Its Origin and History.
* * * * *
When where and how lace had its origin no one will pretend to say. There is
a general agreement, however, that lace, as the term is understood to-day,
is a comparatively modern product, it being impossible to identify any of
the antique specimens preserved from the ravages of time as belonging to a
period further back than the early part of the sixteenth century.
True it is that there are specimens of woven fabrics of a lacelike
character which were undoubtedly made at an earlier date, but most of the
authorities who have delved deep into the subject are of opinion that lace
probably does not antedate A. D. 1500.
A perusal of the available records in many tongues fails to make clear just
where lace was first made. Spain, Italy, Belgium, France and Germany have
all claimed the honor, and each has been able to present a great deal of
testimony in support of its contention; but the records of early times are
so meagre and indefinite that it is impossible to bestow the coveted honor
for the discovery of the art upon any one nation. {2}
The instrument that is responsible for lace is the needle, but the earliest
forms of lace were not the woven fabric that we know to-day, but rather
cutwork, which, as far as we have any authentic records, was first
practiced by the nuns in the convents of central and southern Europe. This
work was sometimes characterized as nun's work, and was designed almost
exclusively for altar decorations and the robes of prelates, though it was
also regarded as the insignia of rank and station. Some of the specimens of
this work, still preserved in museums, show that the early workers
possessed a skill in the art never excelled. Of course, with the progress
of time, designs have become more ornate and intricate, but many of the old
patterns still survive, and doubtless will continue to survive, till the
end of recorded time.
The desire to elaborate the edges of plain fabrics, whether of linen or
heavier material, was an entirely natural impulse to get away from the
harsh simplicity of the times. To this desire must be ascribed the
beginning of the mammoth lace industry of to-day.
One authority says that coeval with these styles of decoration was
drawnwork, in which the weft and warp threads of plain linen were drawn
out, thus forming a square of network made secure by a stitch at each
intersection. The design was afterward embroidered, frequently with colors.
Perhaps, all things considered, the lace industry received its greatest
impetus during the period known in history as the Renaissance, when Europe,
emerging from the severe and formal garb of the Medieval Age, began to
bedeck itself in the most graceful and beautiful manner.
A number of methods were employed in the production of the lace of that
brilliant period, the simplest of which consisted of forming the design
independently of the foundation. Threads spreading at even distances from a
common center served as a framework for others which were united in
squares, triangles, rosettes and other figures worked over with the
buttonhole stitch, forming in some portions openwork, in others solid
embroidery. This was, in fact, the first needle-made lace, and doubtless
its origin is due to the Venetians.
{3}
[Illustration: Real Flemish Point.]
[Illustration: Real Point de Venise.]
{4} Through constant practice the art was developed to a very high state by
the nuns, who taught their methods to the pupils of the convents, through
whom the knowledge passed to the peasantry, and thus became an important
industry. Perhaps, however, the development of the lace industry at this
period was due more to the spread of the methods by which it was
done--through books more than in any other manner--for it must be
remembered that contemporaneously with the development of the industry the
art of printing was in its first bloom.
As one traces the growth of lacemaking from the earliest times he is
impressed with the sharp advance made at the beginning of the seventeenth
century, when laceworkers, having practically exhausted the designs
possible by the then known methods, invented passementerie, which were
known as passements. These, speaking broadly, much resemble the
passementerie of to-day.
They were made of stout linen thread in imitation of high relief work of
the needle point, a thick thread being introduced to mark the salient
points of the pattern. Thus the term guipure was applied to the thread lace
with guipure reliefs, and the designation has since remained to all laces
without grounds, in which the patterns are united by brides.
In the beginning lace was made by two entirely distinct processes, in
commenting upon which we can do no better than to quote the words of Cole,
which are particularly lucid and concise. He says: "It is remarkable that
lacemaking should have sprung up or been invented at about the same period
of time by two entirely distinct processes without relationship or
evolution between them, and that the people of the countries wherein either
of the inventions was made were not only {5} unknown to each other, but
apparently neither had any knowledge of the processes of lacemaking
employed in the other country."
One of these processes is the employment of the needle and the single
thread, wherein the work was perfected mesh by mesh, each mesh being
completed as the work progressed.
The other process was by the use of many threads at once, each one attached
to bobbins, for the purpose only of separating them, the meshes being made
by twisting the threads a greater or less number of times. When each mesh
is only partially completed the thread is carried on to the next, and so
on, from side to side, the entire width of the fabric.
Felkin, in his history of embroidery and lace, says that when pillow lace
was invented--about the middle of the sixteenth century--the various kinds
of point lace then in use had reached a high state of perfection. Some
early writers after much laborious investigation assert that pillow lace
was first made in Flanders. In later years it has been almost universally
attributed to Barbara, wife of Christopher Uttman; she was then dwelling
with her husband at the Castle of St. Annaburg, Belgium, 1561. From the
castle, where she taught the peasantry as in a school, it soon spread over
the country, and women and girls of the district, finding that the making
of lace was more profitable than their former employment of embroidering
veils according to the Italian practice, adopted the Uttman method. No
trace of this mode of making lace (by use of pillow and bobbins) can be
found before this date; hence the presumption that these were the time and
place of the invention of bobbin lace. Barbara Uttman died in 1575. That
she was the true inventress is recorded on her tomb.
It will be seen from the foregoing that one process had its origin in
Italy, and the other its origin in Belgium, though, if we accept Felkin's
statement, we must accord to Italy the first honor, for he says {6}
distinctly that the Belgian peasantry gave up making lace according to the
Italian method to adopt the process invented by Barbara Uttman;
consequently, the Italian method must have been first. The present writer
disclaims any intention to dispose of this moot question, and is only led
to the above observation by reason of the high standing which Felkin's work
has attained.
There are two broad divisions of lace--namely, hand-made lace and
machine-made lace. In the world of commerce to-day the latter-named
product, which is but a child of the former, is vastly the more important.
This for the reason that hand-made lace, which is produced with such
arduous toil, skill and patience, is beyond the purse of the million, and
is and ever must be considered as one of the luxuries.
True, some of the simpler forms of hand-made lace are produced with
relatively great facility, and the price is correspondingly cheap, as
compared with the delicate, finely wrought designs, that it sometimes takes
years to produce. Nor is this the sole reason for the popularity of
machine-made laces, for to such perfection has the mechanical art of
lacemaking attained that it is practically impossible, even for experts, to
detect the difference between lace made by the deft, cunning fingers of
lady or maid from the lace made possible by modern machinery.
In hand-made lace the two principal classes are the needle-point and
bobbin, or pillow-made, lace. Needle-point lace is worked upon loose
threads laid upon a previously drawn pattern, but which have no point of
contact with one another and no coherency until the needlework binds them
together. This work is done with a needle and single thread. As we have
said, the pattern is first drawn, usually upon parchment; a piece of heavy
linen is stitched to the parchment for the purpose of holding it straight;
then threads to the number of two, three, four, or more, are laid along the
many lines of the pattern, and sewed lightly down through parchment and
linen. The entire figure is then carried out, both solid filling and
openwork, with fine stitching, the buttonhole stitch being most generally
employed.
{7}
[Illustration: Real Duchesse and Point Gaze.]
[Illustration: Real Carrick-ma-Cross.]
{8} Bobbin, or pillow-made, lace is the highest artistic development of
twisted and plaited threads. It is made from a large number of threads
attached by means of pins to an oval-shaped cushion or pillow, each thread
being wound upon a small bobbin. The design, as in the making of
needle-point lace, is first drawn on stiff paper or parchment, and
carefully stretched over the pillow. Then the pattern is pricked out along
the outline of the drawing and small pins are introduced at close
intervals, around which the threads work to form the various meshes and
openings. From right to left the thread is bound lightly upon the bobbins
and tied at the top of each in a loop that permits it gradually to slip off
the bobbin when gently pulled, as occurs generally when working.
The worker begins by interlacing the bobbins, which are used in pairs,
placing small pins in all perforations, and crossing the bobbins after the
insertion of each pin. Around these pins the design is formed, the threads
being crossed and recrossed and passed under and over each other with
remarkable rapidity and accuracy. When the whole width of the large piece
of lace is carried on together the number of bobbins and pins is very great
and the work highly expensive, but it is customary to work each sprig
separately, these being joined together in the form of a strip afterward by
means of a curious loop-stitch, made by a hook called a needle-pin.
Scarcely had lace been invented before it had assumed almost priceless
value, and it is worth while remarking here that though centuries have
since elapsed, the value of these delicate, hand-wrought fabrics has not in
any sense diminished. Throughout the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries rare lace of beautiful pattern has been highly prized,
some of the earliest specimens, in the possession of world-famous libraries
and museums, being of relatively fabulous wealth.
{9}
[Illustration: Real Irish Point.]
[Illustration: Real Valenciennes.]
{10} By very reason of the conditions inevitably associated with its
making, lace must always remain one of the dearest articles of commerce,
for there is certainly nothing more rare or costly than these fine, dainty,
yet withal, substantial tissues.
Perhaps of all her compeers Venice attained the highest proficiency in the
production of beautiful lace. There, as we have remarked, needle-point had
its origin, and many of the beautiful patterns produced by the women of the
"Queen of the Adriatic" are even to-day the admiration of all who have a
true appreciation of the artistic.
Venice guarded the secret of her methods with jealous care, and it was many
years before the world was made familiar with the manner in which the
exquisite floral designs, with their wealth of minor adornments, were
worked out. Thus Italy was able to lay tribute upon the entire civilized
world, and her coffers were enriched to overflowing from the receipts of
the sales of lace to eastern, central and northern Europe.
Apropos of Italy's claim to the invention of needle-point, it has been
claimed that the Italians originally derived the art of fine needlework
from the Greek refugees in Italy, while another author asserts that the
Italians are indebted to the Saracens of Sicily for their knowledge. All
these claims, however, are merely speculative. For instance, no one
disputes that embroidery antedates lace, and yet we have authors who
endeavor to show that embroidery had its origin in Arabia, deducing from
this that lace, also, must have had its birth in one of the Oriental
countries. But it is a well-established fact that while we have absolute
knowledge of the existence of embroidery in the countries of the Levant,
there is absolutely no indication, of even the slightest value, that points
to the existence of lace before it was made by the Italians and Belgians.
{11}
In the municipal archives of Ferrara, dated 1469, is an allusion to lace,
but there is a document of the Sforza family, dated in 1493, in which the
word "trina" constantly occurs, together with "bone" and "bobbin" lace.
Spain was, as far as the records testify, the earliest and most adept pupil
of Italy in the art of lacemaking, though, as in Italy, at the beginning
the work was confined in the Iberian peninsula to the inmates of the
convents. Spain, too, achieved high distinction in this field, its Point
d'Espagne being one of the most celebrated of all the ancient laces, even
vying with the finest Venetian point. In those days, as will be recalled,
the power of the Church was absolute, and the use of laces for daily wear
was prohibited, though on Sundays and holidays it was greatly in evidence
in the attire of those of high station.
One of the most interesting facts concerning the development of lace has to
do with the patterns produced in the various localities of Europe. In the
beginning the number of designs was necessarily limited, but as the
industry developed and spread, and as the workers became more expert and
artistic, there was an uncontrollable impulse to break away from
conventional designs and to evolve new patterns. Then, too, there was
something of the spirit of pride behind this movement--a sort of local
patriotism, if it may so be termed. The Belgian, the Spaniard and the
Frenchman were not content slavishly to imitate Italian designs, and,
anxious to win a name for themselves, set about to produce new effects that
would immediately identify them with the place of their origin.
Thus it was, too, that various cities and towns in Italy, France, Belgium,
Spain and elsewhere sought to establish for themselves an individual
product of great excellence that would give to the city or town prestige
and renown in the then few commercial marts of the world. This explains the
various names which were given to distinct {12} types of laces hundreds of
years ago, and which designations still obtain, as, for instance, Alencon,
Valenciennes, Chantilly, Honiton, Arras, Bayeux, Genoa, Florence, etc.
Another fact worthy of record is that of all the almost numberless designs
that have been given to the world since the birth of lace there have been
some one or two characteristics that tell as plainly as though expressed in
words that each one of these designs was made at some particular period of
history. It is well that this is so, for it has enabled the historian to
trace, with more or less certainty, the development of the industry. In
other words, a lace expert is enabled to tell from the fabric not only in
what country it was made, but in what part of that country, and also the
approximate date.
In the self-sufficiency of the present age we are apt to regard with a sort
of supercilious disdain any story reflecting upon the supremacy of our
forebears in any of the arts or the sciences; but that we cannot make, in a
commercial way, such lace as was woven in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries is beyond question. In the first place, time is lacking, and if
it must be confessed, the great skill that comes only through years of
constant practice is also lacking.
Modern real lace is artistic, even superior, but compared with such few
specimens as have come down to us of the work of the lacemakers of old, its
deficiency, particularly in the matter of the fineness of the execution and
thread, is at once apparent. Hand-made lace is to-day produced all over the
world; commercially its production is confined to France, Belgium, Germany,
Spain, Italy and England, where large quantities are still produced.
France, however, with that fostering care which she has bestowed upon her
many other arts, and with that keen appreciation of the beautiful that is
so inherent in her people, is far in the van in the matter of producing
hand-made lace, though in respect to two or three types Belgium is in the
front rank. {13}
[Illustration: Real Honiton.]
[Illustration: Real Florentine.]
{14}
Coming down to the question of machine-made lace, it is necessary to
observe at the outset that the same distinctions that exist between the
genuine and the imitation do not obtain as applied to these fabrics. In
other words, the knowledge that lace is a product of the frame rather than
the fingers in no sense condemns it. For to such a high plane has the
mechanical production of lace been lifted that one is almost tempted to say
that the products vie in beauty of design and perfection of finish with the
lace produced by hand. That there is warrant for this seeming exaggeration
is borne out by the fact that not infrequently it is impossible for experts
to tell the difference between two specimens of lace of the same design,
one made by hand and the other by machine.
What inventors have accomplished in this respect is truly marvelous. In the
beginning their efforts were not at all satisfactory, and the history of
machine-made lace abounds with pathetic instances of men who sought in vain
to duplicate with fidelity, by means of mechanical devices of hundreds of
types and patterns, the dextrous touch of the human hand.
W. Felkin, in his history of lace manufacture, says that lace net was first
made by machinery in 1768. Other authorities place the date as between 1758
and 1760. In 1809 bobbin net was invented, and in 1837 the Jacquard system
was applied to the bobbinet machine.
Mrs. B. Palliser, in "The History of Lace," says of the invention of
machinery for the production of lace that the credit is usually assigned to
Hammond, a stocking framework knitter of Nottingham, who, examining one day
the broad lace on his wife's cap, thought he could apply his machine to the
production of a similar article. His attempt so far succeeded that, by
means of the stocking frame invented in the previous century, he produced,
in 1768, not lace, but a kind of knitting of running loops or stitches.
{15}
In 1777 Else and Harvey introduced at Nottingham the pin or point net
machine, so named because made on sharp pins or points. Point net was
followed by various other stitches of a lacelike character, but despite the
progress made, all efforts at producing a solid net were futile. It was
still nothing more than knitting, a single thread passing from one end of
the frame to the other, and if a thread broke the work was unraveled. This
was overcome in a measure by gumming the threads, giving the fabric a
solidity and body not possible without resorting to some artificial method
of this sort.
The great problem inspired the efforts of numberless inventors, and many
attempts were made to combine the mechanism used respectively by the
knitter and the weaver, and after many failures a machine was produced
which made Mechlin net.
There are few histories bearing upon the invention of labor-saving devices
that are so replete with the records of failure as is the history of the
attempt to produce a practical lace machine. John Heathcoat, of
Leicestershire, England, was the inventor of the machine for making bobbin
net. His patents were taken out in 1809, and to him must be accorded the
credit of solving for the first time the problem that had vexed the minds
of so many inventors and had depleted the purses of so many capitalists.
The bobbin net machine, so named because the threads are wound upon
bobbins, first produced a net about an inch in width, afterward, however,
producing it a yard wide.
It was the application of the celebrated Jacquard attachment to the lace
machine that has made possible the duplication of practically every pattern
of lace made by hand. The machine of Heathcoat was vastly improved by John
Leavers, also of Nottingham, and the types produced by him are still in use
throughout England and France, though, of course, there are in these days a
large number of different {16} types of machines bearing different names,
but the principle of the Leavers machine, more or less modified, obtains in
practically all of the devices. Therefore a description of the process of
lacemaking by the Leavers frame will serve as a description for all.
The number of threads brought into operation in this machine is regulated
by the pattern to be produced. The threads are of two sorts, warp and
bobbin threads. Upward of 9,000 are sometimes used, sixty pieces of lace
being made at once, each piece requiring 148 threads (100 warps and 48
bobbin threads). The supply of warp threads is held upon reels, the bobbins
carrying their own supply. The warp threads are stretched perpendicularly
and about wide enough apart to admit a silver quarter passing edgeways
between them. The bobbins are flattened in shape so as to pass conveniently
between the warps. Each bobbin can contain about 120 yards of thread. By
most ingenious mechanism varying degrees of tension can be imparted to warp
and bobbin threads as required. The bobbins, as they pass like pendulums
between the warp threads, are made to oscillate, and through this
oscillation the threads twist themselves or become twisted with the warp
threads, as required by the pattern that is being produced. As the twisting
takes place, combs compress the twistings, making them more compact. If the
bobbin threads be made tight and the warp threads slack, the latter will be
twisted upon the former; but if the warps are brought to a tension and the
bobbin threads be slack, then the latter will be twisted on the warps. The
combs are so regulated that they come clear away from the threads as soon
as they have pressed them together, and fall into position ready to perform
their pressing operations again. The contrivances for giving each thread a
particular tension and movement at a certain time are connected with an
adaptation of the Jacquard system of pierced cards. The lace machine is
highly complicated, much of its complexity being due to the mechanism by
which the oscillating or lateral movements are produced. Expert workmen
prepare the working drawings for the lace machine, and also perform the
more important duties in its operation, but a large part of the work is
carried on by women and girls.
{17}
[Illustration: Real Point Applique.]
{18} One of the most interesting developments of the lace industry has been
the gradual evolution from the work of the hand toilers to the utilization
of complex machinery. In addition to the Leavers machine, which is referred
to elsewhere in extenso, the embroidery machine plays a very important part
in the making of laces. From 1870 to 1880, various efforts had been made to
produce lace on the embroidery machine, and it was during this decade that
the first success was achieved in the making of Oriental or net laces in
Plauen. This was the first actual production of lace from the embroidering
machine, and this sort of lace, which still exists to-day, is really an
embroidery on a net, although usually designated as lace. A few years later
a discovery was made which effected a great change in the making of laces
on the embroidery machine. This was the principle of embroidering on a
material which was afterward removed by a chemical process. The first
article produced was called Guipure de Genes, and was at that time
patented, but the patent was held to be invalid, and a few years afterward
this article was generally produced both in St. Gall, where it first
appeared, and in Plauen. By this method of manufacture are produced to-day
all of the imitation guipure laces, such as Point de Venise, Rose Point,
Point de Genes, etc. {19}
[Illustration: Real Chantilly.]
[Illustration: Real Spanish.]
{20}
The embroidering machine in use at the present day is constructed entirely
of iron, measuring from 15 to 20 feet long, 9 feet high, 9 feet wide and
weighs about 3,800 pounds. It can be operated by hand or by power. The
method of embroidering is exceedingly simple. The cloth, usually somewhat
over 4-1/2 yards long, is tightly stretched in an upright position in the
center of the machine, each end of the suspended strip being held firmly by
means of stout hooks. The needles (from 150 to 300 in number, according to
the sort of work to be done) are arranged horizontally in a framework in a
straight, level row, all pointing toward the cloth and extending from end
to end of same. The needles are supplied with threads about one yard in
length, which are fastened by means of a peculiar knot to the eye, the
latter being in the middle of the needle instead of at the end. In
producing any given stitch in the pattern to be worked, the long row of
needles all move forward at once at the will of the operator, and thus
duplicate the stitch in every pattern or "section" along the entire 4-1/2
yards of cloth suspended in the machine. As may be readily understood, the
machine in this manner completes 4-1/2 yards of embroidery in the same time
it would take a woman with a needle to finish a single pattern. When one
row is completed the strip of cloth is raised and another row is made, and
so on until it is necessary to put in another length of cambric. This
machine is capable of making patterns from the very narrow up to the full
width of the cloth.
What is known as the Schiffli, or power machine, is very similar to the
hand-embroidering device, being an improvement on the latter and worked
with a shuttle in addition to the needles. Its capacity is nearly eight
times greater, or from 15,000 to 18,000 stitches per day, against 2,000 to
3,000 on the hand machine. To offset this advantage, however, the Schiffli
machine is much more expensive, and is of delicate and complicated
construction, easily got out of order and costly to repair. Until a
comparatively recent date the Schiffli was not considered as a competitor
of the hand machine, its work being inferior in quality and confined to
simple patterns. At present, however, it is generally conceded that the
goods produced by it not only compete with the hand-machine products, but
are already superseding the latter to some extent. It is predicted that the
Schiffli machine, operated by power, will ultimately supply all the
embroidery in the low and medium grades. {21}
The variety and adaptability of the designs which both of these machines
are capable of producing are endless, and at the same time comparatively
inexpensive. It is this latter fact which accounts for the great advantage
of the embroidering machine over the lace machine. The preparing and
setting of a design for a lace machine is very expensive, and the great
cost compels the manufacturer of machine lace to turn out large quantities
of one set pattern in order to get a return from his investment.
About the beginning of the nineteenth century, lace machines were first
introduced into France from Nottingham, at Boulogne-sur-mer, where the
industry remained for a few years and then moved to Calais. There this
industry has developed and increased to such proportions that Calais is now
the principal city for the production of fine laces of all kinds, and
practically leads Nottingham in creating novelties and new and original
effects. Shortly after the Franco-Prussian war the industry found a
foothold in Caudry, in the north of France, where it has also developed to
quite large proportions, and shares to-day a large part of the trade which
has resulted from the founding of the parent industry in Calais. The kind
of lace produced in Caudry is generally of a cheaper character than that
produced in Calais.
In Lyons, too, there has been established for many years the industry of
making laces and nettings by mechanical processes. This is still a very
large industry, and about twenty years ago there was a large trade done
with America in the manufacture of laces in vogue at that time, which were
the imitation of the real Spanish, called "Blonde Grenade." There are still
made in Lyons to-day various imitations of fine laces, which in a general
way are of a different quality to the laces made at Calais or Caudry, and
Lyons enjoys a reputation in regard to the character of the laces it
produces which is unique in the trade.
About the year 1890, a Frenchman invented a machine similar in {22}
principle to the knitting machine, which reproduces with absolute fidelity
the work of the bobbins in making pillow laces. Through this invention he
was able to imitate such hand-made laces as Torchons, Medicis, etc., so
exactly that experts could not detect the difference. In fact, it is the
general testimony of men associated with laces for years, that the work of
this machine in a great many of its aspects is one of the most important
contributions of the mechanical arts in the production of lace.
Through the importation of foreign machines and foreign workmen, various
attempts have been made in the United States to establish the manufacture
of lace. At the present writing it is impossible to state with any
definiteness what the result will be, as the experiment has been of only a
few years' duration, and in the very nature of things is at this date of a
tentative character.
In order that the reader may be able to distinguish the various types of
hand and machine made laces, we append herewith a glossary, defining as
concisely as possible the characteristics that indicate not only the
manifold makes of laces, but what may be called the various sub-divisions.
These definitions are set forth, the writer hopes, in terms that will
enable the reader to understand what each one of the various names means,
both as applied commercially and descriptively. {23}
[Illustration: Real Point Gaze.]
[Illustration: Imitation Duchesse.]
{24}