laces will ever remain a moot point. Both countries claim priority, and
both appear to have equal right. Italian Needlepoint without doubt
evolved itself from the old Greek or Reticella laces, that in turn being
a development of "Cutworke" and drawn thread work. Flanders produces her
paintings by early artists in which the portraits are adorned with lace
as early as the fourteenth century. An altar-piece by Quentin Matys,
dated 1495, shows a girl making Pillow lace, and later, in 1581, an old
engraving shows another girl busy with her pillow and bobbins. An early
Flemish poet thus rhapsodises over his countrywomen's handiworks:
"Of many arts, one surpasses all;
The threads woven by the strange power of the hand--
Threads, which the dropping of the spider would in vain
attempt to imitate,
And which Pallas herself would confess she had never known."
Whether Flanders imitated the Italian laces or not, it is unquestioned
that every other lace-making country imitated _her_. Germany, Sweden,
France, Russia, and England have, one after the other, adopted her
method to such an extent that, following the tactics of Venice in 1698,
she also issued an edict threatening punishment to all who would entice
her workers away.
So alike are the early laces of Flanders that it is impossible to
distinguish what is known as Flemish Point, Brussels Point, and Point
d'Angleterre. The last-named lace is peculiar, inasmuch as it has a
French appellation, is named "English," and yet is purely Brussels in
character. Two stories gather round this lace, which accounts for its
name. One is that the English Government in the time of Charles II.,
seeing so much money go out of the country, forbade the importation of
Brussels lace. The English lace merchants, not to be done out of their
immense profits, smuggled it over in large quantities, and produced it
as having been made in Devonshire, and sold it under the name of English
Point. Another legend is that when Colbert, in the reign of Louis XIV.,
determined to encourage lace-making in his own country, made prohibitive
the importation of any other lace than France's own manufacture, the
French Court, which had already become enamoured of Brussels lace,
therefore had it smuggled into England and thence to France, as
_English laces_ were at that time too insignificant to come under
Colbert's ban.
[Illustration: POINT D'ANGLETERRE.
Period of Louis XIV.
(_Author's Collection._)]
Whichever tale we choose to believe is of little consequence. It is
sufficient to say that fine Point d'Angleterre is simply Brussels of the
best period when the glorious Renaissance was at its height. It is
absolutely indistinguishable from Brussels of the same period. The
specimen lappet, illustrated, shows the "figure" motif which appears in
"Point de France" and the old "Venetian Point," and which at once dates
its manufacture.
Practically the term Flanders or Flemish lace can be applied to all the
laces made in Flanders and Belgium of the earliest periods. It is
peculiarly fine; the specimen shown is as fine as gossamer, showing a
total absence of Cordonnet, of course, and not even having the loose
thread which marks the stems and leaves of Brussels and Angleterre. The
flax of Flanders was at the time of the great lace industry known and
imported to all the towns engaged in making it. Italy could procure
nothing so fine and eminently suitable to the delicate work she made her
own as this fine thread, grown in Flanders, and spun in dark, damp
rooms, where only a single ray of light was allowed to enter. The thread
was so fine, it is said, that it was imperceptible to the naked eye and
was manipulated by touch only. The cost of this thread was £240 a pound,
and one pound could be made into lace worth £720! Real Flanders lace
thread even now, spun with the help of machinery, costs £70, and is
nothing like so durable as the old threads. When we consider that lace
to be known as "Old Lace" must be two hundred or three hundred years
old, we can understand the strength of this fairy thread, which was like
a spider's web in filminess and yet durable enough to last centuries of
wear, and remain as a lasting memorial of its beauty.
BRUSSELS
The early Flemish laces cannot be traced to any particular town, but
Brussels early obtained a reputation for the production of the soft,
elegant laces which are variously known as "Real old Brussels," "Point
d'Angleterre," "Point d'Aiguille," and "Point de Gaze." Almost every
woman, although knowing little about lace as an art, knows and easily
recognises "Brussels." It has ever been the most popular lace, partly
because its price has never been actually prohibitive, although always
costly. Choice pieces of Old Brussels, with real ground, rank among the
laces of France and Venice as pieces of price, but the later period,
especially the kind known as Brussels applique, is within everybody's
reach, even if only as a border for a best handkerchief.
[Illustration: "OLD BRUSSELS" (HAND-MADE GROUND).
(_Author's Collection._)]
[Illustration: BRUSSELS LAPPET, MADE IN IMITATION OF ALENÇON AND
ARGENTAN.]
Lace made at Brussels at all periods has one characteristic that places
it at once and makes identification easy at a glance. The threads of the
toilé--that is, the pattern--follows the _curves_, instead of, as in
other Flanders laces, being straight _up_ and _down_ and _across_, each
thread being exactly at right angles to the other; Brussels lace also
has a distinctive edge to its pattern. It has no Cordonnet, but a
little set of looped stitches worked along the edge of the design,
afterwards whipped over to keep the edge in place. This is most clearly
seen in every specimen, and, in conjunction with the curved toilé, at
once settles the vexed question of the origin of Point d'Angleterre.
The mesh or ground is, again, quite different to other laces. It has
three varieties of ground--
1. One, mostly used in Point d'Angleterre, being of fine "brides" with
four or five picots, but this ground is also seen in Venetian and French
laces.
2. A hand-made ground made of looped buttonhole stitches, which is the
finest and most gossamer-like of all; and
3. A woven ground made on the pillow with plaited thread, very like
Mechlin, but under the magnifying glass having two longer sides to its
hexagonal mesh, and therefore being more open and clear.
The hand, or rather needlepoint, ground was three times more expensive
than the woven, as it was stronger and more lasting. The special value
of the "vrai reseau" in our own day is that it can be imperceptibly
repaired, the broken stitches replaced, whereas in the woven ground the
point of junction must show.
The needle-made net is so fine that one piece in my possession, though
measuring 3/4 yard by 8 inches can easily, in its widest part, be
gathered and passed through a finger ring. At the present day this net
is not made, and even the fine woven ground is not used except for Royal
wedding orders or for exhibition purposes. A magnificent piece
belonging to Messrs. Haywards, of New Bond Street (which cannot be
photographed, unfortunately, as it is between two sheets of glass, and
might fall to pieces if taken out), was made for George IV., and not
delivered, owing no doubt to the usual depleted state of that monarch's
exchequer. Messrs. Haywards (whose courtesy is as boundless as their
reputation) are always pleased to show this and their other splendid
specimen collections to those interested in old lace.
Perhaps no lace is so diversified in style as Brussels. At first it was
purely Flemish, and almost indistinguishable from it. Then the Venetian
influence crept in, and elaboration of pattern and the Renaissance
scrolls and flower work showed itself. At the Louis Quatorze period the
introduction of the "fairy people," seen at its finest and best in Point
de France, marks a time of special beauty. Afterwards the influence of
Alençon was shown (though it never rivalled the exquisite lace of this
factory), and from that time to the present day these designs have
remained for use in its best work.
Some of the choicest specimens of old Brussels are shown in the now
discarded "lappets," which when a lace head-piece and lappets were part
of every gentlewoman's costume, were actually regulated by Sumptuary
Laws as to length. The longer the lappets the higher the rank.
[Illustration: BRUSSELS LAPPET.
Eighteenth Century.
(_S.K.M. Collection._)]
The great Napoleon, while reviving the lace-making of Alençon, specially
admired fine old Brussels, and at the birth of his only son, the little
"King of Rome," ordered a christening garment covered with the
Napoleonic "N's," crowns and cherubs. This was sold in 1903 at
Christie's for £120. At the same sale a Court train realised £140.
In the "Creevy Papers, 1768-1838," mention is made of Lord Charles
Somerset complaining of not having slept all night, "not having had a
minute's peace through sleeping in 'Cambrik sheets,' the Brussels lace
with which the pillows were trimmed tickling his face"! This occurred at
Wynyards, the seat of the Earl of Londonderry.
Queen Anne followed the extravagant fashion of wearing the costliest
laces which William III. and Queen Mary carried to such an excess. In
1710 she paid £151 for 21 yards of fine Brussels edging, and two years
later the account for Brussels and Mechlin laces amounted to £1,418.
In the succeeding reign the ladies of George I.'s period wore lappets
and flounces, caps, tuckers, aprons, stomachers, and handkerchiefs, all
made of Brussels.
In the time of George II. lace was even more worn, but English lace
began to rival Brussels, not in quality, but as a substitute.
George III. and his wife, Queen Charlotte, were economists of the first
order, and personal decoration was rigidly tabooed; hence the almost
total extinction of lace as an article of apparel, while in George IV.'s
time dress had evolved itself into shimmery silks and lawns, lace being
merely a trimming, and the enormous head-dress decorated more frequently
with a band of ribbon.
An exquisite portrait of Louis Philippe's Queen, Marie Amelia, by the
early Victorian painter Winterhalter (whose paintings are again by the
revival of fashion coming into favour) shows this fine old _grande dame_
in black velvet dress covered with three graduated flounces of Brussels
lace, cap and lappets and "tucker" of the same lace, lace fan, and, sad
to relate, a scarf of English machine-made net, worked with English run
embroidery!
Although good Queen Adelaide had a pretty fancy for lace, she wore
little of it, and it was left to Queen Victoria to revive the glory of
wearing Brussels to any extent; and she, alas! was sufficiently
patriotic to encourage home-made products by wearing almost exclusively
Honiton, which I personally am not good Englishwoman enough to admire
except at its latest stage (just the past few years), when lace-making,
as almost every other art work in this country, is emerging from what,
from an artistic point of view, has been one long Slough of Despond.
[Illustration: COMTESSE D'ARTOIS, WIFE OF ONE OF LOUIS XIV.'S GRANDSONS,
WEARING FINE BRUSSELS LACE.]
VIII
THE MODERN BRUSSELS LACES AND MECHLIN
[Illustration: AN OLD PRINT OF "MARIE ANTOINETTE," SHOWING THE
SIMPLICITY OF ADORNMENT SHE AFFECTED.
"MECHLIN" LACE.]
VIII
THE MODERN BRUSSELS LACES AND MECHLIN
Modern Brussels, Point Gaze--Ghent--Duchesse Point--Mechlin
(the Queen of Laces).
Magnificent laces are still made at Brussels, but almost wholly on a
machine-made ground, the workers and merchants apparently finding the
old hand-made ground unprofitable. The machine-made ground is cheap, and
often of mixed flax and cotton instead of being of purely Flanders flax
thread, as in the old days. Both quality and colour suffer from this
admixture, the lace washing badly and wearing worse.
The most common lace is the Point Applique, in which the sprays, groups,
and borders on the design are made separately by hand on the pillow, and
are afterwards applied by tiny stitchings to the machine-made net. Some
qualities are better than others. In the better class the sprays are
appliqued to the net, which is then cut away and the interstices of the
design filled in with hand-made modes and brides, making a very pretty
and showy lace. The best lace made in Brussels now is
_Point Gaze_,
in which the finest modern lace is produced. Its chief characteristics
are its superb designs, repeating many of the fine Renaissance patterns,
its clear ground, and its use of shading in leaves and flowers, which,
while it adds much to the sumptuous effect, is possibly too
naturalistic. This lace is a mixture of hand and machine lace, the
ground being of the best machine net, the flowers and sprays frequently
needle made, the various fillings being composed of a variety of
designs, and the shading often being produced in the needle-darning as
in modern Ghent and Limerick. Point de Gaze is costly, but it has the
reputation of appearing "worth its money" to which few other laces of
the present day can aspire.
Other lace-making towns in Belgium and Flanders are--
_Ghent_,
which produces a fine machine-made net, worked and embroidered in exact
imitation of the earliest Limerick lace. So _real_ is this imitation
that a fine flounce of 4 yds. 32 in. wide was sold at a London
auction-room a few months ago, as "real old Limerick," for £60!
Ghent executes vast quantities of hand-made imitations of Valenciennes,
a good and durable lace, but much more expensive than the machine-made
varieties which flood the shops as "real Val."
[Illustration: MECHLIN LAPPET.
Eighteenth Century.
(_S.K.M. Collection._)]
Perhaps the only other lace worth mentioning in smaller and later
varieties is that known as "Duchesse point" or "Bruges," which while
being a showy, decorative, and cheap lace, is anything but satisfactory
either in design, manufacture, or wear. It is largely composed of
cotton, is heavy and cumbrous in design, and after washing becomes thick
and clumsy. It is pillow-made, the flowers being made on the cushion and
afterwards united by coarse and few brides.
Almost equal in favour with old Brussels lace was
MECHLIN,
which was aptly termed "the Queen of Laces." Old Mechlin was wondrously
fine, and transparent. It is often spoken of as "Point de Malines"
which, of course, is entirely wrong, as it is not Point at all--being
made entirely, all at one time, or in one piece, on the pillow. Much of
the lace known under the general name of Flemish Point is really Malines
or Mechlin, the only difference being the fine silvery thread which runs
all through the designs of real Mechlin. The earliest date of the
manufacture of Mechlin is unknown, but in 1681, it is recorded, that the
people of Malines busied themselves with making a white lace known as
Mechlin. It became a fashionable lace in England in 1699, Queen Mary
using it considerably and Queen Anne buying it largely, in one instance
purchasing 83 yards of it for £247.
It has always remained a favourite lace with English royalties, Queen
Charlotte almost exclusively using it. The other day I discovered in a
bric-à-brac shop about twenty yards of it, old and discoloured, it is
true, which came directly from Queen Caroline, the ill-used wife of
George IV. In the earlier Mechlin, although pillow-made, the
introduction of the "brides with picots," and also the may-flower
patterns of Brussels, helped to make it more decorative. The ground or
réseau was very similar to Brussels hand-made, but the hexagonal mesh is
shorter, as reference to the diagram of réseaux will show.
The exquisite "lightness" of Mechlin, so specially adapted to
"quillings" and "pleatings," accounted for its popularity. It was
specially suitable to the lawns and muslins of the eighteenth century,
but little of this lace is left owing, no doubt, to its great favour
except the ubiquitous "lappets," for which it was no doubt "the Queen of
Lace."
The immediate cause of its extinction was the introduction of Blonde
laces, and later its final overthrow came from its being the easiest
lace to reproduce by machinery.
[Illustration: MARIE ANTOINETTE, QUEEN OF LOUIS XVI., SHOWING HOW
MECHLIN LACE WAS USED.
From an old fashion plate.]
IX
OTHER CONTINENTAL LACES
IX
OTHER CONTINENTAL LACES
Spanish lace; Gold and silver laces of Spain--German
laces--Russian laces--Maltese silk and thread laces.
Outside the great lace-making countries of Italy, France, and Flanders,
little lace was ever made, and that little of less consequence.
_Spanish Lace._
Much of the old lace known as "Spanish Point" is not Spanish at all, but
the best of Italian Rose Point on a large scale, being the variety known
as Gros Point. It was not extensively used for dress purposes, as
contemporary portraits show, but Spain being such an ultra-Romanist
country, vast quantities of it were imported into Spain for church use.
When Spain fell on unhappy days, in 1830, and the religious houses were
dissolved, this lace was eagerly bought by connoisseurs and collectors
and became known as Spanish Point. It is not unlikely that the Italian
lace was copied by the nuns of the Spanish convents; indeed, at South
Kensington Museum there is a set of church altar lace which is
admittedly Spanish work and is a distinct but far off imitation of
Italian Point.
Spain made gold and silver laces of fine quality and gorgeous design.
Blonde laces in both cream and black are almost indigenous to the soil,
and a particular kind of black Blonde, embroidered with colours,
specially appealed to the colour-loving people.
_German Laces._
Perhaps at the present day more lace is made in Germany than at any
other period. An enormous manufacture of good machine-made lace is
exported yearly, the variety known as Saxony being both popular and
cheap.
Germany has no national lace, the clever _hausfraus_ caring more to
decorate their table and bed-linen than their persons, and using the
substantial and practical embroideries of the cross-stitch patterns more
than the elegant frailties of lace trimming. Lacis network darned into
patterns has always been popular here, as also in Denmark, Sweden, and
Norway.
[Illustration: DUCHESSE LACE.
Modern.]
_Russia._
The Russian laces need little more than a passing note. As in Germany,
Lacis and Cutworke form the only hand-made lace known, the people
contenting themselves with these varieties and using coloured threads to
further decorate them. Their laces may be called merely Russian
embroideries. Peter the Great did much to found a lace school, but
only gold laces were made, of a barbaric character. Recently an attempt
has been made to imitate the Venetian laces, with very fair results, but
the character is very stiff and mechanical, going back to the primitive
forms of Reticella rather than the elegancies of Italian Point.
The only other Continental lace requiring note is
_Maltese_,
a lace made entirely with bobbins and on a pillow. This lace is of
ancient make, being known as early as the old Greek laces, which it
strongly resembles. Its very popularity has killed its use as a fine
lace, and at the present day it is copied as a cheap useful lace in
France, England, Ireland, and even India. The old Maltese lace was made
of the finest flax thread, afterwards a silk variety, which is well
known, being made in cream. Black lace was also manufactured, and at the
time of the popularity of black lace as a dress trimming it was much
used. At the present day the lace is not of the old quality, cotton
being frequently mixed with the flax threads. There is no demand for it,
and it is about the most unsaleable lace of the day.
X
A SHORT HISTORY OF LACE IN ENGLAND
[Illustration: QUEEN ELIZABETH: RUFF OF VENETIAN POINT.
(_National Portrait Gallery._)]
X
A SHORT HISTORY OF LACE IN ENGLAND
Early samplers--Lace worn by Queen Elizabeth; by the early
Stuarts--Extravagant use of lace in time of Charles
II.--William and Mary's lace bill.
Even at the risk of being considered utterly unpatriotic, I cannot give
much more than faint praise to the lace-making of England up to the
present date, when notable efforts are at last being made to raise the
poor imitation of the Continental schools to something more in
accordance with artistic conception of what a great National Art might
become.
As in all countries, lace-making apparently commenced in its early
English stages by drawn-thread and cutwork. In many of the charming old
sixteenth-century English samplers just as exquisite cut-work, and its
natural successor Reticella, or "punto in aria" is shown, as in the
finest examples of the Venetian schools. Unfortunately, however, English
fine lace-making came to a sudden and inexplicable end, although we know
that any quantity of fine Venetian, exquisite Brussels, or Flemish
laces, and the wonderful Point de France were being imported into the
country and lavishly used.
As early as the reign of Edward IV. lace was mentioned as being
prohibited for importation amongst other items of feminine luxury, such
as "ribans, fringes of silk and cotton," but it is considered that the
word "laces" here means only the twisted threads that go to make up a
lace or tie, commonly ending in tags or points. It must be allowed,
however, that laces, or more probably "gimps" of gold and silver threads
were used for trimming both lay and ecclesiastical garments, and in
Henry VII.'s reign we find that importation of Venetian lace was
permitted, but this is generally admitted still to refer to gold and
silver lace, more probably coming from Genoa.
It was not really until the time of bluff King Hal that lace became an
article of fashion, when during the life of the last of his unfortunate
queens he permits "the importation of all manner of gold and silver
fringes, or _otherwise_, with all new 'gentillesses' of what facyion or
value, for the pleasure of our dearest wyeff the Queen."
Henry himself also began to indulge in all these little elegances of
fashion, and wore his sleeves embroidered with cutwork, and
handkerchiefs edged with gold and silver, treating himself liberally to
"coverpanes" and "shaving-cloths" trimmed with gold lace.
[Illustration: EDMUND SPENSER: COLLAR TRIMMED WITH RETICELLA.
Early period.]
Little mention of white work was made in the inventories of Henry VIII.
or his Queens, but Cardinal Wolsey seems to have had more than his
share of cutwork embroideries, judging from contemporary portraits.
In Queen Mary's reign white work began to be more frequently spoken of,
and in 1556 it is stated that Lady Jane Seymour presented the Queen with
"a smock of fair white work, Flanders making."
It was not until Queen Elizabeth's time that lace became freely
mentioned; then suddenly we are introduced to an endless variety of lace
and trimmings, both of gold and silver, pearl and embroideries, and
various white work! In some of the old Chronicles mention was made of
drawn work, cut-work, Crown lace, bone lace for ruffs, Spanish chain,
parchment, hollow, and diamond lace. Many of these terms cannot be
understood.
The enormous ruffs worn by Queen Elizabeth were introduced into England
in the time of her sister Mary. Portraits both of Philip of Spain and
Queen Mary show ruffs, but not edged with lace. Queen Elizabeth's, on
the contrary, are both edged with lace and, in some instances, covered
with it. On her poor old effigy at Westminster Abbey, where her waxen
image is dressed in her actual garments, the only lace that appears is
on the enormous ruff, three-quarters of a yard wide, covered with a fine
lace of the loose network kind. The rest of her garments are trimmed
with gold and silver lace and _passementerie_.
In the succeeding reign lace of a geometric design shows itself on the
ruffs of the richest people. Pictures in the National Portrait Gallery
show many exquisite examples of the beautiful Reticella of Venice, which
must have been very costly to the purchaser, as twenty-five yards or
more of this fine lace were required to edge a ruff.