Lace, ancient and modern : comprising a history of its origin and manufacture, with instructions concerning the manner of making it

Preface

\^ IjKge. and gems are to women what stock and real estate are to men, and are the crowning glory of woman's attire ; but, while many are familiar with facts in regard to gems, few are wise in lace lore, for little has been published upon the subject. The student in lace, therefore, is obliged to pick up a scrap of information here and a crumb there, and usually finds both unsatisfactory. In Europe the love of lace at one time amounted to passion, which was only broken up by the French Kevolution and other European wars. At present lace is again extremely popular, and still growing in favor on )th sides of the Atlantic. A history of its origin and manufacture, therefore, will not only prove highly interesting, but will supply a long-felt want, alike to the dealer, the wearer and the student in lace.

The author has gleaned from many sources the material for the book. Many interesting facts have been obtained from the work of a deceased English author; files of the London, Paris and New York papers ; reports of the International Exhibitions ; from various* publications deposited in the New York libraries ; from Madame Carter, teacher of lace-making ; and from obliging merchants of the Empire City.

Index

PAGIT-

• • - CJtf

Baby Lace, ------

91 ft

Barbara XJttman, - - - - .

Di

Bedford Plait - - - . .

BT.nTJDlH' - - . - -

"RPTRAT. TiAPT?

" Veil of Empress Josephine

- - -

Brussels Point a l' Aiguille, - - .

IDO-

1 RH-

- - IDo-

BuRANO Point, ------

A T? VTV AT T 1 A PIT*

- IQfJT'

CI ATJRTPKM APTfOCS*?

O-t A'

5JI4

A CiTTMIT'RT? - - _

- 229'

Chantilly, ------

00/1'

ClunYj ------

CUTWORK, - - - -

OA

- - Otf

Darned Netting - - - - _

Drawnwork, - - -

- 9$

DUCHESSE,

- 19'

French " " <<

Genoa Point, - - - . -

HONITON,

Irish Point, ------

Knotted Point,

Lace in Convents and Churches,

- 13;

Lille or Arras Thread, - - - -

- 229*

Machine Lace, ------

Macrame, - -

Maltese,

Materials Used in Making Lace,

S INDEX.

PAGE.

Modern Braid Lace, 240

Old Brussels Plait, 200

Origin of Lace, 9

Pillow Lace, i82

Plait Applique, . 205

-Tlaited Lace, 113

IPoint Lace, 124 " d'Alenqon,

" d'Argentan, 161

•" DE Flandre, 198

" Medici, 199

Portuguese Point, - - - . . . _ 146

Princess of Wales' Bridal Dress, - - . - - 80

Princess Royal's Bridal Laces, - .... 79

Queen Victoria's Bridal Laces, - . . . - 77

Eegency Point, - - . . . . . - 213

Eeticella, . . 103 Russian Lace, -------- 2O8

Spanish Fashions in Lace, - ... . . - 47

Spanish Flat Point, - - . . . - - 141

Spanish Points, - - . 1 . . .. - I4i

" Raised Point, - 144

Trousseau of Empress Eugenie, - . . . - 77

Valenciennes, - - - . . . . - 188

Venetian Flat Point, - - . . . . - 130

" Grounded Point, - - . . . - 138

LACE, ANCIENT AND MODERN.

CHAPTER I. ORiaiW OF LACE

Netting and embroidery are of extremely ancient •origin, but we have no authentic record concerning the existence of lace until about 1400. Europe has always been the centre of the lace industry, its invention being claimed by both Italy and Belgium. Without doubt, Italy produced the first point and Flanders the first pillow lace ; but it is impossible to tell whicli was the earlier production, as the medisBval records' throw but little light upon the subject. Italian reticella, which is the oldest needle-made lace, evolved from cutwork, which was an open embroidery, filled in, usually, with lace ;stitches ; afterward reticella gradually merged into point. Pillow lace, probably, sprung from netting.

Almost from the beginning mention is made in the bible of embroidery and netting. In Exodus, Aholiab is /spoken of as an embroiderer in blue ; in the description of Solomon's temple nets of checker- work are mentioned ; and in Isaiah occurs the passage, " They that work in fine flax and weave net-work." The ancient Egyptians used

LACE, ANCIENT AND MODERN.

netting to border state or festival garments, and upon the bodies of mummies has been found a net-work of blue beads. Still it is probable that lace proper was not known in Oriental countries, as no record or other evidence of it exists. Even at the present day, when wis have all manner of fanciful trifles, curious carving and embroidery in Japanese and Chinese work, and exquisite shawls, scarfs and hand-made carpets from India, we have nothing from these countries in the way of lace, except a drawnwork which appears on some tissues from China or Japan. Even Turkey manufactures nothing except a crochet guipure, although in the harems a silk guipure is made with the needle, which seldom appears in the market.

It was anciently the custom for women to wear veils over their faces in Christian churches, and a writer of the second century complained that these coverings ministered to vanity rather than modesty, as they were so rich in material and elaborate in design ; often exposing the face to view, from the fact of their being of silk netting, interwoven with gold and silver thread.

The first records of lace belong to Italy, and come from Milan, in the shape of an ancient document usually spoken of as the Sforza Inventory, it being a complete catalogue or list of an Italian wardrobe in 1493. As a matter of course, the articles therein mentioned must have been manufactured at an earlier date. This inventory was made for the purpose of properly dividing the wardrobe it described between two sisters, Ansrela and Ippolita Sforza Visconti. It mentions many curious and interesting things ; among others, mosquito curtains, veils of gold network, reticella /and groppi,. the latter

ORIGIN OF LACE.

, being undoubtedly punto a gropo, the first knotted lace known. It also speaks of patterns for ladies' work.

Though lace-making was not practised in England at so early a date, in the wardrobe accounts of Henry VIII., a quarter of a century later, mention is made of articles ornamented with lace. In the Harleian Inventory, 1519, a pair of hose is spoken of as the property of King Henry, " edged with passamaine lace, of purple silk and gold, worked at Milan." Again, in the king's privy-purse expenses, 1530, is noted "eight pieces of yolowe lace, for the King's Grace," but where the " yolowe " lace came from does not appear. ^ Although no inventory or other documentaiy writing attests the fact of lace existing in Belgium as early as in Italy, Baron Reiifenberg, who gave some time to research upon the subject, declares that lace cap^' were worn in Belgium before 1400, the fact being proved by paintings bearing date of the fourteenth century. In the church of St. Gomar in Lierre, and the collegiate church of St. Peter's at Louvain, are paintings of the fifteenth century in which lace appears as an article of adornment upon the costumes displayed, or portrayed by the artist's skill. /In St. Peter's at Louvain is an altar-piece by Quentin ' Matsys, dated 1495, in which a young girl appears making lace with bobbins upon a pillow. The inference derived from this is that pillow lace-making was generally practiced at this period, or it would scarcely have been osen as a subject for the painting.

To Italy, however, most modern writers concede the earliest invention of lace. Its manufacture was for a long time confined exclusively to convents, and its use to the Church, hence it derived the name of nuns' work," bearing it in some parts of Italy and Spain to this clay. From Italy, Spain and Greece learned tlie art of lace-making, and France learned her point d'Alen^on ; but Flanders taught pillow-lace making to Germany, France and England — in fact, all Northern Europe.

Gold and silver lace, which, properly speaking, is not 'lace, but a sort of braiding and festooning of gold or silver wires, was invented at a very early date, long before lace proper, and was used to decorate royal robes and martial trappings.

LACE IN CONVENTS AND CHUECHES.

Chapter II. Lace In Convents And Churches

Nuns of all ages have been accustomed to devote their leisure time to needlework. Possibly, to all but those who were exceptionally devout, the Pater Fosters, Ave Marias, and other numerous prayers which they repeated daily and hourly, as well as the fasts and vigils they kept for the good of their souls and those of their . less pious friends and the faithful at large, were rather trying upon mind and body when unrelieved by anything approaching recreation, and so they were driven to their needle to vary, even in a slight degree, the monotonous routine of their lives. For themselves they had taken the vow of poverty, and could not appropriate anything in the line of fancy work to their own use, and so they derived great consolation in decorating their churches — the altars, prle-dieus, images of the Saviour, Virgin and saints, as well as the priestly robes, grave-clothes, and other articles connected with the service of the Church, with the most artistic needlework they could devise.

/ In ancient days even monks were not ashamed of /being considered skillful with the needle. In some of the pattern books for embroidery, cutwork and lacis of the sixteenth century, men are represented as sitting at a lace or embroidery frame. Indeed, some of the pattern books of this period were designed by monks or priests. The St. Genevieve monastery in Paris collected a largo number of these books, afterward bequeathing them to the St. Genevieve library, where they may still be seen.

Long before drawnwork, outwork and lacis were used to any extent upon ordinary wearing apparel, nuns were celebrated for making them, and nearly all the churches were rich in the possession of the most rare and elegant articles of needlework that taste could devise or time and patience execute — work not wrought in one lifetime, but which occupied the spare moments of many lives. For when one pair of hands failed, or the eyes directing, them grew dim, others, younger and stronger, took up the task, and so, in time, the work was finished, devotion to the church making it a labor of love. These articles were carefully preserved, and many of them remain almost intact, having, through great care, withstood the ravages of time in a remarkable degree. The linen, tapestry and silk used for this work, howcA^er, was almost imperishable, as the. preserved specimens show.

The inventories of ancient churches still exist, and serve to give some idea of the articles most decorated. One, in Paris, of the Church of the Oratoire, in the seventeenth century, speaks of veils for the host. One of these is of white taffeta bordered with guipure lace ; another is of satin, with white flowers in similar lace. In the Convent of the Visitation at Le Puy is the lace trimming of an alb twenty-eight inches long, and of superb scroll design. This is of point d'Angleterre. In the inventory of the sacristy of the Benedictine Monastery at St. Aligre, in 1684, nearly everything mentioned is trimmed with lace, much of it, however, being gold point d'Espagne. In the inventory of Massillon's Chapel at Beauregard, l'r42, albs are trimmed with point d'Aurillac, and veils

LACE IN CONVENTS AND CHURCHES.

with point d'Espagne. A writer in 1691, in speaking of tlie images of the saints in a French church, says ; " St. Winnifred was in a point lace commode, and St. Dennis with a laced hat and embroidered coat and sash." \ , At the time of the dissolution of the Spanish monas- * teries in 1830, a large quantity of the most exquisite specimens of nuns' work was thrown suddenly upon the market, and found eager purchasers. Much of this lace was Spanish point, but there were many rare pieces of work not met with elsewhere. Some interesting relics of the ancient work of Spanish nuns have been found in the convent of Jesu Bambino. Here, ages ago, these sisters taught to novices their art. Some of the specimens — many of them being unfinished — were sent to Eome. We give a portion of one, the work of Sister Felice Vittoria, left unfinished at her death, the thread still hanging from the work.

nuns' work.

LACE, ANCIENT AND MODERN.

"When, in the twelfth century, St. Dunstan was disinterred, his body being removed from his coffin in the' ^athedral of Durham, his grave-clothes were found to be^ ornamented in curious ways — the linen with embroidery^ and cutwork ; the cloak or cope, as well as the maniple, being of the most exquisite embroidery. The latter was adorned with gold lace, of that kind of guipure which was anciently worked over parchment. The sheet thrown over the body had a deep linen fringe, woven into a border representing figures of beasts and birds, with., branching trees between. These relics are in the Chapter Library of Durham.

The manner of making this ancient work was generally considered as a secret of the Church, as only the nuns^ were skilled in the art. Gradually, however, the knowledge of their handiwork spread abroad — at first through Italy, and thence into the other countries of Europe — until, about 1450, it came into use for ornamenting royal as well as priestly robes, household linen as well as. grave-clothes, and finally was even worn by the peasantry. In the convents, instruction was given to the novices ; and at last they opened schools in which children, and women also, were taught to make lace and other work. Even the daughters of kings were sent tO' be instructed in these womanly arts. Similar schools are kept up to 'the present day in many countries of Europe. In 1826 twQ nuns from the convent of La Providence, at. K-ouen, started a lace school at Dieppe which proved very successful, being patronized by the Empress Eugenie and other noble ladies of France.

Nuns and priests generally have done much toward spreading the knowledge of lace work in more modern

LACE IN CONVENTS AND CHURCHES: IT

times, and Father Francois Regis is held in great veneration by the people of Auvergne, who consider him the patron saint of lace-making. In 1640, when an edict against the wearing of lace by any person in the province was put in force by the Parliament of Toulouse, in order to check the lace industry, the poor lace-makers were reduced almost to starvation. Father Regis bade the sufferers put their trust in God, and then set out for Toulouse, where, by his remonstrances and eloquent statements of the case, he prevailed upon Parliament to revoke the edict. He afterwards advised the lace-makers; concerning the disposition of their manufactures, which,, being followed, led them to send to Spain and England the product of their labor, the result being unusual pi'osr perity for the province. Dying soon after, the good father was canonized for this and other beneficent acts,, and is held in' grateful memory and adoration as St« Frangois Regis.

The laces of the Vatican and Holy Conclave are magu^licent in the extreme, defying description. Those belonging to each cai'dinal, however, are sold at his death,, and often purchased by one newly elected. Pope Clement, IX. was famed for presenting rich laces to his friends.

Many Catholic churches of Europe are in possession of rare laces, presented by reigning sovereigns and members; of the nobility who are strong in the faith. At the Church of the Madre a Dios, in Lisbon, was exhibited for many years the bridal dress of Princess Barbara, sister to King Joseph of Portugal. After her marriage to Prince Ferdinand of Spain, in 1729, she repaired to the church and offered her bridal robe and jewels to the blessed Virgin. The dress was of Portuguese point lace^

LACE, ANCIENT AND MODERN.

beautiful in fabric and design ; it was put in a glass case, and exhibited to curious visitors for many years, but, at the time when the French occupied the Peninsula, the Tobe disappeared. It was supposed to have been appropriated by one of the imperial generals, or, to use the term applied to stealing in time of war, it was confiscated by one of them.

In the cathedral of Grranada, in Spain, is a lace alb, «aid to have been presented by Ferdinand and Isabella, •of rare beauty and great value. In the seventeenth century albs of Brussels point were worn by the clerg}^ Altar-cloths in French churches were trimmed with Argentan point. Albs were also ornamented with point de France, the Church following in a certain degree the prevailing fashions in lace. A point de Venise alb in old rose point is still preserved in the Musee de Cluny.

Only for the care given to ancient lace and relics of rrare needlework by the Church, we should have few t specimens at the present day. Two prelates of the 'Church purchased a set of lace which once belonged to^ Marie Antoinette. It was offered for sale in the time of -the first Napoleon, and was bought and consecrated to the use of the Church. It consisted of squares of old point de Flandre, each different from the other, beautiful in .quality and curious in design.

ENGLISH FASHIONS IN LACE.

ii

CHAPTEE III.

ENGLISH FASHIONS IN LACE.

Since 1450, the period when lace ceased to be devoted to the use of the Church exclusively, it has been greatly sought after by the royal families of Europe, and been subjected to many a caprice of fashion. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and a portion of the eighteenth, it was used in the most lavish manner, appearing on nearly every article of dress or household use to which it could possibly be applied. Its manufacture at this period added more to the support of the peasantry and middle classes of Europe than any other one industry known. For half a century after the beginning of the French Eevolution it was worn sparingly or cast aside almost altogether ; since that time its use has been resumed for ladies' costumes, infants' wear, and many purposes of household decoration. It is still subjected to fashion's changes, the favorite of to-day being forgotten in the popular choice of to-morrow.

Though France set the fashions in the days when lace w^as used by men and women alike, as it does at the present time, many of England's sovereigns had wills of their own, and, though usually following the footsteps of France in the matter of dress, they sometimes introduced into their courts styles of their own choosing.

The first articles of womanly adornment partaking of the nature of lace were the caul, or net, and the veil. The latter was one of the primitive head-coverings of

Avomen, and was worn within and without the church, m has always been considered as belonging to feminine I apparel exclusively, and, though men grew to wear nearly I all manner of lace and lace-trimmed articles, they never usurped the veil. In ancient days, as well as in the middle ages, it was thought to be a necessary appendage to the head of a modest woman, and no lady was respected who appeared in the street without it. Before lace was in general use, network and tissue of various sorts, thin lawn and gauze, were all used to form veils. r Matilda of Scotland, queen of Henry I. of England, /in her portrait taken about Christmas, 1115, while she and her royal husband were spending the festival season at the abbey of St. Albans, is represented as wearing a white gauze veil, arranged squarely over the brow, and surmounted by a gold crown. The veil flows behind her oulders, with lappets. This portrait, which, without doubt, is authentic, is preserved in a handsome illuminated volume called the Groldeil Book of St. Albans, now m the British Museum.

/ Eleanora of Aquitaine, queen of Henry II. of England, /in some of her portraits taken -about the year 1154, / appears with her hair braided and bound with jewels, I and over all is thrown a square of line gauze, which sup- \ plied the place of a veil. r Berengaria of Navarre, queen of Richard I. (Coeur de iLion) is represented with a veil in all her portraits. In j one she wears a flowing robe of rich brocade, and a veil I of what appears to be figured gauze, with a crown above X_ In another she appears with her hair parted above her brow, and a transparent veil, open on each side like a Spanish mantilla. Her long hair flows free beneath it.

ENGLISH FASHIONS IN LACE.

At this time — 1191 — embroidery in gold and silver, with laces and fringes of the same materials, were much worn, mingled with the royal ermine. Richard himself is described as wearing a mantle of striped silver tissue, brocaded with silver half moons, and a scarlet bonnet brocaded in gold with figures of animals.

Veils continued to be greatly worn, and at this time, as well as in the thirteenth century, the woman who .walked in the street without one was liable to insult. Eleanor of Provence, queen of Henry III. of England, wore her hair gathered in a gold network, and over this Lwas thrown a veil ; this was in 1240. From this period, lor three centuries following, the queens of England are represented in their portraits generally as wearing veils, the material having the appearance of white lace, but being in all probability plain or figured gauze. Among those represented with such veils are Philippa of Hainault, queen of Edward III.; Margaret of Anjou, queen of Henry VI.; Elizabeth Woodville, queen of Edward IV.; ^nd Elizabeth of York, queen of Henry VII.

In the reign of Edward III. the government waxed wroth because the common people, and especially servant maids, wore veils that were fine in texture and extremely expensive in regard to price. Accordingly, an act was issued, in 1363, forbidding the wearing of silk veils, or those of any material that should cost more than tenpence. In the monument of Queen Philippa, in Westminster Abbey, she is represented as wearing a net, or €aul of network, and this is supposed to be of similar style to the veils worn at this period ; and, as a sort of crochet edging was manufactured at the time, it was

LA.CE, ANCIENT AND MODERN.

undoubtedly used as a trimming to these veils, for the Duchess of Exeter, who died in 1425, is said to have worn a caul of network with a needlework edging.

Katharine of Arragon, first wife of Henry VIII., introduced the Spanish mantilla into England, though at this, time it was not made of the black lace of which, later, this coquettish garment was invariably composed. Before Henry had any but the most remote prospects of ever ascending the throne, and at the time of Katharine's earlv maniage with hits elder brother Arthur, Prince of Wales,! she wore a Spanish mantilla which partly veiled her face] and form. It was composed of white silk, and was bor-;^ dered with gold and precious stones. She never fully abandoned wearing this article of Spanish costume, usually appearing in a black mantilla veil. This fashion, though not extensively copied by the ladies of the English court, wrought a change in the wearing of the veil, black being substituted for the white material, which, until now, had been popular for this face-covering. Jane Seymour, Henry's third, and Katharine Parr, his sixth wife, both wore veils, and are so represented in their portraits, but they are black.

From this period, about 1542, the portraits of queens, except those taken in bridal costume, are without the veil altogether, this appendage being considered unnecessary for house wear, though still adopted for the street. Queen Mary, the daughter of Henry VIII. and Katharine of Arragon, being fondly attached to her divorced mother's memory, wore in her honor, and probably tO' gratify her own taste, veils of black lace or network. In her New Year's gifts is mentioned " a veil of black net-

• work, flourislied. witli flowers of silver and a small bone lace ;" and after lier death the inventory of her effects mentions " vales of black network."

That lace was used to ornament the hair of women even in King Henry's time is proven by a list of his plate taken in 1543, though the description is so obscure but little other information can be obtained from it. We give it intact : " Itern^ oone picture of a woman made o£ erthe, with a carnacion Roobe knitt with a knott in the lefte shoulder, and bare hedid, with her heere rowlid up with a white lace set in a box of woode." ^ Queen Elizabeth, who succeeded her sister Mary in ' 1558, was the first sovereign of England who made any extensive use of lace, for the very good reason that, during her long reign lace first became plentiful throughout Europe. She is said to have left three thousand^ dresses behind her, nearly all of them being ornamented \ with lace in a more or less lavish manner. Mention of \yeils is constantly made in her wardrobe accounts, and of laces wherewith to trim them. In 1584 occurs an entry for starching a veil of white cutwork^ trimmed with needlework lace, the latter being in all probability reticella; for Elizabeth, unlike many English sovereigns who reigned after her, had no compunctions of conscience regarding the encouragement given to foreign manufactures by purchasing their finest; laces, silks and other handsome textiles and trinkets. So' great, indeed, was her love of finery, and her greed for possessing articles wherewith to adorn herself, she overhauled the wardrobe of Mary, Queen of Scots, on its way to its owner, who was in prison, and plundered it of any article of dress which pleased her fancy.

LACE, ANCIENT AND MODERN.

In Queen Elizabeth's New Year's gifts (1578) is mentioned " a veil of wliitework, with spangles and small bone lace of silver." Veils, however, were less used in Queen Elizabeth's time than formerly, the ruff taking the most prominent place in the queen's affections, but bridal veils became a prominent feature in trousseaux.*

In the reign of Henry YII. (from 1485 to 1503) gold and thread laces were imported from Italy, though in limited quantities, and as yet it was little worn, especially thread lace, though sometimes mentioned in the royal wardrobe accounts of the times. In 1502, Elizabeth of York, queen of Henry YII. and mother of Henry YIII., pays " forty shillings for laces, rybands," etc., and other mention of lace is made from time to time, though rarely, yrhe first garment which was extensively ornamented Avith white lace was the shirt or smock. In the inven- / tory of Sir Thomas L'Estrange, of Norfolk, is entered, in I 1519, three ells of Holland cloth and one yard of lace for I a shirt ; and it is reasonable to suppose that shirts at this time were decorated in various ways, as a law of Henry YIII. forbids the wearing of shirts and partlets that are •'^ garded and pynched," whatever that may have been, y hj any person below a knight in degree.

In 1556, Lady Jane Seymour presented Queen Mary -with " a fair smock of white work, Flanders make," as a new year's gift, and more than a score of years later Sir Philip Sidney presents Queen Elizabeth with a smock of ■cutwork, which seems a strange gift. Queen Elizabeth, , however, having been somewhat spoiled on account of lier beauty and position, seems to have received this and similar gifts with evident satisfaction. . Many were em- * See chapter on Bridal Laces.

ENGLISH FASHIONS IN LACE.

broidered, others trimmed with lace. One is described as wrought with black work and edged with bone lace of gold of various kinds.

Smocks are constantly mentioned, in and after the reign of Elizabeth, some wrought, some seamed through with cut work, some seamed and trimmed with lace, at enormous cost; and these articles were tri^imed with lace in the most extravagant manner up to the middle of the eighteenth century ; even after the fall of Charles I. and during the period of Puritan rule, when lace-trimmed articles were preached against as vain and useless, Cromwell could not forbear to indulge his fondness for them.

Soon after the time when smocks beban to be decorated with thread lace, nightcaps becam Avery elaborate aifairs, and were trimmed with cutwork^^d thread or bone lace in the most extravagant manner. ^^539, when Henry VIII. seized the correspondence of Lal|^isle to Sister Antoinette de Sevenges, it was found to oe upon the treasonable subject of nightcaps, one half-dozen of those Lady Lisle had purchased of the good nun being too large, and not of the cutwork pattern selected. ^ Charles I. wore satin nightcaps, trimmed with gold fand silver parchment lace, and Queen Elizabeth had similar articles of white cutwork, flourished with silver and set with spangles. It was while arrayed in one of these that the son of Lord Shrewsbury, while walking in the tilt-yard, caught a glimpse of her majesty, or, as the queen herself expressed it, he had seen her " unready and in her night stuff, whereat she was greatly ashamed."

James II. of England died, in the fashion set by Louis \ XIV., with a Mechlin lace nightcap on, which is still \preserved as a choice relic at the museum of Dunkirk.