[1437] This is proved by the vestes Phrygioniæ of Pliny mentioned
before in the article on wire-drawing. Those who made such works
were called _phrygiones_. In the Menæchmi of Plautus, act ii. scene
3, a young woman, desirous of sending her mantle to be embroidered,
says, “Pallam illam ad phrygionem ut deferas, ut reconcinnetur, atque
ut opera addantur, quæ volo.” Compare Aulul. act iii. scene 5; Non.
Marcellus, i. 10; and Isidor. 19, 22. The Greeks seem to have used the
words κεντεῖν and καταστίζειν as we use the word _embroider_.
[1438] De Vestitu Sacerdot. Hebræorum, i. p. 212.
[1439] Count de Marsan, the youngest son of count d’Harcourt, brought
from Brussels to Paris his former nurse, named Du Mont, with her four
daughters, and procured for her an exclusive right to establish and
carry on the lace manufactory in that capital. In a little time Du Mont
and her daughters collected more than two hundred women, many of whom
were of good families, who produced such excellent work that it was in
little or nothing inferior to that imported from other countries.--Vie
de Jean-Bapt. Colbert, Cologne, 1696, 12mo, p. 154.
[1440] The oldest information on this subject is to be found in
Annabergæ Urbis Historia, auctore Paulo Jenisio. Dresdæ, 1605, 4to,
ii. p. 33.--C. Melzer, Berglauftige Beschreibung der Stadt Schneeberg.
1684, p. 471.--Historia Schneebergensis. Schneeberg 1716, 4to, p.
882.--Tob. Schmidt, Zwickauische Chronik. Zwickau, 1656, 4to. ii. p.
384.--Lehmanns Historischer Schauplatz des Obererzgebirges. Leipzig,
1699, 4to, p. 771.
[1441] It is difficult to form an estimate of the number of persons
employed in pillow-lace making during its prosperity; but in a petition
from the makers in Buckingham and the neighbourhood presented to her
Majesty queen Adelaide in 1830, it was stated that 120,000 persons were
dependent on the trade.
[1442] Waterston’s Encyclopædia of Commerce.