The question whether Barbara Uttmann, of Annaberg, Saxony, was the
inventor of the art of making hand cushion lace, or only introduced it
into Annaberg, in the Saxon mountains, has not yet been solved,
notwithstanding the fact that the most rigid examinations have been
made. It is the general belief, however, that she only introduced the
art, having learned it from a foreigner in the year 1561. The person
from whom she acquired this knowledge is said to have been a Protestant
fugitive from Brabant, who was driven from her native land by the
constables of the Inquisition, and who found a home in the Uttmann
family. However, the probability is that what the fugitive showed
Barbara Uttmann was the stitched, or embroidered, laces--points, so
called--which are still manufactured in the Netherlands at the present
time. It is very probable that the specimens shown induced Barbara
Uttmann to invent the art of making lace by means of a hand cushion.
[Illustration: BARBARA UTTMANN, INVENTOR OF HAND CUSHION LACE.]
Very little is known of the family of Barbara Uttmann, which was
originally from Nurnberg; but members of the same migrated to the Saxon
mountains. Barbara's husband, Christof Uttmann, was the owner of
extensive mines at Annaberg, and was very wealthy. She died at Annaberg,
Jan. 14, 1584.
The art of making hand cushion lace was soon acquired by most of the
residents in the Saxon mountains, which is a poor country, as the
occupation of most of the inhabitants was mining, and it frequently
happened that the wages were so low, and the means of sustaining life so
expensive, that some other resource had to be found to make life more
bearable. Barbara Uttmann's invention was thus a blessing to the
country, and her name is held in high esteem. A monumental fountain is
to be erected at Annaberg, and is to be surmounted by a statue of the
country's benefactress, Barbara Uttmann. The statue, modeled by Robert
Henze, is to be cast in bronze. It represents Barbara Uttmann in the
costume worn at the time of the Reformation. She points to a piece of
lace, which she has just completed, lying on the cushion, the shuttles
being visible.
Some point, Valenciennes, and Guipure laces are made on a cushion by
hand, with bobbins on which the thread is wound, the pins for giving the
desired pattern to the lace being stuck into the cushion. A yard of hand
cushion lace has been sold in England for as much as $25,000. The
annexed cut, representing the Barbara Uttmann statue, was taken from the
_Illustrirte Zeitung_.
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A Boston paper tells of a man who built two houses side by side, one for
himself and one to sell. In the house sold he had placed a furnace
against the party wall of the cellar, and from its hot air chamber he
had constructed flues to heat his own domicile. The owner of the other
house found it very hard to keep his own house warm, and was astounded
at the amount of coal it took to render his family comfortable, while
the "other fellow" kept himself warm at his neighbor's expense nearly a
whole winter before the trick was discovered.
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