perhaps, of the early Venetian teaching. It consists of the six-sided
button-hole bride, fringed with a little row of three or four picots or
pearls round each side. It was also called "bride épinglée," because pins
were pricked in the parchment pattern, to form these picots or boucles
(loops) on; hence it was sometimes styled "bride bouclée."[578] {208}The
"écaille de poisson" réseau was also much used at Alençon and Argentan.
The manner of making "bride picotée" is entirely lost. Attempts were made
to recover the art some years since (1869), and an old workwoman was found
who had made it in her girlhood, but she proved incapable of bringing the
stitch back to her memory, and the project was given up.[579]
Point d'Argentan disappeared, and was re-established in 1708; but though a
few specimens were produced at the Exhibition of Industry in 1808, the
industry died out in 1810.[580] It was again revived with some success by
M. M. Lefébure in 1874. In January 1874, with the assistance of the mayor,
he made a search in the greniers of the Hôtel Dieu, and discovered three
specimens of point d'Argentan in progress on the parchment patterns. One
was of bold pattern with the "grande bride" ground, evidently a man's
ruffle; the other had the barette or bride ground of point de France; the
third picotée, showing that the three descriptions of lace were made
contemporaneously at Argentan.
The author of a little pamphlet on Argentan, M. Eugène[581] de Lonlay,
remembers having seen in his youth in the Holy week, in the churches of St.
Martin and St. Germain, the statues of the apostles covered from head to
foot with this priceless point.
Argentan is now much made at Burano. Plate LVI. illustrates one of their
fine reproductions.
PLATE LVII.
[Illustration: FRENCH. POINT D'ARGENTAN.--Eighteenth century. Period Louis
XV. Needle-point borders. Both these have the hexagonal ground of the
genre "Argentan." The upper one is chiefly filled in with the "oeil de
perdrix" or "réseau rosacé." Width, 3-3/8 in. The lower one has been
pieced together. Width, 7 in.
Victoria and Albert Museum.]
_To face page 208._
{209}CHAPTER XV.
ISLE DE FRANCE.--PARIS (DÉP. SEINE).
"Quelle heure est-il?
Passé midi.
Qui vous l'a dit?
Une petite souris.
Que fait-elle?
De la dentelle.
Pour qui?
La reine de Paris."--_Old Nursery Song._
Early in the seventeenth century, lace was extensively made in the environs
of Paris, at Louvres, Gisors, Villiers-le-Bel, Montmorency, and other
localities. Of this we have confirmation in a work[582] published 1634, in
which, after commenting upon the sums of money spent in Flanders for
"ouvrages et passemens,[583] tant de point couppé que d'autres," which the
king had put a stop to by the sumptuary law of 1633, the author
says:--"Pour empescher icelle despence, il y a toute l'Isle de France et
autres lieux qui sont remplis de plus de dix mille familles dans lesquels
les enfans de l'un et l'autre sexe, dès l'âge de dix ans ne sont instruits
qu'à la manufacture desdits ouvrages, dont il s'en trouve d'aussi beaux et
bien faits que ceux des étrangers; les Espagnols, qui le sçavent, ne s'en
fournissent ailleurs."
Who first founded the lace-making of the Isle de France it is difficult to
say; a great part of it was in the hands of the Huguenots, leading us to
suppose it formed one of the numerous "industries" introduced or encouraged
by {210}Henry IV. and Sully. Point de Paris, mignonette, bisette, and other
narrow cheap laces were made, and common guipures were also fabricated at
St. Denis, Écouen, and Groslay. From 1665 to the French Revolution, the
exigencies of fashion requiring a superior class of lace, the workwomen
arrived gradually at making point of remarkable fineness and superior
execution. The lappet (Fig. 94) is a good example of the delicacy of the
fine point de Paris. The ground resembles the fond chant, the six-pointed
star meshed réseau.
[Illustration: Fig. 94.
POINT DE PARIS.--Reduced.]
[Illustration: Fig. 95.
POINT DE FRANCE.--Bobbin lace. Seventeenth century. With portraits of Louis
XIV. and Marie Thérèse.
Mrs. Palliser gives this illustration the above designation in her last
edition; in her former ones, that of Flemish lace. The lace has lately come
into the possession of Mr. Arthur Blackborne. It appears to be Flemish work
made for the French Queen.
_To face page 210._]
{211}Savary, who wrote in 1726, mentions how, in the Château de Madrid,
there had long existed a manufacture of points de France.[584] A second
fabric was established by the Comte de Marsan,[585] in Paris, towards the
end of the same century. Having brought over from Brussels his nurse, named
Dumont, with her four daughters, she asked him, as a reward for the care
she had bestowed upon him in his infancy, to obtain for her the privilege
of setting up in Paris a manufactory of point de France. Colbert granted
the request: Dumont was established in the Faubourg St. Antoine--classic
land of embroidery from early times--cited in the "Révolte des Passemens,"
"Telle Broderie qui n'avoit jamais esté plus loin que du Faubourg S.
Antoine au Louvre." A "cent Suisse" of the king's was appointed as guard
before the door of her house. In a short time Dumont had collected more
than 200 girls, among whom were several of good birth, and made beautiful
lace called point de France. Her fabric was next transferred to Rue Saint
Sauveur, and subsequently to the Hôtel Saint-Chaumont, near the Porte St.
Denis. Dumont afterwards went to Portugal, leaving her fabric under the
direction of Mademoiselle de Marsan. But, adds the historian, as fashion
and taste often change in France, people became tired of this point. It
proved difficult to wash; the flowers had to be raised each time it was
cleaned; it was thick and unbecoming to the face. Points d'Espagne were now
made instead, with small flowers, which, being very fine, was more suitable
for a lady's dress. Lastly, the taste for Mechlin lace coming in, the
manufacture of Dumont was entirely given up.[586]
In the time of Louis XIV. the commerce of lace was distributed in different
localities of Paris, as we learn from the "Livre Commode"[587] already
quoted. The gold laces, forming of themselves a special commerce, had their
shops in the "rue des Bourdonnais (in which silk laces were especially
sold) and the rue Sainte-Honoré, entre la place aux Chats et les piliers
des Halles," while the rue Bétizy retained for itself the spécialité of
selling "points et dentelles."
The gold and silver laces of Paris, commonly known as points
d'Espagne,[588] often embellished with pearls and other {212}ornaments,
were for years renowned throughout all Europe; and, until the revocation of
the Edict of Nantes, an object of great commerce to France. Its importance
is shown by the sumptuary edicts of the seventeenth century forbidding its
use, and also by its mention in the _Révolte des Passemens_. It was made on
the pillow. Much was exported to Spain and the Indies. How those exiled
workmen were received by the Protestant princes of Europe, and allowed to
establish themselves in their dominions, to the loss of France and the
enrichment of the lands of their adoption, will be told in due time, when
we touch on the lace manufactures of Holland and Germany. (Plate LVIII.)
Since 1784, little lace has been made in Paris itself, but a large number
of lace-makers are employed in applying the flowers of Binche and Mirecourt
upon the bobbin-net grounds.
CHANTILLY (DÉP. OISE).
"Dans sa pompe élégante admirez Chantilli,
De héros en héros, d'âge en âge embelli."
--Delille. _Les Jardins._
Although there long existed lace-makers in the environs of Paris, the
establishment for which Chantilly was celebrated owes its formation to
Catherine de Rohan, Duchesse de Longueville, who sent for workwomen from
Dieppe and Havre to her château of Étrepagny, where she retired at the
beginning of the seventeenth century, and established schools.
The town of Chantilly, being the centre of a district of lace-makers, has
given its name to the laces of the surrounding district, the trade being
distributed over more than a hundred villages, the principal of which are
Saint-Maximien, Viarmes, Méric, Luzarches, and Dammartin. The proximity to
Paris, affording a ready sale for its productions, caused the manufacture
to prosper, and the narrow laces which they first made--gueuse and point de
Paris--were soon replaced by guipures, white thread, and black silk
lace.[589]
PLATE LVIII.
[Illustration: FRENCH (OR DUTCH).--Borders of gold and silver thread and
gimp lace. Eighteenth century. From the Treasury of St. Mary's Church,
Dantzig. Widths: 1-1/8, 1¾ and 4¼ in.
Victoria and Albert Museum.]
_To face page 212._
{213}Some twenty years since there dwelt at Chantilly an elderly lady,
grand-daughter of an old proprietor, who had in her possession one of the
original pattern-books of the fabric, with autograph letters of Marie
Antoinette, the Princess de Lamballe, and other ladies of the court, giving
their orders and expressing their opinion on the laces produced. We find in
the inventories of the last century, "coëffure de cour de dentelle de soye
noire," "mantelet garni de dentelles noires," a "petite duchesse et une
respectueuse," and other "coëffes," all of "dentelle de soye noire."[590]
White blonde appears more sparingly. The Duchesse de Duras has "une paire
de manchettes à trois rangs, deux fichus et deux paires de sabots en
blonde."[591] The latter to wear, probably, with her "robe en singe." Du
Barry purchases more largely.[592] See pages 181, 182, and 224.
Fig. 96 is a specimen taken from the above-mentioned pattern-book; the
flowers and ground are of the same silk, the flowers worked en grillé (see
Chap. III., grillé), or open stitch, instead of the compact tissue of the
"blondes mates," of the Spanish style. The cordonnet is a thicker silk
strand, flat and untwisted. This is essentially "Chantilly lace." The
fillings introduced into the flowers and other ornaments in Chantilly lace
are mesh grounds of old date, which, according to the district where they
were made, are called vitré, mariage, and cinq trous. Chantilly first
created the black silk lace industry, and deservedly it retains her name,
whether made there or in Calvados. Chantilly black lace has always been
made of silk, but from its being a grenadine, not a shining silk, a common
error prevails that it is of thread, whereas black thread lace has never
been made {214}either at Chantilly or Bayeux. The distinguishing feature of
this lace is the _fond chant_ (an abbreviation of Chantilly), the
six-pointed star réseau, or, as it is better described, a diamond crossed
by two horizontal threads.
Chantilly fell with '93. Being considered a Royal fabric, and its
productions made for the nobility alone, its unfortunate lace-workers
became the victims of revolutionary fury, and all perished, with their
patrons, on the scaffold. We hear no more of the manufacture until the
Empire, a period during which Chantilly enjoyed its greatest prosperity. In
1805, white blonde became the rage in Paris, and the workwomen were chiefly
employed in its fabrication. The Chantilly laces were then in high repute,
and much exported, the black, especially, to Spain and her American
colonies; no other manufactories could produce mantillas, scarfs, and other
large pieces of such great beauty. It was then they made those rich
large-patterned blondes called by the French "blondes mates," by the
Spaniards "trapeada," the prevailing style since the First Empire.
[Illustration: Fig. 96.
CHANTILLY.--Reduced.--From one of the Order Books, temp. Louis XVI.]
About 1835 black lace again came into vogue, and the lace-makers were at
once set to work at making black silk laces with double ground, and
afterwards they revived the hexagonal ground of the last century, called
fond d'Alençon,[593] for the production of which they are celebrated.
The lace industry has been driven away from Chantilly by the increase in
the price of labour consequent on its vicinity to the capital. The lace
manufacturers, unable to {215}pay such high salaries, retired to Gisors,
where in 1851 there were from 8,000 to 9,000 lace-makers. They continued to
make the finest lace some years longer at Chantilly; but now she has been
supplanted by the laces of Calvados, Caen, and Bayeux, which are similar in
material and in mode of fabrication. The generally so-called Chantilly
shawls are the production of Bayeux.
{216}CHAPTER XVI.
NORMANDY.
"Dangling thy hands like bobbins before thee."
--Congreve, _Way of the World_.
SEINE INFÉRIEURE.
Lace forms an essential part of the costume of the Normandy peasants. The
wondrous "Bourgoin,"[594] with its long lappets of rich lace, descended
from generation to generation, but little varied from the cornettes of the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (Fig. 97). The countrywomen wore their
lace at all times, when it was not replaced by the cotton nightcap, without
much regard to the general effect of their daily clothes. "Madame the
hostess," writes a traveller in 1739, "made her appearance in long lappets
of bone lace, with a sack of linsey wolsey."
The manufactures of the Pays de Caux date from the beginning of the
sixteenth century. It appears to have been the first centre in Normandy, as
in 1661 Havre laces occur in the _Révolte des Passemens_. Lace-making was
the principal occupation of the wives and daughters of the mariners and
fishermen. In 1692, M. de Sainte-Aignan, governor of Havre, found it
employed 20,000 women.[595]
{217}[Illustration: Fig. 97.
CAUCHOISE.--From an engraving of the eighteenth century.]
It was in the province of Normandy, as comprised in its ancient extent,
that the lace trade made the most rapid increase in the eighteenth century.
From Arras to St. {218}Malo more than thirty centres of manufacture
established themselves, imitating with success the laces of Mechlin; the
guipures of Flanders; the fond clair, or single ground, then called point
de Bruxelles; point de Paris; black thread laces, and also those guipures
enriched with gold and silver, so much esteemed for church ornament. The
manufactures of Havre, Honfleur, Bolbec, Eu, Fécamp, and Dieppe were most
thriving. They made double and single grounds, guipure, and a kind of thick
Valenciennes, such as is still made in the little town of Honfleur and its
environs. In 1692 the number of lace-makers at Havre and its environs was
not less than 22,000. Corneille,[596] 1707, declares the laces of Havre to
be "très recherchées"; and in an engraving, 1688, representing a "marchande
lingère en sa boutique,"[597] among the stock in trade, together with the
points of Spain and England, are certain "cartons" labelled "Point du
Havre." It appears also in the inventory of Colbert, who considered it
worthy of trimming his pillow-cases and his camisoles;[598] and Madame de
Simiane[599] had two "toilettes garnies de dentelle du Hâvre," with an
"estuy à peigne," en suite.
Next in rank to the points du Havre came the laces of Dieppe and its
environs, which, says an early writer of the eighteenth century, rivalled
the "industrie" of Argentan and Caen. The city of Dieppe alone, with its
little colony of Saint-Nicolas-d'Aliermont (a village two leagues distant,
inhabited by the descendants of a body of workmen who retired from the
bombardment of Dieppe),[600] employed 4,000 lace-makers. A writer in
1761[601] says, "A constant trade is that of laces, which yield only in
precision of design and fineness to those of Mechlin; but it has never been
so considerable as it was at the end of the seventeenth century. Although
it has slackened since about 1745 for the amount of its productions, which
have diminished in value, it has not altogether fallen. As this work is the
occupation of women and girls, a great number of whom have no other means
of subsistence, there is also a large number of dealers who buy their
laces, to send them into other parts of the kingdom, to Spain, and the
islands of America. This trade is free, without any corporation; but those
who make lace without being mercers cannot sell lace thread, the sale of
which is very lucrative."[602]
PLATE LIX.
[Illustration: FRENCH, CHANTILLY. FLOUNCE, BLACK SILK, BOBBIN-MADE.--Much
reduced.]
PLATE LX.
[Illustration: FRENCH, LE PUY. BLACK SILK GUIPURE, BOBBIN-MADE.
Photos by A. Dryden from laces the property of Mr. Arthur Blackborne.]
_To face page 218._
{219}[Illustration: Fig. 98.
PETIT POUSSIN.--Dieppe.]
About twenty years later we read, "The lace manufacture, which is very
ancient, has much diminished since the points, embroidered muslins, and
gauzes have gained the preference; yet good workers earn sufficient to live
comfortably; but those who have not the requisite dexterity would do well
to seek some other trade, as inferior lace-workers are unable to earn
sufficient for a maintenance."[603] M. Feret writes in 1824,[604] "Dieppe
laces are in little request; nevertheless there is a narrow kind, named
'poussin,' the habitual resource and work of the poor lace-makers of this
town, and which recommends itself by its cheapness and pleasing effect when
used as a trimming to collars and morning dresses. Strangers who visit our
town make an ample provision of this lace" (Fig. 98). The lace-makers of
Dieppe love to give their own {220}names to their different laces--vierge,
Ave Maria, etc. (Fig. 99)--and the designation of Poussin (chicken) is
given to the lace in question from the delicacy of its workmanship.
Point de Dieppe (Fig. 100) much resembles Valenciennes, but is less
complicated in its make. It requires much fewer bobbins, and whereas
Valenciennes can only be made in lengths of eight inches without detaching
the lace from the pillow, the Dieppe point is not taken off, but
rolled.[605] It is now no longer made. In 1826 a lace school was
established at Dieppe, under the direction of two sisters from the Convent
of La Providence at Rouen, patronized by the Duchesse de Berri, the Queen
of the French, and the Empress Eugénie. The exertions of the sisters have
been most successful. In 1842 they received the gold medal for having, by
the substitution of the Valenciennes for the old Dieppe stitch, introduced
a new industry into the department. They make Valenciennes of every width,
and are most expert in the square grounds of the Belgian Valenciennes, made
entirely of flax thread, unmixed with cotton, and at most reasonable
prices.[606]
[Illustration: Fig. 99.
AVE MARIA.--Dieppe.]
A very pretty double-grounded old Normandy lace, greatly used for caps, was
generally known under the name of "Dentelle à la Vierge" (Fig. 101). We
find only one mention of a lace so designated, and that in the inventory
made in 1785, after the death of Louis-Philippe, Duke of {221}Orleans, the
father of Egalité, where in his chapel at Villers-Cotterets is noted, "Une
aube en baptiste garnie en gros point de dentelle dite à la Vierge."[607]
[Illustration: Fig. 100.
POINT DE DIEPPE.--Bobbin-made.]
The lace of Eu, resembling Valenciennes, was much esteemed. Located on the
site of a royal château, the property of the Duc de Penthièvre, himself a
most enthusiastic lover of fine point, as his wardrobe accounts testify,
the {222}lace-makers received, no doubt, much patronage and encouragement
from the seigneur of the domain. In the family picture by Vanloo, known as
the "Tasse de Chocolat," containing portraits of the Duc de Penthièvre, his
son, and the unfortunate Princesse de Lamballe, together with his daughter,
soon to be Duchess of Orleans, the duke, who is holding in his hand a
medal, enclosed in a case, wears a lace ruffle of Valenciennes pattern,
probably the fabric of his own people (Fig. 102).
[Illustration: Fig. 101.
DENTELLE À LA VIERGE.]
{223}Arthur Young, in 1788, states the wages of the lace-makers seldom
exceed from seven or eight sous per day; some few, he adds, may earn
fifteen. Previous to the Revolution, the lace made at Dieppe amounted to
400,000 francs annually. But Normandy experienced the shock of 1790. Dieppe
had already suffered from the introduction of foreign lace when the
Revolution broke out in all its fury. The points of Havre, with the fabrics
of Pont-l'Evêque (Dép. Calvados), Harfleur, Eu, and more than ten other
neighbouring towns, entirely disappeared. Those of Dieppe and Honfleur
alone trailed on a precarious existence.
[Illustration: Fig. 102.
DUC DE PENTHIÈVRE.--Vanloo. M. de Versailles.]
CALVADOS.
The principal lace centres in the department of Calvados are Caen and
Bayeux.
From an early date both black and white thread laces were made, of which
the former was most esteemed. It was not until 1745 that the blondes made
their appearance. The first silk used for the new production was of its
natural colour, "écrue," hence these laces were called "blondes."[608]
{224}The blonde of the time of Marie Antoinette is a very light fabric with
spots or outline threads of thicker silk forming a pattern. Later, in the
time of the Empire, the Spanish style came into vogue. The
eighteenth-century patterns were again copied at Caen in the middle of the
nineteenth century. After a time silk was procured of a more suitable
white, and those beautiful laces produced, which before long became of such
commercial importance. A silk throwster, M. Duval, was in a great degree
the originator of the success of the Caen blondes, having been the first to
prepare those brilliant white silks which have made their reputation. The
silk is procured from Bourg-Argental, in the Cevennes. The Caen workers
made the Chantilly lace, "Grillé blanc," already described,[609] and also
the "blonde de Caen," in which the flower is made with a different silk
from that which forms the réseau and outlined with a thick silk strand. The
réseau is of the Lille type, fond simple. It is this kind of blonde which
is so successfully imitated at Calais.
Lastly the "blonde mate," or Spanish, already mentioned. In no other place,
except Chantilly, have the blondes attained so pure a white, such perfect
workmanship, such lightness, such brilliancy as the "Blondes de Caen." They
had great success in France, were extensively imported, and made the
fortune of the surrounding country, where they were fabricated in every
cottage. Not every woman can work at the white lace. Those who have what is
locally termed the "haleine grasse," are obliged to confine themselves to
black. In order to preserve purity of colour, the lace-makers work during
the summer months in the open air, in winter in lofts over their
cow-houses: warmed by the heat of the animals, they dispense with fire and
its accompanying smoke.[610] Generally, it was only made in summer, and the
black reserved for winter work. Peuchet speaks of white lace being made in
Caen from the lowest price to twenty-five livres the ell.[611] According to
Arthur Young, the earnings {225}of the blonde-workers were greater than
those of Dieppe or Havre, a woman gaining daily from fifteen to thirty
sous. The silk blonde trade did not suffer from the crisis of 1821 to '32:
when the thread-lace-makers were reduced to the brink of ruin by the
introduction of bobbin net, the demand for blonde, on the contrary, had a
rapid increase, and Caen exported great quantities, by smuggling, to
England. The blonde-makers earning twenty-five per cent. more than the
thread-lace-makers, the province was in full prosperity. The competition
with the machine-made blondes of Calais and Nottingham has caused the
manufacture of the white blondes to be abandoned, and the Caen lace-makers
have now confined themselves to making black lace. Caen also produces gold
and silver blondes, mixed sometimes with pearls. In 1847 the laces of Caen
alone employed more than 50,000 persons, or one-eighth of the whole
population of Calvados.