calls[612] "point de Marli." "On ne voit dans ces dentelles," he writes,
"que du réseau de diverses espèces, du fond et une canetille à gros fil,
qu'on conduit autour de ces fonds." Marli, styled in the Dictionary of
Napoléon Landais a "tissu à jour en fil et en soie fabriqué sur le métier à
faire de la gaze," was in fact the predecessor of tulle. It was invented
about 1765,[613] and for twenty years had great success, and was much worn
by Marie Antoinette. When the mesh ground with an edging of loops, which
constituted this lace in the decadence of Louis XVI., had a pattern, it was
pois, rosettes, or the spots of point d'esprit. In the _Tableau de Paris_,
1782, we read that Marli employed a great number of workpeople, "et l'on a
vu des soldats valides et invalides faire le marli, le promener, l'offrir,
et le vendre eux-mêmes. Des soldats faire le marli!" It was to this Marli,
or large pieces of white thread net, that Bayeux owed its reputation. No
other fabric could produce them at so low a price. Bayeux alone made albs,
shawls, and other articles of large size, of thread lace.
{226}Lace was first made at Bayeux in the convents and schools, under the
direction of the nuns of "La Providence." The nuns were sent there at the
end of the seventeenth century, to undertake the supervision of the
work-room founded by the Canon Baucher, in the old church of S. George. In
1747 the Abbé Suhard de Loucelles provided additional rooms for them in a
house in the Faubourg St. Loup, close by the church of Notre Dame de la
Poterie. In a short time more than 400 young women were employed at the two
sets of work-rooms, and in 1758 the aldermen of the town presented to the
intendant of the province a pair of thread lace cuffs, which, according to
the accounts of the municipality, cost 144 livres. It was not until 1740
that a commercial house was established by M. Clément; from which period
the manufacture has rapidly increased, and is now one of the most important
in France. The black laces of Caen, Bayeux, and Chantilly, are alike; the
design and mode of fabrication being identical, it is almost impossible,
for even the most experienced eye, to detect the difference. They are
mostly composed of "piece goods," shawls, dresses, flounces, and veils,
made in small strips, united by the stitch already alluded to, the _point
de raccroc_, to the invention of which Calvados owes her prosperity. This
stitch, invented by a lace-maker named Cahanet, admits of putting a number
of hands on the same piece, whereas, under the old system, not more than
two could work at the same time. A scarf, which would formerly have taken
two women six months to complete, divided into segments, can now be
finished by ten women in one. (Plate LIX.)
About 1827, Madame Carpentier caused silk blonde again to be made for
French consumption, the fabric having died out. Two years later she was
succeeded by M. Auguste Lefébure, by whom the making of "blondes mates" for
exportation was introduced with such success, that Caen, who had applied
herself wholly to this manufacture, almost gave up the competition.
Mantillas (Spanish, Havanese, and Mexican), in large quantities, were
exported to Spain, Mexico and the Southern Seas, and were superior to those
made in Catalonia. This manufacture requires the greatest care, as it is
necessary to throw aside the French taste, and adopt the heavy, overcharged
patterns appropriate to the costumes and fashions of the countries for
which they are destined. These mantillas have served as models for the
imitation made at Nottingham. (Plate LXI.)
PLATE LXI.
[Illustration: FRENCH. BLONDE MATE, IN SPANISH STYLE.--Nineteenth century.
Photo by A. Dryden.]
_To face page 226._
{227}[Illustration: Fig. 103.
MODERN BLACK LACE OF BAYEUX.--Much reduced.]
To the exertions of M. Lefébure is due the great improvement in the
teaching of the lace schools. Formerly the apprentices were consigned to
the care of some aged lace-maker, probably of deficient eyesight; he, on
the contrary, {228}placed them under young and skilful forewomen, and the
result has been the rising up of a generation of workers who have given to
Bayeux a reputation superior to all in Calvados. It is the first fabric for
large pieces of extra fine quality and rich designs; and as the point
d'Alençon lace has also been introduced into the city, Bayeux excels
equally at the pillow and the needle (Figs. 103 and 104).
Messrs. Lefébure have also most successfully reproduced the Venetian point
in high relief; the raised flowers are executed with great beauty and the
picots rendered with great precision. The discovery of the way in which
this complicated point lace was made has been the work of great patience.
It is called "Point Colbert." See page 188.
In 1851 there were in Calvados 60,000 lace-workers, spread along the
sea-coast to Cherbourg, where the nuns of La Providence have an
establishment. It is only by visiting the district that an adequate idea
can be formed of the resources this work affords to the labouring classes,
thousands of women deriving from it their sole means of subsistence.[614]
Bayeux is now the centre for high-class lace-making in France. M. Lefébure
considers that the fichus, mantillas, etc., that are made of fine white
thread in the country round Bayeux have all the suppleness and softness
which contribute to the charm of Mechlin lace, to which they have a close
affinity.
BRETAGNE.
No record of lace-making occurs in Bretagne, though probably the Normandy
manufacturers extended westward along the coast. At all events, the wearing
of it was early adopted.
[Illustration: Fig. 104.
POINT COLBERT.--Venetian point in relief reproduced by M. Lefébure.
_To face page 228._]
{229}Embroidered tulle or point d'esprit was made in Brittany as in
Denmark, and around Genoa, where its production still continues.
Embroidered muslins with open-work lace stitches were also made in Brittany
during the eighteenth century, and called Broderie des Indes, after the
Indian muslin scarfs that were brought to Europe at that date, and set the
fashion.
There is a popular ballad of the province, 1587, on "Fontenelle le
Ligueur," one of the most notorious partizans of the League in Bretagne. He
has been entrapped at Paris, and while awaiting his doom, sends his page to
his wife, with these words (we spare our readers the Breton dialect):--
"Page, mon page, petit page, va vite à Coadelan et dis à la pauvre
héritière[615] de ne plus porter des dentelles.
"De ne plus porter des dentelles, parce que son pauvre époux est en
peine. Toi, rapporte-moi une chemise à mettre, et un drap pour
m'ensevelir."[616]
One singular custom prevails among the ancient families in Bretagne; a
bride wears her lace-adorned dress but twice--once on her wedding-day, and
only again at her death, when the corse lies in state for a few hours
before its placing in the coffin. After the marriage ceremony the bride
carefully folds away her dress[617] in linen of the finest homespun,
intended for her winding sheet, and each year, on the anniversary of the
wedding-day, fresh sprigs of lavender and rosemary are laid upon it until
the day of mourning.
{230}CHAPTER XVII.
VALENCIENNES (DÉP. DU NORD).
"Ils s'attachoient à considerer des tableaux de petit point de la
manufacture de Valencienne qui representoient des fleurs, et comme ils
les trouvoient parfaitement beaux, M. de Magelotte, leur hôte, vouloit
les leur donner, mais ils ne les acceptèrent point."--1686. _Voyage des
Ambassadeurs de Siam._
Part of the ancient province of Hainault, Valenciennes, together with Lille
and Arras, is Flemish by birth, French only by conquest and treaty.[618]
Its lace manufacture has been supposed to date from the fifteenth century,
its first productions being attributed to Pierre Chauvin and Ignace Harent,
who employed a three-thread twisted flax. This early date, however, is
probably not correct. It is more probable that Valenciennes developed from
and took the place of the lace-making foundation of Colbert at Le Quesnoy.
The lace of Le Quesnoy is never mentioned after Louis XIV., whereas after
that reign Valenciennes comes into notice. It reached its climax from 1725
to 1780, when there were from 3,000 to 4,000 lace-makers in the city alone.
One of the finest known specimens of the earlier fabric is a lace-bordered
alb,[619] belonging to the ladies of the Convent of the Visitation,[620] at
Le Puy. The lace is 28 inches wide, consisting of three breadths, entirely
of white thread, very fine, though thick. The solid pattern, which with its
flowers and scrolls partakes of the character of the Renaissance, comes out
well from the clear réseau ground.
[Illustration: Fig. 105.
VALENCIENNES.--1650-1730
_To face page 230._]
{231}From 1780 downwards, fashion changed. The cheaper and lighter laces of
Brussels, Lille, and Arras, obtained the preference over the costly and
more substantial products of Valenciennes--les éternelles Valenciennes, as
they were called--while the subsequent disappearance of ruffles from the
costume of the men greatly added to the evil. Valenciennes fell with the
monarchy. During the war of liberty, foreign occupation decimated its
population, and the art became nearly lost. In 1790, the number of
lace-workers had diminished to 250; and, though Napoleon used every effort
to revive the manufacture, he was unsuccessful. In 1851 there were only two
lace-makers remaining, and they both upwards of eighty years of age.
The lace made in the city alone was termed "Vraie Valenciennes," and
attained a perfection unrivalled by the productions of the villages beyond
the walls. In the lace accounts of Madame du Barry we find constant mention
of this term.[621] "Vraie Valenciennes" appears constantly in
contradistinction to "bâtarde"[622] and "fausse," simply leading us to
suppose that the last-mentioned appellations signify the laces fabricated
in the neighbourhood. In support of this assertion, M. Dieudonné
writes:[623] "This beautiful manufacture is so inherent in the place, that
it is an established fact, if a piece of lace were begun at Valenciennes
and finished outside the walls, the part which had not been made at
Valenciennes would be visibly less beautiful and less perfect than the
other, though continued by the same lace-maker with the same thread, and
upon the same pillow."[624]
{232}[Illustration: Fig. 106.
VALENCIENNES.--Period Louis XIV.]
PLATE LXII.
[Illustration: VALENCIENNES.--Three specimens of seventeenth and eighteenth
century. Arranged by age, the oldest at the top, which was made for a royal
personage, with the initials E. P.; it is now the property of Mr. Arthur
Blackborne. Widths of the middle and lower pieces 1½ and 2½ in.
Photos by A. Dryden.]
_To face page 232._
{233}The extinction of the fabric and its transfer to Belgium has been a
great commercial loss to France. Valenciennes, being specially a "dentelle
linge," is that of which the greatest quantity is consumed throughout the
universe. Valenciennes lace is altogether made upon the pillow, with one
kind of thread for the pattern and the ground (Fig. 106). No lace is so
expensive to make, from the number of bobbins required, and the flax used
was of the finest quality. The city-made lace was remarkable for the beauty
of its ground, the richness of its design, and evenness of its tissue. Its
mesh is square or diamond-shaped, and it has no twisted sides; all are
closely plaited. The ornament is not picked out with a cordonnet, as is the
case with Mechlin; but, like Mechlin, the ground went through various
modifications, including the "fond de neige," before the réseau was finally
fixed. From their solidity, "les belles et éternelles Valenciennes" became
an heirloom in each family. A mother bequeathed them to her daughter as she
would now her jewels or her furs.[625] The lace-makers worked in
underground cellars, from four in the morning till eight at night, scarcely
earning their tenpence a day. The pattern was the especial property of the
manufacturer; it was at the option of the worker to pay for its use and
retain her work, if not satisfied with the price she received. This lace
was generally made by young girls; it did not accord with the habits of the
"mère bourgeoise" either to abandon her household duties or to preserve the
delicacy of hand requisite for the work. It may be inferred, also, that no
eyes could support for a number of years the close confinement to a cellar:
many of the women are said to have become almost blind previous to
attaining the age of thirty. It was a great point when the whole piece was
executed by the same lace-worker. "All by the same hand," we find entered
in the bills of the lace-sellers of the time.[626]
The labour of making "vraie Valenciennes" was so great that while the Lille
lace-workers could produce from three to five ells a day, those of
Valenciennes could not complete more than an inch and a half in the same
time. Some lace-workers only made half an ell (24 inches) in a {234}year,
and it took ten months, working fifteen hours a day, to finish a pair of
men's ruffles--hence the costliness of the lace.[627] A pair of ruffles
would amount to 4,000 livres, and the "barbes pleines,"[628] as a lady's
cap was then termed, to 1,200 livres and upwards.
[Illustration: Fig. 107.
VALENCIENNES.]
[Illustration: Fig. 108.
VALENCIENNES LAPPET.--Period Louis XVI.
_To face page 234._]
{235}The Valenciennes of 1780 was of a quality far superior to any made in
the present century. The réseau was fine and compact, the flower resembling
cambric in its texture; the designs still betraying the Flemish origin of
the fabric--tulips, carnations, iris, or anemones--such as we see in the
old Flemish flower-pieces, true to nature, executed with Dutch exactness
(Fig. 108). The city owed not its prosperity to the rich alone; the
peasants themselves were great consumers of its produce. A woman laid by
her earnings for years to purchase a "bonnet en vraie Valenciennes," some
few of which still appear in the northern provinces of France at church
festivals and holidays. These caps are formed of three pieces, "barbes,
passe, et fond." The Norman women also loved to trim the huge fabric with
which they overcharge their heads with a real Valenciennes; and even in the
present day of "bon marché" a peasant woman will spend from 100 to 150
francs on a cap which is to last her for life.
The last important piece made within the city walls was a head-dress of
"vraie Valenciennes" presented by the city to the Duchesse de Nemours, on
her marriage in 1840. It was furnished by Mademoiselle Ursule Glairo,
herself an aged lady, who employed the few old lace-workers then living,
with the patriotic wish of exhibiting the perfection of the ancient
manufacture.[629]
LILLE (DÉP. DU NORD).
"Ces points couppés, passements et dentelles,
Las! qui venoient de l'Isle et de Bruxelles."
--_Consolation des Dames._ 1620.
The fabrics of Lille and Arras are identical; both make white lace with
single grounds (fond simple); but the productions of Lille are far superior
to those of Arras in quality. The manufacture of the capital of French
Flanders vies with those of the Netherlands in antiquity. As early as 1582
its lace-makers are described, at the entry of the Duke of Anjou into the
city, "as wearing a special costume. A gown of striped stuff, with a cap of
fine linen plaited in small flutes." A silver medal suspended from the neck
by a black ribbon completed a dress which has descended to the nineteenth
century.[630] The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle having transferred Lille to
France, many of its artizans retired to {236}Ghent; they are described at
that period as making both white and black lace.[631] The art, however, did
not die out, for in 1713,[632] on the marriage of the Governor, young
Boufflers, to Mademoiselle de Villeroi, the magistrates of Lille presented
him with lace to the value of 4,000 livres.[633]
[Illustration: Fig. 109.
LILLE.]
The beauty of the Lille lace is its ground, called "Point de Lille," or
fond clair, "the finest, lightest, most {237}transparent, and best made of
all grounds."[634] The work is simple, consisting of the ground, with a
thick thread to mark the pattern[635] (Fig. 109). Instead of the sides of
the mesh being plaited, as in Valenciennes, or partly plaited, partly
twisted, as in Brussels and Mechlin, four of the sides are formed by
twisting two threads round each other, and the remaining two sides by
simple crossing of the threads over each other. In the eighteenth century
more than two-thirds of the lace-making population of Europe made it under
the name of mignonettes and blondes de fil.
The "treille"[636] was finer in the last century; but in 1803 the price of
thread having risen 30 per cent.,[637] the lace-makers, unwilling to raise
the prices of their lace, adopted a larger treille, in order to diminish
the quantity of thread required.
The straight edge and stiff pattern of the old Lille lace is well known
(Fig. 110).
The laces of Lille, both black and white, have been much used in France:
though Madame Junot speaks disparagingly of the fabric,[638] the light
clear ground rendered them especially adapted for summer wear.
They found great favour also in England, into which country one-third of
the lace manufactured throughout the Département du Nord was smuggled in
1789.[639] The broad black Lille lace has always been specially admired,
and was extensively used to trim the long silk mantles of the eighteenth
century.[640]
{238}In 1788 there were above 16,000 lace-makers at Lille, and it made
120,000 pieces[641] of lace, representing a value of more than £160,000. In
1851 the number of lace-makers was reduced to 1,600; it is still gradually
diminishing, from the competition of the fabric of Mirecourt and the
numerous other manufactures established at Lille, which offer more
lucrative wages than can be obtained by lace-making.
[Illustration: Fig. 110.
LILLE.]
The old straight-edged is no longer made, but the rose pattern of the
Mechlin is adopted, and the style of that lace copied: the semé of little
square dots (_points d'esprit_) on the ground--one of the characteristics
of Lille lace--is still retained. In 1862 Mrs. Palliser saw at Lille a
complete garniture of beautiful workmanship, ordered for a trousseau at
Paris, but the commercial crisis and the revolutions of 1848 virtually put
an end to the lace industry of Lille and Arras.
{239}ARRAS (ARTOIS) (DÉP. PAS-DE-CALAIS).
"Arras of ryche arraye,
Fresh as floures in Maye."--Skelton.
Arras, from the earliest ages, has been a working city. Her citizens were
renowned for the tapestries which bore their name: the nuns of her convents
excelled in all kinds of needlework. In the history of the Abbaye du
Vivier,[642] we are told how the abbess, Madame Sainte, dite la Sauvage,
set the sisters to work ornaments for the church:--
"Les filles dans l'ouvroir tous les jours assemblées
N'y paroissent pas moins que l'Abbesse zelées,
Celle cÿ d'une aiguille ajuste au petit point
Un bel etuy d'autel que l'eglise n'a point,
Broche d'or et de soÿe un voile de Calice;
L'autre fait un tapis du point de haute lice,
Dont elle fait un riche et precieux frontal;
Une autre coud une aube, ou fait un corporal;
Une autre une chasuble, ou chappe nompareille,
Où l'or, l'argent, la soÿe, arrangés à merveille,
Representant des saints vestus plus richement
Que leur eclat n'auroit souffert de leur vivant;
L'autre de son Carreau detachant la dentelle,
En orne les surplis de quelque aube nouvelle."
Again, among the first rules of the institution of the "Filles de
Sainte-Agnès," in the same city, it is ordained that the girls "aprendront
a filer ou coudre, faire passement, tapisseries ou choses semblables."[643]
The Emperor Charles V. is said, however, to have first introduced the lace
manufacture into Arras.[644] Arras was one of the seats of Colbert's
manufactures, probably of the Flemish bobbin lace. It flourished in the
eighteenth century, when, writes Arthur Young, in 1788, were made "coarse
thread laces, which find a good market in England. The lace-workers earn
from 12 to 15 sous." Peuchet corroborates this statement. "Arras," he
says, {240}"fait beaucoup de mignonette et entoilage, dont on consomme
boucoup en Angleterre." The fabric of Arras attained its climax during the
Empire (1804 to 1812), since which period it has declined. In 1851 there
were 8,000 lace-makers in a radius of eight miles round the city, their
salary not exceeding 65 centimes a day. In 1881, however, the trade had
enormously decreased, only one house making a speciality of the old
patterns. The old Arras laces are now no more.
[Illustration: Fig. 111.
ARRAS.--Modern.]
There is little, or, indeed, no variety in the pattern of Arras lace; for
years it produced the same style and design. As a consequence of this, the
lace-makers, from always executing the same pattern, acquired great
rapidity. Though not so fine as that of Lille, the lace of Arras has three
good qualities: it is very strong, firm to the touch, and perfectly white;
hence the great demand for both home and foreign consumption, no other lace
having this triple merit at so reasonable a price (Fig. 111).
The gold lace of Arras appears also to have had a reputation. We find among
the coronation expenses of George I. a charge for 354 yards of Arras lace
"atrebaticæ lacinæ."[645]
{241}BAILLEUL (DÉP. DU NORD).
As already mentioned, up to 1790 the "vraie Valenciennes" was only made in
the city of that name. The same lace manufactured at Lille, Bergues,
Bailleul, Avesnes, Cassel, Armentières, as well as that of Belgium, was
called "Fausses Valenciennes." "Armentières et Bailleul ne font que de la
Valencienne fausse, dans tous les prix," writes Peuchet. "On nomme," states
another author,[646] "fausses Valenciennes la dentelle de même espèce,
inférieure en qualité, fabriquée moins serrée, dont le dessin est moins
recherché et le toilé des fleurs moins marqué." Of such is the lace of
Bailleul,[647] whose manufacture is the most ancient and most important,
extending to Hazebrouck, Bergues, Cassel, and the surrounding
villages.[648]
Previous to 1830, Bailleul fabricated little besides straight edges for the
Normandy market. In 1832 the scalloped edge was adopted, and from this
period dates the progress and present prosperity of the manufacture. Its
laces are not much esteemed in Paris. They have neither the finish nor
lightness of the Belgian products, are soft to the touch, the mesh round,
and the ground thick; but it is strong and cheap, and in general use for
trimming lace. The lace, too, of Bailleul, is the whitest and cleanest
Valenciennes made; hence it is much sought after, for exportation to
America and India. The patterns are varied and in good taste; and there is
every reason to expect that in due time it may attain the perfection, if
not of the Valenciennes of Ypres, at least to that of Bruges, which city
alone annually sends to France lace to the value of from £120,000 to
£160,000.
{242}CHAPTER XVIII.
AUVERGNE AND VÉLAY.
----
LE PUY (DÉP. HAUTE-LOIRE).
As early as the fifteenth century the countrywomen from the mountains of
the Vélay would congregate together during the winter within the walls of
the neighbouring cities, and there, forming themselves into companies, gain
their subsistence by making coarse lace to ornament the albs of the
priests, the rochets of the bishops, and the petticoats of ladies of
quality. And very coarse and tasteless were these early products, to judge
from the specimens which remain tacked on to faded altar-cloths, still to
be met with in the province, a mixture of netting and darning without
design. They also made what was termed "dentelles de menage" with the
coarse thread they used for weaving their cloth. They edged their linen
with it, and both bleached together in the wearing.