with the needle, in the style of the laces made at Venice, Genoa, Ragusa and other places; these French imitations were to be called "points de France." By 1671 the Italian ambassador at Paris writes, "Gallantly is the minister Colbert on his way to bring the 'lavori d'aria' to perfection." Six years later an Italian, Domenigo Contarini, alludes to the "punto in aria," "which the French can now do to admiration." The styles of design which emanated from the chief of the French lace centre, Alençon, were more fanciful and less severe than the Venetian, and it is evident that the Flemish lace-makers later on adopted many of these French patterns for their own use. The provision of French designs (fig. 24) which owes so much to the state patronage, contrasts with the absence of corresponding provision in England and was noticed early in the 18th century by Bishop Berkeley. "How," he asks, "could France and Flanders have drawn so much money from other countries for figured silk, lace and tapestry, if they had not had their academies of design?"

The humble endeavours of peasantry in England (which could boast of no schools of design), Germany, Sweden, Russia and Spain could not result in work of so high artistic pretension as that of France and Flanders. In the 18th century good lace was made in Devonshire, but it is only in recent years that to some extent the hand lace-makers of England and Ireland have become impressed with the necessity of well-considered designs for their work. Pillow lace making under the name of "bone lace making" was pursued in the 17th century in Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, and in 1724 Defoe refers to the manufacture of bone lace in which villagers were "wonderfully exercised and improved within these few years past." "Bone" lace dates from the 17th century in England and was practically the counterpart of Flemish "dentelles au fuseau," and related also to the Italian "merletti a piombini" (see Pl. fig. 10). In Germany, Barbara Uttmann, a native of Nuremberg, instructed peasants of the Harz mountains to twist and plait threads in 1561. She was assisted by certain refugees from Flanders. A sort of "purling" or imitation of the Italian "merletti a piombini" was the style of work produced then.

Lace of comparatively simple design has been made for centuries in villages of Andalusia as well as in Spanish conventual establishments. The "point d'Espagne," however, appears to have been a commercial name given by French manufacturers of a class of lace made in France with gold or silver threads on the pillow and greatly esteemed by Spaniards in the 17th century. No lace pattern-books have been found to have been published in Spain. The needle-made laces which came out of Spanish monasteries in 1830, when these institutions were dissolved, were mostly Venetian needle-made laces. The lace vestments preserved at the cathedral at Granada hitherto presumed to be of Spanish work are verified as being Flemish of the 17th century (similar in style to Pl. fig. 14). The industry is not alluded to in Spanish ordinances of the 15th, 16th or 17th centuries, but traditions which throw its origin back to the Moors or Saracens are still current in Seville and its neighbourhood, where a twisted and knotted arrangement of fine cords is often worked[6] under the name of "Morisco" fringe, elsewhere called macramé lace. Black and white silk pillow laces, or "blondes," date from the 18th century. They were made in considerable quantity in the neighbourhood of Chantilly, and imported for mantillas by Spain, where corresponding silk lace making was started. Although after the 18th century the making of silk laces more or less ceased at Chantilly and the neighbourhood, the craft is now carried on in Normandy--at Bayeux and Caen--as well as in Auvergne, which is also noted for its simple "torchon" laces. Silk pillow lace making is carried on in Spain, especially at Barcelona. The patterns are almost entirely imitations from 18th-century French ones of a large and free floral character. Lace-making is said to have been promoted in Russia through the patronage of the court, after the visit of Peter the Great to Paris in the early days of the 18th century. Peasants in the districts of Vologda, Balakhua (Nijni-Novgorod), Bieleff (Tula) and Mzensk (Orel) make pillow laces of simple patterns. Malta is noted for producing a silk pillow lace of black or white, or red threads, chiefly of patterns in which repetitions of circles, wheels and radiations of shapes resembling grains of wheat are the main features. This characteristic of design, appearing in white linen thread laces of similar make which have been identified as Genoese pillow laces of the early 17th century, reappears in Spanish and Paraguayan work. Pillow lace in imitation of Maltese, Buckinghamshire and Devonshire laces is made to a small extent in Ceylon, in different parts of India and in Japan. A successful effort has also been made to re-establish the industry in the island of Burano near Venice, and pillow and needlepoint lace of good design is made there.

At present the chief sources of hand-made lace are France, Belgium, Ireland and England.

France is faithful to her traditions in maintaining a lively and graceful taste in lace-making. Fashion of late years has called for ampler and more boldly effective laces, readily produced with both braids and cords and far less intricate needle or pillow work than was required for the dainty and smaller laces of earlier date.

In Belgium the social and economic conditions are, as they have been in the past, more conducive and more favourable than elsewhere to lace-making at a sufficiently remunerative rate of wages. The production of hand-made laces in Belgium was in 1900 greater than that of France. The principal modern needle-made lace of Belgium is the "Point de Gaze"; "Duchesse" and Bruges laces are the chief pillow-made laces; whilst "Point Appliqué" and "Plat Appliqué" are frequently the results not only of combining needle-made and pillow work, but also of using them in conjunction with machine-made net. Ireland is the best producer of that substantial looped-thread work known as crochet (see figs. 25, 26, 27), which must be regarded as a hand-made lace fabric although not classifiable as a needlepoint or pillow lace. It is also quite distinct in character from pseudo-laces, which are really embroideries with a lace-like appearance, e.g. embroideries on net, cut and embroidered cambrics and fine linen. For such as these Ireland maintains a reputation in its admirable Limerick and Carrickmacross laces, made not only in Limerick and Carrickmacross, but also in Kinsale, Newry, Crossmaglen and elsewhere. The demand from France for Irish crochet is now far beyond the supply, a condition which leads not only to the rapid repetition by Irish workers of old patterns, but tends also to a gradual debasement of both texture and ornament. Attempts have been made to counteract this tendency, with some success, as the specimens of Irish crochet in figs. 25, 26 and 27 indicate.

FIG. 8.--MARY, COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE, WEARING A COIF AND CUFFS OF
RETICELLA LACE.

National Portrait Gallery. Dated 1614.

FIG. 9.--HENRI II., DUC DE MONTMORENCY, WEARING A FALLING LACE COLLAR.
By LE NAIN. Louvre. About 1628.

(_By permission of Messrs Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach (Alsace), and
Paris_.)

FIG. 10.--SCALLOPPED COLLAR OF TAPE-LIKE PILLOW-MADE LACE.

Possibly of English early 17th-century work. Its texture is typical of
a development in pillow-lace-making later than that of the lower edge
of "merletti a piombini" in Pl. II. fig. 3.

FIG. 11.--JAMES II. WEARING A JABOT AND CUFFS OF RAISED NEEDLEPOINT
LACE.

By RILEY. National Portrait Gallery. About 1685.

FIG. 12.--JABOT OF NEEDLEPOINT LACE WORKED PARTLY IN RELIEF, AND
USUALLY KNOWN AS "GROS POINT DE VENISE."

Middle of 17th century. Conventional scrolling stems with off-shooting
pseudo-blossoms and leafs are specially characteristic.

(_Figs._ 8 _and_ 11, _photo by Emery Walker_.)]

FIG. 13.--MME VERBIEST, WEARING PILLOW-MADE LACE _À RÉSEAU_.

From the family group by GONZALES COQUER. Buckingham Palace. About
1664.

(_By permission of Messrs Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach (Alsace), and
Paris_.)

FIG. 14.--PIECE OF PILLOW-MADE LACE USUALLY KNOWN AS "POINT DE
FLANDRES À BRIDES."

Of the middle of the 17th century, the designs for which were often
adaptations from those made for such needlepoint lace as that of the
Jabot in fig. 12.

FIG. 15.--PRINCESS MARIA TERESA STUART, WEARING A FLOUNCE OR TABLIER
OF LACE SIMILAR TO THAT IN FIG. 17. Dated 1695.

From a group by LARGILLIERE. National Portrait Gallery. (_Photo by
Emery Walker_.)

FIG. 16.--FLOUNCE OF PILLOW-MADE LACE _À RÉSEAU_.

Flemish, of the middle of the 17th century. This lace is usually
thought to be the earliest type of "Point d'Angleterre" in
contradistinction to the "Point de Flandres" (fig. 14).

FIG. 17--VERY DELICATE NEEDLEPOINT LACE WITH CLUSTERS OF SMALL RELIEF
WORK.

Venetian, middle of the 17th century, and often called "rose-point
lace," and sometimes "Point de Neige."]

An appreciable amount of pillow-made lace is annually supplied from Devonshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Northampton, but it is bought almost wholly for home use. The English laces are made almost entirely in accordance with the precedents of the 19th century--that is to say, in definite lengths and widths, as for borders, insertions and flounces, although large shaped articles, such as panels for dresses, long sleeves complete skirts, jackets, blouses, and fancifully shaped collars of considerable dimensions have of late been freely made elsewhere. To make such things entirely of lace necessitates many modifications in the ordinary methods; the English lace-workers are slow to adapt their work in the manner requisite, and hence are far behind in the race to respond to the fashionable demand. No countries succeed so well in promptly answering the variable call of fashion as France and Belgium.

As regards trade in lace, America probably buys more from Belgium than
from France; France and England come next as purchasers of nearly
equal quantities, after which come Russia and Italy.

The greatest amount of lace now made is that which issues from
machines in England, France and Germany. The total number of persons
employed in the lace industry in England in 1871 was 49,370, and in
1901 about 34,929, of whom not more than 5000 made lace by hand.

The early history[7] of the lace-making machine coincides with that of the stocking frame, that machine having been adapted about the year 1768 for producing open-looped fabrics which had a net-like appearance. About 1786 frames for making point nets by machinery first appear at Mansfield and later at Ashbourne and Nottingham and soon afterwards modifications were introduced into such frames in order to make varieties of meshes in the point nets which were classed as figured nets. In 1808 and 1809 John Heathcoat of Nottingham obtained patents for machines for making bobbin net with a simpler and more readily produced mesh than that of the point net just mentioned. For at least thirty years thousands of women had been employed in and about Nottingham in the embroidery of simple ornament on net. In 1813 John Leavers began to improve the figured net weaving machines above mentioned, and from these the lace-making machines in use at the present time were developed. But it was the application of the celebrated Jacquard apparatus to such machines that enabled manufacturers to produce all sorts of patterns in thread-work in imitation of the patterns for hand-made lace. A French machine called the "dentellière" was devised (see La Nature for the 3rd of March 1881), and the patterns produced by it were of plaited threads. The expense, however, attending the production of plaited lace by the "dentellière" is as great as that of pillow lace made by the hand, and so the machine has not succeeded for ordinary trade purposes. More successful results have been secured by the new patent circular lace machine of Messrs. Birkin & Co. of Nottingham, the productions of which, all of simple design, cannot be distinguished from hand-made pillow lace of the same style (see figs. 57, 58, 59).

Before dealing with technical details in processes of making lace whether by hand or by the machine, the component parts of different makes of lace may be considered. These are governed by the ornaments or patterns, which may be so designed, as they were in the earlier laces, that the different component parts may touch one another without any intervening groundwork. But as a wish arose to vary the effect of the details in a pattern ground-works were gradually developed and at first consisted of links or ties between the substantial parts of the pattern. The bars or ties were succeeded by grounds of meshes, like nets. Sometimes the substantial parts of a pattern were outlined with a single thread or by a strongly marked raised edge of buttonhole-stitched or of plaited work. Minute fanciful devices were then introduced to enrich various portions of the pattern. Some of the heavier needle-made laces resemble low relief carving in ivory, and the edges of the relief portions are often decorated with clusters of small loops. For the most part all this elaboration was brought to a high pitch of variety and finish by French designers and workers; and French terms are more usual in speaking of details in laces. Thus the solid part of the pattern is called the _toilé_ or clothing, the links or ties are called _brides_, the meshed grounds are called _réseaux_, the outline to the edges of a pattern is called _cordonnet_ or _brodé_, the insertions of fanciful devices _modes_, the little loops _picots_. These terms are applicable to the various portions of laces made with the needle, on the pillow or by the machine.

The sequence of patterns in lace (which may be verified upon referring to figs. 1 to 23) is roughly as follows. From about 1540 to 1590 they were composed of geometric forms set within squares, or of crossed and radiating line devices, resulting in a very open fabric, stiff and almost wiry in effect, without _brides_ or _réseaux_. From 1590 may be dated the introduction into patterns of very conventional floral and even human and animal forms and slender scrolls, rendered in a tape-like texture, held together by _brides_. To the period from 1620 to 1670 belongs the development of long continuous scroll patterns with _réseaux_ and _brides_, accompanied in the case of needle-made laces with an elaboration of details, e.g. _cordonnet_ with massings of _picots_. Much of these laces enriched with fillings or _modes_ was made at this time. From 1650 to 1700 the scroll patterns gave way to arrangements of detached ornamental details (as in Pl. VI. fig. 22): and about 1700 to 1760 more important schemes or designs were made (as in Pl. fig. 19, and in fig. 24 in text), into which were introduced naturalistic renderings of garlands, flowers, birds, trophies, architectural ornament and human figures. Grounds composed entirely of varieties of _modes_ as in the case of the _réseau rosacé_ (Pl. V. fig. 21) were sometimes made then. From 1760 to 1800 small details consisting of bouquets, sprays of flowers, single flowers, leaves, buds, spots and such like were adopted, and sprinkled over meshed grounds, and the character of the texture was gauzy and filmy (as in figs. 40 and 42). Since that time variants of the foregoing styles of pattern and textures have been used according to the bent of fashion in favour of simple or complex ornamentation, or of stiff, compact or filmy textures.

_Needlepoint Lace._--The way in which the early Venetian "punto in aria" was made corresponds with that in which needlepoint lace is now worked. The pattern is first drawn upon a piece of parchment. The parchment is then stitched to two pieces of linen. Upon the leading lines drawn on the parchment a thread is laid, and fastened through to the parchment and linen by means of stitches, thus constructing a skeleton thread pattern (see left-hand part of fig. 30). Those portions which are to be represented as the "clothing" or _toilé_ are usually worked as indicated in the enlarged diagram (fig. 29), and then edged as a rule with buttonhole stitching (fig. 28). Between these _toilé_ portions of the pattern are worked ties (_brides_) or meshes (_réseaux_), and thus the various parts united into one fabric are wrought on to the face of the parchment pattern and reproducing it (see right-hand part of fig. 30). A knife is passed between the two pieces of linen at the back of the parchment, cutting the stitches which have passed through the parchment and linen, and so releasing the lace itself from its pattern parchment. In the earlier stages, the lace was made in lengths to serve as insertions (_passements_) and also in vandykes (_dentelles_) to serve as edgings. Later on insertions and vandykes were made in one piece. All of such were at first of a geometric style of pattern (Pl. figs. 3-5 and 6).

Following closely upon them came the freer style of design already mentioned, without and then with links or ties--_brides_--interspersed between the various details of the patterns (Pl. II. fig. 7), which were of flat tape-like texture. In elaborate specimens of this flat point lace some lace workers occasionally used gold thread with the white thread. These flat laces ("Punto in Aria") are also called "flat Venetian point." About 1640 "rose (raised) point" laces began to be made (Pl. III. fig. 12). They were done in relief and those of bold design with stronger reliefs are called "gros point de Venise." Lace of this latter class was used for altar cloths, flounces, _jabots_ or neckcloths which hung beneath the chin over the breast (Pl. III. fig. 11), as well as for trimming the turned-over tops of jack boots. _Tabliers_ and ladies' aprons were also made of such lace. In these no regular ground was introduced. All sorts of minute embellishments, like little knots, stars and loops or _picots_, were worked on to the irregularly arranged _brides_ or ties holding the main patterns together, and the more dainty of these raised laces (Pl. fig. 17) exemplify the most subtle uses to which the buttonhole stitch appears capable of being put in making ornaments. But about 1660 came laces with _brides_ or ties arranged in a honeycomb reticulation or regular ground. To them succeeded lace in which the compact relief gave place to daintier and lighter material combined with a ground of meshes or _réseau_. The needle-made meshes were sometimes of single and sometimes of double threads. A diagram is given of an ordinary method of making such meshes (fig. 31). At the end of the 17th century the lightest of the Venetian needlepoint laces were made; and this class which was of the filmiest texture is usually known as "point de Venise à réseau" (Pl. V. fig. 20a). It was contemporary with the needle-made French laces of Alençon and Argentan[8] that became famous towards the latter part of the 17th century (Pl. V. fig. 20b). "Point d'Argentan" has been thought to be especially distinguished on account of its delicate honeycomb ground of hexagonally arranged _brides_ (fig. 32), a peculiarity already referred to in certain antecedent Venetian point laces. Often intermixed with this hexagonal _brides_ ground is the fine-meshed ground or _réseau_ (fig. 20b), which has been held to be distinctive of "point d'Alençon." But the styles of patterns and the methods of working them, with rich variety of insertions or _modes_, with the _brodé_ or _cordonnet_ of raised buttonhole stitched edging, are alike in Argentan and Alençon needle-made laces (Pl. V. fig. 20b and fig. 32). Besides the hexagonal _brides_ ground and the ground of meshes another variety of grounding (_réseau rosacé_) was used in certain Alençon designs. This ground consisted of buttonhole-stitched skeleton hexagons within each of which was worked a small hexagon of _toilé_ connected with the outer surrounding hexagon by means of six little ties or _brides_ (Pl. V. fig. 21). Lace with this particular ground has been called "Argentella," and some writers have thought that it was a specialty of Genoese or Venetian work. But the character of the work and the style of the floral patterns are those of Alençon laces. The industry at Argentan was virtually an offshoot of that nurtured at Alençon, where "lacis," "cut work" and "vélin" (work on parchment) had been made for years before the well-developed needle-made "point d'Alençon" came into vogue under the favouring patronage of the state-aided lace company mentioned as having been formed in 1665. Madame Despierre in her _Histoire du point d'Alençon_ gives an interesting and trustworthy account of the industry.

In Belgium, Brussels has acquired some celebrity for needle-made laces. These, however, are chiefly in imitation of those made at Alençon, but the _toilé_ is of less compact texture and sharpness in definition of pattern. Brussels needlepoint lace is often worked with meshed grounds made on a pillow, and a plain thread is used as a _cordonnet_ for their patterns instead of a thread overcast with buttonhole stitches as in the French needlepoint laces. Note the bright sharp outline to the various ornamental details in Pl. V. fig. 20b.

FIG. 18.--CHARLES GASPARD GUILLAUME DE VINTI-MILLE, WEARING LACE
SIMILAR IN STYLE OF DESIGN SHOWN IN FIG. 19. About 1730.

FIG. 19.--PORTION OF FLOUNCE, NEEDLEPOINT LACE COPIED AT THE BURANO
LACE SCHOOL FROM THE ORIGINAL OF THE SO-CALLED "POINT DE VENISE À
BRIDES PICOTÉES."

17th century. Formerly belonging to Pope Clement XIII., but now the
property of the queen of Italy. The design and work, however, are
indistinguishable from those of important flounces of "Point de
France." The pattern consists of repetitions of two
vertically-arranged groups of fantastic pine-apples and vases with
flowers, intermixed with bold rococo bands and large leaf devices. The
hexagonal meshes of the ground, although similar to the Venetian
"brides picotées," are much akin to the buttonhole stitched ground of
"Point d'Argentan." (Victoria and Albert Museum.)

FIG. 20.

A.--A LAPPET OF "POINT DE VENISE À RÉSEAU."

The conventional character of the pseudo-leaf and floral forms
contrasts with that of the realistic designs of contemporary French
laces. Italian. Early 18th century.

B.--A LAPPET OF FINE "POINT D'ALENÇON." Louis XV. period. The variety
of the fillings of geometric design is particularly remarkable in this
specimen, as is the buttonhole stitched cordonnat or outline to the
various ornamental forms.

FIG. 21.--BORDER OF FRENCH NEEDLEPOINT LACE, WITH GROUND OF "RÉSEAU
ROSACÉ." 18th century.]

FIG. 22.--JABOT OR CRAVAT OF PILLOW-MADE LACE. Brussels. Late 17th
century. (Victoria and Albert Museum.)

FIG. 23.--JABOT OR CRAVAT OF PILLOW-MADE LACE OF FANTASTIC FLORAL
DESIGN, THE GROUND OF WHICH IS COMPOSED OF LITTLE FLOWERS AND LEAVES
ARRANGED WITHIN SMALL OPENWORK VERTICAL STRIPS.

Brussels. 18th century. (Victoria and Albert Museum.)]

Needlepoint lace has also been occasionally produced in England. Whilst the character of its design in the early 17th century was rather more primitive, as a rule, than that of the contemporary Italian, the method of its workmanship is virtually the same and an interesting specimen of English needle-made lace inset into an early 17th-century shirt is illustrated in fig. 33. Specimens of needle-made work done by English school children may be met with in samplers of the 17th and 18th centuries. Needlepoint lace is successfully made at Youghal, Kenmare and New Ross in Ireland, where of late years attention has been given to the study of designs for it. The lace-making school at Burano near Venice produces hand-made laces which are, to a great extent, careful reproductions of the more celebrated classes of point laces, such as "punto in aria," "rose point de Venise," "point de Venise à réseau," "point d'Alençon," "point d'Argentan" and others. Some good needlepoint lace is made in Bohemia and elsewhere in the Austrian empire.

_Pillow-made Lace._--Pillow-made lace is built upon no substructure corresponding with a skeleton thread pattern such as is used for needlepoint lace, but is the representation of a pattern obtained by twisting and plaiting threads.

These patterns were never so strictly geometric in style as those adopted for the earliest point lace making from the antecedent cut linen and drawn thread embroideries. Curved forms, almost at the outset of pillow lace, seem to have been found easy of execution (see lower border, Pl. II. fig. 3); its texture was more lissom and less crisp and wiry in appearance than that of contemporary needle-made lace. The early twisted and plaited thread laces, which had the appearance of small cords merging into one another, were soon succeeded by laces of similar make but with flattened and broader lines more like fine braids or tapes (Pl. I. fig. 2, and Pl. fig. 10). But pillow laces of this tapey character must not be confused with laces in which actual tape or braid is used. That peculiar class of lace-work does not arise until after the beginning of the 17th century when the weaving of tape is said to have commenced in Flanders. In England this sort of tape-lace dates no farther back than 1747, when two Dutchmen named Lanfort were invited by an English firm to set up tape looms in Manchester.

The process by which lace is made on the pillow is roughly and briefly as follows. A pattern is first drawn upon a piece of paper or parchment. It is then pricked with holes by a skilled "pattern pricker," who determines where the principal pins shall be stuck for guiding the threads. This pricked pattern is then fastened to the pillow. The pillow or cushion varies in shape in different countries. Some lace-makers use a circular pad, backed with a flat board, in order that it may be placed upon a table and easily moved. Other lace-workers use a well-stuffed round pillow or short bolster, flattened at the two ends, so that they may hold it conveniently on their laps. From the upper part of pillow with the pattern fastened on it hang the threads from the bobbins. The bobbin threads thus hang across the pattern. Fig. 34 shows the commencement, for instance, of a double set of three-thread plaitings. The compact portion in a pillow lace has a woven appearance (fig. 35).

About the middle of the 17th century pillow lace of formal scroll patterns somewhat in imitation of those for point lace was made, chiefly in Flanders. The earlier of these had grounds of ties or _brides_ and was often called "point de Flandres" (Pl. fig. 14) in contradistinction to scroll patterns with a mesh ground, which were called "point d'Angleterre" (Pl. fig. 16). Into Spain and France much lace from Venice and Flanders was imported as well as into England, where from the 16th century the manufacture of the simple pattern "bone lace" by peasants in the midland and southern counties was still being carried on. In Charles II.'s time its manufacture was threatened with extinction by the preference given to the more artistic and finer Flemish laces. The importation of the latter was accordingly prohibited. Dealers in Flemish lace sought to evade the prohibitions by calling certain of their laces "point d'Angleterre," and smuggling them into England. But smuggling was made so difficult that English dealers were glad to obtain the services of Flemish lace-makers and to induce them to settle in England. It is from some such cause that the better 17th- and 18th-century English pillow laces bear resemblance to pillow laces of Brussels, of Mechlin and of Valenciennes.

As skill in the European lace-making developed soon after the middle of the 17th century, patterns and particular plaitings came to be identified with certain localities. Mechlin, for instance, enjoyed a high reputation for her productions. The chief technical features of this pillow lace lie in the plaiting of the meshes, and the outlining of the clothing or _toilé_ with a thread _cordonnet_. The ordinary Mechlin mesh is hexagonal in shape. Four of the sides are of double twisted threads, two are of four threads plaited three times (fig. 39).

In Brussels pillow lace, which has greater variety of design, the mesh is also hexagonal; but in contrast with the Mechlin mesh whilst four of its sides are of double-twisted threads the other two are of four threads plaited four times (fig. 41). The finer specimens of Brussels lace are remarkable for the fidelity and grace with which the botanical forms in many of its patterns are rendered (Pl. VI. fig. 23). These are mainly reproductions or adaptations of designs for point d'Alençon, and the soft quality imparted to them in the texture of pillow-made lace contrasts with the harder and more crisp appearance in needlepoint lace. An example of dainty Brussels pillow lace is given in fig. 42. In the Brussels pillow lace a delicate modelling effect is often imparted to the close textures of the flowers by means of pressing them with a bone instrument which gives concave shapes to petals and leaves, the edges of which consist in part of slightly raised _cordonnet_ of compact plaited work.

Honiton pillow lace resembles Brussels lace, but in most of the English pillow laces (Devonshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire) the _réseau_ is of a simple character (fig. 43). As a rule, English lace is made with a rather coarser thread than that used in the older Flemish laces. In real Flemish Valenciennes lace there are no twisted sides to the mesh; all are closely plaited (fig. 44) and as a rule the shape of the mesh is diamond but without the openings as shown in fig. 44. No outline or _cordonnet_ to define the pattern is used in Valenciennes lace (see fig. 45). Much lace of the Valenciennes type (fig. 54) is made at Ypres. Besides these distinctive classes of pillow-like laces, there are others in which equal care in plaiting and twisting threads is displayed, though the character of the design is comparatively simple, as for instance in ordinary pillow laces from Italy, from the Auvergne, from Buckinghamshire, or rude and primitive as in laces from Crete, southern Spain and Russia. Pillow lace-making in Crete is now said to be extinct. The laces were made chiefly of silk. The patterns in many specimens are outlined with one, two or three bright-coloured silken threads. Uniformity in simple character of design may also be observed in many Italian, Spanish, Bohemian, Swedish and Russian pillow laces (see the lower edge of fig. 46).

_Guipure._--This name is often applied to needlepoint and pillow laces in which the ground consists of ties or _brides_, but it more properly designates a kind of lace or "passementerie," made with gimp of fine wires whipped round with silk, and with cotton thread. An earlier kind of gimp was formed with "Cartisane," a little strip of thin parchment or vellum covered with silk, gold or silver thread. These stiff gimp threads, formed into a pattern, were held together by stitches worked with the needle. Gold and silver thread laces have been usually made on the pillow, though gold thread has been used with fine effect in 17th-century Italian needlepoint laces.