History of Lace

by Mrs. Bury Palliser

Plate XXIX.

Spanish. Modern Thread Bobbin Lace made at Almagro.—Slightly reduced.

Plate XXX.

Spanish, Blonde. White Silk Darning on Machine Net.—Nineteenth century. Much reduced.

Photos by A. Dryden from private collections.

To face page 94.

A possible reference to lace is found in Father Fr. Marcos Antonio de Campos,[^[274]] in his book, Microscosmia y gobierno Universal del Hombre Crestiano, when he writes, "I will not be silent, and fail to mention the time lost these last years in the manufacture of cadenetas, a work of thread combined with gold and silver; this extravagance and excess reached such a point that hundreds and thousands of ducats were spent in this work, in which, besides destroying the eyesight, wasting away the lives, and rendering consumptive the women who worked it, and preventing them from spending their time with more advantage to their souls, a few ounces of thread and years of time were wasted with so unsatisfactory a result. I ask myself, after the fancy has passed away, will the lady or gentleman find that the chemises that cost them fifty ducats, or the basquina (petticoats) that cost them three hundred, are worth half their price?"

Fig. 45.