"She cuts cambric to a thread, weaves bone lace, and quilts balls admirably."
The same term is used in the Tatler[[806]] and Spectator,[[807]] and in the list of prizes given, in 1752, by the Society of Anti-Gallicans, we find, "Six pieces of bone lace for men's ruffles." It continued to be applied in the Acts of Parliament and notices relative to lace, nearly to the end of the eighteenth century.[[808]] After a time, the sheep's trotters or bones having been universally replaced by bobbins of turned box-wood, the term fell into disuse, though it is still retained in Belgium and Germany.
From the reign of Queen Mary onwards, frequent mention is made of parchment lace (see pp. 297-298), a term most generally associated with gold and silver, otherwise we should consider it as merely referring to needle-made lace, which is worked on a parchment pattern.
But to return to Queen Mary Tudor. We have among the "late Queen Mary's clothes" an entry of "compas"[[809]] lace; probably an early name for lace of geometric pattern. Open-work edging of gold and passamaine lace also occur; and on her gala robes lace of "Venys gold," as well as "vales of black network," a fabric to which her sister, Queen Elizabeth, was most partial; partlets,[[810]] dressings, shadowes, and pynners "de opere rete," appearing constantly in her accounts.[[811]]
It was at this period, during the reign of Henry VIII. and Mary, a peculiar and universally prevalent fashion, varying in degrees of eccentricity and extravagance, to slash the garment so as to show glimpses of some contrasting underdress. Dresses thus slashed, or puffed, banded, "pinched," stiff with heavy gold and metal braid or embroidery, required but little additional adornment of lace.[[812]] The falling collar, which was worn in the early part of the sixteenth century, before the Elizabethan ruff (introduced from France about 1560), was, however, frequently edged with lace of geometric pattern.
Early in the sixteenth century the dresses of the ladies fitted closely to the figure, with long skirts open in front to display the underdress; and were made low and cut square about the neck. Sometimes, however, the dresses were worn high with short waists and a small falling collar. Somewhat later, when the dresses were made open at the girdle, a partlet—a kind of habit-shirt—was worn beneath them, and carried to the throat.[[813]]
Entries of lace in the wardrobe accounts are, however, few and inconsiderable until the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
Plate LXXVIII.
Marie de Lorraine, 1515-1560. Daughter of Duc de Guise, married James V. of Scotland, 1538. This picture was probably painted before she left France, by an unknown French artist. National Portrait Gallery.