Flemish, of the middle of the 17th century. This lace is usually
thought to be the earliest type of "Point d'Angleterre" in
contradistinction to the "Point de Flandres" (fig. 14).
FIG. 17--VERY DELICATE NEEDLEPOINT LACE WITH CLUSTERS OF SMALL RELIEF
WORK.
Venetian, middle of the 17th century, and often called "rose-point
lace," and sometimes "Point de Neige."]
[Illustration: FIG. 27.--Lady's Sleeve of Irish Crochet Lace.]
An appreciable amount of pillow-made lace is annually supplied from
Devonshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Northampton, but it is
bought almost wholly for home use. The English laces are made almost
entirely in accordance with the precedents of the 19th century--that is
to say, in definite lengths and widths, as for borders, insertions and
flounces, although large shaped articles, such as panels for dresses,
long sleeves complete skirts, jackets, blouses, and fancifully shaped
collars of considerable dimensions have of late been freely made
elsewhere. To make such things entirely of lace necessitates many
modifications in the ordinary methods; the English lace-workers are slow
to adapt their work in the manner requisite, and hence are far behind in
the race to respond to the fashionable demand. No countries succeed so
well in promptly answering the variable call of fashion as France and
Belgium.
As regards trade in lace, America probably buys more from Belgium than
from France; France and England come next as purchasers of nearly
equal quantities, after which come Russia and Italy.
The greatest amount of lace now made is that which issues from
machines in England, France and Germany. The total number of persons
employed in the lace industry in England in 1871 was 49,370, and in
1901 about 34,929, of whom not more than 5000 made lace by hand.
The early history[7] of the lace-making machine coincides with that of
the stocking frame, that machine having been adapted about the year 1768
for producing open-looped fabrics which had a net-like appearance. About
1786 frames for making point nets by machinery first appear at Mansfield
and later at Ashbourne and Nottingham and soon afterwards modifications
were introduced into such frames in order to make varieties of meshes in
the point nets which were classed as figured nets. In 1808 and 1809 John
Heathcoat of Nottingham obtained patents for machines for making bobbin
net with a simpler and more readily produced mesh than that of the point
net just mentioned. For at least thirty years thousands of women had
been employed in and about Nottingham in the embroidery of simple
ornament on net. In 1813 John Leavers began to improve the figured net
weaving machines above mentioned, and from these the lace-making
machines in use at the present time were developed. But it was the
application of the celebrated Jacquard apparatus to such machines that
enabled manufacturers to produce all sorts of patterns in thread-work in
imitation of the patterns for hand-made lace. A French machine called
the "dentellière" was devised (see La Nature for the 3rd of March 1881),
and the patterns produced by it were of plaited threads. The expense,
however, attending the production of plaited lace by the "dentellière"
is as great as that of pillow lace made by the hand, and so the machine
has not succeeded for ordinary trade purposes. More successful results
have been secured by the new patent circular lace machine of Messrs.
Birkin & Co. of Nottingham, the productions of which, all of simple
design, cannot be distinguished from hand-made pillow lace of the same
style (see figs. 57, 58, 59).
Before dealing with technical details in processes of making lace
whether by hand or by the machine, the component parts of different
makes of lace may be considered. These are governed by the ornaments or
patterns, which may be so designed, as they were in the earlier laces,
that the different component parts may touch one another without any
intervening groundwork. But as a wish arose to vary the effect of the
details in a pattern ground-works were gradually developed and at first
consisted of links or ties between the substantial parts of the pattern.
The bars or ties were succeeded by grounds of meshes, like nets.
Sometimes the substantial parts of a pattern were outlined with a single
thread or by a strongly marked raised edge of buttonhole-stitched or of
plaited work. Minute fanciful devices were then introduced to enrich
various portions of the pattern. Some of the heavier needle-made laces
resemble low relief carving in ivory, and the edges of the relief
portions are often decorated with clusters of small loops. For the most
part all this elaboration was brought to a high pitch of variety and
finish by French designers and workers; and French terms are more usual
in speaking of details in laces. Thus the solid part of the pattern is
called the _toilé_ or clothing, the links or ties are called _brides_,
the meshed grounds are called _réseaux_, the outline to the edges of a
pattern is called _cordonnet_ or _brodé_, the insertions of fanciful
devices _modes_, the little loops _picots_. These terms are applicable
to the various portions of laces made with the needle, on the pillow or
by the machine.
The sequence of patterns in lace (which may be verified upon referring
to figs. 1 to 23) is roughly as follows. From about 1540 to 1590 they
were composed of geometric forms set within squares, or of crossed and
radiating line devices, resulting in a very open fabric, stiff and
almost wiry in effect, without _brides_ or _réseaux_. From 1590 may be
dated the introduction into patterns of very conventional floral and
even human and animal forms and slender scrolls, rendered in a tape-like
texture, held together by _brides_. To the period from 1620 to 1670
belongs the development of long continuous scroll patterns with
_réseaux_ and _brides_, accompanied in the case of needle-made laces
with an elaboration of details, e.g. _cordonnet_ with massings of
_picots_. Much of these laces enriched with fillings or _modes_ was made
at this time. From 1650 to 1700 the scroll patterns gave way to
arrangements of detached ornamental details (as in Pl. VI. fig. 22): and
about 1700 to 1760 more important schemes or designs were made (as in
Pl. fig. 19, and in fig. 24 in text), into which were introduced
naturalistic renderings of garlands, flowers, birds, trophies,
architectural ornament and human figures. Grounds composed entirely of
varieties of _modes_ as in the case of the _réseau rosacé_ (Pl. V. fig.
21) were sometimes made then. From 1760 to 1800 small details consisting
of bouquets, sprays of flowers, single flowers, leaves, buds, spots and
such like were adopted, and sprinkled over meshed grounds, and the
character of the texture was gauzy and filmy (as in figs. 40 and 42).
Since that time variants of the foregoing styles of pattern and textures
have been used according to the bent of fashion in favour of simple or
complex ornamentation, or of stiff, compact or filmy textures.
[Illustration: FIG. 28.]
[Illustration: FIG. 29.]
_Needlepoint Lace._--The way in which the early Venetian "punto in aria"
was made corresponds with that in which needlepoint lace is now worked.
The pattern is first drawn upon a piece of parchment. The parchment is
then stitched to two pieces of linen. Upon the leading lines drawn on
the parchment a thread is laid, and fastened through to the parchment
and linen by means of stitches, thus constructing a skeleton thread
pattern (see left-hand part of fig. 30). Those portions which are to be
represented as the "clothing" or _toilé_ are usually worked as indicated
in the enlarged diagram (fig. 29), and then edged as a rule with
buttonhole stitching (fig. 28). Between these _toilé_ portions of the
pattern are worked ties (_brides_) or meshes (_réseaux_), and thus the
various parts united into one fabric are wrought on to the face of the
parchment pattern and reproducing it (see right-hand part of fig. 30). A
knife is passed between the two pieces of linen at the back of the
parchment, cutting the stitches which have passed through the parchment
and linen, and so releasing the lace itself from its pattern parchment.
In the earlier stages, the lace was made in lengths to serve as
insertions (_passements_) and also in vandykes (_dentelles_) to serve as
edgings. Later on insertions and vandykes were made in one piece. All of
such were at first of a geometric style of pattern (Pl. figs. 3-5 and
6).
[Illustration: FIG. 30.--Parchment Pattern showing work in progress: the
more complete lace is on the right half of the pattern.]
[Illustration: FIG. 31.]
Following closely upon them came the freer style of design already
mentioned, without and then with links or ties--_brides_--interspersed
between the various details of the patterns (Pl. II. fig. 7), which were
of flat tape-like texture. In elaborate specimens of this flat point
lace some lace workers occasionally used gold thread with the white
thread. These flat laces ("Punto in Aria") are also called "flat
Venetian point." About 1640 "rose (raised) point" laces began to be made
(Pl. III. fig. 12). They were done in relief and those of bold design
with stronger reliefs are called "gros point de Venise." Lace of this
latter class was used for altar cloths, flounces, _jabots_ or neckcloths
which hung beneath the chin over the breast (Pl. III. fig. 11), as well
as for trimming the turned-over tops of jack boots. _Tabliers_ and
ladies' aprons were also made of such lace. In these no regular ground
was introduced. All sorts of minute embellishments, like little knots,
stars and loops or _picots_, were worked on to the irregularly arranged
_brides_ or ties holding the main patterns together, and the more dainty
of these raised laces (Pl. fig. 17) exemplify the most subtle uses to
which the buttonhole stitch appears capable of being put in making
ornaments. But about 1660 came laces with _brides_ or ties arranged in a
honeycomb reticulation or regular ground. To them succeeded lace in
which the compact relief gave place to daintier and lighter material
combined with a ground of meshes or _réseau_. The needle-made meshes
were sometimes of single and sometimes of double threads. A diagram is
given of an ordinary method of making such meshes (fig. 31). At the end
of the 17th century the lightest of the Venetian needlepoint laces were
made; and this class which was of the filmiest texture is usually known
as "point de Venise à réseau" (Pl. V. fig. 20a). It was contemporary
with the needle-made French laces of Alençon and Argentan[8] that became
famous towards the latter part of the 17th century (Pl. V. fig. 20b).
"Point d'Argentan" has been thought to be especially distinguished on
account of its delicate honeycomb ground of hexagonally arranged
_brides_ (fig. 32), a peculiarity already referred to in certain
antecedent Venetian point laces. Often intermixed with this hexagonal
_brides_ ground is the fine-meshed ground or _réseau_ (fig. 20b), which
has been held to be distinctive of "point d'Alençon." But the styles of
patterns and the methods of working them, with rich variety of
insertions or _modes_, with the _brodé_ or _cordonnet_ of raised
buttonhole stitched edging, are alike in Argentan and Alençon
needle-made laces (Pl. V. fig. 20b and fig. 32). Besides the hexagonal
_brides_ ground and the ground of meshes another variety of grounding
(_réseau rosacé_) was used in certain Alençon designs. This ground
consisted of buttonhole-stitched skeleton hexagons within each of which
was worked a small hexagon of _toilé_ connected with the outer
surrounding hexagon by means of six little ties or _brides_ (Pl. V. fig.
21). Lace with this particular ground has been called "Argentella," and
some writers have thought that it was a specialty of Genoese or Venetian
work. But the character of the work and the style of the floral patterns
are those of Alençon laces. The industry at Argentan was virtually an
offshoot of that nurtured at Alençon, where "lacis," "cut work" and
"vélin" (work on parchment) had been made for years before the
well-developed needle-made "point d'Alençon" came into vogue under the
favouring patronage of the state-aided lace company mentioned as having
been formed in 1665. Madame Despierre in her _Histoire du point
d'Alençon_ gives an interesting and trustworthy account of the industry.
[Illustration: FIG. 32.--Border of Needlepoint Lace made in France about
1740-1750, the clear hexagonal mesh ground, which is compactly stitched,
being usually regarded as characteristic of the point de France made at
Argentan.]
In Belgium, Brussels has acquired some celebrity for needle-made laces.
These, however, are chiefly in imitation of those made at Alençon, but
the _toilé_ is of less compact texture and sharpness in definition of
pattern. Brussels needlepoint lace is often worked with meshed grounds
made on a pillow, and a plain thread is used as a _cordonnet_ for their
patterns instead of a thread overcast with buttonhole stitches as in the
French needlepoint laces. Note the bright sharp outline to the various
ornamental details in Pl. V. fig. 20b.
[Illustration: FIG. 33.--Shirt decorated with Insertions of Flat
Needlepoint Lace. (English, 17th century. Victoria and Albert Museum.)]
[Illustration: PLATE IV.
FIG. 18.--CHARLES GASPARD GUILLAUME DE VINTI-MILLE, WEARING LACE
SIMILAR IN STYLE OF DESIGN SHOWN IN FIG. 19. About 1730.
FIG. 19.--PORTION OF FLOUNCE, NEEDLEPOINT LACE COPIED AT THE BURANO
LACE SCHOOL FROM THE ORIGINAL OF THE SO-CALLED "POINT DE VENISE À
BRIDES PICOTÉES."
17th century. Formerly belonging to Pope Clement XIII., but now the
property of the queen of Italy. The design and work, however, are
indistinguishable from those of important flounces of "Point de
France." The pattern consists of repetitions of two
vertically-arranged groups of fantastic pine-apples and vases with
flowers, intermixed with bold rococo bands and large leaf devices. The
hexagonal meshes of the ground, although similar to the Venetian
"brides picotées," are much akin to the buttonhole stitched ground of
"Point d'Argentan." (Victoria and Albert Museum.)