petticoats and toys of lace--a relic of the time when a nunnery of
Cistercians flourished in the place.
Much of a simple design and coarse quality is made in Belev, Vologda,
Riazan, Mzeresk. At Vologda a lace resembling torchon is made, with colours
introduced, red, blue, and écru and white.[751] In some laces silks of
various colours are employed. Pillow-lace has only been known in Russia for
over a hundred years, and although the {284}lace produced is effective, it
is coarse in texture and crude in pattern. Late in the nineteenth century
the Czarina gave her patronage to a school founded at Moscow, where
Venetian needle-point laces have been copied, using the finest English
thread, and needle-laces made after old Russian designs of the sixteenth
century,[752] called _Point de Moscou_.
[Illustration: Fig. 119.
RUSSIA.--Bobbin-made nineteenth century.
_To face page 284._]
{285}CHAPTER XXII.
ENGLAND TO QUEEN ELIZABETH.
"We weare most fantastical fashions than any nation under the sun doth,
the French only excepted."--_Coryat's Crudities._ 1611.
It would be a difficult matter for antiquaries to decide at what precise
time lace, as we now define the word, first appears as an article of
commerce in the annals of our country.
As early as the reign of Edward III.,[753] the excessive luxury of veils,
worn even by servant girls, excited the indignation of the Government, who,
in an Act, dated 1363, forbade them to be worn of silk, or of any other
material, "mes soulement de fil fait deinz le Roialme," for which veils no
one was to pay more than the sum of tenpence. Of what stuff these thread
veils were composed we have no record; probably they were a sort of
network, similar to the caul of Queen Philippa, as we see represented on
her tomb.[754] That a sort of crochet decoration used for edging was
already made, we may infer from the monumental effigies of the day.[755]
The purse of the carpenter is described, too, in Chaucer, as "purled with
latoun," a kind of metal or wire lace, similar to that found at
Herculaneum, and made in some parts of Europe to a recent period.
M. Aubry refers to a commercial treaty of 1390, between England and the
city of Bruges, as the earliest mention of lace. This said treaty we cannot
find in Rymer, Dumont, {286}or anywhere else. We have, as before alluded
to, constant edicts concerning the gold wires and threads of "Cipre, Venys,
Luk, and Jeane," of embroideries and suchlike, but no distinct allusion to
"lace."[756]
According to Anderson, the first intimation of such an occupation being
known in England is the complaint, made in 1454, by the women of the
mystery of thread-working in London, in consequence of the importation of
six foreign women, by which the manufacture of needlework[757] of thread
and silk, not as yet understood, was introduced. These six women, probably
Flemings, had brought over to England the cut-work or darning of the time,
a work then unknown in this country.
All authors, up to the present period, refer to the well-known Act of
Edward IV.,[758] 1463, in which the entry of "laces, corses, ribans,
fringes, de soie and de file, laces de file soie enfile," etc., are
prohibited, as the first mention of "lace" in the public records.
The English edition of the Foedera, as well as the statutes at large,
freely translate these words as laces of thread, silk twined, laces of
gold, etc.; and the various writers on commerce and manufactures have
accepted the definition as "lace," without troubling themselves to examine
the question.[759] Some even go so far as to refer to a MS. in the Harleian
Library,[760] giving "directions for making many sorts of laces,[761] which
were in fashion in the times of King Henry VI. {287}and Edward IV.," as a
proof that lace was already well known, and formed the occupation of the
"handcraftry"--as those who gained their livelihood by manual occupation
were then termed--of the country. Now, the author has carefully examined
this already quoted MS., in the principal letter of which is a damaged
figure of a woman sitting and "making of lace," which is made by means of
"bowys."[762] As regards the given directions, we defy anyone, save the
most inveterate lover of crochet-work, to understand one word of its
contents, beyond that it relates to some sort of twisted thread-work, and
perhaps we might, in utter confusion of mind, have accepted the definition
as given, had not another MS. of similar tenor, bearing date 1651, been
also preserved in the British Museum.[763]
This second MS. gives specimens of the laces, such as they were, stitched
side by side with the directions, which at once establishes the fact that
the laces of silk and gold, laces of thread, were nothing more than braids
or cords--the laces used with tags, commonly called "poynts" (the "ferrets"
of Anne of Austria)--for fastening the dresses, as well as for ornament,
previous to the introduction of pins.
In the Wardrobe Accounts of the time we have frequent notice of these
"laces" and corses. "Laces de quir" (cuir) also appear in the
Statutes,[764] which can only mean what we now term bootlaces, or something
similar.
{288}In the "Total of stuffs bought" for Edward IV.,[765] we have entries:
"Laces made of ryban of sylk; two dozen laces, and a double lace of
ryban"--"corses of sylk with laces and tassels of sylk," etc. Again, to
Alice Claver, his sylkwoman, he pays for "two dozen laces and a double lace
of sylk." These double laces of ribbon and silk were but plaited, a simple
ornament still used by the peasant women in some countries of Europe. There
must, however, be a beginning to everything, and these tag laces--some made
round, others in zigzag, like the modern braids of ladies' work, others
flat--in due course of time enriched with an edging, and a few stitches
disposed according to rule, produced a rude lace; and these patterns,
clumsy at first, were, after a season, improved upon.
From the time of Edward IV. downwards, statute on apparel followed upon
statute, renewed for a number of years, bearing always the same expression,
and nothing more definite.[766]
The Venetian galleys at an early period bore to England the gold work of
"Luk," Florence, "Jeane" and Venice. In our early Parliamentary records are
many statutes on the subject. It is not, however, till the reign of Henry
VII. that, according to Anderson, "Gold and thread lace came from Florence,
Venice, and Genoa, and became an article of commerce. An Act was then
passed to prevent the buyers of such commodities from selling for a pound
weight a packet which does not contain twelve ounces, and the inside of the
said gold, silver, and thread lace was to be of equal greatness of thread
and goodness of colour as the outside thereof."[767]
The Italians were in the habit of giving short lengths, gold thread of bad
quality, and were guilty of sundry other misdemeanours which greatly
excited the wrath of the nation. The balance was not in England's favour.
It was the cheating Venetians who first brought over their gold lace into
England.
PLATE LXXV.
[Illustration: CAP. (FLEMISH OR GERMAN.)--The insertion is cut-work and
needle-point. The lace is bobbin-made, and bears a resemblance to Plate
XXVI., South Italian. Late seventeenth century. Length of lace about 12 in.
Photo by A. Dryden from private collection.]
_To face page 288._
{289}A warrant to the Keeper of the Great Wardrobe, in the eighteenth year
of King Henry's reign,[768] contains an order for "a mauntel lace of blewe
silk and Venys gold, to be delivered for the use of our right dere and
well-beloved Cosyn the King of Romayne"--Maximilian, who was made Knight of
the Garter.[769]
If lace was really worn in the days of Henry VII., it was probably either
of gold or silk, as one of the last Acts of that monarch's reign, by which
all foreign lace is prohibited, and "those who have it in their possession
may keep it and wear it till Pentecost,"[770] was issued rather for the
protection of the silk-women of the country than for the advantage of the
ever-complaining "workers of the mysteries of thread-work."
On the 3rd of October, 1502, his Queen Elizabeth of York pays to one Master
Bonner, at Langley, for laces, rybands, etc., 40s.; and again, in the same
year, 38s. 7d. to Dame Margrette Cotton, for "hosyn, laces, sope, and other
necessaries for the Lords Henry Courtenay, Edward, and the Lady Margrette,
their sister." A considerable sum is also paid to Fryer Hercules for gold
of Venys, gold of Danmarke, and making a lace for the King's mantell of the
Garter.[771]
It is towards the early part of Henry VIII.'s reign that the "Actes of
Apparell"[772] first mention the novel luxury of shirts and partlets,
"garded and pynched,"[773] in addition to clothes decorated in a similar
manner, all of which are {290}forbidden to be worn by anyone under the
degree of a knight.[774] In the year 1517 there had been a serious
insurrection of the London apprentices against the numerous foreign
tradesmen who already infested the land, which, followed up by the
never-ending complaints of the workers of the mysteries of needlework,
induced the king to ordain the wearing of such "myxte joyned garded or
browdered"[775] articles of lynnen cloth be only allowed when the same be
wrought within "this realm of England, Wales, Berwick, Calais, or the
Marches."[776]
The earliest record we find of laced linen is in the Inventory of Sir
Thomas L'Estrange, of Hunstanton, County of Norfolk, 1519, where it is
entered, "3 elles of Holland cloth, for a shirte for hym, 6 shillings,"
with "a yard of lace for hym, 8d."
In a MS. called "The Boke of Curtasye"--a sort of treatise on etiquette, in
which all grades of society are taught their duties--the chamberlain is
commanded to provide for his master's uprising, a "clene shirte," bordered
with lace and curiously adorned with needlework.
The correspondence, too, of Honor. Lady Lisle, seized by Henry VIII.[777]
as treasonous and dangerous to the State, embraces a hot correspondence
with one Soeur Antoinette de Sevenges, a nun milliner of Dunkirk, on the
important subject of nightcaps,[778] one half dozen of which, she
complains, are far too wide behind, and not of the lozenge (cut) work
pattern she had selected. The nightcaps were in consequence to be changed.
Anne Basset, daughter of the said Lady Lisle, educated in a French convent,
writes earnestly begging for an "edge {291}of perle[779] for her coif and a
tablete (tablier) to ware." Her sister Mary, too, gratefully expresses her
thanks to her mother, in the same year,[780] for the "laced gloves you sent
me by bearer." Calais was still an English possession, and her products,
like those of the Scotch Border fortresses, were held as such.[781]
Lace still appears but sparingly on the scene. Among the Privy Purse
expenses of the king in 1530,[782] we find five shillings and eightpence
paid to Richard Cecyll,[783] Groom of the Robes, for eight pieces of
"yelowe lace, bought for the King's Grace." We have, too, in the Harleian
Inventory,[784] a coif laid over with passamyne of gold and silver.
These "Acts of Apparell," as regards foreign imports, are, however,
somewhat set aside towards the year 1546, when Henry grants a licence in
favour of two Florentine merchants to export for three years' time,
together with other matters, "all manner of fryngys and passements wrought
with gold or silver, or otherwise, and all other new gentillesses of what
facyon or value soever they may be, for the pleasure of our dearest wyeff
the Queen, our nobles, gentlemen, and others."[785] The king, however,
reserves to himself the first view of their merchandise, with the privilege
of selecting anything he may please for his own private use, before their
wares were hawked about the country. The said "dearest wyeff," from the
date of the Act, must have been Katherine Parr; her predecessor, Katherine
Howard, had for some four years slept headless in the vaults of the White
Tower chapel. Of these "gentillesses" the king now began to avail himself.
He selects "trunk sleeves of redd cloth of gold with cut-work;" knitted
gloves of silk, and "handkerchers" edged with gold and silver; his towels
are {292}of diaper, "with Stafford knots," or "knots and roses;" he has
"coverpanes of fyne diaper of Adam and Eve garnished about with a narrow
passamayne of Venice gold and silver; handkerchers of Holland, frynged with
Venice gold, redd and white silk," others of "Flanders worke," and his
shaving cloths trimmed in like fashion.[786] The merchandise of the two
Florentines had found vast favour in the royal eyes. Though these articles
were imported for "our dere wyeff's sake," beyond a "perle edging" to the
coif of the Duchess of Suffolk, and a similar adornment to the tucker of
Jane Seymour,[787] lace seems to have been little employed for female
decoration during the reign of King Henry VIII.
[Illustration: Fig. 120.
FISHER, BISHOP OF ROCHESTER. + 1535. (M. de Versailles.)]
That it was used for the adornment of the ministers of the Church we have
ample evidence. M. Aubry states having seen in London lace belonging to
Cardinal Wolsey. On this matter we have no information; but we know the
surplices were ornamented round the neck, shoulders, and sleeves with
"white work" and cut-work[788] at this period. The specimens we give (Figs.
120, 121) are from a portrait formerly in the Library of the Sorbonne, now
transferred to Versailles, of Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Cardinal Fisher
as he is styled--his cardinal's hat arriving at Dover at the very moment
the head that was to wear it had fallen at Tower Hill.
PLATE LXXVI.
[Illustration: ENGLISH. CUTWORK AND NEEDLE-POINT.--Cross said to have
belonged to Cardinal Wolsey.]
PLATE LXXVII.
[Illustration: ENGLISH. DEVONSHIRE "TROLLY."--First part of nineteenth
century.
Photos by A. Dryden from private collection.]
_To face page 292._
{293}About this time, too, lace gradually dawns upon us in the church
inventories. Among the churchwardens' accounts of St. Mary-at-Hill, date
1554, we find entered a charge of 3s. for making "the Bishopp's (boy
bishop) myter with stuff and lace."[789] The richly-laced corporax cloths
and church linen are sent to be washed by the "Lady Ancress," an
ecclesiastical washerwoman, who is paid by the churchwardens of St.
Margaret's, Westminster, the sum of 8d.; this Lady Ancress, or Anchoress,
being some worn-out old nun who, since the dissolution of the religious
houses, eked out an existence by the art she had once practised within the
walls of her convent.
At the burial of King Edward VI., Sir Edward Waldgrave enters on his
account a charge of fifty yards of gold passement lace for garnishing the
pillars of the church.
[Illustration: Fig. 121.
FISHER, BISHOP OF ROCHESTER.--(M. de Versailles.)]
The sumptuary laws of Henry VIII. were again renewed by Queen Mary:[790] in
them ruffles made or wrought out of England, commonly called cut-work, are
forbidden to anyone under the degree of a baron; while to women of a
station beneath that of a knight's wife, all wreath lace or passement lace
of gold and silver with sleeves, partlet or linen trimmed {294}with purles
of gold and silver, or white-works, alias cut-works, etc., made beyond the
sea, is strictly prohibited. These articles were, it seems, of Flemish
origin, for among the New Year's Gifts presented to Queen Mary, 1556, we
find enumerated as given by Lady Jane Seymour, "a fair smock of white
work,[791] Flanders making." Lace, too, is now in more general use, for on
the same auspicious occasion, Mrs. Penne, King Edward's nurse, gave "six
handkerchers edged with passamayne of golde and silke."[792] Two years
previous to these New Year's Gifts, Sir Thomas Wyatt is described as
wearing, at his execution, "on his head a faire hat of velvet, with broad
bone-work lace about it."[793]
Lace now seems to be called indifferently purle, passamayne or bone-work,
the two first-mentioned terms occurring most frequently. The origin of this
last appellation is generally stated to have been derived from the custom
of using sheep's trotters previous to the invention of wooden bobbins.
Fuller so explains it, and the various dictionaries have followed his
theory. The Devonshire lace-makers, on the other hand, deriving their
knowledge from tradition, declare that when lace-making was first
introduced into their county, pins,[794] so indispensable to their art,
being then sold at a price far beyond their means, the lace-makers, mostly
the wives of fishermen living along the coast, adopted the {295}bones of
fish, which, pared and cut into regular lengths, fully answered as a
substitute. This explanation would seem more probable than that of
employing sheep's trotters for bobbins, which, as from 300 to 400 are often
used at one time on a pillow, must have been both heavy and cumbersome.
Even at the present day pins made from chicken bones continue to be
employed in Spain; and bone pins are still used in Portugal.[795]
Shakespeare, in _Twelfth-Night_, speaks of
"The spinsters and the knitters in the sun,
And the free maids that weave their threads with bone."
"Bone" lace[796] constantly appears in the wardrobe accounts, while bobbin
lace[797] is of less frequent occurrence.
Among the New Year's Gifts presented to Queen Elizabeth, we have from the
Lady Paget "a petticoat of cloth of gold stayned black and white, with a
bone lace of gold and spangles, like the wayves of the sea"; a most
astounding article, with other entries no less remarkable but too numerous
to cite.
{296}In the marriage accounts of Prince Charles[798] we have charged 150
yards of bone lace[799] for six extraordinary ruffs and twelve pairs of
cuffs, against the projected Spanish marriage. The lace was at 9s. a yard.
Sum total, £67 10s.[800] Bone lace is mentioned in the catalogue of King
Charles I.'s pictures, drawn up by Vanderdort,[801] where James I. is
described "without a hat, in a bone lace falling band."[802]
Setting aside wardrobe accounts and inventories, the term constantly
appears both in the literature and the plays of the seventeenth century.
"Buy some quoifs, handkerchiefs, or very good bone lace, mistress?"
cries the pert sempstress when she enters with her basket of wares, in
Green's _Tu Quoque_,[803] showing it to have been at that time the usual
designation.
"You taught her to make shirts and bone lace,"
says someone in the _City Madam_.[804]
Again, describing a thrifty wife, Loveless, in _The Scornful Lady_,[805]
exclaims--
"She cuts cambric to a thread, weaves bone lace, and quilts balls
admirably."
The same term is used in the _Tatler_[806] and _Spectator_,[807] {297}and
in the list of prizes given, in 1752, by the Society of Anti-Gallicans, we
find, "Six pieces of bone lace for men's ruffles." It continued to be
applied in the Acts of Parliament and notices relative to lace, nearly to
the end of the eighteenth century.[808] After a time, the sheep's trotters
or bones having been universally replaced by bobbins of turned box-wood,
the term fell into disuse, though it is still retained in Belgium and
Germany.
From the reign of Queen Mary onwards, frequent mention is made of parchment
lace (see pp. 297-298), a term most generally associated with gold and
silver, otherwise we should consider it as merely referring to needle-made
lace, which is worked on a parchment pattern.
But to return to Queen Mary Tudor. We have among the "late Queen Mary's
clothes" an entry of "compas"[809] lace; probably an early name for lace of
geometric pattern. Open-work edging of gold and passamaine lace also occur;
and on her gala robes lace of "Venys gold," as well as "vales of black
network," a fabric to which her sister, Queen Elizabeth, was most partial;
partlets,[810] dressings, shadowes, and pynners "de opere rete," appearing
constantly in her accounts.[811]
It was at this period, during the reign of Henry VIII. and Mary, a peculiar
and universally prevalent fashion, varying in degrees of eccentricity and
extravagance, to slash the garment so as to show glimpses of some
contrasting underdress. Dresses thus slashed, or puffed, banded, "pinched,"
stiff with heavy gold and metal braid or embroidery, required but little
additional adornment of lace.[812] The falling collar, which was worn in
the early part of the sixteenth century, before the Elizabethan ruff
(introduced from France about 1560), was, however, frequently edged with
lace of geometric pattern.
Early in the sixteenth century the dresses of the ladies {298}fitted
closely to the figure, with long skirts open in front to display the
underdress; and were made low and cut square about the neck. Sometimes,
however, the dresses were worn high with short waists and a small falling
collar. Somewhat later, when the dresses were made open at the girdle, a
partlet--a kind of habit-shirt--was worn beneath them, and carried to the
throat.[813]
Entries of lace in the wardrobe accounts are, however, few and
inconsiderable until the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
PLATE LXXVIII.
[Illustration: MARIE DE LORRAINE, 1515-1560. DAUGHTER OF DUC DE GUISE,
MARRIED JAMES V. OF SCOTLAND, 1538. This picture was probably painted
before she left France, by an unknown French artist. National Portrait
Gallery.
Photo by Walker and Cockerell.]
_To face page 298._
{299}CHAPTER XXIII.
QUEEN ELIZABETH.
"By land and sea a Virgin Queen I reign,
And spurn to dust both Antichrist and Spain."--Old Masque.
"Tell me, Dorinda, why so gay?
Why such embroidery, fringe and lace?
Can any dresses find a way
To stop the approaches of decay
And mend a ruined face?"--Lord Dorset.
Up to the present time our mention of lace, both in the Statutes and the
Royal Wardrobe Accounts, has been but scanty. Suddenly, in the days of the
Virgin Queen, both the Privy Expenses and the Inventories of New Year's
Gifts overflow with notices of passaments, drawn-work, cut-work, crown
lace,[814] bone lace for ruffs, Spanish chain, byas,[815] parchment,
hollow,[816] billament,[817] and diamond {300}lace[818] in endless, and to
us, we must own, most incomprehensible variety.
The Surtees' _Wills and Inventories_ add to our list the laces Waborne[819]
and many others. Lace was no longer confined to the court and high
nobility, but, as these inventories show, it had already found its way into
the general shops and stores of the provincial towns. In that of John
Johnston, merchant, of Darlington, already cited, we have twelve yards of
"loom" lace, value four shillings, black silk lace, "statute" lace, etc.,
all mixed up with entries of pepper, hornbooks, sugar-candy, and spangles.
About the same date, in the inventory taken after the death of James
Backhouse, of Kirby-in-Lonsdale, are found enumerated "In y^e great
shoppe," thread lace at 16s. per gross; four dozen and four "pyrled" lace,
four shillings; four quarterns of statching (stitching or seaming?) lace;
lace edging; crown lace; hollow lace; copper lace; gold and silver chean
(chain) lace, etc. This last-mentioned merchant's store appears to have
been one of the best-furnished provincial shops of the period. That of John
Farbeck, of Durham, mercer, taken thirty years later, adds to our list
seventy-eight yards of velvet lace, coloured silk, chayne lace, "coorld"
lace, petticoat lace, all cheek by jowl with Venys gold and turpentine.
To follow the "stitches" and "works" quoted in the Wardrobe Accounts of
Elizabeth--all made out in Latin, of which we sincerely trust, for the
honour of Ascham, the {301}Queen herself was guiltless--would be but as the
inventory of a haberdasher's shop.
We have white stitch, "opus ret' alb," of which she had a kirtle, "pro le
hemmynge et edginge" of which, with "laqueo coronat' de auro et arg'"--gold
and silver crown lace--and "laqueo alb' lat' bon' operat' super
oss'"--broad white lace worked upon bone--she pays the sum of 35s.[820]