Chapter II: Part 2

DUCHESSE.--A fine pillow lace, a variety originally made in Belgium resembling Honiton guipure lace in design and workmanship, but worked with a finer thread and containing a greater amount of raised or relief work. The leaves, flowers and sprays formed are larger and of bolder design. The stitches and manner of working in Honiton and Duchesse are alike.

DUNKIRK.--A pillow lace made with a flat thread, and whose manufacture was carried on in the districts around Dunkirk, a French seaport, in the seventeenth century. The best known kind was an imitation of Mechlin lace.

DUTCH.--A coarse, strong lace, made with a thick ground, and of plain and heavy design. It is a kind of cheap Valenciennes. Dutch lace is inferior in design and workmanship to those of France and Belgium.

ENGLISH POINT.--(a) A fine pillow lace made in the eighteenth century, generally considered to be of Flemish origin and manufacture, {39} and mistakenly called "Point d'Angleterre," as it was neither point lace nor made in England. Some writers, however, assert its English origin. Owing to the protection formerly given by law to English laces, large quantities of Belgium laces are believed to have been smuggled into England under the name of "Point d'Angleterre," so as to evade the customs duties. (b) At the present day the finest quality of Brussels lace, in which needle-point sprigs are applied to Brussels bobbin-ground. (See Application lace, also Point d'Angleterre.)

ESCURIAL.--A modern silk lace, made in imitation of Rose point. The patterns are outlined with a lustrous thread or cord.

FAYAL.--A delicately made and costly lace, hand-made by the women of the Island of Fayal, one of the Azores, off the western Spanish coast. The thread used in making this lace is spun from the fiber of the leaves of the aloe, a plant resembling somewhat the century plant. Great skill is necessary in the manufacture, which is restricted to a comparatively few women of the island, who have been trained to this work from childhood. The lace is marketed in France, chiefly in Paris, at a very high price, and it is very difficult for outside purchasers to buy it at any cost. The patterns are extremely elegant and original in design. Notwithstanding the delicacy of this fabric, it is remarkably durable.

FEDORA.--See Point Applique.

FALSE VALENCIENNES.--(a) Lace resembling Valenciennes in surface and in pattern, but without the true Valenciennes net ground, (b) A term for Valenciennes lace made in Belgium.

FLAT POINT.--Lace made without any raised-work or work in relief from raised points.

FLEMISH POINT.--A needle-point guipure lace made in Flanders.

FOOTING.--A narrow lace which is used to keep the stitches of the {40} ground firm and to sew the lace to the garment upon which it is to be worn. Sometimes the footing is worked with the rest of the design. It is used also in making lace handkerchiefs and for quilling effects.

GENOA.--A name originally given to the gold and silver laces for which Genoa was famed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but now applied to lace made from the fiber of the aloe plant, and also to Macrame lace.

GOLD.--Lace made of warp threads or cords of silk, or silk and cotton combined, with thin gold or silver gilt bands passing around it. It was anciently made of gold or silver gilt wire. It is now used chiefly to decorate uniforms, liveries and some church costumes, and occasionally for millinery. The metal is drawn through a wire, and, after being flattened between steel rollers, several strands of the flattened wire are passed around the silk simultaneously by means of a complex machine having a wheel and iron bobbins. The history of gold lace is interesting, as illustrating the oldest form of the lacemaker's art. From the days of Egypt and Rome down to medieval Venice, Italy and Spain, gold and silver gilt wire were used in making this kind of lace. The Jews in Spain were accomplished workers in this art, and in Sweden and Russia gold lace was the first lace made. In France gold lacemaking was a prosperous manufacture at Aurrillac and Arras, at which latter place it flourished up to the end of the eighteenth century. Gold lace was imported into England at an early date, and King James I established a monopoly in it. Its importation was prohibited by Queen Anne, on account of the extravagant uses of ornamentation to which it was put, and it was also prohibited in the reign of George II, to correct the prevalent taste for the foreign manufactured lace. The attempt was unsuccessful, for we are told that smuggling greatly increased. It became a "war to the knife between the revenue officer and society at large, all classes combined, town ladies of high degree, with waiting-maids, and the common sailor, to avoid the obnoxious duties and cheat the government." {41}

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GRAMMONT.--Grammont lace, so called from the town of Grammont, in Belgium, where it was originally manufactured, is of two kinds: (a) A cheap, white pillow lace. (b) A black silk lace, resembling the Chantilly blondes. These laces are made for flounces and shawls, and were used both in America and Europe. As compared with Chantilly, the ground is coarser and the patterns are not so clear-cut and elegant as the real Chantilly.

GUEUSE.--A thread pillow lace made in France during the eighteenth century. The ground of this lace was reseau, and the toile was worked with a thicker thread than the ground. It was formerly an article of extensive consumption in France, but, after the beginning of the nineteenth century, it was little used, except by the poorer classes. It was formerly called "Beggars' lace."

GUIPURE.--It was originally a kind of lace or passement made of cartisane and twisted silk. The name was afterward applied to heavy lace made with thin wires whipped around the silk, and with cotton thread. The word guipure is no longer commonly used to denote such work as this, but has become a term of variable designation, and it is so extensively applied that it is difficult to give a limit to its meaning. It may be used to define a lace where the flowers are either joined by brides, or large coarse stitches, or lace that has no ground. The modern Honiton and Maltese are guipures, and so is Venetian point. But as the word has also been applied to large, flowing pattern laces, worked with coarse net grounds, it is impossible to lay down any hard and fast rule about it.

HENRIQUES.--A fine stitch or point, used both in early and modern needle-point work.

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{44} HOLLIE POINT.--A needle-point lace said to have been originally called holy point, on account of its uses. It was popular in the middle ages for church decoration, but was adapted to different purposes in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and various makes of lace have since been called by this name.

HONITON.--A pillow lace originally made at Honiton, Devonshire, England, and celebrated for the beauty of its figures and sprigs. The manufacture is still carried on at that town, where there is a lace school, but a similar lace is made in the leading Continental centers of the industry.

(a) Honiton Application is made by working the pattern parts on the lace pillow and securing them to a net ground, separately made. At present it is customary to use machine-made net upon which hand-made sprays are sewn.

(b) Honiton guipure, which in common acceptation passes as Honiton lace, is distinguished by its large flower patterns upon a very open ground, the sprays being united by brides or bars.

Honiton braid is a narrow, machine-made fabric, the variety in most general use being composed of a series of oval-shaped figures united by narrow bars. It is of different widths, in linen, cotton and silk, and is much used in the manufacture of handkerchiefs, collars, and some varieties of lace.

The history of Honiton lace is more than ordinarily interesting, partly by reason of the doubt as to whether it really was a lace of English invention, or brought by the Flemish workmen to England. Some writers assert the former, but the stronger probability is that the art was brought from Flanders by Protestant immigrants, who fled from persecution. Whichever theory is held, the development of the industry at Honiton, and its close resemblance to other lacemaking processes in Belgium, Holland and France, afford an excellent illustration of the interdependence of lacemakers in all countries upon each {45} other as regards improvements resulting from new ideas. Honiton, if it was brought from Flanders originally, afterward repaid the debt by the beauty and celebrity of its designs, which served as examples for Continental lacemakers. The very attempt to protect its manufacture in England, by imposing prohibitive duties, only increased the desire to receive foreign suggestions, and to smuggle foreign laces into England, while the ingenuity of Continental manufacturers succeeded in copying the best Honiton designs, and even in improving upon them. The English lacemakers at Honiton were, however, at first unsuccessful in their attempts to rival the best laces of the Continent, especially Brussels. Although they had royal patronage, and the whims and lavish expenditure of the court of Charles II were at their service, together with protective duties, it was not until the reign of George II and George III that English lace substantially improved. This resulted from substituting the working of the true Brussels net ground, or vrai reseau, for the old guipure bar ground. The patterns were also formed of detached flower sprays, and soon the Honiton product became almost unrivaled. This superiority continued until about 1820, when machine-made net was introduced, and the old exquisite net ground, made of the finest Antwerp thread, went out of fashion by reason of the commercial demand for an inferior product. Honiton guipure is now the chief form of lace made at that town. As regards composition of the patterns of Honiton laces, as well as finish and delicacy of execution, much improvement has been manifested during the last twenty years by reason of better schools for design, and the rivalry promoted by international exhibitions.

IMITATION.--Machine-made lace of any kind. It often rivals real lace in fineness, but necessarily its mechanical regularity of pattern detracts somewhat from the artistic character of the result. Constant improvement in processes, however, has in some laces made the {46} resemblance to the hand-made product so close that even experts can hardly recognize the difference. If it were asked how the imitation lace can be distinguished from needle-point, the answer is that it is not made with looped stitches like the latter, nor has it the effect of plaited threads, as in pillow lace. Again, the toile of machine-made lace is often found to be ribbed, and this lace is very generally made of cotton instead of the linen thread with which old needle-point and pillow lace is made. In the invention of substitutes for hand-made lace stitches Switzerland has been the leader, and by 1868 hundreds of machines, perfected from the invention of a native of St. Gall, were turning out a close imitation of the hand-made work. The most recent triumphs of this description are the imitations of Venetian point, in which a nearer approximation than ever before has been made to the needle-worked toile, and also of the bride work. But, notwithstanding the marvelous results attained in machine-made lace, they are the triumphs of mechanism which cannot displace the superiority, and charm, and rarity, of the finest hand-made work. In the latter the personal equation, the skill and the loving, workmanlike fidelity of the individual toiler to his task impart a quality which dead mechanism can neither create nor supersede. Machine-made lace may be predominantly the lace of commerce, but hand-made lace is the natural expression and embodiment of a delicate and difficult art, and thus it will ever remain.

INSERTION.--A kind of lace, embroidery or other trimming used to insert in a plain fabric for ornamental purposes. It is made with the edges on both sides alike, and often a plain portion of the material outside the work, so that it may be sewn on one side to the garment for which it is intended and to the plain part of the lace or border on the other.

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{48} IRISH.--A term denoting a variety of laces made in Ireland, of which the two most individual and best-known kinds are the net embroideries of Limerick and the applique and cut cambric work of Carrick-ma-cross. Other varieties, which are imitations of foreign laces, are Irish point, resembling Brussels lace; black and white Maltese; silver, black and white blondes. The Limerick embroideries, for they cannot be strictly called lace, are an imitation of Indian tambour work, and consist of fine embroidery in chain-stitches upon a Nottingham net. Carrick-ma-cross, or Irish guipure, is a kind of so-called Irish point lace, made at the town of that name, but which is really nothing more than a species of embroidery, from which part of the cloth is cut away, leaving a guipure ground. It is not a very durable lace. The most popular patterns are the rose and the shamrock. Irish crochet is an imitation of the needle-point laces of Spain and Venice; that is to say, it resembles these laces in general effect. There is also a needle-point lace made of rather coarse thread, and used exclusively in Ireland and England. The manufacture of laces in Ireland is carried on by the cottagers, by the nuns in the convents, and in several industrial schools founded for that purpose. It has only become a popular industry within the last twenty-five years, as the costumes of the people in earlier times did not require lace ornamentation, and there was a widespread and deep-rooted aversion to the adoption of English fashions in clothing so long as certain sumptuary laws were unrepealed.

Afterward, under slightly more liberal conditions, English fashions were gradually adopted, and with them came the demand for a cheap Irish lace, as the foreign laces were too expensive. Not until 1743 was there any official attempt to encourage the industry, but in that year the Royal Dublin Society established prizes for excellence in lacemaking. This attempt lasted until 1774. In 1829 a school was opened in Limerick for instruction in the now celebrated lace or embroidery first made in that town; but in the famine years of 1846-48 more effectual measures were taken to spread a knowledge of the art, and several schools {49} were opened in different parts of the country. The Irish have never made a lace that can in any sense be called national, but great skill has been developed in the imitations of the foreign fabrics, and the Irish name has been so closely associated with some of them that they are popularly considered a native Irish product. The exhibition of Irish laces at the Mansion House in London in 1883 added materially to the reputation of these fabrics.

IRISH TRIMMING.--A plain-patterned, woven lace, formerly used in ornamenting muslin underwear, pillow slips and the like.

JESUIT.--A modern needle-point lace, made in Ireland, and so called on account of the tradition as to the introduction of its manufacture after the famine of 1846.

KNOTTED.--A term applied to the old Punto a Groppo, of Italian manufacture originally, and consisting of a fringe or border made of knotted threads. It is commonly called Knotting in all English-speaking countries. The modern Macrame is made like the knotted laces.

LILLE.--A lace made at Lille, in France, noted for its clear and light single reseau ground, which is sometimes ornamented with points d'esprit. It is a lace of simple design, consisting of a thick run thread, enclosing cloth-stitch for thick parts, and plaitings for open parts. The old Lille lace is always made with a stiff and formal pattern, with a thick, straight edge, and with a square instead of the usual round dots worked over the ground. Lille was distinguished as a lacemaking city as far back as 1582, and from that year until 1848 the industry was successful, but since the latter year there has been a steady decline, as more remunerative occupations have gradually drawn away the younger workers from lacemaking. The Lille pattern was similar to that of the laces made at Arras and Mirecourt, in France, and in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, in England, but none of the latter could rival the famous single reseau ground. {50}

LIMERICK.--(See Irish Lace.)

LUXEUIL.--A term applied to several varieties of hand-made lace produced at Luxeuil, France. They are stout, heavy laces, mostly made with the use of braid, and are much used for curtains and draperies.

MACRAME.--A word of Arabic derivation, signifying a fringe for trimming, whether cotton, thread or silk, and now used to designate an ornamental cotton trimming, sometimes called a lace, made by leaving a long fringe of coarse thread, and interweaving the threads so as to make patterns geometrical in form. It is useful in decorating light upholstery. Macrame cord is made of fine, close-twisted cotton thread, prepared especially for the manufacture of Macrame trimming, and also for coarse netting of various kinds. The foundation of all Macrame lace or trimming is knots, made by tying short ends of thread either in horizontal or perpendicular lines, and interweaving the knots so as to form a geometrical design, as above mentioned, and sometimes raised, sometimes flat. This necessitates the forming of simple patterns. This lace is really a revival of the old Italian knotted points, which were much used three centuries ago in Spain and Italy for ecclesiastical garments. It appears in some of the paintings of the early masters, notably Paul Veronese. The art has been taught during all the nineteenth century in the schools and convents along the Riviera. It is developed in great perfection at Chiavari, and also at Genoa. Specimens of elaborate workmanship were in the Paris Exhibition of 1867.

MACKLIN.--Another name for Mechlin lace.

MALINE.--A name sometimes applied to Mechlin lace, especially to the varieties whose ground is distinguished by a diamond-shaped mesh.

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{52} MALTESE.--A heavy but attractive pillow lace, whose patterns, of arabesque or geometric design, are formed of plaiting or cloth-stitch, and are united with a purled bar ground. It is made both in white silk and thread, and also in black Barcelona silk. There is also a cotton machine-made variety, used chiefly in trimming muslin underwear. The history of Maltese lace is interesting from the fact that the kind originally made in that island by the natives, which was a coarse variety of Mechlin or Valenciennes, of an arabesque pattern, was in 1833 superseded by the manufacture of the white and black silk guipures now so widely known as Maltese lace. This improvement was due to Lady Hamilton Chichester, who brought laceworkers over from Genoa to teach their craft in the island. Some of the patterns from that time showed the influence of the Genoese instruction. Maltese lace is made not only in Malta, but in Auvergne and Lepuy in France; in Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire, in England, and also in the Irish lace schools. Ceylon and Madras lace also resembles Maltese. Formerly shawls and veils of much beauty and value were made of this lace, but the manufacture is now confined chiefly to narrow trimmings.

MECHLIN.--A pillow lace originally made at Mechlin, Belgium, and whose special characteristics are the narrow, flat thread, band or cord, which outlines the pattern, and the net ground of hexagonal mesh. Sometimes the mesh is circular. The net ground is made of two threads twisted twice on four sides and four threads plaited three times on the two other sides. In this it differs from Brussels lace, whose plait is longer and whose mesh is larger. The lace is made in one piece upon the pillow, the ground being formed with the pattern. The very finest thread is used, and a high degree of skill is necessary, so that the resulting fabric is very costly. It is a filmy, beautiful and highly transparent lace, and preserves for a very long time its distinguishing peculiarity of a shiny thread or band surrounding the outlines of the sprigs and dots of the design. The earliest Mechlin designs were very like those of Brussels lace, though not so original and graceful; but in this respect later Mechlin laces showed marked improvement. The fundamental difference between the two, however, was that Mechlin was worked in one piece upon the pillow, while the Brussels pattern was first made by itself, and the reseau or net ground was afterward worked in around it. The manufacture of Mechlin has long been on the decline, the French Revolution seriously injuring the industry; and when the trade was revived and encouraged under Napoleon, the exquisite patterns of former times had been partly forgotten or were too expensive for popular demand. At the time of its highest popularity it was called the Queen of Laces, sharing that title with the finest Alencon point. Mechlin sometimes had an ornamental net ground called Fond du Neige, and also a ground of six-pointed Fond Champ, but these kinds were rare. It has always been a very great favorite with the English, and appears in most of their family collections of laces. There was a fine collection of this lace at the Paris Exhibition of 1867 from Turnhout, Belgium, as well as from other lace manufacturing centers. {53}

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MEDICI.--A name for a variety of modern torchon lace, whose distinguishing peculiarity is the insertion effect, the lace being very like an ordinary insertion, with the exception of having one edge finished with scallops. The Medici design is also characterized by plain, close-woven work, the close work alternating in equal amount with the openwork, the contrast between them heightening the effect.

MELANGE.--A heavy, black silk lace, distinguished by its mingling of Spanish patterns with ordinary Chantilly effects. The edge is usually plain and straight, but is sometimes ornamented with a fine silk fringe.

MIGNONETTE.--A light pillow lace, with an open ground resembling tulle, made in narrow strips. It was one of the earliest of pillow laces, and flourished greatly during the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It was made of Lille thread, and the chief places of its manufacture were Arras, Lille and Paris, in France, and in Switzerland. {55}

MIRECOURT.--A lace made of detached sprigs upon a net made at the same time with the pattern. In the seventeenth century it was a French guipure lace of more delicate texture and varied design than other guipures. Mirecourt, in the Department of the Vosges, and its environs, were the center of the industry. The manufacture was begun at an early date, and for centuries only hempen thread was used, the result being a coarse guipure; but during the early part of the seventeenth century a finer lace of more delicate pattern was produced, and it began to be exported in considerable quantities. Before the union of Lorraine with France, in 1766, there was less than 800 laceworkers in Mirecourt, but in 1869 the number had increased to 25,000. During the last century the French demand for this lace increased far beyond the foreign demand, and it became desirable to produce a greater variety of pattern. This was done with great success by imitating the best designs. Another recent improvement at Mirecourt is the making of application flowers, and though these are not yet as finished as the Brussels sprigs, they bid fair to supply the French market, so as to make it to that extent independent of Belgium. The lace made at Mirecourt is mostly white. The work is similar in process and equal in quality to that of Lille and Arras.

NANDUTI.--A lace made by the natives of Paraguay, Ecuador and Peru, South America, from the soft, brilliant fiber of the agave plant. It is made in silk or thread by a needle on a cardboard pattern. In Peru and Ecuador it is also needle-made in the form of small squares and united together.

NEEDLE-POINT.--Real lace of any kind worked with a needle, on a parchment pattern, and not with bobbins or on a pillow. The distinction between needle-point and bobbin-made, or pillow lace, is also illustrated by the solid part of the pattern, and also the ground of the former. In needle-point the solid parts are invariably made of rows of {56} buttonhole stitches, sometimes closely worked and sometimes with small open spaces left in the patterns. The "brides" in needle-point consist of one or two threads fastened across from one part of the pattern to another, and then closely buttonholed over; it will be found, also, that true needle-point is made with only one kind of stitch, the looped or buttonhole stitch already mentioned, and that this is constant amid all varieties of design in this kind of lace. Pillow lace, on the contrary, has a "toile" made of threads crossing each other more or less at right angles; its "brides" consist of twisted or plaited threads, and the "picots" are simple loops, while the network ground of pillow lace is of far greater variety than that of needle-point. In all kinds of pillow lace the net groundwork is made by twisting and plaiting the threads, sometimes in twos and sometimes in fours. Briefly speaking, the fundamental difference between needle-point and pillow lace is that the former is made with looped stitches throughout, while the latter is made with twisted or plaited threads, which last is really weaving, though it is done with bobbins and the hand instead of with the loom.

ORIENTAL.--A lace made on the embroidering machine, which by combined needle and shuttle action produces either simple or complex designs upon netting. The action of the Schiffli machine somewhat resembles that of a sewing-machine, and the product is more properly called embroidery than lace. The openwork effects are produced either by the action of chemicals upon the foundation material, or by the use of the scissors. The threadwork results from the combined action of the shuttle and needles. St. Gall, Switzerland, and Plauen, Saxony, are the chief manufacturing centers for these laces, which include trimming and border laces, curtains, bed sets, shams, and the like. In the broad historical sense, Oriental laces and embroideries refer to the products of the East, especially to the Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Persian and Turkish. All these were remarkable for the labor expended upon them, their great cost, and the originality and boldness of idea and coloring which marked their design. {57}

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OYAH.--A guipure lace or openwork embroidery, made by means of a hook in a fashion similar to crochet. The pattern is often elaborate, and in silks of many colors, representing flowers, foliage, etc. It is sometimes in relief.

PARCHMENT.--Lace in whose manufacture parchment has been used, whether in the pattern for the worker's guidance, or for stiffening the fabric, as in Cartisane lace. In old accounts of laces, the term was often applied to those made on the pillow to distinguish them from needle-point laces, and it was derived from the pattern on which pillow laces were worked.

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PASSEMENT.--A term applied to the oldest class of pillow laces, at a time when they were of comparatively simple construction, being little more than open braids and gimps. This designation was in use until the middle of the seventeenth century. The word is now applied to a decorative edging or trimming, especially a gimp or braid. It is an old French word, and in the country of its origin included in its meaning both lace and embroideries. It has an interesting literary association, having figured, under the slightly altered form of "passemens," in a satirical poem published at Paris in 1661. The poem, which is entitled "La Revolte des Passemens," is dedicated to Mademoiselle de la Trousse, a cousin of Madame de Sevigne, and was probably composed by one of her literary friends. It is a protest against a sumptuary law passed in the previous year to check the lavish expenditure on laces imported from Venice and Italy, and is interesting as an account of the best laces of that day, among which are "Pointes de Genes, de Raguse, de Venise, d'Angleterre et de Flanders," as well as the "Gueuse" of humbler pretensions. The various laces are supposed to revolt against the law excluding them from France, and especially from their place in the exalted society of the court. Mesdames les Broderies--

"Le Poincts, Dentelles, Passemens,
Qui par une vaine despence,
Ruinoient aujourd'hui la France"--

call an indignation meeting. One of them hotly demands what punishment shall be meted out to the court for such treatment--

"Dites moi je vous prie,
Poincts, dentelles ou broderies,
Qu'aurons nous donc fait a la cour," etc.

Various laces speak their mind freely in reply, but most of them are gloomy as to the future, while a few try to take a philosophical view of the situation, and resign themselves to an humbler though still useful fate. An English lace, "une Grande Dentelle d'Angleterre" answers

"Cet infortune sans seconde
Elle fait bien renoncer au monde
* * * * * *
Pour ne plus tourner a tout vent
Comme d'entrer dans un Convent."

The laces of Flanders are not so submissive as that, being too vain and ambitious for renunciation of the world and life in a convent, and their angry opposition starts a little tempest of debate, fierce resolution alternating with despair. A black lace in hopeless mood hires herself out with a game merchant, for nets to catch snipe and woodcock. An old gold lace, in grandmotherly style, tries to comfort the younger ones, by reminding them of the vanity of the world. She knows all about it--she, who has dwelt in king's houses. The Flanders laces cry out that rather than give in they would sooner be sewn to the bottom of a petticoat. Some of the younger ones declare they must still have amusement, having had so much, and rather than renounce the world they will {61} seek refuge in the masquerade shops. The point laces, with the exception of Aurillac, then resolve to go each to his own country, when suddenly the humble but plucky Gueuse lace, the lace of the common people, arrives from a village near Paris and encourages the others to fight it out.

The next morning they all assemble and agree upon a plan of campaign, but before doing so take stock of their qualifications and prospects. Poinct d'Alencon has a good opinion of herself; a Flanders lace says she made two campaigns under the king, as a cravat; another had been in the wars under the great Marshal Turenne; another was torn at the siege of Dunkirk; and all had done something worth notice. "What have we to fear?" asked an English lace. A Poinct de Genes, of rather flabby character, advises the English lace to go slow. Finally open war is declared, and the laces all assemble at the fair of St. Germain to be reviewed by General Luxe. The muster roll is called by Colonel Sotte Depense, and the various regiments and battalions march forth to victory or death. But they got neither, for at the first approach of the royal artillery they take to their heels, are captured and condemned to various punishments.

The gold and silver laces, the leaders of the rebellion, are sentenced to the fate of Jeanne D'Arc, to be burned alive; the points are condemned to be made into tinder for the sole use of the King's Musketeers; others are to be made into cordage or sent to the galleys. But pardon is obtained through the good offices of cunning little Cupid--"Le petit dieu plein de finesse," and the rebels are restored to their former position.

The poem illustrates the policy of most European governments at that time, a policy of excluding foreign manufactures of all kinds; and in the case of laces, the fear of encouraging wasteful habits among the rich, who offered a tempting opportunity for royal extortion, was too {62} useful a pretence to be passed by. But all these efforts were fruitless to discourage the growth of lacemaking. The passion for beauty in personal adornment would not down. The engravings of Abraham Bosse, which portray the dress and manners of that time, humorously depict the despair of the fashionable lady over the prospect of giving up her laces. She is represented as attired in plain hemmed linen cuffs, collar and cap of Puritanical severity, bemoaning her sad fate, in heartbreaking strains, as she sorrowfully packs away her rich lace-trimmed costumes. Her sadness was not unduly prolonged. Colbert, the great French statesman, saw that laces would be smuggled if they were legally prohibited, that the rich would have them at any cost, so he encouraged foreign lacemakers to come to France, and the manufacture was thus promoted.

PILLOW.--Lace made on the pillow or cushion, both pattern and mesh being formed by hand. See Needle-point lace.

PLAITED.--A pillow lace of simple geometrical design, often made of strong and stiff strands, such as gold thread or fine braid. The pattern, besides being geometrical in design, is open, and has no grounds. For ordinary purposes tinsel is used instead of real gold, and the lace is then employed for theatrical purposes. Historically considered, the plaited laces made of gold, silver or silk thread, took the place of the Italian knotted laces of the sixteenth century. Those produced at Genoa and in Spain were the best, and they are made in Spain to-day, chiefly for church uses. The thread plaited laces of the seventeenth century were used to trim ruffs and falling collars, but went out of fashion when flowing wigs came in, as the latter hid the collar and would not allow ruffs to be worn. At the present time plaited laces have become known under the name of Maltese and Cluny, and are made at Auvergne, in France, Malta, and in the English counties of Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. {63}

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PLAUEN.--A name applied to any kind of lace made at Plauen, Saxony, or elsewhere, upon the embroidering machine, such as Oriental, tulle and chiffon lace, Point de Venise, Point d'Irlande. Plauen led in the manufacture of this kind of lace, having begun it in 1881, from which year dates the importance of that city as a lace market. The manufacture was gradually developed. Only the tulle variety of embroidery lace was produced until 1886. The distinguishing feature of this was that the hollow effects were made by opening the tulle meshes by hand. Then, in 1886, an openwork process was invented by which chemical action was employed to remove a woolen or silk foundation from the cotton-embroidered pattern, or a cotton foundation from a silk embroidery that had been worked on it. This made it possible to form the pattern by the embroidery machine in the same way as in the case of ordinary embroidery. The wool foundation, which is necessary to be removed in finishing the goods, is dissolved by the action of certain chemicals without changing the cotton or silk pattern. In this way the most difficult and complicated patterns of real lace can be imitated. Plauen manufacturers have for the most part taken the old and costly hand-made laces of former times for their models; but they have also originated new and tasteful designs from time to time.

POINT APPLIQUE.--Point lace whose design is separate from the net ground, to which it is afterward applied. At the present time the net ground is usually machine-made. The word "point," however, in this connection, is of variable application, sometimes signifying Point Applique, and sometimes denoting lace, whether pillow or needle-point; that is, worked in sprays and laid upon a machine-net ground. (See Application lace.)

POINT D'ALENCON.--See Alencon.

POINT D'ANGLETERRE.--See English Point.

POINT DE GAZE.--A very fine, gauze-like lace, made entirely with the {65} needle and grounded with its own net. Point de Gaze is the result of an attempt of the Brussels lacemakers to return to the best early traditions of needle-point. Point de Gaze differs, however, from the finest old needle-point in certain respects, partly necessitated by modern taste in design, and partly from the need of great economy in labor costs. For example, the execution is much more open and delicate than in the early lace of this description, but this very delicacy and slightness are made use of to produce a very elegant effect. Part of the toile, or substance of the pattern, is made in close and part in open stitch, giving an appearance of shading, and the open parts are very tastefully ornamented with dots. The result does not in all respects equal the softness and richness of the early lace, but if Point de Gaze seems thin and loose in comparison, and if the patterns seem less ideally beautiful, nevertheless the later work has a unique lightness and delicacy to which the earlier lace did not attain. It certainly is the most etherial and delicately beautiful of all point laces. Its forms are not emphasized by a raised outline of buttonhole stitching, as in Point d'Alencon and Point d'Argentan, but are simply outlined by a thread.

POINT DE GENE.--A name at present applied to a species of lace made both in cotton and silk at St. Gall and Plauen, and recognized by its regular net ground and large, open patterns in heavy stitchwork. It is a popular trimming for women's dresses. Point de Gene, or Genes, was originally one of the laces made at the city of Genoa and in the surrounding country during the seventeenth century, both the pillow and needle laces made there being deservedly famous. Gold and silver thread and gold wire were used in the manufacture of the earliest needle-point laces at Genoa, and the gold wire was drawn out in exact imitation of the early Greek method. One of the best Genoese laces resembles the early Greek points in patterns. There was also a guipure lace, made from aloe fiber, as well as the knotted lace now {66} known as Macrame. The last named is the only lace at present made in Genoa, and along the seacoast.

POINT D'ESPRIT.--A term applied to a small oval or square figure, peculiar to certain varieties of early guipure, and ordinarily composed of three short lengths of parchment or cord, placed side by side and covered with thread. These oval or square figures were most commonly arranged in the form of rosettes. At present the term Point d'Esprit denotes a much smaller solid or mat surface, used to diversify the net ground of some laces. It is in the form of small squares that set at close and regular intervals. In standard histories of lace the term is also used as synonymous with embroidered tulle, made in Brittany, Denmark and around Genoa.

POINT D'IRLANDE.--A coarse, machine-made imitation of real Venetian point lace. It is popular for dress trimmings, and is manufactured in a great variety of widths in cotton and silk. It has no net ground, the patterns being united by brides.

POINT DE MILAN.--A guipure lace with a small mesh ground, and the pattern distinguished by striking scroll designs. The flowers in the pattern of hand-made Point de Milan are flat, and have the appearance of having been wrought in close-woven linen. Milan point was made at the city of that name in 1493. Gold and silver thread were first used, but the Milan points were finer than these, and fully equal to the best Spanish and Venetian points.

POINT DE PARIS.--Originally a narrow pillow lace, resembling Brussels. The term is now generally applied to a machine-made cotton lace of simple pattern and inferior quality. In its making a design whose figures, such as flowers and leaves, are outlined with a heavy thread, is worked upon a net ground. Point de Paris is distinguished by the net, which is hexagonal in form.

POINT DE VENISE.--See Venice Point. {67}

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POINT.--Same as Needle-point lace, made wholly by hand, with the needle and a single thread.

POT.--Lace whose pattern is distinguished by the figure of a vase or deep dish, and sometimes by that of a basket containing flowers. It is the best-known lace made at Antwerp, and was formerly in common use in that city for decorating women's caps. The vase and basket figures vary much in size and design. Some have considered this pattern to be a survival from an earlier design, including the figure of the Virgin and the Annunciation, but this is not certain.

POWDERED.--Lace whose ground is strewn with small, separate ornaments, such as flowers, sprigs, or squares, like Point d'Esprit. The term is applied also to whitened lace.

RENAISSANCE.--A modern point lace, whose patterns are made of narrow braid, and united by bars or filling of different kinds. It is generally ornamented with circular figures and scroll-work, stitched in place by needle and thread, the intervening spaces or groundwork, being composed of a variety of fancy openwork. Irish Renaissance, Luxeuil and Battenberg are the other names for this lace.

ROSE POINT.--See Venice Point.

SAXONY.--Fine drawnwork embroidered with the needle, in much demand in the eighteenth century. At the present time the term is somewhat vague, denoting many kinds of laces made in Saxony, especially in imitation of old Brussels lace. Though the latter is the best that is made, a coarse guipure lace, known as Etervelle, and plaited lace has the greatest sale.

SEAMING.--A narrow openwork insertion, gimp or braiding, with parallel sides, used for joining two breadths of linen, instead of sewing them directly the one to the other. The name is given to a similar lace used for edgings, as in the trimming of pillow-cases and sheets. {69} During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries this lace was very popular, though the name "seaming" was then applied to any kind of lace used for a particular purpose--namely, to insert in the linen or other fabric wherever a seam appeared, and often where no seam was really necessary. The lace first used for this purpose was cut-work; then Hollie point became fashionable, and afterward the custom grew to be so common that cheaper laces were employed. There is still in existence a sheet decorated with cut-work that once belonged to Shakespeare.

SILVER.--A passement or guipure wholly or in large part composed of silver wire, or of warp threads of silk, or silk and cotton combined, wound with a thin, flat ribbon of silver. See Gold lace.

SPANISH.--A general term applies to the following four different kinds of lace: (a) Needle-point lace, brought from Spanish convents after their dissolution, though the art of making it is thought by some to have been learned in Flanders. (b) Cut and drawnwork made in Spanish convents, of patterns usually confined to simple sprigs and flowers. (c) A modern black silk lace with large flower patterns. (d) A modern needle-made fabric, the pattern usually in large squares. The machine-made black and white silk laces, with their flower patterns, are from Lyons and Calais, France. Much could be said about the uncertain application of the term "Spanish" in regard to certain kinds of lace. It has often been inaccurately used. For instance, "Spanish Point" and "Point d'Espagne" have been misapplied to Italian laces, in the same way that "Point d'Angleterre" has been misapplied to Brussels lace. In the four kinds of Spanish lace above enumerated, it is noticeable that some are of Flemish origin. A lace known for certain to be of Spanish origin is a coarse pillow guipure made in white thread and also of gold and silver. It is a loosely made fabric consisting of three cordonnets, the center one being the coarsest, united by finer threads running in and out across them, and with brides to join {70} the parts of the pattern and keep them in shape. It is well known that large quantities of lace that have the characteristics of raised Venetian Point were used in Spain, both for court dresses and church purposes, such as the ornamentation of vestments and altars. During the invasion of Napoleon the churches and monasteries were pillaged and the laces contained therein were scattered abroad and sold as being of Spanish origin, though many of them were not.

The graceful Spanish headdress, the mantilla, has been chiefly made in the province of Catalonia, out of black and white Blondes, but it is inferior to a similar lace of French manufacture. The most celebrated of the Spanish laces are the gold and silver fabrics, known as Point d'Espagne, the Blonde laces and Spanish or Rose point. The first-named is a very old lace, was known in Spain as early as the middle of the fifteenth century, and is made with gold and silver threads, upon which a pattern is embroidered in colored silk. The Blondes, which have been already mentioned, have thick though graceful patterns upon a light net ground. Rose point is wholly made with the needle and is very like Venetian point, being considered, in fact, as a variety of the latter. The close resemblance is accounted for by the fact that this kind of lace was made by the inmates of religious houses, which were transferred from one country to another at the will of their superior and carried with them the secret of a difficult art. The Rose points, some of which are not raised, are formed with a pattern-worked net in buttonhole stitches, the parts of the pattern being joined together by brides. The raised Rose points are recognized by their thick cordonnet or outlining of the pattern.

TAMBOUR.--Lace made with needle embroidery upon a machine-made net, generally black or white Nottingham. It is chiefly made in Ireland and commonly included among the Limerick laces.

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{72} TAPE.--A lace made with the needle, except that a tape or narrow strip of linen is wrought into the work and is the distinguishing feature of the pattern. These plain or ornamented tapes or braids, arranged so as to form the pattern, have always been peculiar to this kind of lace. The patterns are connected together with either bride or net grounds. The earliest were made with a bride ground and simple cloth stitch, but gradually very elaborate designs were wrought as part of the braid-like patterns and united by open-meshed grounds. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the braid and tape laces included the large majority of coarse pillow laces made in Flanders, Spain and Italy.

THREAD.--Lace made from linen thread as distinguished from silk and cotton laces. Black thread is a misnomer for Chantilly.

TORCHON.--A coarse pillow lace made of strong, soft and loosely twisted thread. In Europe it is known also as "Beggars'" lace, and the old French Gueuse lace was similar to Torchon. The patterns generally are very simple and formed with a loose stout thread and the ground is coarse net. Torchon is now also machine made.

VALENCIENNES.--A solid and durable pillow lace having the same kind of thread throughout for both ground and pattern. Both the pattern and ground are wrought together by the same hand, and as this demands much skill in the manipulation of a great many threads and bobbins, the price of Valenciennes is very high. The mesh of the ground is usually square or diamond shaped, very open and of great regularity. It is a flat lace, worked in one piece, and no different kind of thread is introduced to outline the pattern or to be wrought into any part of the fabric. This affords a ready means of distinguishing the hand-made variety of this lace. The Valenciennes now made is not so beautiful in design and construction as the fabric of an earlier date, especially in the latter part of the eighteenth century. It is usually of narrower width and is easier to learn how to make.

Valenciennes was first made at the town of that name, which, {73} though originally Flemish, was transferred to France by treaty; and the manufacture at this town was carried on under conditions which assured the superiority of the lace produced there. The difference between the Valenciennes product and that of other towns could be detected by the softer "feel" in the former case, because the moist climate of Valenciennes gave a smoother action to the bobbins when used in manufacture; and it is interesting to note that the lace was made in underground rooms. These peculiarities earned for lace made in that town the name of Vraie Valenciennes, and it brought a higher price than the Valenciennes of the surrounding villages. The thread was spun from the finest flax. To buy a yard of a flounce or a pair of broad ruffles was a serious matter for the purchaser unless he was wealthy. The labor cost was high even in those days of low wages; from 300 to 1,200 bobbins were required in a piece of fine work. The history of the changes in Valenciennes patterns is, to some extent, a history of deterioration in elegance of design. The first patterns were exquisitely beautiful, the designs often being wrought in grounds that were varied in several ways even in one piece. The designs afterward became simpler, and octagon and hexagon meshes came to take the place of the close grounds of earlier manufacture. Since 1780 the lighter and less expensive laces of Lille, Brussels and Arras have partly ousted the more beautiful, costly and durable product of Valenciennes, while changes in modern dress have stopped the demand for some articles which were formerly among the fashionable mainstays of the industry; for example, men's ruffles.

The French Revolution practically destroyed lacemaking at Valenciennes, and the industry was transferred to Belgium. The lace produced there was, however, given the name of False Valenciennes. Alost, Bruges, Ypres, Ghent, Menin and Courtrai became centers of the manufacture, and the lace made in each town had a distinguishing {74} feature in the ground. For example, the Ghent ground is square meshed, the bobbin being twisted two and one-half times. At Ypres, the ground is square meshed, but the bobbins are twisted four times. In Courtrai and Menin, the bobbins are twisted three and a half times, and in Bruges three times. As an illustration of the fact that the making of old Valenciennes is a lost art, it is interesting to note that the last important piece of work executed within that town was a headdress presented by the town to the Duchesse de Nemoms on her marriage in 1840. The headdress was made by old women, the few real Valenciennes laceworkers then surviving, with the praiseworthy and patriotic object of showing the perfection of the product of former days. There are several machine-made varieties of Valenciennes. English Valenciennes is chiefly made at Nottingham; it is also called Platt and Normandy Valenciennes. It is an imitation of the early hand-made lace, to the extent of having a similar diamond-meshed ground. Its pattern is without relief, and the threads of which it is made are no heavier than the ground. French Valenciennes is made mostly at Calais. Its pattern is usually outlined by a stouter thread than that forming the ground, and it has a finer finish and softer "feel" than the English Valenciennes; in fact, it is an excellent imitation of the real. Italian Valenciennes is a narrow, fine-threaded lace, used for trimming fine underwear.

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{76} VENICE POINT.--A needle-point lace made at Venice during the first half of the seventeenth century. It is somewhat difficult to apply the name exclusively to any one of the several varieties of Venetian point made at that time; but Venetian Raised point, whose pattern is of large, beautifully designed flowers in decided relief and united by brides or bars, is commonly called Venetian point. Other names applied to this kind of lace are Rose point, Venetian Flat point, Carnival lace, Cardinal's point, Pope's point, and Point d'Espagne. These names simply register the various changes of style and manufacture in the history of this lace. With the exception of Point d'Espagne, which has a less valid claim to be called Venetian point than the others, the various names given serve roughly to suggest the distinction between three separate stages in point of style and date of the fabric known broadly as "Punto tagliato a foliani," or Venetian point. They are generally given as follows: (1) Venetian Raised point, or Gros Point de Venise, under which is included Rose point; (2) Venetian Flat point, or Point Plat de Venise, with its later variety, known as Coraline point; (3) Grounded Venetian point, or Point de Venise a Reseau, which includes Burano point, so called from the island near Venice, where it was made. With regard to Raised point, it is worth noting, in addition to the characteristics already referred to, that the flower design is of a freedom and continuity that make the pattern so filling that there is very little space left for the ground, the bridework merely serving to hold the pattern strongly together. The cordonnet, or outlining thread, is unusually prominent, and the raised part is no less remarkable for its boldness in design than for its delicate workmanship. An Italian poet has described this work as "sculptured in relief." In Raised point the skill of the laceworker was informed by the instinct for beauty in such a degree as to produce one of the highest types of the art. Rose point resembles Raised point in all essential features, the only difference being that the designs are smaller and the ornamentation more abundant. The pattern is less filling and the connecting brides more prominent.