Mrs. Palliser’s History of Lace traces the development of lace and needlework from ancient and medieval sources through its European forms. This deck covers the revised fourth edition’s textual and illustrative changes and the opening chapter’s evidence, terminology, and early examples.
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Chapter 1 · Question
Who revised and enlarged the fourth edition of the History of Lace, and when?
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Chapter 1 · Answer
The fourth edition was revised, rewritten, and enlarged under the editorship of M. Jourdain and Alice Dryden, and published in 1902 by Charles Scribner's Sons in New York. Their preface is dated London, September 1901. They note that nearly thirty years had passed since the third edition of 1875, and that the work was still regarded as the classical work on the subject.
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Section 14 cards
Who revised and enlarged the fourth edition of the History of Lace, and when?
The fourth edition was revised, rewritten, and enlarged under the editorship of M. Jourdain and Alice Dryden, and published in 1902 by Charles Scribner's Sons in New York. Their preface is dated London, September 1901. They note that nearly thirty years had passed since the third edition of 1875, and that the work was still regarded as the classical work on the subject.
Chapter 1
How did the revisers treat Mrs. Palliser's original text in the fourth edition?
The revisers state they felt the responsibility of correcting anything the late Mrs. Palliser wrote, so they altered as little of the text as possible except where modern research had shown a statement to be faulty. The chapters on Spain, Alençon and Argentan, and the introductory chapter on needlework were almost entirely rewritten, and much new matter was added to Italy, England, and Ireland.
Chapter 1
What changes were made to the illustrations in the fourth edition?
The original wood-cuts were preserved with their designations as in the 1875 edition, which the revisers note differ materially from the first two editions. Nearly a hundred new illustrations were added, along with several portraits showing different fashions of wearing lace. The volume contains 266 illustrations in total, including a frontispiece portrait of Anne, daughter of Sir Peter Vanlore.
Chapter 1
What new subjects and acknowledgments does the fourth edition's preface mention?
The preface notes that notices of Cretan and Sicilian lace, among others, are new. The revisers thank those who assisted with information or lace for illustration, especially Mrs. Hulton, Count Marcello and Cavaliere Michelangelo Jesurum in Venice, Contessa di Brazza and Contessa Cavazza in Italy, M. Destrée in Brussels, Mr. Arthur Blackborne, Salviati & Co., and the Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Chapter 1
Section 23 cards
What does the chapter's frontispiece depict?
The frontispiece depicts Anne, daughter of Sir Peter Vanlore, Kt. This portrait serves as the opening illustration of the chapter, introducing the visual material that follows, including the gold lace found in a barrow and the various plates of Argentan, Venetian, Brussels, and other laces catalogued in the list of illustrations.
Chapter 2
What kinds of lace appear in Plate I and Plate II respectively?
Plate I presents Argentan circular bobbin réseau and Venetian needlepoint. Plate II presents a broader comparative set: Italian bobbin réseau, six-pointed star-meshed bobbin réseau, Brussels bobbin réseau, the fond chant of Chantilly and Point de Paris, plus details of bobbin réseau and toile and of needle réseau and buttonhole stitches.
Chapter 2
What does the chapter's illustration list suggest about the geographic scope of lace history covered?
The list ranges across Italian centers such as Venice, Burano, Milan, Genoa, and Rapallo; Flemish and Belgian towns including Brussels, Mechlin, Antwerp, and Binche; French centers like Alençon, Argentan, Chantilly, Valenciennes, and Lille; plus Spanish, Swiss, German, English, Hungarian, and even Ceylon, Madeira, and Brazil examples.
Chapter 2
Section 34 cards
What does the chapter say the word 'lace' means in the English Bible?
The chapter states that in the English Bible 'lace' is frequently mentioned, but its meaning must be qualified by how the word was used in James I's time. The translators evidently used it to mean a small cord, since decorative lace would then more commonly have been called purls, points, or cut-works.
Chapter 3
How does the chapter describe the Bayeux Tapestry and the debate over its date?
The chapter calls it a needle-wrought epic of the Norman Conquest, worked on a narrow linen band over 200 feet long with 1,255 figures in worsted threads, traditionally attributed to Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror. It notes Mr. Fowke cites the Abbé Rue's doubts assigning it to the Empress Matilda, while Mr. Collingwood Bruce thinks it coeval with the events, since its primitive furniture and buildings are eleventh-century.
Chapter 3
What evidence of embroidery and needlework does the chapter cite from Egyptian and Jewish sources?
The chapter says Egyptian embroidery was general: at Beni Hassan figures are shown making net, mummy wrappings have drawn-work and cut-work, and Amasis sent a corslet with interwoven figures to Athene of Lindus. Among the Jews, the Tabernacle curtains were fine twined linen wrought with needlework, Aholiab is recorded as chief embroiderer, and Josephus describes Herod's Temple veil as a Babylonian curtain embroidered with the universe, stars, and elements.
Chapter 3
How does the chapter characterize embroidery among the Greeks and Romans?
The chapter says there seems no evidence of lace among the Greeks; vase figures wear costumes with ornamental borders, but these were painted, woven, or embroidered, not lace. Phrygia was renowned for needlework, and the toga picta worked with Phrygian embroidery was worn by Roman generals at triumphs and consuls at the games, so the Romans called embroidery opus Phrygianum.
Chapter 3
Section 44 cards
What did William of Poictiers say about English women's needlework?
William of Poictiers, secretary to William of Normandy, stated that "the English women are eminently skilful with the needle and in weaving." This remark is linked to William's first public appearance after the Battle of Hastings, when he wore a richly-wrought cloak of Anglo-Saxon embroidery.
Chapter 4
How did Pope Innocent IV obtain English gold embroidery in 1246?
After admiring gold-threaded English copes and mitres, Pope Innocent IV sent sealed briefs to nearly all English Cistercian abbots, ordering them to forward their gold embroideries for his chasuble and cope. Matthew of Paris notes the order pleased merchants but caused many to detest the Pope for covetousness.
Chapter 4
What techniques are described in the Syon Monastery cope?
The cope's design is largely worked in chain-stitch (modern tambour or crochet), especially the faces, where stitching spirals outward from a center point. A hot, small, round-knobbed iron then presses indentations at each spiral's center to create relief. Draperies were generally worked in feather-stitch, or opus plumarium.
Chapter 4
Why did medieval ladies spend so much time embroidering, per the author?
The author argues that swampy terrain, roads usable only by pack-horses in fine season, and a lack of outdoor amusement besides hawking kept ladies indoors. Feudal custom also sent knightly daughters to suzerain castles to learn spinning, weaving, and embroidery under the lady châtelaine, a practice surviving in remote areas into the French Revolution.
Chapter 4
Section 54 cards
What does the chapter identify as the origin of lace?
The chapter states that lace derives from open-work embroidery, which in the sixteenth century came into universal use under the general name of cut-work. This embroidery included a wide variety of decoration, and the author traces it through its gradations to show how lace developed from it.
Chapter 5
How was cut-work made using quintain cloth?
A network of threads was arranged on a small frame, crossing and interlacing into complicated patterns. Beneath it was gummed fine cloth called quintain, from the Brittany town where it was made. The network was then sewn to the quintain by edging round the parts meant to remain thick, and the superfluous cloth was cut away, hence the name cut-work.
Chapter 5
What did Stubbes complain about regarding shirts?
Stubbes vented indignation at the sums spent decorating shirts, which were wrought with needlework of silk and curiously stitched with open seam and other knacks. He claimed to have heard of shirts costing ten shillings, twenty, forty, five pounds, twenty nobles, and, which he called horrible to hear, ten pounds apiece.
Chapter 5
What is lacis, and how does it differ from geometric cut-work?
Lacis is the sixteenth-century work done on a network ground (réseau), identical with the opus araneum or spider-work of continental writers and the darned netting or filet brodé à reprises of French embroiderers. The chapter distinguishes it from geometric combinations such as radiating threads worked over with buttonhole stitch, forming open-work or heavy compact embroidery.
Chapter 5
Section 64 cards
What was the plain netted ground used in lacis called, and what was it used for?
The plain netted ground was called réseau, rézel, or rézeuil. It was much used for bed-curtains, vallances, and similar furnishings. When this réseau was decorated with a pattern, it was termed lacis, or darned netting, also known in Italian as punto ricamato a maglia quadra. Combined with point-coupé, it was much used for bed-furniture and church-work.
Chapter 6
How was the netted ground made, according to the poem on lacis?
According to a poem on lacis affixed to Milour Mignerak's pattern-book, the ground was made by beginning with a single stitch and increasing a stitch on each side until the required size was reached. For a strip or long border, the netting continued to the prescribed length, then finished by reducing a stitch on each side until decreased to one, as garden nets are made.
Chapter 6
What does the chapter say about Mary Stuart's will and her needlework?
Queen Mary Stuart, before the birth of James I in 1560, made a will still extant with annotations in her own handwriting. After disposing of her jewels and valuables, she bequeathed 'tous mes ouvrages masches et collets' to the four Maries, Jean Stuart, Marie Sunderland, and all the girls. The chapter says 'masches' was among the many terms for this work, and these ouvrages were doubtless the work of Mary and her ladies.
Chapter 6
What were samplars, and why did teachers have patterns reproduced in them?
Pattern-books were high in price and difficult to procure, so teachers of the art had various patterns reproduced in 'samcloths,' as samplars were then termed. Young ladies worked at them diligently as proof of their competency in cut-work, lacis, and réseuil. Proud mothers had these chefs-d'oeuvre framed and glazed, so many survive hoarded in old families uninjured.
Chapter 6
Section 74 cards
How did the French word dentelle develop from passement?
Passement remained in use until the mid-seventeenth century, specified as passements aux fuseaux or à l'aiguille, and applied to lace without an edge. When fashion produced a toothed edge, the term passement dentelé appeared, which gradually subsided into the modern dentelle. The word dentelle does not appear in earlier French dictionaries, though it occurs in a 1545 inventory of Marguerite de France.
Chapter 7
What two edges terminate all lace?
All lace is terminated by two edges: the pearl, picot, or couronne, a row of little points at equal distances, and the footing or engrêlure, a narrow lace that keeps the stitches of the ground firm and sews the lace to the garment on which it is worn.
Chapter 7
How is bobbin lace made on a pillow?
The pillow is a round or oval board stuffed into a cushion and placed on the workwoman's knees. A stiff parchment with holes pricked to mark the pattern is fixed on it, and pins are stuck through the holes. Threads wound on bobbins are twisted and crossed to form the ground, while a thicker thread, the gimp, is interwoven for the pattern.
Chapter 7
What lace types were known when Colbert established Points de France in 1665?
The chapter lists point, principally made at Venice, Genoa, Brussels, and Spain; bisette, a narrow coarse thread pillow lace; gueuse, a simple thread lace; campane, a narrow fine edging; mignonette, a light fine pillow lace also called blonde de fil; point double or point de Paris; Valenciennes; Mechlin, a general commercial name for Flemish laces except Brussels and point double; gold lace; and guipure.
Chapter 7
Section 84 cards
What was guipure originally named for, and what material defined it?
Guipure took its name from silk twisted round a thick thread or cord. It was made with the needle or on the pillow in various patterns, shades, colours, qualities and widths, from silk, gold and silver. Because of its costliness it was worn only by the rich. The narrowest guipures were called "Têtes de More."
Chapter 8
Why was less cartisane in guipure more esteemed?
Cartisane was only vellum covered with silk. It was not durable: damp affected it, it shrivelled, would not wash, and the pattern was destroyed. So the less cartisane a guipure contained, the more it was esteemed. Later, parchment was replaced by a cotton material called canetille.
Chapter 8
Where were most guipures made and exported, according to Savary in 1720?
Savary says most guipures were made in the environs of Paris. Formerly great quantities were consumed in the kingdom, but since the fashion had passed away they were mostly exported to Spain, Portugal, Germany, and the Spanish Indies, where they were much worn.
Chapter 8
What does the author infer about the English term for guipure?
The author notes the word guipure does not appear in English inventories or wardrobe accounts, and infers, though in opposition to higher authorities, that in England it was termed "parchment lace"—a conclusion she calls natural, since it was sometimes called "dentelle à cartisane" from the slips of parchment partly composing it.
Chapter 8
Section 94 cards
How was the lace trade conducted before it became more formalized?
The chapter states the lace trade was entirely in the hands of pedlars, who carried their wares to principal towns and large country-houses. Evelyn describes one Madame La Boord, a French peddling-woman, who served Queen Katherine with petticoats, fans, and foreign laces. These hawkers attended the great fairs of Europe, where all purchases were made.
Chapter 9
What evidence does the chapter give for lace in Italy in the fifteenth century?
In 1476 the Venetian Senate decreed no Punto in Aria, in flax, silver, or gold, be used on curtains or bed-linen. Este wardrobe registers of 1476 mention a felt hat trimmed with silver and silk gimp made with bobbins. Cavaliere Merli cites a 1493 Sforza document using the word trina with bone and bobbin lace.
Chapter 9
What competing theories does the chapter present for the origin of Italian point lace?
The Italians claim the invention of point, or needle-made lace. It has been suggested they derived fine needlework from Greeks who fled to Italy from the troubles of the Lower Empire, with Byzantine origin confirmed by cities trading with the Greek Empire making point lace earliest. A modern Italian author instead asserts Italians learned embroidery from the Saracens of Sicily.
Chapter 9
How did Venice try to restrain lace extravagance, and when did Venice lace become common in England?
In Venice, extravagance in lace was restrained in 1542 by a sumptuary law forbidding metal laces embroidered in silk to be wider than due dita, about two inches. The chapter says it was not until the reign of Elizabeth that Italian cut-works and Venice lace came into general use in England.
Chapter 9
Section 103 cards
According to the Venetian legend, how did Point de Venise originate?
A sailor brought his betrothed a bunch of coralline seaweed, called mermaid's lace, with small white knots joined by a bride. The girl, a worker in points, imitated it with her needle and after several failed attempts produced the delicate guipure that soon became the taste of all Europe.
Chapter 10
How does punto tagliato a fogliami differ from punto in aria?
Both are worked on a parchment pattern, but in punto tagliato a fogliami all outlines are in relief, raised by cottons placed inside, sometimes in double or triple relief. Many fine stitches fill the flowers, which are surrounded by a pearl of geometric regularity, sometimes in scallops or campané. This is the raised Venice point, or Gros Point de Venise.
Chapter 10
What does the chapter say about the French challenge to the Venice lace trade?
The chapter states Colbert's ordinance must have seriously injured the Venice lace trade, which Daru says employed the population of the capital. Britannia Languens (1680) notes Points de Venise then came mostly from France. Savary says the French no longer bought these articles, having established rival manufactures.
Chapter 10
Section 114 cards
What was the origin of the Burano lace school founded in the 1870s?
The school arose from severe distress that struck the island in 1872, when an extraordinarily harsh winter froze the lagoons and prevented the fishermen from working, reducing families to near starvation. Contributions from all classes in Italy, including the Pope and the King, relieved the immediate need and left a surplus used to establish a local industry.
Chapter 11
What industry was first attempted at Burano before lace-making, and why did it fail?
The first industry fixed upon was making fishermen's nets, but it gave no practical result because the fishermen were too poor to buy the nets. Signor Fambri then suggested reviving the ancient lace-making industry, and Princess Chigi-Giovanelli and Countess Andriana Marcello were asked to patronize a school for that purpose.
Chapter 11
How did Cencia Scarpariola contribute to the revival of Burano lace?
Countess Marcello found Cencia Scarpariola, an old woman of seventy and upwards who preserved the traditions of lace-making and still made Burano point. Because she could not teach her art, Madame Anne Bellorio d'Este took lessons from her in leisure hours and passed the knowledge to eight paid pupils.
Chapter 11
How did the Burano school organize its workers to improve output?
The four hundred lace-workers were divided into seven sections so each could continue in the same sort of work and class of lace. This method made each worker thoroughly proficient in her own special department, let her execute it with greater facility and earn more, and got the school's work done better and cheaper.
Chapter 11
Section 123 cards
What were the so-called punti di Milano, and how did their designs and grounds develop?
The punti di Milano were all bobbin-laces originating in Milan. Though imitated by Genoa and Naples, they remained unapproached in design and workmanship. Milan first made passements, then imitated Venetian points "a fogliami," whose pattern resembles woven linen with à jours. Designs were at first connected with bars; later meshes filled the ground—large in the seventeenth century, smaller still later—most often with four plaited sides per mesh, as in Valenciennes.
Chapter 12
What family badges appear in Milanese lace, and what events did they commemorate?
Like other Italian laces, Milanese lace frequently has coats-of-arms or family badges woven in, such as the Doge's horn, the baldachino (a special distinction accorded to Roman princes), and the dogs of the Carrara family. These served to commemorate a marriage or some other important event in the family. This sort of lace was known as Carnival lace when made of Venetian point.
Chapter 12
What does the chapter say about lace-making in Florence and its evidence?
The chapter says little is known of Florence and its products, though Agnolo Firenzuola's Elegy proves ladies made raised point early; his word "scolpì" (carved in basso rilievo) leaves no doubt. Henry VIII granted two Florentines a three-year privilege to import fringes and passements of gold and silver. In France, purchases of Florentine dantelle date from 1545, and the chapter suggests Catherine de Médicis introduced Italian points.
Chapter 12
Section 134 cards
How did magnificent Vatican laces circulate among cardinals?
The chapter states that Vatican and Conclave laces, mostly presents from crowned heads, were constantly in the market: heirs sold a Cardinal's lace at his death, and a newly elected prelate often repurchased it, since each man attaining high ecclesiastical dignity had to furnish himself with several sets.
Chapter 13
What did Clement IX give Sorbière, and how was it received?
Clement IX, before his elevation on intimate terms with Monsieur de Sorbière, habitually sent him Italian lace, then still prized in France. Sorbière, an irritated Gaul who expected something more tangible, complained that the Pope sent ruffles to a man who never has a shirt.
Chapter 13
What did Moryson and Lassels report about Italian taste in lace?
Fynes Moryson, contemporary of Davies, declares Italians cared nothing for foreign apparel, wearing ruffles of Flanders linen worked with Italian cut-work, and no gold or silver lace but black. Lassels says all they cared for was keeping a coach, their point de Venise and gold lace turned into horses and liveries.
Chapter 13
What characterized Genoese lace production and its decline?
Genoa's points, prized in the seventeenth century, were all pillow work (a piombini) of fine handspun Lombardy thread, with silk from Naples. Gold and silver lace was banned within the city walls; sumptuary laws allowed ladies black velvet trimmed with home-made point. By 1840 only six lace-sellers remained in Genoa.
Chapter 13
Section 144 cards
What change occurred in Italian lace production around 1850, and what became the chief product?
In 1850 Italian lace-workers began making guipures for France, which became their chief product. Earlier, the art had given place to black blonde imitating Chantilly, centered in Genoa and Cantu. Exportation was very great, and lace-making was the daily occupation of women and even the ladies of the commune.
Chapter 14
How did the maestri system at Santa Margherita and Rapallo work, and how were lace-makers paid?
The maestri, or overseers, received all orders from the trade and found hands to execute them. Silk and thread were weighed out to lace-makers, and finished work re-weighed to match. The maestri realized large fortunes and became signori, while lace-makers' hardest day's gain seldom exceeded a franc and a half. In 1862 Santa Margherita had 2,210 lace-workers; Rapallo, 1,494.
Chapter 14
What was distinctive about the Albissola lace industry, including its bridal veils and the maestra system?
Albissola near Savona made black and white thread or coloured silk laces once exported to Cadiz, Madrid and Seville. Daughters of great nobles chose veils and shawls before marriage; the last bridal veil was made for a lady of the Gentili family. Four women worked one pillow with sixty dozen bobbins. Each maestra supplied and pricked patterns and paid workers weekly, earning ten soldi to two lire a day.
Chapter 14
What is macramé, where was it taught, and how did its designs develop after 1843?
Macramé is a knotted-fringe work taught in schools and convents along the Riviera, perfected at Chiavari and the Albergo de' Poveri at Genoa, and applied to ornamenting towels. It was formerly a plain plaited fringe until 1843, when Baroness A. d'Asti brought a richly ornamented piece from Rome as a pattern; Marie Picchetti unpicked it to discover the method. Designs are now varied, some for church use.
Chapter 14
Section 154 cards
What does the chapter say about the origin of Maltese lace manufacture?
The chapter states that the lace once made in Malta was an indigenous coarse Mechlin or Valenciennes of one arabesque pattern. In 1833 Lady Hamilton Chichester induced a woman named Ciglia to copy in white the lace of an old Greek coverlet, and the Ciglia family then began the black and white silk guipures known as Maltese lace. Much is made in the Gozo orphanage.
Chapter 15
How does the chapter describe the manufacture and use of Greek reticella lace?
The chapter says 'Greek' lace is really Italian reticella, with earliest designs geometrical, worked over drawn or cut threads, later ornamented with half circles, triangles or wheels. Main seats were the Ionian Isles, Zante, Corfu, Venice, Naples, Rome, Florence and Milan. It was used in Naples for curtains, bed-hangings and coverlets, even as a tapestry substitute.
Chapter 15
What does the chapter report about lace found in the Ionian Isles and its sale?
The chapter states church lace of the Ionian Isles was not appreciated by natives, who sold it gladly to English officers garrisoned at Corfu. Much was found in Cephalonia, brought aboard steamers black with age and unpleasant to the senses, taken from tombs where it adorned grave-clothes. This tomb-hunting became a regular trade, and coarse lace was steeped in coffee or a drug and sold as from the tombs (1869).
Chapter 15
What does the chapter say about lace in Turkey and China?
Moryson (1589) wrote Turks wore no lace or cut-work, but later the Grand Turk issued sumptuary laws against gold lace. A fine white silk guipure is made at Smyrna and Rhodes, and coloured 'oyah' was shown in 1867. In China, Consul Bullock reported a missionary taught a few women to make silk lace at Chefoo, sold only to Europeans; white lace has no native sale because white and blue are mourning colours.
Chapter 15
Section 164 cards
What does 'point d'Espagne' usually mean, and what was its likely origin?
Point d'Espagne usually means the gold or silver lace, sometimes embroidered in colours, heavily used in France in Louis XIV's early reign. The author argues the name was probably a commercial one given to gold lace by French makers, and that its celebrity owed more to Spanish grandees wearing gold lace than to Spain producing it.
Chapter 16
What does Señor Riano argue about Mrs. Palliser's claim of early Spanish thread lace?
Señor Riano doubts that fine artistic thread lace was ever made or exported commercially in early Spain, finding no evidence. He says the Granada lace alb Mrs. Palliser cites, a gift of Ferdinand and Isabella, is actually seventeenth-century Flemish lace, which greatly weakens her argument.
Chapter 16
When did heavy 'Spanish point' become known to Europe, and where did it originate?
The white thread heavy arabesque 'Spanish point' was originally an Italian production, imported for Spanish churches and imitated by nuns in convents. It was little known to Europe's commercial world until the dissolution of the Spanish monasteries in 1830, when splendid specimens of nun's work suddenly came onto the market.
Chapter 16
What did Father Campos say about the cost of making cadenetas?
Father Campos complained that the manufacture of cadenetas, thread combined with gold and silver, wasted huge sums — hundreds and thousands of ducats — while destroying eyesight, wasting lives, making women consumptive, and keeping them from more spiritually profitable time. He asked whether a chemise costing fifty ducats or a petticoat costing three hundred was worth half its price.
Chapter 16
Section 173 cards
How did the Spanish tariff on imported lace change in 1667?
The chapter states that the import duty on lace was twenty-five reals per pound and was augmented to two hundred and fifty reals, showing the lace import was considered excessive. It adds that much point was introduced into Spain at this time by way of Antwerp to Cadiz under the name 'puntos de mosquito e de transillas.'
Chapter 17
What did the 1723 sumptuary law prohibit regarding lace in Spain and its colonies?
The chapter states the ordinance of 1723 prohibited the introduction of every sort of edgings or foreign laces, allowing only those made in the country. The sumptuary laws were extended to the American colonies in 1723, as Ustariz says many families had been ruined by purchasing fine lace and gold stuffs of foreign manufacture.
Chapter 17
What distinguishes Moorish lace patterns from those worked by Christian hands?
The chapter says the making of chequered lace was for a time the favourite employment of Moorish maidens, and such pieces are still to be purchased, yellow with age, in Tangier and Tetuan. They may be distinguished from those worked by Christian fingers by the absence of all animals in the pattern, since Mahommedan law strictly forbids representing living creatures in painting, sculpture, or embroidery.
Chapter 17
Section 184 cards
What did the 1749 sumptuary law do to Portuguese lace luxury?
The sumptuary law of 1749 put an end to all luxury among the laity in Portugal, where point lace had been held in high estimation but had no regular manufacture, being the amusement of nuns and a few women working at home. Even those who exposed such wares as laces in the streets were ordered to quit the town.
Chapter 18
How were costly Italian and Spanish points in relief counterfeited?
Because the fine points in relief of Italy and Spain cost too much for moderate means, they were extensively counterfeited: the principal scroll of the pattern was formed with tape or linen cut out and sewn on, and reliefs were produced by cords fixed and overcast after the work was finished, substituting linen and cords for needlework. In France these counterfeits occasioned an ordinance in 1669.
Chapter 18
What evidence does Baron Reiffenberg cite for early Flemish pillow-lace?
Baron Reiffenberg, a Belgian writer, asserts lace cornettes were worn in the Low Countries as early as the fourteenth century, and cites an altar-piece attributed to Quentin Matsys in St. Peter's at Louvain showing a girl making lace with bobbins on a pillow with a drawer. The chapter notes only the Louvain painting is now assigned to Matsys, and that no figure in its triptych appears to be making lace.
Chapter 18
How did lace-making support Flanders and spread to other nations?
The chapter states that in the sixteenth century, when industrial arts fled religious persecution, the lace fabric alone upheld itself and by its prosperity saved Flanders from ruin. Every country of Northern Europe, Germany, and England learned lace-making from Flanders. After Colbert established the Points de France, Flanders passed an act dated Brussels, December 26th, 1698, threatening punishment for suborning her workpeople.
Chapter 18
Section 193 cards
Why did English merchants sell Brussels lace as point d'Angleterre?
In 1662 Parliament banned all foreign lace imports to protect English bone-lace. Attempts to transplant Flemish lace-makers to England failed for lack of suitable flax, so merchants bought choice Brussels laces and smuggled them in, selling them as point d'Angleterre. A 1695 Venetian report confirms English point was actually made in Flanders, the name serving only to distinguish it.
Chapter 19
How were children trained and disciplined in the Flemish lace schools?
Girls began apprenticeship at five, earning their maintenance by ten, working at pillows and bobbins. A seventeenth-century tract describes a large room with a pulpit-like box where the grand mistress sat with a white wand; she tapped idle workers, rang a bell, and offenders were taken to another room and chastised. The author of the tract argued this discipline kept German women frugal.
Chapter 19
Why is the finest Brussels thread spun in dark underground rooms?
The flax grows in Brabant at Hal and Rebecq-Rognon. The finest thread is spun in dark underground rooms because dry air makes the almost invisible thread break. Spinners check every inch from the distaff, stopping the wheel to fix inequalities, with dark paper behind and a single ray of light. The work is unhealthy and skilled, so wages are proportionably high.
Chapter 19
Section 204 cards
Why could the fine Brussels ground not be established in other countries?
The extreme fineness of the thread made the vrai réseau costly, and the difficulty of procuring such fine thread at any price prevented the art from being transplanted elsewhere. Lord Garden, writing in 1787, reported that the thread came from Cambrai and Valenciennes in French Flanders, and that five or six different artists were employed on the delicate part of the fabric.
Chapter 20
What are the two kinds of ground used in Brussels lace, and how was each made?
The two grounds were the bride and the réseau. The bride was used first but had been discontinued by a century before, made only to order. The réseau was made two ways: by hand (à l'aiguille) and on the pillow (au fuseau). Pillow ground was worked in narrow strips joined by the stitch called point de raccroc, or fine joining.
Chapter 20
What were the seven specialized processes in Brussels lace making?
Each process went to a different hand: the drocheleuse made the vrai réseau; the dentelière the footing; the pointeuse the point à l'aiguille flowers; the platteuse the plat flowers; the fonneuse the open work in the plat; the jointeuse united sections of ground; and the striqueuse sewed the flowers onto the ground. The master designed the pattern and bore all responsibility.
Chapter 20
How did lace-makers treat yellowed flowers, and why was the practice harmful?
Workers placed soiled, reddish-yellow flowers in a packet of white lead and beat them with the hand before sewing them on the ground. The operation was injurious to the health of the lace-cleaner, and the lace turned black when stored in contact with sulphur-bleached woollens, scent bottles, sea air, or a heated room. The author notes the custom of powdering yellow lace is of old date.
Chapter 20
Section 214 cards
What two features distinguish Mechlin lace?
Mechlin's distinguishing feature is the cordonnet, a flat silky thread outlining the pattern and giving the lace an embroidered character (hence Broderie de Malines). Second is the hexagonal mesh of the réseau, made of two threads twisted twice on four sides and four threads plaited three times on the other two, making the plait shorter and the mesh smaller than Brussels lace.
Chapter 21
Why does Mechlin lace not appear in English advertisements before 1699?
The statute of Charles II placed a bar on introducing Flanders lace into England, so Mechlin appears in neither the advertisements nor inventories of that time. When the English prohibition was removed in 1699, Mechlin became the grand fashion and remained so through the following century. Queen Mary had anticipated the repeal by some years, purchasing fringe for her Mechlin ruffles in 1694.
Chapter 21
What was Antwerp 'pot lace' and why did it survive?
Pot lace (potten kant) is an Antwerp pattern featuring a vase, varied according to fancy, worn on caps by old people from generation to generation. It was made in the Béguinages in three qualities, mostly fond double. According to the chapter, Antwerp lace would have disappeared after the Spanish market ceased had it not been for the old people's attachment to this single pattern.
Chapter 21
How did the Valenciennes lace industry grow in Flanders?
The art was imported into Flanders from French Hainault in the seventeenth century, and Ypres began making Valenciennes lace as early as 1656. A 1684 census ordered by Louis XIV found only three forewomen and sixty-three lace-makers, but by 1850 there were 20,000 to 22,000 in Ypres and its environs alone, making it the most important branch of the Belgian pillow-lace trade.
Chapter 21
Section 224 cards
How many bobbins were used on the Courtrai pillow shown in 1874?
At the International Exhibition of 1874, a Courtrai pillow used for making a parasol cover carried no fewer than 8,000 bobbins. The chapter notes that even a piece under two inches wide from Ypres used 200 to 300 bobbins, while larger widths used 800 or more on the same pillow.
Chapter 22
What change did a manufacturer make at Ypres in 1833?
In 1833 a manufacturer replaced the thick treille and scanty flowers of the old laces with a clear wire ground and bold flowing designs. The chapter states that fashion accepted this change, and the Valenciennes lace of Ypres has since attained a high degree of perfection. Courtrai has also made great advances toward rivalling Ypres.
Chapter 22
Why has Valenciennes lace of Bruges never enjoyed a high reputation?
The chapter attributes it to the round ground of the Bruges lace, stating that from this it has never enjoyed a high reputation. It also notes that in Peuchet's eighteenth-century account, Bruges laces were merely alluded to as 'passing for Mechlin,' while Courtrai's imitations of Valenciennes were sought after in England and France.
Chapter 22
What does the chapter say about the lace industry of Binche around 1830?
Before 1830, Binche was described as a hive of lace-makers whose earnings were so good that their husbands could take a walk without care for the morrow. The chapter states the industry will soon be only a memory. Binche lace is characterized by little or no cordonnet outlining the pattern, and by fond de neige grounds.
Chapter 22
Section 234 cards
What did the French edict of September 18th, 1664 mention regarding Liège lace?
The tariff fixed by a French edict of September 18th, 1664 mentions "Dentelles de Liège, fines et grosses de toutes sortes" alongside the laces of Lorraine and Du Comté (Franche-Comté). The chapter later notes the Liège manufacture had declined by 1802, when French Commissioners classed it among the "fabriques moins considérables," and the caïeteresses of the Rue Pierreuse had died out by 1881, with the same work carried on at Laroche.
Chapter 23
What did the 1803 French Commission report say about lace-making at St. Trond?
The report states lace was made at St. Trond in Limburgh, employing from 800 to 900 people at home or in manufacturers' workshops. The laces resembled those of Brussels and Mechlin; about 8,000 metres of first-quality lace were produced, fetching twelve to fourteen francs the metre, sold mostly in Holland and at the Frankfort fairs. The report adds that war's vicissitudes reduced demand for luxuries and suggests stopping lace-makers who sold materials given them to work with.
Chapter 23
How did ruffs grow under Henry III, and how were they mocked?
By 1579 French court ruffs reached "un tiers d'aulne" in depth, so wearers could scarcely turn their heads; Stone calls them a quarter of a yard deep and twelve lengths. They were called the "English monster" in France and the "French ruff" in London. When Henry III wore one at the St. Germain fair in 1579, students in large paper cuffs shouted "À la fraise on connoit le veau," and the King imprisoned them.
Chapter 23
How did Henry IV and Sully try to curb luxury lace and gold trimmings?
Henry IV issued fresh ordinances against "clinquants et dorures," and tried example, wearing a grey cloth coat with a plain taffety doublet without trimming or lace—an economy the public little appreciated. Sully mocked those who carried "leurs moulins et leurs bois de haute futaie sur leurs dos" and prohibited dealings with Flemish merchants under pain of corporal punishment. The chapter notes edicts failed to put down point coupé, since Reine Margot, Madame Gabrielle, and Bassompierre were too strong for him.
Chapter 23
Section 244 cards
What did the 1660 ordinance permit regarding lace already owned?
The ordinance of November 27th, 1660 prohibited foreign passements and French laces over an inch wide, but allowed people to keep using collerettes and manchettes they already owned for one year. After that, they could only be trimmed with lace made in the kingdom, no wider than an inch. It also banned lace-trimmed canons unless made of plain linen or matching the coat.
Chapter 24
How did Louis XIII's 1615 marriage change lace fashion at court?
When Louis XIII married Anne of Austria in 1615, the Queen-Mother's collerettes were discarded. The chapter says the reign of Italy was at an end and everything became à l'éspagnole, following the court of Castile. This marked a shift from Italian to Spanish influence in lace styles at the French court.
Chapter 24
What did Mazarin's 1653 letters to Colbert concern?
While besieging a city in 1653, Mazarin corresponded with his secretary Colbert about buying points from Flanders, Venice, and Genoa. He considered advancing thirty or forty thousand livres for the purchases, believing buying early would lower the price, but wanted to wait until his arrival in Paris for a final decision. Colbert later pressed him citing winter marriages.
Chapter 24
What does the chapter say about the Code Michaud and its enforcement?
The Code Michaud entered into minute regulations for the toilet and especially provoked public ridicule. The chapter states it was never carried out. Caricatures of the period mocked it, including one of a young courtier in plain-bordered linen while his valet locks away his laced suit, and another of a fashionable lady in plain cuffs lamenting she looks better with gold and lace.
Chapter 24
Section 264 cards
How did the fontange head-dress originate, according to the chapter?
The chapter recounts that during a hurried chase, the royal favourite's hair burst from its ribbon; she tied a lace kerchief around her head, creating a coiffure so pleasing that Louis XIV asked her to keep it for that night at court. The next day all the court ladies appeared 'coiffées à la Fontange.' The style later grew into tiers of point mounted on wires and became ever taller.
Chapter 26
How did the fontange fashion supposedly end?
The chapter says accounts differ: some claim the clergy preached it down, but the most probable story is that in October 1699 Louis XIV merely remarked the coiffure seemed disagreeable to him. The ladies worked all night and appeared next evening in low head-dress. The author notes Louis never appreciated the sacrifice, and others credit Lady Sandwich's low style instead.
Chapter 26
What was a Steinkerque and why was it worn?
The Steinkerque was a twisted lace necktie, named after the 1692 battle of that name. When the young French Princes of the Blood were suddenly ordered into action, they hastily tied their lace cravats, normally an elaborate process, and won the day. In honour of the event, ladies and cavaliers wore handkerchiefs knotted in that careless fashion, and the style lasted for years.
Chapter 26
What were the 'fameuse poupée' dolls used for?
The chapter explains that dressing these great dolls originated in the salons of the Hôtel Rambouillet. One, 'la grande Pandore,' was exhibited in full dress at each change of fashion; a second, the little Pandore, in morning déshabille. The dolls were sent to Vienna and Italy carrying the finest French laces, and as late as 1764 dolls dressed in Paris fashion were shipped to Dover as models.
Chapter 26
Section 274 cards
According to Mercier, how often did a fashionable Parisian gentleman change his shirt?
Mercier wrote that Parisians bought four outfits for every one shirt, and that a fine gentleman put on a clean white shirt only once every two weeks. He sewed his lace cuffs onto a dirty shirt and powdered his point collar until it looked white. The habit became proverbial, and the Maréchal de Richelieu said of himself that he had not been supplied with shirts but had bought cuffs.
Chapter 27
What was the customary cadeau de noces from bride to groom, and how much lace did each piece need?
The jabot and manchettes of point lace were the customary cadeau de noces given by the bride to her intended for his wedding dress, a relic of which survives in the embroidered wedding shirt furnished by the lady in the North of Europe. An ell and a quarter of lace was required for one pair of ruffles, and a yard minus one-sixteenth sufficed for the jabot.
Chapter 27
How did lace etiquette at the French court treat mourning?
There was much etiquette at the court of France regarding lace, which was never worn in mourning. Dangeau records that on the death of the Princess of Baden, the king, who had resumed lace and gold and silver ribbons, took up plain linen and plain ribbons again the next day. Madame describes the Margrave of Anspach's petit deuil as white lace over black with fine blue ribbon, a magnificent parure.
Chapter 27
How did Marie-Antoinette's reign change lace fashion, and what did the Maréchale de Luxembourg do?
Under Louis XVI, society tired of court ceremony and began to emancipate itself, with Marie-Antoinette giving the signal. The finest Indian muslin supplanted the heavy points of the old court. The Maréchale de Luxembourg, disapproving, said ladies in muslin aprons and handkerchiefs looked like cooks and convent porters, and sent her granddaughter an apron of sailcloth trimmed with fine point and six fichus of the same material.
Chapter 27
Section 284 cards
What effect did the French Revolution have on the lace trade?
The chapter states the French Revolution was fatal to the lace trade: for twelve years the manufacture almost ceased, and more than thirty different fabrics entirely disappeared. The great nobility who had patronised the rich manufactures became outcasts in foreign countries. It was not until 1801, when Napoleon wished to revive luxury, that lace is again chronicled in the annals of the day.
Chapter 28
How did Napoleon support the French lace industry?
The chapter says Napoleon especially patronised the fabrics of Alençon, Brussels, and Chantilly, and tried without success to raise that of Valenciennes. Following Louis XIV, he made wearing his two favourite points obligatory at the Court of the Tuileries, and the towns owe the preservation of their manufactures to his protection. He also paid a 30,000-franc lace bill refused by Princess Pauline and distributed the laces among court ladies.
Chapter 28
What change in lace-making technique is described after the old style was discarded?
The chapter says the ancient style, often heavy and overloaded with ornament, was discarded and a lighter description introduced. By an improvement in the point de raccroc, several sections of lace could be joined to form one large piece, so ten workers could produce in a month what had formerly been the work of years.
Chapter 28
What happened to the French lace industry when bobbin net was first made in France?
The chapter states the industry faced a more severe crisis in 1818 when bobbin net was first made in France. Fashion at once adopted the new material and pillow lace was for a time discarded. For fifteen years lace met fearful competition, manufacturers lowered prices and reduced produce, and markets were flooded with tulle, until a reaction came and by 1834, except Alençon, the other fabrics were again in full activity.
Chapter 28
Section 294 cards
What made Alençon lace distinctive among French laces?
The chapter states that Alençon was the only French lace not made on the pillow; point d'Alençon is made entirely by hand with a fine needle on a parchment pattern, in small pieces later united by invisible seams. The author notes France had no rival in its points of Alençon and white blondes, or its black silk laces.
Chapter 29
Why did Alençon lace-workers revolt against Colbert's regulations in 1665?
Colbert prohibited making any point except that of the royal manufactory, and the monopoly of privileged workmen displeased the old workwomen. Over a thousand women pursued Le Prevost, who fled to the intendant Favier-Duboulay; the intendant appeased them by assuring they would keep liberty to work, noting the town subsisted by these small lace works.
Chapter 29
What settlement was reached at Alençon after the 1665 lace-workers' revolt?
On September 14th, after a meeting headed by Prevost and the Marquis de Pasax, intendant of the city, it was settled that after the king had found 200 girls, the rest were free to work as they pleased. None could make the fine point of the royal pattern except those working for the manufactory, and all girls had to show authorities their intended patterns.
Chapter 29
What did Colbert's death and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes do to Alençon?
The chapter says the Alençon manufacture was already declining by 1698. The death of its protector Colbert in 1683, the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which reduced the population by one-third as industrial families retired to England and Scotland, the long wars of Louis XIV., and his death in 1715 all contributed to diminishing its prosperity.
Chapter 29
Section 304 cards
What unique material does point d'Alençon use along its edge, and why?
Horsehair is introduced along the edge to give firmness and consistency to the cordonnet, so the point would stand up when exposed to wind while mounted on the towering fabrics ladies then wore. The drawback is that horsehair shrinks in washing and draws up the flower from the ground, making the lace rigid and heavy.
Chapter 30
How did the naming of point de France give way to Alençon and Argentan?
The author disputes an eminent writer's claim that the name point de France lasted until the Revolution. The last inventory mentioning point de France is from 1723, while point d'Argentan appears in 1738 and point d'Alençon in 1741, specified as 'à réseau.'
Chapter 30
What happened to Alençon lace-making after Napoleon's fall, and what revival attempts followed?
The manufacture again nearly died out: no new workers were trained, the old ones died off, and the Duchesse d'Angoulême's large orders failed to revive it since point lace had been replaced by blonde. By 1830 only 200–300 workers remained, producing about 1,200 francs. Baron Mercier's 1836 lace school failed, and in 1840 two hundred aged women were collected to restart the craft.
Chapter 30
How did Alençon patterns change from Louis XV to Louis XVI and the Empire?
Early eighteenth-century patterns were flowery and undulating, with haphazard finer-ground inserts and varied jours, wreathed like theatre decoration. Late in the reign, taste shifted to compact, stiff, angular designs called bizarre. Under Louis XVI came grounds semé with compact little bouquets, pois, fleurons, rosettes and larmes, which by century's end expelled the bouquets; the semés continued through the Empire.
Chapter 30
Section 314 cards
How did Alençon lace designs differ from Brussels lace designs?
The chapter states that Alençon's designs were seldom copied from nature, while Brussels (Brabant) lace featured roses and honeysuckles of a correctness worthy of a Dutch painter. The author notes this defect was later altered, with Alençon designs becoming admirable copies of natural flowers intermixed with grasses and ferns, giving variety to leaf forms.
Chapter 31
What was distinctive about the bride ground of Point d'Argentan?
Point d'Argentan was distinguished by hexagonally-arranged brides: a large six-sided mesh worked over with buttonhole stitch, always printed on the parchment pattern with the upper angle pricked. Each of the six sides received seven or eight buttonhole stitches, making the bride ground very strong. The chapter notes this hexagonal feature was also observed in certain Venetian point laces.
Chapter 31
How did the Bayeux Alençon manufacture differ from the old custom of lace-making?
At Bayeux, where M. Auguste Lefébure introduced the fabric in 1855, the old custom of assigning each lace-maker a special branch of work was abandoned; instead the lace was executed through all its stages by the same worker. The chapter cites a fine 1867 exhibit: a dress of two flounces with shaded tints, priced 85,000 francs (£3,400), taking forty women seven years.
Chapter 31
What did the 1745 dispute reveal about transferring lace-workers by force?
The magistrate reported that workers could not be transferred by force: when the Dauphin's layette was made, a detachment of women led by a female captain declared they would produce only 'bousillage' (cobbling) if forced. About a dozen were compelled to go, but Monthulay had to discharge them the next day. The magistrate recommended suborning workers with higher wages instead.
Chapter 31
Section 322 cards
What did the widow Louvain propose for Mortagne in 1763?
In 1763 the widow Louvain tried to set up a lace manufacture at Mortagne (Orne) imitating Alençon and Argentan, and offered to send workers from those towns to teach the girls of Mortagne the art without charge. The chapter states that what became of her project is unknown.
Chapter 32
What does the chapter say about Paris gold and silver lace before the Edict of Nantes?
The gold and silver laces of Paris, commonly called points d'Espagne and often ornamented with pearls, were renowned throughout Europe for years and a great commerce for France until the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Their importance is shown by seventeenth-century sumptuary edicts forbidding their use and by mention in the Révolte des Passemens. They were made on the pillow and much was exported to Spain and the Indies.
Chapter 32
Section 333 cards
What material is Chantilly black lace made of, and what common error surrounds it?
Chantilly black lace has always been made of silk, specifically a grenadine rather than a shining silk. Because of this duller appearance, a common error prevails that it is made of thread. The chapter states that black thread lace has never been made at either Chantilly or Bayeux.
Chapter 33
What distinguishes Chantilly lace's ground, and what is the fond chant?
The distinguishing feature of Chantilly lace is the fond chant, an abbreviation of Chantilly. It is a six-pointed star réseau, better described as a diamond crossed by two horizontal threads. The fillings in the flowers are mesh grounds called vitré, mariage, and cinq trous, depending on the district where they were made.
Chapter 33
What happened to the Chantilly lace industry during the Revolution and afterward?
Chantilly fell with '93. Considered a Royal fabric made for the nobility alone, its lace-workers became victims of revolutionary fury and perished with their patrons on the scaffold. The manufacture is not heard of again until the Empire, when Chantilly enjoyed its greatest prosperity, with white blonde becoming the rage in Paris in 1805.
Chapter 33
Section 344 cards
What was the Dentelle à la Vierge, and where is it documented?
A pretty double-grounded old Normandy lace much used for caps. The chapter notes only one mention of the name: an inventory made in 1785 after the death of Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orleans, which records in his chapel at Villers-Cotterets "Une aube en baptiste garnie en gros point de dentelle dite à la Vierge."
Chapter 34
How did the Revolution affect Normandy lace-making?
Arthur Young in 1788 reported lace-makers earned seldom more than seven or eight sous a day, a few fifteen. Before the Revolution Dieppe lace amounted to 400,000 francs annually. Normandy felt the shock of 1790; Dieppe had already suffered from foreign lace imports. The points of Havre, Pont-l'Evêque, Harfleur, Eu and over ten neighbouring towns disappeared; only Dieppe and Honfleur lingered precariously.
Chapter 34
Why were Caen blondes called "blondes," and what silk made them famous?
Blondes appeared in 1745; the first silk used was its natural colour, "écrue," hence the name. A silk throwster, M. Duval, was largely the originator of their success, being first to prepare the brilliant white silks that made their reputation, procured from Bourg-Argental in the Cevennes. The author notes no place except Chantilly matched Caen's white blondes in purity, workmanship, lightness and brilliancy.
Chapter 34
What was the point de raccroc and why did Calvados prosper from it?
A stitch invented by a lace-maker named Cahanet that let many hands work on the same piece; previously no more than two could work at once. A scarf that would have taken two women six months could, divided into segments, be finished by ten women in one. The chapter says Calvados owes her prosperity to this invention, used to join strips into shawls, dresses, flounces and veils.
Chapter 34
Section 353 cards
What did M. Lefébure reproduce in high relief, and what was it called?
Messrs. Lefébure successfully reproduced Venetian point in high relief, with raised flowers executed beautifully and picots rendered precisely. The discovery of how this complicated point lace was made required great patience. The reproduction is called "Point Colbert," and an illustration of it faces page 228.
Chapter 35
What custom did ancient Breton families observe with a bride's lace dress?
Among ancient families in Bretagne, a bride wore her lace-adorned dress only twice: on her wedding day and again at her death, when the body lay in state before burial. After the ceremony she folded the dress away in fine homespun linen meant as her winding sheet, laying fresh lavender and rosemary on it each wedding anniversary.
Chapter 35
Why did Valenciennes lace decline after 1780?
From 1780, fashion shifted toward cheaper, lighter laces from Brussels, Lille, and Arras, which were preferred over costly Valenciennes. The disappearance of men's ruffles worsened matters. Valenciennes fell with the monarchy; foreign occupation decimated the population, leaving 250 workers in 1790 and only two in 1851, both over eighty. Napoleon's revival efforts failed.
Chapter 35
Section 364 cards
What was the last important lace piece made within Valenciennes' city walls?
A head-dress of "vraie Valenciennes" presented by the city to the Duchesse de Nemours on her marriage in 1840. It was furnished by Mademoiselle Ursule Glairo, an aged lady who employed the few old lace-workers then living, with the patriotic wish of exhibiting the perfection of the ancient manufacture.
Chapter 36
How does Lille lace ground differ from Valenciennes and Brussels grounds?
In Lille's "Point de Lille" or fond clair, four sides of the mesh are formed by twisting two threads round each other, and the remaining two by simply crossing the threads. Valenciennes plaits the sides of the mesh, while Brussels and Mechlin partly plait and partly twist. The author calls the Lille ground the finest, lightest, most transparent, and best made of all grounds.
Chapter 36
What happened to Lille's lace-making population between 1788 and 1851, and why?
In 1788 there were above 16,000 lace-makers at Lille, making 120,000 pieces valued at more than £160,000. By 1851 the number had fallen to 1,600 and was still gradually diminishing, owing to competition from Mirecourt fabrics and other Lille manufactures offering more lucrative wages than lace-making.
Chapter 36
What three qualities made Arras lace commercially successful despite its limited patterns?
Though not as fine as Lille's, Arras lace is very strong, firm to the touch, and perfectly white. The author says no other lace had this triple merit at so reasonable a price, hence great demand at home and abroad. Because makers repeated the same pattern for years, they also acquired great rapidity.
Chapter 36
Section 374 cards
Why did the 1640 Toulouse decree ban lace in Le Puy?
The decree, published by the Seneschal of Le Puy, forbade all persons of any sex, quality, or condition to wear lace of silk or white thread, gold or silver passement, under heavy fine. The chapter gives two reasons: the many women in the lace trade made domestic servants hard to obtain, and lace worn by all classes erased distinctions between high and low.
Chapter 37
How did Father Régis aid the Auvergne lace industry?
Father Régis, a Jesuit then in the province, consoled the lace-workers ruined by the edict, saying 'la dentelle ne perira pas.' He traveled to Toulouse and by remonstrances obtained the edict's revocation. At his suggestion the Jesuits opened a new market in Spain and the New World, bringing prosperity until 1790. He died in December 1640 and was later canonised as Saint François Régis, patron saint of lace-makers.
Chapter 37
What problems beset the Le Puy lace trade in the eighteenth century?
In 1707 manufacturers won remission of the 1664 import duties. About ten years later shops were full of lace for Italy and the South Seas that merchants refused to buy, and commissioners at Montpelier decided the diocese should borrow 60,000 livres to buy the dead stock. In 1755 a grant of 1,000 livres over ten years relieved distressed lace-makers, and exemption from export duty was again demanded.
Chapter 37
What does the chapter say about Le Puy's lace output and later products?
Peuchet calls Le Puy's manufacture the most flourishing in France, resembling Flanders lace and exported to Spain, Portugal, Germany, Italy, and England, with thread lace sent via Cadiz to Peru and Mexico. In palmy days workers consumed 400,000 livres of thread yearly; export lace ran from 30-sous edgings to 45 livres per 12-ell piece, totaling 1,200,000 livres annually. Later they made blondes and black lace.
Chapter 37
Section 384 cards
What was point d'Aurillac, and where was most of it sent?
Point d'Aurillac was a rich gold and silver lace similar to point d'Espagne. The chapter notes that the greater part of these laces were sent into Spain, and that Mazarin held them in high estimation, listing them in his 1660 inventory. They also appear in the Mercure Galant's 1679 account of a masked ball.
Chapter 38
Why did the lace fabrics of Aurillac and Murat end with the Revolution?
The chapter states the fabrics of Aurillac and Murat ended with the Revolution. After order was restored, the women found they could earn more as domestic servants in neighbouring towns, and they never again returned to their ancient occupation. So the trade's collapse was economic, driven by better-paying alternatives rather than by the upheaval alone.
Chapter 38
What is the disputed origin of the word tulle?
Many writers derive tulle, the French name for bobbin net, from the town of Tulle, and M. Lefébure supports this, citing eighteenth-century lace-making at Tulle. The author argues it more probably comes from Toul (Latin Tullum), famous for embroidery, since net resembles hemstitch. The word first appears in the French Encyclopædia of 1765.
Chapter 38
How did Mirecourt's lace industry change in the nineteenth century?
Early in the nineteenth century the export trade gave way to dealings with France. Makers adopted point de Flandres patterns brought by travelling merchants, then hired draughtsmen to create new designs, becoming rivals to Lille, Geneva, and Val de Travers. Cluny lace, copied from old specimens in the Musée de Cluny, became the most commercially valuable product.
Chapter 38
Section 394 cards
Why did Champagne's lace industry collapse after flourishing with 5,000–6,000 workers?
Champagne employed 5,000 to 6,000 lace-workers before the Revolution, with annual products estimated at 200,000 francs. During the twelve years of revolutionary anarchy, all the lace manufactures of the province disappeared. Earlier, most of its lace-makers, being Protestants, had emigrated after the Edict of Revocation.
Chapter 39
What differing views do authorities hold on the character of Sedan lace?
M. Séguin considered Sedan lace inferior in design and workmanship to point de Venise à réseau, with a single thread between pattern and réseau. Certain Brussels authorities claim point de Sedan was needle-made in Brabant or Liège. M. Lefébure considers it an important variety of Alençon. The chapter suggests both the heavy kind and the lace with réseau may be Sedan productions.
Chapter 39
According to tradition, how did Barbara Uttmann introduce pillow lace to Germany?
Tradition credits Barbara Uttmann, born 1514 at Etterlein, who married miner Christopher Uttmann of Annaberg. She reportedly learned lace-making from a Brabant Protestant driven out by Spanish cruelties, and observed mountain girls making network for miners' hair. In 1561 she set up a workshop at Annaberg, and the industry spread, employing 30,000 persons and producing 1,000,000 thalers.
Chapter 39
What advantage did Haarlem thread give the Dutch, and how did they treat foreign lace?
The Dutch had Haarlem thread, once considered the best adapted for lace in the world; a writer said no place bleaches flax like the meer of Haarlem. The Dutch strenuously forbade entry of all foreign lace, exporting surplus to Italy. Their own lace made little noise in the world, though England received fine lace from Holland in 1764.
Chapter 39
Section 404 cards
What was the so-called Dresden lace actually, according to the chapter?
The chapter states that Dresden lace was drawn-work, the technique described in Chapter II, carried to great perfection. Travellers of the eighteenth century confirmed Anderson's remark that Dresden makes very fine lace. Savary noted that Dresden embroidery was well known and its workers very skilled. This drawn-work inspired imitation abroad, with prizes offered in Britain for copies of it.
Chapter 40
How did the 1685 Revocation of the Edict of Nantes affect German lace manufacture?
After Louis XIV signed the Act of Revocation in 1685, skilled French Protestant workmen fled across Europe. Hamburg alone of the Hanse Towns received them, and they established gold and silver lace and Hamburg point. Frederic William of Brandenburg issued a Potsdam edict attracting them, and Berlin soon had 450 lace manufactories, having had none before.
Chapter 40
What does the chapter say about men making lace in the Erzgebirge?
The chapter notes that in all parts of Germany a few men make lace. On the Saxon side of the Erzgebirge many boys are employed, and in winter men of all ages work at the pillow. It observes that lace made by men is firmer and of superior quality to that made by women. The lace is a dentelle torchon of large pattern, resembling old Ischia lace.
Chapter 40
Which prizes did British societies award for imitations of Dresden work?
The Anti-Gallican Society in 1753 awarded three guineas as its second prize for Saxony ruffles. Ireland in 1755 gave £5 for the best imitation of Dresden point. The Edinburgh Society a year later presented Miss Jenny Dalrymple a gold medal for the best imitation of Dresden work in a pair of ruffles.
Chapter 40
Section 414 cards
What did the Nuremberg guild chairs look like and how were they used to raise money?
The guild chairs resembled confessionals but lacked side compartments for penitents. The newest sworn members of each trade sat in their guild's chair at the church doors on Sundays and holidays to collect offerings for rebuilding the church destroyed by fire. Offerings went into dishes on a raised stand or the hollow in front, and each chair's back bore a circular plate with the trade's device.
Chapter 41
According to the Froschowern preface, when and how did lace-making reach Switzerland?
The preface of the Neues Modelbuch printed at Zurich states that lace-making was introduced in 1536 by merchants from Italy and Venice. Many women quickly learned it and reproduced lace skillfully, first copying old patterns and soon inventing new ones. The industry spread and became highly profitable, used at first only for chemises and shirts, later for collars, cuffs, caps, napkins, sheets and coverlets.
Chapter 41
How did Huguenot refugees establish lace manufacture in Geneva?
Symphorien Thelusson, a Lyons merchant, escaped the St. Bartholomew massacre by hiding in a bale of goods and reached Geneva, where he was welcomed. Nearly 120 years later, after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, a descendant took 2,000 French refugees into his service and established a lace manufacture. Its goods were smuggled back into France over Jura passes, avoiding duties at Valence.
Chapter 41
What happened to the number of lace-makers in the Bohemian Erzgebirge in the nineteenth century?
At the beginning of the nineteenth century upwards of 60,000 people—men, women and children—were occupied in lace-making in the Bohemian Erzgebirge alone. After the bobbin-net machine was introduced into Austria in 1831, the number decreased; by 1862 scarcely 8,000 were employed in common laces and about 4,000 on Valenciennes and points.
Chapter 41
Section 424 cards
According to the chapter, how was lace-making introduced to Denmark?
The chapter says the art was supposedly first brought over by fugitive monks at the Reformation, or introduced by Queen Elizabeth, sister of Charles V and wife of Christian II. The author presents these as uncertain traditions rather than settled fact.
Chapter 42
What did Steenbeck do for Jutland lace-making in 1647?
A merchant named Steenbeck, taking great interest in the fabric, engaged twelve persons from Dortmund in Westphalia to improve the trade. He settled them at Tönder to teach the manufacture to both men and women, rich and poor. The chapter describes them as aged men with long beards, which they gathered into bags while working to keep hair from tangling in the bobbins.
Chapter 42
What was the state of Tönder lace around 1801, and what caused its later decline?
The chapter calls 1801 the culminating point, with 20,000 peasants employed in Tönder and its neighbourhood alone, and little boys taught lace-making until strong enough for field work. From 1830 the trade declined: cotton thread was introduced and quality deteriorated, lace schools were given up, agriculture made lace unprofitable, and the trade passed to poor hawkers. By 1840 Schleswig had no more than six lace manufacturers.
Chapter 42
What does the chapter say about lace used in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century burials?
The chapter states lace was much used in burials in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when people appear to have been arrayed in more costly clothing than in their lives. It cites a guipure specimen on the black velvet dress of Duke John of Holstein's daughter in her coffin at Sonderborg, and notes the author of Jutland and the Danish Islands had often seen mummies in Danish churches tricked out in rich points.
Chapter 42
Section 431 cards
What does the chapter report about lace-making in Russia?
Peter the Great founded a silk lace manufacture at Novgorod after visiting Paris, which decayed under Empress Elizabeth. Under Catherine II twelve gold lace-makers at St. Petersburg could barely meet demand. Lace-making was not a separate industry; peasants, especially in Eastern Russia, made it at home alongside embroidery to decorate towels, table-linen, and shirts, sold directly to townspeople.
Chapter 43
Section 444 cards
What were the 'laces' in Edward IV's 1463 Act actually, according to the author?
The author argues they were not lace as now defined but braids or cords—laces with tags, called 'poynts,' used to fasten and ornament dresses before pins existed. She bases this on a 1651 British Museum manuscript that stitches actual specimens beside the directions, showing the silk, gold, and thread 'laces' were plaited cords, not lace.
Chapter 44
What did the 1363 Act under Edward III forbid regarding veils?
It forbade servant girls and others from wearing veils of silk or any material except thread made within the realm, and no one was to pay more than tenpence for such veils. The author notes the government acted because excessive luxury in veils, worn even by servant girls, excited official indignation. The exact composition of these thread veils is unrecorded.
Chapter 44
Why was Henry VII's act prohibiting foreign lace issued, according to the author?
The author argues it was issued rather for the protection of the country's silk-women than for the advantage of the ever-complaining workers of the mysteries of thread-work. The act prohibited all foreign lace but allowed those possessing it to keep and wear it until Pentecost. She suggests lace actually worn in Henry VII's day was probably gold or silk.
Chapter 44
What did Henry VIII ordain in 1517 about 'garded and pynched' linen?
After a serious insurrection of London apprentices against foreign tradesmen, and complaints from needlework workers, the king ordained that such mixed, joined, garded, or embroidered linen articles could be worn only if wrought within England, Wales, Berwick, Calais, or the Marches. Earlier in his reign, the Acts of Apparel forbade such shirts and partlets to anyone below the degree of knight.
Chapter 44
Section 454 cards
According to the chapter, what does the term 'bone lace' most likely derive from?
Fuller and dictionaries say it came from using sheep's trotters before wooden bobbins existed, but the author argues this is improbable since 300 to 400 bobbins are used at once and would be heavy. Devonshire lace-makers instead traditionally say fishermen's wives used pared fish bones as substitutes for costly pins.
Chapter 45
How did Henry VIII's 1546 licence to two Florentine merchants work?
Henry granted the Florentines a three-year licence to export all manner of fringes and passements of gold or silver and other 'new gentillesses' for the pleasure of the Queen, nobles, and gentlemen. The king reserved the first view of their merchandise and the right to select anything he pleased for his own use before the wares were hawked about the country.
Chapter 45
What did Queen Mary's renewed sumptuary laws restrict regarding lace?
Mary renewed Henry VIII's sumptuary laws: ruffles made or wrought outside England, called cut-work, were forbidden to anyone below the degree of baron. Women beneath a knight's wife could not wear wreath lace or gold and silver passement lace, nor sleeves, partlets, or linen trimmed with gold and silver purles or white-work cut-work made beyond the sea.
Chapter 45
What evidence does the chapter give that lace adorned Church ministers?
The author notes surplices were ornamented round neck, shoulders, and sleeves with white work and cut-work in this period. M. Aubry claims to have seen lace belonging to Cardinal Wolsey in London, though the author says there is no information on this. Illustrations of Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, come from a portrait once at the Sorbonne, now at Versailles.
Chapter 45
Section 464 cards
What fashion dominated dress during the reigns of Henry VIII and Mary?
The author describes a widespread fashion of slashing garments to reveal glimpses of a contrasting underdress. Such dresses were puffed, banded, pinched, and stiff with heavy gold and metal braid or embroidery, so they needed little added lace. The falling collar of the early sixteenth century, before the Elizabethan ruff arrived from France about 1560, was often edged with lace of geometric pattern.
Chapter 46
How did lace appear in provincial shop inventories during Elizabeth's reign?
Lace was no longer confined to court and high nobility; inventories show it had reached general shops in provincial towns. John Johnston of Darlington stocked twelve yards of loom lace worth four shillings, black silk lace, and statute lace alongside pepper, hornbooks, and sugar-candy. James Backhouse of Kirby-in-Lonsdale listed thread lace, pyrled lace, crown lace, hollow lace, and gold and silver chain lace in his great shop.
Chapter 46
How did Queen Elizabeth respond to apprentices wearing white stitching on their collars?
The author states the Queen stood no nonsense about ornaments: luxury for herself was different from luxury for the people. On finding that London apprentices had adopted white stitching and garding as collar decoration, she ordered the first transgressor to be publicly whipped in the hall of his Company. The chapter also notes her own lavish use of cut-work on ruffs, doublets, veils, and nightcaps.
Chapter 46
What did Sir Philip Sidney offer Elizabeth as New Year's gifts?
Cut-work first appears in the New Year's Offerings of 1577-8, where Sir Philip Sidney is among the most distinguished givers. On one occasion he offered a suit of ruffs of cut-work, on another a smock. The author notes these are strange presents by modern ideas, but the offering of the youthful hero gave no offence and was most graciously received.
Chapter 46
Section 474 cards
How did Queen Elizabeth treat Flemish refugees seeking asylum in England in 1572?
The chapter states that when Flemish refugees desired an asylum in England in 1572, they were forcibly expelled from her shores. This is presented alongside the point that Elizabeth was not patriotic and obtained her bone lace from any country, though she did not encourage foreign artisans.
Chapter 47
What was the annual value of imported laces in 1559 compared with later imports?
In 1559, among goods brought into the port of London, 'Laces of all sortes' were valued at £775 6s. 8d. The chapter notes this was half the value of fresh and salt eels. By 1568 the annual import of articles including bone lace and chain lace was stated at £10,000, an enormous increase.
Chapter 47
Who was Madame Dinghen van der Plasse and what did she charge for teaching starching?
She came from Flanders with her husband 'for their better safeties' and set up as a clear-starcher in London, patronised by the nobility. According to Stowe, her usual terms were four to five pounds for teaching starching and one pound for the art of seething starch. The commonalty called her liquid 'devil's broth.'
Chapter 47
When did the ruff first appear in England and when did starching reach England?
The chapter says the ruff was first introduced into England about the reign of Philip and Mary, shown small and without lace on the Great Seal. Starching, though known to Flemish manufacturers, did not reach England until 1564, when the Queen first set up a coach.
Chapter 47
Section 493 cards
How did Queen Anne of Denmark react to receiving Elizabeth's old gowns?
James thought his wife's wardrobe unfit for London, so the Privy Council sent Elizabeth's old gowns and ruffs. Anne, twenty-six and comely, was enraged at wearing clothes of the seventy-year-old decayed Elizabeth. She wore them for lack of others but refused to appoint any nominated ladies except Lady Bedford to serve her.
Chapter 49
What evidence suggests some of Queen Anne's lace was English-made?
On arrival Anne bought much linen; apart from one article bought from a 'French mann,' her needlework, white work, lawn for a ruff, eighteen yards of fine lace, and Great and Little Bone lace were purchased at Winchester and Basing, towns bordering the lace-making counties, leading the author to infer they were of English manufacture.
Chapter 49
What fashion change followed the ruff in the reign of Charles I?
The chapter says ruffs went out with James I. Charles appears on early coins in a stiff starched ruff, later unstarched and falling on his shoulders, and then the falling band was generally adopted by all classes except judges, who kept the ruff as a mark of dignity until superseded by the peruke.
Chapter 49
Section 502 cards
How did Puritan rule affect lace-wearing, and what exceptions does the chapter note?
The author says Puritan rule was a sad time for lace-makers among the middle and lower classes, since village festivals, bride laces, and Mayings were suppressed as vanity. Yet among the upper classes, Sir Thomas Fairfax wore silver lace and a Flanders lace collar, and Lady Fanshaw describes her husband in rich Flanders lace at Madrid. Harrison, who urged plain dress, appeared in a scarlet coat hidden by clinquant and lace.
Chapter 50
What does the chapter say about Cromwell's dress in life and after death?
The author notes Cromwell became more particular in dress once in power, and that his mother wore point-lace and a green velvet cardinal edged with broad gold lace. After death his body was more gorgeously attired than that of any deceased sovereign, with purple velvet, ermine, and the richest Flanders lace. His effigy by Symonds wore a fine Holland shirt richly laced, with bands and cuffs of the same, and clothes covered with gold lace.
Chapter 50
Section 513 cards
What does the author argue motivated Puritan leaders' dislike of lace?
The author argues that the Puritan leaders' dislike of lace and other luxuries was a political necessity rather than pure conviction, adopted to follow the spirit of the age. As illustration, the chapter cites the 1660 Committee of Safety accounts, which list £350 for seven Flanders-lace whisks and £300 for six lace smocks for Lady Lambert.
Chapter 51
How did Charles II's conduct contradict his own lace proclamation?
Charles II issued a proclamation enforcing his father's Act against importing foreign bone lace, yet he purchased Flanders lace at eighteen shillings a yard to trim his lawn collobium sindonis, a surplice worn at the coronation anointment. He also licensed John Eaton to import lace for the royal family, softening it as patterns for English manufacture. The author notes he had learned from Mazarin.
Chapter 51
What effect did the flowing wig have on the falling band?
The introduction of the flowing wig, with its long curls covering the shoulders, gave a final blow to the falling band, since only the ends floating and tied in front could be visible. In time these diminished in size. The author notes remains survive in the laced bands of lawyers in full dress and the bordered cambric slips used by clergy. The laced cravat then continued in fashion until about 1735.
Chapter 51
Section 524 cards
What did the 1698 English Act against foreign lace importation lead to?
It imposed a penalty of 20s. per yard plus forfeiture on imported foreign bone lace, loom lace, needlework point, and cutwork. Flanders convents and béguinages were so agitated that the Spanish government retaliated by banning English wool imports. The resulting distress among English woolstaplers led Parliament to repeal the Act as it related to the Spanish Low Countries. The author concludes England lost this Customs-House war.
Chapter 52
How did King William III's lace expenditures compare with Queen Mary's?
The author states William exceeded his wife in lace extravagance. His 1690 lace account was £1,603, rising annually to £2,459 19s. in 1695-6, while Queen Mary's 1694 bill, signed by Lady Derby, was £1,918. Items included point cravats, lace for razor cloths, and £499 10s. for trimming twenty-four new nightshirts after mourning ended.
Chapter 52
What was the toquet, and how was it used at royal deaths?
The toquet was a laced nightcap put on when a king was in extremis, described as a compliment to Louis XIV. Madame's Memoirs state it was court etiquette for all royals to die with a nightcap on. James II died at St. Germains in one, and his toquet still adorns a wax model of his head kept as a relic in the Museum of Dunkirk.
Chapter 52
What jewellery fastened the lace Steinkirk, and who wore it?
Long oval-shaped brooches of topaz or Bristol stones, often kept as family relics, were worn to fasten the lace Steinkirk when it was not passed through a button-hole. The fashion was prevalent not only among the nobility but worn by all classes. Shadwell's dialogue shows volunteers boasting of campaign suits trimmed with Flanders lace and rich point.
Chapter 52
Section 534 cards
Why did lace, unlike jewels, attract thieves in the eighteenth century?
The chapter states that the jewels worn by great-grandmothers of the eighteenth century were mostly false—Bristol or Alençon 'diamonds,' paste, or 'Strass'—even when mounted in exquisite taste. Lace, by contrast, was a sure commodity and easily disposed of, making it a target for the light-fingered gentry. The chapter cites the 1700 robbery at Lady Anderson's house during a fire as an example.
Chapter 53
How did pickpockets steal powdered wigs in hack coaches, and what did police advise?
The chapter records that when ladies first took to wearing powdered wigs, thieves dexterously cut open the leather backs of hack coaches and carried off wig, head and all before the rifled occupant had any idea of the attack. To remedy the evil, the police requested all ladies for the future to sit with their backs to the horses.
Chapter 53
What did Queen Anne's 1706 repeal of the Flanders lace prohibition allow and exclude?
In 1706 Anne again repealed the Acts prohibiting Flanders lace, with the clear understanding that nothing be construed into allowing importation of lace made in 'the dominions of the French King.' The chapter notes this edict was in itself sufficient to bring the points of France into the highest fashion.
Chapter 53
How did the high commode collapse in Queen Anne's reign, and what did the Spectator say?
The high commode, with its lace rising tier upon tier, which made wits declare ladies 'carried Bow steeple upon their heads,' suddenly collapsed in Queen Anne's reign. It had shot up to an extravagant height, 'insomuch that the female part of our species were much taller than the men. We appeared,' says the Spectator, 'as grasshoppers before them.'
Chapter 53
Section 543 cards
What did the Society of Anti-Gallicans do, and when was it founded?
Founded ten years before George II's death (c. 1750), the Society of Anti-Gallicans aimed to correct the taste for foreign manufactures. It held quarterly meetings and distributed prizes for bone, point lace, and other English-made articles. The chapter says it proved most beneficial to the lace-making trade and encouraged middle-class gentlewomen to earn income by making fine needle-point.
Chapter 54
What happened to the court milliner before Princess Augusta's 1764 wedding?
George III ordered all stuffs and laces at his sister Princess Augusta's marriage to the Duke of Brunswick to be English-made, but the nobility paid little attention. Three days before the wedding, Customs raided the court milliner and seized nearly all the clothes, silver, gold stuffs, and lace. The French milliner retired with £11,000 to Versailles and named her villa 'La Folie des Dames Anglaises.'
Chapter 54
What did Postlethwait argue about English spending on foreign lace?
Postlethwait indignantly observed that England had recently spent not less than two million pounds yearly on foreign lace and linen. He argued that since lace was the manufacture of nuns, British ladies might as well endow monasteries, because these Popish nuns were maintained by Protestant contributions. The author presents this as his indignant opinion, not as fact.
Chapter 54
Section 554 cards
How did smugglers conceal lace, according to the chapter's 1764 accounts?
The chapter describes lace hidden in hackney coaches, a quartern loaf, a Turk's turban, books, bottles, babies, false-bottomed boxes, and umbrellas, all yielding treasures to the officers. Ladies' black lace mittens were even cut from their hands. A gentleman of the Spanish Embassy lost 36 dozen shirts with Dresden ruffles, seized at Southwark after escaping Dover.
Chapter 55
What did lace-makers do in May 1765 and how did it end?
The lace-makers joined the Spitalfields silk-workers' procession to Westminster, bearing flags with floating pieces of French lace, demanding total exclusion of foreign goods. Told it was too late and to wait until next Session, they broke the Duke of Bedford's palings and threatened to burn Mr. Carr's premises. At the next levée they found the nobility wearing English stuff and retired satisfied.
Chapter 55
What happened to Bishop Atterbury's coffin, and what earlier coffin trick preceded it?
The High Sheriff of Westminster successfully ran £6,000 worth of French lace in Bishop Atterbury's coffin when his body was brought from Calais for interment. Forty years earlier, a deceased clergyman's body from the Low Countries was found replaced by Flanders lace of immense value, only the head, hands, and feet remaining. The Duke of Devonshire's coffin was poked with a stick to verify the body.
Chapter 55
How did the lady with the Brussels veil evade the Customs officers?
Hearing that Lady Ellenborough's lace had been seized near Dover, she accepted a gentleman's offer to carry her veil, then spotted a hired waiter smiling and suspected a spy. That night she secretly had the veil sewn into the newly-elected M.P.'s waistcoat, filling the hollow of his back. They reached London safely while her friend was stopped and searched unsuccessfully.
Chapter 55
Section 564 cards
What burial custom involving lace does the chapter describe across Europe?
The chapter describes the custom of burying the dead adorned in fine lace, noting examples at Malta, the Capuchin catacombs at Palermo, and in Denmark, Sweden, and northern Europe generally. It cites Aurora Königsmarck's tomb at Quedlenburg, filled with point d'Angleterre, Malines, and guipure, and takes St. Cuthbert's grave-clothes as evidence the custom prevailed in England from earliest times.
Chapter 56
How does the chapter describe Mrs. Oldfield's burial and Pope's lines about it?
Mrs. Oldfield, the actress who died in 1730, arranged to be buried in lace. Pope's lines have the dying Narcissa reject woollen in favor of chintz and Brussels lace. Her maid reported she was laid in a fine Brussels lace head, Holland shift with double ruffles, and new kid gloves, and she lay in state in the Jerusalem Chamber before interment in Westminster Abbey.
Chapter 56
What reasons does the chapter give for the decline of lace after the French Revolution?
The chapter links the decline to the French Revolution's classic style of dress, with India muslins and transparent gauzes, which caused ancient points to fall into neglect. It also notes a scrupulous feeling among ladies about wearing costly articles, and the caprice of fashion. The author argues this decline spread throughout Europe, though point still appeared at court and state occasions.
Chapter 56
How does the chapter describe the revival of lace collecting and its benefits?
After years of neglect, lace became a mania; in England literary ladies like Sydney Lady Morgan and Lady Stepney took it up, and collections were recovered from farmhouses, theatrical wardrobes, and churches in Italy, Spain, and Germany. The author argues the taste gives employment to thousands of women and suits them better than field labour, and rates the cottage lace-maker superior in education, refinement, and morality.
Chapter 56
Section 574 cards
Who does the chapter suggest first taught lace-making to Bedfordshire peasants?
The chapter presents two theories: many authors assign its introduction to the Flemings, while county traditions credit Queen Katherine of Aragon, who resided at Ampthill for two years and may have taught the peasantry lace-making as a means of subsistence. The author notes the lace-makers kept 'Cattern's day' in her memory, but calls the story a 'garbled version' that may rest on as much foundation as most provincial folk-lore.
Chapter 57
What did Sir Henry Borlase's 1626 Great Marlow school teach girls?
Sir Henry Borlase founded and endowed the free school of Great Marlow in 1626 for twenty-four boys to read, write, and cast accounts, and for twenty-four girls 'to knit, spin, and make bone lace.' The chapter states the trade flourished there, with English and even French authors citing its bobbin-lace manufactures as the staple produce of the town and surrounding villages, though French authors judged it inferior to Flanders lace.
Chapter 57
What did the 1775 Marylebone Lane and Westminster institution accomplish?
Sanctioned by Queen Charlotte, the Princesses, Princess Amelia, and aristocracy, an institution formed in Marylebone Lane and James Street, Westminster, employed poor female infants in blond and black silk lace-making and thread laces. Over 300 girls attended; the Annual Register reported many earned 5s. to 7s. a month within six months, with expectations of more as they improved. After this, the chapter says, no more lace-making is heard of in the metropolis.
Chapter 57
What employment figures does Lysons give for Hanslape in 1801?
Lysons states that at Hanslape not fewer than 800 of a population of 1275 were employed in lace-making in 1801, and that the manufacture was more general there than anywhere else in the country, prevailing fifteen to twenty miles around. Children entered lace-schools at or soon after age five, and by eleven or twelve could maintain themselves. Lace values ranged from sixpence to two guineas a yard, bringing £8,000 to £9,000 net profit annually to the parish.
Chapter 57
Section 584 cards
Which town did contemporary authors most praise for bone lace, and why?
Newport-Pagnel receives the most praise from contemporary authors. The Magna Britannia (1720) calls it a staple for bone lace, thought to make more than any town in England and nearly as perfect as Flanders. Defoe notes its great trade and that it employed all neighboring villages, while Don Manuel Gonzales in 1730 called its lace little inferior to Flanders, an assertion the author suggests he may have copied from earlier writers.
Chapter 58
What was 'baby lace' and why did its American market end?
Baby lace was the narrow lace specially used to adorn infants' caps, made on point ground with patterns taken from Lille and Mechlin, so Buckingham and Bedfordshire laces were often called 'English Lille.' The finer sorts sold for five to seven shillings and sixpence a yard and kept the name 'points.' American ladies retained the trimmed infant's cap until the Civil War broke out, and until that date large quantities were exported to America.
Chapter 58
What did the 1752 Anti-Gallican Society prize award, and to whom?
At one of the earliest meetings of the Anti-Gallican Society in 1752, with Admiral Vernon in the chair, the first prize for the best piece of English bone lace went to Mr. William Marriott of Newport-Pagnel, Bucks. Principal London lace-dealers were invited to give their opinion, and they judged it the best ever made in England. The author then notes that in 1761 Earl Temple presented the King with fine lace ruffles made by Messrs. Milward and Company of Newport-Pagnel.
Chapter 58
What were conditions like in the old lace schools described by Mrs. Roberts?
Mrs. Roberts, formerly of Spratton near Northampton, describes girls leaving day school at eight to join the lace school, working 6 A.M. to 6 P.M. in summer and 8 A.M. to 8 P.M. in winter, with half an hour for breakfast and tea and one hour for dinner, leaving ten hours of actual work. They had to stick ten pins a minute, six hundred an hour, and if five pins behind at day's end, worked another hour. Saturdays were a half-holiday.
Chapter 58
Section 593 cards
How did the candle-stool and glass bottles light the workroom for lace-makers?
A tallow candle sat in a socket on a central pole that could be raised or lowered. Six cup-shaped holes around it held thin glass bottles filled with water, which acted as lenses or condensers. Eighteen girls sat around the table, three to each bottle, on stools of different levels, the highest nearest the bottle, which threw light down on the work.
Chapter 59
What was the Lace Association founded to do for pillow lace?
The chapter says the Lace Association aimed to stimulate and improve local pillow-lace manufacture, give workers better facilities to sell at more remunerative prices, save old 'point' lace designs, discourage coarse Maltese, copy new designs from old laces, insist on the best thread and good workmanship, and sell direct from worker to purchaser so workers get full value instead of dealers intercepting large profits.
Chapter 59
What did Defoe and later writers claim about Blandford lace, and what happened to the town?
Defoe wrote that Blandford was chiefly famous for making the finest bone lace in England, some so exquisitely fine he thought he had never seen better in Flanders, France, or Italy, rated above £30 a yard. A 1762 edition adds that on June 4, 1731, the whole town except twenty-six houses was consumed by fire, church included. The trade was generally thought to decline afterward, replaced by button-making.
Chapter 59
Section 604 cards
What evidence makes the author doubt the 'Queen Elizabeth's lace' label?
The author argues no similar lace was made in that period, and identifies the piece as point d'Argentan from its hexagonal 'bride' ground and pattern workmanship. The author accepts it may honor the Armada victory, since the building depicted is old Tilbury Fort, and suggests an English lady made it or an English design was sent to Argentan, perhaps as a gift to Queen Charlotte.
Chapter 60
What did Defoe and Anderson say about Sherborne's lace trade?
Defoe wrote that since the Reformation the clothing trade declined, and before 1700 button-making, haberdashery, and bone laces employed many hands; the Imperial Cyclopaedia repeats this word for word. Anderson, at a later date, says Sherborne had a good lace trade, with much blonde in white, black, and various colours sent to all markets until 1780, after which it declined and died out.
Chapter 60
How did Lyme Regis lace reach the court, and what did makers earn?
Lyme Regis points rivalled Honiton and Blandford in the eighteenth century, and the Anti-Gallican Society awarded prizes to Miss Mary Channon and Miss Mary Ben for ruffles of needle point and bone lace. Queen Charlotte wore a head and lappets of Dorset manufacture on first landing in England, and later a splendid lace dress from Lyme's workers satisfied the court, yet makers received but fourpence a day.
Chapter 60
What theories explain the origin of the term 'bone lace'?
Fuller says 'bone' came from the custom of using sheep's trotters as bobbins. In Devonshire, tradition holds that high pin prices led lace-makers near the sea to use fish-bones, so pillow-lace became 'bone-lace.' 'Bobbin' came into use soon after but was less universal, appearing in Wardrobe Accounts and Royal inventories.
Chapter 60
Section 614 cards
What did the Baptist 'Beleeven men' of Bridgewater censor in 1655?
The members of the Baptist Church assembled at Bridgewater censured only "points and more laces than are required on garments," being unwilling to injure a nourishing commerce. They desired these excesses be proceeded against "with all sweetness and tenderness and long-suffering." The author presents this as evidence that the Puritans' conciliatory measures perhaps affected the trade less than later military actions did.
Chapter 61
How did the introduction of the vrai réseau help Honiton compete with Brussels?
The vrai réseau, or pillow-net ground, succeeded the bride about the end of the seventeenth century. It allowed flowers to be made separately and worked in with the net afterward, or the net worked into the flowers on the pillow. The author states it was from these separate sprigs that Honiton lace was able to compete with Brussels. The plain pillow ground was beautiful and regular but very expensive.
Chapter 61
What effect did the machine net factory at Tiverton have on Honiton lace employment?
The first machine net factory was set up at Tiverton in 1815. Lysons wrote in 1822 that the lace manufactory had much declined, though the lace retained its superiority. Some years earlier, when much patronised by the Royal family, Honiton manufacturers employed 2,400 hands in the town and neighbouring villages; by 1822 they employed no more than 300. The trade then suffered twenty years of great depression.
Chapter 61
How did Queen Adelaide and Queen Victoria try to improve Honiton lace designs?
After twenty years of depression, workers introduced patterns designed "out of their own heads," such as "Turkey tails" and "frying pans." Queen Adelaide, responding to a petition for distressed lace-makers, ordered a dress of Honiton sprigs with flowers copied from nature, executed by Mrs. Davey. Queen Victoria's wedding lace, undertaken by Miss Jane Bidney at Beer, cost £1,000 and was composed of Honiton sprigs, but the patterns were immediately destroyed.
Chapter 61
Section 624 cards
What lace did the royal bridal dresses use, and what patterns did they feature?
The bridal dresses of the Princess Royal, Princess Alice, and the Princess of Wales were all of Honiton point. Their patterns consisted of national flowers; the Princess of Wales's dress also intermixed prince's feathers with ferns, which the chapter says were introduced with the most happy effect.
Chapter 62
How did Captain Marryat and the Bath and West of England Society promote new Honiton designs?
Captain Marryat, while at Sidmouth, procured new patterns of flowers, insects, and other natural objects for the lace-makers, and younger workers accepted them gratefully. Gentlemen connected with the Bath and West of England Society then proposed an exhibition of Honiton lace with designs strictly after nature at the Clifton Agricultural Show; £100 in prizes was given, and Queen Victoria asked to see the articles at Windsor.
Chapter 62
What was trolly lace, and where did it originate?
Trolly lace differed from other Devonshire lace and resembled midland laces: it was made of coarse British thread with heavier, larger bobbins, worked straight round and round the pillow. Its origin was undoubtedly Flemish; it is said to have reached Devonshire through Normandy peasants displaced by the French Revolution. The name may come from Flemish 'Trolle Kant' or French toilé. It is now almost extinct in Devonshire.
Chapter 62
How were children trained in the lace schools, and what health criticisms were raised?
Children began at five to seven and were apprenticed to the mistress for about two years, who sold their work; later they paid sixpence then threepence a week and kept their own lace. Cooke's Topography of Devon, quoted in the chapter, describes sallow complexions and debility from crowded, unwholesome rooms, though the chapter says sanitary laws and raised pillows have since remedied much.
Chapter 62
Section 634 cards
What does the chapter say about the word 'lace' in the Scots language?
The chapter states that the word lace does not exist in the Scotch language; instead, 'pearlin' is the term used in old documents, defined in dictionaries as 'a species of lace made with thread.' The author notes pearlin frequently appears in old Scotch songs, quoting lines such as 'Clean in her pearlin keck, and gown alane.'
Chapter 63
What did the 1621 Scottish Act restrict regarding lace and who could wear it?
The Act of 1621 against 'unnecessary sumptuousness in men's apparel' allowed only noblemen, lords of session, prelates, and similar privileged persons to wear silver or gold lace. Provosts could wear silk but no lace pearlin or pasmenterie, only a 'watling silk lace' on seams. Pearlin on ruffles, sarkis, napkins, and sokkis was restricted to those same privileged persons and had to be made in Scotland. The author calls this the first mention found of Scottish-made lace.
Chapter 63
What lace did Mary Queen of Scots reportedly wear at her execution, and what happened to it?
According to Burleigh's reporter, the Queen of Scots wore on her head 'a dressing of lawn edged with bone lace' and a vest of lawn fastened to her caul, edged with the same material. The lace-edged veil was long preserved as a relic in the exiled Stuart family until Cardinal York bequeathed it to Sir John Cox Hippisley. Miss Pigott describes it as transparent zephyr gauze with a light check or plaid pattern interwoven with gold, shaped like a long scarf.
Chapter 63
What does the chapter say about the Italian lace made at Beer?
The Italian lace made at Beer is a new branch established by Miss Bowdon and carried on by Miss Audrey Trevelyan of Seaton. It is made entirely on the pillow, and the author says the way the women of Beer picked up the stitches and mode of making speaks volumes for their skilfulness and adaptability. The chapter notes there are still a good number of workers left in this picturesque village.
Chapter 63
Section 644 cards
In Scott's Rob Roy, what does a 'pearlin keck' mean?
The chapter explains that a 'pearlin keck' signifies a linen cap with a lace border. It groups this term with other Scots words: a 'mabbie' means a mob, and a 'cock' or cock-up was a lofty head-dress, compared to the fontanges or commode of the eighteenth century. The author offers these glosses because such terms may be less familiar to general readers than 'pearlins' and similar words.
Chapter 64
How did the Duchess of Hamilton promote lacemaking in Scotland?
The author relates that Anne, Duchess of Hamilton, one of the beautiful Miss Gunnings, saw lace-makers at work on the Continent and brought over women from France to teach girls in her schools to make 'bunt lace.' She also supported twelve orphan girls, clothed, fed, and taught at her expense from age seven to fourteen. In 1754 their lace ruffles were worn by the Duke and Duchess on his birthday.
Chapter 64
How did Scottish legislation on lace change between 1672 and 1685?
In 1672 lace, described as point lace made of thread, was banned by the Covenanters with a penalty of 500 merks toties quoties, though servants could wear out old clothes. In 1674 the king declared it free for all to wear white lace. In January 1685 the Act remitted the wearing of lace, both native and foreign, to all people.
Chapter 64
What did the 1685 Scottish Act and later Parliament orders decree about lace?
The chapter states that in January 1685 the Act remitted the wearing of lace, both native and foreign, to all folks living, since earlier exclusions had proved of little or no avail. The dead then came under Parliament's scrutiny: all lace or poynt, gold or silver, was ordered disused at interments under a penalty of 300 pounds Scots.
Chapter 64
Section 654 cards
What prizes did the Edinburgh Society offer for lace in the 1750s?
The society offered premiums for superior work, including £5 5s for the best imitation of Dresden work or a pair of men's ruffles, and £5 5s for the best bone lace of at least twenty yards. Winners could take the money or a gold medal. In 1757 Anne Henderson of Hamilton received two guineas for the finest Hamilton lace of at least two yards.
Chapter 65
How did the author characterize the quality of Hamilton lace?
The author argues that despite the Duchess's laudable efforts, Hamilton lace was a very coarse fabric. Surviving specimens are common edgings of coarse thread in the lozenge pattern, strong and firm enough for nightcaps but never used for dresses. A lady described it dismissively as "only Hamilton."
Chapter 65
What effect did the Edinburgh Society's demise have on Scottish lace-making?
Although the Edinburgh Society died around 1764, the author states a strong impetus had already been given to Scottish lace-makers. Lace-making entered schools, and many daughters of smaller gentry and ruined Jacobite families supported themselves by making finer points. Mrs. Calderwood contrasted the "helplessness" of English women with Scotch self-sufficiency.
Chapter 65
What efforts were made to improve Scotland's thread manufacture for lace?
Great efforts were made to improve thread manufacture, since £200,000 annually went from Scotland to France for Lille thread. Badly-spun yarn was seized and burned by the stamp master. Peuchet describes a thread manufactory near Edinburgh whose lace thread reportedly equaled or surpassed foreign thread in beauty and durability.
Chapter 65
Section 664 cards
What resolution did Swift propose at a meeting to promote Irish manufactures?
Swift proposed that ladies wear Irish manufactures, noting that nearly £90,000 of silk, £30,000 of muslin, holland, cambric and calico were imported annually, and that lace prices were hard to calculate from the Custom-house book because lace is easily run. He cited head-dresses costing ten, twelve, or twenty pounds a yard.
Chapter 66
How did the Dublin Society support Irish bone lace in the 1740s?
The Dublin Society, incorporated by charter in 1749, learned that in 1743 Dublin workhouse children produced bone lace worth £164 14s. 10½d. annually. The society gave £34 2s. 6d. to Lady Arabella Denny to distribute among the children, and awarded Robert Baker £10 for his imitation of Brussels lace ruffles.
Chapter 66
What limits did the Dublin Society place on lace prizes in 1773 and why?
Because of the large quantity of lace produced, the society restricted its liberality in 1773: no prizes for lace under 11s. 4½d. per yard, and only for makers not resident in Dublin or within five miles of it. Twenty per cent was given on lace value up to £500, but the annual £30 premium for Dublin workhouse children continued under Lady Arabella Denny.
Chapter 66
How did Carrickmacross appliqué lace originate and survive?
Carrickmacross appliqué lace has been made since 1820, with the pattern cut from cambric and applied to net using point stitches. Mrs. Grey Porter taught her servant Anne Steadman to copy a specimen, and the art spread to peasant women. It depended on private orders, suffered from over-production, and was revived after the famine of 1846 through the Bath and Shirley School.
Chapter 66
Section 674 cards
Who first adapted point de Venise for the Irish, and where?
Mrs. Maclean, wife of the Rev. William Maclean, rector of Tynan in Co. Armagh, owned old point de Venise and resolved to turn her collection to practical use. After the lace was examined until every stitch, picot, filling, and relief was understood, teaching began in 1849. By 1851 a handsome flounce was ready, purchased by Lord John George Beresford, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland.
Chapter 67
What inspired Mother Mary Ann Smith to found Irish point lace at Youghal?
The failure of the potato crop in 1846 prompted the industry, and its original inspiration was a piece of point de Milan that fell into the hands of Mother Mary Ann Smith of the Presentation Convent at Youghal, Co. Cork. She studied it, unravelled the threads one by one, mastered its details, then taught selected convent children separately. The convent school opened in 1852, and the lace is worked entirely with the needle.
Chapter 67
How did Mother Augustine Dalton improve rose point at New Ross?
A travelling Jewish pedlar called at the convent with antique vestments, old books, and curiosities, including broken pieces of old rose point. The Prioress, Mother Augustine Dalton, bought the specimens to vary the lace's quality and make the design finer and lighter. For weeks and months she ripped up portions stitch by stitch until she had mastered every detail, dating from this the fine rose point for which New Ross earned its reputation.
Chapter 67
What caused the rise and later decline of Irish crochet around Cork?
Irish crochet traces to 1845, when Ursuline sisters at Blackrock, Co. Cork, received £90 for poor children's work; it spread to nearly every convent. Cork City became the natural centre, with some 12,000 women employed about thirty years before. The Franco-German war cut off Continental laces and brought unique prosperity, until machine-made work from Nottingham and Switzerland ousted it from the market.
Chapter 67
Section 684 cards
What problem with early knitting machines did the warp or chain machine solve?
Early machines produced only a knitted single thread, not a solid net; if a thread broke the work unravelled, and threads had to be gummed together for stiffness. The warp or chain machine united the knitter's and weaver's mechanisms to remedy this. Vandyke, a Flemish workman, and three Englishmen dispute the invention, and the improved machine was called 'Mechlin net.'
Chapter 68
What was Heathcoat's bobbin net machine, and why was it significant?
John Heathcoat, son of a Longwhatton farmer, patented his bobbin net machine in 1809 with Mr. Lacy for fourteen years, naming it Old Loughborough. Bobbin net was named because threads are wound on bobbins, and it was twisted rather than looped net. Heathcoat began with net barely an inch wide, later a yard wide; later machines reached three and a half yards.
Chapter 68
What happened during the 1823 'bobbin net fever' in Nottingham?
After Heathcoat's patent expired, Nottingham went mad: clergymen, lawyers, doctors and others invested in bobbin net. Dr. Ure reports artisans earning twenty, thirty, even forty shillings a day, and many tormented themselves with schemes of bobbins, pushers and needles until some lost their senses and some committed suicide when schemes failed. The Nottingham frame rivalled French and Dutch plain nets.
Chapter 68
How did bobbin net machines first reach France despite export bans?
Exporting English machinery was punished by transportation, and Nottingham manufacturers funded surveillance against machines leaving. Nonetheless Cutts, an old Heathcoat workman, smuggled a machine to Valenciennes in 1815, moving it to Douai, where with M. Thomassin they made the first French bobbin net dress in 1816. James Clark brought another to Calais in 1816, passing it in pieces via French sailors.
Chapter 68
Section 694 cards
How did Mr. Ferguson adapt the Jacquard system to lace-making in 1836-1838?
Ferguson applied Jacquard cards to the circular bobbin net frame, producing the black silk net called "dentelle de Cambrai," an imitation of Chantilly. The pattern was woven by the machine while the brodé or relief was "run in." This followed earlier use of the Jacquard system at Lyons with the Mechlin frame in 1823-4 for patterned net and embroidered blondes.
Chapter 69
What does the chapter say about the Dentellière machine and plaiting?
The author notes that machine lace-making more closely resembles pillow lace than needle-point, since machines twist threads but most do not reproduce plaiting. A French machine called the Dentellière was invented to do the plaiting, described in La Nature (March 3, 1881). It resembles a lace-worker's pillow, and its production cost was said to be greater than by hand.
Chapter 69
What is the author's opinion on machine-made lace versus hand-made lace?
The author argues that even the most finished machine productions never possess the touch, finish, or beauty of hand-made lace. Yet the author also observes that machine-made lace did not diminish demand for finer pillow and needle fabrics; instead, the rich sought Brussels and Alençon works more eagerly once machinery brought lace within reach of all classes.
Chapter 69
What unusual materials were used to make lace, according to the chapter?
The inner bark of the Lagetta, or Lace-bark tree of Jamaica, separates into layers and meshes resembling lace; a cravat and ruffles were presented to Charles II, and a dress to Queen Victoria at the 1851 Exhibition. Caterpillars at Munich spun light veils, one yard square weighing scarcely five grains versus 262 for patent net. Asbestos was also woven into lace.
Chapter 69
Section 704 cards
What does the 1537 Venetian pattern book by Zoppino claim about its novelty?
The title page of Gli universali de i belli Recami antichi, et moderni states it has not yet been brought to light by others ("Non ancora da alcuni dati altri inluce"). It was printed in March 1537, in quarto, 25 folios printed on both sides, with a frontispiece showing two ladies at work and a dedication to "gli virtuosi Giovani et gentilissime Fanciulle."
Chapter 70
What did Schartzemberger's 1534 Augsburg pattern book contain and how was it printed?
Ain New Formbüchlin was printed at Augsburg by Johan Schartzemberger, "Fomschneyder," in 1534: a small oblong book of 20 folios with 38 plates. The title is in black Gothic letters with three women at work printed in red at the foot, and the patterns, consisting of graceful arabesque borders, are also printed in red.
Chapter 70
What does Vorsterman's Antwerp treatise say it teaches, and to whom?
The English-titled treatise concerns the excellency of needlework, Spanish stitch, and weaving in the frame, and is said to be necessary for all who desire perfect knowledge of seamstry, quilting, and embroidery. It contains 138 figures, made plain in portraiture, and is addressed not only to craftsmen but also to gentlewomen and young damsels who may obtain greater skill, delight, and pleasure.
Chapter 70
What do the Lyon books by Pierre de Saincte Lucie cover, and who are they said to profit?
La fleur des patrons de lingerie and the Livre nouveau describe patterns worked "a deux endroitz, a point croise, a point couche, et a point picque" in gold, silver, or silk thread, encompassing the art of embroidery and weaving. A related Lyon book's verse says the portraits will profit masons, joiners, glaziers, goldsmiths, tapestry makers, image cutters, and weavers, as well as embroiderers and lingières.
Chapter 70
Section 713 cards
Who was Zoan Andrea Vavassore, and what nickname did his greed earn him?
Vavassore was a pupil in drawing and engraving of Andrea Mantegna who worked independently from the early sixteenth century; his engravings were much sought after. The chapter says he was so greedy for gain that he earned the Venetian patois name Guadigno, meaning "covetous." He lived to a great age.
Chapter 71
What does the chapter say about the date and printer of the Zurich Nüw Modelbüch?
The book has no place or date, but the title and preface indicate it was printed at Zurich by Christopher Froschover. The chapter estimates the date probably falls between 1530 and 1540. It is a quarto of 24 leaves, with a woodcut on the title showing two women working at lace pillows.
Chapter 71
Which 1555 Padua work by Fra Hieronimo features unicorns and a countess?
The Triompho di Lavori a Fogliami by Fra Hieronimo da Cividal di Frioli, of the Order of the Servi di Osservantia, printed at Padua by Jacobo Fabriano in 1555. Its ornamental title shows a woman in a triumphal car drawn by unicorns, and it is dedicated to Isabella Contessa Canossa, whose "Immortal Triompho" the woodcut represents.
Chapter 71
Section 724 cards
What does the 1560 Venice 'Le Pompe' offer to virtuous women?
The 1560 Venice 'Le Pompe, Libro secondo' is described as a new work containing various and diverse sorts of patterns (Mostre) for making cords or bindings of gold, silk, thread, or other material. The title page promises that beautiful and virtuous women may make every sort of work, including Merli, Cavezzi, Colari, Maneghetti, and whatever else pleases them. It is an oblong 8vo with 16 folios and 29 plates.
Chapter 72
What does Vinciolo's 1587 dedication say about his motives for publishing?
Vinciolo addresses the 'Benevolles Lecteurs,' saying several authors before him had published patterns that lords, ladies, and damsels found agreeable. To show the goodwill he bears France, which has been gentle and favorable to him since he left Venice, his native country, he wishes to portray magnificent works all different and not yet used in this country, which he had kept hidden until now. He promises a second batch if the first pleases.
Chapter 72
Who designed the patterns in Dominique de Sera's 1584 'Livre de Lingerie'?
The 1584 Paris 'Le livre de Lingerie' by Maistre Dominique de Sera, an Italian, was newly augmented and enriched with several excellent and diverse patterns, both point coupé and réseau and passement, of the invention of M. Jean Cousin, painter at Paris. It was printed by Hierosme de Marnef and the widow of Guillaume Cauellat, with a royal privilege. It is a 4to with 28 folios and 51 plates of medieval design.
Chapter 72
What does the 1587 Vinciolo privilege grant and to whom?
The privilege in the 1587 Paris edition of Vinciolo's 'Les singuliers et nouveaux pourtraicts' grants a term of nine years to 'Iean le Clerc le ieune, tailleur d'histoires, à Paris.' It is signed 27 June, 1587, and the imprint reads 'De l'Imprimerie de David le Clerc Rue Frementel à l'Estoille d'Or.' The first part has 40 folios, 36 of patterns and 4 preliminary pages.
Chapter 72
Section 734 cards
What is notable about the surviving copy of the original Vinciolo edition?
The chapter states that the original edition of Vinciolo is known from but one copy existing, held in the Library at Rouen. It was followed the same year by two other editions with alterations. The original contains 36 patterns in white on black, including 20 'Ouvrages de point Couppé' and eight 'Passemens de point Couppé.'
Chapter 73
What did Vinciolo add in the third edition's second part?
The third edition's second part added twenty patterns of 'reseau de point conté' announced in the Preface, with the number of stitches given. These comprised six squares, two handkerchief corners, two borders, six animals (Lion, Pelican, Unicorn, Stag, Peacock, Griffon), and the Four Seasons. Vinciolo said ladies had complained the reseau was not fine enough for their taste.
Chapter 73
Why is the 1595 Vinciolo edition dedicated to the 'Reine Douairière'?
The 1595 impression is dedicated to Louise de Vaudemont, now styled 'Reine Douairière,' because Henry III died in 1589, making her the dowager queen. The title otherwise repeats the third-edition wording, and it was printed in Paris by Jean le Clerc with royal privilege.
Chapter 73
Which libraries and collections held copies of Vinciolo editions per the chapter?
The chapter notes copies of Vinciolo in the Bodleian bearing dates 1588, 1603, and 1612; Baron Pichon had an impression of 1612; one at Bordeaux in the Bibliothèque de la Ville is dated 1588. It also lists a four-volume 1598 lot sold at Antwerp in March 1864.
Chapter 73
Section 744 cards
According to Leber, what are the various Vinciolo editions by Le Clerc and his widow?
M. Leber observes that the various editions of Vinciolo published by Le Clerc and his widow from 1587 to 1623, and perhaps later, are only impressions more or less varied of two distinct books: one of point coupé and the other of lacis.
Chapter 74
Where was Vinciolo's work reprinted, according to Mr. Douce?
Mr. Douce says it was reprinted at Strasburg in 1596 and at Basle in 1599, with a second part that is rare and sometimes contains a portrait by Gaultier of Catherine de Bourbon. The chapter also notes translations in England by Wolfe and at Liege by Jean de Glen.
Chapter 74
What does Adrian Poyntz's epistle say the squares serve for and how can they be resized?
Poyntz writes that the squares serve not only for cut-workes but for all other manner of sewing or stitching, keeping the work in good order and even proportion. To make the work smaller, make the squares less; to make it greater, enlarge them, making of two one, or four two.
Chapter 74
Who is the Corona delle nobili et virtuose donne dedicated to, and what does Vecellio say about her?
Vecellio dedicates the first book to Viena Vendramina Nani, consort of Polo Nani, Procurator of S. Marco. He says he dedicates it for the delight she takes in these works and in having the women of her house practice them, a refuge of the most virtuous young women then living in the city.
Chapter 74
Section 753 cards
What does Vecellio's fox-and-lady-bust plate illustrate, according to its verses?
On plate 28 of Vecellio's work, within a point coupé border, a fox holds the bust of a lady. The accompanying verses explain the conceit as sense being better than beauty: the fox finds a well-sculpted head that lacks only spirit or intellect, and remarks that the head is perfect and noble but void of understanding.
Chapter 75
What does the chapter say about Cesare Vecellio's relationship to Titian?
The chapter states that Vecellio, author of the Corona and Gioiello, was not, as is often incorrectly stated, a relation or even of the same family as Titian. It also notes he published a costume work, Degli Habiti Antichi et Moderni, in Venice in 1590, with a salamander on the frontispiece and a figure of Vesta on the last leaf.
Chapter 75
Which pattern-book does the chapter identify as the earliest to use the word 'dantelle'?
The chapter identifies Jacques Foillet's Nouveaux pourctraicts de point coupé et dantelles, printed at Montbéliard in 1598, as the earliest pattern-book in which the word 'dantelle' occurs. It has 82 folios and 78 plates, an 'Avertissement aux dames,' and 20 lace patterns described as very small, small, medium, and large.
Chapter 75
Section 764 cards
What does Sibmacher's 1604 Nuremberg model book contain and for what uses?
The 1604 Nuremberg book by J. Sibmacher is an oblong quarto with 58 carefully engraved copper plates of new patterns for thick and thin materials, also intended for other artistic needlework. It has an ornamented title-page border showing two figures, one sewing and one embroidering, plus a second frontispiece and a dedication to Maria Elizabeth, Electress Palatine, dated 1601.
Chapter 76
What novelty appears in Mignerak's 1605 Paris pattern book?
Mignerak's 'La pratique de l'aiguille industrieuse,' published in Paris by Jean Leclerc in 1605, includes six 'Passements faits au fuseau.' The chapter states this is the first mention of pillow lace in any of the French pattern-books, making it a notable novelty among the volume's patterns.
Chapter 76
What does the chapter say about the identity of Milour Matthias Mignerak?
The chapter notes that Leclerc's dedication says he had obtained the work from 'un personnage Anglois tres-expert en toute sorte de Lingerie,' but adds that history does not tell who this Milour Mignerak may be. So the author presents his identity as unknown rather than settled.
Chapter 76
What does the 'Discours du Lacis' poem describe about lace-making?
The poem, printed in Mignerak's 1605 book and repeated in Vinciolo's 1613 edition, describes lacis as composed by art, number, and measure, beginning and ending with one. It says the worker must multiply, add, and subtract, and that from one point a line is drawn, then a curved thread describes a circle, from which squares and triangles are formed.
Chapter 76
Section 774 cards
What does the 1632 'Schoole Howse for the Needle' say the patterns are for?
The author states the examples are only patterns meant to help and enlarge the worker's invention, not finished works laid out in order. The workwoman must choose and arrange them by her own skill. Two scales or checker patterns at the end let her enlarge or reduce any pattern by changing square size.
Chapter 77
How does the 1623 Paris edition of Vinciolo describe the origins of lace and needlework?
The dedication to Anne of Austria claims the goddess Pallas invented lingerie work, point couppé, passements, and lace. Arachne tried to rival her and was punished for presumption. It adds that Fastrade and Constance, wives of Charlemagne and King Robert, practiced this work and adorned churches and altars with it.
Chapter 77
What does Lucretia Romana's frontispiece depict and what does the tortoise symbolize?
The frontispiece shows a woman in classic attire under a Doric porch, standing on a tortoise, the symbol of a home-loving woman. She holds a ball of thread. Two women work behind her on the left, and on the right a sculptor chisels a statue of Minerva.
Chapter 77
What does the 1632 'Schoole Howse' preface suggest serving-men do with their time?
The author argues serving-men with time enough should practice designing patterns, a skill quickly learned with patience. He says a quarter of the time they spend playing cards, tables, and drinking would make them excellent at it, yielding praise, profit, and pleasure, and drawing others of their rank to imitate them.
Chapter 77
Section 784 cards
What does the 1640 book The Needle's Excellency contain besides its pattern plates?
The Needle's Excellency (printed for James Boler, 1640) has an engraved title showing three ladies named Wisdom, Industrie, and Follie in a flower garden, plus poems by John Taylor the Water Poet praising the needle and describing ladies eminent in needlework, including Queen Elizabeth and the Countess of Pembroke. Douce notes it apparently went through twelve impressions and, from costume details, was probably first published under James I.
Chapter 78
What is the 1632 Shorleyker cut-work pattern book, and what variants of it exist?
Printed in London in 1632 by Richard Shorleyker at the sign of the Faulcon in Shoe-lane, it offers patterns of cut-workes, plus spots such as flowers, birds, and fishes, to be wrought with gold, silk, or 'gewell.' The Bodleian copy, probably from this work, is undated and varies in title, claiming patterns 'newly invented and never published before' or 'never but once published before.'
Chapter 78
What is a bride in lace-making, and what are brides ornées?
A bride is a small strip or connection of threads overcast with buttonhole stitches, or of twisted or plaited threads, used instead of a net groundwork. The word is French; its English equivalent is pearl-tie, though the French term is chiefly employed. Brides ornées are brides ornamented with picots, loops, or pearls.
Chapter 78
How does the glossary distinguish bride ground from réseau ground?
The glossary divides lace grounds into two classes: the bride ground, formed with plain or ornamental bars connecting the ornaments of the pattern, and the réseau ground, a net made with needle or bobbins to connect the pattern's ornaments. Related terms include fond, champ, entoilage, and treille, with fonds claires including réseau grounds and fond de neige also called oeil de perdrix.
Chapter 78
Section 794 cards
What did the term 'passement' mean before the seventeenth century, and what does it mean now?
Until the seventeenth century, laces, bands, and gimps were called passements à l'aiguille, while bobbin laces were passements au fuseau. At present the word denotes the pricked pattern on parchment upon which both needle-point and bobbin laces are worked.
Chapter 79
How does the chapter say the term 'point lace' has been misused?
Point lace is lace made with the point of the needle, French point à l'aiguille. The chapter states the term point has been misused to describe varieties such as Point d'Angleterre and Point de Malines, which are actually made on the pillow, not with the needle.
Chapter 79
What is picot, and where does it appear in lace?
Picot refers to minute loops worked on to the edge of a bride or cordonnet, or added as an enrichment to a flower. The chapter notes picots play an important part in rose point lace.
Chapter 79
What is a pricker, and what is its role in bobbin lace?
A pricker is a short instrument used in bobbin lace to prick holes in the pattern to receive the pins. Relatedly, 'pricked' denotes the special marking out of the pattern upon parchment in pillow lace-making.
Chapter 79
Section 804 cards
What does the chapter say about the price and fineness of Brussels lace thread?
The chapter notes that the thread used in Brussels lace is discussed at 118 and note 338, with its fineness at 119 note 339. It also gives a price per pound at 119 note 339, explains the causes of the lace's high price at 118-119, compares the cost of its ground at 120, and records the price of a flounce at 124 note 352.
Chapter 80
How does the chapter compare Brussels lace with Alençon, Binche, Lille, and point de France?
The chapter lists comparisons of Brussels lace with Alençon at 199, with Binche at 135, with Lille at 237, with point de France at 194, with St. Trond at 137, and with Saxony needle point at 263. It also compares Cretan mesh work with Brussels at 87 and notes Mechlin ground distinguished from Brussels ground at 125.
Chapter 80
What does the chapter record about Burano's lace industry and its workers?
The chapter states that Alençon point was made at Burano at 62 and 200, and Argentan at 62 and 208. English thread was used there at 394 note 1128, the number of lace-workers at Burano is given at 394 note 1128, and the revival of the lace industry at Burano is described at 58-62.
Chapter 80
What does the chapter say about the introduction and popularity of black lace in England and France?
The chapter records black lace imported to England from the Low Countries at 117 note 330, the fashion introduced into England at 153 note 444, and Lille fabric popular in England at 237. It also notes the fashion introduced into France at 153-154 and black lace at the Turin court at 153 note 445.
Chapter 80
Section 814 cards
What does the chapter say about Colbert's role in developing the French lace industry?
The chapter credits Colbert with developing the lace industry and establishing point d'Alençon and points de France. It also notes his difficulties in establishing lace factories and lists fabrics he established at Arras, Aurillac, Château de Madrid, Le Quesnoy, and Loudun. He corresponded with Mazarin about lace and protected the Huguenots.
Chapter 81
How does the chapter describe the origin and protection of the Danish lace industry?
The chapter states the Danish lace industry's origin is given as 272, that it was protected by Christian IV., and that Wulff revived it. It mentions lace postmen, an export trade, and the quality of the lace. It also notes grave-clothes adorned with lace in Denmark and cut-work and embroidered tulle there.
Chapter 81
What does the chapter record about cut-work's uses and name?
The chapter explains the name cut-work, notes its ecclesiastical use, and records Elizabeth's use of it and its use in James I.'s time. It calls it Italian in one entry and says lace was known as cut-work. It also mentions a pall of cut-work used in Dieppe and smocks adorned with cut-work.
Chapter 81
What does the chapter say about Colbert's lace ordinances and correspondence?
The chapter lists an ordinance of Colbert and refers to his correspondence with Mazarin concerning lace. It also notes his inventory, his position as chief director of trade, his death, and a quoted letter from Madame Raffy. It credits him with establishing point d'Alençon and points de France.
Chapter 81
Section 824 cards
What does the index record about the effect of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes on lace?
The index lists the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes as affecting the lace industry in France and other countries at pages 192, 212, 254, and 258, and notes the settlement of refugees in Germany at pages 264-265.
Chapter 82
What does the index say about the date and origin of England's lace industry?
Under the England entry, the index gives the date of establishment of the industry as pages 286-288, and the origin of lace in England as page 111. It also lists the centres of the industry before 1665 at page 44 note 144, and states the impossibility of competing with Belgium at page 138.
Chapter 82
What does the index record about Queen Elizabeth's lace and needlework?
The index lists Elizabeth's laces at pages 299-300, including lace made from human hair at 313, Genoa and Spanish lace at 307, and parchment lace at 298. It also records her cut-work at 303-305, her ruffs at 310-313, her skill in needlework at 500, and the cost of lace for revels at her court at 308 note 871.
Chapter 82
What does the index list for lace-workers' earnings in different places?
The index gives earnings and wages of lace-workers for Alençon at 192, Arras at 239 (1788) and 240 (1851), Bedfordshire at 377, Honiton in Devonshire at 407 and note 1153, Mechlin at 127, Scotland at 434, Spain at 102, and Switzerland at 270, among other locations.
Chapter 82
Section 834 cards
What role did Colbert play in developing the French lace industry?
The author credits Colbert with establishing and developing the French lace company (1668-1675), founding point d'Alençon, sending pupils to Venice, and encouraging the immigration of Venetian workers. The chapter lists principal centres of the industry and notes Colbert's development as central to French lace history.
Chapter 83
How did the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes affect German lace?
The chapter states that the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes caused fugitives to emigrate into Germany, shaping the North and South German lace industry in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It also notes the religion of lace-workers and that the Landgrave of Hesse received French fugitives.
Chapter 83
What restrictions did England place on gold lace?
Gold lace was imported to England in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and monopolized under James I. Queen Anne prohibited it, George II. restricted it further, and confiscation and burning of gold lace occurred. Scotland prohibited wearing gold lace, and Ireland prohibited its importation.
Chapter 83
How does the chapter describe guipure and its methods?
Guipure is described by method of making, materials, and uses, with Flemish, Genoese, Honiton, Maltese, and Turkish varieties noted. The chapter says parchment lace is probably the English term for guipure, and mentions tape guipure and modern guipure as distinct forms.
Chapter 83
Section 844 cards
What was the state of the lace industry in Holland according to the chapter?
The chapter records a Dutch lace industry in the years 258-260, notes Dutch extravagance in lace at 260, and describes rivalry with the French lace trade at 258. It also mentions Haarlem thread and its advantage to Holland, and that lace was imported into Holland.
Chapter 84
What does the chapter say about the Honiton lace industry and its account?
The chapter gives an account of Honiton lace spanning pages 399-411, mentions a lace school at Honiton, and notes bobbins and pillows used there. It records that Bruges lace was a rival to Honiton, that Japanese imitations of Honiton lace existed, and that Honiton lace-makers were skilled.
Chapter 84
What does the chapter record about the lace industry in Ireland?
The chapter covers an Irish lace industry at 436-446, including the Bath and Shirley School, the Dublin Society, a club against 'foreign fopperies,' Irish point, and sumptuary laws. It also notes Maltese guipures made in Ireland and a prize offered for Dresden point.
Chapter 84
What does the chapter record about Le Puy's lace industry and trade?
The chapter describes Le Puy's lace industry: cheap laces, descriptions of its lace, an export trade with a stated annual value, use of Haarlem thread, decreased import duties, and numbers employed in 1851. It notes sumptuary laws in the seventeenth century affected the industry, and mentions lace schools and a museum at Le Puy.
Chapter 84
Section 854 cards
What lace did Mary de Médicis wear around her neck, and what sumptuary law did she publish?
Mary de Médicis wore a collarette, discussed at pages 143-144. She published a sumptuary law in 144 and n419, which was evaded by 149 and n434. Her death is noted at page 149, and a pattern book was dedicated to her at pages 22 and 494. Her point de Gennes appears at page 72.
Chapter 85
How does Mechlin lace compare with Brussels, Lille, and Valenciennes lace?
The chapter lists Mechlin lace compared with Brussels at page 118, with Lille at page 237, and with Valenciennes at page 233. It is also compared with Bayeux lace at page 228, Cretan mesh work at page 87, point de Dieppe at page 218, and St. Trond at page 137. Its characteristic is given at pages 31 and 125.
Chapter 85
What were the characteristics and uses of Mechlin lace, and when did it decline?
Mechlin lace is described at pages 124-125, with its characteristic at pages 31 and 125 and its grounds at page 125. Earliest references appear at pages 125-126, and English fashion for it at page 126. Its uses are at pages 127-128. The manufacture declined at page 125, and Turnhout also manufactured it at pages 125 and 131.
Chapter 85
How did Napoleon encourage the lace industry, and which laces were his favorites?
The chapter states Napoleon encouraged the lace industry at pages 123-124, 183-185, and 196, including an attempt to revive Valenciennes at page 231. His favourite laces are given at pages 128 and 184, and a bed was made for him at page 196. Albissola lace was bought for his coronation at page 78.
Chapter 85
Section 864 cards
What effect did the French Revolution have on Normandy's lace industry?
The chapter's index entry for Normandy's lace industry lists "French Revolution, effect of" at page 223, indicating the Revolution affected the industry. The entry gives no further detail on the nature of that effect, so the specific consequences are not stated in this chapter.
Chapter 86
Which religious houses are noted as lace-makers in this chapter?
The chapter lists nuns as lace-makers in Flanders (p. 354); in Italy at page 47 and n154, Burano (p. 58), Florence (pp. 67, 68), and Cantu (p. 80); in Portugal (pp. 105, 107); and in Spain (p. 93). It also notes nuns washed lace at page 373 and n1101.
Chapter 86
What does the chapter record about the earliest pattern-books and where they were published?
The chapter notes the earliest dated pattern-book at page 18 and the earliest known at page 376 n1108. It lists pattern-books by city and date, including Augsburg (1534), Cologne (1527), Venice (1529), Paris (1530), Lyon (1549), Frankfort (1537), and Basle (1599), among many others.
Chapter 86
How does the chapter describe point d'Alençon's industry, including its decline and revival?
The chapter records point d'Alençon's establishment at pages 155–157, an early account at 188–189, and causes for its decline at page 192. It notes lace-worker numbers for 1698, 1786, 1788, and 1830, Napoleon's patronage at page 196, and a revival at pages 155 and 196–197.
Chapter 86
Section 874 cards
What was the Point de France industry's origin and who was its foundress?
The Point de France industry was established as a company, with Mlle. Dumont identified as its foundress. The chapter notes its establishment and history, an ordinance of 1665, and its centres of production. It affected Flanders lace and had rivals. The author treats it as a state-sponsored effort to establish French luxury lace, later associated with Alençon.
Chapter 87
How was Venetian needle lace received in France and England?
Point de Venise was prohibited in France and its importation into England was also prohibited. Despite this, Mazarin purchased it, and an image of Mary II shows her wearing it. It was imitated at Alençon, in Ireland, and in Moscow, and resembled point d'Argentan, Le Puy lace, and point de Sedan.
Chapter 87
What was the ruff's history in England and France?
The ruff was introduced into England and worn in France, with cut-work ruffs described. Under James I it was prominent, and Nuremberg had its own. Sermons were preached against it, and it required starching and fluting. The falling band succeeded it. Its disappearance affected the Valenciennes industry.
Chapter 87
What does the chapter record about Saxony's lace industry?
Barbara Uttman's work is credited in the Saxony lace industry. The chapter notes cheap Saxon lace, its degeneration, Dresden lace, and the modern industry. In the sixteenth century it employed many workers and produced revenue, and its patterns were imitated in Denmark. Treillis d'Allemagne appears in French inventories.
Chapter 87
Section 884 cards
What does the chapter say about sumptuary laws and lace in Scotland?
The chapter lists Scotland among the places with sumptuary laws, citing pages 422 and 424, and separately records the lace manufacture of Scotland at pages 422, 425 and 428-434. It also notes that wearing silver lace was prohibited in Scotland. The entry treats these as index references rather than explaining the laws' content.
Chapter 88
Which countries' sumptuary laws does the chapter list, and what famous satire is linked to them?
The chapter lists sumptuary laws for Denmark, England, France, Genoa, Ireland (192 A.D.), Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Turkey, Venice and Zurich. Under the same heading it lists 'La Révolte des Passemens,' a satire on the sumptuary laws, at pages 40-43. The entry gives only page references, not the laws' provisions.
Chapter 88
What does the chapter record about silver lace in England under Queen Anne and George II?
The chapter states that importation of silver lace into England was prohibited by Queen Anne (page 349) and by George II (page 335), and that foreign silver lace was confiscated and burned (page 359). It also notes a large purchase of silver lace by Lady Arabella Stuart at page 325.
Chapter 88
What does the chapter record about the lace industry of Sweden?
The chapter notes bobbin lace in Sweden, the industry established at Wadstena, its growth, peasant lace work for home use, and Spanish point and guipure in museums. It also records cut-work in Sweden, lace-adorned grave-clothes, and laced sheets. These are index entries with page references, not a narrative.
Chapter 88
Section 893 cards
What was the period of highest merit for Valenciennes lace, and what fault is noted?
The chapter lists the period of highest merit for Valenciennes lace as 234-235, and separately notes a 'fault of' the lace at 235 n629. It also records the cost of Valenciennes lace in 1788 at 234 and n627, and describes the expense and labour in making it at 233.
Chapter 89
How does the chapter compare Valenciennes lace with other laces?
The chapter lists comparisons of Valenciennes lace with Binche at 135, Dutch at 260, Eu lace at 221, Isle of Man lace at 372 n1096, Lille at 237, Mechlin at 233, point de Dieppe at 220, and Welsh lace at 371 n1094. It also notes a Honiton reproduction of Valenciennes at 416.
Chapter 89
What varieties of Valenciennes lace does the chapter enumerate?
The chapter enumerates varieties including Alost (ground stitch) at 133, Bailleul at 241, Bohemia at 268, Bruges at 132-133, Courtrai at 131 n373, Dijon at 255, Ghent at 133 n377, Le Puy at 230 and n619, and Ypres at 131 and 231 n624. It distinguishes vrai Valenciennes at 231 from fausses Valenciennes at 241 and 387.
Chapter 89
Section 904 cards
What does Mr. Fowke say about the Queen Matilda tapestry tradition?
Mr. Fowke states that the tradition making the tapestry the handiwork of Queen Matilda cannot be traced further back than 1803, when the tapestry was sent to Paris for exhibition. The chapter also notes a suggestion that the embroidery was done by William's granddaughter, the Empress Matilda, widow of Henry V and wife of Geoffrey of Anjou, citing Lefébure.
Chapter 90
How did the 'Spanish stitch' spread to England and France?
The chapter says the 'Spanish stitch' was brought to England by Katharine on her marriage to Prince Arthur in 1501, and wardrobe accounts mention sheets and pillow-beres wrought with Spanish work of black silk. It appears in France with Henry II in 1557, per the Comptes de l'Argentier du Roy.
Chapter 90
What needlework evidence survives for Elizabeth of York and Katharine Parr?
Elizabeth of York's household accounts, each page signed by the Queen, record payments for four working stools and an ell of linen for a sampler. Specimens of Katharine Parr's needlework, a counterpane and toilet cover, still exist at Sizergh Castle, Westmorland. The chapter adds an anecdote that as a child Parr said her hands were ordained for crowns and sceptres, not needles.
Chapter 90
What does the chapter say about 'nun's work' as a term?
The chapter gives varied uses of 'nun's work': a grandmother in the Isle of Man applied it to some needlepoint, a butcher's wife in Scotland used it for Alençon point, and an 1698 London Gazette auction lists it among rich goods, probably meaning netting. A 1692 advertisement describes a lost 'nun's work purse wrought with gold thread,' and in 1763 the Edinburgh Advertiser mentions nun's work imported from the Grand Canaries.
Chapter 90
Section 914 cards
According to note 57, what does 'goderonné' actually mean?
The author corrects a common error: goderonné (goudronné) is incorrectly derived from pitch (goudron) and has no relation to stiffness or starch. Instead it designates the fluted pattern popular in the sixteenth century, equivalent to the 'gadrooned' edge used by silversmiths. The chapter cites a 1588 description of a starched, godronné ruff with large godrons and fine lace at its edge.
Chapter 91
What does Cotgrave's 1611 dictionary give as the French term for 'quintain'?
Cotgrave's Dictionarie of the French and English tongues (1611) glosses 'Quintain, quintin' as 'French lawne.' The chapter also quotes a household account from Charles II's reign (1683-4) recording '26 virges de Kanting pro sudariis.' So quintain/kanting refers to a type of fine lawn linen, not to the jousting target the word usually suggests.
Chapter 91
How does the 1591 cut-work pattern book explain the use of its designs?
In the Epistle to the Reader of a pattern book for cut-works (London, J. Wolfe & Edward White, 1591), the author says his devices are framed in due proportion so that, taken in order, one is formed by the other. The squares may be made smaller or enlarged, and they serve not only for cut-works but for all other manner of sewing or stitching, by stitch, pouncing, or pouldering.
Chapter 91
What does the chapter say about the vogue for réseau in seventeenth-century furniture?
The author argues the inventories of Charles de Bourbon (d. 1613) and his wife, the Countess of Soissons (d. 1644), alone prove how much réseau was in vogue for furniture during the seventeenth century. The quoted entries list bed canopies, curtains, and hangings in linen with réseau bands, point coupé work, and fringes, with prices given in livres tournois.
Chapter 91
Section 922 cards
What did the 1423 London complaint accuse citizens of doing at fairs like Sturbridge?
According to the Rot. Parl. citation (2 Hen. VI.), citizens of London and the suburbs were accused of sending works of embroidery of gold or silver, of Cipre, or of gold of Luk, together with Spanish Laton of insufficient stuff, to the fairs of Sturesbrugg, Ely, Oxenford, and Salisbury — essentially palming off inferior goods for country use. All such goods were forfeited.
Chapter 92
What does the chapter say about the term "campaner" and its use?
The chapter notes that in the last century it was much the fashion to trim the scalloped edges of a broader lace with a narrower one, and this practice was called to "campaner." It cites 1720 and 1741 inventories describing dentelle d'Angleterre and Malines lace garnished or "campanée," plus Madame du Barry's lace bills for point à l'aiguille "campanée des deux côtés."
Chapter 92
Section 934 cards
What early Italian lace-like net did the Chicago exhibition show, and how was it made?
The first kind of net used in Italy as lace on garments was made of very fine linen or silk mesh, stiffened with wax and embroidered in silk thread. According to C. di Brazza's 1893 guide, it was in use during the fourteenth century and part of the fifteenth. The author suggests it is probably the gramite, or trimmings of albs, listed in the Ferrara Cathedral account book now in that city's Municipal Archives.
Chapter 93
How does the meaning of trina compare with the English word lace?
The author explains that trina, like the English word lace, is used in a general sense for braid or passement. Florio's 1598 dictionary gives trine as cuts, snips, or pincke work on garments, and trinci as gardings, fringings, lacings, or other ornaments of garments. So the term covered decorative trimmings broadly, not only what we now call lace.
Chapter 93
Which terms are the more modern words for lace, and when do they first appear?
Merlo and merletto are the more modern terms for lace. The author notes merlo appears as early as the poet Firenzuola, but it does not occur in any pattern book older than Pasini's Fiori da Ricami and the two works of Francesco de' Franceschi, all printed in 1591. So the word's appearance in print is later than its literary use.
Chapter 93
What does the author say white lace in Lavinia Fontana's painting proves?
The author states that the white and gold laces depicted in Lavinia Fontana's celebrated painting of the Visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon, then in the Lambeccari Gallery and executed in the sixteenth century, prove that white lace was in general use in the Italian Courts at that epoch. The claim rests on the painting's date and its detailed depiction of lace.
Chapter 93
Section 943 cards
What did the tax on gold thread in Genoa amount to between 1411 and 1420?
According to tax-books preserved in the Archives of S. George, a tax of four danari on every lira in value of worked gold-thread material was levied, amounting to L. 73,387 between 1411 and 1420. From that period the industry rapidly declined and the workers emigrated, as recorded by Merli.
Chapter 94
How does Genoese pillow-lace construction differ from Milanese lace?
The chapter states that Genoese pillow-laces are not made with a réseau but are joined by bars. Milan lace is said to resemble Genoese in having the same scrolls and flowers formed by a ribbon in close stitch, but with a mesh or tulle ground, whereas Genoese lace is held together by bars.
Chapter 94
What did Mrs. Palliser claim about imitation of old Italian laces?
Mrs. Palliser wrote in 1864 that many skilful lace-makers in Italy had for some time imitated old laces and sold them as such to travellers, and that a Venetian lace-worker then residing at Ferrara could copy any old lace known.
Chapter 94
Section 954 cards
What did the Jews of Cadiz monopolize, and what lace did they invent?
A family at Cadiz of Jewish extraction long held a monopoly on manufacturing gold and silver lace, according to a Letter from Spain dated 1863. The same source credits Jews with inventing and perfecting Merletto Polichrome, or parti-coloured lace, made in silks of various colours representing fruit and flowers. The industry was later revived in Venice and carried to great perfection.
Chapter 95
Why is the Don Quixote 'bone lace' passage a mistranslation?
Theresa Pança's letter says Sanchica makes 'bone lace' for eight maravedis a day, and some authors used this to claim bone lace was known in Cervantes' day. But the original Spanish reads 'puntas de randas,' which Oudin's 1660 dictionary renders as works of lacis or réseuil, not bone lace. The English translation, not Cervantes, created the confusion.
Chapter 95
What does the 1901 Letter from Spain say about Spain's two remaining laces?
Only two kinds are then made in Spain. 'Encaje de blonda'—mantillas, scarves and lace-ties in white and black—is made in Barcelona on long straw-stuffed pillows with a cardboard pattern and fuseaux, the work moved from bottom to top of the pillow. 'Encaje de Almagro' is the second, and children of six and seven are taught to make it.
Chapter 95
How was Spanish point used in French and English court dress?
Point d'Espagne appeared in elite dress across Europe. In 1697 the Queen of Spain wore a mante of gold point d'Espagne nine ells long; in 1698 the Duchesse de Bourgogne had a small apron of point d'Espagne worth a thousand pistoles. Queen Mary's lace-man billed forty-seven yards of embossed point de Spain, and her shoes were trimmed with gold and silver lace.
Chapter 95
Section 964 cards
What does the Latin poem quoted by Jacobus Eyckius say about the lace-maker's earnings?
The poem claims the maiden at her work earns as much profit by her amusement as a man earns by the sweat of his brow, and that no maiden complains of the day's length. It describes her web as light as a feather yet too heavy for purses, and contrasts her peaceful labor at home with men enduring dangers at sea in pursuit of the Golden Fleece.
Chapter 96
What did McPherson report about the eyesight of Flemish lace-workers?
McPherson, in his History of Commerce (1785), says he was told by a gentleman well acquainted with Flanders that the lace-workers were generally almost blind before thirty years of age. The chapter notes it is said that the work destroys the eyesight, presenting this as a report rather than a verified finding.
Chapter 96
Why does Séguin doubt that the preserved cap belonged to Charles V?
A parchment with the cap claims it belonged to Emperor Charles V and was kept by Juan de Garnica, treasurer to Philip II. Séguin argues the cap must have belonged to one of Charles V's successors, because it is cut and framed with a small insertion of bobbin guipure in the Genoa point style, which could not have been made in Charles V's time.
Chapter 96
What does the chapter say about the fineness of hand-spun versus machine-made lace thread?
The chapter states machine-made thread has never attained the fineness of hand-spun. At the 1862 Exhibition, the finest Lille was 800 leas, Brussels 600, and Manchester 700, whereas hand-spun threads in Westphalia and Belgium reach 800 to 1000 for costly laces. Specimens equal to 1200 existed, but the industry is poorly paid and skilled hand-spinners are diminishing.
Chapter 96
Section 974 cards
According to Séguin, when and where does lace first appear in portraiture?
Séguin argues that lace first appears in a portrait of Henri II at Versailles, likely painted in the last years of his reign. He notes that portraits of François I at the Louvre and other historical portraits of the same era show no lace, concluding that the origin of lace is not earlier than the mid-sixteenth century.
Chapter 97
What did the 1688 Arrêt require of Spanish Flanders lace entering France?
An Arrêt dated 14 August 1688 required that all thread laces from Antwerp, Brussels, Malines and other places in Spanish Flanders enter only by Rousselars and Condé, and pay a duty of 40 livres per pound, as recorded in the Archives Nationales, Coll. Rondonneau.
Chapter 97
How long could a fine Ypres Valenciennes lace take to make, and at what earnings?
The chapter states that a Ypres Valenciennes lace-maker working twelve hours a day could scarcely produce one-third of an inch a week, so a length of six or seven metres would take her twelve years. Her daily earnings averaged only two to three francs. Ypres made the widest Valenciennes except Courtrai.
Chapter 97
How does the chapter trace the lily pot's evolution in Annunciation imagery?
The chapter explains that the flower-pot symbolized the Annunciation: in early depictions of the Angel Gabriel appearing to Mary, lilies were placed in his hand or in a vase. As Romanism declined the angel disappeared, leaving a vase of flowers; later the Virgin was omitted too, leaving only the vase.
Chapter 97
Section 984 cards
What did the 1586 Remonstrance to Catherine de Médicis complain about?
It complained that people's mills, lands, meadows, woods and revenues were being drained away into embroideries, passementeries, fringes, canetilles and other trimmings that were invented from one day to the next. The passage comes from Du Haillan's Discours sur l'extrême cherté, presented to the King's mother and printed at Bordeaux in 1586.
Chapter 98
What did the 1665 Parlement of Paris ruling require of marchandes lingères?
By an Arrêt of the Parliament of Paris in 1665, no one could be a marchande lingère unless she had made profession of the Catholic, apostolic and Roman religion. Gilles de Felice, in his Histoire des Protestants de France, notes that the guild of lingères, claiming institution by Saint Louis, petitioned that it could not admit heretics, and the ruling confirmed this.
Chapter 98
What did the 1636 declaration against luxury threaten?
The declaration of 3 April 1636 prohibited both foreign and home-made points coupés and similar lace, under pain of banishment for five years, confiscation, and a fine of 6000 francs. It is cited from De la Mare's Traité de la Police. A further prohibition followed in 1639, specifically naming points de Gênes.
Chapter 98
How did black lace come to be worn in England?
The chapter states the fashion of wearing black lace was introduced into England in the reign of Charles II. Pepys's Diary describes Mistress Stewart in black and white lace with diamonds, and a 1677 dialogue, England's Great Happiness, credits the French with increasing trades such as black and white lace.
Chapter 98
Section 994 cards
What did the 1666 French declaration establish regarding point de France?
The declaration ordered the manufacture of all kinds of thread work, both needle and pillow, in the manner of Venetian, Genoese, and Ragusan points, in towns including Quesnoy, Arras, Reims, Sedan, Château-Thierry, Loudun, Alençon, and Aurillac. These products were to be called points de France. The term did not exclusively belong to Alençon until after the company dissolved in 1675.
Chapter 99
According to Madame Despierres, who first imitated Venetian point at Alençon?
Madame Despierres concludes that Mme La Perrière, around 1650, was the first person at Alençon to imitate Venetian point and thus created point d'Alençon, not Mme Gilbert. She also states that Catherine de Marcq, not a Mme Gilbert, was the director who established the bureaux at Alençon, and that Mme Raffy and Marie Fillesae headed the Alençon establishment.
Chapter 99
How did the Venetian Senate punish artisans who emigrated to practice abroad?
According to Charles Yriarte, the Venetian Senate decreed that if an artisan practiced abroad, orders to return would be sent; if he disobeyed, his nearest kin would be imprisoned to compel obedience. If he returned, his offense was condoned and employment found. If he obstinately stayed abroad, an emissary would be commissioned to kill him, and his kin freed only upon his death.
Chapter 99
What do the 1707 lace duty statistics suggest about French lace consumption?
In 1707 the lace duties were under-farmed for 201,000 livres annually, with a duty of 50 livres per pound, implying over 400,000 pounds entered France yearly. The 1851 report estimates this at 4 million livres, but noting fraud and prohibited Venetian and Genoese points, suggests 8 million livres (£320,000) is below the true figure.
Chapter 99
Section 1004 cards
What did the papal nuncio present at the birth of a Dauphin?
The papal nuncio went to the palace and presented to the new-born child "les langes benites," or consecrated layette, on behalf of the Pope. The shirts, handkerchiefs, and other linen came by half-dozens and were trimmed with the richest point. The custom dates as early as the birth of Louis XIII, and Mercier describes the ceremony of carrying the layette to Versailles in the time of Louis XV.
Chapter 100
How does the chapter distinguish engageantes, pagodes, volantes, and falbalas?
Sleeves trimmed with lace were called engageantes when short and pagodes when long. On skirts, laces were worn as volantes or flounces, a name that came into use for all wide laces. These flouncings were draped either in tournantes, laid horizontally, or quilles, laid vertically; both were stitched down on each edge of the lace, whereas flounces were fastened by the engrêlure or footing.
Chapter 100
What was the poupée de la rue Saint-Honoré, and how old is the doll custom?
Mercier describes the famous doll, a precious mannequin dressed in the newest fashions, which passed monthly from Paris to London and spread French taste through Europe, even to Constantinople and Petersburg. The practice was older: M. Ladomie cites royal expenses for dolls sent to the Queen of England in 1391, Spain in 1496, and Bavaria in 1571. Henry IV sent model dolls to Marie de Médicis in 1600.
Chapter 100
What did the traveller in Six Weeks in France observe about saints' dress?
The traveller wrote that the saints came in for their share of the booty. St. Winifred appeared in a point commode with a large scarf and a loup in hand, as though going to mass, while St. Denis wore a laced hat, embroidered coat, and sash like a captain of the guards. The observation comes from Six Weeks in France, 1691.
Chapter 100
Section 1014 cards
What did the Duke of Penthièvre's wardrobe accounts show about night attire?
The Duke's accounts show extravagant spending on lace for nightwear, including 4 aunes of point at 130 livres each (520 livres) for a nightshirt collar, cuffs and cap, plus costly Malines and Valenciennes lace for nightcaps. The author presents these accounts as a specimen of the period's extravagance in decorating night attire.
Chapter 101
What did Queen Victoria's state liveries include, and what changed by 1849?
The state liveries were richly embroidered in gold, made in the early part of George II's reign and still in use. In 1848 servants wore gold and ruffles of the richest gros point de France; in 1849 the lace no longer appeared, probably suppressed by order. Queen Anne daily inspected servants' ruffles and periwigs.
Chapter 101
According to the 1777 État d'un Trousseau, what lace items did a trousseau include?
The 1777 list includes a lace town toilette, two lace-trimmed skirts, coiffures with Alençon, Angleterre and Valenciennes point, a Malines 'Battant d'oeil' for undress, twelve night bonnets, twelve day bonnets for illness, twelve headbands, lace-trimmed pillowcases, corset trims, twelve pairs of lace cuffs, and a layette with lace bonnets and bibs.
Chapter 101
What did Madame du Barry's lace accounts reveal about her point d'Angleterre use?
Her accounts show heavy consumption of point d'Angleterre: a complete toilette at 8,823 livres, a parure of two lappets, ray and ground, six rows of cuffs, ribbon and jabot at 7,000, a complete ajustement at 3,216, a peignoir trimming at 2,342, and smaller sums for fichu trims and pillowcase lace.
Chapter 101
Section 1024 cards
What lace items appear in the Comtesse du Barry's last lace bill of 1773?
The 1773 bill lists a pair of long flat barbes in fine blonde with Alençon ground flowers, a large-height blonde with detached bouquets and rich border, six aunes of grande hauteur blonde in the Alençon style with shells and mille poix, and a pair of comtesse sabots of two rows of blonde tulle with festoons on an Alençon ground. The chapter adds that Madame du Barry was extremely extravagant in lace trimmings of Argentan, Angleterre, and needlepoint.
Chapter 102
What does the 1782 Gazette of Marie Antoinette record?
Preserved in the National Archives, it is a list of dresses furnished for the Queen during the year, drawn up by the Comtesse d'Ossune, her dame des atours. It includes grands habits and robes on the grand and petit panier, with a pattern of each material affixed to the entry and the name of the couturière who made the dress. Only one Lévite appears trimmed with blonde. A Gazette of Madame Elizabeth for 1792 also exists.
Chapter 102
What ten processes of point d'Alençon existed in 1705, and how did the count change?
The ten processes of 1705 were le dessin, le picage, la trace, les fonds, la dentelure ou bride à picots, la brode, l'enlevage, l'éboulage, le régalage, and l'assemblage. Mrs. Palliser gives eighteen processes and states the number was by her time reduced to twelve. The chapter also lists eighteen distinct workwomen's roles, from piqueuse and traceuse through brodeuse and assembleuse to affineuse and affiquese.
Chapter 102
How do Mrs. Palliser and Madame Despierres disagree about Alençon and Argentan lace?
Madame Despierres writes that the three kinds of brides as ground were executed in both factories, with points made by the same processes and textile materials. Mrs. Palliser held the two manufactures were distinct, though some lace-makers near Lignères-la-Doucelle worked for both: Alençon made the finest réseau, Argentan excelled in the bride, and Argentan flowers were bolder, larger, higher in relief, and coarser.
Chapter 102
Section 1034 cards
What did the 1772 Argentan lace order for Madame du Barry cost?
The itemized 1772 account lists an ajustement de point d'Argentan: six rows of manchettes, a third for the front of the throat, and four and a third scalloped on both sides, plus the fichu and a night-fichu trimming, at 2,500 livres. A ribbon of point d'Argentan at 100 came to 175, and a collerette of point d'Argentan cost 360 livres.
Chapter 103
What did Peuchet report about the lace-makers of Havre?
Peuchet writes that the lace-makers of Havre work both black and white points, from 5 sous to 30 francs the ell. They are all employed by a certain number of dealers who purchase the produce of their pillows. Much is transported to foreign countries, even to the East Indies, the Southern Seas, and the islands of America.
Chapter 103
How did Aubry describe differences between lace made in different places?
Aubry argues that among fabrics sharing the same manufacturing process, none produces exactly the same style of lace. The same pattern and material, whether executed in Belgium, Saxony, Lille, Arras, Mirecourt, or Le Puy, will always bear the stamp of the place where it is made. He states it has never been possible to transfer a manufacture from one city to another without a marked difference appearing.
Chapter 103
What did Mrs. Stothard's Tour in Normandy say about the bourgoin?
Mrs. Stothard describes the bourgoin as formed of white, stiffly starched muslin covering a pasteboard shape, rising to a great height above the head, frequently diminishing in size toward the top, where it finishes in a circular form. Two long lappets hang from either side toward the back, often of the finest lace. She notes bourgoins throughout Normandy are not alike.
Chapter 103
Section 1042 cards
How did the bobbins and mesh differ among Belgian lace towns after the French Revolution?
The chapter states that Ghent lace is square-meshed with bobbins twisted two and a half times; Ypres, making a better quality of Valenciennes, is also square-meshed but twisted four times; Courtrai and Menin grounds are twisted three and a half times; and Bruges has a circular mesh with bobbins twisted three times.
Chapter 104
What did Arthur Young report in 1788 about Valenciennes lace and its workers?
Arthur Young reported that lace 30 to 40 lines broad for gentlemen's ruffles sold for 160 to 216 livres an ell; a lady's headdress ranged from 1,000 to 24,000 livres; women earned 20 to 30 sous a day; 3,600 persons were employed, representing 450,000 livres, of which flax was no more than one-thirtieth; and thread cost 24 to 700 livres a pound.
Chapter 104
Section 1054 cards
According to M. Aubry's 1851 table, which French region had the most lace-workers and how many?
The table credits the Auvergne/Le Puy manufacture (Cantal, Haute Loire, Loire, Puy-de-Dôme) with 130,000 lace-workers, by far the largest group in a national total of 240,000. Normandy, Caen and Bayeux follow with 55,000, Lorraine/Mirecourt with 22,000, Lille/Arras/Bailleul with 18,000, and Chantilly/Alençon with 12,500.
Chapter 105
What did M. Aubry estimate in his 1867 report about lace-workers' numbers and wages?
In his Report on the Universal Exhibition of 1867, M. Aubry estimates the number of lace-workers at 200,000, with average wages of 1 to 1½ francs a day for ten hours' labour, though some earn as much as 3½ francs. Almost all work at home, combining pillow work with agricultural and household occupations, and lace schools were being founded in the northern departments.
Chapter 105
What did the 1704 paper say about bleaching Flemish high-priced laces and the Haarlem thread Act?
The paper states that Flemish laces called dentelles de haut prix were made of Lille, Mons and Mechlin thread sent to bleach at Haarlem, 'as they know not how to bleach them elsewhere.' Cheaper Normandy laces used Haarlem thread itself, so an Act then just passed excluding that thread would, if carried out, annihilate this branch of French industry.
Chapter 105
What privilege did Tönder lace-traders hold, and what did Rawert report about lace-makers' earnings in 1848?
Tönder lace-traders enjoyed the privilege of offering their wares for sale all over Denmark without a license (concession), a privilege extended to no other industry. Rawert's 1848 Report states that a lace-maker earns from 3½d. to 4½d. per day of sixteen hours. Tönder lace was also celebrated for durability, using only the best flax or silk thread.
Chapter 105
Section 1064 cards
What does the chapter say about the Swedish lace kept as a miraculous relic?
The chapter notes that all were astonished at the fineness and perfection of the work and kept the lace as of miraculous origin. It cites Wadstena Past and Present as its source, and a letter dated March 20th, 1544. The author thus records a tradition treating exceptionally fine lace as a marvel rather than an ordinary product.
Chapter 106
What does the chapter report about the lace on Princess Isabella's burial dress?
The author of One Year in Sweden saw the body of the little granddaughter of the king, Princess Isabella, daughter of John III, in the vault of Strengnäs. The child's dress and shoes were literally covered with gold and silver lace of a Gothic pattern, fresh and untarnished as though made yesterday. The chapter notes the trousseau account mentions no lace.
Chapter 106
How does the chapter describe Russian bobbins?
The chapter calls Russian bobbins interesting for their archaic simplicity. Lacking any trace of decoration suggested by sentimental fancy or artistic taste, they are purely utilitarian: mere sticks of wood, more or less straight and smooth, and six or seven inches long. The chapter also notes a depot opened in London showing Russian laces and embroidery of all kinds.
Chapter 106
What does the chapter say about the history of pins in England?
The chapter states it is not known when brass wire pins were first made in England, but it must have been before 1543, when a statute, An Act for the True Making of Pynnes, fixed the price at no more than 6s. 8d. per 1,000. Early pins were of boxwood, bone, bronze or silver, and an Act of Richard III prohibited their importation.
Chapter 106
Section 1074 cards
What distinction did a Devonshire lace-worker draw between bobbin lace and bone lace?
Asked whether she could make an old Vandyke Italian edging, a Devonshire lace-worker replied that she could, calling it bobbin lace. She explained that bobbin lace is made with a coarse thread and long bobbins rather than the ordinary boxwood size, which would not hold the necessary quantity of that thread, though it suffices for Honiton flowers and Trolly lace.
Chapter 107
What does the chapter say bone pins used in Honiton point-making were eventually abandoned?
An elderly woman told the author that when she learned to make Honiton point from an ancient parish teacher, bone pins were still employed. They remained in use until a recent period and were given up only on account of their costliness. The author bought one from a Devonshire lace-maker, dated 1829, with a name tattooed into the bone.
Chapter 107
How does the chapter describe the personal meaning of bobbins to a lace-worker?
The author calls bone or wood bobbins, some ornamented with glass beads and the more ancient with silver let in, the calendar of a lace-worker's life. One records her first fair or May meeting, another her good man's first gift, a third her child's first dame-school prize. As she weaves, they are memories of bygone hopes, fears, joys and sorrows.
Chapter 107
According to the chapter, how were bobbin lace and bone lace treated in inventories?
The chapter states that bobbin lace appears invariably distinguished from bone lace, both being mentioned in the same inventory. "Bobbin" lace is noted in the Royal Inventories but not so frequently as "bone." Randle Holme, enumerating terms used in arts, gives "Bone lace, wrought with pegs."
Chapter 107
Section 1083 cards
How does the chapter show 'to lace' was used in Shakespeare's time?
The chapter cites a passage already quoted in Much Ado about Nothing showing that in Shakespeare's time 'to lace' was generally used as a verb meaning to decorate with trimming. Margaret, the tiring woman, describes the Duchess of Milan's gown as of 'Cloth o' gold, and cuts, and laced with silver.'
Chapter 108
What Latin terms do the Great Wardrobe Accounts use for lace, and when did the term change?
The chapter states lace is always called 'lacqueus' in the Great Wardrobe Accounts up to 1595-6, after which it is rendered 'tænia.' Both terms, like our 'lace,' seem to have been equally applied to silk passements. A French source quoted describes 'laqueus' as interlacements of various colours, galloons imitating chains the Romans painted, gilded and silvered.
Chapter 108
What do the Great Wardrobe Accounts show about bone lace and needle-made lace prices?
The chapter states bone lace varies in price from 40s. the dozen to 11s. 6d. the yard, while needle-made lace ranges from 6s. 8d. to 50s., citing the Great Wardrobe Accounts passim. It also records specific entries, such as three suits of good lawn cutwork ruffs edged with good bone lace 'operat' super oss' at 70s., totaling 10l. 10s.
Chapter 108
Section 1094 cards
What does the 1583 Anatomie of Abuses record about braided hair lace purchases?
The chapter cites an entry in the Anatomie of Abuses (1583) recording payment for three dozen braided hair laces with rising puffs of hair at 36 shillings each, totaling £5 8s. The text notes the entry occurs frequently in the accounts, showing repeated purchases of such hair ornaments.
Chapter 109
What false-hair inventions did Elizabeth's wardrobe records list in her last regnal year?
The Great Wardrobe accounts list 200 inventions of hair in the form of loops and tufts at 6d each, the same number in leaf form at 12d, twelve in the form of pyramids at 3s 4d, and twenty-four globes at 12d, plus hair by the yard made in loops, curiously curled, round-curled, and other inventions.
Chapter 109
Why did London tradesmen complain about refugee artisans, and what did Cecil do?
London tradesmen complained that refugee artisans kept their mysteries to themselves and devised engines for working lace, so that one man did more than seven Englishmen, and their cheap sale beggared English artificers. The complaint was called scarcely tolerable, and Cecil ordered a census in 1621, which listed one satin lace maker among the traders.
Chapter 109
What does the chapter say about yellow starch and its inventor?
Howel's Letters (1645) state that Mistris Turner, the first inventress of yellow starch, was executed at Tyburn in a cobweb lawn ruff of that color, and the writer expects yellow starch, which disfigured the nation, to receive its funeral with her. The chapter notes the fashion may derive from Venetian ladies who dyed lace saffron in 1574.
Chapter 109
Section 1104 cards
How did 'seaming' and spacing lace serve in linen during this period?
The chapter states that seaming lace and spacing lace were generally used at this period to unite the breadths of linen instead of a seam sewed. They appear in the accounts of King James and Prince Charles, employed for cupboard cloths, cushion cloths, sheets, and shirts.
Chapter 110
What did Evelyn say about Charles I's falling band and who kept the ruff?
Evelyn, describing a medal of Charles I struck in 1633, says the king wears a falling band, which new mode succeeded the cumbersome ruff. He adds that neither the bishops nor the judges gave it up so soon, and thinks the Lord Keeper Finch was the very first.
Chapter 110
What did Susan Nicholas write to her brother about lace in 1628?
In a State Paper letter to her 'loveing Brother,' Susan Nicholas says she sent his boot hose and could have sent the lace for his band, but she saw lace she thought did a great deal better than what he bespoke. The best costs no more than half a crown a yard; the other, 18 pence. She sent the first-bespoke lace to compare.
Chapter 110
What lace did Charles II's coronation Colobium Sindonis use and at what cost?
Accounts show William Briers made the Colobium Sindonis of fine lawn laced with fine Flanders lace for 33s. 4d. Valentine Stucky supplied 14 and a half yards of very fine Flanders lace for the same at 18s. per yard, totaling £12 6s. 6d., per the Earl of Sandwich's account for the 1661 coronation.
Chapter 110
Section 1113 cards
What lace gift did a sheriff present to a judge at a Maiden Assize?
At a Maiden Assize it was customary to present the judge with a pair of "laced gloves." In 1856, at the Lincoln Lent Assizes, Lord Campbell received from the sheriff white gloves richly trimmed with Brussels lace and embroidered, with the city arms embossed in frosted silver on the back.
Chapter 111
What lace appears on James II's cravats and ruffles, and at what cost?
The lace of James II's cravats and ruffles is point de Venise. The accounts charge £141 for six cravats of Venetian lace, £45 for nine yards of lace for six more cravats, and £36 10s. for the Venice lace cravat worn on his Coronation day, per the Great Wardrobe accounts of 1685–6.
Chapter 111
What does the Cornhill Magazine account say happened at the 1778 royal christening?
The author recounts that in 1778 George III and Queen Charlotte stood as sponsors to the infant daughter of the last Duke and Duchess of Chandos, with Cornwallis, Archbishop of Canterbury, officiating. The baby, overwhelmed by whole mountains of lace, lay in a dead faint; her mother would not let it disturb the ceremony. Cornwallis called her the quietest baby he had held; she died within hours.
Chapter 111
Section 1123 cards
What did the 1749 Act regarding lace prohibit?
The chapter states that in 1749 royal assent was given to an Act preventing the importation or wear of gold, silver, and thread lace manufactured in foreign parts. This continued the pattern of earlier laws restricting foreign lace during the reign, which had remained much the same until that date.
Chapter 112
What premiums did the lace society award in November 1752?
At a meeting at the Crown behind the Royal Exchange, with Edward Vernon presiding, premiums were set: five, three, and two guineas for the best pairs of men's needlework ruffles, and fifteen, ten, and five guineas for the best pairs of English bone lace for ladies' lappets, to be produced in May and August respectively.
Chapter 112
What did Amy Potter receive from the King in 1678?
The London Gazette announced that Amy Potter, widow, presented the King with decent woollen lace shifts and dressings for the dead, and he granted her leave to advertise. Later that year he gave her the sole privilege for fourteen years of making woollen laces for burial, as first inventor, to encourage the woollen manufacture and obedience to the burial-in-woollen act.
Chapter 112
Section 1133 cards
How was Isle of Wight lace made, and who patronized it?
Some bobbin lace was made on the island, but what is known as "Isle of Wight" lace resembles Nottingham lace: it is made in frames on machine net, the pattern outlined with a run thread and filled in with needle-point stitches. Queen Victoria patronized it, having lace tippets made for the Royal children in a Mechlin-style rose pattern, and the Princess Royal wore Newport lace at her 1856 presentation. By 1901 only two or three old women workers remained.
Chapter 113
What was the main livelihood of the Channel Islands, and how did lace-making arrive there?
The chapter states lace-making was never the staple manufacture of the Channel Islands; stockings and knitted wool garments afforded a livelihood to the natives, and such articles appear in inventories of James V, Mary Stuart, Henry VIII and Elizabeth. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the island was inundated with French refugees, lace-making was introduced with much success into the Poor-House of St. Heliers, becoming a favourite occupation of island ladies.
Chapter 113
What personal records did English lace bobbins carry?
Bobbins were usually of bone, wood or ivory. Especially in Bedford, Bucks and Huntingdon, the set on a lace pillow formed a homely record of the owner's life: family names, dates, births, marriages and mottoes were carved, burnt or stained on the bobbin, and events of general interest were often commemorated by adding a new bobbin. Spangles or jingles attached to the end might include a waistcoat button, coral beads, an old copper seal or a battered coin.
Chapter 113
Section 1143 cards
How were Honiton lace-workers often paid, and what hardship did this cause?
The author reports that work was largely paid by the truck system: some shops gave half in money and half in tea or clothing sold above value, while other manufacturers paid entirely in grocery. A worker needing cash in illness had to give work worth fourteen pence for each shilling received; only a few houses paid in money.
Chapter 114
What does the chapter say about the health of Devonshire lace-workers compared with other workers?
The author argues that although lace-workers may look less robust than farm-servants or Cheshire milkmaids, their life is far healthier than that of female operatives in northern manufactories. She notes visiting many lace-schools where children looked ruddy, though she wishes philanthropists would introduce infant-school marching and stretching each hour.
Chapter 114
What does the chapter record about the last 'real' lace ground made in Devon?
The chapter states that the last specimen of 'real' ground made in Devon was the marriage veil of Mrs. Marwood Tucker, and that workers could be procured to make it only with the greatest difficulty. The price paid for the ground alone was thirty guineas, as recorded in 1869.
Chapter 114
Section 1154 cards
What did the Sidbury and Sidford lace children make first, and how many?
The children, aged nine to fifteen, came regularly for their "lace." Their first lesson was making "flys," and as a rule each child made forty to fifty of them before moving on to anything further. The author reports the classes as very successful.
Chapter 115
How did Honiton lace-makers fare in the hard winter of 1895?
At Honiton in the hard winter of 1895, the lace-makers kept themselves and their families and were spared applying for relief. The author credits their skill and self-helpfulness. The chapter also notes that at Beer, where fishing is the staple industry, women can earn more than men in bad fish seasons.
Chapter 115
What story does the chapter tell of James V and Lord Somerville at Holyrood in 1537?
The King asked where all Lord Somerville's men and attendants were. The Lord pointed to the lace on his son's and two pages' dress. The King laughed heartily, surveyed the finery, and bade him "away with it all" and get his stout band of spears back.
Chapter 115
What did Walsingham suspect about the Queen of Scots' linen in 1578?
Walsingham, writing from Paris to Burleigh, said he had granted a passport to one conveying a box of linen to the Queen of Scots. He suspected writing on the linen and suggested that under colour of seeing the fashion of the ruffs, the parcels be held to the fire so the writing might appear.
Chapter 115
Section 1164 cards
What did Mr. Brotherton of Leith invent in 1772, according to the Weekly Magazine?
A loom method for working black silk lace or white thread lace to imitate any pattern, looking as good as sewn lace and cheaper. It could be made from three inches to three-quarters of a yard wide. The chapter calls it a prelude to bobbin net.
Chapter 116
Why did Limerick lace fall into disrepute, according to Mrs. Palliser in 1869?
The author argues the depression was partly caused by girls emigrating to America and the colonies, while glove-making and army clothing employed the rest. She also argues the manufacture aimed only at cheapness, producing inferior lace without novelty or beauty of design, causing disrepute.
Chapter 116
How does Mr. A. S. Cole classify the seven sorts of Irish lace?
Cole lists: flat needle-point; raised needle-point; embroidery on net by darning or chain-stitch; cut cambric or linen work in guipure or appliqué style; drawn thread-work like Reticella and Italian cut points; pillow lace imitating Devon lace; and crochet.
Chapter 116
What was William Lee's stocking-frame, and how did his invention fare?
Lee of Calverton conceived the stocking-frame and completed it about 1589. Elizabeth gave no support, so he went to France, welcomed by Henry IV, but Henry was assassinated that year and the Regent withdrew protection; Lee died of grief. His brother returned to England, where the invention was then appreciated.
Chapter 116
Section 1174 cards
What did Vandyke contribute to the stocking-frame, and how did the term 'Vandyke' arise?
Vandyke appended a chain to his stocking-frame, and the zigzags formed by the ribs of his stockings were called 'Vandyke.' From this the term came to be applied generally to all indented edges.
Chapter 117
How was bobbin net measured, and why was the 'rack' adopted?
Bobbin net is measured by the 'rack,' which consists of 240 meshes. This mode of counting was adopted to avoid frequent disagreements about measure between masters and workmen caused by the elasticity of the net.
Chapter 117
What did the Luddites do, and when did the society disappear?
Formed by Ludlam, or General Ludd, a Nottingham stocking-frame worker, in 1811 when prices had fallen, the Luddites paraded at night with black-veiled faces, swords and pistols, entered workshops and broke machines with hammers — about a thousand destroyed. Net-workers joined and smashed bobbin net machines too. Many were punished, but the society disappeared only with the return of work in 1817.
Chapter 117
How did the price of plain cotton bobbin net change between 1809 and 1862?
A square yard of plain cotton bobbin net fell from £5 in 1809 to 2s in 1830, 10d in 1836, 6d in 1842, 4d in 1850, and 3d by 1856 and 1862. The chapter also notes Heathcoat's lace at 5 guineas a yard could later be equalled at eighteenpence.
Chapter 117
Section 1184 cards
What does footnote 1333 explain about the term mazzette?
Footnote 1333, citing the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal copy 11,955 (with Books 2 and 3), states that mazzette means detached bouquets, or sprigs. The note thus glosses a lace-related Italian term appearing in the cited work, clarifying it for readers as small separate floral sprays rather than continuous ornament.
Chapter 118
What does the author admit about Jew's stitch in note 1349?
In note 1349 the author notes that Jew's stitch is given by both Sibmacher and Latomus (referring to No. 95), and then states plainly, "We do not know what it is." So the chapter records the term's appearance in two pattern books while conceding that its actual nature remains unidentified.
Chapter 118
Which libraries and collections are repeatedly cited as holding lace pattern books?
The footnotes repeatedly name the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, the Bibliothèque Nationale (Grav. L. h. series), the Bibliothèque Ste. Geneviève, the British Museum's Grenville Library, the Bodleian, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Musée de Cluny, and the Brussels Bibliothèque Royale, along with Dresden's New Museum, Nuremberg's German Museum, and Vienna's Imperial Library.
Chapter 118
What does note 1354 say about the Stockholm Royal Library's untitled work?
Note 1354, communicated by librarian Mr. H. Wieselgren, reports that the Stockholm Royal Library holds an untitled, undated work by Hieronymus Cock for "broderies et de tous autres besongnant à l'aiguille." It contains designs of every description, including a few patterns for Spanish point of great beauty.
Chapter 118
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Text used: Project Gutenberg eBook #57009 (Public domain in the United States). Generated from the full text; cards paraphrase the source.
Version: Public domain edition. Retrieved 2026-10-28. Cards reviewed 2026-10-28.
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