[367] M. Blanc’s use of the word “guipure” is different from that found in the notices of the art by other authorities.
[368] The first lace-making machine was contemporary, or nearly so, with the stocking-making frame. About the year 1768 it was altered, and adapted for making open-work patterns. In 1808, the Heathcot machine was started for bobbin net. In 1813, John Leaver improved on this idea, with machine-woven patterns. The Jacquard apparatus achieved the flat patterns, and the new “Dentellière” has perfected the art. Lace-making by machinery employed by the latest official returns in 1871, 29,370 women in England, and 24,000 in France. See Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th edition, p. 183-5.
[369] M. Charles Blanc, “Art in Ornament and Dress,” p. 211.
[370] The information contained in these volumes is most valuable, for the lace-worker as well as the collector.
[371] Lady Layard suggests that the cut lace work, which was the earliest made in Venice (“punto tagliato,” “point coupé”), simply consists of button-hole stitch with purl ornaments. These are varied with geometrical stitches and needle-weaving in those solid laces called “punti tagliati Fogliami,” and “Rose point de Venise,” of the finest kinds.
[372] Urbani de Gheltof, in his book, “Merletti di Venezia,” p. 9, says that Venetian laces and fringes were furnished thence for the coronation of Richard III. (1483). I fancy that gold guimps or braid, rather than netted laces, must be here intended, as we have no other notice of lace so early. See Ibid. pp. 10-20.
[373] Henry VIII. had a pair of hose of purple silk, edged and trimmed with a lace of purple silk and gold, of Milanese manufacture. Harl. MSS., 1519.
[374] The manufacture of point d’Alençon was created under the special orders of Louis Quatorze, by Colbert, in 1673. Now more than 200,000 women, besides the machinists, are employed in lace-making in France. Colbert imported the teachers from Venice.
[375] Yriarte says that Alençon, Argenton, Sedan, Mercourt, Honiton, Bedford, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Mechlin, Bruges, Brussels, all followed in imitation of Venice. Yriarte’s “Venise,” p. 250.
[376] Titian drew the designs for one of these books for “punti tagliati.” The laces made in the Greek islands probably owe their origin to Venice, showing the same “punti in aria.”