(4) Drawn thread-work [Turkish?].
(5) Point de Venise, period Louis XIII.—A conventional design somewhat resembling Italian Renaissance ironwork. The pattern and some of the short brides which connect it are ornamented with picots, giving lightness and variety to the work.
(6) Irish crochet lace, specially made for Mrs. Alfred Morrison, adapted from the above design, which it well reproduces. An experiment in improving the spiritless and confused effect of Irish crochet, where conventional motifs are fitted together without any pre-arranged design. In natural-coloured silk.
(7) Imitation point d‘Alençon.—The ground or réseau of this piece is a very wide-meshed knotted net of coarse thread. A stiff and simple flower issuing from a horn or vase is set in the centre of a waved diamond-shaped compartment. The flowers are filled in with small pieces of coarse linen, and are appliqué to the net by stitches which hold the twisted thread outlines—the substitute for the cordonnet of button-hole stitches in the Alençon it imitates—to the little bits of linen.
Plate III: (1) Embroidered Turkish drawn thread work.—An eight-pointed star within the centre of which is a circle of drawn-work, of which the threads are overcast with fine button-hole stitches.
(2) The old conventional cut-work of Italy; Reticella, with punto in aria vandykes attached. Reticella differs from cutwork in that, though it also is worked on a linen foundation, the linen has almost entirely disappeared. The threads left as the framework of the design, dividing it into square compartments, are closely covered with stitches. Into these squares are introduced geometrical forms (star-forms) set in circles and enriched with patterns in solid needlework. This lace is frequently called Greek lace, principally owing to the fact that a great deal was found during the occupation of the Ionian islands by the English. It is, however, undoubtedly Italian in origin. The lace is shown upon the linen on which it is made; most specimens have been cut off for sale from the original linen ground. The punto in aria vandykes developed from the reticella, and are made with the same geometrical designs. The pointed edge was worked on threads laid down in the required shape, and the spaces filled in various designs. Brides picotées were sparingly added to connect the various portions of the pattern.
(3) Venetian-made Alençon (Burano).—A design of small sprays upon mixed grounds. Along the lower portion of the design runs a twisting ribbon enclosing various à jours and diapered grounds. The scalloped border shows blossom modes set upon a large hexagonal mesh picoté, alternating with a scalloped ribbon, enclosing varieties of diaper-patterned grounds, similar to those to be seen in the modes of Venetian heavy point laces.
(4) Venetian-made Alençon, design of palm leaves, with straight-edged border of flowerets and leaves.
(5) Alençon bordering lace, eighteenth century. Period, Louis XVI.—Under Louis XVI it became the fashion to multiply the number of flounces to dresses and to gather them into pleats, or, as it was termed, to badiner them, so that ornamental motifs, more or less broken up or partially concealed by the pleats, lost their significance and flow. The spaces between the motifs, therefore, widened more and more, until the design deteriorated into semés of small devices, detached flowers, pots, larmes, or, as in the present design, a dot set within a rosette. Instead, also, of wreaths, ribands, or festoons undulating from one side of the border to another, we have a stiff rectilinear border of purely conventional design. Naturalistic patterns are not met with in lace of that period.