INDEX (continued 3)

What became of these manufactures at Le Quesnoy and Château-Thierry, of which not a tradition remains?

[460]

Talon, "secrétaire du cabinet," was one of the first members. We find by an arrêt, Feb. 15, 1667, that this patent had already been infringed. On the petition of Jean Pluymers, Paul, and Catherine de Marcq, "entrepreneurs" of the fabric of points de France, his Majesty confirms to them the sole privilege of making and selling the said points.—Arch. Nat., Coll. Rondonneau. Nov. 17 of the same year appears a fresh prohibition of wearing or selling the passements, lace, and other works in thread of Venice, Genoa, and other foreign countries (British Museum), and March 17, 1668, "Itératives" prohibitions to wear these, either new or "commencé d'user," as injurious to a manufacture of point which gives subsistence to a number of persons in the kingdom.—Ibid. Again, Aug. 19, 1669, a fresh arrêt in consequence of complaints that the workers are suborned and work concealed in Paris, etc.—Arch Nat., Coll. Rondonneau.

[461]

Colbert said to Louis XIV.: "There will always be found fools enough to purchase the manufactures of France, though France should be prohibited from purchasing those of other countries." The King agreed with the minister, whom he made chief director of the trade and manufactures of the kingdom.

[462]

A favourite saying of Colbert.

[463]

The artists who furnished designs for all works undertaken for the court of Louis XIV. must have supplied designs for the lace manufactures: "In the accounts of the King's buildings is the entry of a payment due to Bailly, the painter, for several days' work with other painters in making designs for embroideries and points d'Espagne" (Lefébure).

[464]

The principal centres of lace-making were Aurillac, Sedan, Rheims, Le Quesnoy, Alençon, Arras, and Loudun, and the name "Points de France" was given without distinction to all laces made at these towns; preference was given in choosing these centres to those towns already engaged in lace-making. Alençon produced the most brilliant results, for from the beginning of the seventeenth century the town had been engaged in needle-point lace, and some of the lace-makers earned high wages, and showed great aptitude for the art. In her Histoire du Point d'Alençon, Madame Despierres has made some interesting extracts from various marriage contracts and wills:—

"A notable instance is that of a family named Barbot, the mother having amassed 500 livres. Her daughter, Marthe Barbot, married Michel Mercier, sieur de la Perrière, and brought him a wedding-portion of 300 livres, the earnings of her industry; while her sister Suzanne Barbot's wedding-portion, upon her marriage with Paul Ternouillet, amounted to 6,000 livres, earned in making cut-works and works en velin (needle-point lace done on a parchment pattern), which command a high price" (Lefébure).

[465]

The Venetian Senate, according to Charles Yriarte, regarded this emigration of workers to France as a crime against the State, and issued the following decree:—

"If any artist or handicraftsman practises his art in any foreign land to the detriment of the Republic, orders to return will be sent him; if he disobeys them, his nearest of kin will be put into prison, in order that through his interest in their welfare his obedience may be compelled. If he comes back, his past offence will be condoned, and employment for him will be found in Venice; but if, notwithstanding the imprisonment of his nearest of kin, he obstinately decides to continue living abroad, an emissary will be commissioned to kill him, and his next of kin will only be liberated upon his death."

[466]

To afford an idea of the importance of the lace trade in France at the beginning of the eighteenth century, and of the immense consumption of lace in France, we give the following statistics:—In 1707, the collection of the duties of lace was under-farmed to one Étienne Nicolas, for the annual sum of 201,000 livres. The duty then was of 50 livres per lb. weight of lace, so that there entered annually into France above 400,000 lbs. of lace, which, estimating at the lowest 1,000 lbs. of lace to be worth 1,000 livres, would represent 4 millions of that epoch. Taking into calculation that fraud was extensively practised, that the points of Venice and Genoa, being prohibited, could not appear in the receipts; and that, on the other part, the under-farmer did not pay the farmer-general the 201,000 livres without the certainty of profit to himself, we must admit that the figure, though high, is far from representing the value of the foreign laces which entered France at that period. We think that 8 millions (£320,000) would be below the true figure.—Rapport sur les Dentelles fait à la Commission française de l'Exposition Universelle de Londres, 1851. Felix Aubry. The best history of lace published.

[467]

"Deux tours de chaire de point de France donnez depuis quelques années par deux dames de la paroisse."—Inv. de l'église de Saint-Merry, à Paris. Arch. Nat. L. L. 859.

[468]

Inv. de Madame Anne Palatine de Bavière, Princesse de Condé.—Ibid. X. 10,065.

[469]

Inv. de l'église de Saint-Gervais, à Paris.—Ibid. L. L. 854.

[470]

The saints, too, came in for their share of the booty.

"There was St. Winifred," writes a traveller of the day, "in a point commode with a large scarf on and a loup in hand, as tho' she were going to mass. St. Denis, with a laced hat and embroidered coat and sash, like a captain of the guards."—Six Weeks in France. 1691.

[471]

"Toille de Hollande, avec des grands points de France."—Le Cérémonial de la Nomination de Monseigneur le Dauphin. 1668. Arch. Nat. K. K. 1431.

[472]

Le Mercure Galant. Juillet, 1688. This periodical, which we shall have occasion so frequently to quote, was begun in 1672, and continued to July, 1716. It comprises, with the Extraordinaires, 571 vols. in 12mo.

Le Mercure de France, from 1717 to 1792, consists of 777 vols.—Brunet. Manuel de Libraire.

[473]

Le Mercure Galant.

[474]

It was the custom, at the birth of a Dauphin, for the papal nuncio to go to the palace and present to the new-born child "les langes benites," or consecrated layette, on behalf of his Holiness the Pope. The shirts, handkerchiefs, and other linen, were by half-dozens, and trimmed with the richest point. This custom dates as early as the birth of Louis XIII. Mercier describes the ceremony of carrying the layette to Versailles in the time of Louis XV.—Vie du Dauphin, père de Louis XVI. Paris, 1858.

[475]

In the Lancaster state bedroom, at Fonthill, was sold in 1823: "A state bed quilt of Brussels point, for 100 guineas, and a Brussels toilet cover for 30 guineas."—Fonthill. Sale Catalogue.

"1694. Une toilette de satin violet picquée garny d'un point d'Espagne d'or à deux carreaux de mesme satin et aussi piqué."—Inv. de Mgr. de la Vrillière, Patriarche, Archevêque de Bourges. Bib. Nat.

"1743. Une toilette et son bonhomme garnie d'une vieille dentelle d'Angleterre."—Inv. de la Duchesse de Bourbon.

"1758. Une toilette avec sa touaille de point fort vieux d'Alençon."—Inv. de Mademoiselle de Charollois.

"1770. Une tres belle toilette de point d'Argentan, en son surtout de 9,000 livres.

"Une tres belle toilette d'Angleterre, et son surtout de 9,000."—Cptes. de Madame du Barry.

[476]

"On voit toujours des jupes de point de France."—Mercure Galant, 1686.

"Corsets chamarrés de point de France."—Ibid.

[477]

Madame de Sévigné describes Mademoiselle de Blois as "belle comme un ange," with "un tablier et une bavette de point de France."—Lettres. Paris, 27 Jan., 1674.

[478]

"Garnis de point de France formant une manière de rose antique."—Mercure Galant. 1677.

[479]

In the Extraordinaire du Mercure for 1678, we have, in "habit d'este," gloves of "point d'Angleterre."

[480]

Mercure Galant. 1672.

[481]

Ibid. 1686.

[482]

Mercure Galant. Fév. 1685.

[483]

Ibid. 1678.

[484]

At the Mazarin Library there are four folio volumes of engravings, after Bonnard and others, of the costumes of the time of Louis XIV.; and at the Archives Nat. is a large series preserved in cartons numbered M. 815 to 823, etc., labelled "Gravures de Modes."

[485]

La Fontange altière.—Boileau.

[486]

The wife of Trajan wore this coiffure, and her sister Marcina Faustina, wife of Antoninus, much regretted the fashion when it went out. Speaking of this head-dress, says a writer in the Bibliothèque Universelle of 1693, "On regarde quelque fois des certaines choses comme tout à fait nouvelles, qui ne sont que des vieilles modes renouvellées. L'auteur en appelle un exemple dans les coiffures elevées que portent les femmes aujourd'hui, croyant ajouter par là quelque chose à leur taille. Les dames Romaines avaient la même ambition et mettaient des ajustemens de tête tout semblables aux Commodes et aux Fontanges de ce temps. Juvenal en parle expressément dans sa Satire VI."

[487]

Galerie de l'ancienne Cour.

[488]

"1699. Oct. Le Vendredi 25, il y eut grande toilette chez Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne où les dames parurent, pour la première fois, en coiffures d'une forme nouvelle, c'est à dire beaucoup plus basses."—Mercure Galant.

[489]

"Corr. de la Duchesse d'Orléans, Princesse Palatine, mère du Régent."

[490]

Speaking of the Iron Mask, Voltaire writes:—"His greatest passion was for linen of great fineness and for lace."—Siècle de Louis XIV.

[491]

Fought by Marshal Luxembourg—vieux tapissier de Notre-Dame—against William of Orange.

[492]

Falbala—a deep single flounce of point or gold lace. The Mercure Galant, 1698, describing the Duchess of Burgundy "à la promenade," states: "Elle avoit un habit gris de lin en falbala, tout garny de dentelles d'argent."

"Femme de qualité en Steinkerke et Falbala."—Engraving of 1693.

[493]

See England.—William III.

[494]

Regnard.

[495]

Dame du palais to Queen Marie Thérèse, and afterwards first lady of honour to the Duchess of Burgundy. She died 1726.

[496]

Mercure Galant. 1683.

Again, in 1688, he says: "Les points de Malines sont fort en regne pour les manches qu'on nomme engageantes. Ou y met des points très-hauts, fort plissés, avec des pieds."

"Ladies trimmed their berthes and sleeves with lace; when the sleeves were short they were called engageantes; when long, pagodes. Upon skirts laces were worn volantes or as flounces, whence the name volant or flounce, which has come into use for all wide laces; these flouncings were draped either in tournantes or quilles, the former laid horizontally, the latter vertically upon skirts; but in either case these were stitched down on each edge of the lace, whereas flounces were fastened to dresses by the engrêlure or footing. Lace barbes and fontanges were used as head-dresses."

They appear to have been soon introduced into England, for Evelyn, in his Mundus Muliebris, 1690, says: "About her sleeves are engageants;" and the Ladies' Dictionary of nearly the same date gives: "Ængageants, double ruffles that fall over the wrist."

In the lace bills of Queen Mary II., we find—

£ s. d.

"1694. 1¾ yd. Point for a broad pair of Engageants, at £5 10s. 9 12 6

3½ for a double pair of ditto, at £5 10s. 19 5 0

1 pair of Point Engageants 30 0 0 "

—(B. M., Add. MSS. No. 5751.)

"1720. Six pairs d'engageantes, dont quatre à un rang de dentelle, et les autres paires à double rang, l'une de dentelle d'Angleterre à raiseau et l'autre de dentelle à bride."—Inv. de la Duchesse de Bourbon. Arch. Nat.

"1723. Une paire d'engageantes à deux rangs de point plat à raiseau."—Inv. d'Anne de Bavière, Princesse de Condé.

"1770. Six rangs d'engageantes de point à l'aiguille," with the same of point d'Argentan and Angleterre, appear in the lace bills of Madame du Barry.

[497]

"1725. Deux manteaux de bain et deux chemises, aussi de bain, garnis aux manches de dentelle, l'une à bride, et l'autre à raiseau."—Inv. d'Anne de Bavière, Princesse de Condé.

"1743. Ung Tour de baignoir de bazin garny de vieille dentelle.

"Trois linges de baignoire garnis de dentelle."—Inv. de la Duchesse de Bourbon.

[498]

Describing the duties of the "critic of each bright ruelle," Tickell says:—

[499]

In the spring of 1802, Mr. Holcroft, when in Paris, received a polite note from a lady at whose house he visited, requesting to see him. He went, and was informed by her maid the lady was in her warm bath, but she would announce his arrival. She returned, and led him to a kind of closet, where her mistress was up to her chin in water. He knew the manners of the place, and was not surprised.—Travels.

[500]

Mercier also mentions, in his Tableau de Paris, la poupée de la rue Saint-Honoré: "C'est de Paris que les profondes inventions en modes donnent des loix à l'univers. La fameuse poupée, le mannequin precieux, affublé des modes les plus nouvelles ... passe de Paris à Londres tous les mois, et va de là répandre ses graces dans toute l'Europe. Il va au Nord et du Midi, il pénètre à Constantinople et à Petersbourg, et le pli qu'a donné une main françoise se répète chez toute les nations, humbles observatrices du goût de la rue Saint-Honoré."

[501]

The practice was much more ancient. M. Ladomie asserts that in the Royal expenses for 1391, figure so many livres for a doll sent to the Queen of England; in 1496 another, sent to the Queen of Spain; and in 1571 a third, to the Duchess of Bavaria.

Henry IV. writes in 1600, before his marriage to Marie de Médicis: "Frontenac tells me that you desire patterns of our fashion in dress. I send you, therefore, some model dolls."—Miss Freer's Henry IV.

It was also the custom of Venice, at the annual fair held in the Piazza of St. Mark, on the day of the Ascension (a fair which dates from 1180), to expose in the most conspicuous place of the fair a rag doll, which served as a model for the fashions for the year.—Michiel, Origine delle Feste Veneziani.

[502]

Tableau de Paris. 1782.

[503]

"The French nation are eminent for making a fine outside, when perhaps they want necessaries, and indeed a gay shop and a mean stock is like the Frenchman with his laced ruffles without a shirt."—The Complete English Tradesman. Dan. Defoe. Lond., 1726. Foote, in his Prologue to the Trip to Paris, says, "They sold me some ruffles, and I found the shirts."

[504]

Souvenirs de la Marquise de Créquy. 1710-1802.

[505]

Clement X. was in the habit of making presents of Italian lace, at that time much prized in France, to M. de Sabière. "He sends ruffles," said the irritated Frenchman who looked for something more tangible, "to a man who never has a shirt."

[506]

"M. de Vendôme, at his marriage, was quite astonished at putting on his clean shirt a-day, and fearfully embarrassed at having some point lace on the one given him to put on at night. Indeed," continues she, "you would hardly recognise the taste of the French. The men are worse than the women. They wish their wives to take snuff, play, and pay no more attention to their dress." The exquisite cleanliness of Anne of Austria's court was at an end.

[507]

In the old Scotch song of Gilderoy, the famous highwayman, we have an instance:—

And in an account quoted in the Reliquary, July, 1865, is the charge on Feb. 16, of "six shillings for a cravat for hur Vallentine."

[508]

Inv. après le decès de Mgr. C. de Saint-Albin, Archevesque de Cambray. (Son of the Regent.) 1764. Arch. Nat. M. M. 718.

Louis XVI. had 59 pairs the year before his death: 28 of point, 21 of Valenciennes, and 10 of Angleterre.—Etat des Effets subsistant et formant le fond de la garderobe du Roi au 1^er Janvier, 1792. Arch. Nat. K. 506, No. 30.

[509]

Etat d'un Trousseau. Description des Arts et Métiers. Paris, 1777.

[510]

"Deux aunes trois quarts d'Angleterre à bride pour deux paires de manchettes tournantes, à 45 livres l'aune."—Garderobe de S. A. S. Mgr. le Duc de Penthièvre. 1738. Arch. Nat. K. K. 390.

[511]

Ibid. The laces for ruffles were of various kinds: point brodé, point à bride, point à raiseau, point à bride à écaille, point superfin, point brillant, Angleterre à bride à raiseau, and one pair of point d'Argentan; Valenciennes pour manchettes de nuit à 42 livres l'aune.

The Duke's wardrobe accounts afford a good specimen of the extravagance in the decoration of night attire at this period:—

4 au. de point pour collet et manchettes de la chemise de nuit et garnir la coëffe, à 130 ll. 520 ll.

3 au. ¾ dito pour jabot et fourchettes de nuit et garnir le devant de la camisole, à 66 ll. 247 ll. 10s.

Sept douze de point pour plaquer sur les manches de camisolle, à 55 ll. 32 ll. 1s.

Then for his nightcaps:—

3 au. Toile fine pour Coëffes de Nuit 27 ll.

4 au. Dentelles de Malines pour les tours de Coëffes, à 20 ll. 80 ll.

5 au. ½ Valenciennes, à 46 ll. 253 ll.

52 au. dito petit point, pour garnir les Tours, à 5 ll. 5s. 273 ll.

Pour avoir monté un bonnet de nuit de point 1 l. 5s.

7 au. de campanne de point pour chamarrer la camisolle et le bonnet de nuit, à 10 ll. 10s. 73 ll. 10s.

The Marquise de Créquy speaks of a night-cap, "à grandes dentelles," offered, with la robe de chambre, to the Dauphin, son of Louis XV., by the people of the Duke de Grammont, on his having lost his way hunting, and wandered to the Duke's château.

[512]

"Le Parisien qui n'a pas dix mille livres de rente n'a ordinairement ni draps, ni lit, ni serviettes, ni chemises; mais il a une montre à repetition, des glaces, des bas de soie, des dentelles."—Tableau de Paris.

[513]

Histoire de Paris.

[514]

"Ordinairement un laquais de bon ton prend le nom de son maître, quand il est avec d'autres laquais, il prend aussi ses mœurs, ses gestes, ses manières.... Le laquais d'un seigneur porte la montre d'or ciselée, des dentelles, des boucles à brillants," etc.—Tableau de Paris.

[515]

Amusemens des Eaux de Spa. Amsterdam, 1751.

"Les manches qu'à table on voit tâter la sauce."—École des maris.

[516]

The state liveries of Queen Victoria were most richly embroidered in gold. They were made in the early part of George II.'s reign, since which time they have been in use. In the year 1848, the servants appeared at the royal balls in gold and ruffles of the richest gros point de France, of the same epoch as their dresses. In 1849, the lace no longer appeared—probably suppressed by order. Queen Anne, who was a great martinet in trifles, had her servants marshalled before her every day, that she might see if their ruffles were clean and their periwigs dressed.

[517]

Tableau de Paris.

[518]

Mémoires.

[519]

"1723. Un couvrepied de toile blanche, picqure de Marseille, garni autour d'un point en campane de demie aune de hauteur."—Inv. d'A. de Bavière, Princesse de Condé.

"1743. Un couvrepied de toile picquée, brodée or et soye, bordé de trois côtés d'une grande dentelle d'Angleterre et du quatrième d'un moyen dentelle d'Angleterre à bords.

"Un autre, garni d'une grande et moyenne dentelle de point d'Alençon.

"Un autre, garni d'un grand point de demie aune de hauteur, brodé, garni d'une campane en bas.

"Un autre, 'point à bride,'" and many others.—Inv. de la Duchesse de Bourbon.

[520]

"1704. Deux taies d'oreiller garnies de dentelle, l'une à raiseau, et l'autre à bride."—Inv. de F. P. Loisel. Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 11,459.

"1723. Quatre taies d'oreiller, dont trois garnies de differentes dentelles, et l'autre de Point."—Inv. d'Anne de Bavière, Princesse de Condé.

"1755. Deux taies d'oreiller garnies de point d'Alençon."—Inv. de Mademoiselle de Charollais.

"1761. Trois taies d'oreiller de dentelle de point à brides."—Inv. de la Duchesse de Modène.

"1770. 7 au. ⅛ vraie Valenciennes pour garnir une taie d'oreiller, à 60 ll. 427 10."—Comptes de Madame du Barry.

"1707. 7 au. tournante d'Angleterre pour garnir des plottes (pincushions) à 50 350 00."—Comptes de Madame du Barry.

"1788. 12 Pelottes garnies de dentelle."—Ibid.

"6 trousses à peigne garnies de dentelle."—Fourni pour Mgr. le Dauphin. Arch. Nat.

"1792. 6 Pelottes garnies de dentelle."—Linge du çi-devant Roi. Ibid.

[521]

Souvenirs.

[522]

Mémoires du Due de Luynes.

[523]

1786. Courts of Europe.

[524]

It may be amusing to the reader to learn the laces necessary for l'État d'un Trousseau, in 1777, as given in the Description des Arts de Métiers: "Une toilette de ville en dentelle; 2 jupons garnis du même. Une coiffure avec tour de gorge, et le fichu plissé de point d'Alençon. Un idem de point d'Angleterre. 1 id. de vraie Valenciennes. Une coiffure dite 'Battant d'œil' de Malines brodée, pour le negligé. 6 fichus simples en mousseline à mille fleurs garnis de dentelle pour le negligé. 12 grands bonnets garnis d'une petite dentelle pour la nuit. 12 à deux rangs, plus beaux, pour le jour, en cas d'indisposition. 12 serres-tête garnis d'une petite dentelle pour la nuit. 2 taies d'oreiller garnies en dentelle. 12 pièces d'estomach garnies d'une petite dentelle. 6 garnitures de corset. 12 tours de gorge. 12 paires ce manchettes en dentelle. Une toilette; les volants, au nombre de deux, sont en dentelle; ils ont 5 aunes de tour. Dessus de pelotte, en toile garnie de dentelle, etc. La Layette: 6 paires de manches pour la mère, garnies de dentelle. 24 bonnets ronds de 3 ages en dentelle. 12 bavoirs de deux ages, garnis en dentelle." The layette was furnished together with the trousseau, because, says a fabricant, "les enfans se font plus vite que les points."

[525]

"1787. Pour achat de 11 au. blonde noire, à 6 10 71 livres 10 sous."—Comptes de Monsieur Hergosse.

Bib. Nat. MSS., F. Fr. 11,447.

[526]

When the Empress Joséphine was at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, a masked ball was given on the occasion. The ladies, says Mademoiselle Avrillion, wore short dominoes with their faces covered with a mask, "le tour des yeux garni d'une petite dentelle noire."—Mém. de Mademoiselle Avrillion, première femme de chambre de l'Impératrice. Paris, 1833.

[527]

A few extracts from Madame du Barry's lace accounts will furnish an idea of her consumption of point d'Angleterre:—

Une toilette d'Angleterre complette de 8823 livres.

Une parure composée de deux barbes, rayon et fond, 6 rangs de manchettes, 1 ½ au. de ruban fait exprès, ⅓ jabot pour le devant de tour. Le tout d'Angleterre superfin de 7000 ——

Un ajustemente d'Angleterre complet de 3216 ——

Une garniture de peignoir d'Angleterre de 2342 livres.

Une garniture de fichu d'Angleterre 388 ——

8 au. d'Angleterre pour tayes d'oreiller 240

9 ½ au. dito pour la tête 76

14 au. pied dito pour la tête 140

—— 456 livres.

[528]

"Les dentelles les plus précieuses pour chaque saison."—(Duchesse d'Abrantès.)

[529]

Mémoires.

[530]

Mém. de la Princesse Palatine, veuve de Monsieur.

[531]

"Cuisinières et Tourières." The joke formed the subject of some clever verses from the Chevalier de Boufflers.

[532]

Marli, which takes its name from the village between Versailles and St. Germain, is tulle dotted with small square spots. See page 225.

[533]

The barbe, or lappet, of whatever form it be, has always, in all ages and all countries, been a subject of etiquette. At the interment of Queen Mary Tudor, December 14th, 1558, it is told how the ladies in the first and second chariots were clad in mourning apparel, according to their estates, "their barbes above their chynes." "The 4 ladies on horseback in like manner had their barbes on their chynes." In the third chariot, "the ladies had their barbes under their chynes."—State Papers, Domestic, Eliz., vol. 32.

See also the curious extract from Madame de Campan's Mémoires:—

"Madame de Noailles était remplie de vertus; mais l'etiquette était pour elle une sorte d'atmosphère. Un jour je mis, sans le vouloir, cette pauvre dame dans une angoisse terrible; la reine recevait je ne sais plus qui. Tout était bien, au moins je le croyais. Je vois tout-à-coup les yeux de Madame de Noailles attachés sur les miens, et puis ses deux sourcils se levent jusqu'au haut de son front, redescendent, remontent. L'agitation de la Comtesse croissait toujours. La reine s'aperçut de tout ceci ... et me dit alors à mi-voix: 'Detachez vos barbes, où la comtesse en mourra.' L'etiquette du costume disait: 'Barbes pendentes.'"

[534]

Only in her last lace bill, 1773:

"Une paire de barbes plattes longues de ¾ en blonde fine à fleurs fond d'Alençon, 36.

"Une blonde grande hauteur à bouquets détachés et à bordure riche.

"6 au. de blonde de grande hauteur façon d'Alençon à coquilles à mille poix, à 18.

"Une paire de sabots de comtesse de deux rangs de tulle blonde à festons, fond d'Alençon."—Comptes de la Comtesse du Barry. Bib. Nat. F. Fr. 8157.

Madame du Barry went to the greatest extravagance in lace ajustements, barbes, collerettes, volants, quilles, coëffes, etc., of Argentan, Angleterre, and point à l'aiguille.

[535]

The great fashion. The shoes were embroidered in diamonds, which were scarcely worn on other parts of the dress. The back seam, trimmed with emeralds, was called "venez-y-voir."

[536]

Souvenirs du Marquis de Valfons, 1710-1786. A "chat," tippet or Palatine, so named after the mother of the Regent.

[537]

In the National Archives, formerly preserved with the Livre Rouge in the Armorie de Fer, is the Gazette pour l'année, 1782, of Marie Antoinette, consisting of a list of the dresses furnished for the Queen during the year, drawn up by the Comtesse d'Ossune, her dame des atours. We find—grands habits, robes sur le grand panier, robes sur le petit panier, with a pattern of the material affixed to each entry, and the name of the couturière who made the dress. One "Lévite" alone appears trimmed with blonde. There is also the Gazette of Madame Elizabeth, for 1792.

[538]

Mémoires sur la Cour de Louis XVI.

[539]

Among these were Sedan, Charleville, Mézières, Dieppe, Havre, Pont-l'Évêque, Honfleur, Eu, and more than ten neighbouring villages. The points of Aurillac, Bourgogne, and Murat disappeared; and worst of all was the loss of the manufacture of Valenciennes. Laces were also made in Champagne, at Troyes and Domchéry, etc.

[540]

1649. Anne Gohory leaves all her personals to Madame de Sévigné except her "plus beau mouchoir, le col de point fin de Flandres, et une juppe de satin à fleurs fond vert, garnye de point fin d'or et de soie."

1764. Geneviève Laval bequeaths to her sister "une garniture de dentelle de raiseau à grandes dents, valant au moins quinze livres l'aune."—Arch. de Nat. Y. 58.

1764. Anne Challus leaves her "belle garniture de dentelle en plein, manchettes, tour de gorge, palatine et fond."—Ibid.

1764. Madame de Pompadour, in her will, says, "Je donne à mes deux femmes de chambre tout ce qui concerne ma garderobe ... y compris les dentelles."

[541]

Mém. de Mademoiselle d'Avrillion.

[542]

Mémoires sur la Restauration, par Madame la Duchesse d'Abrantès.

[543]

Ibid. T. v., p. 48.

[544]

After the Peace of Amiens, 1801.

[545]

Mémoires de Madame la Duchesse d'Abrantès.

[546]

The revival first appeared in the towns which made the cheaper laces: Caen, Bayeux, Mirecourt, Le Puy, Arras, etc.

[547]

"Fil de mulquinerie."

[548]

The name point Colbert, adopted in memory of the great Minister, is applied to point laces in high relief.

"La brode a toujours existé dans le point d'Alençon, aussi que dans le point de Venise, seulement dans le point d'Alençon les reliefs étaient moins énlevés. On ne mettait pas seulement un fil, mais trois, cinq, huit ou dix fils, suivant l'épaisseur du relief que l'on voulait obtenir puis, sur ce bourrage, se faisaient des points bouclés très serrés de façon que la boucle fut presque sous les fils formant le relief. C'est ce point que certains fabricants nomment point Colbert."—Madame Despierres, Histoire du Point d'Alençon.—Page 228, post.

[549]

In 1673, July, we read in the Mercure:—"On fait aussi des dentelles à grandes brides, comme aux points de fil sans raiseau, et des dentelles d'Espagne avec des brides claires sans picots; et l'on fait aux nouveaux points de France des brides qui en sont remplies d'un nombre infini."

[550]

Mémoire concernant le Généralité d'Alençon, dressé par M. de Pommereu. 1698. Bib. Nat. MSS. Fonds Mortemart, No. 89.

[551]

Vilain, velin, vellum, from the parchment or vellum upon which it is made.

"La manufacture des points de France, appelés dans le pays velin."—Savary, Vol. I., p. 108.

"The expression is still used. When the author inquired at Alençon the way to the house of Mr. R., a lace manufacturer, she was asked in return if it was 'Celui qui fait le velin?'"—Mrs. Palliser.

[552]

In 1788 Arthur Young states the number of lace-makers at and about Alençon to be from 8,000 to 9,000."—Travels in France.

Madame Despierres, however, states that only 500 or 600 lace-workers left Alençon on the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, as there were not 4,000 lace-workers then in the town.

[553]

He deducts 150,000 livres for the raw material, the Lille thread, which was used at prices ranging from 60 to 1,600 livres per pound; from 800 to 900 livres for good fine point; but Lille at that time fabricated thread as high as 1,800 livres per pound.

[554]

In 1705 there were ten processes:—(1) Le dessin; (2) le picage; (3) la trace; (4) les fonds; (5) la dentelure ou bride à picots; (6) la brode; (7) l'enlevage; (8) l'éboulage; (9) le régalage; (10) l'assemblage.

Mrs. Palliser gives eighteen processes, and states that this number is now reduced to twelve. The workwomen were:—(1) The piqueuse; (2) traceuse; (3) réseleuse; (4) remplisseuse; (5) fondeuse; (6) modeuse; (7) brodeuse; (8) ébouleuse; (9) régaleuse; (10) assembleuse; (11) toucheuse; (12) brideuse; (13) boucleuse; (14) gazeuse; (15) mignonneuse; (16) picoteuse; (17) affineuse; (18) affiquese.

[555]

"The origin of this name Argentella is obscure, but it was presumed to imply that the lace was worked in Genoa or Venice. There is, however, no evidence of this type of lace being made there. Another theory is that Argentella is an Italianised title for the more delicate examples of point d'Argentan. The character of the lace and the style of the floral patterns worked upon mesh grounds are those of Alençon laces." In Specimen 1,373-74 in the Victoria and Albert Museum collection the cordonnet is done in buttonhole stitches closely cast over a thread which outlines various forms in the design—a distinctive mark of point d'Alençon. And the hexagonal wheel device in this example is often to be seen introduced into flounces of point d'Alençon, of which other portions are composed of the ordinary Alençon ground or réseau.—A. S. Cole. Fig. 88 and Plate LVII.

[556]

Dictionnaire du Citoyen, Paris, 1761.

[557]

Madame Despierres writes on this head that entries of point d'Alençon occur as early as 1663:—

"1663, 9 juin—contrat entre Georges Rouillon, Greffier, et Marie Leroy....

"1900 liv. gagnées par son industrie à faire des ouvrages de point d'Alençon."

[558]

Inv. de Madame Anne Palatine, Princesse de Condé. See chap. x. note 468.

[559]

In the Inventory of the Duc de Penthièvre, 1738. See chap. xi.

[560]

"Une coiffure de point d'Alençon à raiseau."—Inv. de decès de Mademoiselle de Clermont, 1741. Again, 1743, Inv. de la Duchesse de Bourbon. Bib. Nat.

[561]

Among the objects of religious art exhibited in 1864 at the General Assembly of the Catholics of Belgium at Malines was a "voile de bénédiction," the handkerchief used to cover the ciborium, of point d'Alençon, with figures of the Virgin, St. Catherine, St. Ursula, and St. Barbara. It belonged to the Church of St. Christopher at Charleroi.

[562]

Séez has now no records of its manufacture.

[563]

Descr. du Dép. de l'Orne. An IX. Publiée par ordre du ministre de l'intérieur.

[564]

Illustrated News, March 22, 1856.

[565]

It only requires to compare Figs. 74, 75, 76, and 80, with Figs. 82 and 83 to see the marked difference in the character of the lace.

[566]

"Sous Louis XIV. il y avaient de magnifiques rinceaux, guirlandes, et cornes d'abondance d'où s'échappent de superbes fleurs. Sous Louis XV. les fabricants changèrent encore leurs dessins pour prendre les fleurs qui s'épanouent et s'ensoulent capricieusement les unes aux autres.

"Le style de Louis XVI. n'a rien de l'ampleur ni de l'élégance des styles précédents. Les formes sont arrondies; des guirlandes et des fleurettes sont la base des dessins de cette époque.

"Sous la république et le premier empire, les dessins deviennent raides" (Madame Despierres.)

[567]

This effect is produced by varying the application of the two stitches used in making the flowers, the toilé, which forms the close tissue, and the grillé, the more open part of the pattern. The system has been adopted in France, Belgium, and England, but with most success in France.

[568]

[569]

Henry founded a chapel at Argentan to St. Thomas of Canterbury.

[570]

"The average size of a diagonal, taken from angle to angle, in an Alençon or so-called Argentan hexagon was about 1⁄6 of an inch, and each side of the hexagon was about 1⁄10 of an inch. An idea of the minuteness of the work can be formed from the fact that a side of a hexagon would be overcast with some nine or ten buttonhole stitches" (A. S. Cole). "So little is the beautiful workmanship of this ground known or understood, that the author has seen priceless flowers of Argentan relentlessly cut out and transferred to bobbin net, 'to get rid of the ugly, old, coarse ground'" (Mrs. Palliser, 1869).

[571]

"Les trois sortes de brides comme champ sont exécutées dans ces deux fabriques, et les points ont été et sont encore faits par les mêmes procédés de fabrication, et avec les mêmes matières textiles," writes Madame Despierres. Mrs. Palliser, on the other hand, was of opinion that the two manufactures were distinct, "though some lace-makers near Lignères-la-Doucelle worked for both establishments. Alençon made the finest réseau; Argentan specially excelled in the bride. The flowers of Argentan were bolder and larger in pattern, in higher relief, heavier and coarser than those of Alençon. The toilé was flatter and more compact. The workmanship differed in character. On the clear bride ground this lace was more effective than the minuter workmanship of Alençon; it more resembled the Venetian. Indeed, so close is its resemblance that many of the fine garnitures de robe, aprons, and tunics that have survived the revolutionary storm would be assigned to Venice, did not their pedigree prove them to be of the Argentan fabric" (Mrs. Palliser, 1869).

[572]

Letter of September 19th, 1744.

[573]

"Burgoigne, the first part of the dress for the head next the hair."—Mundus Muliebris. 1609. "Burgoigin, the part of the head-dress that covers up the head."—Ladies' Dictionary. 1694. In Farquhar's comedy of "Sir Harry Wildair," 1700, Parley, when asked what he had been about, answers, "Sir, I was coming to Mademoiselle Furbelow, the French milliner, for a new Burgundy for my lady's head."

[574]

The offenders, manufacturers and workwomen, incurred considerable fines.

[575]

Nov. 12th, 1745.

[576]

In 1765, under the name of Duponchel.

[577]

1772. Un ajustement de point d'Argentan—

Les 6 rangs manchettes.

⅓ pour devant de gorge.

4 au. ⅓ festonné des deux costés, le fichu et une garniture de fichu de nuit 2,500 livres.

1 au ¾ ruban de point d'Argentan, à 100 175 —

Une collerette de point d'Argentan 360 —

—(Comptes de Madame du Barry.)

1781. "Une nappe d'autel garnie d'une tres belle dentelle de point d'Argentan."—Inv. de l'Eglise de St. Gervais. Arch. Nat. L. 654.

1789. "Item, un parement de robe consistant en garniture, deux paires de manchettes, et fichu, le tout de point d'Argentan." (Dans la garderobe de Madame.)—Inv. de decès de Mgr. de Duc de Duras. Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 11,440.

[578]

"Une coiffure bride à picot complete."—Inv. de decès de Mademoiselle de Clermont, 1741.

[579]

These details on the manufacture of Argentan have been furnished from the archives of Alençon through the kindness of M. Léon de la Sicotière, the learned archæologist of the Department of the Orne (Mrs. Palliser, 1869).

[580]

Embroidery has replaced this industry among the workers of the town and the hand-spinning of hemp among those of the country.

[581]

Légende du point d'Argentan, M. Eugène de Lonlay.

[582]

Nouveau Réglement Général sur toutes sortes de Marchandises et Manufactures qui sont utiles et necessaires dans ce Royaume, etc., par M. le Marquis de la Gomberdière. Paris, 1634. In 8vo.

[583]

M. Fournier says that France was at this time tributary to Flanders for "passemens de fil," very fine and delicately worked. Laffemas, in his Réglement Général pour dresser les Manufactures du Royaume, 1597, estimates the annual cost of these "passemens" of every sort, silk stockings, etc., at 800,000 crowns. Montchrestien, at above a million.

[584]

This was established by Colbert, and there they made, as well as at Aurillac, the finest pillow lace in the style of point d'Angleterre. This manufacture was encouraged by the King and the Court, and its productions were among the choicest of the points de France.

[585]

Youngest son of the Comte d'Harcourt.

[586]

Vie de J.-Bap. Colbert. (Printed in the Archives Curieuses.)

[587]

"Livre commode ou les Adienes de la Ville de Paris" for 1692.

[588]

For the introduction of the gold point of Spain into France, see Spain. The manufacture of gold lace in Paris was, however, prior to Colbert.

"1732, un bord de point d'Espagne d'or de Paris, à fonds de réseau."—Garderobe de S. A. S. Mgr. le Duc de Penthièvre. Arch. Nat. K. K. 390-1.

[589]

In Statistique de la France, 1800, the finest silk lace is said to be made at Fontenay, Puisieux, Morges, and Louvres-en-Parisis. The coarse and common kinds at Montmorency, Villiers-le-Bel, Sarcelles, Écouen, Saint-Brice, Groslay, Gisors, Saint-Pierre-les-Champs, Etrepagny, etc. Peuchet adds: "Il s'y fait dans Paris et ses environs une grande quantité de dentelles noires dont il se fait des expéditions considérables." It was this same black silk lace which raised to so high a reputation the fabrics of Chantilly.

[590]

Inv. de decés de la Duchesse de Modène. 1761.

[591]

Inv. de decés du Duc de Duras. 1789.

[592]

"Une fraise à deux rangs de blonde tres fine, grande hauteur, 120 l.

"Une paire de sabots de la même blonde, 84 l.

"Un fichu en colonette la fraise garnie à deux rangs d'une tres belle blonde fond d'Alençon, 120 l.

"Un pouff bordé d'un plissé de blonde tournante fond d'Alençon, à bouquets tres fins et des bouillons de même blonde." This wonderful coiffure being finished with "Un beau panache de quatre plumes couleurs impériales, 108 l."

[593]

See preceding note.

[594]

"The bourgoin is formed of white, stiffly-starched muslin, covering a paste-board shape, and rises to a great height above the head, frequently diminishing in size towards the top, where it finishes in a circular form. Two long lappets hang from either side towards the back, composed often of the finest lace. The bourgoins throughout Normandy are not alike."—Mrs. Stothard's Tour in Normandy.

[595]

This must have included Honfleur and other surrounding localities.

By a paper on the lace trade (Mém. concernant le Commerce des Dentelles, 1704. Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 14,294), we find that the making of "dentelles de bas prix," employed at Rouen, Dieppe, Le Havre, and throughout the Pays de Caux, the Bailliage of Caen, at Lyons, Le Puy, and other parts of France, one quarter of the population of all classes and ages from six to seventy years. These laces were all made of Haarlem thread. See Holland.

"The lace-makers of Havre," writes Peuchet, "work both in black and white points, from 5 sous to 30 francs the ell. They are all employed by a certain number of dealers, who purchase the produce of their pillows. Much is transported to foreign countries, even to the East Indies, the Southern Seas, and the islands of America."

[596]

Dictionnaire Géographique. T. Corneille. 1707.

[597]

Gravures de Modes. Arch. Nat. M., 815-23.

[598]

"1683. Deux housses de toille piquée avec dentelle du Havre deux camisolles de pareille toille et de dentelle du Havre."—Inv. fait après le decedz de Monseigneur Colbert. Bib. Nat. MSS. Suite de Mortemart, 34.

[599]

"1651. Un tour d'autel de dentelle du Havre."—Inv. des meubles de la Sacristie de l'Oratoire de Jesus, à Paris. Bib. Nat. MSS. F. F. 8621.

"1681. Une chemisette de toile de Marseille picquée garnye de dentelle du Havre."—Inv. d'Anne d'Escoubleau de Sourdis, veuve de François de Simiane. Arch. Nat. M. M. 802.

[600]

"Les ouvriers n'étant apparemment rappelés par aucune possession dans cette ville, lorsqu'elle fut rétablie, ils s'y sont établis et ont transmis leur travail à la postérité."—Peuchet.

[601]

Point de Dieppe appears among the already-quoted lace boxes of 1688.

[602]

Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire de la Ville de Dieppe, composés en l'année 1761, par Michel-Claude Gurbert. P. 99.

[603]

Mémoires Chronologiques pour servir à l'Histoire de Dieppe, par M. Desmarquets. 1785.

[604]

Notices sur Dieppe, Arques, etc., par P. J. Feret. 1824.

[605]

Peuchet, of Dieppe, says: "On ne fait pas la dentelle en roulant les fuseaux sur le coussin, mais en l'y jetant."

[606]

Almanach de Dieppe pour 1847.

The Author has to express her thanks to Sœur Hubert, of the École d'Apprentissage de Dentelle, and M. A. Morin, Librarian at Dieppe, for their communications.

[607]

Arch. Nat. X. 10,086.

[608]

"The silk came from Nankin by way of London or the East, the black silk called 'grenadine' was dyed and prepared at Lyons, the thread was from Haarlem."—Roland de la Platière.

[609]

Page 213.

[610]

Letter from Edgar McCulloch, Esq., Guernsey.

[611]

Blondes appear also to have been made at Le Mans:—

"Cette manufacture qui etoit autrefois entretenue à l'hôpital du Mans, lui rapportoit un benefice de 4,000 à 5,000 fr. Elle est bien tombée par la dispersion des anciennes sœurs hospitalières."—Stat. du Dép. de la Sarthe, par le Citoyen L.-M. Auvray. An X.

[612]

The handkerchief of "Paris net" mentioned by Goldsmith.

[613]

In the Dép. du Nord, by Jean-Ph. Briatte. "Its fall was owing to the bad faith of imitators, who substituted a single thread of bad quality for the double twisted thread of the country."—Dieudonné, Statistique de Dép. du Nord.

In the Mercure Galant for June, 1687, we find the ladies wear cornettes à la jardinière "de Marly."

[614]

L'Industrie Française depuis la Révolution de Février et l'Exposition de 1848, par M. A. Audiganne.

M. Aubry thus divides the lace-makers of Normandy:—

Department of Calvados—

Arrondissement of Caen 25,000

Arr. of Bayeux 15,000

Arr. of Pont-l'Evêque, Falaise,* and Lisieux 10,000

Departments of La Manche and Seine-Inférieure 10,000

60,000

The women earn from 50 sous to 25 sous a day, an improvement on the wages of the last century, which, in the time of Arthur Young, seldom amounted to 24 sous.

Their products are estimated at from 8 to 10 millions of francs (£320,000 to £400,000).

* "Falaise, dentelles façon de Dieppe."—Peuchet.

[615]

He had run away with the rich heiress of Coadelan.

[616]

Chants populaires de la Bretagne, par Th. Hersart de la Villemarqué.

[617]

The bringing home of the wedding dress is an event of solemn importance. The family alone are admitted to see it, and each of them sprinkles the orange blossoms with which it is trimmed with holy water placed at the foot of the bed whereon the dress is laid, and offers up a prayer for the future welfare of the wearer.

[618]

French Hainault, French Flanders and Cambrésis (the present Dép. du Nord), with Artois, were conquests of Louis XIII. and Louis XIV., confirmed to France by the treaties of Aix-la-Chapelle (1668) and Nimeguen (1678).

[619]

Photographed in the Album d'Archéologie Religieuse. It is supposed to have been made towards the end of the seventeenth century.

[620]

Founded 1630.

[621]

"1772. 15 aunes 3-16^mes jabot haut de vraie Valencienne, 3,706 livres 17 sous"; and many other similar entries.

[622]

"⅝ Bâtarde dito à bordure, à 60 ll., 37 ll. 10 s."—Comptes de Madame du Barry.

[623]

Statistique du Dép. du Nord, par M. Dieudonné, Préfet en 1804.

[624]

"Among the various fabrics having the same process of manufacture, there is not one which produces exactly the same style of lace. The same pattern, with the same material, whether executed in Belgium, Saxony, Lille, Arras, Mirecourt, or Le Puy, will always bear the stamp of the place where it is made. It has never been possible to transfer any kind of manufacture from one city to another without there being a marked difference between the productions."—Aubry.

"After the French Revolution, when so many lace-makers fled to Belgium, Alost, Ypres, Bruges, Ghent, Menin, and Courtrai became the centres of this industry, and the lace produced in each town has a distinctive feature in the ground. That made in Ghent is square-meshed, the bobbins being twisted two and a half times. At Ypres, which makes a better quality of Valenciennes, the ground is also square-meshed, but the bobbins are twisted four times. In Courtrai and Menin the grounds are twisted three and a half times, and in Bruges, where the ground has a circular mesh, the bobbins are twisted three times."

[625]

In the already quoted Etat d'un Trousseau, 1771, among the necessary articles are enumerated: "Une coëffure, tour de gorge et le fichu plissé de vraie Valencienne." The trimming of one of Madame du Barry's pillowcases cost 487 fr.; her lappets, 1,030. The ruffles of the Duchesse de Modène and Mademoiselle de Charollais are valued at 200 livres the pair. Du Barry, more extravagant, gives 770 for hers.

[626]

"2 barbes et rayon de vraie valencienne; 3 au. ¾ collet grande hauteur; 4 au. grand jabot; le tout de la même main, de 2,400 livres."—Comptes de Madame du Barry. 1770.

[627]

Arthur Young, in 1788, says of Valenciennes: "Laces of 30 to 40 lines' breadth for gentlemen's ruffles is from 160 to 216 livres (£9 9s.) an ell. The quantity for a lady's headdress from 1,000 to 24,000 livres. The women gain from 20 to 30 sous a day. 3,600 persons are employed at Valenciennes, and are an object of 450,000 livres, of which the flax is not more than 1⁄30. The thread costs from 24 to 700 livres the pound."

[628]

The "barbes pleines" consisted of a pair of lappets from 3 to 5 inches wide each, and half an ell (20 inches) long, with a double pattern of sprigged flowers and rounded at the ends. A narrow lace 1 ½ ell long, called the Papillon, with the bande or passe, and the fond de bonnet, completed the suit.

[629]

The fault of the old Valenciennes lace is its colour, never of a clear white, but inclining to a reddish cast.

[630]

"Les dentelières avaient adopté un par-dessus de calamande rayée, un bonniquet de toile fine plissé à petits canons. Une médaille d'argent, pendue au cou par un petit liseré noir, complétait leur costume, qui est arrivé jusqu'à nous; car nous l'avons vu, il n'y a pas trente ans."—Hist. de Lille, par V. Derode. Paris et Lille, 1848.

[631]

Mémoires sur l'Intendance de Flandre.—MS. Bib. de Lille.

[632]

Period of the peace of Utrecht when Lille, which had been retaken by Prince Eugène, was again restored to France.

[633]

Histoire Populaire de Lille. Henri Brunet. Lille, 1848; and Histoire de Lille. V. Derode.

[634]

Report of the Commissioners for 1851.

[635]

As late as 1761 Lille was considered as "foreign" with respect to France, and her laces made to pay duty according to the tariff of 1664.

In 1708 (31st of July) we have an Arrest du Conseil d'Estat du Roy, relative to the seizure of seventeen cartons of lace belonging to one "Mathieu, marchand à l'Isle." Mathieu, in defence, pretends that "les dentelles avoient esté fabriquées à Haluin (near Lille), terre de la domination de Sa Majesté."—Arch. Nat. Coll. Rondonneau.

[636]

See Flanders (West), treille.

[637]

In 1789, thread was 192 francs the kilogramme.

[638]

Describing her trousseau, every article of which was trimmed with Angleterre, Malines, or Valenciennes, she adds: "A cette époque (1800), on ignorait même l'existence du tulle, les seules dentelles communes que l'on connût étaient les dentelles de Lille et d'Arras, qui n'étaient portées que par les femmes les plus ordinaires."—Mém. de Madame la Duchesse d'Abrantès. T. iii. Certainly the laces of Lille and Arras never appear in the inventories of the "grandes dames" of the last century.

[639]

Dieudonné.

[640]

Peuchet states much "fausse Valenciennes, très rapprochée de la vraie," to have been fabricated in the hospital at Lille, in which institution there were, in 1723, 700 lace-workers.

[641]

A piece of Lille lace contains from 10 to 12 ells.

[642]

"L'Abbaye du Vivier, etablie dans la ville d'Arras," Poëme par le Père Dom Martin du Buisson, in Mémoires et Pièces pour servir a l'Histoire de la Ville d'Arras.—Bib. Nat. MSS., Fonds François, 8,936.

[643]

Bib. Nat. MSS., Fonds François, 8,936.

[644]

We find in the Colbert Correspondence (1669), the directors of the General hospital at Arras had enticed lace-workers of point de France, with a view to establish the manufacture in their hospital, but the jealousy of the other cities threatening to overthrow their commerce, they wrote to Colbert for protection.

[645]

Gt. Ward. Acc. Geo. I. 1714-15 (P. R. O.), and Acc. of John, Duke of Montagu, master of the Great Wardrobe, touching the expenses of the funeral of Queen Anne and the coronation of George I. (P.R.O.)

In 1761 an Act was passed against its being counterfeited, and a vendor of "Orrice lace" (counterfeit, we suppose) forfeits her goods.

[646]

Statistique des Gens de Lettres. 1808. Herbin. T. ii.

[647]

A museum of lace has been established at Bailleul.

[648]

In 1788, Bailleul, Cassel, and the district of Hazebrouck, had 1351 lace-makers. In 1802 the number had diminished; but it has since gradually increased. In 1830 there were 2,500. In 1851 there were already 8,000, dispersed over twenty communes.

[649]

Haute-Loire, Cantal, Puy-de-Dôme, and Loire.

[650]

1640.

[651]

1833 and 1848.

[652]

By Médecis.

[653]

They represent to the king that the laces of the "diocèse du Puy, du Vélay et de l'Auvergne, dont il se faisait un commerce très considérable dans les pays étrangers, par les ports de Bordeaux, La Rochelle et Nantes," ought not to pay the import duties held by the "cinq grosses fermes."—Arrest du Conseil d'Estat du Roy, 6 August, 1707. Arch. Nat. Coll. Rond. They ended by obtaining a duty of five sous per lb., instead of the 50 livres paid by Flanders and England, or the ten livres by the laces of Comté, Liège, and Lorraine.

[654]

1715 and 1716.

[655]

See Milan.

[656]

Roland de la Platière.

[657]

Three-fourths were consumed in Europe in time of peace:—Sardinia took 120,000 francs, purchased by the merchants of Turin, once a year, and then distributed through the country: Florence and Spain, each 200,000; Guyenne exported by the merchants of Bordeaux 200,000; 500,000 went to the Spanish Indies. The rest was sold in France by means of colporteurs.—Peuchet.

[658]

In Auvergne lace has preserved its ancient names of "passement" and "pointes," the latter applied especially to needle-made lace. It has always retained its celebrity for passements or guipures made in bands. The simplicity of life in the mountains has doubtless been a factor in the unbroken continuity of the lace-trade.

[659]

Le Puy in recent years has named some of its coarse patterns "guipure de Cluny," after the museum in Paris—a purely fanciful name.

[660]

Savinière d'Alquie.

[661]

Savary. Point d'Aurillac is mentioned in the Révolte des Passemens.

[662]

Histoire du point d' Alençon, Madame Despierres.

[663]

"Voile de toile d'argent, garni de grandes dentelles d'or et argent fin, donné en 1711 pour envelopper le chef de S. Gaudence."—Inventaire du Monastère des Bénédictines de St. Aligre.

[664]

In the convents are constantly noted down "point d'Espagne d'or et argent fin," while in the cathedral of Clermont the chapter contented itself with "dentelles d'or et argent faux."

[665]

"1773. 6 au. de grande entoilage de belle blonde à poix."

[666]

"16 au. entoilage à mouches à 11 l., 1761."—Comptes de Madame du Barry.

[667]

"7 au. de tulle pour hausser les manchettes, à 9 l., 63 l."—1770. Cptes. de Madame du Barry.

[668]

Souvenirs de la Marquise de Créquy.

[669]

In an old geography we find, "Tulle, Tuille three hundred years ago."

The word Tule or Tuly occurs in an English inventory of 1315, and again, in "Sir Gawayn and the Green Knight"; but in both cases the word seems not to indicate a stuff but rather a locality, probably Toulouse.—Francisque Michel.

In Skelton's Garland of Lawrell, we find, "A skein of tewly silk"; which his commentator, the Rev. A. Dyce, considers to be "dyed of a red colour."

[670]

As early as 1615 there appears to have been a traffic with Italy in laces, the painter Claude Lorraine being taken to Italy in that year by his uncle, a carrier and dealer in laces.

[671]

Neufchâteau.

[672]

The trader who purchases the lace is called "peussemotier."

[673]

The Lorraine laces could only enter France by the bureau of Chaumont, nor could they leave the country without a formal permit delivered at Monthureux-le-Sec.—Arch. Nat., Coll. Rondonneau.

[674]

In a catalogue of the collection of objects of religious art, exhibited at Mechlin in 1864, we find noticed, "Dentelle pour rochet, point de Nancy," from the church of St. Charles at Antwerp, together with various "voiles de bénédiction," laces for rochets and altar-cloths, of "point de Paris."

[675]

The Tableau Statistique du Dép. des Vosges, by Citoyen Desgoulles, An X, says: "Mirecourt is celebrated for its lace fabrics. There are twenty lace merchants; but the workers are not attached to any particular house. They buy their own thread, make the lace, and bring it to the merchants of Mirecourt to purchase. The women follow this occupation when not engaged in field work; but they only earn from 25 to 40 centimes a day. Before the Revolution, ⅞ of the coarse lace was exported to Germany towards Swabia. Of the fine qualities, France consumed ⅔. The remainder went to the colonies."

[676]

So are those of Courseulles (Calvados).

[677]

Savary. Sedan was ceded to Louis XIII. in 1642.

[678]

"Eidem pro 6 divit̄ Sedan et Italiē colaris opere sciss̄ et pro 62 purles opere acuo pro 6 par̄ manic̄ lintear̄ eisdem, £116 6s."—Gt. Ward. Acc. Car. I., ix. to xi. P. R. O.

[679]

"Eidem pro 6 divit̄ Pultenarian Sedan de opere sciss̄ colaris et pro 72 purles divit̄ opere acuo pro manic̄ lintear̄ eisdem, £106 16s."—Gt. Ward. Acc. Car. I., xi. to xii.

[680]

In 1700 there were several lace manufacturers at Charleville, the principal of whom was named Vigoureux.—Hist. de Charleville. Charleville, 1854.

[681]

Savary. Ed. 1726.

[682]

Description de la France. Ed. 1752.

[683]

Savary.

[684]

John Roberts, of Burgundy, eight years in England, "a knitter of knotted wool."

Peter de Grue, Burgundian, "knitter of cauls and sleeves."

Callys de Hove, "maker of lace," and Jane his wife, born in Burgundy.—State Papers, Dom., Eliz. Vol. 84. P.R.O.

[685]

M. Joseph Garnier, the learned Archiviste of Dijon, informed Mrs. Palliser that "les archives de l'hospice Sainte-Anne n'ont conservé aucune trace de la manufacture de dentelles qui y fut établie. Tout ce qu'on sait, c'est qu'elle était sous la direction d'un sieur Helling, et qu'on y fabriquait le point d'Alençon."

[686]

Descr. du Dép. de la Vienne, par le Citoyen Cochon. An X.

[687]

"Ce n'est pas une grande chose que la manufacture de points qui est établie dans l'hôpital de Bourdeaux."—Savary. Edit. 1726.

[688]

Table of the Number of Lace-workers in France in 1851. (From M. Aubry.)

Manufacture of Chantilly and Alençon:—

Orne 12,500

Seine-et-Oise

Eure

Seine-et-Marne

Oise

Manufacture of Lille, Arras, and Bailleul:—

Nord 18,000

Pas-de-Calais

Manufacture of Normandy, Caen, and Bayeux:—

Calvados 55,000

Manche

Seine-Inférieure

Manufacture of Lorraine, Mirecourt:—

Vosges 22,000

Meurthe

Manufacture of Auvergne, Le Puy:—

Cantal 130,000

Haute Loire

Loire

Puy-de-Dôme

Application-work at Paris and Lace-makers 2,500

Total 240,000

In his Report on the Universal Exhibition of 1867, M. Aubry estimates the number at 200,000—their average wages from 1 to 1½ francs a day of ten hours' labour; some earn as much as 3½ francs. Almost all work at home, combining the work of the pillow with their agricultural and household occupations. Lace schools are being founded throughout the northern lace departments of France, and prizes and every kind of encouragement given to the pupils by the Empress, as well as by public authorities and private individuals.

[689]

In the Census of 1571, giving the names of all strangers in the city of London, we find mention but of one Dutchman, Richard Thomas, "a worker of billament lace."

[690]

In 1689 appears an "Arrest du Roi qui ordonne l'exécution d'une sentence du maître de poste de Rouen, portant confiscation des dentelles venant d'Amsterdam."—Arch. Nat. Coll. Rondonneau.

[691]

1685.

[692]

We have frequent mention of dentelle à la reine previous to its introduction into Holland.

1619. "Plus une aulne ung tiers de dentelle à la reyne."—Trésorerie de Madame, Sœur de Roi. Arch. Nat. K. K. 234.

1678. "Les dames mettent ordinairement deux cornettes de Point à la Reyne ou de soie écrue, rarement de Point de France, parce que le point clair sied mieux au visage."—Mercure Galant.

1683. "Deux Aubes de toille demie holande garnis de point à la Reyne."—Inv. fait apres le decedz de Mgr. Colbert. Bib. Nat. MSS. Suite de Mortemart, 34.

[693]

C. Weisse. History of the French Protestant Refugees from the Edict of Nantes. Edinburgh, 1854.

[694]

Grandson of Simon Châtelain. See Chap. VI.

[695]

In the paper already referred to (see Normandy) on the lace trade, in 1704, it is stated the Flemish laces called "dentelles de haut prix" are made of Lille, Mons and Mechlin thread, sent to bleach at Haarlem, "as they know not how to bleach them elsewhere." The "dentelles de bas prix" of Normandy and other parts of France being made entirely of the cheaper thread of Haarlem itself, an Act, then just passed, excluding the Haarlem thread, would, if carried out, annihilate this branch of industry in France.—Commerce des Dentelles de Fil. Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 14,294.

[696]

And. Yarranton. 1677.

[697]

"Flax is improved by age. The saying was, 'Wool may be kept to dust, flax to silk.' I have seen flax twenty years old as fine as a hair."—Ibid.

[698]

Commerce de la Hollande. 1768.

[699]

Edinburgh Amusement.

[700]

Six Weeks in the Court and Country of France. 1691.

[701]

Treillis d'Allemagne is early mentioned in the French inventories:—

1543. "Pour une aulne deux tiers trillist d'Allemagne."—Argenterie de la Reine (Eléonore d'Autriche). Arch. Nat. K. K. 104.

1557. "Pour une aulne de treilliz noir d'Allemagne pour garnir la robbe de damars noir ou il y a de la bizette."—Comptes de l'Argentier du Roi (Henry II.). Arch. Nat. K. K. 106.

[702]

"At a meeting of the Society of Polite Arts, premiums were given to a specimen of a new invention imitating Dresden work. It is done with such success as to imitate all the various stitches of which Dresden work is composed, with such ingenuity as to surpass the finest performance with the needle. This specimen, consisting of a cap and a piece for a long apron, the apron, valued by the inventress at £2 2s., was declared by the judges worth £56."—Annual Register. 1762.

[703]

"Smash go the glasses, aboard pours the wine on circling laces, Dresden aprons, silvered silks, and rich brocades." And again, "Your points of Spain, your ruffles of Dresden."—Fool of Quality. 1766.

[704]

Caledonian Mercury. 1760.

[705]

Letter from Koestritz. 1863.

[706]

In 1713.

[707]

Weisse.

[708]

Dated Oct. 29, 1685.

[709]

Anderson.

[710]

Arch. Nat. Coll. Rondonneau.

[711]

"Commissions and Privileges granted by Charles I., Landgrave of Hesse, to the French Protestants, dated Cassel, Dec. 12, 1685."

[712]

Peuchet.

[713]

Anderson.

[714]

La France Protestante, par M. M. Haag. Paris 1846-59.

[715]

"Item. Dix carrez de tapisserye a poinctz de Hongrye d'or, d'argent et soye de differends patrons."—1632.

Inv. après le decès du Maréchal de Marillac. Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 11,424.

[716]

Hungary was so styled in the seventeenth century. In a Relation of the most famous Kingdoms and Common Weales through the World, London, 1608, we find "Hungerland."

[717]

"City Madam." Massinger.

[718]

Pictures of German Life in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries, by Gustaf Freytag.

[719]

Merveilleux Amusements des Bains de Bade. Londres, 1739.

[720]

Bishop of Salisbury. "Letters." 1748-9.

[721]

Modelbuch in Kupfen gemacht. Nürnberg, 1601.

[722]

Poppenreuth is about a German mile from Nuremberg.

[723]

"Austria."—Report of the International Exhibition of 1862.

[724]

As quoted in Lefébure's Embroidery and Lace.

[725]

Haag. La France Protestante.

[726]

The Neufchâtel trade extended through the Jura range from the valley of Lake Joux (Vaud) to Porentruy, near Bâle.

[727]

Statistique de la Suisse. Picot, de Genève. 1819.

[728]

A curious pattern-book has been sent to us, belonging to the Antiquarian Society of Zurich, through the kindness of its president, Dr. Ferd. Keller. It contains specimens of a variety of narrow braids and edgings of a kind of knotted work, but only a few open-work edgings that could be called lace.

[729]

On her marriage, 1515.

[730]

"1619. Sept. 11. Paid for a lace, 63 rixd. 11 skillings.

"1620. Oct. 11. Paid to a female lace-worker, 28 rixd.

"Nov. 4. Paid 10 rixd. to a female lace-worker who received her dismissal.

"Nov. 11. Paid 71 specie dollars to a lace-seller for lace for the use of the children.

"Paid 33 specie dollars and 18 skill. Lubec money, to the same man for lace and cambric.

"1625. May 19. Paid 21 rixd. for lace.

"Dec. 20. Paid 25 specie dollars 15 skill. Lubec money, for taffetas and lace."

[731]

1639.

[732]

Rawert's Report upon the Industry in the Kingdom of Denmark. 1848.

[733]

"The Great Recess."

[734]

Two-thirds of a yard.

[735]

Dated 1643.

[736]

"Tönder lace, fine and middling, made in the districts of Lygum Kloster, keeps all the peasant girls employed. Thereof is exported to the German markets and the Baltic, it is supposed, for more than 100,000 rixdollars (£11,110), and the fine thread must be had from the Netherlands, and sometimes costs 100 rixdollars per lb."—Pontoppidan. Economical Balance. 1759.

[737]

"In the Victoria and Albert Museum collection, Denmark is represented by a few skilful embroideries done on and with fine linen, muslin and suchlike, which are somewhat similar in appearance to lace fabrics of Mechlin design."—(A. S. Cole.)

[738]

"The lace fabric in North Sleswick in 1840 was divided into two districts—that of Tönder and Lygum Kloster on the western coasts, and that of Haderslaben and Apenraade on the east. The quality of the lace from these last localities is so bad that no Copenhagen dealers will have it in their shops."—Report of the Royal Sleswick-Holstein Government. 1840.

[739]

Mr. Jens Wulff, an eminent lace-dealer, Knight of the Danebrog, who has made great exertions to revive the lace industry in Denmark.

[740]

Tönder lace was celebrated for its durability, the best flax or silk thread only being used.

[741]

"A lace-maker earns from 3½d. to 4½d. per day of sixteen hours."—Rawert's Report. 1848.

[742]

The Tönder lace-traders enjoy the privilege of offering their wares for sale all over Denmark without a license (concession), a privilege extended to no other industry.

[743]

The early perfection of Bridget herself in this employment, if we may credit the chronicle of the Abbess Margaretha, 1440-46, may be ascribed to a miraculous origin.

When, at the age of twelve, she was employed at her knitted lace-work, a fear came over her that she should not finish her work creditably to herself, and in her anxiety she raised her heart above. As her aunt came into the chamber she beheld an unknown maiden sitting opposite to her niece, and aiding her in her task; she vanished immediately, and when the aunt asked Bridget who had helped her she know nothing about it, and assured her relation she had seen no one.

All were astonished at the fineness and perfection of the work, and kept the lace as of miraculous origin.

[744]

Wadstena Past and Present (Förr och Nu).

[745]

The letter is dated March 20th, 1544.

[746]

In the detailed account of the trousseau furnished to his daughter, there is no mention of lace; but the author of One Year in Sweden has seen the body of his little granddaughter, the Princess Isabella, daughter of John III., as it lies in the vault of Strengnäs, the child's dress and shoes literally covered with gold and silver lace of a Gothic pattern, fresh and untarnished as though made yesterday.

[747]

In the Victoria and Albert Museum there is a collection of Norwegian cut-work of the eighteenth century.

[748]

Weber. Bilberbuch.

Leipzig, 1746. Handbok for unga Fruntimmer, by Ekenmark. Stockholm, 1826-28.

[749]

Some are twice the width of Fig. 117.

[750]

For this information, with a collection of specimens, the author has to thank Madame Petre of Gefle.

[751]

The Russian bobbins are interesting by reason of their archaic simplicity. Lacking any trace of decoration, whether suggested by sentimental fancy or artistic taste, they are purely utilitarian, mere sticks of wood, more or less straight and smooth, and six or seven inches long.

[752]

A depôt has been opened in London, where Russian laces and embroidery of all kinds are shown.

[753]

Rot. Parl. 37 Edw. III. Printed. P. 278, Col. 2, No. 26.

[754]

See her monument in Westminster Abbey.—Sandford's Genealogical History.

[755]

"Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster, wife of John of Gaunt, wears a quilted silk cap with a three-pointed border of broad lace network." (Sandford. St. Paul's monument, after Dugdale.) "Elizabeth, Duchess of Exeter, died 1425 (Sandford, p. 259), wore also a caul of network with a needlework edging."

[756]

In the Statute 2 Rich. II. = 1378, merchant strangers are allowed to sell in gross and in retail "gold wire or silver wire" and other such small ware. Neither in this nor in the Treaty 13 Rich. II. = 1390, between England, the Count of Flanders, and "les bonnes Gentz des Trois bonnes villes de Flandres Gand, Brugges et Ipre" (see Rymer), is there any mention of lace, which, even if fabricated, was of too little importance as an article of commerce to deserve mention save as other "small wares."

[757]

Pins not yet being in common use, any lace would be called "work of the needle."

[758]

3 Edw. IV., cap. iv.

[759]

"1463. John Barett bequeaths to 'My Lady Walgrave, my musk ball of gold with p̄le and lace.

"'Item, to John Eden, my o gr. of tawny silk with poynts of needle work—opus punctatum.'"—Bury Wills and Inventories.

[760]

Bib. Harl. 2,320.

[761]

Such as "Lace Bascon, Lace endented, Lace bordred on both syde, yn o syde, pykke Lace bordred, Lace Condrak, Lace Dawns, Lace Piol, Lace covert, Lace coverte doble, Lace compon coverte, Lace maskel, Lace cheyne brode, Las Cheveron, Lace Oundé, Grene dorge, Lace for Hattys," etc.

Another MS. of directions for making these same named laces is in the possession of the Vicar of Ipsden, Oxfordshire, and has been examined by the author through the kindness of Mr. W. Twopenny.

[762]

Bows, loops.

[763]

Additional MSS. No. 6,293, small quarto, ff. 38. It contains instructions for making various laces, letters and "edges," such as "diamond stiff, fly, cross, long S, figure of 8, spider, hart," etc., and at the end:—

In the British Museum (Lansdowne Roll, No. 22) is a third MS. on the same subject, a parchment roll written about the time of Charles I., containing rules and directions for executing various kinds of sampler-work, to be wrought in letters, etc., by means of coloured strings or bows. It has a sort of title in these words, "To know the use of this Booke it is two folkes worke," meaning that the works are to be done by two persons.

Probably of this work was the "Brede (braid) of divers colours, woven by Four Ladies," the subject of some verses by Waller beginning:—

[764]

1 Rich. III. = 1483. Act XII.

[765]

Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York, and Wardrobe Accounts of King Edward IV., by Sir H. Nicolas.

[766]

1 Rich. III. renews 3 Edw. IV. for ten years, and that of Richard is continued by 19 Henry VII. for twenty years more.

[767]

4 Hen. VII. = 1488-9.

[768]

P.R.O. The same Warrant contains an order to deliver "for the use and wearing of our right dere daughter the Lady Mary," together with a black velvet gown, scarlet petticoat, etc., "a nounce of lace for her kyrtel," and a thousand "pynnes."

[769]

In the list of the late King Henry's plate, made 1543, we have some curious entries, in which the term lace appears:—

"Item, oone picture of a woman made of erthe with a carnation Roobe knitt with a knott in the lefte shoulder and bare hedid with her heere rowlid up with a white lace sett in a boxe of wodde.

"Item, oone picture of a woman made of erthe with a carnacōn garment after the Inglishe tyer and bareheddid with her heare rowled up with a white lace sett in a boxe of wodde."—P. R. O.

[770]

19 Hen. VII. = 1504.

[771]

Sir H. Nicolas.

[772]

Statute 1 Hen. VIII. = 1509-10. An act agaynst wearing of costly Apparell, and again, 6 Hen. VIII. = 1514-15.

[773]

[774]

Under forfeiture of the same shirt and a fine of 40 shillings.

[775]

7 Hen. VIII. = 1515-16.—"Thacte of Apparell."

[776]

24 Hen. VIII. = 1532-33.—"An Act for Reformation of excess in Apparel."

[777]

In 1539.

[778]

Lisle. Corr. Vol. i., p. 64. P.R.O. Lord Lisle was Governor of Calais, whence the letter is dated.

"Madame,—Je ne vous eusse vollu envoier ceste demi dousaine pour changier nestoit que tous celles que menvoiez dernierement sont trop larges, et une dousaine estoit de cestuy ouvrage dont jestis esmerveillé, veu que je vous avois escript que menvoissiez de louvrage aux lozenges, vous priant que la demy dousaine que menvoierez pour ceste demy dousaine soient du dict ouvrage de lozenge, et quil soient plus estroictes mesmement par devant nonobstant que lexemple est au contraire."

[779]

Among the marriage clothes of Mary Neville, who espoused George Clifton, 1536, is:—

"A neyge of perle, £1 4s. 0d."

In the pictures, at Hampton Court Palace, of Queens Mary and Elizabeth, and another of Francis II., all as children, their ruffs are edged with a very narrow purl.

[780]

1538. Lisle. Corr. (P.R.O.)

[781]

See Note 776.

[782]

Privy Purse Ex. Hen. VIII. 1529-32. Sir H. Nicolas.

[783]

Father of Lord Burleigh. There are other similar entries:—"8 pieces of yellow lace, 9s. 4d." Also, "green silk lace."

1632, "green silk lace" occurs again, as trimming a pair of French shoes in a "Bill of shoes for Sir Francis Windebank and family."—State Papers Dom. Vol. 221. P.R.O.

[784]

"Inv. of Hen. VIII. and 4 Edw. VI." Harl. MS. 1419, A and B.

[785]

38 Hen. VIII. = 1546. Rymer's Fœdera. Vol. xv., p. 105.

[786]

Harl. MS. 1419. Passim.

[787]

See Holbein's portraits.

[788]

"The old cut-work cope."—Beaumont and Fletcher. The Spanish Curate.

[789]

We read, too, of "3 kyrcheys y^t was given to the kyrk wash," large as a woman's hood worn at a funeral, highly ornamented with the needle by pious women, and given to be sold for the good of the impoverished church, for which the churchwardens of St. Michael, Spurr Gate, York, received the sum of 5s.

[790]

1 and 2 Ph. and Mary.

[791]

"White work" appears also among Queen Elizabeth's New Year's Gifts:—

"1578. Lady Ratcliff. A veil of white work, with spangles and small bone lace of silver. A swete bag, being of changeable silk, with a small bone lace of gold.

"1589. Lady Shandowes (Chandos). A cushion cloth of lawne wrought with whitework of branches and trees, edged with bone work, wrought with crowns."—Nichols' Royal Progresses.

[792]

Roll of New Year's Gifts. 1556.

[793]

Stowe, Queen Mary. An. 1554.

[794]

It is not known when brass wire pins were first made in England, but it must have been before 1543, in which year a Statute was passed (35 Hen. VIII.) entitled, "An Act for the True Making of Pynnes," in which the price is fixed not to exceed 6s. 8d. per 1,000. By an Act of Rich. III. the importation of pins was prohibited. The early pins were of boxwood, bone, bronze or silver. In 1347 (Liber Garderobæ, 12-16 Edw. III. P. R. O.) we have a charge for 12,000 pins for the trousseau of Joanna, daughter of Edward III., betrothed to Peter the Cruel. The young Princess probably escaped a miserable married life by her decease of the black death at Bordeaux when on her way to Castille.

The annual import of pins in the time of Elizabeth amounted to £3,297.—State Papers, Dom., Eliz. Vol. viii. P. R. O.

In Eliz., Q. of Bohemia's Expenses, we find: "Dix mille espingles dans un papier, 4 florins."—Ger. Corr. No. 41. P. R. O.

"In Holland pillow-lace is called Pinwork lace—Gespelde-werkte kant."—Sewell's Eng. and Dutch Dict.

[795]

An elderly woman informed the author that she recollects in her youth, when she learned to make Honiton point of an ancient teacher of the parish, bone pins were still employed. They were in use until a recent period, and renounced only on account of their costliness. The author purchased of a Devonshire lace-maker one, bearing date 1829, with the name tatooed into the bone, the gift of some long-forgotten youth to her grandmother. These bone or wood bobbins, some ornamented with glass beads—the more ancient with silver let in—are the calendar of a lace-worker's life. One records her first appearance at a neighbouring fair or May meeting; a second was the first gift of her good man, long cold in his grave; a third the first prize brought home by her child from the dame school, and proudly added to her mother's cushion: one and all, as she sits weaving her threads, are memories of bygone days of hopes and fears, of joys and sorrows; and, though many a sigh it calls forth, she cherishes her well-worn cushion as an old friend, and works away, her present labour lightened by the memory of the past.

[796]

Surtees' Wills and Inv.

"Hearing bone lace value 5s. 4d." is mentioned "in y^e shoppe of John Johnston, of Darlington, merchant."

[797]

1578. "James Backhouse, of Kirby in Lonsdale. Bobbin lace, 6s. per ounce."

1597. "John Farbeck, of Durham. In y^e Shoppe, 4 oz. & ½ of Bobbing lace, 6s. 4d."—Ibid.

"Bobbin" lace is noted in the Royal Inventories, but not so frequently as "bone."

"Laqueo ... fact. super lez bobbins."—G. W. A. Eliz., 27 and 28. P. R. O.

"Three peces teniar bobbin."—Ibid. Car. I., vi.

"One pece of bobin lace, 2s.," occurs frequently in the accounts of Lord Compton, afterwards Earl of Northampton, Master of the Wardrobe of Prince Charles.—Roll, 1622-23, Extraordinary Expenses, and others. P. R. O.

[798]

In the Ward. Acc. of his brother, Prince Henry, 1607, and the Warrant to the G. Ward., on his sister the Princess Elizabeth's marriage, 1612-13, "bone" lace is in endless quantities.

Bobbin lace appears invariably distinguished from bone lace, both being mentioned in the same inventory. The author one day showed an old Vandyke Italian edging to a Devonshire lace-worker, asking her if she could make it. "I think I can," she answered; "it is bobbin lace." On inquiring the distinction, she said: "Bobbin lace is made with a coarse thread, and in its manufacture we use long bobbins instead of the boxwood of ordinary size, which would not hold the necessary quantity of this thread, though sufficient for the quality used in making Honiton flowers and Trolly lace."—Mrs. Palliser.

[799]

Randle Holme, in his enumeration of terms used in arts, gives: "Bone lace, wrought with pegs."

The materials used for bobbins in Italy have been already mentioned.

[800]

Lord Compton. "Extraordinary Expenses of the Wardrobe of K. Charles, before and after he was King."—Roll, 1622-26. P. R. O.

[801]

An. 1635.

[802]

A miniature of Old Hilliard, now in the possession of his Grace the Duke of Hamilton.

[803]

1614.

[804]

Massinger. 1612.

[805]

Beaumont and Fletcher.

[806]

"The things you follow and make songs on now, should be sent to knit, or sit down to bobbins or bone-lace."—Tatler.

[807]

"We destroy the symmetry of the human figure, and foolishly combine to call off the eye from great and real beauties to childish gewgaw ribbands and bone-lace."—Spectator.

[808]

It is used in Walpole's New British Traveller. 1784.

[809]

Haliwell gives compas as "a circle; Anglo-Norman."

[810]

Partlet, a small ruff or neck-band.

[811]

"Eidem pro 4 pec' de opera Rhet' bon' florat' in forma oper' sciss' ad 24s., £4 16s."—G. W. A. Eliz., 43 to 44.

1578-79. New Year's Gifts. Baroness Shandowes. "A vail of black network flourished with flowers of silver and a small bone-lace."—Nichols.

[812]

Encyclopædia Britannica. Art. Costume. Sixteenth Century.

[813]

Encyclopædia Britannica. Art. Costume. Sixteenth century.

[814]

Crown lace—so called from the pattern being worked on a succession of crowns sometimes intermixed with acorns or roses. A relic of this lace may still be found in the "faux galon" sold by the German Jews, for the decoration of fancy dresses and theatrical purposes. It is frequently mentioned. We have:—

"12 yards laquei, called crown lace of black gold and silk."—G. W. A. Eliz. 4 & 5.

"18 yards crown lace purled with one wreath on one side."—Ibid. 5 & 6.

[815]

"11 virgis laquei Byas."—Ibid. 29 & 30.

[816]

Hemming and edging 8 yards of ruff of cambric with white lace called hollow lace, and various entries of Spanish lace, Fringe, Black chain, Diamond, knotted, hollow, and others, are scattered through the earlier Wardrobe Accounts of Queen Elizabeth.

The accounts of the Keepers of the Great Wardrobe, which we shall have occasion so frequently to cite, are now deposited in the Public Record Office, to which place they were transferred from the Audit Office in 1859. They extend from the 1 Elizabeth = 1558 to Oct. 10, 1781, and comprise 160 volumes, written in Latin until 1730-31, when the account appears in English, and is continued so to the end. 1748-49 is the last account in which the items are given.

[817]

Eliz. 30 & 31. Billament lace occurs both in the "shoppes" and inventories of the day. Among the list of foreigners settled in the City of London in 1571 (State Papers, Dom., Eliz. Vol 84. P.R.O.), are: William Crutall, "useth the craft of making byllament lace"; Rich. Thomas, Dutch, "a worker of Billament lace."

In 1573 a country gentleman, by his will deposited in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (Brayley and Britton's Graphic Illustrations), bequeaths: "To my son Tyble my short gown faced with wolf skin and laid with Billements lace."

In John Johnston's shop we have: "3 doz. of velvet Billemunt lace, 12s." In that of John Farbeck, 9 yards of the same. (Surtees' Wills and Inv.) Widow Chapman of Newcastle's inventory, 1533, contains: "One old cassock of broad cloth, with billements lace, 10s." (Ibid.)

[818]

95 dozen rich silver double diamond and cross laces occur also in the Extraordinary Expenses for Prince Charles's Journey to Spain. 1623.—P. R. O.

[819]

1571. "In y^e Great Shop, 8 peces of 'waborne' lace, 16d."—Mr. John Wilkinson's Goods, of Newcastle, Merchant.

1580. "100 Gross and a half of 'waborne' lace."—Inv. of Cuthbert Ellyson.

1549. John de Tronch, Abbot of Kilmainham Priory, is condemned to pay 100 marks fine for detaining 2 lbs. of Waborne thread, value 3s., and other articles, the property of W. Sacy.

[820]

G. W. A. Eliz. 16 & 17.

[821]

"Eidem pro 6 manuterg' de camerick operat' cum serico nigra trustich," etc.—G. W. A. Eliz. 41 & 42, and, again, 44.

[822]

1572. Inventory of Thomas Swinburne of Ealingham, Esq.

"His Apparell."

"A wellwett cote layd with silver las.

"A satten doullet layd with silver las.

"A payr of wellwett sleeves layd with silver las."—Surtees' Wills and Inv.

[823]

New Year's Gifts. Lady Mary Sidney. "A smock and two pillow beres of cameryck wrought with black-work and edged with a broad bone-lace of black sylke."

[824]

"Eidem pro 6 caules alb' nodat opat' cu' le chainestich et ligat' cu' tape de filo soror, ad 14s., 4l. 4s."—G. W. A. Eliz. 41 & 42.

Also in the last year of her reign (1602) we find:—

"Six fine net caules flourished with chaine stitch with sister's thread."—Wardrobe Accounts. B. M. Add. MSS. No. 5751.

[825]

In 1583.

[826]

G. W. A. Eliz. 38 & 39. We have it also on ruffs.

"Eidem pro 2 sutes de lez ruffs bon' de la lawne operat' in le laid work et edged cum ten' bon' ad 70s. per pec', 7l."—G. W. A. Eliz. 43 & 44.

[827]

G. W. A. Eliz., last year of her reign. Again—

1600. "Drawing and working with black silk drawne worke, five smocks of fine holland cloth."—B. M. Add. MSS. No. 5751.

[828]

As early as 1485 we have in the inventory of St. Mary-at-Hill, "An altar cloth of diaper, garnished with 3 blue Kays (St. Peter's) at each end." All the church linen seems to have been embroidered in blue thread, and so appears to have been the smocks and other linen.

Jenkin, speaking of his sweetheart, says: "She gave me a shirt collar, wrought over with no counterfeit stuff."

George: "What! was it gold?"

Jenkin: "Nay, 'twas better than gold."

George: "What was it?"

Jenkin: "Right Coventry blue."—Pinner of Wakefield. 1599.

"It was a simple napkin wrought with Coventry blue."—Laugh and Lie Downe, or the Worlde's Folly. 1605.

"Though he perfume the table with rose cake or appropriate bone-lace and Coventry blue," writes Stephens in his Satirical Essays. 1615.

In the inventory of Mary Stuart, taken at Fotheringay, after her death, we have: "Furniture for a bedd of black velvet, garnished with Bleue lace. In the care of Rallay, alias Beauregard."

This blue lace is still to be found on baptismal garments which have been preserved in old families on the Continent and in England.

[829]

The widow of the famous clothier, called Jack of Newbury, is described when a bride as "led to church between two boys with bride laces and rosemary tied about their sleeves."

[830]

"Tawdry. As Dr. Henshaw and Skinner suppose, of knots and ribbons, bought at a fair held in St. Audrey's Chapel; fine, without grace or elegance."—Bailey's Dict. 1764.

Southey (Omniana. Vol. i., p. 8) says:—

"It was formerly the custom in England for women to wear a necklace of fine silk called Tawdry lace, from St. Audrey.

"She had in her youth been used to wear carcanets of jewels, and being afterwards tormented with violent pains in the neck, was wont to say, that Heaven, in his mercy, had thus punished her for her love of vanity. She died of a swelling in her neck. Audry (the same as Ethelrede) was daughter of King Anna, who founded the Abbey of Ely."

Spenser in the Shepherd's Calender, has:—

and in the Faithful Shepherdess of Beaumont and Fletcher, Amaryllis speaks of

[831]

A passage already quoted in Much Ado about Nothing shows us that, in Shakespeare's time, the term "to lace" was generally used as a verb, denoting to decorate with trimming. Margaret, the tiring woman, describes the Duchess of Milan's gown as of "Cloth o' gold, and cuts, and laced with silver."

[832]

Much Ado about Nothing.

[833]

New Year's Gifts of Mrs. Wyngfield, Lady Southwell, and Lady Willoughby.—Nichols' Royal Progresses.

[834]

"Mrs. Edmonds. A cushion cloth of lawn cutwork like leaves, and a few owes of silver."—New Year's Gifts.

"Eidem pro le edginge unius panni vocat' a quishion cloth de lawne alb' operat' cum spaces de opere sciss' et pro viii. virg' de Laquei alb' lat' operat' sup' oss' 33s. 4d."—G. W. A. Eliz. 31 & 32.

[835]

"Mistress Twist, the Court laundress. Four toothcloths of Holland wrought with black silk and edged with bone lace of silver and black silk."—New Year's Gifts.

[836]

"Lady Ratcliffe. A night coyf of white cutwork flourished with silver and set with spangles."—Ibid.

[837]

"Cropson. A night coyf of cameryk cutwork and spangells, with a forehead cloth, and a night border of cutwork with bone lace."—Ibid. 1577-8.

[838]

"Eidem pro emendac̄ lavacione et starching unius par' corpor' (stays) et manic' de lawne alb' bon' deorsum operat' in diversis locis cum spaciis Lat' de operibus Italic' sciss̄ 20sh."—G. W. A. Eliz. 26-27.

[839]

Ibid.

[840]

Ibid. 28-29.

[841]

G. W. A. Eliz. 29-30.

[842]

Ibid. 35-36.

[843]

Ibid. 43-44. "A round kyrtle of cutwork in lawne."—B. M. Add. MSS. No. 5751.

[844]

"One yard of double Italian cutwork a quarter of a yard wide, 55s. 4d."—G. W. A. Eliz. 33 and 34.

"Una virga de opere sciss' lat' de factura Italica, 26s. 8d."—Ibid. 29 & 30.

[845]

"For one yard of double Flanders cutwork worked with Italian purl, 33s. 4d."—Ibid. 33 & 34.

[846]

"3 suits of good lawn cutwork ruffs edged with good bone lace 'operat' super oss',' at 70s., 10l. 10s."—Ibid. 43 & 44.

[847]

"7 virg' Tenie lat' operis acui, ad 6s. 8d., 46s. 8d."—Ibid. 37-38.

[848]

"Eidem pro 2 pectoral' de ope' sciss' fact' de Italic' et Flaundr' purle, ad 46s."—Ibid. 42 & 43.

"Eidem pro 1 virg' de Tenie de opere acuo cum le purle Italic' de cons' ope' acuo 20s."—G. W. A. Eliz. 40 & 41.

[849]

Eliz. 44 = 1603.

[850]

"3 yards broad needlework lace of Italy, with the purls of similar work, at 50s. per yard, 8l. 15s."—Ibid. 41-42.

Bone lace varies in price from 40s. the dozen to 11s. 6d. the yard. Needle-made lace from 6s. 8d. to 50s.—G. W. A. Passim.

[851]

Lace is always called "lacqueus" in the Gt. Wardrobe Accounts up to 1595-6, after which it is rendered "tænia." Both terms seem, like our "lace" to have been equally applied to silk passements.

"Galons de soye, de l'espèce qui peuvent être dénominés par le terme latin de 'tæniola.'"

"Laqueus, enlassements de diverses couleurs, galons imitation de ces chaînes qui les Romains faisoient peindre, dorer et argenter, pour les rendre plus supportables aux illustres malheureux que le sort avoit réduit à les porter."—Traité des Marques Nationales. Paris, 1739.

[852]

"Fine white or nun's thread is made by the Augustine nuns of Crema," writes Skippin, 1631.

From the Great Wardrobe Accounts the price appears to have been half a crown an ounce.

"Eidem pro 2 li. 4 unc.' fili Sororis, ad 2s. 6d. per unciam, 4l. 10s."—Eliz. 34 & 35.

[853]

State Papers Domestic. Eliz. Vol. 84. The sum total amounts to 4,287.

[854]

See Burgundy. "The naturalized French residing in this country are Normans of the district of Caux, a wicked sort of French, worse than all the English," writes, in 1553, Stephen Porlin, a French ecclesiastic, in his Description of England and Scotland.

[855]

1559. Oct. 20. Proclamation against excess of apparel.—State Papers Dom. Eliz. Vol. vii.

1566. Feb. 12.—Ibid. Vol. xxxix.

1579. Star Chamber on apparel.

[856]

State Papers Dom. Eliz. Vol. xxiii. No. 8.

[857]

Ibid. Vol. xlvii. No. 49.

[858]

Ibid. Vol. viii. No. 31.

[859]

The value of thread imported amounts to £13,671 13s. 4d.

[860]

Walsingham writes: In opening a coffer of the Queen of Scots, he found certain heades which so pleased certain ladies of his acquaintance, he had taken the liberty to detain a couple.

[861]

"A mantel of lawn cutwork wrought throughout with cutwork of 'pomegranettes, roses, honeysuckles, cum crowns.'"

"A doublet of lawn cutwork worked with 'lez rolls and true loves,' &c."—G. W. A. Eliz. Last year.

[862]

New Year's Gifts. By the Lady Shandowes. 1577-8.

[863]

Marquis of Northampton.

[864]

Lady Carew. "A cushyn of fine cameryk edged with bone lace of Venice sylver."

[865]

"Laqueus de serico Jeano"—(Genoa). G. W. A. Eliz. 30-1.

[866]

1571. Revels at Court. Cunningham.

Some curious entries occur on the occasion of a Masque called "The Prince" given at court in 1600:—

"For the tooth-drawer:

"To loope leace for his doublet and cassacke, 8s.

"For leace for the corne-cutters suite, 7s.

"For green leace for the tinkers suite, 2s.

"For the mouse-trapp-man:

"6 yards of copper leace to leace is cloake, at 1s. 8d., 10s.

"The Prophet merely wears fringe, 2 Ruffes and cuffes, 3s. 10d."

The subject of the Masque seems lost to posterity.

[867]

Lady Chandos, jun. "A cushyn cloth of lawne, wrought with white worke of branches and trees edged with white bone worke wrought with crownes."—New Year's Gifts. 1577-8.

[868]

1572. Revels at Court.

[869]

In the possession of Mrs. Evans of Wimbledon.

[870]

Sir Gawine Carew. "A smock of cameryke wrought with black work and edged with bone lace of gold."

Lady Souche. "A smock of cameryke, the ruffs and collar edged with a bone lace of gold."

The Lady Marquis of Winchester. "A smock of cameryke wrought with tanny silk and black, the ruffs and collar edged with a bone lace of silver."—New Year's Gifts. 1578-9.

[871]

"A bearing cloth," for the Squire's child, is mentioned in the Winter's Tale.

[872]

Many of these Christening robes of lace and point are preserved as heirlooms in old families; some are of old guipure, others of Flanders lace, and later of Valenciennes, or needle-point. The bib formed of guipure padded, with tiny mittens of lace, were also furnished to complete the suit.

[873]

In 1584-5 Queen Elizabeth sends a most wonderful apron to be washed and starched, of cambric, edged with lace of gold, silver, and in-grain carnation silk, "operat' super oss'," with "pearl buttons pro ornatione dict' apron."—G. W. A. Eliz. 26 & 27.

[874]

[875]

New Year's Gift of Lady Radcliffe. 1561.

[876]

New Year's Gift of Lady St. Lawrence.

[877]

Surtees' Wills and Inv. "Though the luxury of the court was excessive, the nation at large were frugal in their habits. Our Argentine of Dorset was called 'Argentine the Golden,' in consequence of his buckles, tags, and laces being of gold. Such an extravagance being looked on as a marvel in the remote hamlets of the southern counties."

[878]

Hence ruffles, diminutive of ruffs. "Ruff cuffs" they are called in the G. W. A. of James I., 11 & 12.

[879]

Stowe's Chron.

[880]

Endless are the entries in the Gt. W. Acc. for washing, starching and mending. The court laundress can have had no sinecure. We find "le Jup de lawne operat' cum stellis et aristis tritici Anglice wheateares" (Eliz. 42 & 43), sent to be washed, starched, etc. A network vail "sciss' totum desuper cum ragged staves." (Leicester's device. Ibid. 29 & 30.) A diploid' (doublet) of cut-work flourished "cum auro et spangles" (Ibid.), and more wonderful still, in the last year of her reign she has washed and starched a toga "cum traine de la lawne operat' in auro et argento in forma caudarum pavorum," the identical dress in which she is portrayed in one of her portraits.

[881]

"Eidem pro un ruff bon pynned sup' le wier Franc' cū rhet' aur' spangled, 70s."—Eliz. 42 & 43.

[882]

Gt. W. Acc. Eliz. 33 & 34.

[883]

"B.: Where's my ruff and poker?"

"R.: There's your ruff, shall I poke it?"

"B.: So poke my ruff now."—Old Play by P. Dekker. 1602.

Autolycus, among his wares, has "poking-sticks of steel."

"Poked her rebatoes and surveryed her steel."—Law Tricks. 1608.

[884]

Middleton's Comedy of Blurt, Master Constable.

[885]

Or, the World's Folly. 1605.

[886]

Stowe.

[887]

Ibid.

[888]

Therefore she wore "chin" ruffs.

"Eidem pro 2 sutes de lez chinne ruffs edged cu' arg., 10s."—Eliz. 42 & 43.

[889]

Ben Jonson. Every Man Out of His Humour. 1599.

[890]

Lady Cromwell. "Three sutes of ruffs of white cutwork edged with a passamayne of white."

Lady Mary Se'm'. "3 ruffs of lawne cutwork of flowers."

[891]

"They are either clogged with gold, silver, or silk laces of stately price, wrought all over with needleworke, speckeled and sparkeled here and there with the sunne, the moone, the starres and many other antiques strange to beholde. Some are wrought with open worke donne to the midst of the ruffe, and further some with close worke, some with purled lace so closed and other gewgawes so pestered, as the ruff is the leest parte of itself."—Stubbe's Description of the Cut-work Ruff.

[892]

Anatomie of Abuses. 1583.

[893]

"Eidem pro 3 dozin laquei fact' de crine brayded cum lez rising puffs de crine, ad 36s. le dd., £5 8s."—Eliz. 31 & 32.

The entry occurs frequently.

In Ibid. 87 & 38 is a charge "pro 4 pirrywigges de crine," at 16s. 8d. each.

[894]

In the G. W. A. of the last year of her reign, Elizabeth had a variety of devices in false hair. We have:—

"Eidem pro 200 invencionibus factis decrine in forma lez lowpes et tuftes," at 6d. each; the like number in the form of leaves at 12d.; 12 in form of "lez Peramides," at 3s. 4d.; 24 of Globes, at 12d., with hair by the yard, made in lowpes, "crispat' curiose fact'," curle rotund', and other wonderful "inventions."

[895]

"Your trebble-quadruple Dædalian ruffes, nor your stiffe necked Rebatoes that have more arches for pride to row under than can stand under five London Bridges."—The Gul's Hornebooke, by T. Deckar. London, 1609.

[896]

Beaumont and Fletcher. Nice Valour.

[897]

Ibid. The Blind Lady. 1661.

[898]

1641.

[899]

Called by James I. "the King of Preachers." Ob. 1621

[900]

In the Dumb Knight, 1608, a woman, speaking of her ruff, says:—

"This is but shallow. I have a ruff is a quarter deep, measured by the yard."

[901]

See the portraits in the National Portrait Gallery of Sir Dudley and Lady Carleton, by Cornelius Janssens, of the Queen of Bohemia, by Mirevelt, and of the Countess of Pembroke, by Mark Geerards. In Westminster Abbey, the effigies of Queen Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots, on their tombs.