History of Lace

by Mrs. Bury Palliser

Et que, pour le repos de ces mêmes maris,

Je voudrais bien qu'on fit de la coquetterie

Comme de la guipure et de la broderie."

Fig. 71.

A Courtier of the Regency.—(After Abraham Bosse.)

This ordinance, after prohibiting all foreign "passemens, points de Gênes, points coupés," etc., or any French laces or passements exceeding an inch in width, allows the use of the "collerettes and manchettes" persons already possess for the space of one year, after which period they are only to be trimmed with a lace made in the kingdom, not exceeding an inch in width. The ordinance then goes on to attack the "canons," which it states have been introduced into the kingdom, with "un excès de dépense insupportable, par la quantité de passemens, points de Venise et Gênes," with which they are loaded.[^[441]] Their use of them is now entirely prohibited, unless made of plain linen or of the same stuff as the coat, without lace or any ornament. The lace-trimmed "canons" of Louis XIV., as represented in the picture of his interview with Philip IV., in the Island of Pheasants, previous to his marriage, 1660 (Fig. 72), give a good idea of these extravagant appendages. These

"Canons à trois étages

A leurs jambes faisoient d'ombrages."[^[442]]

And, what was worse, they would cost 7,000 livres a pair. "At the Court of France," writes Savinière, "people think nothing of buying rabats, manchettes, or canons to the value of 13,000 crowns."[^[443]] These canons, with their accompanying rheingraves, which after the prohibition of Venice point were adorned with the new productions of France, suddenly disappeared. In 1682, the Mercure announces, "Les canons et les rheingraves deviennent tout à fait hors de mode."