Needlepoint lace has also been occasionally produced in England. Whilst
the character of its design in the early 17th century was rather more
primitive, as a rule, than that of the contemporary Italian, the method
of its workmanship is virtually the same and an interesting specimen of
English needle-made lace inset into an early 17th-century shirt is
illustrated in fig. 33. Specimens of needle-made work done by English
school children may be met with in samplers of the 17th and 18th
centuries. Needlepoint lace is successfully made at Youghal, Kenmare and
New Ross in Ireland, where of late years attention has been given to the
study of designs for it. The lace-making school at Burano near Venice
produces hand-made laces which are, to a great extent, careful
reproductions of the more celebrated classes of point laces, such as
"punto in aria," "rose point de Venise," "point de Venise à réseau,"
"point d'Alençon," "point d'Argentan" and others. Some good needlepoint
lace is made in Bohemia and elsewhere in the Austrian empire.
_Pillow-made Lace._--Pillow-made lace is built upon no substructure
corresponding with a skeleton thread pattern such as is used for
needlepoint lace, but is the representation of a pattern obtained by
twisting and plaiting threads.
These patterns were never so strictly geometric in style as those
adopted for the earliest point lace making from the antecedent cut linen
and drawn thread embroideries. Curved forms, almost at the outset of
pillow lace, seem to have been found easy of execution (see lower
border, Pl. II. fig. 3); its texture was more lissom and less crisp and
wiry in appearance than that of contemporary needle-made lace. The early
twisted and plaited thread laces, which had the appearance of small
cords merging into one another, were soon succeeded by laces of similar
make but with flattened and broader lines more like fine braids or tapes
(Pl. I. fig. 2, and Pl. fig. 10). But pillow laces of this tapey
character must not be confused with laces in which actual tape or braid
is used. That peculiar class of lace-work does not arise until after the
beginning of the 17th century when the weaving of tape is said to have
commenced in Flanders. In England this sort of tape-lace dates no
farther back than 1747, when two Dutchmen named Lanfort were invited by
an English firm to set up tape looms in Manchester.
[Illustration: FIG. 34.--Diagram showing six Bobbins in use.]
The process by which lace is made on the pillow is roughly and briefly
as follows. A pattern is first drawn upon a piece of paper or parchment.
It is then pricked with holes by a skilled "pattern pricker," who
determines where the principal pins shall be stuck for guiding the
threads. This pricked pattern is then fastened to the pillow. The pillow
or cushion varies in shape in different countries. Some lace-makers use
a circular pad, backed with a flat board, in order that it may be placed
upon a table and easily moved. Other lace-workers use a well-stuffed
round pillow or short bolster, flattened at the two ends, so that they
may hold it conveniently on their laps. From the upper part of pillow
with the pattern fastened on it hang the threads from the bobbins. The
bobbin threads thus hang across the pattern. Fig. 34 shows the
commencement, for instance, of a double set of three-thread plaitings.
The compact portion in a pillow lace has a woven appearance (fig. 35).
[Illustration: FIG. 35.]
About the middle of the 17th century pillow lace of formal scroll
patterns somewhat in imitation of those for point lace was made, chiefly
in Flanders. The earlier of these had grounds of ties or _brides_ and
was often called "point de Flandres" (Pl. fig. 14) in contradistinction
to scroll patterns with a mesh ground, which were called "point
d'Angleterre" (Pl. fig. 16). Into Spain and France much lace from Venice
and Flanders was imported as well as into England, where from the 16th
century the manufacture of the simple pattern "bone lace" by peasants in
the midland and southern counties was still being carried on. In Charles
II.'s time its manufacture was threatened with extinction by the
preference given to the more artistic and finer Flemish laces. The
importation of the latter was accordingly prohibited. Dealers in Flemish
lace sought to evade the prohibitions by calling certain of their laces
"point d'Angleterre," and smuggling them into England. But smuggling was
made so difficult that English dealers were glad to obtain the services
of Flemish lace-makers and to induce them to settle in England. It is
from some such cause that the better 17th- and 18th-century English
pillow laces bear resemblance to pillow laces of Brussels, of Mechlin
and of Valenciennes.
[Illustration: FIG. 36.--Border of English Pillow-made (Devonshire) Lace
in the style of a Brussels design of the middle of the 18th century.]
[Illustration: FIG. 37--Border of English (Bucks. or Beds.) Pillow-made
Lace in the Style of a Mechlin design of the latter part of the 18th
century.]
As skill in the European lace-making developed soon after the middle of
the 17th century, patterns and particular plaitings came to be
identified with certain localities. Mechlin, for instance, enjoyed a
high reputation for her productions. The chief technical features of
this pillow lace lie in the plaiting of the meshes, and the outlining of
the clothing or _toilé_ with a thread _cordonnet_. The ordinary Mechlin
mesh is hexagonal in shape. Four of the sides are of double twisted
threads, two are of four threads plaited three times (fig. 39).
[Illustration: FIG. 38--Border of Pillow-made Lace, Mechlin, from a
design similar to such as was used for point d'Alençon of the Louis XV.
period.]
[Illustration: FIG. 39.--Mechlin Mesh.]
In Brussels pillow lace, which has greater variety of design, the mesh
is also hexagonal; but in contrast with the Mechlin mesh whilst four of
its sides are of double-twisted threads the other two are of four
threads plaited four times (fig. 41). The finer specimens of Brussels
lace are remarkable for the fidelity and grace with which the botanical
forms in many of its patterns are rendered (Pl. VI. fig. 23). These are
mainly reproductions or adaptations of designs for point d'Alençon, and
the soft quality imparted to them in the texture of pillow-made lace
contrasts with the harder and more crisp appearance in needlepoint
lace. An example of dainty Brussels pillow lace is given in fig. 42. In
the Brussels pillow lace a delicate modelling effect is often imparted
to the close textures of the flowers by means of pressing them with a
bone instrument which gives concave shapes to petals and leaves, the
edges of which consist in part of slightly raised _cordonnet_ of compact
plaited work.
[Illustration: FIG. 40.--Border of Pillow-made Lace, Mechlin, end of the
18th century.]
[Illustration: FIG. 41.--Enlargement of Brussels Mesh.]
[Illustration: FIG. 42.--Portion of a Wedding Veil, 7 ft. 6 in. × 6 ft.
6 in., of Pillow-made Lace, Brussels, late 18th century. The design
consists of light leafy garlands of orange blossoms and other flowers
daintily festooned. Little feathery spirals and stars are powdered over
the ground, which is of Brussels _vrai réseau_. In the centre upon a
more open ground of pillow-made hexagonal _brides_ is a group of two
birds, one flying towards the other which appears ready to take wing
from its nest; an oval frame containing two hearts pierced by an arrow,
and a hymeneal torch. Throughout this veil is a profusion of pillow
renderings of various _modes_, the _réseau rosacé_, star devices, &c.
The ornamental devices are partly applied and partly worked into the
ground (Victoria and Albert Museum).]
Honiton pillow lace resembles Brussels lace, but in most of the English
pillow laces (Devonshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire) the _réseau_ is
of a simple character (fig. 43). As a rule, English lace is made with a
rather coarser thread than that used in the older Flemish laces. In real
Flemish Valenciennes lace there are no twisted sides to the mesh; all
are closely plaited (fig. 44) and as a rule the shape of the mesh is
diamond but without the openings as shown in fig. 44. No outline or
_cordonnet_ to define the pattern is used in Valenciennes lace (see fig.
45). Much lace of the Valenciennes type (fig. 54) is made at Ypres.
Besides these distinctive classes of pillow-like laces, there are others
in which equal care in plaiting and twisting threads is displayed,
though the character of the design is comparatively simple, as for
instance in ordinary pillow laces from Italy, from the Auvergne, from
Buckinghamshire, or rude and primitive as in laces from Crete, southern
Spain and Russia. Pillow lace-making in Crete is now said to be extinct.
The laces were made chiefly of silk. The patterns in many specimens are
outlined with one, two or three bright-coloured silken threads.
Uniformity in simple character of design may also be observed in many
Italian, Spanish, Bohemian, Swedish and Russian pillow laces (see the
lower edge of fig. 46).
[Illustration: FIG. 43.]
[Illustration: FIG. 44.]
[Illustration: FIG. 45.--Lappet of delicate Pillow-made Lace,
Valenciennes, about 1750. The peculiarity of Valenciennes lace is the
filmy cambric-like texture and the absence of any cordonnet to define
the separate parts of the ornament such as is used in needlepoint lace
of Alençon, and in pillow Mechlin and Brussels lace.]
_Guipure._--This name is often applied to needlepoint and pillow laces
in which the ground consists of ties or _brides_, but it more properly
designates a kind of lace or "passementerie," made with gimp of fine
wires whipped round with silk, and with cotton thread. An earlier kind
of gimp was formed with "Cartisane," a little strip of thin parchment or
vellum covered with silk, gold or silver thread. These stiff gimp
threads, formed into a pattern, were held together by stitches worked
with the needle. Gold and silver thread laces have been usually made on
the pillow, though gold thread has been used with fine effect in
17th-century Italian needlepoint laces.
[Illustration: FIG. 46.--Border to a Cloth. The wide part bearing the
double-headed eagle of Russia is of drawn thread embroidery: the
scalloped edging is of Russian pillow-made lace, though the style of its
pattern is often seen in pillow laces made by peasants in Danubian
provinces as well as in the south of Spain.]
[Illustration: FIG. 47.]
[Illustration: FIG. 48.]
[Illustration: FIG. 49.--Section of Lace Machine.]
[Illustration: FIG. 50.--Machine-made Lace in imitation of 16th-century
Needlepoint "Reticella" Lace.]
[Illustration: FIG. 51.--Border of Machine-made Lace in the style of
17th-century Pillow Guipure Lace.]
[Illustration: FIG. 52.--Border of Machine-made Lace in imitation of
17th-century Pillow Lace.]
[Illustration: FIG. 53.--Machine-made Trimming Border in imitation of
Irish Crochet Lace.]
[Illustration: FIG. 54.--A Piece of Hand-made Pillow Lace, Belgian
(Ypres), 20th century. (The machine imitation is given in fig. 55.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 55.--Machine-made Lace in imitation of the Hand-made
Specimen of fig. 54. (Nottingham, 20th century.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 56.--Small Borders (a) Hand-made and (b)
Machine-made Lace Valenciennes. (Nottingham, 20th century.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 57.--Specimen of Hand-made Pillow Lace.]
[Illustration: FIG. 58.--Specimen of Machine-made Lace in which the
twisting and plaiting of the threads are identical with those of the
hand-made specimen of fig. 57. (Nottingham, 20th century.)]
_Machine-made Lace._--We have already seen that a technical peculiarity
in making needlepoint lace is that a single thread and needle are alone
used to form the pattern, and that the buttonhole stitch and other
loopings which can be worked by means of a needle and thread mark a
distinction between lace made in this manner and lace made on the
pillow. For the process of pillow lace making a series of threads are in
constant employment, plaited and twisted the one with another. A
buttonhole stitch is not producible by it. The Leavers lace machine does
not make either a buttonhole stitch or a plait. An essential principle
of this machine-made work is that the threads are twisted together as in
stocking net. The Leavers lace machine is that generally in use at
Nottingham and Calais. French ingenuity has developed improvements in
this machine whereby laces of delicate thread are made; but as fast as
France makes an improvement England follows with another, and both
countries virtually maintain an equal position in this branch of
industry. The number of threads brought into operation in a Leavers
machine is regulated by the pattern to be produced, the threads being of
two sorts, beam or warp threads and bobbin or weft threads. Upwards of
8880 are sometimes used, sixty pieces of lace being made simultaneously,
each piece requiring 148 threads--100 beam threads and 48 bobbin
threads. The ends of both sets of threads are fixed to a cylinder upon
which as the manufacture proceeds the lace becomes wound. The supply of
the beam or warp threads is held upon reels, and that of the bobbins or
weft threads is held in bobbins. The beam or warp thread reels are
arranged in frames or trays beneath the stage, above which and between
it and the cylinder the twisting of the bobbin or weft with beam or warp
threads takes place. The bobbins containing the bobbin or weft threads
are flattened in shape so as to pass conveniently between the stretched
beam or warp threads. Each bobbin can contain about 120 yds. of thread.
By most ingenious mechanism varying degrees of tension can be imparted
to warp and weft threads as required. As the bobbins or weft threads
pass like pendulums between the warp threads the latter are made to
oscillate, thus causing them to become twisted with the bobbin threads.
As the twistings take place, combs passing through both warp and weft
threads compress the twistings. Thus the texture of the clothing or
_toilé_ in machine-made lace may generally be detected by its ribbed
appearance, due to the compressed twisted threads. Figs. 47 and 48 are
intended to show effects obtained by varying the tensions of weft and
warp threads. For instance, if the weft, as threads b, b, b, b in fig.
47, be tight and the warp thread slack, the warp thread a will be
twisted upon the weft threads. But if the warp thread a be tight and the
weft threads b, b, b, b, be slack, as in fig. 48, then the weft threads
will be twisted on the warp thread. At the same time the twisting in
both these cases arises from the conjunction of movements given to the
two sets of threads, namely, an oscillation or movement from side to
side of the beam or warp threads, and the swinging or pendulum-like
movement of the bobbin or weft threads between the warp threads. Fig. 49
is a diagram of a sectional elevation of a lace machine representing its
more essential parts. E is the cylinder or beam upon which the lace is
rolled as made, and upon which the ends of both warp and weft threads
are fastened at starting. Beneath are w, w, w, a series of trays or
beams, one above the other, containing the reels of the supplies of warp
threads; c, c represent the slide bars for the passage of the bobbin b
with its thread from k to k, the landing bars, one on each side of the
rank of warp threads; s, t are the combs which take it in turns to press
together the twistings as they are made. The combs come away clear from
the threads as soon as they have pressed them together and fall into
positions 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 machine lace pattern drafter has to calculate how
many holes shall be punched in a card, and to determine the position of
such holes. Each hole regulates the mechanism for giving movement to a
thread. Fig. 54 displays a piece of hand-made Valenciennes (Ypres) lace
and fig. 55 a corresponding piece woven by the machine. The latter shows
the advantage that can be gained by using very fine gauge machines, thus
enabling a very close imitation of the real lace to be made by securing
a very open and clear _réseau_ or net, such as would be made on a coarse
machine, and at the same time to keep the pattern fine and solid and
standing out well from the net, as is the case with the real lace, which
cannot be done by using a coarse gauge machine. In this example the
machine used is a 16 point (that is 32 carriages to the inch), and the
ground is made half gauge, that is 8 point, and the weaving is made the
full gauge of the machine, that is 16 point. Fig. 56 gives other
examples of hand- and machine-made Valenciennes lace. The machine-made
lace (b) imitating the real (a) is made on a 14-point machine (that is
28 carriages to the inch), the ground being 7 point and the pattern
being full gauge or 14 point. Although the principle in these examples
of machine work is exactly the same, in so far that they use half gauge
net and full gauge clothing to produce the contrast as mentioned above,
the fabrication of these two examples is quite different, that in fig.
55 being an example of tight bobbins or weft, and slack warp threads as
shown in fig. 47. Whereas the example in fig. 56 is made with slack
bobbins or weft threads and tight warp threads as in fig. 48. In fig. 57
is a piece of hand-made lace of stout thread, very similar to much Cluny
lace made in the Auvergne and to the Buckinghamshire "Maltese" lace.
Close to it are specimens of lace (figs. 58 and 59) made by the new
patent circular lace machine of Messrs Birkin of Nottingham. This
machine although very slow in production actually reproduces the real
lace, at a cost slightly below that of the hand-made lace. In another
branch of lace-making by machinery, mechanical ingenuity, combined with
chemical treatment, has led to surprising results (figs. 53 and 50).
Swiss, German and other manufacturers use machines in which a principle
of the sewing-machine is involved. A fine silken tissue is thereby
enriched with an elaborately raised cotton or thread embroidery. The
whole fabric is then treated with chemical mordants which, whilst
dissolving the silky web, do not attack the cotton or thread embroidery.
A relief embroidery possessing the appearance of hand-made raised
needlepoint lace is thus produced. Figs. 60 and 61 give some idea of
the high quality to which this admirable counterfeit has been brought.
[Illustration: FIG. 59.--Specimens of Machine-made Torchon Lace, in the
same manner as such lace is made on the pillow by hand. (Nottingham,
20th century.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 60.--Machine-made Lace of Modern Design.]
[Illustration: FIG. 61.--Machine-made Lace in imitation of 17th-century
Needlepoint Lace, "Gros point de Venise."]
Collections of hand-made lace chiefly exist in museums and technical
institutions, as for instance the Victoria and Albert Museum in London,
the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, and museums at Lyons, Nuremberg,
Berlin, Turin and elsewhere. In such places the opportunity is presented
of tracing in chronological sequence the stages of pattern and texture
development.
_Literature._--The literature of the art of lace-making is
considerable. The series of 16th- and 17th-century lace pattern-books,
of which the more important are perhaps those by F. Vinciolo (Paris,
1587), Cesare Vecellio (Venice, 1592), and Isabetta Catanea Parasole
(Venice, 1600), not to mention several kindred works of earlier and
later date published in Germany and the Netherlands, supplies a large
field for exploration. Signor Ongania of Venice published a limited
number of facsimiles of the majority of such works. M. Alvin of
Brussels issued a brochure in 1863 upon these patterns, and in the
same year the marquis Girolamo d'Adda contributed two bibliographical
essays upon the same subject to the _Gazette des Beaux-Arts_ (vol. xv.
p. 342 seq., and vol. xvii. p. 421 seq.). In 1864 Cavaliere A. Merli
wrote a pamphlet (with illustrations) entitled _Origine ed uso delle
trine a filo di rete_; Mons F. de Fertiault compiled a brief and
rather fanciful _Histoire de la dentelle_ in 1843, in which he
reproduced statements to be found in Diderot's _Encyclopédie_,
subsequently quoted by Roland de la Platière. The first _Report of the
Department of Practical Art_ (1853) contains a "Report on Cotton
Print Works and Lace-Making" by Octavius Hudson, and in the first
_Report of the Department of Science and Art_ are some "Observations
on Lace." Reports upon the International Exhibitions of 1851 (London)
and 1867 (Paris), by M. Aubry, Mrs Palliser and others contain
information concerning lace-making. The most important work first
issued upon the history of lace-making is that by Mrs Bury Palliser
(_History of Lace_, 1869). In this work the history is treated rather
from an antiquarian than a technical point of view; and wardrobe
accounts, inventories, state papers, fashionable journals, diaries,
plays, poems, have been laid under contribution with surprising
diligence. A new edition published in 1902 presents the work as
entirely revised, rewritten and enlarged under the editorship of M.
Jourdain and Alice Dryden. In 1875 the Arundel Society brought out
_Ancient Needlepoint and Pillow Lace_, a folio volume of permanently
printed photographs taken from some of the finest specimens of ancient
lace collected for the International Exhibition of 1874. These were
accompanied by a brief history of lace, written from the technical
aspect of the art, by Alan S. Cole. At the same time appeared a bulky
imperial 4to volume by Seguin, entitled _La Dentelle_, illustrated
with wood-cuts and fifty photo-typographical plates. Seguin divides
his work into four sections. The first is devoted to a sketch of the
origin of laces; the second deals with pillow laces, bibliography of
lace and a review of sumptuary edicts; the third relates to
needle-made lace; and the fourth contains an account of places where
lace has been and is made, remarks upon commerce in lace, and upon the
industry of lace makers. Without sufficient conclusive evidence Seguin
accords to France the palm for having excelled in producing
practically all the richer sorts of laces, notwithstanding that both
before and since the publication of his otherwise valuable work, many
types of them have been identified as being Italian in origin.
Descriptive catalogues are issued of the lace collections at South
Kensington Museum, at the Science and Art Museum, Dublin, and at the
Industrial Museum, Nuremberg. In 1881 a series of four Cantor Lectures
on the art of lace-making were delivered before the Society of Arts by
Alan S. Cole.
_A Technical History of the Manufacture of Venetian Laces_, by G. M.
Urbani de Gheltof, with plates, was translated by Lady Layard, and
published at Venice by Signor Ongania. The _History of Machine-wrought
Hosiery and Lace Manufacture_ (London, 1867), by Felkin, has already
been referred to. There is also a technological essay upon lace made
by machinery, with diagrams of lace stitches and patterns
(_Technologische Studien im sächsischen Erzgebirge_, Leipzig, 1878),
by Hugo Fischer. In 1886 the Libraire Renouard, Paris, published a
_History of Point d'Alençon_, written by Madame G. Despierres, which
gives a close and interesting account of the industry, together with a
list, compiled from local records, of makers and dealers from 1602
onwards.--_Embroidery and Lace: their manufacture and history from the
remotest antiquity to the present day_, by Ernest Lefebure, lace-maker
and administrator of the École des Arts Décoratifs, translated and
enlarged with notes by Alan S. Cole, was published in London in 1888.
It is a well-illustrated handbook for amateurs, collectors and general
readers.--Irish laces made from modern designs are illustrated in a
_Renascence of the Irish Art of Lace-making_, published in 1888
(London).--_Anciennes Dentelles belges formant la collection de feue
madame Augusta Baronne Liedts et données au Musée de Grunthuis à
Bruges_, published at Antwerp in 1889, consists of a folio volume
containing upwards of 181 phototypes--many full size--of fine
specimens of lace. The ascriptions of country and date of origin are
occasionally inaccurate, on account of a too obvious desire to credit
Bruges with being the birthplace of all sorts of lace-work, much of
which shown in this work is distinctly Italian in style.--The
_Encyclopaedia of Needlework_, by Thérèse de Dillmont-Dornach (Alsace,
1891), is a detailed guide to several kinds of embroidery, knitting,
crochet, tatting, netting and most of the essential stitches for
needlepoint lace. It is well illustrated with wood-cuts and process
blocks.--An exhaustive history of Russian lace-making is given in _La
Dentelle russe_, by Madame Sophie Davidoff, published at Leipzig,
1895. Russian lace is principally pillow-work with rather heavy
thread, and upwards of eighty specimens are reproduced by
photo-lithography in this book.
A short account of the best-known varieties of _Point and Pillow
Lace_, by A. M. S. (London, 1899), is illustrated with typical
specimens of Italian, Flemish, French and English laces, as well as
with magnified details of lace, enabling any one to identify the
plaits, the twists and loops of threads in the actual making of the
fabric.--_L'Industrie des tulles et dentelles mécaniques dans le
Pas de Calais_, 1815-1900, by Henri Hénon (Paris, 1900), is an
important volume of over 600 pages of letterpress, interspersed with
abundant process blocks of the several kinds of machine nets and laces
made at Calais since 1815. It opens with a short account of the Arras
hand-made laces, the production of which is now almost extinct. The
book was sold for the benefit of a public subscription towards the
erection of a statue in Calais to Jacquard, the inventor of the
apparatus by means of which all figured textile fabrics are
manufactured. It is of some interest to note that machine net and
lace-making at Calais owe their origin to Englishmen, amongst whom "le
sieur R. Webster arrivé à St Pierre-les-Calais en Décembre, 1816,
venant d'Angleterre, est l'un des premiers qui ont établi dans la
communauté une fabrique de tulles," &c. _Lace-making in the Midlands:
Past and Present_, by C. C. Channer and M. E. Roberts (London, 1900)
upon the lace-making industry in Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and
Northamptonshire contains many illustrations of laces made in these
counties from the 17th century to the present time. _Musée
rétrospectif. Dentelles à l'exposition universelle internationale de
1900 à Paris. Rapport de Mons. E. Lefebvre_ contains several good
illustrations, especially of important specimens of Point de France of
the 17th and 18th centuries. _Le Point de France et les autres
dentelliers au XVII^e et au XVIII^e siècles_, by Madame Laurence de
Laprade (Paris, 1905), brings together much hitherto scattered
information throwing light upon operations in many localities in
France where the industry has been carried on for considerable
periods. The book is well and usefully illustrated.
See also _Irische Spitzen_ (30 half-tone plates), with a short
historical introduction by Alan S. Cole (Stuttgart, 1902); _Pillow
Lace_, a practical handbook by Elizabeth Mincoff and Margaret S.
Marriage (London, 1907); _The Art of Bobbin Lace_, a practical
text-book of workmanship, &c., by Louisa Tebbs (London, 1907);
_Antiche trine italiane_, by Elisa Ricci (Bergamo, 1908), well
illustrated; _Seven Centuries of Lace_, by Mrs John Hungerford Pollen
(London and New York, 1908), very fully illustrated. (A. S. C.)