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* * * * *
_Lace
Its Origin
and
History_
_Samuel L. Goldenberg_
[Illustration]
_Brentano's
New York
1904_
COPYRIGHTED, 1904,
BY
SAMUEL L. GOLDENBERG.
[Illustration: BARBARA UTTMANN, A. D. 1561.]
"I have here only a nosegay of culled flowers, and have brought nothing
of my own but the thread that ties them together."--_Montaigne._
The task of the author of this work has not been an attempt to brush the
dust of ages from the early history of lace in the hope of contributing to
the world's store of knowledge on the subject. His purpose, rather, has
been to present to those whose relation to lace is primarily a commercial
one a compendium that may, perchance, in times of doubt, serve as a
practical guide.
Though this plan has been adhered to as closely as possible, the history of
lace is so interwoven with life's comedies and tragedies, extending back
over five centuries, that there must be, here and there in the following
pages, a reminiscent tinge of this association.
Lace is, in fact, so indelibly associated with the chalets perched high on
mountain tops, with little cottages in the valleys of the Appenines and
Pyrenees, with sequestered convents in provincial France, with the raiment
of men and women whose names loom large in the history of the world, and
the futile as well as the successful efforts of inventors to relieve tired
eyes and weary fingers, that, no matter how one attempts to treat the
subject, it must be colored now and again with the hues of many peoples of
many periods.
The author, in avowing his purpose to give this work a practical cast, does
not wish to be understood as minimizing the importance of any of the
standard works compiled by those whose years of study and research among
ancient volumes and musty manuscripts in many tongues have been a labor of
love. Rather would he pay the meed of tribute to those who have preserved
to posterity the facts bearing upon the early history of lace, which have
been garnered with such great care.
Nevertheless, most of these works, necessarily voluminous and replete with
detail, are more for the connoisseur or dilettante than for the busy man of
affairs upon whom the practical aspect of lace, quite dissociated from the
romance in which it is steeped, always forces itself.
It is for men of this type, and with no little misgiving, and a full
appreciation of how far short of his ideal the volume must be, that the
author has undertaken the compilation of this work.
SAMUEL L. GOLDENBERG.
[Illustration]
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