The early Flemish laces cannot be traced to any particular town, but Brussels early obtained a reputation for the production of the soft, elegant laces which are variously known as "Real old Brussels," "Point d'Angleterre," "Point d'Aiguille," and "Point de Gaze." Almost every woman, although knowing little about lace as an art, knows and easily recognises "Brussels." It has ever been the most popular lace, partly because its price has never been actually prohibitive, although always costly. Choice pieces of Old Brussels, with real ground, rank among the laces of France and Venice as pieces of price, but the later period, especially the kind known as Brussels applique, is within everybody's reach, even if only as a border for a best handkerchief.
"OLD BRUSSELS" (HAND-MADE GROUND).
(Author's Collection.)
BRUSSELS LAPPET, MADE IN IMITATION OF ALENÇON AND ARGENTAN.
Lace made at Brussels at all periods has one characteristic that places it at once and makes identification easy at a glance. The threads of the toilé—that is, the pattern—follows the curves, instead of, as in other Flanders laces, being straight up and down and across, each thread being exactly at right angles to the other; Brussels lace also has a distinctive edge to its pattern. It has no Cordonnet, but a little set of looped stitches worked along the edge of the design, afterwards whipped over to keep the edge in place. This is most clearly seen in every specimen, and, in conjunction with the curved toilé, at once settles the vexed question of the origin of Point d'Angleterre.
The mesh or ground is, again, quite different to other laces. It has three varieties of ground—
1. One, mostly used in Point d'Angleterre, being of fine "brides" with four or five picots, but this ground is also seen in Venetian and French laces.
2. A hand-made ground made of looped buttonhole stitches, which is the finest and most gossamer-like of all; and
3. A woven ground made on the pillow with plaited thread, very like Mechlin, but under the magnifying glass having two longer sides to its hexagonal mesh, and therefore being more open and clear.