A Technical History of the Manufacture of Venetian Laces, by G. M. Urbani de Gheltof, with plates, was translated by Lady Layard, and published at Venice by Signor Ongania. The History of Machine-wrought Hosiery and Lace Manufacture (London, 1867), by Felkin, has already been referred to. There is also a technological essay upon lace made by machinery, with diagrams of lace stitches and patterns (Technologische Studien im sächsischen Erzgebirge, Leipzig, 1878), by Hugo Fischer. In 1886 the Libraire Renouard, Paris, published a History of Point d’Alençon, written by Madame G. Despierres, which gives a close and interesting account of the industry, together with a list, compiled from local records, of makers and dealers from 1602 onwards.—Embroidery and Lace: their manufacture and history from the remotest antiquity to the present day, by Ernest Lefebure, lace-maker and administrator of the École des Arts Décoratifs, translated and enlarged with notes by Alan S. Cole, was published in London in 1888. It is a well-illustrated handbook for amateurs, collectors and general readers.—Irish laces made from modern designs are illustrated in a Renascence of the Irish Art of Lace-making, published in 1888 (London).—Anciennes Dentelles belges formant la collection de feue madame Augusta Baronne Liedts et données au Musée de Grunthuis à Bruges, published at Antwerp in 1889, consists of a folio volume containing upwards of 181 phototypes—many full size—of fine specimens of lace. The ascriptions of country and date of origin are occasionally inaccurate, on account of a too obvious desire to credit Bruges with being the birthplace of all sorts of lace-work, much of which shown in this work is distinctly Italian in style.—The Encyclopaedia of Needlework, by Thérèse de Dillmont-Dornach (Alsace, 1891), is a detailed guide to several kinds of embroidery, knitting, crochet, tatting, netting and most of the essential stitches for needlepoint lace. It is well illustrated with wood-cuts and process blocks.—An exhaustive history of Russian lace-making is given in La Dentelle russe, by Madame Sophie Davidoff, published at Leipzig, 1895. Russian lace is principally pillow-work with rather heavy thread, and upwards of eighty specimens are reproduced by photo-lithography in this book.
A short account of the best-known varieties of Point and Pillow Lace, by A. M. S. (London, 1899), is illustrated with typical specimens of Italian, Flemish, French and English laces, as well as with magnified details of lace, enabling any one to identify the plaits, the twists and loops of threads in the actual making of the fabric.—L’Industrie des tulles et dentelles mécaniques dans le Pas de Calais, 1815-1900, by Henri Hénon (Paris, 1900), is an important volume of over 600 pages of letterpress, interspersed with abundant process blocks of the several kinds of machine nets and laces made at Calais since 1815. It opens with a short account of the Arras hand-made laces, the production of which is now almost extinct. The book was sold for the benefit of a public subscription towards the erection of a statue in Calais to Jacquard, the inventor of the apparatus by means of which all figured textile fabrics are manufactured. It is of some interest to note that machine net and lace-making at Calais owe their origin to Englishmen, amongst whom “le sieur R. Webster arrivé à St Pierre-les-Calais en Décembre, 1816, venant d’Angleterre, est l’un des premiers qui ont établi dans la communauté une fabrique de tulles,” &c. Lace-making in the Midlands: Past and Present, by C. C. Channer and M. E. Roberts (London, 1900) upon the lace-making industry in Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire contains many illustrations of laces made in these counties from the 17th century to the present time. Musée rétrospectif. Dentelles à l’exposition universelle internationale de 1900 à Paris. Rapport de Mons. E. Lefebvre contains several good illustrations, especially of important specimens of Point de France of the 17th and 18th centuries. Le Point de France et les autres dentelliers au XVIIe et au XVIIIe siècles, by Madame Laurence de Laprade (Paris, 1905), brings together much hitherto scattered information throwing light upon operations in many localities in France where the industry has been carried on for considerable periods. The book is well and usefully illustrated.
See also Irische Spitzen (30 half-tone plates), with a short historical introduction by Alan S. Cole (Stuttgart, 1902); Pillow Lace, a practical handbook by Elizabeth Mincoff and Margaret S. Marriage (London, 1907); The Art of Bobbin Lace, a practical text-book of workmanship, &c., by Louisa Tebbs (London, 1907); Antiche trine italiane, by Elisa Ricci (Bergamo, 1908), well illustrated; Seven Centuries of Lace, by Mrs John Hungerford Pollen (London and New York, 1908), very fully illustrated.
(A. S. C.)
[1] The prevalence of fashion in the above-mentioned sorts of embroidery during the 16th century is marked by the number of pattern-books then published. In Venice a work of this class was issued by Alessandro Pagannino in 1527; another of a similar nature, printed by Pierre Quinty, appeared in the same year at Cologne; and La Fleur de la science de pourtraicture et patrons de broderie, façon arabicque et ytalique, was published at Paris in 1530. From these early dates until the beginning of the 17th century pattern-books for embroidery in Italy, France, Germany and England were published in great abundance. The designs contained in many of those dating from the early 16th century were to be worked for costumes and hangings, and consisted of scrolls, arabesques, birds, animals, flowers, foliage, herbs and grasses. So far, however, as their reproduction as laces might be concerned, the execution of complicated work was involved which none but practised lace-workers, such as those who arose a century later, could be expected to undertake.
[2] A very complete account of how these conditions began and developed at Alençon, for instance, is given in Madame Despierre’s Histoire du Point d’Alençon (1886) to which is appended an interesting and annotated list of merchants, designers and makers of Point d’Alençon.
[3] E.g. The family of Camusat at Alençon from 1602 until 1795.
[4] The picture, however, as Seguin has pointed out, was probably painted some thirty years later, and by Jean Matsys.
[5] See the poetical skit Révolte des passements et broderies, written by Mademoiselle de la Tousse, cousin of Madame de Sévigné, in the middle of the 17th century, which marks the favour which foreign laces at that time commanded amongst the leaders of French fashion. It is fairly evident too that the French laces themselves, known as “bisette,” “gueuse,” “campane” and “mignonette,” were small and comparatively insignificant works, without pretence to design.