INDEX (continued 2)

Notes

[1]

Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, vol. iii., p. 134. (See Illustration.)

[2]

Herodotus, ii. 182; iii. 47.

[3]

Ezekiel, who takes up the cry of lamentation for "Tyrus, situate at the entry of the sea," a merchant of the people for many isles, exclaims, "The merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad were thy merchants. These were thy merchants in all sorts of things, in blue cloths and broidered works, and in chests of rich apparel." Another part of the same chapter mentions galley sails of fine linen "with broidered work from Egypt."—Ezekiel xxvii.

[4]

Exodus xxvi.; xxvii.; xxxiv. 2; Isaiah iii. 18; 1 Kings vii. 17.

[5]

Exodus xxxviii. 23.

[6]

Again, in the song of Deborah, the mother of Sisera says, "Have they not divided the prey?... to Sisera a prey of divers colours of needlework, of divers colours of needlework on both sides."—Judges v. 30.

[7]

Cantor Lectures on the Art of Lace-making. A. S. Cole (London, 1881).

[8]

At Athens the maidens who took part in the procession of the Panathenaea embroidered the veil or peplos upon which the deeds of the goddess were embroidered. The sacred peplos borne on the mast of a ship rolled on wheels in the Panathenaic festival "was destined for the sacred wooden idol, Athene Polias, which stood on the Erechtheus. This peplos was a woven mantle renewed every five years. On the ground, which is described as dark violet, and also as saffron-coloured, was inwoven the battle of the gods and the giants." (See page 47, British Museum Catalogue to the Sculptures of the Parthenon.)

[9]

Pliny, Hist. Nat., viii. 74. "Colores diversos picturae intexere Babylon maxime celebravit et nomen imposuit."

[10]

Maspero, The Dawn of Civilisation in Egypt and Chaldaea (ed. Prof. Sayce).

[11]

Lefébure, Embroidery and Lace (trans. A. S. Cole).

[12]

Lucan, Pharsalia, Book X.

[13]

The Romans denominated such embroideries phrygionae, and the embroiderer phrygio. Golden embroideries were specified as auriphrygium. This word is the root of the French orfroi (orfreys).

[14]

Mrs. Palliser quotes an extract from the author of Letters from Italy, who, speaking of the cabinet at Portici, mentions an elegant marble statue of Diana "dressed after the purple gowns worn by the Roman ladies; the garment is edged with a lace exactly resembling point; it is an inch and a half broad, and has been painted purple." By an Englishwoman (Mrs. Millar) in the years 1770 and 1771 (London, 1777).

[15]

Strutt.

[16]

Lefébure, Embroidery and Lace.

[17]

Mrs. Bury Palliser, "Embroidery," Encyclopædia Britannica.

[18]

St. Giselle, Berthe's sister, founded many convents in Aquitaine and Provence, and taught the nuns all manner of needlework (Lefébure, Embroidery and Lace).

[19]

Chronique Rimée, by Philippe Mouskés.

[20]

Lefébure, Embroidery and Lace.

[21]

Mrs. Palliser, "Embroidery," Encyclopædia Britannica.

[22]

It has been suggested that the embroidery was done by William's granddaughter, the Empress Matilda, widow in 1125 of Henry V., Emperor of Germany, and wife, by her second marriage, of Geoffrey, Count of Anjou (Lefébure).

[23]

Mr. Fowke states that the tradition which would make the tapestry the handiwork of Queen Matilda cannot be traced further back than 1803, when the tapestry was sent to Paris for exhibition.

[24]

Matt. Par., Hist. Angl., p. 473, Edit. Paris, 1644.

[25]

Mrs. Palliser, "Embroidery," Encyclopædia Britannica.

[26]

At Verona an artist took twenty-six years to execute in needlework the life of St. John, after the designs of Pollajuolo.

[27]

"Gaston, Duke of Orleans, established hot-houses and botanical gardens, which he filled with rare exotics to supply the needle with new forms and richer tints" (Lefébure).

[28]

We read, for instance, that Gabrielle de Bourbon, wife of Louis de la Trémouille, "jamais n'estoit oyseuse, mais s'employoit une partie de la journée en broderies et autres menus ouvrages appartenant à telles dames, et y occupoit ses demoyselles dont avoit bonne quantité, et de grosses, riches, et illustres maisons."—Panegyric de Loys de la Trèmoille par Jean Bouchet.

Again Vecellio dedicates his "Corona" to Signora Nanni, not only on account of the pleasure she takes in works of the needle, but for "il diletto che prende in farne essercitar le donne de casa sua, ricetto delle più virtuose giovani che hoggidi vivono in questa città."

"It is usual here," writes a lady from Madrid in 1679, "for good families to put their daughters to ladies, by whom they are employed to embroider in gold and silver, or various colours, or in silk, about the shift, neck, and hands."

[29]

"One day, seated in her father's room, she was skilfully working a stole and amict in silk and gold, and she was making in it, with great care, many a little cross and many a little star, singing all the while this chanson à toile."

[30]

In one of Edward I. we find a charge of eight shillings for silk bought for the embroidery work of Margaret, the King's daughter, and another for four ounces of silk, two hundred ounces of gold thread, a spindle, etc.—Liber de Garderoba, 23 Edw. I., Public Record Office.

In one of Edward III. the sum of £2 7s. 2d. is expended in the purchase of gold thread, silk, etc., for his second daughter Joanna.—Liber Garderobae, 12-16 Edw. III., Public Record Office.

Elizabeth of York worked much at her needle. In the account of her household, preserved in the Public Record Office, every page of which is signed by Queen Elizabeth herself, we find—

"To Evan Petreson joiner, for the stuff and making of 4 working stools for the Queen; price of the stool 16 pence—5s. 4d.

"To Thomas Fissch, for an elne of linen cloth for a samplar for the queen, 8d."

In the Inventory 4 Edward VI., 1552 (Harl. MSS. No. 1419), are entries of—

"Item, XII. samplars" (p. 419).

"Item, one samplar of Normandie canvas, wrought with green and black silk" (p. 524).

"A book of parchment containing diverses patternes" (p. 474), probably purchases for his sisters.

[31]

See, for instance, the interesting account of the Countess of Oxford, given by Miss Strickland in her Life of Queen Elizabeth of York.

[32]

These are alluded to in the dialogue between Industria and Ignavia, as given in Sibmacher's "Modelbuch," 1601 (French translation): "La vieille dame raconte l'histoire des concours de travail à l'aiguille chez les anciens Espagnols; comme Isabelle, femme de Ferdinand, a hautement estimé les travaux de l'aiguille."

The "Spanish stitch," so often mentioned, was brought in by Katharine, on her marriage with Prince Arthur, in 1501. We have constantly in her wardrobe accounts sheets and pillow-beres, "wrought with Spanish work of black silk at the edge."

In the Inventory of Lord Monteagle, 1523 (Public Record Office,) are "eight partlets, three garnished with gold, the rest with Spanish work."

In 1556, among the New Year's gifts presented to Queen Mary Tudor, most of the smocks are "wrought with black silk, Spanish fashion."

In the Great Wardrobe Accounts of Queen Elizabeth, 3 & 4, Public Record Office, we have "sixteen yards of Spanish work for ruffs."

"Twelve tooth cloths, with the Spanish stitch, edged with gold and silver bone lace."—Ibid. Eliz. 5 & 6.

The Spanish stitch appears in France with Henry II., 1557. "Pour la façon d'ung gaban avec ung grant collet chamarrez à l'Espaignolle de passement blanc," etc.—Comptes de l'Argentier du Roy. Archives Nat. K. K. 106.

[33]

Taylor, the Water Poet, Katharine of Aragon.

[34]

The industry of Henry's last queen was as great as that of his first. Specimens still exist at Sizergh Castle, Westmoreland, of Katharine Parr's needlework—a counterpane and a toilet cover. An astrologer, who cast her nativity, foretold she would be a queen; so when a child, on her mother requiring her to work, she would exclaim, "My hands are ordained to touch crowns and sceptres, not needles and spindles."

[35]

Dames Illustres.

[36]

The "Reine des Marguerites," the learned sister of Francis I., was not less accomplished with her needle, and entries for working materials appear in her accounts up to the year of her death, 1549.

"Trois marcs d'or et d'argent fournis par Jehan Danes, pour servir aux ouvraiges de la dicte dame."—Livre de dépenses de Marguerite d'Angoulême, par le Comte de la Ferrière-Percy. Paris, 1862.

[37]

—Ode à la Royne de Navarre, liv. ii., od. vii.

[38]

1380. "Œuvre de nonnain."—Inventaire de Charles V.

[39]

"My grandmother, who had other lace, called this" (some needlepoint) "nun's work."—Extract from a letter from the Isle of Man, 1862.

"A butcher's wife showed Miss O—— a piece of Alençon point, which she called 'nun's work.'"—Extract from a letter from Scotland, 1863.

1698, May. In the London Gazette, in the advertisement of a sale by auction, among other "rich goods," we find "nun's work," but the term here probably applies to netting, for in the Protestant Post Boy of March 15th, 1692, is advertised as lost "A nun's work purse wrought with gold thread."

1763. In the Edinburgh Advertiser appears, "Imported from the Grand Canaries, into Scotland, nun's work."

[40]

As, for instance, "the imbrothering" of the monks of the monastery of Wolstrope, in Lincolnshire.

[41]

Livre de Lingerie. Dom. de Sera, 1581. "Donne, donzelle, con gli huomini."—Taglienti, 1530. Patterns which "les Seigneurs, Dames, et Damoiselles ont eu pour agréables."—Vinciolo, 1587.

[42]

Jehan Mayol, carme de Lyon; Fra Hieronimo, dell' Ordine dei Servi; Père Dominique, religieux carme, and others.

[43]

One in the Bibliothèque Impériale is from the "Monasterio St. Germani à Pratis."

[44]

He died in 1595. Lives of the Earl and Countess of Arundel, from the original MS. by the Duke of Norfolk. London, 1857.

[45]

P. R. O. Calendar of State Papers. Domestic. Charles I. Vol. clxix. 12.

[46]

P. R. O. Calendar of State Papers. Colonial. No. 789.

[47]

See his epigram, "The Royal Knotter," about the queen,

[48]

Translated from the Libellus de Admirandis beati Cuthberti Miraculis of Reginald, monk of Durham, by Rev. J. Rain. Durham, 1855.

[49]

Chronicle of John Hardyng, circ. 1470.

[50]

Temp. Rich. II. In their garments "so much pouncing of chesell to make holes, so much dragging (zigzagging) of sheers," etc.—Good Parson, Chaucer.

[51]

Percy, Reliques of Ancient Poetry, vol. iii.

[52]

Anatomie of Abuses, by Philip Stubbes, 1583.

[53]

The Shyp of Folys of the Worlde, translated out of Latin by Alex. Barclay, 1508.

[54]

The inventories of all nations abound in mention of these costly articles. The "smocks" of Katharine of Aragon "for to lay in," were wrought about the collar with gold and silk. Lord Monteagle, 1523, had "two fine smocks of cambric wrought with gold." (Inv. P. R. O.) Among the New Year's Gifts offered to Queen Mary Tudor by the Duchess of Somerset (1556), we find a smock wrought over with silk, and collar and ruffles of damask, gold purl, and silver. Again, in the household expenses of Marguerite de France, 1545, we find a charge of "4 livres 12 sols, pour une garniture de chemise ouvré de soye cramoisie pour madicte dame."—(Bib. Imp. MSS. Fonds François, 10,394.) About the same date (G. W. A. Eliz. 1 & 2, 1558-59) appear charges for lengthening one smocke of drawne work, 20s. Six white smockes edged with white needlework lace, 10s. To overcasting and edging 4 smockes of drawn work with ruffs, wristbands, and collars, three of them with black work, and three of them with red, etc. At the funeral of Henry II. of France, 1559, the effigy was described as attired in "une chemise de toile de Hollande, bordée au col et aux manches d'ouvraige fort excellent."—Godefroy, Le Cérémonial de France, 1610.

[55]

See France.

[56]

The pillow-bere has always been an object of luxury, a custom not yet extinct in France, where the "taies d'oreiller, brodées aux armes," and trimmed with a rich point, form an important feature in a modern trousseau. In the inventory of Margaret of Austria, the gentle governess of the Low Countries, are noted—

"Quatre toyes d'oraillers ouvrées d'or et de soye cramoysie et de verde.

"Autres quatres toyes d'oraillers faites et ouvrées d'or et de soye bleu à losanges qui ont estées données à Madame par dom Diego de Cabrera."—Corr. de l'Empereur Maximilien I. et de Marguerite d'Autriche, par M. Leglay. Paris, 1839.

Edward VI. has (Harl. MSS. 1419) "18 pillow-beres of hollande with brode seams of silk of sundry coloured needlework." And again, "One pillow-bere of fine hollande wrought with a brode seam of Venice gold and silver, and silk nedlework."

And Lady Zouche presents Queen Elizabeth, as a New Year's gift, with "One pair of pillow-beares of Holland work, wrought with black silk drawne work."—Nichol's Royal Progresses.

[57]

Goderonné—goudronné, incorrectly derived from pitch (goudron), has no relation to stiffness or starch, but is used to designate the fluted pattern so much in vogue in the sixteenth century—the "gadrooned" edge of silversmiths.

1588. Il avait une fraise empesée et godronnée à gros godrons, au bout de laquelle il y avoit de belle et grande dentelle, les manchettes estoient goudronnées de mesme.

[58]

They are introduced into the Title page of this work.

[59]

See Appendix.

[60]

"Quintain, quintin, French lawne." Randle Cotgrave. Dictionarie of the French and English tongues. 1611.

"26 virges de Kanting pro sudariis pro ille 47⁄8."—G. W. A. Charles II., 1683-4.

[61]

Lacis, espèce d'ouvrage de fil ou de soie fait en forme de filet ou de réseuil dont les brins étaient entre-lacez les uns dans les autres.—Dict. d'Ant. Furetière, 1684.

[62]

Béle Prerie contenant differentes sortes de lettres, etc., pour appliquer sur le réseuil ou lassis. Paris, 1601. See Appendix.

[63]

So, in the Epistle to the Reader, in a Pattern-book for Cut-works (London, J. Wolfe & Edward White, 1591), the author writes of his designs:—

"All which devises are soe framed in due proportion as taking them in order the one is formed or made by the other, and soe proceedeth forward; whereby with more ease they may be sewed and wrought in cloth, and keeping true accompt of the threads, maintaine the bewtey of the worke. And more, who desyreth to bring the work into a lesser forme, let them make the squares lesse. And if greater, then inlarge them, and so may you worke in divers sortes, either by stitch, pouncing or pouldering upon the same as you please. Alsoe it is to be understood that these squares serve not only for cut-workes, but alsoe for all other manner of seweing or stitching."—(See Appendix, No. 72).

[64]

Pratique de l'aiguille industrieuse du très excellent Milour Matthias Mignerak, etc. Paris, 1605. See Appendix.

[65]

The inventories of Charles de Bourbon, ob. 1613, with that of his wife, the Countess of Soissons, made after her death, 1644 (Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 11,426), alone prove how much this réseuil was in vogue for furniture during the seventeenth century.

"Item un pavilion de thoille de lin à bende de reseuil blang et noir faict par carel prisé, vi. l. t. (livres tournois).

"Item quatre pentes de ciel de cotton blanc à carreaux.

"Item trois pentes de ciel de thoille de lin à carreaux et raiseuil recouvert avec le dossier pareil estoffe, et petit carreau à point couppé garny de leur frange, le fonds du ciel de thoille de lin, trois custodes et une bonne grace et un drap pareille thoille de lin à bandes de reseuil recouvert ... prisé xviii. l. t."—Inv. de Charles de Bourbon.

"Item une autre tapisserie de rezeuil de thoile blanche en huit pièces contenant ensemble vingt aulnes on environ sur deux aulnes trois quarts de haute.

"Item une autre tenture de tapisserie de rézeau tout de leine (lin) appliquée sur de la toille blanche en sept pièces contenant dix-huit aulnes de cours sur trois aulnes de haute.

"Item trois pantes, fonds de dossier, les deux fourreaux de piliers, la converture de parade, le tout en point couppé et toillé.

"Item, une garniture de lict blanc, faict par carré d'ouvrage de poinct couppé, le tout garny avec la couverte de parade, prisé la somme de soixante livres tournois."—Inv. de la Comtesse de Soissons.

[66]

Dated 20 Feb., 1587. Now in the Record Office, Edinburgh.

[67]

1781. "Dix-huit Pales de differentes grandeurs, tous de toile garnis tant de petite dentelle que de filet brodé."—Inv. de l'Eglise de S. Gervais. Arch. Nat. L.L. 654.

[68]

Point and Pillow Lace, by A. M. S. (London, 1899).

[69]

In the Record Office, Edinburgh.

[70]

"Mache, the Masches (meshes) or holes of a net between the thread and thread" (Cotgrave).

[71]

Comptes de la Reine de Navarre, 1577. Arch. Nat. K.K. 162.

[72]

Inventory of Catherine de Médicis, Bonaffé.

[73]

Randle Holme, in The School Mistris Terms of Art for all her Ways of Sewing, has "A Samcloth, vulgarly, a Samplar."

[74]

In the Bock collection, part of which has since been bought for the Victoria and Albert Museum, are specimens of "rézeuil d'or," or network with patterns worked in with gold thread and coloured silks. Such were the richly-wrought "serviettes sur filez d'or" of Margaret of Austria.

"Autre servyette de Cabes (Cadiz) ouvrée d'or, d'argent sur fillez et bordée d'or et de gris.

"Autre serviette à Cabes de soye grise et verde à ouvrage de fillez bordée d'une tresse de verd et gris."—Inventory already quoted.

[75]

"Le Gan," de Jean Godard, Parisien, 1588.

[76]

Descriptive Catalogue of the Collections of Tapestry and Embroidery in the South Kensington Museum (p. 5).

[77]

Lace. French, dentelle; German, Spitzen; Italian, merletto, trina; Genoa, pizzo; Spanish, encaje; Dutch, kanten.

[78]

Statute 3 Edw. IV. c. iii.

[79]

"Passement, a lace or lacing."—Cotgrave.

[80]

Not in those of Rob. Estienne, 1549; Frère de l'Aval, 1549; or Nicot, 1606. Cotgrave has, "Dentelle, small edging (and indented), bone-lace, or needlework." In Dict. de l'Académie, 1694, we find, "Dentelle, sorte de passement à jour et à mailles tres fines ainsi nommé parceque les premières qu'on fit etoient dentelées."

[81]

Comptes de l'Argentier du Roi, 1557.—Arch. Nat. K. K. 106. "Passement de fine soie noire dentelle d'un costé." "Passement blanc," "grise," also occur.

[82]

Argenterie de la Reine, 1556.—Arch. Nat. K. K. 118.

[83]

Dépenses de la maison de Madame Marguerite de France, sœur du Roi.—Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 10,394, fol. 62.

[84]

"Plus de delivré une pacque de petite dentelle qui est estez cousu ensemble pour mettre sur les coutures des rideaux des ditz litz contenant 80 aunes."—Rec. Off., Edin. This custom of trimming the seams of bed-curtains with a lace indented on both sides was common throughout Europe. In the Chartley Inv. of Mary Stuart, 1586, one of the Vasquines (jackets) is described, "Autre de satin noir descouppée a descouppemie dentelés."

[85]

1577. "Pour deux aulnes de passement d'argent a hautte dantelle pour mettre à ung renvers, au pris de soixante solz l'aulne.

"Pour une aulne de dentelle pour faire deux cornettes pour servir à la dicte dame, quatre livres."—Cptes. de la Reine de Navarre. Arch. Nat. K. K. 162.

[86]

See Appendix.

[87]

"Petits et grands passements; id. à l'esguille; id. faict au mestier; id. de Flandres à poinctes; id. orangé à jour; id. de Flandres satiné;" with "reseuil, dantelles, grandes et petites, or, argent," etc.—Inv. de Madame, sœur du Roi. Arch. Nat. K. K. 234.

So late as 1645, in the inventory of the church of St. Médard at Paris (Arch de l'Emp. L. L. 858), the word is used. We find, "Quatre tours de chaire de thoille baptiste, ung beau surplis pour le predicateur, six autres, cinq corporaulx," all "à grand passement." Also, "deux petits corporaulx à petit passement," and "trois tours de chaire garnyz de grand passement à dentelle."

[88]

Inv. apres le decès de Mgr. le Maréchal de La Motte.—Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 11,426.

[89]

The French terms are more comprehensive:—

Champ, fond travaillé à jour.

Toilé, fleurs entièrement remplies, formant un tissu sans jour.

Grillé, grillage, plein. Also flowers—but distinguished from toilé by having little square spaces between the thread (grillé, grating), the work not being so compact.

"On appelle couleuvre, une blond dont le toilé continue serpente entre deux rangs de grillage."—Roland de la Platière (the Girondin). Art. Dentelle, Encyclopédie Méthodique. Paris, 1780.

[90]

Storehouse of Armory and Blason. 1688.

[91]

"Brides—petits tissus de fil qui servent à joindre les fleurs les unes avec les autres dans l'espèce de dentelle qu'on appelle Point de France, de Venise, de Malines."—Dict de l'Académie.

[92]

"Une robe et tablier, garnis d'une dentelle d'Angleterre à picot."—Inv. de decès de la Duchesse de Bourbon. Arch. Nat. X. 10,064.

[93]

"Une chemisette de toile d'hollande garnye de point de Paris."—Inv. d'Anne d'Escoubleau, Baronne de Sourdis, veuve de François de Simiane. 1681. Arch. Nat. M. M. 802.

[94]

"Cette dernière sorte de point se fait aux fuseaux."—Dict. du P. Richelet. Lyon. 1759.

[95]

Dict. d'Ant. Furetière. Augmenté par M. Basnage. La Haye, 1727.

[96]

1656.

[97]

1651. "Huit aulnes de toile commune garnies de neige."—Inv. des emubles de la Sacristie de l'Oratoire de Jésus, à Paris. Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 8621.

"Neuf autres petites nappes; les deux premières de toile unie; la troisième à dentelle quallifié de neige."—Ibid.

[98]

French, dentelle à fuseaux; Italian, merli a piombini; Dutch, gespeldewerkte kant; Old Flemish, spelle werk.

[99]

French, carreau, cousin, oreiller; Italian, tombolo; Venice, ballon; Spanish, mundillo.

[100]

See Chapter XXIV.

[101]

The number of bobbins is generally equal to 50 to each square inch. If the lace be one inch wide, it will have 625 meshes in each square inch, or 22,500 in a yard. The work, therefore, goes on very slowly, though generally performed with the greatest dexterity.

[102]

At Gisors, Saint-Denis, Montmorency, and Villiers-le-Bel.—Savary, Grand Dict. du Commerce, 1720.

Cotgrave gives, "Bisette, a plate (of gold, silver, or copper) wherewith some kinds of stuffes are stripped." Oudin, "Feuille ou paillette d'or ou d'argent." In these significations it frequently occurs. We find with numerous others:

"1545. 55 sols pour une once bizette d'argent pour mectre à des colletz."

"Six aulnes bizette de soie noire pour mettre sur une robbe, lv. s.," in the Accounts of Madame Marguerite de France. (Bib. Nat.)

"1557. Bizette de soye incarnatte et jaulne pour chamarrer ung pourpoint de satin rouge" of Henry II.—Cptes. de l'Argentier du Roi. Arch. Nat. K. K. 106.

"1579. Petite bizette d'or fin dentellez des deux costez pour servir à desmanches de satin cramoisy" of Catherine de Médicis.—Trésorerie de la royne mère du roy. Arch. Nat. K. K. 115.

In the Chartley Inv. 1586, of Mary Stuart, is mentioned, "Un plotton de bisette noire."

[103]

Dict. de l'Académie.

[104]

Campane, from sonnette, clochette, même grêlot. "Les sonnettes dont on charge les habits pour ornement. Les festons qu'on met aux étoffes et aux dentelles."—Oudin.

[105]

Public Record Office.

[106]

In the last century it was much the fashion to trim the scalloped edges of a broader lace with a narrower, which was called to "campaner."

1720. "Une garniture de teste à trois pièces de dentelle d'Angleterre à raiseau, garni autour d'une campane à dents."—Inv. de la Duchesse de Bourbon.

1741. "Une paire de manches à trois rangs de Malines à raizeau campanée."—Inv. de decès de Mademoiselle Marie Anne de Bourbon de Clermont. Arch. Nat. X. 11,071. (Daughter of Mademoiselle de Nantes and Louis Duke de Bourbon.)

"Une coëffure de Malines à raizeau à deux pièces campanée."—Ibid.

In the lace bills of Madame du Barry, preserved in the Bib. Nat., are various entries of Angleterre et point à l'aiguille, "campanée des deux côtés" for ruffles, camisoles, etc.

[107]

1759. "Huit palatines tant points que mignonettes."—Inv. de decès de Louise Henriette de Bourbon-Conty, Princesse du Sang, Duchesse de Orléans. Arch. Nat. X. 10,077.

"Trente-vingt paires de manchettes, quatre coëffures, le tout tant de differents points qu'Angleterre, mignonettes que tulles."—Ibid.

[108]

1758. "Une paire de manchettes à trois rangs de blonde de fil sur entoilage."—Inv. de Mademoiselle Louise Anne de Bourbon Condé de Charollais (sister of Mademoiselle de Clermont). Arch. Nat. X. 10,076.

1761. "Fichus garnis à trois rangs de blonde de fil sur entoilage."—Inv. de Charlotte Aglaë d'Orléans, Princesse du Sang, Duchesse de Modène (daughter of the Regent).

1789. Ruffles of blonde de fil appear also in the Inv. de decès de Monseigneur le Duc de Duras. Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 11,440.

[109]

Mostly at Bayeux.

[110]

"On employe aussi pour les coëffures de la mignonette, et on a tellement perfectionné cette dentelle, que estant peu de chose dans son commencement est devenue de consequence et même très chère, j'entends, la plus fine qu'on fait sur de beaux patrons."—Le Mercure Galant, 1699.

[111]

"Guiper. Tordre les fils pendans d'une frange par le moyen de l'instrument qu'on nomme guipoir, fer crochu d'un côté, et chargé de l'autre d'un petit morceau de plomb pour lui donner du poids."—Savary.

[112]

"Guipure. A grosse black thread covered or whipped about with silk."—Cotgrave.

"Guipure. Manière de dentelle de soie où il y a des figures de rose ou d'autres fleurs, et qui sert à parer les jupes des dames.... Sa jupe est pleine de guipure."—Dict. du P. Richelet. 1759.

[113]

Roland. We cannot help thinking this a mistake. In the statutes of the Passementiers, we find mention of buttons "à têtes de mort," or would it rather be "tête de moire," from the black moire hoods (têtes) worn by the Italian women, which were often edged with a narrow guipure?

[114]

Les lieux en France où il se fait le plus de guipures, sont Saint-Denis-en-France, Villiers-le-Bel, Ecouën, Arcelles, Saint-Brice, Groslait, Montmorency, Tremblay, Villepinte, etc.

[115]

The sale of Guipures belonged to the master mercers, the workmanship to the passementiers boutonniers. We find in the Livre Commode ou les Adresses de la Ville de Paris for 1692, that "Guipures et galons de soye se vendent sur le Petit Pont et rue aux Febvres, où l'on vend aussi des galons de livrées."

[116]

Godefroy. Le Cérémonial de France, 1610. Sacre du Roy Henry II., 1547.

[117]

In 1549. Ibid.

[118]

Traité des Marques Nationales, dar M. Beneton de Morange de Peyrins. Paris, 1739.

[119]

In the Record Office, Edinburgh.

[120]

Une robe de velours vert couverte de Broderies, gimpeures, et cordons d'or et d'argent, et bordée d'un passement de même.

Une robe veluat cramoisi bandée de broderie de guimpeure d'argent.

Une robe de satin blanc chamarrée de broderie faite de guimpeure d'or.

Id. de satin jaune toute couverte de broderye gumpeure, etc.

Robe de weloux noyr semée geynpeurs d'or.

[121]

Dictionnaire de l'Académie.

[122]

1536-44. Sir Fred. Madden.

2 payr of sleeves whereof one of gold w^h p'chemene lace, etc.

2 prs. of sleves w^h pchmyn lase, 8⁄6.

[123]

Ecclesiastical Memoirs, iii. 2, 167.

[124]

State Papers, vol. 82, P. R. O.

[125]

Surtees' Society, Durham, "Wills and Inventories."

[126]

1572. Thynne, in his Debate between Pride and Lowliness, describes a coat "layd upon with parchment lace withoute."

[127]

B. M. Add. MSS. No. 5751.

[128]

Roll. 1607. P. R. O.

[129]

Ibid. 1626. 11 nightcaps of coloured satin, laid on thick, with gold and silver parchment lace, 41. 9. 9.

[130]

Roll. 1630.

[131]

"Eidem pro novemdecem virḡ et dim̄ aureæ et argenteæ pergamen̄ laciniæ pondent sexdecim unc̄ 2/ʒ 1/℈ venet. ... pro consuat̄ ad ornand̄ duas sedes utroque latere thronæ in domo Parliament."—Gt. Ward. Acc. Car. II. xxx. and xxxi. = 1678-9.

In 1672-73 is an entry for "2 virgis teniæ pergamen̄."

[132]

Surtees' "Inventories."

[133]

Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 8621.

[134]

In the Recueil de pièces les plus agréables de ce temps, composées par divers autheurs. Paris, chez Charles Sercy, MDCLXI.

The poem is dedicated to Mademoiselle de la Trousse, cousin of Madame de Sévigné, and was probably written by one of her coterie.

[135]

The Cravates or Croates soldiers had a band of stuff round their throats to support an amulet they wore as a charm to protect them from sabre-cuts. What began in superstition ended in fashion.

[136]

These were, in France, Guibray, Beaucaire, and Bordeaux; in Germany, Frankfort; in Italy, Novi.

[137]

All articles of luxury were to be met with at the provincial fairs. When, in 1671, Catherine of Braganza, the Duchess of Richmond, and the Duke of Buckingham, visited Saffron Walden fair, the Queen asked for a pair of yellow stockings, and Sir Bernard Gascoyne, for a pair of gloves stitched with blue.

[138]

10 Hen. III., Devon's Issues of the Exchequer.

[139]

"No lace-woman," says Ben Jonson, "that brings French masks and cut-works." That lace was sold by pedlars in the time of Henry VIII., we find from a play, "The Four P's," written in 1544, by John Heywood. Among the contents of a pedlar's box are given "lasses knotted," "laces round and flat for women's heads," "sleeve laces," etc.

On opening the box of the murdered pedlar (Fool of Quality, 1766), "they found therein silk, linen, laces," etc.

[140]

Defoe describes Sturbridge fair as the greatest of all Europe. "Nor," says he, "are the fairs of Leipsig in Saxony, the Mart at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, or the fair of Nuremburg or Augsburg, any way comparable to this fair of Sturbridge."

In 1423, the citizens of London and the suburbs being accused of sending works of "embroidery of gold, or silver, of Cipre, or of gold of Luk, togedre with Spanish Laton of insuffisant stuff to the fayres of Sturesbrugg, Ely, Oxenford, and Salisbury"—in fact, of palming off inferior goods for country use—"all such are forfeited."—Rot. Parl., 2 Hen. VI., nu. 49.

[141]

"Lingua, or the Combat of the Tongue." A Comedy. 1607.

[142]

This system of colporteurs dates from the early Greeks. They are termed both in Greek and Hebrew, "des voyageurs."

[143]

"She came to the house under the pretence of offering some lace, holland, and fine tea, remarkably cheap."—Female Spectator. 1757.

[144]

The centres of the lace manufacture before 1665 were:—

Belgium Brussels, Mechlin, Antwerp, Liége, Louvain, Binche, Bruges, Ghent, Ypres, Courtray, etc.

France (Spread over more than ten Provinces)—

Artois Arras (Pas-de-Calais).

French Flanders Lille, Valenciennes, Bailleul (Nord).

Normandy Dieppe, Le Hâvre (Seine-Inférieure).

Ile de France Paris and its environs.

Auvergne Aurillac (Cantal).

Velay Le Puy (Haute-Loire).

Lorraine Mirecourt (Vosges).

Burgundy Dijon (Côte-d'or).

Champagne Charleville, Sedan (Ardennes).

Lyonnais Lyon (Rhône).

Poitou Loudun (Vienne).

Languedoc Muret (Haute-Garonne).

Italy Genoa, Venice, Milan, Ragusa, etc.

Spain La Mancha, and in Catalonia especially.

Germany Saxony, Bohemia, Hungary, Denmark, and Principality of Gotha.

England Counties of Bedford, Bucks, Dorset, and Devon.

[145]

Industrial Arts of the Nineteenth Century, Digby Wyatt.

[146]

Francesco Nardi. Sull' Origine dell' Arte del Ricamo. Padova, 1839.

[147]

Ricamare. Recamar.

[148]

The traditions of the Low Countries also point to an Eastern origin, assigning the introduction of lace-making to the Crusaders, on their return from the Holy Land.

[149]

Origine ed Uso delle Trine a filo di refe (thread), 1864. Privately printed.

[150]

1469.—Io, Battista de Nicollo d'Andrea da Ferrara, debio avere per mia manifatura et reve per cuxere et candelle per inzirare.... It. per desgramitare e refilare e inzirare e ripezare e reapicare le gramite a camixi quatordece per li signori calonexi, et per li, mansonarij le qual gramite staxea malissimamente, p. che alcune persone le a guaste, Lire 1 10. It. per reve et p. candelle, L. 0 5.

1469.—I, Baptist de Nicollo of Andrea da Ferrara, having owing to me for my making, and thread to sew, and candles to wax.... Item, for untrimming and re-weaving and waxing and refixing and rejoining the trimmings of fourteen albs for the canons and attendants of the church, the which trimmings were in a very bad state, because some persons had spoiled them, L. 1 10. It. for thread and wax, L. 0 5.

These trimmings (gramite), Cav. Merli thinks, were probably "trine."

"At Chicago was exhibited the first kind of net used in Italy as lace on garments. It is made of a very fine linen or silk mesh, stiffened with wax and embroidered in silk thread. It was in use during the fourteenth century, and part of the fifteenth" (Guide to New and Old Lace in Italy, C. di Brazza, 1893). This is probably the gramite, or trimmings of the albs, mentioned in the account book formerly belonging to the Cathedral of Ferrara, and now preserved in the Municipal Archives of that city.

[151]

See Milan.

[152]

Trina, like our word lace, is used in a general sense for braid or passement. Florio, in his Dictionary (A Worlde of Words, John Florio, London, 1598), gives Trine—cuts, snips, pincke worke on garments; and Trinci—gardings, fringings, lacings, etc., or other ornaments of garments.

Merlo, merletto, are the more modern terms for lace. We find the first as early as the poet Firenzuola (see Florence). It does not occur in any pattern book of an older date than the "Fiori da Ricami" of Pasini, and the two works of Francesco de' Franceschi, all printed in 1591.

[153]

The laces, both white and gold, depicted in the celebrated picture of the Visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon, by Lavinia Fontana, now in the Lambeccari Gallery, executed in the sixteenth century, prove that white lace was in general use in the Italian Courts at that epoch.

[154]

At present, if you show an Italian a piece of old lace, he will exclaim, "Opera di monache; roba di chiesa."

[155]

Statute 2, Henry VI., 1423. The first great treaty between the Venetians and Henry VII. was in 1507.

[156]

Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York, 1502. P. R. O. Also published by Sir H. Nicolas.

[157]

Inv. Henry VIII.

[158]

Gremio, when suing for Bianca, enumerates among his wealth in ivory coffers stuffed, "Turkey cushions bossed with pearl; valance of Venice gold in needlework."—Taming of the Shrew.

[159]

"One jerkyn of cloth of silver with long cuts down righte, bound with a billament lace of Venice silver and black silk."—Robes of the late King (Edward VI.).

[160]

"A smock of cambrik wrought about the collar and sleeves with black silke; the ruffe wrought with Venice gold and edged with a small bone lace of Venice gold."—Christmas Presents to the Queen, by Sir G. Carew. "7 ounces of Venice 'laquei bone' of gold and black silk; lace ruff edged with Venice gold lace," etc. G. W. A. Eliz., passim, P. R. O.

[161]

1587.

[162]

Madame de Puissieux died in 1677, at the age of eighty.

[163]

Venice points are not mentioned by name till the ordinance of 1654. See Greek Islands.

[164]

Hudibras.

[165]

Italy we believe to have furnished her own thread. "Fine white or nun's thread is made by the Augustine nuns of Crema, twisted after the same manner as the silk of Bolonia," writes Skippin, 1651.

[166]

Halimedia opuntia, Linn.

[167]

That most frequently met with is the Corona of Vecellio. See Appendix.

[168]

First mentioned in the Sforza Inventory, 1493 (see Milan); not in the pattern-books till Vecellio, 1592; but Taglienti (1530) gives "su la rete," and "Il specchio di Pensieri" (1548), "purito in rede."

[169]

Plate V.

[170]

First given in the Honesto Esempio. 1550 and passim.

[171]

Mentioned by Taglienti (1530), and afterwards in the Trionfo (1555), and passim.

[172]

Given in Il Monte, circ. 1550, but described by Firenzuola earlier. See Florence.

[173]

See Chap. III., notes 104 and 106.

[174]

"Toile de la Pale."—A pasteboard about eight inches square, enclosed in cambric or lace, used to cover the paten when laid over the cup.

[175]

The whole furniture of a room taken from a palace at Naples, comprising curtains, and vallance of a bed, window curtains, toilet, etc., of straw-coloured laces, reticella, embroidered netting, etc.; the price asked was 18,000 francs = £720. There was also much of the rose point, and a handkerchief bordered with beautiful flat Venetian point of the same colour, forming part of a trousseau. 700 francs = £28.

[176]

Taglienti (1530) has groppi, moreschi, and arabeschi; and Il Specchio (1548), ponti gropposi. See also the Sforza Inventory, 1493.

[177]

See Genoa.

[178]

Taglienti (1530) gives a magliata, Parasole (1600) lavori di maglia.

[179]

Punti a stuora occur in Il Specchio (1548), I Frutti (1564), and in the Vera Perfettione (1591) the word stuora (modern, stuoja) means also a mat of plaited rushes, which some of these interlaced patterns may be intended to imitate.

[180]

Burato. See Appendix.

[181]

There are many patterns for this work in Le Pompe di Minerva, 1642. Taglienti (1530) has desfilato among his punti.

[182]

Many other points are enumerated in the pattern-books, of which we know nothing, such as gasii (I Frutti, 1564), trezola (Ibid), rimessi (Vera Perfettione, 1591), opere a mazzette (Vecellio, 1591, and Lucretia Bomana, N.D.).

[183]

Tracts on Trade of the Seventeenth Century, published by MacCulloch, at the expense of Lord Monteagle. 1856.

[184]

Venice point forms a considerable item in the expenses of Charles II. and his brother James.

[185]

Venice noted "for needlework laces, called points."—Travels Thro' Italy and France, by J. Ray. 1738.

[186]

Misson, F. M., Nouveau Voyage d'Italie, 4me édition. La Haye, 1702.

[187]

Origine delle Feste Veneziane, da Giustina R. Michiel. Milano, 1829.

[188]

An Itinerary, containing his Ten Yeeres Travel through Germany, Bohmerland, Switzerland, Netherland, Denmark, Poland, Italy, Turkey, France, England, Scotland, and Ireland. Lond., 1617.

[189]

1591.

[190]

See, in Appendix, designs for bavari by Lucrezia.

[191]

The entry of the Venetian ambassador, Mocenigo, is described in the Mercure Galant, 1709:—

"Il avoit un rabat de point de Venise.... Sa robe de damas noir avec des grandes manches qui pendoient par derrière. Cette robe etoit garnie de dentelle noir."

[192]

Letters from Italy. So, in a play of Goldoni, who wrote in the middle of the last century, the lady has a Brussels (Angleterre) head-dress.

Don Flaminio: "Mi par bellisima cotesto pizzo Barbara: E un punto d'Inghilterra che ha qualche merito."—Gli Amori di Zelinda e Lindoro.

In Goldoni's plays all the ladies make lace on the pillow (ballon), so the art of making the needle Venice point was probably at an end.

[193]

"La plus belle dentelle noire fait l'espèce de camail qui, sous un chapeau noir emplumé, couvre leurs épaules et leur tête."—Madame du Boccage, 1735. Lettres sur l'Italie.

"Quella specie de lungo capuocio di finissimo merlo pur nero, chiamato bauta."—Michiel.

[194]

"L'île de Burano où l'on fabrique les dentelles."—Quadri, Huit Jours à Venise.

[195]

Technical History of Venetian Laces, Urbani de Gheltof. Translated by Lady Layard. Venice, 1882.

Origines de la Dentelle de Venise et l'École de Burano. Venice, 1897.

Traditions of lace-making were kept alive in Venice, Cantu and Liguria during the first half of the nineteenth century by the manufacture of an inferior quality of blonde, once extensively made at Venice, which has since died out, owing to the revival in the production of thread-lace and guipures at Palestrina.

[196]

"Velleto (veil) uno d'oro filato.

"Payro uno fodrete (pillow-case) di cambria lavorate a gugia (à l'aiguille).

"Lenzuolo (sheet) uno di revo di tele (linen thread), cinque lavorato a punto.

"Peza una de tarnete (trina) d'argento facte a stelle.

"Lenzolo uno de tele, quatro lavorato a radexelo (reticello).

"Peze quatro de radexela per mettere ad uno moscheto (zanzariere, mosquito curtain).

"Tarneta una d'oro et seda negra facta da ossi (bones).

"Pecto uno d'oro facto a grupi.

"Lavoro uno de rechamo facto a grupi dove era suso le pere de Madona Biancha.

"Binda una lavorata a poncto de doii fuxi (two bobbins) per uno lenzolo."—Instrumento di divizione tre le sorelle Angela ed Ippolita Sforza Visconti, di Milano, 1493, Giorno di Giovedì, 12 Settembre.

[197]

"La mità de uno fagotto quale aveva dentro certi dissegni da lavorare le donne."

[198]

Harl. MS. No. 1419.

[199]

Roll. P. R. O.

[200]

P. R. O.

[201]

De la Mare, Traité de la Police.

[202]

"Statuts, Ordonnances et Reglemens de la Communauté des Maistres Passementiers, etc., de Paris, confirmez sur les anciens Statuts du 23 mars 1558." Paris, 1719.

[203]

Grand Dictionnaire Universel du Commerce. 1723.

[204]

Voyage en Italie. 1765.

[205]

Peuchet, J., Dictionnaire Universel de la Géographie Commerçante. Paris, An vii. = 1799.

[206]

Letters from Italy, by a lady. 1770.

[207]

[208]

Rymer's Fœdera (38 Hen. VIII. = 1546).

[209]

4 Hen. VII. = 1488-89.

[210]

Compte des dépenses de la maison de Madame Marguerite de France, Sœur du Roi.—Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 10,394.

[211]

Comptes de la Reine de Navarre.—Arch. Nat., K. K. 170.

[212]

In 1535.

[213]

She died in 1862.

[214]

See Venice, 1.

[215]

Inventaire du Trésor de N. D. de Lorette.—Bib. Nat. MSS.

[216]

Letters from Italy.

[217]

The gremial, or apron, placed on the lap of the Roman Catholic bishops when performing sacred functions in a sitting posture.—Pugin's Glossary of Ecclesiastical Ornament.

[218]

This reminds one of the lines of Goldsmith, in his poem, "The Haunch of Venison," the giving of venison to hungry poets who were in want of mutton; he says:

[219]

A true Relation of the Travailes, and most miserable Captivitie of W. Davies. Lond., 1614.

[220]

An Italian Voyage, or a Complete Journey through Italy, by Rich. Lassels, Gent. 2nd edit., Lond., 1698. A reprint, with additions by another hand, of the original edition. Paris, 1670. Lowndes' Bibliographer's Manual. Bohn's new edit.

[221]

"Portano alcune vesti di tela di lino sottile, lunghe fino in terra, con maniche larghe assai, attorno alle quali sono attaccati alcuni merletti lavorati di refe sottilissimo."—Habiti di donna dell' Isola d' Ischia. Degli Habiti Antichi e Moderni di Diverse Parti del Mondo di Cesare Vecellio. Venezia, 1590.

[222]

We have among the points given by Taglienti (1530), "pugliese." Lace is still made in Puglia and the other southern provinces of Naples and in Sicily.

The Contessa di Brazza says that Punto Pugliese resembled Russian and Roumanian embroidery.

[223]

Brydone, Tour through Sicily. 1773.

[224]

From the tax-books preserved in the Archives of S. George, it appears that a tax upon gold thread of four danari upon every lira in value of the worked material was levied, which between 1411 and 1420 amounted to L. 73,387. From which period this industry rapidly declined, and the workers emigrated.—Merli.

[225]

Signore Tessada, the great lace fabricant of Genoa, carries back the manufacture of Italian lace as early as the year 1400, and forwarded to the author specimens which he declares to be of that date.

[226]

"Laqueo serico Jeano de coloribus, ad 5s. per doz." G. W. A. Eliz.—16 & 17 and 19 & 20. P. R. O.

[227]

Dated 1639.

[228]

Garderobe de feue Madame. 1646. Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 11,426.

[229]

Le Vray Théatre d'Honneur et de Chevalerie. Paris, 1648.

[230]

Queen Christina is described by the Grande Mademoiselle, on the occasion of her visit, as wearing "au cou, un mouchoir de point de Gênes, noué avec un ruban couleur de feu."—Mém. de Mademoiselle de Montpensier.

"Item, ung peignoir, tablier et cornette de toile baptiste garnie de point de Gênes."—1644. Inv. de la Comtesse de Soissons.

"Un petit manteau brodé et son collet de point de Gênes."—The Chevalier d'Albret.

"Linge, bijoux et points de Gênes."—Loret, Muse Historique. 1650.

"Item, ung autre mouchoir de point de Gênes."—Inv. du Maréchal de La Motte. 1657.

[231]

Mém., t. xiv., p. 286.

[232]

Signore Tessada has in his possession a pair of gold lappets of very beautiful design, made at Genoa about the year 1700.

[233]

Letters from Italy. 1770.

[234]

Cavasco. Statistique de Gênes. 1840.

[235]

The bobbins appear to have been made in Italy of various materials. We have Merletti a fusi, in which case they are of wood. The Sforza inventory gives a doii fuxi, "two bobbins," then a ossi, "of bone," and, lastly, a piombini; and it is very certain that lead was used for bobbins in Italy. See Parasole (1600).

[236]

Memorie Storiche di Santa Margherita. Genoese pillow-laces are not made with the réseau, but joined by bars. Of Milan lace it is said, "It resembles Genoese pillow-lace in having the same scrolls and flowers formed by a ribbon in close stitch, with a mesh or tulle ground, whereas the Genoese lace is held together by bars."—C. di Brazza, Old and New Lace in Italy (1893).

[237]

Lefébure writes, "A version of these Milanese laces has been produced by using tape for the scroll forms and flowers, and filling in the open portions between the tapes by needlework stitches." The C. di Brazza calls similar lace Punto di Rapallo or Liguria, a lace formed by a ribbon or braid of close lace following the outline of the design with fancy gauze stitches made by knotting with a crochet needle. The special characteristic of this lace is that the braid is constantly thrown over what has gone before. The design is connected by brides. A modification, where the braid is very fine and narrow, and the turnings extremely complicated, and enriched by no fancy stitches between, is Punto a Vermicelli.—Old and New Lace in Italy.

[238]

Communicated by Sig. Gio. Tessada, Junr., of Genoa.

[239]

Gandolfi, Considerazioni Agrario.

[240]

A small borgo, about an hour's drive from Savona, on the road leading to Genoa.

[241]

Cav. Merli.

[242]

In the Albert Museum of Exeter are several of these tallies marked with the names of their owners—Bianca, Maria Crocera, and others.

[243]

"Many skilful lace-makers in Italy have for some time imitated the old laces and sold them as such to travellers. A Venetian lace-worker, now residing at Ferrara, can copy any old lace known" (Mrs. Palliser, 1864).

[244]

This lappet, 357-68, in the Victoria and Albert Museum collection, was described by Mrs. Palliser as "Argentella," and supposed to be of Genoese workmanship. "Formerly much of it was to be met with in the curiosity shops of that city, but now it is of rare occurrence. The Duchess of Genoa possesses a splendid flounce of the same lace, with the Doria eagle introduced into the pattern. It formerly belonged to the Marchesa Barbaretta Saule" (Mrs. Palliser, History of Lace, 1864). Contessa di Brazza suggests that Argentella was the Italian for Argentan.

[245]

Called by the people of the Riviera, filo del baccalà di Castellaro. Aloe fibre was formerly used for thread (Letter of Sig. C. G. Schiappapietra). It is also styled filo di freta in the Venetian sumptuary ordinances.

[246]

The Author has to express her grateful thanks to Signore Don Tommaso Torteroli, librarian to the city of Savona, and the author of an interesting pamphlet (Storia dei Merletti di Genova lavorati in Albissola, Sinigaglia, 1863), for specimens of the ancient laces of Albissola, and many other valuable communications.

[247]

A word of Arabic derivation, used for denoting a fringe for trimming, whether cotton, thread, or silk.

[248]

This custom of ornamenting the ends of the threads of linen was from the earliest times common, and is still occasionally met with both in the north and south of Europe. "At Bayonne they make the finest of linen, some of which is made open like network, and the thread is finer than hair" (Ingenious and Diverting Letters of a Lady's Travels in Spain, London, 1679).

There is a painting of the "Last Supper" at Hampton Court Palace, by Sebastian Ricci, in which the tablecloth is edged with cut-work; and in the great picture in the Louvre, by Paul Veronese, of the supper at the house of Simon the Canaanite, the ends of the tablecloth are likewise fringed and braided like the macramé.

[249]

Lace Schools in Italy.—At Coccolia, near Ravenna, Countess Pasolini founded a school on her property to teach and employ the peasant women and copy antique designs. Another more recently established school near Udine, in the province of Friuli, is under the direction of the Contessa di Brazza. Among charitable institutions which interest themselves in the lace industry are the Industrial School of SS. Ecce Homo at Naples, and San Ramiri at Pisa, which was originally founded by the Grand Dukes of Tuscany in the middle of the eighteenth century to teach weaving. This industry, and that of straw-plaiting, met with no success, and the school gradually developed into an industrial school in the modern sense. There are many schools on the same system in Florence, and one (San Pelegrino) at Bologna. At Sassari, in Sardinia, the deaf and dumb children in the great institution of the "Figlie di Maria" are taught to make net lace. Torchon and Brussels pillow lace is worked under the direction of the Sisters of Providence in the women's prison at Perugia.

[250]

Laborde, Glossaire. Paris, 1853.

[251]

Statute 2 Hen. VI., c. x., 1423.

[252]

Taglienti (1530) among his punti gives Ciprioto (an embroidery stitch).

[253]

Description de Raguse (Bib. Nat. MSS., F.Fr. 10,772).

[254]

Points de Raguse—first mentioned in an Edict of January, 1654, by which the king raises for his own profit one quarter of the value of the "passems, dentelles, points coupez de Flandres, pointinars, points de Venise, de Raguse, de Gênes," etc. (Recueil des Lois Françaises). Again, the Ordinance of August, 1665, establishes the points de France, "en la manière des points qui se font à Venise, Gênes, Raguse, et autres pays étrangers," recited in the Arrêt of Oct. 12th, 1666.—De Lamare, Traité de la Police.

[255]

See Venice.

[256]

In 1661.

[257]

See head of chapter.

[258]

In 1667.

[259]

See Appendix.

[260]

A Descriptive Catalogue of the Collections of Lace in the Victoria and Albert Museum, by the late Mrs. Bury Palliser. Third edition, revised and enlarged by A. S. Cole.

[261]

Edinburgh Advertiser, 1764.

[262]

There is no corroboration of Mrs. Palliser's statement above that lace was ever made in Malta; if so, it would have been of the Genoese geometrical kind, of which Lady Hamilton Chichester adapted the designs and evolved what is now known as Maltese lace by the aid of workers imported from Genoa. The Maltese cross has been introduced into the designs as a distinguishing mark.

[263]

"A lace of similar character (Maltese) has also been made successfully in the missionary schools at Madras" (Mrs. Palliser).

[264]

Lefébure, Embroidery and Lace.

[265]

In the Philippine Islands the natives work Manilla grass into a sort of drawn thread-work or tatting.

[266]

1756. Point d'Espagne hats.—Connoisseur.

[267]

Beckmann, in his History of Inventions, says that "It was a fashion to give the name of Spanish to all kinds of novelties, such as Spanish flies, Spanish wax, Spanish green, Spanish grass, Spanish seed, and others."

[268]

A. S. Cole. "Cantor Lectures on the Art of Lace-Making."

[269]

Livre Nouveau de Patrons and Fleurs des Patrons give various stitches to be executed "en fil d'or, d'argent, de soie, et d'autres." Both printed at Lyons. The first has no date; the second, 1549. Le Pompe, Venezia, 1559, has "diversi sorti di mostre per poter far, d'oro, di sete, di filo," etc.

[270]

"Not many years since, a family at Cadiz, of Jewish extraction, still enjoyed the monopoly of manufacturing gold and silver lace."—Letter from Spain, 1863. Merletto Polichrome, or parti-coloured lace, was also invented and perfected by the Jews, and was made in silk of various colours, representing fruit and flowers. This industry has been revived in Venice, and carried to great perfection.

[271]

Senor J. F. Riano. The Industrial Arts in Spain.—"Lace."

[272]

"Spain has 8,932 convents, containing 94,000 nuns and monks."—Townsend, J., Journey Through Spain in the Years 1786 and 1787.

[273]

The aloe thread is now used in Florence for sewing the straw-plait.

[274]

Barcelona, 1892, page 225, quoted by Signor J. F. Riano. Date of book 1592.

[275]

A. S. Cole, Ancient Needle-point and Pillow-Lace.

[276]

This ordinance even extended to foreign courts. We read in the Mercure Galant, 1679, of the Spanish ambassadress, "Elle etoit vestue de drap noir avec de la dentelle de soye; elle n'avait ni dentelle ni linge autour de sa gorge."

[277]

Mercure François.

[278]

They have also provided—

"14 ruffs & 14 pairs of cuffs laced, at 20s. £14

For lacing 8 hats for the footmen with silver parchment lace, at 3s. £1 4s."

Extraordinary Expenses of his Highness to Spain, 1623. P. R. O.

[279]

Doctor Monçada, in 1660, and Osorio, in 1686, reckoned more than three millions of Spaniards who, though well dressed, wore no shirts.—Townsend's Spain.

[280]

Speaking of the apartment of Madame d'Aranda, Beckford writes: "Her bed was of the richest blue velvet, trimmed with point lace."

[281]

Our English translation of Don Quixote has led some authors into adducing a passage as an evidence that the art of making bone lace was already known in Cervantes' day. "Sanchica," writes Theresa Pança to her husband, the newly-appointed Governor of Baratava, "makes bone lace, and gets eight maravedis a day, which she drops into a tin box to help towards household stuff. But now that she is a governor's daughter, you will give her a fortune, and she will not have to work for it." In referring to the original Spanish we find the words rendered bone lace are "puntas de randas," signifying works of lacis or réseuil—"ouvrage de lacis ou réseuil."—Oudin. Trésor des Deux Langues Fr. et Esp. (1660).

[282]

As early as the Great Wardrobe Account of Queen Elizabeth, 1587, P. R. O., we have a charge for bobbin lace of Spanish silk, "cum uñ tag," for the mantle, 10s. 8d.

In a letter from Prestwick Eaton to Geo. Willingham, 1631, the writer sends 1000 reals (£25), and in return desires him to send, together with a mastiff dog, some black satin lace for a Spanish suit.—State Papers, Domestic, Car. I., P. R. O.

[283]

1697. Marriage of Mademoiselle and the King of Spain. The Queen, says the Mercure, wore "une mante de point d'Espagne d'or, neuf aunes de long." 1698. Fête at Versailles on the marriage of the Duc de Bourgogne. "La Duchesse de Bourgogne pourtoit un petit tablier de point d'Espagne de mille pistoles."—Galérie de l'ancienne Cour; ou Mém. des Règnes de Louis XIV. et Louis XV., 1788.

1722. Ball at the Tuileries. "Tous les seigneurs etaient en habits de drap d'or ou d'argent garnis de points d'Espagne, avec des nœuds d'épaule, et tout l'ajustement à proportion. Les moindres etaient de velours, avec des points d'Espagne d'or et d'argent."—Journal de Barbier, 1718-62.

1722. "J'ai vu en même temps le carosse que le roi fait faire pour entrer dans Reims, il sera aussi d'une grande magnificence. Le dedans est tout garni d'un velours à ramage de points d'Espagne d'or."—Ibid.

1731. Speaking of her wedding-dress, Wilhelmina of Bayreuth, the witty sister of Frederick the Great, writes: "Ma robe étoit d'une étoffe d'or fort riche, avec un point d'Espagne d'or, et ma queue étoit de douze aunes de long."—Mémoires.

1751. Fête at Versailles on the birth of the Duc de Bourgogne. The coats of the "gens de cour, en étoffes d'or de grand prix ou en velours de tout couleurs, brodés d'or, ou garnis de point d'Espagne d'or."—Journal de Barbier.

[284]

Fenix de Cataluña, compendio desus Antiguas Grandezas y Medio para Renovarlas, Barcelona, 1683, p. 75.

[285]

In the reign of William and Mary, we find, in a lace-man's bill of the Queen, a charge for forty-seven yards of rich, broad, scalloped, embossed point de Spain; and her shoes are trimmed with gold and silver lace.—B. M., Add. MSS.; No. 5751.

At the entry of Lord Stair into Paris, 1719, his servants' hats are described as laced with Spanish point, their sleeves laced with picked silver lace, and dented at the edge with lace.—Edinburgh Courant.

In 1740, the Countess of Pomfret, speaking of the Princess Mary's wedding clothes, writes: "That for the wedding night is silver tissue, faced at the bottom before with pink-coloured satin, trimmed with silver point d'Espagne."—Letters of the Countess of Hartford to the Countess of Pomfret, 1740.

[286]

Marquis de la Gombardière, 1634, Nouveau Réglement Général des Finances, etc.

[287]

"Eighty children and grandchildren attended his funeral in defiance of the Edict of 19th Sept., 1664, and were heavily fined."—La France Protestante, par M. M. Haag. Paris, 1846-59.

[288]

Garderobe de S. A. S. Mgr. le Duc de Penthièvre. Arch. Nat. K. K. 390-1.

[289]

Lord Verulam on the treaty of commerce with the Emperor Maximilian.

[290]

Gentleman's Magazine, 1745.

[291]

Peyron, 1789.

[292]

Madrid, 1775.

[293]

Itinéraire de l'Espagne, Comte Alph. de Laborde, t. v.

[294]

Peuchet (Dictionnaire Universel de la Géographie Commerçante, An. vii. = 1799), speaking of Barcelona, says their laces are "façon de France," but inferior in beauty and quality. The fabrication is considerable, employing 2,000 women in the towns and villages east of Barcelona. They are sold in Castile, Andalusia, and principally in the Indies.

[295]

Madrid, 1788. Vol. ii, p. 149.

[296]

Ibid. Vol. xvii., p. 294.

[297]

"The manufacture of silk lace or blonde in Almagro occupies from 12,000 to 13,000 people" (Mrs. Palliser, 1869). Modern torchon laces are still made at Almagro to a very large extent (1901).

[298]

Madrid, 1788.

[299]

Madrid, 1797.

[300]

Senor Juan F. Riano, The Industrial Arts in Spain, "Lace" (London, 1879).

[301]

Theory of Commerce, from the Spanish of Don. Ger. de Ustariz (Lond., 1751).

[302]

When the holidays of the Roman Catholic church are deducted, the work-days of the people amount only to 260 in the course of the year—fifty less than in a Protestant country.

[303]

Ford, Handbook of Spain.

[304]

1869.

[305]

"Now there are only two kinds of lace made in Spain; 'encaje de blonda,' mantillas, scarves, lace-ties, etc., in white and black; these are manufactured in Barcelona, on long pillows stuffed with long straw quite hard, covered with yellow or light blue linen. The lace is worked on a cardboard pattern, and with 'fuseaux' like the French torchon lace, the only difference being that the pillow is long and narrow and without the revolving cylinder in the centre, so that when making a long piece, or lace by the yard, the pins have to be taken out when you get to the bottom of the pillow, and the work removed to the top and continued. The mantillas, etc., are worked by pieces; that is to say, the border, flowers, and large designs, and are afterwards joined by the veil stitch.

"The second is 'encaje de Almagro'—little children of six and seven years old are taught to make it."—Letter from Spain, 1901.

[306]

"On met de la dentelle brodée de couleur de points d'Espagne aux jupes"—Mercure Galant.

[307]

Recherches sur le Commerce, la Fabrication et l'Usage des Etoffes de Soie, etc., pendant le Moyen Age. Paris, 1839.

[308]

Taglienti, Venice, 1530.

[309]

Paris, 1546.

[310]

Pelegrin de Florence, Paris, 1530.

[311]

Magazin de Londres, 1749.

[312]

Mademoiselle Dumont, foundress of the point de France fabric, in the Rue St. Denis, quitted Paris after some years and retired to Portugal: whether she there introduced her art is more than the author can affirm.

[313]

It was probably a variety of point de Venise. A few years ago a specimen of point plat was exhibited in London with a Portuguese inscription and designs of figures in costumes of circ. 1600.

See Plate IX.

[314]

The bobbins from Peniche, one of the few places in Portugal where pillow-lace is still made, are remarkably pretty. They are of ivory, agreeably mellowed by time and constant handling, and their slender tapering shafts and bulbous ends are decorated simply but tastefully with soft-tinted staining. In size they are small, measuring from three and a quarter to three and a half inches long, and these proportions are extremely good. Another variety of Peniche bobbin is made of dark brown, boldly-grained wood. The lace-makers work on a long cylindrical cushion—the almofada—fastened to a high, basket-work stand, light enough to be easily moved from place to place.—R. E. Head, "Some Notes on Lace-Bobbins," The Reliquary, July, 1900.

[315]

The Queen, August, 1872.

"The places in Portugal where the lace industry is chiefly exercised are Peniche, Vianna do Castello, Setubal, a village in Algarve called Faro, and at the present time Lisbon, where, under the help and patronage of H. M. the Queen, a lace dépot has been instituted, in which I have worked for ten years, seeking to raise the Portuguese lace industry to an art. The designs being entirely my own original ones, I am trying to give them a character in unison with the general idea of the architecture throughout the country. I obtained gold medals for my work at the Exhibitions of 1894 at Antwerp and 1900 at Paris, besides others at Lisbon."—Letter from Dona Maria Bordallo Pinheiro, head of the Lace Industry Department at Lisbon, 1901.

[316]

"There are now seven families employed in the fabrication of Maltese lace, which is made almost entirely by men; the women occupy themselves in the open-work embroidery of muslin" (1869).

[317]

Those in the collegiate church of St. Peter's, at Louvain, and in the church of St. Gomar, at Lierre (Antwerp Prov.).—Aubry.

[318]

Baron Reiffenberg, in Mémoires de l'Académie de Bruxelles. 1820.

[319]

Engraved by Collaert. Bib. Nat. Grav.

[320]

Louvain dans le passé et dans le présent, formation de la ville, événements memorables, territoire, topographie, institutions, monuments, œuvres d'art, page 330, by Edward van Even, published 1895.

[321]

M. de Barante.

[322]

It goes on: "For the maiden, seated at her work, plies her fingers rapidly, and flashes the smooth balls and thousand threads into the circle. Often she fastens with her hand the innumerable needles, to bring out the various figures of the pattern; often, again, she unfastens them; and in this her amusement makes as much profit as the man earns by the sweat of his brow; and no maiden ever complains at even of the length of the day. The issue is a fine web, open to the air with many an aperture, which feeds the pride of the whole globe; which encircles with its fine border cloaks and tuckers, and shows grandly round the throats and hands of kings; and, what is more surprising, this web is of the lightness of a feather, which in its price is too heavy for our purses. Go, ye men, inflamed with the desire of the Golden Fleece, endure so many dangers by land, so many at sea, whilst the woman, remaining in her Brabantine home, prepares Phrygian fleeces by peaceful assiduity."—Jacobi Eyckii Antwerpiensis Urbium Belgicarum Centuria. Antw. 1651. 1 vol., 4to. Bib. Royale, Brussels.

[323]

Alençon excepted.

[324]

It is said to destroy the eyesight. "I was told by a gentleman well acquainted with Flanders," says McPherson, "that they were generally almost blind before thirty years of age."—History of Commerce, 1785.

[325]

Together with the cap is preserved a parchment with this inscription: "Gorro que perteneccio à Carlos Quinto, emperad. Guarda lo, hijo mio, es memoria de Juhan de Garnica." ("Cap which belonged to the Emperor Charles V. Keep it, my son, in remembrance of John de Garnica"). J. de Garnica was treasurer to Philip II.

Séguin, however, is of opinion that this cap belonged to one of Charles V.'s successors:—

"Ce bonnet ... a dû appartenir très certainement à un de ses successeurs (of Charles V.), à cause que ce bonnet se trouve coupé et encadré par un petit entre-deux de guipure au fuseau, façon point de Gênes, qui ne pouvait pas avoir été fait du temps de Charles Quint."—Séguin, La Dentelle.

[326]

Married, 1599, Albert, Archduke of Austria.

[327]

By Andrew Yarranton, Gent. London, 1677. A proposal to erect schools for teaching and improving the linen manufacture as they do "in Flanders and Holland, where little girls from six years old upwards learn to employ their fingers." Hadrianus Junius, a most learned writer, in his description of the Netherlands, highly extols the fine needlework and linen called cambric of the Belgian nuns, which in whiteness rivals the snow, in texture satin, and in price the sea-silk—Byssus, or beard of the Pinna.

[328]

An old term, still used in Scotland, for gossip, chatter.

[329]

These dogs were of large size, and able to carry from 22 to 26 lbs. They also conveyed tobacco. The Swiss dogs smuggle watches.

[330]

Black lace was also imported at this period from the Low Countries. Among the articles advertised as lost, in the Newsman of May 26th, 1664, is, "A black lute-string gown with a black Flanders lace."

[331]

Mercure Galant. 1678.

[332]

"Le corsage et les manches étaient bordés d'une blanche et légère dentelle, sortie à coup sûr des meilleures manufactures d'Angleterre."

[333]

We have, however, one entry in the Wardrobe Accounts of the Duc de Penthièvre: "1738. Onze aunes d'Angleterre de Flandre."

[334]

Mercure Galant. 1678.

[335]

"Deux paires de manchettes et une cravatte de point d'Angleterre."—Inventaire d'Anne d'Escoubleau, Baronne de Sourdis, veuve de François de Simiane. Arch. Nat. M. M. 802.

[336]

Inv. après le decès de Mgr. Mich. Philippine de la Vrillière, Patriarche, Archevêque de Bourges, 1694. Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 11,426.

"Une toilette et sa touaille avec un peignoir de point d'Angleterre."—Inv. de decès de Mademoiselle de Charollais. 1758. Arch. Nat.

[337]

Mrs. Calderwood's Journey through Holland and Belgium, 1756. Printed by the Maitland Club.

[338]

Flax is also cultivated solely for lace and cambric thread at St. Nicholas, Tournay, and Courtrai. The process of steeping (rouissage) principally takes place at Courtrai, the clearness of the waters of the Lys rendering them peculiarly fitted for the purpose. Savary states that fine thread was first spun at Mechlin.

[339]

It is often sold at £240 per lb., and in the Report of the French Exhibition of 1859 it is mentioned as high as £500 (25,000fr. the kilogramme). No wonder that so much thread is made by machinery, and that Scotch cotton thread is so generally used, except for the choicest laces. But machine-made thread has never attained the fineness of that made by hand. Of those in the Exhibition of 1862, the finest Lille was 800 leas (a technical term for a reel of 300 yards), the Brussels 600, the Manchester 700; whereas in Westphalia and Belgium hand-spun threads as fine as 800 to 1000 are spun for costly laces. The writer has seen specimens, in the Museum at Lille, equal to 1200 of machinery; but this industry is so poorly remunerated, that the number of skilful hand-spinners is fast diminishing.

[340]

Dictionnaire du Citoyen. 1761.

[341]

Comptes de Madame du Barry. Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 8157 and 8.

[342]

"Trois aubes de batiste garnies de grande dentelle de gros point d'Angleterre."—Inv. des Meubles, etc., de Louis, Duc d'Orléans, decedé 4 fev. 1752. (Son of the Regent.) Arch. Nat. X. 10,075.

"Deux aubes de point d'Angleterre servant à Messieurs les curez.

"Une autre aube à dentelle de gros point servant aussy à M. le curé."—Inventaire et Description de l'Argenterie, Vermeil Doré, Ornemens, Linge, etc., appartenant à l'Œuvre et Fabrique de l'église Saint-Merry à Paris. 1714. Arch. Nat. L.L. 859.

[343]

"Une coëffure à une pièce d'Angleterre bride et réseau."—Comptes de Madame du Barry.

"1 aune et quart d'Angleterre mêlé."—Ibid.

[344]

Mrs. Delany writes ("Corr.," vol. 2): The laces "I have pitched on for you are charming; it is grounded Brussels."

"Deux tours de gorge à raiseau, un tour de camisolle à bride."—1720. Inv. de la Duchesse de Bourbon. Arch. Nat. X. 10,062-4.

"Six peignoirs de toille fine garnis par en haut d'une vielle dentelle d'Angleterre à raiseau."—Inv. de decès de Monsieur Philippe petit fils de France, Duc d'Orléans, Regent du Royaume, decedé 2 décembre, 1723. Arch. Nat. X. 10,067.

The "fond écaillé" often occurs.

"Une coëffure à une pièce de point à l'écaille;

"Une paire de manchettes de cour de point à raizeau, et deux devants de corps de point à brides à écailles."—1761. Inv. de la Duchesse de Modène. Arch. Nat. X. 10,082.

"Deux barbes, rayon, et fond d'Angleterre superfin fond écaillé."—Comptes de Madame du Barry. See her Angleterre, Chap. XI. note 26.

[345]

To which machinery has added a third, the tulle or Brussels net.

[346]

The needleground is three times as expensive as the pillow, because the needle is passed four times into each mesh, whereas in the pillow it is not passed at all.

[347]

"Trois oreillers, l'un de toille blanche picquée garnis autour de chacun d'un point plat."—Inv. de la Duchesse de Modène.

[348]

Tableau de Paris, par S. Mercier. Amsterdam, 1782.

[349]

"Fashion." J. Warton.

[350]

Brussels lace-makers divide the plat into three parts, the "mat," the close part answering to the French toilé (Chapter III.); gaze au fuseau, in which small interstices appear, French grillé, and the jours, or open work.

[351]

The veil presented by the city of Brussels to the Empress Josephine was sold in 1816 by Eugene Beauharnais to Lady Jane Hamilton. It is described to have been of such ample dimensions that, when placed on Lady Jane's head—who was upwards of six feet high—it trained on the ground. The texture of the réseau was exquisitely fine. In each corner was the imperial crown and cypher, encircled with wreaths of flowers. This chef d'œuvre passed into the possession of Lady Jane's daughter, the Duchesse de Coigny.

[352]

To afford an idea of the intrinsic value of Brussels lace, we give an estimate of the expense of a fine flounce (volant), of vrai réseau mélangé (point and plat), 12 metres long by 35 centimetres wide (13¼ yards by 14 inches)—

Fr .

Cost of the plat 1,885 .75

Needle-point 5,000

Open-work, jours (fonnage) 390

Appliqué (stricage) 800

Ground (réseau) 2,782

Footing (engrêlure) 1 .27

Total 10,859 .02

= £434 7 6

Equals £36 3s. 9d. the metre, and the selling price would be about £50 16s., which would make the flounces amount to £609 12s.

[353]

"Une paire de manchettes de dentelle de Malines brodée."

"Quatre bonnets de nuit garnis de Malines brodée."—Inv. de decès de Mademoiselle de Charollais. 1758.

[354]

Inv. de la Duchesse de Bourbon. 1720.

"1704. Deux fichus garnis de dentelle de Malines à bride ou rézeau.

"Une cravatte avec les manchettes de point de Malines à bride.

"Deux autres cravattes de dentelle de Malines à rézeau et trois paires de manchettes de pareille dentelle."—Inv. de Franç. Phelypeaux Loisel. Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 11,459.

[355]

Inv. de decès de Madame Anne, Palatine de Bavière, Princesse de Condé. 1723. Arch. de Nat. X. 10,065.

[356]

In the accounts of Madame du Barry, we have "Malines bâtarde à bordure."

[357]

Inv. après le decès de Mgr. le Maréchal de la Motte. Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 11,426. "Quatre paires de manchettes garnyes de passement tant de Venise, Gennes, et de Malines."

[358]

Voyage en Flandre. 1681.

[359]

B. M. Add. MSS. No. 5751.

[360]

Gr. Ward. Acc. P. R. O.

[361]

Ibid.

[362]

"On chamarre les jupes en quiles de dentelles plissées."—Mercure Galant. 1678.

"Un volant dentelle d'Angleterre plissée."—Extraordinaire du Mercure. Quartier d'Esté. 1678.

[363]

"1741. Une coiffure de nuit de Malines à raizeau campanée de deux pièces.

"Une paire de manches de Malines brodée a raizeau campanée, un tour de gorge, et une garniture de corset."—Inv. de Mademoiselle de Clermont.

"1761. Une paire de manches de Malines bridés non campanée, tour de gorge, et garniture de corset."—Inv. de la Duchesse de Modène.

[364]

"1720. Une garniture de teste à trois pièces de dentelle de Malines à bride.

"Deux peignoirs de toile d'Hollande garnis de dentelle, l'une d'Angleterre à bride et l'autre de Maline à raiseau."—Inv. de la Duchesse de Bourbon. "1750. Une dormeuse de Malines."—Inv. de Mademoiselle de Charollais.

"1770. 5½ grande hauteur de Malines pour une paire de manchettes, 264 francs.

"1 au. jabot pour le tour de gorge, 16.

"5 au. ¼ Malines pour garnir 3 chemises au nègre à 12 fr." (The wretch Zamor who denounced her.)—Comptes de Madame du Barry.

"1788. 6 tayes d'oreiller garnies de Malines."—Etat de ce qui a été fourni pour le renouvellement de Mgr. le Dauphin. Arch. Nat. K. 505, No. 20.

"1792. 2 tayes d'oreillier garnis de maline."—Notes du linge du çi-devant Roi. Ibid. No. 8.

"1792. 24 fichus de batiste garnis de Maline.

"2 taye d'orilier garnis de Maline."—Renouvellement de M. le Duc. de Normandie. Ibid.

[365]

An Arrêt, dated 14 Aug., 1688, requires that "toutes les dentelles de fil d'Anvers, Bruxelles, Malines et autres lieux de la Flandre Espagnolle," shall enter only by Rousselars and Condé, and pay a duty of 40 livres per lb.—Arch. Nat. Coll. Rondonneau.

[366]

In the list of foreign Protestants resident in England, 1618 to 1688, we find in London, Aldersgate Ward, Jacob Johnson, born at Antwerp, lace-maker, and Antony du Veal, lace-weaver, born in Turny (Tournay).

[367]

This portrait has been engraved by Verbruggen, who gives it as that of Catherine of Aragon.

[368]

Mercure Galant, 1696.

[369]

The flower-pot was a symbol of the Annunciation. In the early representations of the appearance of the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary, lilies are placed either in his hand, or set as an accessory in a vase. As Romanism declined, the angel disappeared, and the lily pot became a vase of flowers; subsequently the Virgin was omitted, and there remained only the vase of flowers.

[370]

See Appendix.

[371]

Tableau Statistique du Dép. des Deux-Nèthes, par le Citoyen Herbouville. An X. = 1802.

[372]

Their names are given: Veuves Mesele, Papegay, and Turck.

[373]

Ypres Valenciennes was exhibited at £80 (the metre). The lace-maker, working twelve hours a day, could scarcely produce one-third of an inch a week. It would take her twelve years to complete a length of six or seven metres, her daily earnings averaging two to three francs. Ypres makes the widest Valenciennes of any manufacture except Courtrai, whence was exhibited a half shawl (pointe) of Valenciennes.

[374]

M. Duhayon Brunfaut, of Ypres.

[375]

Treille is the general term for the ground (réseau) throughout Belgium and the Dép. du Nord.

[376]

France alone buys of Belgium more Valenciennes than all the other countries united; upwards of 12 millions of francs (£480,000).—Aubry.

[377]

At Ghent two turns and a half, and at Courtrai three and a half. Each town has its own peculiar stitch.

[378]

L'Industrie Dentellière Belge, par B. v. d. Dussen, Bruxelles, 1860.

[379]

Robinson Crusoe, when at Lisbon, sends "some Flanders lace of a good value" as a present to the wife and daughter of his partner in the Brazils.

[380]

Answer to Sir John Sinclair, by Mr. H. Schoulthem, concerning the manufactures of Ghent. 1815.

[381]

Arch. de Nat., Coll. Rondonneau.

[382]

Point and Pillow Lace, A. M. S. London, 1899.

[383]

"Une paire de manchettes de cour de dentelle de Binche;

"Trois paires de manchettes à trois rangs de dentelle de Binche;

"Deux fichus de mousseline bordées de dentelle de Binche;

"Deux devants de corps de dentelle de Binche."—Arch. de Nat. X., 10,082.

[384]

"M. Victor Hugo told the Author he had, in his younger days, seen Binch guipure of great beauty."—Mrs. Palliser, 1869.

[385]

Letter of Sir Henry Wotton to Lord Zouch.—State Papers, Domestic, Jas. I., P. R. O.

[386]

In the Bulletin de l'Institut Archéologique, Liègois XVIII., 1885, is a copy of a contract dated January 23rd, 1634, whereby a lace-maker of Liège, Barbe Bonneville, undertakes for 25 florins, current money, to teach a young girl lace-making.

Again, in the copy of a Namur Act of November, 1701, a merchant of Namur orders from a Liègois "3 pieces of needle-made lace called Venice point," to sell at the rate of 5½ florins, 4½ florins, and one écu respectively.

[387]

Arch. de Nat., Coll. Rondonneau.

[388]

"Caïeteresses," from caïets, bobbins.

[389]

Exposition de Liège, par Chanoine Dubois, 1881.

[390]

Statistique du dép. de la Meuse-Inf., par le Citoyen Cavenne. An. X.

[391]

Liège in the seventeenth century numbered 1600 workers, and produced black and white laces which it exported to England, Germany and France. The rich clergy of the country also bought a large quantity. At the time of the Exhibition held there in 1881 the fabric had so declined that it was impossible to find a single piece of lace that had been made in the town.

[392]

Fil tiré, drawn and embroidered muslin-work so fine as to be classed with lace, was made in Dinant in the religious communities of the city and the "pays" of Dinant before the French Revolution. At Marche lace with flowers worked directly on the réseau is made, and the lace of Yorck is also imitated—a lace characterised by additions worked on to the lace, giving relief to the flowers.—Exposition de Liège, par Chanoine Dubois, 1881. The list of Belgian laces also includes "Les points de Brabant, plus mats, et plus remplis que les points de Flandres; les differentes dentelles de fantaisie, non classées, puis les grosses dentelles de Couvin, en soie noire, qui servaient jadis à garnir les pelisses des femmes de l'Entre Sambre-et-Meuse."—La Dentelle de Belgique, par Mme. Daimeries, 1893.

[393]

Italian fashions appeared early in France. Isabeau de Bavière, wearer of the oriental hennin, and Valentine de Milan, first introduced the rich tissues of Italy. Louis XI. sent for workmen from Milan, Venice, and Pistoja, to whom he granted various privileges, which Charles VIII. confirmed.

Lace, according to Séguin, first appears in a portrait of Henri II. at Versailles, a portrait painted in the latter years of his reign.

"Les deux portraits de Francois I^er qui sont au Louvre n'en laissent pas soupçonner l'usage de son temps. Aucun des autres portraits historiques qui y sont, non plus que ceux des galeries de Versailles de la même époque, n'en attestent l'existence, et le premier où on la découvre est un portrait de Henri II à Versailles, qui a dû être peint vers les dernières années de son règne. Le col, brodé d'entrelacs de couleur, est bordé d'une petite dentelle bien simple et bien modeste. Nous possédons des portraits authentiques antérieurs au milieu du XVI^e siècle, des specimens incontestés des costumes qui ont précédé cette époque, aucun de ces nombreux témoins n'atteste son existence.

"Il faut reconnaître que l'origine de la dentelle n'est pas antérieure au milieu du XVI^e siècle."—Séguin, La Dentelle. Paris, 1875.

[394]

In Ulpian Fulwell's Interlude, 1568, Nichol Newfangle says—

[395]

The Queen was accused by her enemies of having, by the aid of Maître René, "empoisonneur en titre," terminated the life of Queen Jeanne de Navarre, in 1571, by a perfumed ruff (not gloves—Description de la Vie de Catherine de Médicis); and her favourite son, the Duke d'Alençon, was said, cir. 1575, to have tried to suborn a valet to take away the life of his brother Henry by scratching him in the back of his neck with a poisoned pin when fastening his fraise.

[396]

Satyre Menippée. Paris, 1593.

[397]

Chronologie Novenaire, Vict. P. Cayet.

[398]

"S'ils se tournoient, chacun se reculoit, crainte de gater leurs fraizes."—Satyre Menippée.

[399]

"Ces beaux mignons portoient ... leur fraizes de chemise de toute d'atour empesez et longues d'un demi-pied, de façon qu'à voir leurs testes dessus leurs fraizes, il sembloit que ce fut le chef de Saint Jean dans un plat."—Journal de Henri III., Pierre de l'Estoille.

[400]

Perroniana. Cologne, 1691.

[401]

"Goudronnées en tuyaux d'orgue, fraisées en choux crépus, et grandes comme des meules de moulin."—Blaise de Viginière.

"La fraize veaudelisée à six étages."—La Mode qui Court. Paris, n.d.

[402]

"Appelez par les Espagnols 'lechuguillas' ou petites laitues, à cause du rapport de ces gaudrons repliées avec les fraisures de la laitue."—Histoire de la Ville de Paris, D. Mich. Félibien.

[403]

"1575. Le roy alloit tous les jours faire ses aumônes et ses prières en grande devotion, laissant ses chemises à grands goderons, dont il estoit auparavant si curieux, pour en prendre à collet renversé a l'Italienne."—Journal de Henri III., Pierre de l'Estoille.

[404]

No less than ten were sent forth by the Valois kings, from 1549 to 1583.

[405]

These were dated 1594, 1600, 1601, and 1606.

[406]

Copper used instead of gold thread for embroidery or lace. The term was equally applied to false silver thread.

"1582. Dix escus pour dix aulnes de gaze blanche rayée d'argent clinquant pour faire ung voille à la Boullonnoise."—Comptes de la Reine de Navarre. Arch. Nat. K. K. 170.

[407]

Regnier, Math., Ses Satyres. 1642.

[408]

The observation was not new. A Remonstrance to Catherine de Médicis, 1586, complains that "leurs moulins, leurs terres, leurs prez, leurs bois et leurs revenuz, se coulent en broderies, pourfilures, passemens, franges, tortis, canetilles, recameurs, chenettes, picqueurs, arrièrepoins, etc., qu'on invente de jour à autre."—Discours sur l'extrême cherté, etc., presenté à la Mère du Roi, par un sien fidelle Serviteur (Du Haillan). Bordeaux, 1586.

[409]

"1579. Pour avoir remonsté trois fraises à poinct couppé, 15 sols.

"Pour avoir monté cinq fraizes à poinct couppé sur linomple, les avoir ourllés et couzeus à la petite cordellière et au poinct noué à raison de 30 sols pour chacune.

"Pour la façon de sept rabatz ourllés à double arrièrepoinct et couzu le passement au dessus.

"1580. Pour avoir faict d'ung mouchoir ouvré deux rabatz, 20 sols.

"Pour deux pieces de poinct couppé pour servir à ladicte dame, VI livres.

"Pour dix huict aulnes de passement blanc pour mestre à des fraizes à trois escus l'aulne."

1582. The account for this year contains entries for "passement faict à lesguille," "grand passement," "passement faict au mestier," etc.—Comptes de la Reine de Navarre. Arch. Nat.

[410]

"Vingt trois chemizes de toile fine à ouvrage de fil d'or et soye de plusieurs coulleurs, aux manchettes coulet et coutures.

"Ung chemize à ouvrage de soye noire.

"Quatre chemizes les trois à ouvrage d'or et d'argent et soye bleu."—Inv. des meubles qui ont estés portés à Paris. 1602. Arch. Nat.

[411]

"1577. A Jehan Dupré, linger, demeurant à Paris, la somme de soixante douze livres tournois à luy or donnée pour son payement de quatre layz d'ouvraige à poinct couppé pour faire une garniture de chemise pour servir à mon dict segneur, à raison de 18 liv. chacune."—Comptes de la Reine de Navarre. Arch. Nat. K. K. 162, fol. 655.

[412]

"This shirt," he adds, "is well attested. It became the perquisite of the king's first valet de chambre. At the extinction of his descendants, it was exposed to sale."—Memoirs.

A rival shirt turned up (c. 1860) at Madame Tussaud's with "the real blood" still visible. Monsieur Curtius, uncle of Madame Tussaud, purchased it at an auction of effects once the property of Cardinal Mazarin. Charles X. offered 200 guineas for it.

[413]

"Item, cinq mouchoirs d'ouvrages d'or, d'argent et soye, prisez ensemble cent escuz.

"Item, deux tauayelles aussi ouvrage d'or, d'argent et soye, prisées cent escuz.

"Item, trois tauayelles blanches de rezeuil, prisées ensemble trente escuz.

"Item, une paire de manches de point coupé et enrichies d'argent, prisez vingt escuz.

"Item, deux mouchoirs blancz de point coupé, prisez ensemble vingt escuz.

"Toutes lesquelles tauayelles et mouchoirs cy dessus trouvez dans un coffre de bahu que la dicte defunte dame faisoit ordinairement porter avec elle a la court sont demeurez entre les mains du S^r de Beringhen, suivant le commandement qu'il en avoit de sa majesté pour les representer à icelle, ce qu'il a promis de faire."—Inventaire apres le decès de Gabrielle d'Estrées. 1599. Arch. Nat. K. K. 157, fol. 17.

[414]

"Item, un lit d'yvoire à filletz noirs de Padoue, garny de son estuy de cuir rouge."—Ibid.

[415]

"Item, une autre tenture de cabinet de carré de rezeau brodurée et montans recouvert de feuillages de fil avec des carrez de thoile plaine, prisé et estimé la somme de cent escus Soleil.

"Item, dix sept carrez de thoile de Hollande en broderie d'or et d'argent fait a deux endroictz, prisez et estimez à 85 escus.

"Item, un autre pavilion tout de rezeil avec le chapiteau de fleurs et feuillages....

"Item, un autre en neuf fait par carrez de point coupé."—Ibid. fols. 46 and 47.

[416]

"Manchettes et collets enrichys de point couppé."—Inventaire apres le decès de Messire Philippe Herault, Comte de Cheverny, Chancelier de France. 1599. Bib. Nat. MSS. F. 11,424.

[417]

In 1598. Vulson de la Colombière, Vray Théatre d'Honneur et de Chevalerie. 1647.

[418]

Satyrique de la Court. 1613.

[419]

Histoire de la Mère et du Fils, from 1616 to 19. Amsterdam, 1729.

[420]

Livre nouveau dict Patrons de Lingerie, etc.

Patrons de diverses Manières, etc. (Title in rhyme.)

S'ensuyvent les Patrons de Mesire Antoine Belin.

Ce Livre est plaisant et utile. (Title in rhyme.)

[421]

La Fleur des Patrons de Lingerie.

[422]

Tresor des Patrons. J. Ostans.

[423]

Le Livre de Moresques (1546), Livre de Lingerie, Dom. de Sera (1584), and Patrons pour Brodeurs (no date), were also printed at Paris.

The last book on this kind of work printed at Paris is styled, Méthode pour faire des Desseins avec des Carreaux, etc., by Père Dominique Donat, religieux carme. 1722.

[424]

A point de Venise alb, of rose point, said to be of this period, is in the Musée de Cluny.

[425]

"Quelques autres de frangez Bordent leur riche cuir, qui vient des lieux estranges."—Le Gan, de Jean Godard, Parisien. 1588.

[426]

"1619. Deux paires de rozes à soulliers garnies de dentelle d'or."—Inv. de Madame Sœur du Roi. (Henrietta Maria.) Arch. Nat.

[427]

Satyrique de la Court.

[428]

The inventory of the unfortunate Maréchal de Marillac, beheaded 1632, has "broderye et poinctz d'Espagnes d'or, argent et soye; rabats et collets de point couppé; taffetas nacarat garnye de dantelle d'argent; pour-poinct passementé de dantelle de canetille de Flandre," etc.—Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 11,426.

[429]

1620, Feb. 8th. "Déclaration portant deffenses de porter des clinquants, passements, broderies," etc.—Arch. Nat. G. G. G.

1623, March 20th. "Déclaration qui defend l'usage des étoffes d'or," etc.—Recueil des anciennes Lois Françaises. T. 16, 107.

1625, Sept. 30th. Déclaration prohibits the wearing of "collets, fraizes, manchettes, et autres linges des passements, Point coupez et Dentelles, comme aussi des Broderies et Decoupures sur quentin ou autre toile."—Bib. Nat. L. i. 8.

[430]

Consolation des Dames sur la Reformation des passemens. 1620.

[431]

Again, 1633, Nov. 18th. Déclaration restricts the prohibition; permits "passements manufacturés dans le royaume qui n'excederont 9 ll. l'aune."—Arch. Nat. G. G. G.

1634, May 30th. "Lettres patentes pour la reformation du luxe des habits," prohibits "dentelles, passements et broderies" on boots, carriages, etc. (British Museum).

1636, April 3rd. "Déclaration contre le Luxe." Again prohibits both foreign and home-made points coupés, etc., under pain of banishment for five years, confiscation, and a fine of 6000 francs.—De la Mare, Traité de la Police.

1639, Nov. 24th. Fresh prohibition, points de Gênes specially mentioned. Not to wear on the collar, cuffs, or boots, "autres choses que de la toile simple sans aucune façon."—Arch. Nat. G. G. G.

[432]

Le Courtisan Reformé, suivant l'Edit. de l'année 1633; and again, Le Jardin de la Noblesse Françoise dans lequel ce peut cueillir leur manière de Vettement. 1629.

[433]

April, 1636.

[434]

1631. Trésorerie de la Reine Marie de Médicis.—Arch. Nat. K. K. 191.

[435]

Vulson de la Colombière, Pompes qu'on pratique aux obséques des Rois de France.

[436]

Mémoires de Guy Joly, from 1648 to 1665.

[437]

About this period a special Act had confirmed the Statutes of the Maîtres Passementiers of Paris. By Article 21, they are privileged to make every sort of passement or lace, "sur l'oreiller, aux fuzeaux, aux épingles, et à la main," on condition the material, gold, silver, thread, or silk, be "de toutes fines ou de toutes fausses." The sale of thread and lace was allowed to the Lingères, but by an Arrêt of the Parliament of Paris, 1665, no one could be a marchande lingère unless she had made profession of the "religion catholique, apostolique, et romaine," a condition worthy of the times. "Il n'y fut," writes Gilles de Felice, in his Histoire des Protestants de France, "pas jusqu'à la corporation des lingères qui ne s'en allât remontrer au conseil que leur communauté, ayant été instituée par saint Louis, no pouvait admettre d'hérétiques, et cette réclamation fut gravement confirmée par un arrêt du 21 août, 1665."

[438]

Dated November 19th, 1653. The letter is given in full by the Marquis de Laborde in Le Palais Mazarin. Paris, 1845.

[439]

Inv. fait apres la mort du Cardinal Mazarin, 1661.—Bibl. Nat. MSS. Suite de Mortmart, 37.

[440]

It is to be found at the Archives National, or in the Library of the Cour de Cassation. In the Archives National is a small collection of ordinances relative to lace collected by M. Rondonneau, extending from 1666 to 1773. It is very difficult to get at all the ordinances. Many are printed in De la Mare (Traité de la Police); but the most complete work is the Recueil général des anciennes Lois françaises, depuis l'an 420 jusqu'à la Révolution de 1789, par MM. Isambert, Ducrusy, et Taillandier. Paris, 1829. The ordinances bear two dates, that of their issue and of their registry.

[441]

This "canon," originally called "bas de bottes," was a circle of linen or other stuff fastened below the knee, widening at the bottom so as to fill the enlargement of the boot, and when trimmed with lace, having the appearance of a ruffle.

[442]

Dictionnaire des Précieuses. 1660. Molière likewise ridicules them:—

And again, in L'École des Femmes:

[443]

Les Délices de la France, par M. Savinière d'Alquié. 1670.

[444]

The fashion of wearing black lace was introduced into England in the reign of Charles II. "Anon the house grew full, and the candles lit, and it was a glorious sight to see our Mistress Stewart in black and white lace, and her head and shoulders dressed with diamonds."—Pepys's Diary.

"The French have increased among us many considerable trades, such as black and white lace."—England's Great Happiness, etc. Dialogue between Content and Complaint. 1677.

"Item, un autre habit de grosse moire garny de dantelle d'Angleterre noire."—1691. Inv. de Madame de Simiane. Arch. Nat., M. M. 802.

[445]

"Of this custom, a relic may still be found at the Court of Turin, where ladies wear lappets of black lace. Not many years since, the wife of a Russian minister, persisting to appear in a suit of Brussels point, was courteously requested by the Grand Chamberlain to retire" (1869).

[446]

Chroniques de l'Œil-de-Bœuf.

[447]

Madame de Motteville is not complimentary to the ladies of the Spanish Court: "Elles avoient peu de linge," she writes, "et leurs dentelles nous parurent laides."—Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire d'Anne d'Autriche.

[448]

Madame de Sévigné mentions these dresses: "Avez-vous ouï parler des transparens?... de robes noires transparentes ou des belles dentelles d'Angleterre."—Lettres.

[449]

1690. Chroniques de l'Œil-de-Bœuf.

[450]

1661, May 27; 1662, Jan. 1; 1664, May 31, Sept. 18, and Dec. 12.

[451]

"On fabriquait précédemment ces espèces de dentelles guipures, dont on ornait les aubes des prêtres, les rochets des évêques et les jupons des femmes de qualité."—Roland de la Platière. The articles on lace by Roland and Savary have been copied by all succeeding writers on the subject.

[452]

Mgr. de Bonzy, Dec. 20, 1664. Correspondance administrative sous Colbert, vol. 3.

[453]

Lefébure.

[454]

"Il y a très longtemps que le point coupé se faict icy, qui a son débit selon le temps; mais qu'une femme nommée La Perrière (sic), fort habile à ces ouvrages, trouva il y a quelques années le moyen d'imiter les points de Venise, en sorte qu'elle y vint à telle perfection que ceux qu'elle faisoit ne devaient rien aux estrangers. Pour faire ces ouvrages il luy falloit enseigner plusieurs petites filles auxquelles elle montroit à faire ce point ... à présent je vous puis asseurer qu'il y a plus de 8,000 personnes qui y travaillent dans Alençon, dans Seèz, dans Argentan, Falaise....

"Monseigneur, c'est une manne, et une vraie bénédiction du ciel qui s'est espandue sur tout ce pays, dans lequel les petitz enfants mesmes de sept ans trouvent moyen de gaigner leur vie. Les vieillards y travaillent et les petites bergerettes des champs y travaillent mêmes."—Letter from Favier-Duboulay, intendant d'Alençon since 1644. Correspondance administrative sous le règne de Louis XIV (quoted by Madame Despierres), vol. 3.

[455]

In 1842 M. Joseph Odolant Desnos, grandson of this author, writes, "Ce fut une dame Gilberte, qui avait fait son apprentissage à Venise, et était native d'Alençon. Dès qu'elle fut à ses ordres, ce ministre (Colbert) la logea dans le magnifique château de Lonrai, qu'il possédait près d'Alençon."—Annuaire de l'Orne.

[456]

Mémoires historiques sur la ville d'Alençon, M. Odolant Desnos. Alençon, 1787.

[457]

"Le château de Lonrai ne passa dans la maison de Colbert que par le mariage de Catherine Thérèse de Matignon, Marquise de Lonrai, avec Jean-Baptiste Colbert, fils ainé du grand Colbert, le 6e septembre 1678" (i.e., fourteen years after the establishment of points de France at Alençon) —Madame Despierres, Histoire de point d'Alençon.

[458]

Madame Despierres, after an exhaustive study of the mass of documentary evidence on this point, gives as her opinion that—

"(1) La première personne qui à Alençon imita le point de Venise, et par conséquent créa le point d'Alençon, fut Mme La Perrière, vers 1650, et non Mme Gilbert.

"(2) La préposée-directrice des manufactures de point de France des différentes villes du royaume qui a établi les bureaux à Alençon, fut Catherine de Marcq, et non pas une dame Gilbert.

"(3) Les préposées mises à la tête de l'établissement d'Alençon étaient Mme Raffy et Marie Fillesae, dont les noms ne répondent pas à celui d'une dame Gilbert."—Madame Despierres, Histoire de point d'Alençon.

[459]

Mrs. Palliser sought in vain for this ordinance in the Library of the Cour de Cassation, where it is stated to be, by the authors of the "Recueil général des anciennes Lois françaises, depuis l'an 420 jusqu'à la Révolution de 1789"; but fortunately it is recited in a subsequent act, dated Oct. 12, 1666 (Arch. Nat., Coll. Rondonneau), by which it appears that the declaration ordered the establishment in "les villes de Quesnoy, Arras, Reims, Sedan, Château-Thierry, Loudun, Alençon, Aurillac, et autres du royaume, de la manufacture de toutes sortes d'ouvrages de fil, tant à l'éguille qu'au coussin, en la manière des points qui se font à Venise, Gennes, Raguse, et autres pays estrangers, qui seroient appellés points de France," by which it would appear the term point de France did not exclusively belong to the productions of Alençon. After the company was dissolved in 1675 the name of point de France was applied to point d'Alençon alone. In a subsequent arrêt it is set forth that the entrepreneurs have caused to be brought in great numbers the best workers from Venice and other foreign cities, and have distributed them over Le Quesnoy and the above-mentioned towns, and that now are made in France "des ouvrages de fil si exquis, qu'ils esgallent, mesme surpassent en beauté les estrangers."—Bibl. de la Cour de Cassation.