Écrits, habillemens, systèmes: tout est mode."
Racine fils, Epître à Rousseau.
Point de France continued to be worn in the greatest profusion during the reign of Louis XIV. The King affected his new-born fabric much as monarchs of the present day do their tapestries and their porcelains. It decorated the Church and her ministers. Ladies offered "tours de chaire à l'église de la paroisse."[[467]] Albs, "garnies d'un grand point de France brodé antique";[[468]] altar-cloths trimmed with Argentan[[469]] appear in the church registers.[[470]] In a painting at Versailles, by Rigaud, representing the presentation of the Grand Dauphin to his royal father, 1668, the infant is enveloped in a mantle of the richest point (Fig. 74); and point de France was selected by royal command to trim the sheets of holland used at the ceremony of his "nomination."[[471]] At the marriage of the Prince de Conti and of Mademoiselle de Blois the toilette[[472]] presented by the King was "garnie de point de France si haut qu'on ne voyait point de toile."[[473]] The valance, too, and the coverlet of the bed were of the same material.[[474]]
In this luxury, however, England followed her sister kingdom, for we read in the Royal Magazine of 1763 that on the baptism of the young prince, afterwards Duke of York, the company went to the council chamber at St. James's, where a splendid bed was set up for the Queen to sit on, the counterpane of which is described as of inimitable workmanship, the lace alone costing £3,783 sterling.[[475]] "What princes do themselves, they engage others to do," says Quintilian, and the words of the critic were, in this case, fully verified: jupes,[[476]] corsets, mantles, aprons with their bibs,[[477]] shoes,[[478]] gloves,[[479]] even the fans were now trimmed with point de France.[[480]]
At the audience given by the Dauphine to the Siamese ambassadors, "à ses relevailles," she received them in a bed "presque tout couvert d'un tres beau point de France, sur lesquels on avoit mis des riches carreaux."[[481]] On the occasion of their visit to Versailles, Louis, proud of his fabric, presented the ambassadors with cravats and ruffles of the finest point.[[482]] These cravats were either worn of point, in one piece, or partly of muslin tied, with falling lace ends.[[483]] (Fig. 75.)
Fig. 74.
Le Grand Bébé. (M. de Versailles.)
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In 1679 the king gave a fête at Marly to the élite of his brilliant court. When, at sunset, the ladies retired to repair their toilettes, previous to the ball, each found in her dressing-room a robe fresh and elegant, trimmed with point of the most exquisite texture, a present from that gallant monarch not yet termed "l'inamusable."