History of Lace

by Mrs. Bury Palliser

The collection of Hungarian peasant lace in the Victoria and Albert Museum collection contains specimens of coarse modern pillow-made lace, with rude floral designs worked in thick thread or yellow silk.

The modern laces of Bohemia are tasteless in design. The fabric is of early date. "The Bohemian women," writes Moryson, "delight in black cloth with lace of bright colours." In the beginning of the nineteenth century upwards of 60,000 people, men, women and children, were occupied in the Bohemian Erzgebirge alone in lace-making. Since the introduction of the bobbin-net machine into Austria, 1831, the number has decreased. There were in 1862 scarcely 8,000 employed in the common laces, and about 4,000 on Valenciennes and points.[^[723]]

Plate LXX.

Hungarian. Bobbin Lace.—Latter half of nineteenth century. Widths, 6¼ and 2½ in.

Victoria and Albert Museum.

Plate LXXI.

Austro-Hungarian, South Slavonian. Cuff of Linen embroidered in satin stitch in white silk. White silk bobbin lace.—Eighteenth century. Width, 7½ in.

Victoria and Albert Museum.