"Les galons, passements et broderies, en or et en argent de Milan," says Savary,[[203]] were once celebrated.
Lalande, who writes some years later, adds, the laces formerly were an object of commerce to the city, now they only fabricate those of an inferior quality.[[204]]
Much was consumed by the Lombard peasants, the better sorts serving for ruffles of moderate price.[[205]] So opulent are the citizens, says a writer of the same epoch, that the lowest mechanics, blacksmiths and shoemakers, appear in gold stuff coats with ruffles of the finest point.[[206]]
And when, in 1767, the Auvergne lace-makers petition for an exemption from the export duty on their fabrics, they state as a ground that the duty prevents them from competing abroad, especially at Cadiz, with the lace-makers of Piedmont, the Milanais, and Imperial Flanders. Milan must, therefore, have made lace extensively to a late period.
Plate XV.
Italian. Milanese Bobbin-made.—Late seventeenth century. Width, 12 in.
Photo by A. Dryden from private collection.
To face page 64.
Fig. 33 is a specimen of what has been termed old Milan point, from the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, in that city. It is more often known as Greek lace.