NIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO 
 
 3 182201941 
 
 
 
 EMBROIDERY 
 
 AND 
 
 LAC 
 
 i 
 
 THEIR MANVFACT 
 AND HISTORY BY 
 
 ERNEST LEFEBVB 
 
 TR A1NT SLATE D AT: 
 ANNOTATED BY 
 
 ALAN S.COLE. 

 
 Central University Library 
 
 University of California, San Diego 
 Please Note: This item is subject to recall. 
 
 Date Due 
 
 FEB 1 5 1995 
 
 Cl 39 (7/93) 
 
 UCSD Lt>.
 
 EMBROIDERY 
 
 LAC E. 
 
 - 3
 
 E M BROI DE RY 
 
 AND 
 
 LACE: 
 
 THEIR MANUFACTURE AND HISTORY FROM 
 
 THE REMOTEST ANTIQUITY TO THE 
 
 PRESENT DAY. 
 
 A HANDBOOK FOR 
 AMATEURS, COLLECTORS, AND GENERAL READERS. 
 
 ERNEST LEFEBURE, 
 
 Lace Manufacturer and Administrator of the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris. 
 
 TRANSLATED AND ENLARGED, WITH NOTES, BY 
 
 ALAN S. COLE, 
 
 Author of "Ancient Needlepoint and Pillow Lace" Descriptive 
 
 Catalogues of the Lace, Tapestry, and Embroidery Collections 
 
 in South Kensington Museum, etc. 
 
 WITH ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SIX WOODCUTS. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 H. GREVEL AND CO., 
 33, KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C. 
 
 1888.
 
 Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THIS book has been compiled with the 
 view of supplying a link which has 
 been missing in the history of embroidery, 
 no serious work on this fascinating subject 
 having been hitherto published. This may 
 appear strange when one reflects that few 
 arts have been more universally practised. 
 True, several books have been written about 
 various classes and aspects of embroidery. 
 Amongst others, there are Lady Marian 
 Alford's Needlework as Art, Miss Dolby's 
 Church Embroidery, Miss Higgins' Handbook 
 ef Embroidery, Dr. Rock's Textile Fabrics, 
 and the Countess of Wilton's Art of Needle- 
 work. Some of these are rather out of date ; 
 none can be held to fulfil the same purpose 
 as Monsieur Lefebure's book in dealing with 
 the technical character of embroidery, and in 
 presenting a succinct and comprehensive sketch 
 of its history, to instruct needlewomen and to
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 serve as a guide to amateurs interested in the 
 subject. 
 
 Lace-making is more fortunate than em- 
 broidery in having been historically discussed 
 by many authors, to whom we are indebted 
 for the principal facts which appear in the 
 chapters devoted to this industry ; their names 
 are so frequently cited in the course of our 
 remarks, that it seems unnecessary to mention 
 them here. We are none the less indebted 
 to them for assistance in the second part of 
 this work. 
 
 We have adopted the classification of 
 needlepoint laces, and those made on the 
 pillow with bobbins ; a classification which is 
 of primary importance, and has not been 
 effectually established by writers who have 
 preceded us. This will help readers to 
 detect different makes of laces most diverse 
 in appearance, and it will guard them from 
 confusing one class with the other. Lace is 
 the most poetic of all textile tissues, and has 
 been sung in verse. So far from veiling 
 beauty, it surrounds it with a filmy aureole or 
 environment of such appropriateness as to have 
 inspired many poets. The historian's duty,
 
 PREFACE. vii 
 
 however, is to take account of precise facts ; 
 we have therefore borrowed but little from 
 the legends and verses concerning lace-making. 
 
 Our aim, moreover, is not only to give in- 
 struction by a record of facts, but, above all, 
 to centre interest upon the role which woman's 
 labour plays in the artistic productions of the 
 world. And the temptation presents itself of 
 inquiring whether it is not rather by the 
 needle and the bobbin than by the brush, the 
 graver, or the chisel, etc., that the influence 
 of woman should assert itself in the arts. 
 She is sovereign in the domain of art needle- 
 work ; few men would care to dispute with 
 her the right of using those delicate imple- 
 ments, so intimately associated with the dex- 
 terity of her nimble and slender fingers. But 
 do intelligent women sufficiently encourage 
 the results of this association ? Could they 
 not give more attention, study, and effort, to 
 stimulate a fuller development of artistic work 
 produced by the needle and the bobbin ? 
 
 To bring such questions home to impres- 
 sionable natures of generous aspirations, is, 
 we hope, to instigate in many directions a 
 progress of knowledge and opinion through
 
 vill PREFACE. 
 
 which it may be recognized that the pro- 
 ductions of embroidery and lace-making are 
 worthy of standing upon the same level with 
 those of painting, engraving, and sculpture, and 
 of being represented in our public museums. 
 
 The satisfaction that we have rendered some 
 service in writing the following pages, will 
 confer upon us the best recompense for a 
 work to which we have striven to bring all 
 our ability, coupled with the affection in which 
 we hold our industry. 
 
 We should mention that this translation 
 contains a number of additional notes, and 
 modifications of certain statements. This is 
 the case, for instance, in respect of Egyptian 
 work referred to on p. 24, and of Greek 
 embroidery (p. 46), where a new illustration 
 is given. Again, the description of Irish laces 
 has been enlarged, and six new engravings 
 have been inserted (pp. 249 254).
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PREFACE v-viii 
 
 EMBROIDERY. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. DEFINITIONS ... I 
 
 II. THE EMBROIDERY OF ANTIQUITY 17 
 
 III. FROM THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE CRUSADES . . 38 
 
 IV. FROM THE CRUSADES TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY . 71 
 
 V. FROM THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO THE DEATH OF 
 
 Louis XIV 108 
 
 VI. FROM Louis XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME . . . 148 
 
 LACE. 
 
 NEEDLEPOINT LACE. 
 
 I. THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY TRANSITION FROM EM- 
 BROIDERY TO NEEDLEPOINT LACE-MAKING . .171 
 
 II. THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY VENETIAN POINTS 
 
 COLBERT'S INFLUENCE POINT DE FRANCE . .198 
 
 III. FROM Louis XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME . 226
 
 X TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PILLOW OR BOBBIN LACES. 
 
 CHAP. PAG 
 
 I. FROM THEIR ORIGIN TO THE END OF Louis XIV. 's 
 
 REIGN . 256 
 
 II. FROM Louis XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME . . . 283 
 
 CONCLUSION .322 
 
 LIST OF LACES . . . ' . . . . . .325
 
 EMBROIDERY AND LACE. 
 
 PART L EMBROIDERY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 DEFINITIONS. 
 
 Distinction between an Embroidery and a Lace Embroidery 
 Needlepoint Lace Pillow-made or Bobbin Lace. 
 
 THE distinction between embroidery and lace as well 
 as that between embroidery and other ornamental 
 textiles is not popularly appreciated. At the outset 
 therefore of a work like the present, intended for those 
 who wish to study such matters, it will be well to 
 describe briefly the distinctive features of the different 
 methods or processes by which ornamental tissues are 
 produced. 
 
 Definitions. There are three methods or processes 
 for producing ornamental tissues : 
 
 (l) By hand-painting or printing in colours ; (2) By 
 weaving ; (3) By needlework (embroidery). 
 
 i. Hand-painting in colours to decorate a textile is 
 
 I
 
 2 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 employed particularly for fans, and for certain imitations 
 of tapestry hangings. Printing in colours by means of 
 engraved blocks or cylinders is, however, more common. 
 These processes, while lacking neither charm nor 
 brightness in their effects, are nevertheless distinctively 
 of a superficial character. 
 
 2. Weaving consists in so disposing the threads with 
 which an ornamental textile is to be made, that certain 
 selected ones are, from time to time, visible on its sur- 
 face, and effects of pattern and colour are thus obtained, 
 possessing more substantial definition than results from 
 either painting or printing. 
 
 Methods of ornamental weaving have been known 
 from the earliest times, and may be broadly classed 
 under two sections : firstly, figured loom-weaving, 
 which was brought to so high a perfection by 
 Jacquard's invention of his apparatus at the com- 
 mencement of this century ; secondly, tapestry- 
 weaving in high and low warp frames, in the manners 
 to be seen respectively at the Gobelins and Beauvais 
 factories. 
 
 3. Lastly, the third method of ornamenting a textile 
 is that with which we are specially to concern ourselves 
 in the first part of our book, namely ornamental needle- 
 work, or embroidery. 
 
 Embroidery. Embroidery sometimes allies itself 
 with the two first named processes in accentuating, 
 by means either of stitches wrought over, or by skil- 
 fully outlining, certain portions of the pattern in a 
 printed or woven textile to which it is desired to 
 
 * See A Short History of Tapestry, by Eugene Muntz (Cassell & 
 Co., Limited).
 
 DEFINITIONS. 
 
 give prominence. But embroidery is more frequently 
 used by itself for decorating a plain stuff; and since 
 the practice of this handicraft is freer and more inde- 
 pendent than that of printing or weaving, it is capable 
 of more easily 
 producing really 
 artistic effects. 
 
 The Needle. 
 The embroi- 
 derer's work- 
 tool is the needle, 
 which may be 
 regarded as little 
 more than a stiff 
 and pointed con- 
 tinuation of the 
 flexible thread. 
 Primitively the 
 needle was a 
 thorn or fish- 
 bone ; subse- 
 quently it was 
 made in wood, 
 bone, and ivory 
 
 before it assumed Fig " I '~ A lady em broidering (after Abraham 
 
 Bosse). 
 shape in metal. 
 
 In the hands of an able worker it is one of the most 
 precious implements that may be used in the service 
 of art. 
 
 Unfettered by any scientific contrivances, which fix 
 limits to the possibilities of a machine, the needle, 
 moving according to the caprice and ingenuity of the
 
 4 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 fingers guiding it, sweeps with perfect freedom along 
 the surface or through the thickness of a stuff. Like 
 pen or pencil, it can be made to trace forms of any 
 complexity, and, in two words, it writes and draws. 
 Used with a variety of coloured threads, its function 
 resembles that of a brush in depicting tones and shades. 
 Indeed, in a sense, a superiority to the brush may be 
 claimed for it, since it can be made to produce work 
 in relief, an element in decoration which can be suc- 
 cessfully resorted to and preserved from abuse, and is 
 certainly outside the powers of painting. 
 
 The Crochet Needle. But besides pointed straight- 
 ness, the needle has other forms, of which note must be 
 taken in a discussion upon embroidery. At times 
 the needle's point has been converted into a hook, with 
 its opposite and lower extremity sufficiently sharpened 
 to easily pierce a stuff. Thus changed in form, the 
 needle is called a crochet needle, with which a chain 
 stitch is usually worked. The thread, caught by the 
 hook, is carried through the stuff and brought back 
 looped. Thus a peculiar class of stitch frequently em- 
 ployed in embroidery is the result. A distinguishing 
 feature of the crochet as compared with other needles 
 is the absence of a threading eye. 
 
 The appliances for doing embroidery are obviously 
 of little bulk, and can be so conveniently carried that 
 a work-woman can put them into her pocket, handy 
 for use on a journey or in her spare moments. The 
 stuff to be embroidered is held in the left hand, whilst 
 the needle is plied with the right (fig. i). 
 
 Frames for Embroidery. But if the stuff to be 
 embroidered is too large to be carried in the hand,
 
 - ; "s
 
 6 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 or if the embroidery to be done upon it is of such a 
 nature that both hands must be engaged in working 
 the needle, different sorts of frames, in which the stuff 
 can be tautly stretched, become necessary. For big 
 pieces, an adjustable frame with movable battens, rest- 
 ing upon trestles, as shown in fig. 2, is required. 
 Embroidery frames of smaller dimensions consist of 
 parallel bars, kept apart by long wooden screws. 
 These can be twisted to increase or diminish the dis- 
 tance between the two bars, upon which the two 
 opposite sides of the stuff have been first fixed, and 
 so adjust the frame to the size of the stuff, stretching 
 it out firmly (fig. 3). Other frames, again, especially 
 those for crochet embroidery, are similar to the circular 
 band of a sieve. It is said that we are indebted to 
 China for this class of frame. Upon it the stuff to 
 be embroidered is stretched like the sheepskin of a 
 drum, whence the expression tambour embroidery. In 
 the last century this was fancifully termed broderie au 
 boisseau (bushel embroidery) (figs. 4 and 5). 
 
 Designing for Embroidery. The employment of skill 
 in using embroidery materials is governed, from the 
 artistic point of view, by the design which may have 
 been selected, and by its careful transfer on to the 
 stuff upon which it is to be wrought. It is evident 
 that mere needlework, however dexterous, cannot re- 
 deem bad taste in design. To weigh well the nature 
 and character of the object to be decorated, to employ 
 suitable threads, colours and materials which shall 
 harmonize with the foundation on which the intended 
 embroidery is to be produced, to follow sound prin- 
 ciples in composing the pattern without thereby fetter-
 
 DEFINITIONS. 
 
 ing artistic initiative, are rules as eternally true in 
 
 respect of embroidery as in other arts. Unfortunately 
 
 much embroidery, 
 
 often perfect in its 
 
 needlework, errs in 
 
 quality of design 
 
 and in the use of 
 
 colours and tones 
 
 which create dis- 
 
 cordant effects 
 
 when brought into 
 
 close juxtaposition. 
 
 A suitable design 
 
 having been chosen, 
 
 its transfer on to 
 
 material has then 
 
 tO be managed in Fi S- 3- Mademoiselle Dugrenot's embroi- 
 
 dery frame. 
 
 such a way that the 
 
 designer's intention may be faithfully carried out by 
 the skilful needle-worker. Methods of transferring 
 designs are various ; the best is for the designer him- 
 self to draw the pattern with 
 pencil or chalk upon the material; 
 for important pieces this is an 
 operation not to be delegated to 
 any other hand. In less im- 
 portant cases, the lines of the 
 
 may be pricked with needle 
 holes, through which coloured resinous powder can 
 be rubbed or shaken on to the stuff beneath ; to this 
 when warmed the powdered reproduction of the pattern
 
 8 
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 adheres. Books on ladies' fancy work generally con- 
 tain descriptions of methods more or less ingenious 
 for effecting pattern transfers. When canvas or textile 
 fabrics with equally distinct reticulations are to be 
 embroidered, the transfer of a pattern can be managed 
 if the designer carefully marks his pattern with reticu- 
 lations numbered to correspond with those of the 
 material ; in this case the work is 
 called a points compte's (stitching by 
 counting). 
 
 One or other of the foregoing 
 methods of transferring the pattern 
 and fixing the stuff in a frame 
 having been carried out, the work of 
 embroidery then commences. 
 
 Methods of Working. To em- 
 broider the material mounted in a 
 rectangular or circular frame, the 
 needle-worker places one hand be- 
 neath, and the other above, the 
 stuff, and makes the stitches by 
 passing the needle through it from 
 one hand to the other. 
 
 This operation is to be noted, for to some extent 
 stitches in a sewing machine are made similarly. The 
 machines specially adapted to embroider are fitted with 
 ingenious contrivances, whereby such an operation is 
 simulated. But we shall return to this point further 
 on, when discussing modern embroideries. 
 
 Now, whether the stuff being embroidered be held in 
 the hand or the frame, the fact is patent that embroidery 
 is an ornamental needlework done upon a stuff of some 
 
 Fig. 5. Tambour em- 
 broidery frame (St. 
 Aubin).
 
 DEFINITIONS. 9 
 
 sort. Embroidery postulates a material foundation. 
 And the character of this foundation has to be duly 
 appreciated in the course of scheming a design which 
 shall be appropriately worked on to it. Notwithstand- 
 ing that certain classes of embroidery are worked in 
 such a way as to cover and conceal the ground, as, for 
 instance, when canvas or other plain textiles are used, 
 the margin which may ultimately be placed about such 
 embroideries exacts a harmony between it and them. 
 So that even these embroideries are not exempt from 
 the fulfilment of those general conditions already laid 
 down, neither are they examples of departure from the 
 definition that embroidery is an ornamental needlework 
 wrought upon a texture of some sort. 
 
 These remarks have been necessary in order that the 
 distinguishing difference between embroidery and lace 
 may be well established. We therefore proceed to 
 describe lace. 
 
 Lace. First let us clearly state that lace-making 
 is not a process involving the use of some already ex- 
 isting fabric. Lace itself is a textile fabric, of which 
 both ground and pattern are entirely produced by the 
 lace-maker. It is a member of the same family as 
 knitted and netted work and twisted and knotted thread 
 trimmings (passementerie). Lace-making is of two dis- 
 tinctly different methods. One method calls the needle 
 into operation, the other a series of bobbins. Hence 
 the two marked categories, needlepoint lace and bobbin, 
 or, as it is usually called, pillow lace. 
 
 Needlepoint lace is made by first stitching thread 
 along the outlines of a pattern drawn or transferred upon 
 paper or parchment, by which means a skeleton thread
 
 IO 
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 pattern is produced (see the outline sprigs and spray 
 in fig. 6). This skeleton thread work serves as the 
 scaffolding, as one might call it, upon and between 
 which the stitches, for the shapes and ground connecting 
 them together, are cast, and so wrought into needlepoint 
 lace. Whilst the taking of these stitches bears close 
 
 Fig. 6. Parchment and pattern showing the skeleton thread pattern 
 and needlepoint lace in progress. 
 
 analogy to those in embroidery, it will have been per- 
 ceived that the work thus produced is altogether 
 different from embroidery, since it has started from 
 no previously provided textile fabric. 
 
 Design for a Needlepoint Lace. A design for a needle- 
 point lace should evince the designer's sense of this
 
 DEFINITIONS. 
 
 II 
 
 last-mentioned characteristic ; 
 that the same pattern cannot 
 ployed for an embroidery and 
 a pattern to be em- 
 broidered is compelled 
 to consider his textile 
 as the foundation from 
 which he starts, 
 whereas the designer 
 
 and it naturally follows 
 be indiscriminately em- 
 a lace. The designer of 
 for lace has first to 
 acquaint himself 
 with the dimensions 
 of the proposed 
 work. To aim at 
 harmonious unity, 
 
 Fig. 7- Specimen 
 of a pillow lace 
 ground of 
 meshes. 
 
 Fig. 9. Pillow or bobbin lace-making. 
 
 Fig. 8. Specimen 
 of close and open 
 thread work in 
 pillow lace. 
 
 balance of, and contrast between, the open and close 
 portions of the filmy fabric, graceful and continuous 
 curves or indentations along the borders, and to infuse
 
 12 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 an influence of lace-like lightness and suppleness into 
 his pattern, are briefly and broadly stated principles 
 which should guide a designer for lace. 
 
 Method of Work. The preparations for making lace 
 with the needle are extremely simple. The pattern, 
 having been decided upon, is carefully drawn with ink 
 in fine, firm outline upon pieces of stiff paper, fine oil- 
 cloth, parchment, or vellum. Each such piece con- 
 taining a portion of the pattern should be of a size 
 to be easily handled by the lace-worker, and special 
 care must be taken that the boundary lines of these 
 separate portions of the pattern may follow edges of 
 blossoms, stems, or ornamental shapes, in order that 
 when the various portions are joined together the 
 junctures between them shall be invisible in the 
 completed lace. Holes pricked along the lines of 
 the pattern help the lace-maker in accurately laying 
 threads and stitching them down upon the lines. 
 The paper or parchment pattern has then to be backed 
 with a piece of linen or similar material, which answers 
 two purposes : the one to prevent the pattern from 
 being torn during the construction upon its surface of 
 the thread skeleton pattern ; the second to facilitate the 
 detachment of the completed lace from its pattern, by 
 simply cutting, between the paper and the linen, the 
 threads stitched through both at the time the thread 
 skeleton pattern was fastened on to the surface of the 
 paper or parchment (fig. 6). As soon as the several 
 portions into which the whole pattern has been cut 
 are finished, they are detached from their respective 
 papers or parchments, brought together, and united by 
 needle stitches, the junctures being as effectually con-
 
 DEFINITIONS. 13 
 
 cealed as possible. The piece of needlepoint lace is 
 thus completed. 
 
 Bobbin or Pillow Lace. The make of a bobbin or 
 pillow lace has considerably less analogy with an em- 
 broidery than that existing between this latter and a 
 needlepoint lace. Bobbin or pillow lace-making more 
 nearly resembles weaving. The threads for making a 
 bobbin or pillow lace are fixed upon a circular or square 
 ushion or pillow, placed variously to suit the methods 
 
 Fig. IO. Cushion and bobbins for pillow lace-making. 
 
 of manufacture in vogue in different countries. One 
 end of each thread is fastened on to the cushion with 
 a pin, the main supply of thread being twined round 
 a small bobbin of wood, bone or ivory. The threads 
 are twisted and plaited together by the lace-maker's 
 throwing her bobbins over and under one another. 
 This operation is fairly simple, since children of eight 
 or nine years of age can be successfully trained to it. 
 It nevertheless demands considerable dexterity with the
 
 14 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 fingers. However numerous the bobbins may be, they 
 are generally worked by groups of four (see fig. 7). 
 By crossing, plaiting, and twisting her threads the lace- 
 maker forms the close and open parts of the work, which 
 grows into the fabric known as pillow lace (see fig. 8). 
 
 Design for Bobbin or Pillow Lace. The design for 
 bobbin or pillow lace must of course be adapted to the 
 technical requirements of the process, and cannot 
 therefore be the same as one for needlepoint lace. 
 Needlepoint lace undoubtedly has an appearance of 
 greater strength and nobility than pillow lace, and for 
 this reason it was in former times generally preferred 
 for occasions of state by wearers who had reached a 
 certain time of life. On the other hand, bobbin or 
 pillow lace has the quality of charming suppleness ; 
 and for use in mantillas, veils, and fichus it is better 
 than needlepoint lace, lending itself with delicate softness 
 and graceful flexibility as a covering to the head and 
 shoulders of a woman. Designs then for such a 
 fabric should reflect their author's perception of these 
 subtle qualities a statement confirming the truism in 
 regard to decorative arts that a sense of the peculiar 
 and most appropriate employment of any art furnishes 
 a key-note to the artist who conscientiously seeks to 
 inform his compositions with a perfect harmony. 
 
 Method of Working. In twisting and plaiting the 
 threads, the lace-maker requires certain fixed points 
 in the pattern, by which she may avoid entanglements 
 (see figs. 10 and n). This she secures by sticking 
 pins into the pattern over which she is working upon 
 the completion of each open stitch. The precise 
 position for the pinholes must be carefully determined
 
 DEFINITIONS. 15 
 
 and indicated upon the pattern before the lace is begun. 
 The cutting up of a pillow lace pattern into convenient 
 portions differs in some cases from the corresponding 
 operation for needlepoint laces. Excepting in certain 
 styles of Flemish pillow lace, where the separation 
 of the pattern into portions is 
 similar to that for needlepoint 
 lace, the majority of pillow lace 
 patterns can be cut into strips 
 or bands, the laces made from 
 which are subsequently united 
 together by a stitch called the 
 point de racroc. 
 
 Point de Racroc (uniting 
 stitch). This is said to have 
 been invented at Bayeux in the 
 last century by a workwoman 
 named Cahanet. It opened 
 the way to the manufacture 
 of pieces of pillow lace 
 much larger than those 
 made before its invention. 
 
 . . Fig. II. Another class of cushion 
 
 It Consists in finishing off and its support for pillow lace- 
 thp two niitpr narall^l making (taken from the Traite de 
 
 two parallel & Dente } lgi by Louise d>Alq)i 
 
 edges of a strip of pillow 
 
 lace with a series of half, instead of whole, meshes. 
 To unite two separate strips it is necessary to bring 
 the edge of one close to the edge of the other, and 
 then with a needle to complete the intermediate 
 meshes. By this means, when very carefully done, 
 several strips are joined to one another in a way that
 
 1 6 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 defies detection even when the junctures occur in 
 simple meshed grounds. 
 
 Summary. It will have been seen from the fore- 
 going that embroidery is perfectly distinct from lace- 
 making, and that needlepoint and pillow laces are 
 produced by such totally different methods as to 
 prevent their being confused one with the other. 
 
 Being thus clearly enlightened and protected from 
 future errors in distinguishing embroidery from lace, 
 we will merely add that embroidery certainly preceded 
 the invention of lace. Later on we shall see that it is 
 very doubtful if the making of lace, properly so called, 
 was known to the ancients, although it is absolutely 
 proved that embroidery has been practised from the 
 earliest of times. Accordingly we will now deal with 
 the history of embroidery, after which we shall turn 
 our attention to laces.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 THE EMBROIDERY OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 Threads. The needle was obviously invented in the 
 first place for simply sewing stuffs together ; it was soon 
 afterwards put to the more intricate work of ornamenting 
 them. Thus arose the art of embroidery. Threads 
 similar to such as were primarily spun for weaving 
 purposes were pressed into the service of the newly 
 found art. Those of weak tension were twisted together 
 to form single threads of the necessary strength. In 
 this way threads of different dimensions were spun, 
 and the embroiderers were furnished with a means 
 of giving a variety of effects to their work. 
 
 Successive discoveries in connection with dyeing 
 processes provided embroiderers, in a corresponding 
 manner, with a complete scale or series of colours. 
 The earlier threads were of wool, flax, and cotton. 
 Of later date were silken threads. 
 
 Wool. From flocks of goats and sheep such as were 
 tended by shepherd patriarchs, men derived meat for 
 sustenance and wools for clothing. It is fair to assume 
 perhaps that primeval threads were of wool. 
 
 But we must not here forget that, in the early 
 centuries of antiquity, Egypt, mistress of an advanced 
 civilization which was conspicuous for its highly 
 
 2
 
 1 8 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 developed industries, was noted, as it is nowadays, for 
 plants like hemp and flax, the fibrous bark of which 
 yielded filaments for the manufacture of thread, etc. 
 From hemp, strands of ropes and strings of fishing 
 nets were made. 
 
 Flax. Tradition assigns the invention of flax to Isis. 
 It is used for weaving the compact and pliant textile 
 called linen, and bleaches rapidly. Linen was held to 
 be the particular textile suited to religious usages, and 
 became the emblem of purity. Sacrificial priests were 
 robed in it ; altar, ceremonial, and funeral cloths were 
 made of it ; and their borders were embroidered to mark 
 the sacred services to which they were appropriated. 
 According to the precepts contained in Exodus 
 chap, xxxi., the vestments of the high-priest Aaron 
 and his sons were of linen. The ephod of the high- 
 priest was a sort of linen vest, ornamented with 
 colours of the jacinth, and in purple and crimson ; upon 
 the pectoral, or breas'tplate, twelve precious stones 
 were set, bearing the names of the twelve sons of 
 Jacob.* 
 
 Cotton, During this period, too, cotton, which 
 naturally grows there, was used in India, whence, 
 from the banks of the Ganges and the Indus, merchants' 
 caravans conveyed it to the peoples of Northern Asia 
 and of Egypt. But the Greeks seem to have remained 
 unacquainted with it until B.C. 333, when, in the course 
 of their conquering progress under Alexander the Great, 
 they noticed (according to Strabo)| that the clothes of 
 their vanquished opponents were made of " tree wool," 
 
 * History of the People of Israel, by Ledrain, t. i., p. 140. 
 t Strabo, Book XV., chap. i.
 
 THE EMBROIDERY OF ANTIQUITY. 19 
 
 or of " wool growing out of nuts,'* both of which 
 descriptions, however scientifically deficient, clearly 
 apply to cotton, 
 
 Silk. As to silk, although it has the reputation of 
 having been known to the Chinese B.C. I2OO, and of 
 being styled by them the " Divine thread," it was 
 virtually a new and rare material in the West at the 
 time of Julius Caesar. Aristotle, some four hundred 
 years earlier, mentions the Bofjufivt; as a large worm, 
 subject to three metamorphoses,* and says that, in the 
 Isle of Cos, Pamphile, daughter of Plates, unwound the 
 first silk cocoon there, and with the fibre wove a tissue. 
 But such references are isolated. Persia, India, and per- 
 haps Egypt began to weave with silk not sooner than a 
 few years before Christ ; and it was from these countries 
 that Rome first began to import silks about the time of 
 Julius Caesar. Virgil, in his Second Georgic, is one of the 
 first of the Roman authors to write about silk. During 
 the reign of the Emperor Tiberius the price of silk was 
 enormous; it was worth its weight in gold. "Libra 
 enim auri libra serici fuit" a pound of gold for a 
 pound of silk. 
 
 Gold Threads. But long anterior to the employment 
 of silk in embroideries they had been rendered 
 sumptuous with gold and silver threads. 
 
 The idea of beating out gold and silver into thin 
 leaves or sheets, cutting them up into little ribbons, and 
 intermixing them with threads for weaving purposes, 
 is to be traced back almost to the first of historic 
 periods. 
 
 * Aristotle, Ancient History, Book XIX.
 
 20 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 Pliny attributes its conception to Attalus, King of 
 Asia.* He writes that, in Asia, Attalus discovered a 
 method of using gold threads in embroidery, and that 
 the stuffs so embellished were termed Attalic. Davidf 
 in his Psalms sings the glories of the golden apparel 
 in which the king's daughter was arrayed ; whilst 
 Dionysius of Halicarnassus assures us that Tarquinius 
 Priscus was the first to appear in Rome wearing a gold- 
 embroidered robe. 
 
 These various references surely establish the fact 
 that from the very commencement of the art the 
 needle, together with threads of different sizes, 
 colours, and values, has been the embroiderer's 
 indispensable implement, the essential characteristic 
 of which has scarcely altered during the lapse of 
 many centuries. 
 
 Proofs of the Antiquity of Embroidery. As the in- 
 vestigation of our subject is made more and more 
 searching, so abundant proofs are brought to light that 
 embroidery is one of the most ancient of the arts. 
 The want of badges or emblems to mark social 
 distinctions led to the ornamentation of garments as 
 soon almost as they came into use. The simple and 
 ready execution of embroidery, which, as we have 
 shown, required but a needle and thread, yielded 
 obvious means for gratifying a craving for marks 
 distinctive of a chiefs costume, for the enrichment 
 of accessories to religious rituals, or for the satisfac- 
 tion of that innate desire on the part of women to 
 please by ingeniously adorning their natural beauty. 
 
 * Pliny, Natural History, Book VIII. 
 f Holy Bible, Psalm xliv.
 
 THE EMBROIDERY OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 21 
 
 Savage Tribes. Certain usages amongst primitive 
 tribes of Africa give grounds for the theory that, 
 under certain conditions, the practice of embroidery 
 may actually have 
 preceded that of 
 weaving. An in- 
 stance in point is 
 cited concerning 
 negro girls, whose 
 costume consisted 
 of either a neck- 
 lace or belt of 
 feathers. When of 
 
 Fig. 12. King Assurnazirpal (from the Nimroud alabaster bas-relief). 
 
 a marriageable age, these girls embroidered their skins 
 with figures of flowers and animals in vivid colours. 
 The Assyrians. Without stretch of imagination, we
 
 22 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 are led to the conclusion that much of the ornament 
 upon the costumes of figures represented in very 
 early Assyrian monuments was of embroidery. The 
 Nimroud bas-reliefs sculptured in alabaster are men- 
 tioned by Messrs. Perrot and Chipiez, who direct 
 attention to the embroidered vestments of King 
 Assurnazirpal thereon depicted (fig. 12). 
 
 The Jews. The Bible is replete with descriptions 
 of embroideries, frequently referring with minuteness 
 to their details. But, above all, it surprises one to 
 find that embroiderers at those remote times had 
 brought their art to so high a standard of execution 
 as to be able to render the most elaborate of subjects. 
 In Exodus, for instance, we read how Moses caused 
 a veil or curtain of fine twined linen to be cunningly 
 embroidered with cherubim of blue and purple and 
 scarlet, for the holy of holies. It was bordered 
 with loops, and made fast by fifty gold rings to gilt- 
 wood pillars. 
 
 Solomon, whose splendours are proverbial, ordered 
 a curtain to be made for the Temple of azure-coloured 
 material, upon which purple and scarlet cherubim 
 were embroidered. On other hangings he directed 
 that all sorts of flowers and fruits of the earth should 
 be embroidered. Everything, in fact, suited to orna- 
 mental treatment, excepting representations of animal 
 life, was used. 
 
 Ezekiel in his lamentation for Tyrus " situate at 
 the entry of the sea, which art a merchant of the 
 people for many isles " exclaims, "The merchants 
 of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad were thy merchants. 
 These were thy merchants in all sorts of things, in
 
 THE EMBROIDERY OF ANTIQUITY. 23 
 
 blue clothes and broidered works, and in chests of 
 rich apparel," etc. Another part of the same chapter 
 (xxvii.) speaks of the " fine linen with broidered work 
 from Egypt," which " was that which thou spreadest 
 forth to be thy sail"* (see fig. 13). 
 
 Finally, Josephus, in his Wars of the Jews, relates 
 that the veil presented by Herod (B.C. 19) to the 
 
 Fig. 13. Egyptian sailing boat (Gardner Wilkinson's Ancient 
 Egyptians, vol. ii., p. 167). 
 
 Temple was a Babylonian curtain, fifty cubits high, 
 sixteen broad, embroidered in blue and red, and of 
 marvellous texture. In a variety of colours the uni- 
 verse, the stars, and elements were represented. 
 
 These few, of numerous similar references, prove 
 that with the Jews the art of embroidery reached to a 
 great pitch of perfection during those now distant epochs. 
 
 * Holy Bible, Ezek. xxvii.
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 The Egyptians. But it 
 should be observed that the 
 Egyptians cultivated the art 
 of embroidery earlier than 
 the Jews. These latter, in- 
 deed, were initiated into the 
 craft by the former.* Upon 
 mummy cloths dating from 
 the first of historic periods, 
 plain stitching was 
 used as a rule ; but 
 we have also ex- 
 amples of the em- 
 broideries then in 
 vogue, of which we 
 are glad to be able 
 to give an illustra- 
 tion (fig. 14). 
 Venerable relics of 
 antiquity, except for Fi I5 
 the extraordinary 
 care with which the piety 
 of the Egyptians has pre- 
 served you, you would have 
 crumbled into dust, like other 
 tissues made during the first 
 ten thousand years of human 
 life on this world ! f 
 
 * Egyptian Archeology, by Mas- 
 pero (English translation published 
 by H. Grevel). 
 The specimen engraved in fig. 14 is part of a band, or clavus,
 
 THE EMBROIDERY OF ANTIQUITY. 2$ 
 
 Many of the paintings upon Egyptian wooden sar- 
 cophagi clearly reveal the embroideries of clothing 
 worn by important personages (fig. 15). The walls 
 of the Necropolis at Thebes, with their painted 
 portraits of Rameses III. (fig. 16), of Pharaoh 
 Mienptah-Hotephimak, and of Queen Taia (fig. 17), 
 consort of Amenhophis III.,* convey undeniable proofs 
 that the robes of such sovereigns, at least, were em- 
 broidered. 
 
 The Greeks. The Greeks attributed to Minerva 
 great skill in weaving and needlework. The story of 
 Arachne, who was changed into a spider for having 
 dared to compete with the goddess, as told in all its 
 details by Ovid in the Metamorphoses, has been quoted 
 by all writers upon ancient woven fabrics. 
 
 worked with coloured worsteds and flax, in the tapestry-weaving 
 method, into a tunic rather than a band from a burial cloth. A 
 considerable number of such specimens have been exhumed from 
 burial-places along the banks of the Nile, especially from Akhmlm, 
 in Upper Egypt. It was clearly the custom to bury the dead robed 
 in ornamented tunics. A very considerable collection of such orna- 
 mental textiles is preserved in the Boulak Museum. Both the 
 British Museum and the South Kensington Museum contain col- 
 lections of them. For particulars of those at South Kensington 
 see the recently issued Descriptive Catalogue of Tapestry and Em- 
 broidery (1888), pp. I 86. The specimen fig. 14 is presumably 
 of Christian Coptic work, and dates from the sixth century. At 
 the same time, it seems not unlikely that work of similar technical 
 character was produced during the Ptolemaic period in Egypt, and 
 that the famous corslets described by Herodotus, Book II., chap.clxxxii., 
 and Book II., chap, xlvii., were of such a character. In corroboration 
 of this suggestion, we have specimens of Greek workmanship of the 
 fourth century before Christ from Kouban (see note on p. 47), in 
 which bands of leaf ornament and a cloth powdered with ducks are 
 worked in what may be called the tapestry-weaving (Gobelins) 
 process. 
 
 * See the work by Prisse d'Avennes.
 
 26 
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 Homer says that Paris brought clever Sidonian 
 
 embroideresses to 
 Troy. Tyre and 
 Sidon were then at 
 the height of their 
 reputation for orna- 
 mental textiles. 
 Again, in the third 
 canto of the Iliad > 
 we have a picture 
 of Helen " in her 
 palace embroidering 
 a large cloth, white 
 as alabaster, with 
 the story of the 
 combats in which 
 Trojans skilled in 
 taming steeds and 
 Greeks clad in 
 brazen cuirasses 
 contended for love 
 o f h e r." Then 
 Andromache (canto 
 xxii.) " lines a re- 
 splendent robe with 
 a tissue which she 
 embellishes with 
 embroidery of many 
 colours."* 
 
 In the Odyssey 
 Homer shows us 
 
 Fig. 16. Rameses (Necropolis of Thebes) 
 
 * Homer's Iliad, cantos xix. and xxii.
 
 THE EMBROIDERY OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 " Divine Ulysses wearing an ample purple mantle of 
 fine, soft linen, fastened by a brilliant clasp of gold. 
 The front of the mantle was decorated with rich em- 
 broidery, representing a bloodhound who fiercely pins 
 a dappled fawn and casts hungry looks upon the quiver- 
 ing quarry. The spec- 
 tators were filled with 
 admiration for these 
 marvellous garments, 
 the women fixing their 
 gaze upon the animals 
 wrought in gold, and 
 to all appearance in- 
 stinct with life." 
 
 Fights and scenes 
 of the chase have for 
 many centuries been 
 favourite subjects with 
 embroiderers, and in 
 Homeric times seem 
 to have been rendered 
 with great dexterity. 
 Indians especially 
 never tire of usingtheir Fig ' '7-Queenj^ (Necropolis of 
 
 needles to depict "animal hunts." * 
 
 A description in the Orestes of ^Eschylus is given of 
 how Agamemnon, on his return from Troy, recoiled 
 from placing his feet upon the rich stuffs laid in his 
 way by Clytemnestra. He exclaims, " A mortal to 
 walk upon purple richly embroidered and tissues pur- 
 chased at great price ! No ; I dare not do so ! " 
 
 * Voyage of Marco Polo to the Indies, written in 1328.
 
 28 
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 According to Virgil's sEneid, the son of Anchises 
 gave valorous Cleanthes, victor in a 
 fight, a splendid robe described as 
 " a chlamys of golden web, bordered 
 with double meanders in purple. 
 Upon the web was embroidered the 
 son of Tros in a forest, javelin in 
 hand, chasing a fleet hart. He 
 burns with ardour and pants for 
 breath, when suddenly Jove's bird, 
 swooping from the summit of Mount 
 Ida, seizes him in its claws and bears 
 him away to the heavens." 
 
 The spreading and luxurious use 
 of embroideries did not escape the 
 protests of the moralists in ancient 
 times. Diodorus Siculus records 
 that Zaleucus, a Locrian legislator, 
 would only sanction the wearing of 
 embroideries by courtesans. The 
 prophet Ezekiel reproached women 
 with overburdening their 
 dresses with embroidery. 
 The Babylonians. Still 
 
 Fig. 18 -Egyptian bronze statue in the richeg o f p ers ia, India, 
 the museum at Athens. 
 
 Egypt, Chaldaea, Assyria, 
 
 Babylon, and Phoenicia diffused themselves more and 
 more. Babylon particularly was a centre for the pro- 
 duction of most sumptuous embroideries. We have 
 noticed that the veil of the Temple was a Babylonian 
 curtain (7re7rXo9 Ba/SfXco^io?), an expression which 
 constantly appears in the writings of ancient authors.
 
 THE EMBROIDERY OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 Aristobulus, when describing the tomb of Cyrus, speaks 
 of the great king's body in a golden coffin, which 
 was placed upon a bed of gold 
 curiously wrought, the cover- 
 let whereof was of magnifi- 
 cent Babylonian fabric, gor- 
 geously embroidered. 
 
 At Athens the statue of 
 Pallas Athenae, sculptured by 
 Phidias for the Parthenon, 
 stood in front of an em- 
 broidered drapery, hung be- 
 tween the columns at the 
 back.* Every four years it 
 was renewed, and at the 
 Panathenaic festival the peplos 
 of the goddess was carried in 
 procession. This peplos con- 
 sisted of a large square of 
 crocus-coloured worsted, upon 
 which embroideries were done 
 by Arrephorian virgins,! re- 
 presenting the works of the Fi S- J 9- Fragment of a 
 
 Greek statue with embroi- 
 goddessj (fig. 23). denies on the drapery. 
 
 * See M. de Ronchaud's remarks on the Peplos of Minerva, and his 
 book on Tapisserie dans tAntiquite. 
 
 f According to some, the Arrephori were four girls of between 
 seven and eleven years of age, two of whom superintended the weaving 
 of the sacred peplos of Athene. Other authorities say that there is 
 no evidence that the Arrephori took part in the Panathenaic festival 
 (see p. 71 of the British Museum Guide to the Sculptuies of the Parthe- 
 non'), and it is more generally supposed that the peplos was em- 
 broidered by skilful and high-born Athenian ladies. 
 
 \ It should be noted, moreover, that the sacred peplos, borne on
 
 30 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 Our museums contain many sculptures and Greek 
 and Etruscan vases on which are figured persons wear- 
 ing embroideries (see figs. 19, 20, 22, and 23). 
 
 A fine stone at the British Museum is engraved with 
 a Babylonian king, Merodach-Idin-Akhy, in embroidered 
 robes, which speak of the art as practised eleven 
 hundred years before Christ (fig. 21). 
 
 Fig. 20. Painting on a Greek vase. 
 
 the mast of a ship rolled on wheels in the Panathenaic festival, was 
 destined for the sacred wooden idol, Athene Polias, which stood in 
 the Erectheus. This peplos " was a woven mantle renewed every 
 five years. On the ground, which is described as dark violet, and also 
 as saffron-coloured, was inwoven the battle of the gods and the giants "' 
 (see p. 47 of British Museum Guide to the Sculptures of the Parthenon). 
 The central pendent orphrey of the peplos in fig. 19 displays a series 
 of panels containing such subjects. The inweaving of such ornament 
 was possibly, if not probably, done in a method similar to that of 
 Gobelins tapestry-weaving, a method which is distinctly shown in 
 some of the Greek ornamental textiles of the fourth century, dis- 
 covered in the Tomb of the Seven Brothers, near Temriouk, in the pro- 
 vince of Koudan (see Compie Rendu de la Commission Imperiale 
 Arche'ologique, 1878 1879 ; see also p. 25 ante).
 
 THE EMBROIDERY OF ANTIQUITY. 31 
 
 Strabo,* in his account of Alexander's campaigns 
 against the Persians, tells us of the astonishment dis- 
 played by the Greeks at Megasthenes upon seeing 
 costumes embroidered with gold and jewels, as well as 
 garments of fine gauzy material, like muslin, embroidered 
 with flowers. 
 
 From the point of view of their 
 subsequent effect upon industries, 
 these Grecian expeditions of old 
 time into Asia must certainly be 
 held to correspond with the Cru- 
 sades of much later date. Through 
 contact with Eastern nations, those 
 of the West acquired a taste for 
 articles of beauty and a perception 
 of the manufacturing processes em- 
 ployed in producing them. But a 
 cloudless, sunny sky and a fertile 
 soil remarkable for fauna and flora 
 of incomparable brilliancy in colour- 
 ing must have been primary sources , 
 
 tig. 21. Merodach- 
 
 of inspiration to the Asiatic peoples in idin-Akhy (from an 
 respect of the richand beautiful effects ggj-, * 
 they imparted to, their embroideries. 
 
 In the course of his successes, Alexander gained 
 possession of the famous and richly ornamented tent 
 of Darius, an object which excited the admiration and 
 wonder of its captor, who soon afterwards set skilful 
 Cypriotes to work in making for him a magnificent 
 mantle or cloak. 
 
 * Strabo, Book XV., chap. i.
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 Delicate Textiles, Gauze and Muslin* The develop- 
 ment of appreciation for the charm and glitter of certain 
 classes of embroidery was accompanied with a cultiva- 
 tion of talent to produce equally beautiful articles for 
 
 other and new purposes ; 
 and Strabo, from whose 
 writings we have already 
 quoted, speaks of the im- 
 pression made upon the 
 Greeks under Alexander by 
 the sight of golden and 
 jewelled robes, as well as 
 by that of filmy muslin 
 costumes delicately em- 
 broidered with floral de- 
 vices, from which it may 
 be gathered that an equal 
 standard of performance 
 ruled in the dexterous orna- 
 mentation of fabrics of 
 aerial lightness, as in the 
 more substantial decoration 
 wrought upon heavier 
 woven materials. 
 
 India was, as she 
 
 re- 
 
 Fig. 22. Hera, goddess of matri- ma ins, long celebrated for 
 mony (from a Greek vase). 
 
 the manutacture of trans- 
 parent muslins, known by poetic appellations, such as 
 abrawan (running water), bafthowa (woven air), shuba- 
 nam (evening dew), and other similarly expressive 
 
 * The names "gauze" and "muslin" are said to be derived from 
 those of the towns Gaza and Mosul.
 
 THE EMBROIDERY OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 33 
 
 names.* During the times of which we have been 
 writing, a vast commerce in elegant luxuries, like these 
 gauzy textiles, had evi- 
 dently been pursued. 
 Ancient sculptures repre- 
 sent dancers draped in 
 tissues of this character, 
 the folds and embroi- 
 deries of which are so 
 subtly indicated in the 
 sculptures by very light 
 touches that at first sight 
 one concludes that the 
 figures represented are al- 
 most absolutely nude. Lu- 
 can mentions these gauzes 
 in his descriptions of the 
 festivals provided by Cleo- 
 patra at her Alexandrine 
 palace in honour of Caesar, 
 and particularly of his 
 rival Antony, f Light 
 gauzes were also used for 
 veils. With Oriental 
 gauzes opulent dames of 
 Rome wreathed their 
 heads upon going to the 
 temple, and named such 
 drapery flammeum. The flammeum was even used by 
 
 Fig. 23. Pallas Athense (from a 
 Greek vase in the Louvre). 
 
 * Sir George Birdwood's The Industrial Arts of India, vol. ii., 
 
 P- 93- 
 
 f Lucan, Book X. 
 
 3
 
 34 
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 early Christians, for one of their first authors, in the 
 reign of Tiberius, criticises the coquetry of women when 
 they attended public worship in wearing these head veils, 
 "perfectly transparent and slightly ornamented with 
 embroidery." These veils were the prototypes of the 
 mantillas at present worn by women 
 in southern countries of Europe. 
 
 Phrygia. From the shores of 
 Phrygia, Asiatic and Babylonian 
 embroideries were shipped for 
 Greece and Italy. The Romans 
 denominated such embroideries 
 phrygionce, and > the embroiderer 
 phrygio. Stuffs woven with gold 
 were called chrysoclavum, * or auro- 
 clavum^ but golden embroideries 
 were specified as auriphrygium. 
 This word is the root of the French 
 word orfroi, a title commonly applied 
 to the golden bands which adorn 
 _-^ == . r copes, chasubles, and other ecclesi- 
 
 Fig. 24. Figure from astical vestments. 
 
 an Etruscan tomb at T-, , r u i 
 
 Vulci The greater number of the early 
 
 embroideries used in Greece and 
 at Rome came, as a rule, from Asia ; the patterns on 
 them were Oriental in character. When a conqueror 
 
 * From the Greek xpvffoc, gold. 
 
 t The clavus was, according to the majority of authorities who 
 have written about it, a band of ornamental weaving or embroidery 
 to embellish the tunic. There was a broad band, the lalus clavus, 
 and a narrow one, the angustus clavus. The term chrysoclavus might 
 apply to either, and would merely imply a golden band. It is not 
 therefore a term peculiarly descriptive of woven stuffs.
 
 THE EMBROIDERY OF ANTIQUITY. 35 
 
 returned with the honours of his victories thick upon 
 him, he was invested with a toga palmata, or robe 
 embroidered by Phrygians with palm devices, pro- 
 bably similar in form to those frequently used on 
 Cashmere shawls, and not to be mistaken for an orna- 
 ment of classic style peculiar to Rome or Athens. The 
 Oriental origin of such embroidered robes appears to be 
 undisputed. Whenever some distinguishing mark was 
 required for a vestment, embroidery was called upon to 
 supply it. 
 
 The mother of the Maccabees wishing to arouse her 
 sons' courage upon their departure for battle, gave them 
 white linen robes, and on taking leave of them said, 
 " These maternal fingers spun this thread, with which 
 they likewise wove and embroidered these garments ; 
 may they become either your standards should you van- 
 quish the foes of your God and country, or your shrouds 
 should you fall victims to the steel of the faithless ! " 
 
 Like other arts, that of the needle has often given 
 form to the sentiments of the human heart, and its pro- 
 gress has kept pace with that of architecture, painting, 
 and sculpture. Its expressions, like theirs, occur 
 throughout all phases in the history of civilization. 
 
 Summary. Thus we have found that embroidery 
 has held sway during ancient times. Egyptians and 
 Asiatic nations, from Babylonians, Hebrews, Phrygians, 
 to Indians and Chinese, have displayed high skill in its 
 practice. Greeks and Romans who rank foremost in 
 the ancient history of Europe adopted various processes 
 for embroidery from Orientals, remaining nevertheless 
 their inferiors in skill, as is more or less shown by 
 the importations from Asia of the more sumptuous and
 
 36 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 golden embroideries which alone were deemed worthy 
 for occasions of stately triumphs. 
 
 As regards the kinds of threads successively em- 
 ployed for embroidery, it will be remembered that silk 
 was the latest to become known in Europe. At the 
 period of Christ's dispensation, with which this chapter 
 closes, embroideries had been made chiefly with woollen, 
 cotton, and flaxen threads, though often intermixed with 
 strands of gold and silver, China at this period being 
 almost the only country enjoying free use of silk. 
 
 The patterns rendered in ancient embroideries were 
 based upon flowers, trees, and animals, the latter some- 
 times in processional series. In more important em- 
 broideries hunting scenes and combats were displayed, 
 whilst others were depicted, with forms of divinities, 
 typical of stars, natural forces, and elements. To the 
 Greeks the gods were omnipresent ; but to the Hebrews 
 such familiar emblems of the divinity were unknown, 
 and they used nought but cherubim. Ornamental 
 devices were simple in character, and derived largely 
 from architectural enrichments. From the point of 
 view of ordinary usage, it would seem that at the 
 periods we cursorily allude to, embroideries were 
 rarities, highly esteemed, and employed exclusively in 
 the adornment of the temple or the palace, of priests or 
 persons of high degree. 
 
 Unfortunately at the present day we possess no 
 specimens with which we might verify the descriptions 
 of them put forward in the works of noted Greek and 
 Roman writers. Nothing exists of the peplos of 
 Minerva of Athens, of a Phrygian chlamys worn by 
 some Roman noble, of those famous embroideries tell-
 
 THE EMBROIDERY OF ANTIQUITY. 37 
 
 ing of the exploits of Greeks and Trojans, or of the 
 celebrated veils and hangings of the Temple. 
 
 In fact, beyond fragments of mummy cloths from 
 Egyptian tombs, we scarcely possess any relics of tex- 
 tile fabrics produced prior to the Christian era.* 
 
 * The excavations of burial grounds at Akhmim in Upper Egypt 
 have brought to light various pieces of embroidery of the Roman 
 period, from the first to fourth centuries A.D. M. Maspero considers 
 that the textiles discovered at Akhmim are nearly all of the Coptic 
 period. Some, however, are earlier. Among such may be instanced 
 an extremely fine specimen of flax cloth embroidered with brilliant 
 coloured worsteds in a sort of darning stitch so as to make the 
 embroidery on the front of the flax consist of large loops. This piece 
 has been presented by the Rev. Greville Chester to the British 
 Museum. The design is Roman, and represents a boat in which are 
 a Cupid and Venus (?). The border is of rich flower and leafy 
 garlands. Other pieces of Roman embroidery of the same date, but 
 done in crewel and chain stitch, are in the South Kensington 
 Museum.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FROM THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE CRUSADES. 
 
 Ax the commencement of our era the boundaries of the 
 Roman empire extended over all then known countries ; 
 and civilisation, commerce, and knowledge of industrial 
 processes with which the barbarians had hitherto been 
 unacquainted, gradually developed in them. 
 
 So far as embroidery is concerned we have to bear 
 in mind two distinct movements. On the one hand, 
 wealth and luxury centred themselves first in Rome under 
 the Caesars and Antonines, and later in Byzantium, when 
 Constantine made it his metropolis in the fourth century. 
 On the other hand, an active commerce was established 
 by the East with those Western nations which were 
 governed originally by Roman proconsuls, and subse- 
 quently by their first kings, who gradually freed their 
 kingdoms from Roman domination. 
 
 Once instructed by Oriental importations, handi- 
 craftsmen of France, Spain, England, and Germany, 
 set themselves to produce embroidery, which for a 
 considerable period, however, bore strong traces of 
 Oriental influence. At length native artificers ventured 
 to draw inspiration for their ornaments from things 
 amongst which they dwelt, and thus, in the art of em- 
 broidery, as with their architecture, they created locally 
 distinctive styles.
 
 FROM THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE CRUSADES. 39 
 
 And now, recurring to the history of embroidery as 
 it opens with the Christian era, we may briefly mention 
 the tradition that the Virgin Mary, when told by the 
 angel Gabriel of her Divine conception, embroidered a 
 veil, such probably as she herself might wear on going 
 to the Temple. 
 
 But the early Christians, almost always subject to 
 persecution, were little addicted to the vanities of 
 embroidery. Ferret, in his work on the Catacombs 
 of Rome, calls attention to 
 several paintings of cos- 
 tume ornamented with 
 callicules, or bits of brightly 
 coloured stuffs cut into 
 circles or squares which 
 were sewn (applique's] on 
 to the breast or skirt of 
 the tunic (fig. 25). Such 
 pieces of applique' work 
 were used for a long time 
 as the only ornaments of 
 priests' albs. Compara- 
 tively insignificant as they 
 appear from the catacomb paintings to have been, it is 
 important to refer to them, since from them indirectly 
 were developed the gorgeous orphreys with panels of 
 broidery which we shall often be called upon to consider 
 in our investigations of embroidered ecclesiastical vest- 
 ments. 
 
 The court of Roman emperors must have constantly 
 furnished costly commissions to be executed by those 
 who devoted themselves to the art of the needle. It 
 
 Fig. 25. Engraving taken from 
 the Catacombes de Rome.
 
 4O I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 was often a season of pompous and unstinted extrava- 
 gance one indeed when representations of all sorts and 
 public games were leading factors in the government 
 of a people : Panem et circenses. 
 
 The Emperor Augustus, rivalling the splendours of 
 Antony and Cleopatra in Egypt, imported, for his 
 festivals and triumphs in Rome, enormous quantities 
 of embroidered stuffs from Persia, and probably too 
 from China. 
 
 Metellus Scipio purchased during his consulate 
 (B.C. 52 46), at the price of eight hundred thousand 
 sesterces (about 6,700), marvellous covers for couches 
 of Babylonian embroidery, triclinaria Babylonica, which, 
 a hundred years later, the Emperor Nero acquired 
 at the enormous price of four millions of sesterces 
 (160,000). 
 
 Was the immense velarium stretched by Nero across 
 the Colosseum at Rome worked in embroidery, or was 
 it of tapestry-weaving as Mr. Eugene Muntz suggests ? 
 Upon it were represented the starry firmament and 
 Apollo driving a chariot drawn by steeds. All seems 
 to point to the conclusion that, in view of the con- 
 siderable time which the tapestry-weaving of such an 
 enormous hanging would have required, it is more 
 likely that embroidery, as a far readier and speedier 
 process, was called into operation. 
 
 Lampridius describes the exquisite table napkins 
 embroidered for the Emperor Heliogabalus, successor to 
 Caligula in A.D. 217; upon them were displayed all the 
 dainties and viands that could be wanted for a feast. 
 However easily embroidered, the effect of such things 
 can scarcely have been artistic. It responded, however,
 
 FROM THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE CRUSADES. 41 
 
 to Roman taste, for, as M. Mtintz says, the tendency of 
 Roman art was more towards rich and gaudy display 
 than elegance and beauty. Such an influence also 
 discernible in costumes is an evidence of that degenerate 
 taste which potently manifested itself after the reign of 
 the Antonines. 
 
 For many centuries senators had worn a white toga 
 bordered with two purple bands (clavi} ; but under the 
 empire as many as seven bands would be worked on 
 the toga, and in time came to be made of gold thread 
 only, consequently they were termed auri clavi. 
 
 Until the middle of the third century the emperors 
 disdained effeminate ornaments, and were content with 
 a simple purple toga. But Aurelian (270 275) 
 adopted for his toga a style of splendour worthy of 
 an Oriental monarch ; rich stuffs, with gold and pearls, 
 were used by this fierce warrior. 
 
 Diocletian (284 305) even surpassed such pomp of 
 display which thenceforth became a leading attribute of 
 the imperial dignity. The term of each emperor's reign 
 became shortened ; the enjoyments accompanying it were 
 of brief duration ; and rapidly executed processes such 
 as embroidery were necessary to meet the pressing and 
 changeful demands of the times, which under calmer 
 circumstances might have been met by weaving. 
 Under such pressure embroidery is more readily pro- 
 duced than weavings, and so the shuttle was, in these 
 circumstances, completely superseded by the needle. 
 Embroidery could be used not only for ornamenting 
 costumes to which it is so appropriate, but it would 
 also supplant monumental tapestry-weaving. 
 
 The great wealth of embroidery used at Rome
 
 42 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 during imperial times was outshone by that in 
 Byzantium, when Constantine settled his seat of 
 government there. Contiguous, so to speak, with 
 Asiatic opulence, the courts of Byzantine emperors 
 knew no limits for their extravagances. In Charles 
 Bayet's Byzantine Art, says Francisque Michel,* 
 one may read descriptions of stuffs produced in imi- 
 tation of those imported from Asia. Amongst them 
 would be seen "griffins, basilisks, unicorns, lions, 
 tigers, elephants, eagles, peacocks, and other birds, 
 intermingled with large and small circular bands or 
 medallion shapes, golden apples, palms, shrubs, and 
 flowers." Byzantine records, constantly, give such titles 
 as the following, which recur again and again during 
 the Middle Ages : Pallia cum rota', stuffs decorated with 
 wheels or circular bands ; stuculata, with lozengy 
 diapering ; quadrapula, exapula, octapula, with panels 
 four-sided, hexagonal, octagonal, etc. ; virgata, with 
 stripes ; cum bestiis et avibus, with beasts and birds ; as 
 well as cum historia, representations of Biblical and 
 mythological subjects. 
 
 Embroidery used in working the fabrics storied 
 with incidents from the New Testament, presented 
 all that the ingenious imagination of Byzantine artists 
 pictured, in order to pictorially elucidate the Gos- 
 pels which at that time were fascinating and in- 
 fluencing human thought. Subjects such as these 
 were worked into the great draperies then in com- 
 mon use, for hanging between colonnades and porches 
 of palaces and churches. The heavy stuffs of which 
 these were made were more suited to the weight 
 * Francisque Michel, Recherches sur les Etoffes de Soie.
 
 FROM THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE CRUSADES. 43 
 
 of Byzantine embroidery than were articles of 
 clothing. 
 
 Nothing, however, if we may rely upon contemporary 
 accounts, contributed as much to most artfully wrought 
 embroidery as the devotion in making altar and 
 liturgical cloths ; Paul the Silentiary * describes one 
 which was used on the altar in the church of St. Sophia ; 
 it was "embroidered in the centre with the figure of 
 Christ robed in a purple tunic and golden mantle of 
 dazzling effulgence ; in His left hand He held the book 
 of the Gospels, His right hand being stretched forth. 
 On either side, clad in white, were St. Peter, with the 
 Book of Holy Writ, and St. Paul, with a gold staff sur- 
 mounted by a cross. Along the borders were repre- 
 sentations of miracles and diverse incidents of sacred 
 history, amongst which the flattering artist had depicted 
 the Emperor Justinian and his wife distributing alms to 
 the churches." 
 
 Such subjects admirably beseemed their sacred ser- 
 vice. But this was no longer the case when scenes 
 from the New Testament were used in the decoration 
 of secular costume. A mosaic in the church of St. 
 Vitale, at Ravenna, displays the Empress Theodora f 
 wearing a cloak embroidered with the adoration of the 
 Magi. Following the fashion of the court, rich persons 
 adopted sacred subjects for the embroidery on their 
 costumes ; one senator boasts six hundred figures upon 
 his robes of state ! Abuses of this class lead us to 
 a just sense of that righteous indignation fulminated 
 
 * Paul the Silentiary, Description of St. Sophia, verse 755 et seq. 
 f See Reproductions of Mosaics in South Kensington Museum; also 
 in M. Gerspach's work on Mosaics, p. 63.
 
 44 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 by Asterius, Bishop of Amasus, in Pontus, against the 
 vainglorious "who wore the Gospels upon their backs 
 instead of in their hearts. Every one," he says, " is 
 eager to clothe himself, his wife, and his children with 
 stuffs ornamented with flowers and numberless figures, 
 and to such an extent is this done, that when the 
 wealthy classes show themselves in public, little chil- 
 dren gather round in crowds and point their fingers 
 at them, making merry at their expense. On such 
 raiments are to be seen lions, panthers, bears, bulls, 
 dogs, forests, rocks, hunters, all, in fact, that painters 
 can copy from nature. It is not sufficient to adorn 
 walls in this manner, for tunics and mantles are also 
 covered with similar decorations. The more religious 
 of the wealthy classes require artists to supply them 
 with subjects taken at their suggestion from the New 
 Testament, Jesus Christ and His disciples, or else His 
 many miracles," etc. 
 
 This language marks the important, though often 
 undoubtedly exaggerated, consideration bestowed upon 
 embroidery during the Byzantine empire. A favourite 
 scheme of arrangement in Byzantine patterns was that 
 in which occurred pairs of animals or birds, con- 
 fronted and separated by the horn, the sacred tree of 
 the Persians, a sort of palm adopted as a symbol in the 
 religion of Zoroaster, who called it the tree of life. 
 Constantly recurrent in the Middle Ages this motif is to 
 be found in woven textiles and designs for embroidery 
 which will be hereafter described. 
 
 Silk now became an article of regular trade in the 
 Western markets. The Chinese were always ready to 
 deliver any quantities of woven silks, but they jealously
 
 FROM THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE CRUSADES. 45 
 
 protected any western importation of silkworms, in the 
 rearing of which they virtually enjoyed a monopoly. 
 The Emperor Justinian accordingly devised a stratagem 
 to counteract this, by securing the services of two 
 Persian monks, long resident in the far East, who visited 
 Byzantium and undertook to bring thither silkworms 
 from China. One of the grounds which recommended 
 their scheme to the emperor was that by it " the 
 Romans would no longer be under the necessity of 
 importing silk from their enemies the Persians, or from 
 any other nation." These itinerant monks forthwith 
 returned to "Serinda" (possibly China), and having 
 procured a store of silkworm eggs, they concealed them 
 in the hollow of their bamboo staves, to evade the 
 jealous vigilance of the Chinese, and so returned with 
 them to Byzantium.* The rearing of the worms was 
 undertaken forthwith in Asia Minor and Greece, and 
 later in Central Europe. 
 
 The costliness of the materials, the complication of 
 the designs, and the strivings after effects of solid 
 reliefs, frequently led Byzantine embroiderers far away 
 from canons of good taste. Costumes loaded with 
 embroideries of this nature lost suppleness, and hung 
 in rigid, straight folds, surrounding the wearers of them 
 with sumptuous encumbrances. f At the same time it 
 must not be overlooked that the Byzantines embroidered 
 
 * See Yates' Textrinum Antiquorutn, p. 231, where a quotation 
 from Procopius' De Bella Gothico, \\\, 1 7, is given. Lady Marian Alford, 
 in her valuable book Needlework as Art, names Cosmas Indicopleutes, 
 the Indian navigator and monk, who wrote an account of his 
 journeys as one of the two Persian monks. But neither Gibbon, 
 vol. vii., p. 97, et seq., nor Yates so speak of him. 
 . f Eug. Miintz, History of Tapestry.
 
 46 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 figure subjects in a most remarkable manner ; and 
 these very properly received the highest admiration 
 when they passed into the hands of other peoples. 
 
 Apparently there are no remains extant of Byzantine 
 embroideries produced before the seventh century. We 
 must, nevertheless, not omit to mention certain textile 
 specimens preserved in the Hermitage at St. Peters- 
 burg, one of which is described as a purple worsted 
 stuff embroidered with green and yellow palmates, and 
 exhumed from a tomb of the third century A.D.* 
 
 Amongst other articles made at Byzantium were state 
 trappings and gala harness for horses, to which the 
 heavy relief embroideries were well adapted. St. 
 Chrysostom speaks of wealthy persons who provided 
 their horses " with trimmings of sparkling gold work 
 suited for women's wear ; " and Oriental courts of the 
 present day have scarcely modified such splendour in 
 the paraphernalia of their horses and elephants. Gold 
 is used for them, not only in threads and fringes, but 
 also as plates or plaques, fitted into the leather or other 
 material ; intermixed are spangles, jewels, glass trinkets, 
 of all colours and sizes. The fringes are similarly 
 treated, and glitter and sparkle to the pawing of the 
 bedizened steeds. All this clinquant finery glistens in 
 the public places beneath the rays of the Oriental sun, 
 producing the effect of boundless affluence so consonant 
 with the majesty of a sovereign. 
 
 * In the Compte Rendu de la Commission Imperiale Archeologique 
 (1878-9), facsimile illustrations of these precious examples are given ; 
 and full descriptions of them by Stephani are contained in the accom- 
 panying text. They were taken in the course of excavations in 
 1875-6 from the tomb of the "Seven Brothers" near Temriouk in the 
 Province of Koudan, which includes the south-east corner of the Sea of
 
 FROM THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE CRUSADES. 47 
 
 In the seventh century the rise of Mohammedan 
 power began to impair the mightiness of the Byzantine 
 court. But the triumph of the Mussulman, far from 
 
 Azof. From various data Stephani convincingly fixes their date at the 
 fourth and third centuries B.C., not A.D. as Mons. Lefebure appears 
 
 Fig. 25A. Chain stitch embroidery with yellow flax upon mulberry- 
 coloured worsted material. Greek. Fourth century B.C. From tomb 
 of the Seven Brothers, near Temriouk, in the province of Kouban. 
 
 to think. The specimen here engraved is worked apparently with a 
 silky-looking flax thread, yellow in colour, in chain stitch on a blue- 
 red worsted material. In other relics of this important find we have 
 thin golden plates shaped like leaves stitched to worsted stuff; and 
 the patterns of others are worked in short stitches. The embroidery 
 displays clear evidence of a complete knowledge, in the fourth century 
 B.C., on the part of the Greeks, of these stitches, which, as might be 
 expected, were evidently wrought with a comparatively cumbrous 
 needle.
 
 48 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 injuring textile arts, so intimately wedded with Oriental 
 fashions, infused into them the spirit of a new de- 
 parture. 
 
 The costumes of the Caliphs become dreamlike won- 
 ders to all who attempt to describe them. All sorts of 
 leather articles were embroidered, not only saddles and 
 harness, but also red morocco leather boots, scabbards 
 of swords and daggers, are often exquisite works of the 
 embroiderer's art. 
 
 But what shall be said of the carpets and hangings ? 
 Whether they were woven or embroidered, our ad- 
 miring astonishment has been won for centuries by 
 their colouring, which has never been excelled. 
 
 Leading a nomad life, the Arab frequently embroi- 
 dered the tent of his chieftain. When the Caliph 
 Haroun-al-Raschid sent presents to Charlemagne in 802, 
 amongst them were magnificent and precious textiles, 
 and a chief's tent superbly embroidered. 
 
 As in previous times, the Kaaba at Mecca was always 
 hung with the richest of tissues ; and whosoever of 
 the faithful could offer the finer and rarer pieces was 
 accorded the privilege of decorating the tomb of the 
 Prophet Mahomet. In 776 the mere weight of these 
 offerings hanging upon the supports of the temple 
 threatened its stability. The columns were hidden 
 beneath the masses of them. The greater number of 
 these hangings had wide borderings of flowers and 
 sprays interlacing themselves with the noble and pic- 
 turesque lettering of the prayers of Islam, embroidered 
 upon the green ground sacred -to the prophet. 
 
 Such customs survive to the present day, and the 
 sanctuary is always covered with a huge scroll on
 
 FROM THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE CRUSADES. 49 
 
 which are embroidered verses from the Koran. Each 
 year, on the occasion of the pilgrimage to Mecca, the 
 curtain in use is replaced by a new one brought from 
 Egypt upon the back of a camel dedicated to the 
 service. The pilgrims rend the old curtain into pieces 
 and preserve them as holy relics. 
 
 It must not be -supposed that embroidery became 
 extinct with the decay of the Byzantine empire ; the 
 Greeks maintained the best traditions of the art. 
 
 The difficulty of determining whether the different 
 specimens described by Byzantine authors were of 
 tapestry weaving or of needlework, is freely acknow- 
 ledged in his History of Tapestry Making, by M. 
 Milntz. He adds, however, with good reason, that 
 " amongst the different textile processes in use, one 
 only was universally known and employed from one end 
 to the other of Europe, and that was embroidery 
 And Byzantium held for many centuries the foremost 
 place as the producer of the richest and most perfected 
 examples of the art." 
 
 The contentions of the Iconoclasts drove many 
 Byzantine artists into Italy. The Liber Pontificate, 
 or Chronicle of the Popes, written in 687 by Athanasius 
 the librarian, contains mention of an influx into Rome 
 of gorgeous embroideries, the work of men who had 
 arrived from Greece and Constantinople. 
 
 The Treasury at Ratisbon in Bavaria includes a 
 Byzantine embroidery, which probably is a work of this 
 period, and is certainly very remarkable. It was found 
 in the tomb of Gunther, who died, Bishop of Bamberg, 
 in 1062 (fig. 26). Upon it is depicted the Emperor 
 Constantine as master of the world, riding on a white 
 
 4
 
 50 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 palfrey and receiving homage from the East and West, 
 personified as the two Romes under the guise of two 
 queens, wearing mural crowns, and humbly offering to 
 the monarch a warrior's helmet on the one hand and a 
 
 Fig. 26. Byzantine embroidery from the tomb of Gunther, Bishop of 
 Bamberg, preserved at Ratisbon. 
 
 crown of peace on the other. In all respects this speci- 
 men is noteworthy for the dignified pose of the figures 
 and the distinctness of definition imparted to them by 
 careful and precise execution. It possesses as much
 
 FROM THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE CRUSADES. 51 
 
 style in the higher sense of the word as the finest 
 of Byzantine mosaics. 
 
 Leaving Byzantium and her magnificence we now 
 turn our attention to examples of simpler and more art- 
 less work, notable for a certain purity of sentiment, and 
 made by Western countries. 
 
 With our Gallic forefathers embroidery was an old 
 established art. Pliny affirms that they were skilful 
 " in embroidering carpets, in making felt with wool, 
 and in using the waste to make mattresses, the inven- 
 tion of which is due to them." 
 
 Under Roman government the Gauls may be said to 
 have first enjoyed the advantages of civilization and the 
 pleasures of its attendant arts, which were developed 
 under the Merovingian and Carlovingian kings, by the 
 latter of whom abbeys were built all over the country. 
 These establishments infused new life into a practice of 
 the arts generally, including, of course, embroidery. 
 
 The Romans were conquerors ; fortifying towns, and 
 carrying on great public works, but paying scant heed 
 to commerce. The later Greeks, on the contrary, were 
 merchants and navigators, closely following the heels of 
 their soldiery, and making use of the resources opened 
 to them ; they monopolized trade between the East and 
 those countries through which the conquering Romans 
 had constructed great highways, as through the forests 
 of Gaul and Germany. Lading their vessels at 
 Phrygian ports, notably at Gaza, with merchandize 
 brought by caravans from Southern Palestine, the land 
 of Media, and the kingdom of the Sabaeans of Yemen, 
 they transported it to the Island of Delos, where, ac- 
 cording to Festus and Strabo, they founded the most
 
 52 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 flourishing market in the world. On the backs of men 
 or mules the goods were further distributed to populous 
 centres. 
 
 Pilgrimages to the tombs of saints gave rise to the 
 periodical holding of large fairs ; under the reign of 
 Dagobert, Greek merchants came to France to dispose 
 of their goods at the fairs established at the instance 
 of his minister, St. Eloi, in the plain du Landit ; close 
 to the abbey in course of erection over the shrine of 
 St. Denis. 
 
 Not only commerce, but industry as well, focussed 
 itself about the monasteries. As Mignet cogently 
 remarks in his Historical Studies : " Monasteries were 
 the workshops in which the traditions of ancient arts 
 were maintained and perpetuated." 
 
 The art of writing manuscripts, and of sumptuously 
 illuminating them, was specially nurtured in the 
 cloisters ; and the drawing, colouring, and gilding of 
 these splendid productions provided embroiderers with 
 seductive patterns for their needles. The famous 
 monastery of St. Gall in Switzerland contained im- 
 portant workrooms for weavers and embroiderers. 
 Bishops and abbots stimulated the fabrication of 
 ornamental tissues to enhance the resplendency 
 of ecclesiastical ritual. Gregory of Tours, in his 
 History of the Franks, which covers a period from 
 417 to 591, frequently mentions kindred fabrics, used 
 as hangings for the church walls. St. Yriex in his 
 will speaks of them as Velola per ipsius oratorii parietes, 
 curtains for the walls of the chapel. 
 
 Funerals also were occasions for great displays : 
 richly embroidered coverings, or palls, were placed over
 
 FROM THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE CRUSADES. 53 
 
 the dead when exposed for the veneration of crowds. 
 The mortuary cloth of King Childeric was embroidered 
 with three hundred golden bees. 
 
 The religious episodes of the Old Testament more 
 frequently reproduced were Samson slaying the lion, 
 and Daniel in the lions' den ; these having been adopted 
 by the primitive Church to symbolize the fights and 
 persecutions of which the martyrs had been forced to 
 pay the penalty ; * whilst the Trinity, the Annunciation 
 and the Adoration of the Shepherds and the Magi were 
 selected from the New Testament for similar purposes. 
 
 These embroideries were usually worked on linen 
 ground, with either worsteds or silks ; for superior 
 qualities, gold threads were sparingly used. The 
 stitches employed were satin stitch, the simplest of all ; 
 feather stitch (long and short stitch) ; and couching : f 
 the ground upon which these were worked showed 
 itself between the various forms of the pattern. 
 
 Authors often write of cloths " acu pictce" painted 
 with the needle, a capital expression to define the 
 characteristic role which embroidery played in those 
 times. 
 
 Patterns of crosses surrounded by circles were often 
 embroidered on stuffs, and were termed " stanracis " 
 from the Greek aravpos, a cross ; mention of these 
 devices occurs in the Liber Pontificalis, and in a letter 
 
 * These broideries were called leonata, ornamental lion-subjects. 
 
 f Couching is laying threads upon a material, and then stitching 
 them down to it by small stitches. There are varieties of couching, 
 but the more elaborate of them are those in which gold threads are 
 stitched down in such a way as to produce an effect like delicate 
 golden wicker plaiting, or one of diaper patterns upon a golden 
 ground.
 
 54 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 from Pope Paul I. to Pepin the Short A.D. 757 (fig. 
 32). 
 
 The wealth of sacerdotal ornaments, made in monas- 
 teries, throws a light upon the power and authority 
 enjoyed by the bishops. As popular protectors of all 
 subject to despotic acts of lords and kings, as mitigators 
 of harsh justice meted out by princes, the bishops 
 wielded the highest moral power. Richer and richer 
 as ornament was bestowed upon their vestments, so was 
 respect increased for the solemn and important rites of 
 which they were the ministrants. Embroidery was the 
 fostering auxiliary of outward impressiveness in the 
 ceremonials of the Church, and was lavished upon copes, 
 chasubles, and dalmatics. 
 
 The peculiar use of these ornate accessories was 
 determined by councils. The cope was the vestment 
 worn in public processions, and to it was attached a 
 hood, known originally as the pluvial, because it pro- 
 tected its wearer from the rain. 
 
 At the office of the Mass the officiating priest wore 
 a chasuble, " casula," and the deacon a dalmatic. 
 
 A mitre is worn by a bishop ; the band along its 
 lower edge was termed the " circulus," and encircled 
 the head. Another band placed vertically in the centre 
 of the front of the mitre was called the " titulus" both 
 would be of rich embroidery, studded with precious 
 stones. 
 
 At his consecration, a bishop is invested with a pair 
 of gloves on which religious emblems are worked in 
 colours or gold. 
 
 The episcopal shoes of the prelate are always em- 
 broidered, and early specimens of these are preserved
 
 FROM THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE CRUSADES. 55 
 
 amongst the relics of clerical apparel in many sacristies 
 of old cathedrals. 
 
 From this period onwards we have a much more 
 exact knowledge of the embroideries then made, and 
 we are not, as in respect of those of very ancient times, 
 thrown back upon the writings only of authors. 
 Museums, church treasuries, and private collections 
 supply us with authentic objects, from the study of 
 which we can trace the various stages in the artistic 
 development of embroidery. 
 
 The museum of tapestries at Florence claims to own 
 " Vela di pie fa " which belonged to Dagobert in the 
 seventh century, as well as embroidered Auxerre cloths 
 of the year 840. 
 
 Excavations of tombs of saints and bishops of this 
 period have brought to light fragments of embroidery, 
 and amongst them that very precious piece of work now 
 deposited in the treasury at Tongres. Another found 
 at Troyes is figured with serpents and birds enriched 
 with little plaques of gold. 
 
 A cope of red silk presented by Charlemagne is to be 
 seen in the cathedral of Metz. Upon it, wrought in 
 yellow, blue, and green threads, are great eagles with 
 outstretched wings and claws being gnawed by 
 monsters, depicted in a fine style. 
 
 A thorough study of costume at the time of Charle- 
 magne (767 814) may be made from the life of this 
 great emperor written by a contemporary monk of St. 
 Gall, Eginhard,* of which Guizot has given us a new 
 edition. The following extract tells us " that on solemn 
 occasions of pomp Charlemagne wore a close-fitting 
 
 * Eginhard, Vita Karolis imperatoris.
 
 56 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 vest or jacket of gold embroidery, sandals, or, more 
 properly speaking, slippers set with precious stones, a 
 cloak or mantle fastened by a golden brooch or fibula, 
 and a diadem of gold glistening with gems ; on other 
 occasions his costume differed little from that of ordi- 
 nary mortals."* 
 
 This great monarch gave all encouragement to the 
 
 Fig. 27.- Embroidered Slippers that belonged to Charlemagne ; in 
 the Treasury at St. Denis, Paris. 
 
 arts ; and the princesses of his court, from his mother 
 Bertha of the large feet to his daughters, were sedulous 
 in becoming proficients in the art of embroidery. A 
 chronicler writes, 
 
 Ses filles fist bien doctriner 
 Et apprendre keudre et filer, f 
 
 St. Giselle, Bertha's sister, founded many convents 
 
 * At Aix-la-Chapelle and Nuremberg there are vestments said to 
 have been worn by Charlemagne. 
 
 f Chronique Rime'e by Philippe Mouskes.
 
 FROM THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE CRUSADES. 57 
 
 in Aquitaine and Provence, and taught their inmates all 
 sorts of needlework. 
 
 Eagles were the most frequently used ornamental 
 motives in the embroideries of Charlemagne's reign, 
 which were hence called " aquilata." Eagles thus be- 
 came the insignia of the Western empire. From the 
 royal capital of Aix-la-Chapelle they disseminated 
 themselves throughout Germany, and were adopted as 
 heraldic bearings by the various royal houses. 
 
 Several princesses subsequently to the Carlovingian 
 period distinguished themselves as adepts in the art of 
 embroidery. Judith, mother of Charles the Bald, and 
 godmother to Harold, King of Denmark, who, with his 
 family came to Ingelheim in 826 to be there baptised, 
 embroidered and bejewelled a mantle for His Majesty's 
 use on this occasion. 
 
 Adela'is, consort of Hugh Capet (987 996), pre- 
 sented the church of St. Martin at Tours with a cope, 
 on the back of which she had embroidered the Deity, 
 surrounded by seraphim and cherubim, the front being 
 adorned with an Adoration of the Lamb of God. 
 
 But the name which dominates above all others is 
 that of Queen Mathilda. Of her many embroideries it 
 is true that one only, a cloth of the class " acu pictce" 
 survives to the present day, its importance having 
 arrested the attention of all historians. 
 
 This famous needlework is now preserved in the 
 Bayeux (Calvados) Museum. Tradition, apparently well 
 supported, attributes its production to Queen Mathilda, 
 wife of William the Conqueror, who died in 1087. 
 Certain critics have held that this work was done by 
 his grand-daughter, the Empress Mathilda, widow in
 
 5 8 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 1125 of Henry V., Emperor of Germany, and wife, by 
 her second marriage, of Geoffrey, Count of Anjou. In 
 any case, the embroidery clearly manifests the influence 
 of those who were fully cognisant with, if they did not 
 actually take part in, the incidents displayed through- 
 out a narrow linen band over two hundred feet long. 
 The work must have been in hand some years before it 
 was completed. 
 
 It is, according to the old chroniclers, " Une tente tres 
 longue et estroite de telle a broderies de ymages et escriptaux 
 faisant representation du Conquest de V Angleterre." Its 
 exact dimensions are 70*34 metres long by 0*50 metre 
 wide. 
 
 The material is of stout linen, upon which appear 
 persons, horses, ships, etc., in all one thousand 
 two hundred and fifty-five figures, worked in worsted 
 threads, laid upon the surface of the linen, and 
 held to it by means of cross stitches taken over 
 them into the ground. The colours of the worsteds, 
 although fantastically matched, sufficiently express the 
 desired effects. The interpolated inscriptions explain 
 different episodes connected with the Conquest of 
 England by the Normans. They commence with 
 Harold leaving the Court of Edward the Confessor, 
 and finish with the Battle of Hastings. The whole 
 work, in fact, is a sort of needle-wrought epic. The 
 drawing of the figures is perhaps infantile, but the 
 work has the charm of frankness and irrefragable 
 authenticity.* 
 
 It has been misnamed a tapestry, since it is entirely 
 
 * See The Bayeux Tapestry, by Frank Rede Fowke, published 
 1875. (Arundel Society.)
 
 FROM THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE CRUSADES. 59 
 
 means 
 
 of 
 
 an embroidery done with the needle by 
 couched worsteds on linen (fig. 28). 
 
 After the Battle of Hastings William the Conqueror 
 is said to have held a meeting with the nobles of his 
 new kingdom, presenting himself before them in a 
 mantle covered with Anglo-Saxon embroideries. Is it 
 probable that this robe is the same as that mentioned 
 in the inventory of the Bayeux Cathedral, A.D. 14/6, 
 after the entry relating to the broderie a telle repre- 
 
 Fig. 28. Piece of the Bayeux embroidery. 
 
 senting the Conquest of England ? Two mantles are 
 there described, one of King William, "all of gold, 
 powdered with crosses and blossoms of gold, and edged 
 along the lower border with an orphrey of figures ; and 
 a mantle said to have been worn by the duchess, all 
 powdered with little figures, and trimmed in front with 
 orphreys." 
 
 These robes have usually been thought to be of 
 English work, and it is certain that, at the time, Eng- 
 land was noted for her embroideries. 
 
 In the seventh century St. Etheldreda, first Abbess
 
 6O I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 of the Monastery at Ely, made an offering to St. Cuth- 
 bert of a sacred ornament she had worked with gold 
 thread and precious stones.* At Durham are preserved 
 the cope and maniple belonging to St. Cuthbert and 
 found in his tomb ; they are considered to be specimens 
 of opus Anglicum. 
 
 Mrs. Bury Palliser writes, that in the year 800 Den- 
 bart, Bishop of Durham, allotted the income from a 
 farm of two hundred acres, for life, to an embroideress 
 named Eanswitha, in consideration of her looking after, 
 mending, and, when necessary, renewing the vestments 
 of the clergy in his diocese. 
 
 The battle-standard of King Alfred (871900) is 
 reputed to have been embroidered with the figure of 
 a splendid crow by Danish princesses. Edgitha, wife 
 of Edward the Confessor (1041 1066), was noted for 
 her skilful needlework : whilst the Anglo-Saxon Gudric, 
 sometime Sheriff of Buckingham, gave Alcuid a piece 
 of land on condition that she instructed his daughter 
 in embroidery. 
 
 Facts like these explain the reason for such punc- 
 tilious records of old embroideries as that of a tunic 
 embroidered at Winchester by the wife of one Alderet, 
 which Queen Mathilda bequeathed to the abbey of the 
 Holy Trinity at Caen. This queen also gave to the 
 abbey a golden cloak to be made up into a cope, 
 as well as her waistband of gold, ornamented with 
 emblems, which should be used for suspending the 
 lantern before the high altar. 
 
 Harold's gift to the monastery of Croyland, of a 
 
 * St. Cuthbert : An Account of the State in which his Remains were 
 Found, by Rev. J. Raine (Durham : 1828).
 
 FROM THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE CRUSADES. 6l 
 
 Fig. 29. The Syon 
 Cope (in the South 
 
 parchment worked in gold, with a representation of 
 the siege of Troy, 
 possibly indicates 
 the king's literary 
 and artistic taste. 
 M. de Ronchaud 
 remarks how closely 
 the tradition of 
 Helen's embroi- 
 deries during the 
 siege of Troy find 
 an analogy with 
 that of the great 
 epic embroidered by 
 Mathilda in respect 
 of the Conquest of 
 England.* 
 
 But it may be 
 asked, What is the 
 opus Anglicum 
 
 above mentioned ? 
 Mrs. Bury Palliser 
 furnishes an an- 
 swer, f " Happily," 
 she writes, "we 
 possess in the cope 
 of the monastery of 
 Syon, now pre- 
 
 Kensington 
 Museum). 
 
 * La Tapisserie dans rAntiquite, by Ronchaud. 
 
 f Encyclopedia Britannica (Edinburgh : 1878), vol. viii., p. 162. See 
 also Textile Fabrics, by Canon Rock (1870), Introduction, p. 98 ; Can- 
 tor Lectures, by Alan S. Cole (1886), p. 31.
 
 62 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 served in the South Kensington Museum, an invaluable 
 specimen of this opus Anglicum, or English embroidery 
 of the thirteenth century. The greater portion of its 
 design is worked in a chain stitch (tambour or crochet), 
 especially in the faces of the figures where the stitch 
 begins in the centre say of a cheek, and is then worked 
 in a spiral, thus forming a series of circular lines. The 
 texture so obtained is then, by means of a hot, small, 
 and round-knobbed iron, pressed into indentations at 
 the centre of each spiral, and an effect of relief imparted 
 to it."* Following Canon Rock, she concludes that 
 this is the distinctive feature of opus Anglicum. But 
 the conclusion is arrived at apparently without suffi- 
 cient data ; chain stitch may perhaps have been in- 
 vented by some ingenious Anglo-Saxon embroideress 
 who used a hooked instead of the ordinary needle. It 
 is more probable, however, that English needlewomen 
 did not restrict their embroidery to chain-stitch work 
 only : they were likely to have been acquainted with all 
 the stitches commonly in use at the time, and they 
 certainly produced many embroideries with pearls and 
 with beads such as were then made in Scotland. 
 Indeed, Mrs. Palliser hardly seems quite assured that 
 opus Anglicum meant chain-stitch work only, for she 
 terminates her remarks by saying that opus Plumarium, 
 or feather (long and short) stitch, was also frequently 
 used. 
 
 However this may be, the Syon Cope is a specimen 
 
 * It may be here noted that work done in chain stitch in spirals 
 (and this arrangement of stitches is frequent in certain Persian em- 
 broideries from Resht, etc,) assumes an undulating surface with- 
 out the application of any such tooling as that imagined by Canon 
 Rock and Mrs. Palliser.
 
 FROM THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE CRUSADES. 63 
 
 of the very highest interest. The illustration we give 
 shows the Crucifixion with the Virgin and St. John at 
 the foot of the Cross in the centre. Above is the 
 Redeemer uprisen, crowned as a king, and seated on a 
 cushioned throne with the Virgin Mary. Below we 
 find the Archangel Michael slaying the dragon, whilst on 
 the right and left of these are incidents from the history 
 
 Fig. 30. Chasuble of St. Thomas of Canterbury at Sens. 
 
 of the death and burial of the Virgin, the Resurrection, 
 and various Apostles. Each subject is set in quatre- 
 foils, between which are cherubim or angels standing 
 on wheels. 
 
 It is evident that the cope has been cut from a large 
 embroidery. The outer borders to it (which we have 
 omitted) are of slightly later date, and are wrought 
 with armorial bearings, with coloured silks, and gold
 
 6 4 
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 and silver threads in small cross stitches.* The whole, 
 however, is undoubtedly the finest specimen extant of 
 opus Anglicum in its wider sense. 
 
 St. Dunstan, the artistic English monk of the twelfth 
 century, has been cited as a designer for embroideries. 
 Anglo-Saxon calligraphists are usually considered to be 
 the originators of those sumptuously illuminated letters, 
 in which a profusion of dragon-headed scrolls and in- 
 terlacing twists is seen. There was therefore no lack 
 in the eighth to twelfth centuries of clever designers 
 and skilful workwomen, who might well found the 
 reputation of an opus Anglicum. 
 
 In M. de Cau- 
 mont'sand M.Gaus- 
 sen's books illus- 
 trations are given 
 of a fine chasuble 
 (fig. 30) and stole 
 (fig. 3 1 ), and a mitre 
 worn by St. Thomas 
 a Becket, who was 
 martyred at Canter- 
 The originals are 
 The pattern about 
 
 Fig. 31. Details from the stole of 
 St. Thomas of Canterbury. 
 
 bury on the 2Qth December, 1170. 
 
 preserved in the cathedral of Sens. 
 
 the neck and shoulders is to some extent based upon 
 
 the interlaced scroll forms used by Anglo-Saxon MS. 
 
 illuminators. 
 
 In the treasury of the cathedral at Namur is the 
 mitre worn by Bishop Jacques de Vitry, who died in 
 
 * This description of the Syon Cope is adapted from that given in the 
 Descriptive Catalogue of the Collections of Tapestry and Embroidery in 
 the South Kensington Museum, 1887.
 
 FROM THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE CRUSADES. 65 
 
 1244.* It is a mass of embroideries in gold and silver 
 threads, with a figure of St. Lawrence on the front, and 
 one of St. Thomas of Canterbury on the back. A very 
 similar mitre is in the museum at Munich. 
 
 According to the Rev. J. Raine, chasubles of red silk 
 (taffetas), thickly embroidered and enriched with gold 
 leaves, bezants, and pearls, were found at the death of 
 Hugh Pudsey, Bishop of Durham, in 1194. 
 
 The splendid vestments and ornaments worn by the 
 English clergy who visited Rome in 1246 were so 
 highly admired by Pope Innocent IV. that he ordered 
 similar articles from Cistercian monasteries in England. 
 Amongst them, perhaps, were two copes now in the 
 Vatican, which bear a close resemblance to the Syon 
 Cope. 
 
 St. Henry (Emperor of Germany from 973 to 1024) 
 presented an embroidery to the cathedral at Ratisbon, 
 which the learned archaeologists, Cahier and Martin, 
 have classed as opus Anglicum. His Imperial Majesty's 
 taste for fine embroideries led him to give a magnifi- 
 cent piece of work to St. Peter's at Rome. 
 
 St. Etienne, King of Hungary, also admired em- 
 broidery. His wife, Gisela, organized weaving and 
 embroidery workrooms near the palace, whence 
 originated the celebrated point de Hongrie (Hungary 
 stitch), a name which to this day is applied to embroi- 
 deries with a ground of zigzag lines. This queen is 
 held to have made the ecclesiastical vestment which 
 was preserved in the abbey of St. Arnold near Metz. 
 It was given by Pope Leo IX. when he officiated at the 
 consecration (5th October, 1049) of the church, newly 
 
 * Didron, Annales arctte'ologiques. 
 
 5
 
 66 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 erected by the monks of St. Arnold. It is described 
 as a chasuble of crimson satin, shot with blue like the 
 breast of a wood-pigeon. On its lower portion was 
 embroidered a shrub, with branches evenly displayed, 
 and surmounted by two birds confronted ; this group 
 shaped itself into a lozenge or diamond, and similar 
 groups were worked about it. The chasuble was circu- 
 lar, with an opening for the head in the centre. From 
 this opening a purple band, '80 metre wide, descended 
 down the front and back ; on the front was wrought in 
 gold a figure of Christ, blessing with His right hand and 
 holding the Gospels in His left, with St. Peter above 
 Him and St. Paul below, a design which corresponds 
 with that previously mentioned, as worked upon the 
 altar cloth of St. Sophia at Constantinople.* The 
 Apostles were similarly figured on the vertical band, in 
 the centre of the back of the vestment. On this side, 
 too, in its upper portion, worked in letters of gold and 
 silk, was the inscription : 
 
 * S. HUNGARORUM R. ET GILSA 
 
 DILECTA SIBI CONJUX 
 
 MITTUNT HJEC MUNERA DNO 
 
 APOSTOLICO IOHANNE. 
 
 " Etienne, King of Hungary, and Gisela, his dear 
 wife, sent this present to the Apostolic Lord John." 
 
 The only Pope of the name of John, who was a 
 contemporary of Etienne, was John XVIII., Pope from 
 1003 to 1009 ; this vestment, therefore, dates from the 
 beginning of the eleventh century. 
 
 Of this period, possibly, is a Greek embroidery 
 
 * See p. 43.
 
 FROM THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE CRUSADES. 6/ 
 
 preserved in the treasury of St. Peter's at Rome, and 
 considered by connoisseurs of the present time as the 
 most superb embroidery in the world. It is the 
 
 Fig. 32. The Imperial Dalmatic, preserved in St. Peter's in Rome, 
 side with the Representation of the Last Judgment. 
 
 celebrated imperial dalmatic (fig. 32). The following 
 description of it is quoted chiefly from M. Ed. Didron's 
 Report upon the Decorative Arts (1878). 
 
 The foundation of the dalmatic is of blue silk,
 
 68 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 scattered over which are small crosses of gold and 
 silver within circles of gold (stauracis). Upon the back, 
 front, and shoulders are figured various subjects which, 
 considered together, intensify the unity of the idea 
 thereon expressed, viz., the glory of Jesus Christ on 
 earth and in heaven. The Transfiguration and the 
 Last Judgment are depicted in two large central 
 roundels on the back and front respectively. On the 
 shoulders are the sacraments of bread and wine. 
 Lady Marian Alford gives a description of the em- 
 broidery thus : " It is done chiefly in gold, the draperies 
 in basket and laid stitches ; the faces in white silk split 
 stitch, flat, with finely drawn outlines in black silk. 
 The hair, the shadowy part of the draperies, and the 
 clouds are worked in fine gold and silver thread, with 
 dark outlines." To continue M. Didron's description : 
 On the Mount of the Transfiguration (indicated by the 
 Greek word Metamorphose] are green branches bearing 
 flowers and fruit (treated in an Oriental manner), a 
 small bird just below the figure of Christ is diapered 
 in gold and green. The other side is, if anything, more 
 remarkable on account of the great number of figures* 
 defiling before Christ the Saviour and Judge, sitting in 
 heaven with angels and saints on His right and left. 
 
 Greek inscriptions upon the dalmatic leave little 
 room for doubting its Greek origin ; it is called 
 " imperial " because Charlemagne is said to have worn 
 it "when," says Canon Rock, "he sang the Gospel at 
 High Mass at the altar, vested as a deacon, the day 
 
 * The dresses, especially of the crowned personages, have a close 
 resemblance to those of Justinian and the Empress Theodora, in the 
 Ravenna Mosaics of the sixth century.
 
 FROM THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE CRUSADES. 69 
 
 he was crowned emperor in St. Peter's, by Pope 
 Leo III." The accuracy of this tradition, however, 
 is much questioned. We fancy the dalmatic belongs 
 to a less ancient period than the year 800. On 
 examining it, we favour the opinion that it was more 
 probably made in the eleventh or twelfth centuries 
 for some other potentate who, according to custom, 
 officiated as a deacon at the Mass ; in any case this 
 magnificent vestment is not of later workmanship than 
 that of the twelfth century.* Since that time it has 
 been used by the deacon charged with the chanting of 
 the Gospel in Greek at solemn festivals. The em- 
 broidery on this precious robe is a marvel of skill, 
 such as has not been since surpassed nor probably 
 previously equalled. 
 
 The two sides of the imperial dalmatic have been 
 engraved and described in the Annales arche'ologiques 
 by Didron, and in the splendid volume published by 
 imperial authority 'at Vienna, entitled Die Kleinodien 
 des Heil.-Rdmischen Retches Deutscher nation. 
 
 Summary. On the whole then, the antiquity of 
 embroidery is lost in a sort of fabulous epoch, and 
 little more than records are to be found of it. The 
 
 * Signer Galletti, Professor of Embroidery to the Pope, says " it 
 is undoubtedly of the eighth century " (see Needlework as Art, 
 p. 319). In this connection, too, we may revert to the mention in 
 the Liber Pontificalis by Athanasius, the librarian, of the influx 
 towards the end of the seventh century, into Rome, of Greek em- 
 broiderers, who had fled from Constantinople. It is interesting, 
 moreover, to compare details in this dalmatic, such as the crosses 
 (stauraciit), especially those along the skirts, with crosses in ivory 
 diptychs of the sixth to eighth centuries. Similar comparisons 
 might be instituted in respect of other details too numerous to 
 specify here.
 
 7O I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 period from Jesus Christ to the twelfth century may 
 perhaps be regarded as its heroic epoch. Christians in 
 the catacombs, Roman emperors of the world, Byzan- 
 tines impregnated with an Oriental sense of splendour, 
 bishops and abbots in their immense monasteries, 
 queens and princesses in their castles and strongholds, 
 all seem, to have been equally attracted towards the 
 art of embroidery during the first twelve hundred years 
 of our era. Their works possess a sort of mystical 
 solemnity of distinction. Their materials are somewhat 
 coarse in texture, the threads rather large, and the 
 stitches of little variety ; drawing is facile in defining 
 contours ; colours are flat in tint. The simplicity of 
 execution, marking even the most sumptuous of the 
 embroideries then made, is a characteristic of the 
 style of this period, which presents an unmistakable 
 contrast with that of later centuries.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FROM THE CRUSADES TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 THE great events, with the effect of which Europe 
 throbbed for more than a century, exercised a potential 
 influence over the sumptuary arts ; we allude to the 
 Crusades. 
 
 Little by little it became a custom with the Western 
 devotees to make pilgrimages to the Holy Land ; until, 
 in 1095, the Council of Clermont initiated a crusading 
 movement towards the East, thus stirring European 
 forces into an activity which for over two hundred years 
 was ceaselessly fomented. Great bands of nobles, all 
 clad in armour, fervestus, as it was then said, departed 
 for Palestine; and on their return they were garbed with 
 rich stuffs of the East, and fully impressed with the 
 remembrance of Oriental splendours at Constantinople 
 and towns in Asia Minor. The costumes, pouches, 
 and caparisons which they brought back were rich in 
 embroideries, and were beheld with admiration by 
 the needle-workers of the West. 
 
 Pisans, Genoese, and Venetians furnished ships and 
 armies for these distant campaigns, receiving in ex- 
 change the spoils of the vanquished Saracens. 
 
 The fourth crusade begun in I2O2 under the com- 
 mand of Baldwin, Count of Flanders, had for its allies,
 
 72 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 Venetians under Doge Dandolo, and seized Constan- 
 tinople. The crusaders plundered the capital of its 
 accumulations of wealth. The fetes which followed the 
 capture of the town completely dazzled the crusaders, 
 and of this Robert de Clari, a companion of Villehardouin, 
 has given an account, from which we make an extract. 
 At the coronation of Baldwin, of which he was a witness, 
 he says, " After the count had been accoutred in a 
 splendid panoply,* a sumptuously embroidered mantle, 
 jewelled with precious stones, was thrown over him; the 
 eagles embroidered on its outside flashed so brilliantly 
 in the sunlight that it seemed as if the mantle w r as 
 a-blaze." 
 
 Mathew Paris says that at the sacking of Antioch 
 in 1098, gold, silver, and priceless costumes were so 
 equally distributed amongst the crusaders, that many 
 who the night before were famishing and imploring 
 for relief, suddenly found themselves overwhelmed with 
 wealth. 
 
 Ancient stuffs and Byzantine embroideries, which 
 have been there since 1204, are still to be seen in the 
 treasury of Halberstadt, in Westphalia. They most 
 probably came from Constantinople, which was spoiled 
 in that year. 
 
 The thirteenth century is certainly conspicuous for 
 an increased demand in the West for embroideries. 
 Many crusaders made offerings to churches of plunder 
 from Palestine. St. Louis, on his return from the first 
 crusade, offered thanks at St. Denis to God for mercies 
 bestowed on him during his six years' absence and 
 
 * See L'Omement dans les Tissus, by Dupont-Auberville and 
 V. Gay, p. 20.
 
 THE CRUSADES TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 73 
 
 travel, and presented some richly embroidered stuffs to 
 be used on great occasions as coverings to the reliquaries 
 containing the relics of holy martyrs. 
 
 At this time stuffs and embroideries were used for 
 decorating everything almost. Not only were walls 
 hung with them, and priests clad in them, but statues of 
 saints were also bedecked with them, and altars were 
 inclosed within hangings, like curtains which could be 
 drawn and thrown back at will. These altar hangings 
 were generally embroidered with the figures of the 
 saints to whom the altars were dedicated. Further than 
 this, wardrobes and cupboards were adorned with stuffs 
 on which heraldic bearings were blazoned with the 
 utmost art of the needle-worker. 
 
 Under Louis the Young, and since 1147, the heraldic 
 shield of France had been powdered with fleurs de lys. 
 Charles V., however, reduced the number of these 
 emblems to three, in honour of the Holy Trinity. Fol- 
 lowing royal example, every knight displayed his own 
 particular colours at tournaments, and on military 
 service ; and the right of appropriating to itself a 
 distinctive blazon or coat of arms was granted to every 
 noble family. 
 
 These heraldic badges, as a rule, were of complicated 
 forms, and exacted a high degree of skill from the 
 embroideresses who had to work them. Fresh varieties 
 of stitch consequently were invented. Opus plumarium, 
 or feather stitch, and opus pulvinarium, a term somewhat 
 loosely applied to embroidering, diaperings, or powder- 
 ings of small devices, whence sable, scatterings like 
 gravel, damier or chequers, onde or waved, damasse or 
 damasked, were extensively used in embroideries on
 
 74 
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 chests. Besides these, there was the opus consutum, or 
 work made with bits of stuff, either sewn together as in 
 
 patchwork, or sewn one on 
 to the other as in applique 
 embroidery. The separate 
 bits were often embroidered 
 by themselves; they were 
 then placed upon the ma- 
 terial selected and edged 
 round with gold cord. The 
 applications (appliques) 
 were as a rule sewn, though 
 sometimes it was thought 
 sufficient to stick them 
 merely to their foundation 
 grounds. Thus in the in- 
 ventory of Philip the Good 
 we find the entry of a cope 
 of white damask cloth, 
 powdered over with angels 
 in gold embroidery, fixed 
 with glue only upon the 
 aforesaid cope. 
 
 From this time forward 
 applique embroideries (i.e., 
 composed of pieces sepa- 
 rately worked and then 
 
 Fig. 33. Italian embroidery of the fastened to a foundation, 
 thirteenth century. , , , . 
 
 thereby giving a character 
 
 of slight relief to the complete work) have played an im- 
 portant part. Figures were frequently embroidered upon 
 the fabric of the ground, such as velvet or cloth of gold ;
 
 THE CRUSADES TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 75 
 
 but the heads to them would be wrought separately, 
 and upon a stuff of different texture, such as satin. To 
 the present day this class of embroidery is successfully 
 produced. 
 
 Now, without desiring to depreciate the unquestionable 
 merit belonging to many specimens of this applique 
 class, we cannot withhold the expression of an opinion 
 that it has an inherent defect in detracting from unity 
 of work. The quality of unity in works of art, which 
 gives the impression not only of the influence of a 
 single source of inspiration and sentiment, directing 
 the dexterity of the hand in wielding brush, graver, 
 or needle this quality is too precious to be subjected 
 to risks to which simplifications, for the sake of 
 rapidity in execution, are almost certain to expose it. 
 Whenever as good effects as are obtainable in applique 
 embroidery can be secured without having recourse to 
 this particular method, it is preferable not to use it ; the 
 chances of diminishing the suppleness of an embroidery 
 are thereby avoided, and rigid forms, with a tendency 
 to incongruous exaggeration in relief effects, are far less 
 likely to manifest themselves. Faults like these are too 
 frequently met with in applique's embroideries. 
 
 Arms on banners, and oriflammes fluttering in the 
 wind, had to be seen on both sides of the material 
 into which they were embroidered. A sense of this 
 condition led to the adoption of a method of needlework 
 which, according to the apt expression of the times " a 
 deux endroiz" was equally well carried out on the back 
 and front of a stuff. 
 
 The use of Arabic inscriptions upon phylacteries and 
 cognate decorative bands for costumes arose in embroi-
 
 76 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 deries of the Crusading periods ; and was substituted for 
 that of Roman characters upon scrolls and labels such 
 as are to be seen wrought in Middle Age tapestries to 
 explain the names and actions of the figures thereon 
 depicted. 
 
 Towards the end of St. Louis' reign (1270) textile 
 stuffs were employed for book covers.* Silks, velvets, 
 satins, and damasks, covered with little flowers em- 
 broidered in gold and with pearls, were so used. The 
 library of Jean Due de Berry, which has been described 
 by Douet d'Arcq, contained books of Hours, Bibles, and 
 Psalters, bound in ruby coloured or purple velvets, 
 tawny satins, fair blue silks or cloths of gold " wrought 
 with fleurs de lys, birds, and images." Leaves, flowers, 
 and figures of men and animals were traced in threads 
 of gold or silver upon a great variety of tissues. Pearls 
 and coral even, introduced into them, enriched the 
 effect of these patiently produced works. 
 
 The book of crafts by Etienne Boileau, provost of 
 the merchants in 1258 to 1268, contains a curious 
 enumeration of the different craft guilds of Paris. 
 
 Amongst those allied with our subject we find 
 
 " Spinners of silk using large and small spindles." 
 
 " Makers of thread and silk fringes for the coifs of 
 ladies, pillow cases, and the hangings (or baldachinos) 
 over altars, which were made with the needle or in 
 frames." 
 
 " Makers of Paris cloth of silk, velvets, and bourserie 
 en lac" 
 
 " The tapicers, or makers of the tapis sarrasinois (or 
 Saracen cloths), who say that their craft is for the 
 * Les Mamiscrits, by De Lecoy de la Marche, p. 344.
 
 THE CRUSADES TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 77 
 
 service only of churches, or great men like kings and 
 counts." 
 
 And finally, " embroiderers and embroideresses " : 
 many of these embroideresses were skilful in draughts- 
 manship ; as, for instance, Dame Margot and Dame 
 Aales, of whom the additional record states that both 
 were " illuminators." A member of the guild was pro- 
 hibited from using gold of less value than " eight sous, 
 (about 6s.) the skein ; he was bound to use the best 
 silk, and never to mix thread with silk because that 
 made the work false and bad.' 1 This guild of em- 
 broideresses was incorporated under the title of " St. 
 Clare." Up to the last century its two sections were 
 respectively named " freed workers " and " frogs," the 
 latter quaint denomination applying to the less skilful 
 workers who could never aspire to be " free," and who 
 it was said never drank anything but water. The test 
 or trial piece, prescribed for a worker who was the son 
 of a master embroiderer, was " a single figure, a sixth 
 of natural size, to be shaded in gold." Whilst one, not 
 the son of a master embroiderer, would be required to 
 produce " a complete incident with many figures." 
 The book of crafts also classes " cutters-out and 
 stencillers" amongst workmen employed in the in- 
 dustry of embroidery, as well as " chasuble-makers, 
 and makers of Saracenic alms-bags (aumonieres 
 sarrasinoises). 
 
 The wearing of these pouches or purses, pendent 
 from girdles or belts, came into fashion during the 
 Crusades. Money, papers, prayer-books, and gloves 
 were carried in them. They were almost always 
 beautifully embroidered, generally with coats of arms.
 
 78 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 " Margaret the emblazoner " is specified in the list of 
 freed workers and makers of pouches. 
 
 One of the finest pouches known is that containing 
 the treasures of the cathedral of Troyes ; it is said to have 
 belonged to the Count of Champagne, Thibaut IV., called 
 the Singer (1201 1233). Upon it is figured a youthful 
 Saracen draped in a white mantle which covers his 
 head and shoulders, and falls over a close-fitting under- 
 jacket, below which in ample flowing folds is a petticoat. 
 Lower down he is represented as slaying a lion at the 
 feet of Eleanor of Aquitain. The figures, arabesques, 
 and leaves are embroidered with silks on linen, cut 
 out and then applied (applique} to a crimson velvet 
 ground. 
 
 An illustration of another and traditionally earlier 
 pouch is given in Arnaud's book on the province of 
 Champagne, and is reputed to have belonged to Henry 
 the Generous, who lived from 1152 to 1181. 
 
 Upon opening the tomb of Pierre Mauclerc, Duke of 
 Brittany (12121250), in the abbey of St. Yved de 
 Braine, a very remarkable pouch was discovered, which 
 has been drawn by Gaigneres, and published by Mont- 
 faucon. The groundwork of gold tissue is ornamented 
 with trellis or lozenge shapes, within which are twenty- 
 nine different blazons, that of Brittany occupying the 
 centre. Is it possible that these give us, as it were, 
 a list of the knights who accompanied the Duke of 
 Brittany on his crusade to Palestine ? 
 
 In the Delaherche collection are two notable alms- 
 bags or pouches for ladies, ornamented in a most 
 characteristic manner with embroideries of the thirteenth 
 century. In the cut we give of one (fig. 34) a seated
 
 THE CRUSADES TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 79 
 
 angel with extended wings is worked on the flap or 
 upper portion of the bag ; below are curious types of 
 
 Fig. 34. Pouch of the thirteenth century (Delaherche collection). 
 
 the centaur species, emblems of pride and gallantry. 
 Such figures are often depicted in the illuminations of 
 thirteenth century MSS. as symbols of the debasement
 
 80 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 of man to the level of brute beasts. The embroidery 
 upon the alms-bag under notice is done with silk and 
 Cyprus gold thread, and must have been highly remark- 
 able in its pristine state; the ground of green velvet, 
 backed with linen, is unfortunately much worn. The 
 opposite side is of green flowered Lucca damask, 
 patterned with birds. In former times this pouch be- 
 longed to the Chatelaines of the Duchy of Bar. 
 
 Such pouches were always trimmed either with little 
 knobs and tassels made 6f thread or metal ; some were 
 hung with small bells, mentioned by the chronicler as 
 " Ung bourselot cloquete d" argent" (a pouch with silver 
 bells). 
 
 Leather was also used for pouches, in which the 
 baldrick for a sword, or the harness for a horse, could 
 be carried. 
 
 Fashion in these things survived the times of the 
 Crusades, after which the warlike character of them 
 became modified. A pouch in the Bonnaffe collection 
 is of fourteenth century embroidery, decorated with the 
 figures from the Romance of the Rose, and is a very 
 interesting specimen. It recalls a phrase used in respect 
 of a band described in the inventory of Charles V. as 
 being decked " with trees and ladies" (fig. 35). 
 
 From the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries the city of 
 Caen was noted for its embroidered bags and purses, 
 which had the local name of " tasques," * whence the 
 street inhabited by the embroiderers was called the 
 Rue Tasquiere. They were sold all over Europe. 
 Jacques de Cahaignes sent one as a gift of great value 
 to Joseph Scaliger when he became rector of the 
 
 * From the Italian tasca, purse.
 
 THE CRUSADES TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 8 1 
 
 university of Ley den. From a book published in 
 1588, entitled Recherches et Antiquites sur la ville de 
 Caen, by Charles de Bourgueville, Sieur de Bras, we 
 
 Fig. 35. Pouch of French fourteenth-century work (in the 
 Bonnaffe collection). 
 
 learn that "as for Caen pouches, none made in other 
 towns can compare with them for choiceness, character, 
 and exquisite materials, such as velvets of all colours, 
 
 6
 
 82 
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 gold, silver, and other threads, or in suitability for 
 the use of nobles, justices, ladies, and maidens, so 
 that it is a common proverb to speak of ' Caen pouches 
 above all others.' " 
 
 Charles of Neufchatel in 1481 gave the cathedral of 
 Besancon a mitre which had been embroidered in 
 Caen ; * the stones which enriched it have all dis- 
 appeared, but the mitre still exists. 
 
 The subjects in designs at this period, especially 
 those for orphreys and ecclesiastical ornaments, are 
 
 generally panelled 
 within quatre-foils 
 (fig. 36), and similar 
 shapes, which occur 
 also in contemporary 
 painted glass win- 
 dows. The scenes 
 from the life of our 
 Saviour, embroidered 
 on the cope of St. 
 Maximin (Var), are 
 framed or panelled in 
 this manner. 
 
 Similar treatment is observable in the pourpoint of 
 Charles of Blois, killed at the battle of Auray (1364); 
 it is of silk embroidered with octagonal compartments 
 alternately filled with a lion and an eagle. 
 
 The altar-frontal in St. Martin's at Liege is perhaps 
 one of the more beautiful of religious fourteenth- 
 century embroideries. It measures 3 metres in length 
 by '1 8 metre wide. Different episodes, from the life 
 
 * Sigillographie de Normandy, by de Farcy. 
 
 Fig. 36. Embroidery ol the fifteenth 
 century (in the Cluny Museum).
 
 THE CRUSADES TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 83 
 
 of the canonized bishop 
 of Tours, patron saint of 
 the church, are repre- 
 sented in a long series ; 
 each episode being sepa- 
 rated from its neighbour 
 by trees or some archi- 
 tectural motif. 
 
 It is no doubt a work 
 by one of the celebrated 
 artists of Tours, who, 
 like those in England of 
 the eleventh century, 
 were notable equally 
 as designers or MS. 
 illuminators and em- 
 broiderers. Indeed, 
 whenever the brush and 
 the needle are thus inter- 
 changeable implements, a 
 remarkable epoch in the 
 art of embroidery reveals 
 itself. 
 
 An origin under such 
 conditions may be fairly 
 claimed for a magni- 
 ficently embroidered 
 orphrey in the Spitzer 
 collection (fig. 37 ) ; on 
 which we have a Jesse 
 tree. The treatment of ~ 
 
 rig. 37. Fart of an orphrey em- 
 
 thlS, and the character of broidered with a Jesse tree 
 
 (fourteenth century).
 
 8 4 
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 the figures and ornamentation, are distinctly analogous 
 to those seen in fine stained glass and illuminated MSS. 
 of the fourteenth century. The tree in full leaf rises from 
 
 Fig. 38. Tau-shaped orphrey of Greek embroidery, thirteenth 
 century (in the Hochon collection). 
 
 Abraham, an old man asleep below ; between the inter- 
 lacements of its leading branches are King David, 
 Solomon, and the Virgin Mary; surmounting all is the
 
 THE CRUSADES TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 85 
 
 Crucifixion. The frequent appearance of this tree of the 
 sacred genealogy of Jesus Christ is noticeable in em- 
 broideries, stained glass windows, wall paintings, etc., of 
 the period, and is a religious phase of that fashion for 
 genealogical trees to which the adoption of family ccats 
 of arms gave rise. The embroidery of the Spitzer 
 orphrey is in silk upon satin. The satin is left for the 
 parts which show as skin in the figures ; features, eyes, 
 hair, and beards on it being embroidered with black 
 silk in so closely pulled stitches as to be mistaken 
 for pen and ink lines. The background is of gold 
 thread worked in Hungary point (point de Hongrte). 
 
 Italy and Spain at this time were at a height of pros- 
 perity in the manufacture of beautiful stuff's and rich 
 embroideries. The Saracens had already introduced 
 into Sicily the art of weaving silken and golden fabrics, 
 an industry subsequently encouraged by King Roger II. 
 On his return from an expedition to Greece (1145) he 
 brought with him the most skilful weavers and embroi- 
 derers whom he had taken captive at Corinth and Argos, 
 and established them in workshops at Palermo (fig. 38). 
 The Sicilian brocade weavers became renowned ; they 
 also produced marvellous embroideries for door hang- 
 ings and floor coverings, by using two stuffs of 
 different colours, cutting patterns out of the one and 
 stitching them on to the other, over-stitching the 
 junctures with variegated threads. These were called 
 " draps entailles sarracinois " (Saracenic cut cloths). 
 
 From Sicily the manufacture of fine stuffs spread to 
 the north of Italy, and, becoming localized, the special 
 productions of towns like Genoa, Florence, Lucca, 
 Milan, and Venice acquired a high reputation.
 
 86 
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 A cognate movement occurred in Spain under the 
 influence of the Saracens and Moors. It is on record 
 that they brought over workmen from Persia who were 
 engaged upon the monuments erected by them in Toledo 
 and other towns of their conquest. It is not astonishing, 
 therefore, that at the same time Persian embroidery 
 should penetrate as far as Andalusia. Almeria, like 
 
 Palermo, had its Hotel 
 dcs Tiraz, which rivalled 
 the Hotel des Tiraz at 
 Bagdad. The term tiraz 
 was for a long time 
 in use in the Spanish 
 language, and was the 
 generic name for orna- 
 mental tissues and cos- 
 tumes made with them. 
 The Spaniards ex- 
 celled in stuffs of velvet 
 raised on satin, inwoven 
 
 with strands of gold 
 and silver. Their de- 
 signs have all the 
 boldness and Oriental 
 
 character which One 
 alsQ finds j n Cordovan 
 
 decorative leathers. The colours in both are the same; 
 and gold is cunningly used in conjunction with sombre 
 tones, enhancing their effects with the utmost felicity. 
 
 Sometimes, however, beaten gold, when introduced 
 in these textiles, was made to assume the shape of small 
 plaques or thin plates of gold, upon which would be 
 
 39- Embroidery of the fourteenth 
 century (in the Hochon collection).
 
 THE CRUSADES TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 87 
 
 mounted several rows of pearls. But this evident 
 abuse of the metal in its relation with a textile could 
 not last long ; and these inappropriate golden plaques 
 were speedily modified into spangles, those pretty little 
 discs of gold, silver, or polished steel used in certain 
 classes of embroidery for dainty glinting effects. 
 The Saracens are credited with the invention of 
 spangles ; and, following their example, the Spaniards 
 made free use of them in much of their ornamental 
 needlework. One extremely remarkable specimen of 
 
 Fig. 40. Embroidery designed by Lucas van Leyden, taken from his 
 portrait of Maximilian I. (sixteenth century), belonging to 
 M. Dutuit. 
 
 this spangled work is the chasuble embroidered by 
 Isabella la Catolica, and carried by King Ferdinand to 
 the cathedral of Granada after the taking of that town 
 from the Moors in 1492 ; all the flowers upon this sump- 
 tuous vestment are worked with gold and silver spangles 
 of different sizes indented at their centres (fig. 40). 
 
 A slightly later Spanish cope of the same characteristic 
 work has recently been added to the Spitzer collection. 
 Standing figures of saints under architectural canopies 
 are embroidered upon its red velvet orphreys. The 
 figures are in high relief of quite unusual character, 
 and although resplendent by reason of an infinity of 
 little golden rings instead of spangles stitched over
 
 88 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 them, their general effect is heavy. The main ground 
 of the chasuble is of cloth of gold ; scattered in a sort 
 of diapering pattern all over it are escutcheons bearing 
 the Spanish arms. 
 
 The use of spangles in the French court is recorded 
 in the royal accounts for the year 1389, where we have 
 an entry of "iij marcs xvijs esterlins of fine gold at 
 xxij carats, delivered to Estienne d'Epernon, gold beater, 
 to be flattened and shaped into broom blossoms (fleurs 
 de genestes), for stitching on to the two embroidered 
 doublets of the king." * 
 
 In 141 1 a pair of cuffs or sleeves made for the Duke 
 of Burgundy were covered over with " seven thousand 
 five hundred little twists of silver, and alternated with 
 two thousand little scrolls of gold, the whole of them 
 weighing twelve marcs." 
 
 At this period pearls were even more fashionable 
 than spangles. A single instance, to show this, is 
 worth quoting. In 1414 Charles of Orleans spent two 
 hundred and seventy-six livres (about 40) for nine 
 hundred and sixty pearls, which were to be used in 
 ornamenting a great coat, on the sleeves of which were 
 embroidered the verses of a song beginning with 
 " Madame, I am all joyous." . . . The musical ac- 
 companiment of the words was also embroidered, the 
 staves being worked in gold thread, and each note 
 (of square shapes in those days) formed with four 
 pearls.t The motive of this pattern was clearly more 
 
 * F. Michel, Recherches sur les Etoffes de Soie. According to 
 Doursther a marc = 8 ounces = 64 gros = 160 esterlins = 320 mailles 
 = 6^ofeli'ns. The marc of Paris and Lyons = 3,777'5 English grains, 
 or 244-75 French grammes. 
 
 f Quicherat, Histoire du Costume, p. 254.
 
 THE CRUSADES TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 89 
 
 whimsical and extravagant than likely to lead to good 
 artistic result. 
 
 In the time of Philippe le Bel embroideries superseded 
 furs, which, for longer than the previous century, had 
 been the fashionable trimmings for court costumes. 
 Philippe, who had a mania for attempting to regulate 
 and control everything, issued in 1294 an ordinance 
 that sanctioned the wearing of embroideries by princes 
 of the blood royal only ; but this law soon came to be 
 more honoured in the breach than in the observance, 
 as all who could afford it followed the fashion of the 
 princes. 
 
 Besides for costume, embroidery was used for articles 
 of furniture. Ornamental textiles generally were then 
 more widely employed than nowadays. 
 
 The interior of great castles in the Middle Ages were 
 far less divided up by such partitions as are so freely 
 used in modern dwellings; the halls and saloons 
 were vast, almost without decoration, and they were 
 made habitable for the great and luxurious by hanging 
 stuffs upon the walls, and stretching them across 
 cords, arranged so as to subdivide the halls into 
 compartments, bays, and recesses. Kings and princes 
 made use of various draperies and hangings suitable to 
 the season of the year. The chambers of the king 
 would be called the Easter, the All Saints, or the Christ- 
 mas rooms. Or, again, they would be designated after 
 the ornament or pattern of the hangings ; thus, there 
 would be the room of the Crosses, of the Lions, etc. 
 The stuffs for a room were of two classes tapestry- 
 hangings and furniture-coverings. The coverings 
 (courte pointeries) included draperies for the bed. The
 
 90 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 couches or feather beds, the mattresses, and other articles 
 were almost always bedecked with embroidered counter- 
 panes, bed canopies, and curtains, and covers for head 
 boards. Against one of the walls of the chamber the bed 
 w r ould be set, covered over with a quilt, and backed by a 
 head board, from which was an overhanging tester with 
 three curtains. Close at hand was a smaller overhanging 
 canopy with draperies, behind which the king dressed.* 
 All the hangings were embroidered with heraldic devices. 
 
 In King Charles V.'s inventory, quoted by Labarthe 
 and given also in the Documents pour servir a Vhistoire 
 de France, we find many descriptions of fittings, etc., 
 similar to those just named. As, for instance, " a 
 chamber hung with cloth of gold, on which is a bright 
 red velvet cross embroidered with coats of .arms." 
 " Item: a chamber hung with cloth of silver ornamented 
 with five compass devices embroidered with the arms 
 of France and the Dauphin ; also a canopy or tester 
 hanging, draperies for head board, and counterpane or 
 coverlet, and three curtains of Indian cendal. 
 
 " Item : a tent of French .embroidery in which are 
 depicted the four evangelists, in a framework of arch 
 shapes, with curtains striped in green and purple, and 
 rayed with gold." 
 
 Kings' journeys then were not as simply conducted 
 as now ; their luggage always included a large quantity 
 of furniture, etc., without which they would have been 
 unable to live in the castles where they happened to 
 stop. It was not a question of taking clothing only, 
 beds, linen, and draperies had to go as well. The 
 preparations for Phillippe le Long's coronation in 1317 
 
 * Le Meuble, by de Champeaux, p. 75.
 
 THE CRUSADES TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 91 
 
 involved the provision of numberless chests and coffers, 
 one of which, a large one, was for "the robes of our 
 sire the King/' * and four others " for the bed and 
 commodities of the King." Queen Joan of Burgundy 
 had twelve great trunks, two for her bed, six for her 
 wardrobe, two for her ladies-in-waiting, etc. The 
 room prepared for her majesty's use in the palace at 
 Rheims^ during her sojourn for the coronation festivities, 
 was embroidered with " thirteen hundred and twenty- 
 one papegauts (parrots) made in broidery, and blazoned 
 with the King's arms and five hundred and sixty-one 
 butterflies, whose wings were similarly ornamented 
 with the Queen's arms, the whole worked in fine gold." 
 England whose brilliant reputation for embroideries 
 has been already mentioned, possesses an authentic 
 work of the fourteenth century of the highest interest, 
 proving that she had in no way declined in the art.f 
 This is a pall or mortuary cloth which belongs to the 
 Fishmongers' Company, and is traditionally said to have 
 been used at the funeral of Sir William Walworth 
 during the reign of Richard II., 1381. It is of long 
 rectangular shape, with two long and two short pendent 
 
 * Le Menble, by de Champeaux, p. 66. 
 
 f This fine. embroidery is described at p. 262 of the Catalogue of the 
 Special Exhibition of Works of Art, South Kensington Museum, 1862. 
 Monsieur Biais, whose description of it Monsieur Lefebure has adopted, 
 appears to have been misled, for the arms worked on this pall are 
 those of the Stock-fishmongers and Salt-fishmongers united into one 
 shield, having as supporters a merman clad in golden armour, and a 
 mermaid with a jewel hanging from her neck, and in her hand a 
 looking-glass. The two companies were united in 1536. The em- 
 broidery is therefore of the time of Henry VIII. Thus it supports 
 Monsieur Lefebure 's assertion in favour of England's celebrity for em- 
 broidery, and extends its application to a period a hundred and fifty 
 years longer than he contemplates.
 
 92 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 panels which form its border. The main ground of 
 the pall is of fine Flemish red gold brocade. The 
 two short pendant panels are onamented with English 
 embroideries of St. Peter robed and seated as a 
 pope holding the keys of Paradise* (fig. 41). Each 
 of the two long pendant panels has in its centre 
 Christ entrusting the keys to St. Peter, flanked by 
 the arms and supporters of the Stock and Salt- 
 Fishmongers' Companies united. The figures are 
 worked in silk and gold thread couchings. The whole is 
 remarkable for masterly design and admirable execution. 
 
 Flanders was equally celebrated for embroideries 
 made from the drawings of artists. Many Flemish 
 orphreys closely resemble the painted wooden triptychs 
 of the Gothic period, which abound in the churches 
 and museums of Belgium. Others again have all the 
 character of old ecclesiastical stained glass windows. 
 
 The finest set of sacerdotal robes of this style is to 
 be seen in the Ambras collection at Vienna. It consists 
 of a chasuble, two dalmatics, three copes, and two ante 
 pendiums. The figures upon them are embroidered 
 in silks of many colours upon cloth of gold, from 
 designs by the brothers Van Eyck or their pupils. 
 Pearls surround the saints, whose crowns and nimbi 
 glisten with precious stones. It is said that these 
 magnificent vestments were used at the first chapter of 
 the Golden Fleece held by Philip the Good on the loth 
 January, 1430.! 
 
 The sumptuous embroideries which belonged to 
 Charles the Bold, son of Philip the Good, may no 
 
 * M. Biais, Les Broderies anciennes a I'Exposition de Londres. 
 f Elements d Arche'ologie, by Reusens, vol. ii., p. 475.
 
 THE CRUSADES TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 93 
 
 60 
 
 W 
 
 doubt be attributed to Flemish art. They were taken
 
 94 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 by the Swiss on the 3rd March, 1476, at the battle 
 of Gransons, in regard to which Philip de Comines 
 writes, " they seized his camp and cannon, and all 
 the tents and pavilions belonging to him and his retinue 
 which was very numerous, and took possession of all 
 the belongings of the said duke." 
 
 Du Sommerard has published the more notable of 
 the stuffs and embroidered standards captured at this 
 victory, and now preserved at Berne ; some in the 
 cathedral, others in the museum. Amongst the "four 
 hundred pieces of silk, velvet, and tapestries " is to 
 be found the Duke of Burgundy's yellow velvet hat, 
 with a diamond portc aigrette, whence sprang a sheaf 
 of plumes and pearls. The larger of the diamonds 
 was the famous Sancy diamond, " the largest in 
 Christendom," says Comines, and quoted at the present 
 day as one of the most exquisite jewels ever known. 
 
 Flanders and Burgundy were for so long united 
 under the same sovereignty that an uncertainty ob- 
 tains in assigning the precise origin of many stuffs 
 known as Burgundian in which Flemish traits fre- 
 quently display themselves. 
 
 In Germany a class of work had long been produced 
 under the name of opus Coloniensis (Cologne work), in 
 which both weaving and embroidery were frequently 
 combined. 
 
 Narrow bands and braids were made in small port- 
 able low-warp frames.* Broader pieces, and involving 
 more intricate work, as those for orphreys on copes and 
 
 * These little weaving frames, adapted to either shuttle-weaving or 
 tapestry-weaving, are often engraved as frontispieces to pattern books 
 which are subsequently mentioned in the section of Laces.
 
 THE CRUSADES TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 95 
 
 chasubles, would be made in high-warp frames ; that 
 is, in frames with vertical ranks of warp as distinct from 
 those with low or horizontal ranks of warp. Between 
 these warps shuttles charged with various coloured 
 threads would be thrown by the worker, who would 
 vary the use of the shuttle with that of the needle as 
 occasion might arise for giving increased solidity to 
 certain details in the fabric. This varied method of 
 execution resulted in the production of works having 
 unmistakable characteristics; and although this com- 
 bined weaving and embroidery was considerably made 
 along the banks of the Rhine during the fifteenth and 
 sixteenth centuries, it has since disappeared. In such 
 small frames as those just alluded to, tapestries were pro- 
 duced of the character described by M. Eugene Muntz, 
 when he writes, " It was in convents, and sometimes 
 in castles, that hangings of small dimensions were 
 woven, a great number of which are to be seen in 
 the museums at Munich and Nuremberg." The South 
 Kensington and the Cluny Museums and many well- 
 known Parisian collections contain similar specimens. 
 A figure, for instance, would be entirely woven ; but 
 if it were that of a bishop or king the mitre or the 
 crown would be embroidered, and a happy effect of 
 slight relief would be thereby secured. The engrav- 
 ing (fig. 43) is of a band in the South Kensington 
 Museum. It was probably used for an altar of the 
 Virgin, since the words " Ave Maria " and the figure of 
 the Virgin are conspicuous amongst other figures and 
 inscriptions in it. The heads of the figures and the 
 objects they hold in their hands are of embroidery 
 the remaining parts being woven.
 
 9 6 
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 The design on a chasuble cross in the Hochon 
 collection (fig. 42) is dignified in its simplicity. No 
 useless accessory detracts from the value of the woven 
 
 Fig. 42. German embroidery (? Cologne) of the fifteenth century 
 (in the Hochon collection). 
 
 cloth of gold foundation in its relation to the personages 
 and inscriptions wrought upon it. The heads are of 
 applique work. In the centre is Christ on the cross ; 
 the wounds in His body and the drops of blood from 
 them are embroidered in red silk ; at His feet is the
 
 THE CRUSADES TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 97 
 
 sorrowing Virgin supported by St. John. Above them 
 are the spear and the reed with sponge soaked in 
 vinegar. Above the cross is the inscription Pater in 
 manus tuas. At the lower extremity of the central 
 limb of the cross (not shown in the cut) is a saint 
 in armour, bearing a standard or pennon and a shield, 
 each of these charged with nine bezants. Below is the 
 name of the donor, Johan van Querroide. 
 
 A beautiful orphrey of similar style, belonging to 
 Comte Charles Lair, is dated " Colonia, 1510." 
 Articles of costume, such as head-dresses, shoes, and 
 
 Fig. 43. Orphrey of embroidered woven work, Cologne work 
 (in the South Kensington Museum); 
 
 gloves have frequently been splendidly embroidered. 
 A single chapter would not suffice to do justice to 
 the mitres worn in old times by bishops and abbots 
 of monasteries. Their shape was modified, and 
 became larger from century to century. Up to the 
 twelfth century they were small and low; as they 
 increased in height in the thirteenth and fourteenth 
 centuries, so the angles in them became more acute. 
 In the fifteenth century were developed the high 
 and curved shapes which mitres retain to the present 
 day. 
 
 7
 
 98 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 A fine fifteenth-century mitre, remarkable for the 
 figures embroidered on it, is preserved in St. Gildas 
 de Ruys in Morbihan.* It is .38 metre high and 
 .30 metre wide ; its two lappets are .37 metre 
 long. The ground of this mitre is white silk, with 
 vertical stripes of silver threads. On each of its 
 sides are two figures, wrought on stout linen, and 
 then applied (appliques) to the silk ground. Those on 
 the front are of two abbots, doubtless the founders 
 of the priory ; they are surrounded with stars 
 worked in gold thread. Upon the lappets are 
 appliques figures, one a St. Sebastian pierced with 
 arrows, the other a headless martyr at the burning 
 stake. 
 
 The Cluny Museum possesses many remarkable 
 mitres. The Spitzer collection contains one of German 
 fifteenth-century work, notable as much for the fine- 
 ness of its embroidery as for the goldsmith's work 
 upon it. 
 
 And now, cursorily alluding to ecclesiastical gloves 
 and shoes worn by prelates at great Church functions, 
 we may briefly say, that as a rule they are examples 
 of most finished embroidery in the rendering of the 
 emblems and graceful interlacing scrolls which enter 
 into the patterns wrought upon them. 
 
 In the inventories of the possessions of the Bayeux 
 Cathedral is an entry of " two woollen mittens 
 (tnytames), with embroidery, on the hands, of two 
 figures of St. Veronica surrounded by pearls." 
 
 Ladies also wore ornamental gloves made of silken 
 material, and embroidered in gold and silver thread. 
 
 * A becedaire de Caumont, p. 729.
 
 THE CRUSADES TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 99 
 
 Of such character no doubt would be the " glove, 
 which gold and silken broidery bore," filched from 
 and then returned with heart-aching lamentings to 
 his beauteous Laura by Petrarch.* 
 
 On the whole then it will have been seen that the 
 employment of embroidery was gradually extended to 
 all parts and articles of costume, so that it is not 
 surprising to find that every household of any position 
 during the fifteenth century retained the services of 
 an embroiderer by the year.f 
 
 The preparation of colours, whether for painting or 
 for dyeing threads and textile fabrics, was a matter 
 which received close attention from artists of the 
 Middle Ages. Many undertook long journeys to obtain 
 the more famous recipes,! which they filed, subse- 
 quently adding, to and correcting them as experience 
 dictated. And in this direction little can be more 
 instructive than the inquiry conducted in 1409 and 
 1410 by a Parisian named Jean le Begue, clerk to 
 the Mint, who proceeded to Italy to study processes 
 of colour manufacture. At Bologna he happened upon 
 a Flemish embroiderer called Thierry, who had worked 
 for the Duke of Milan, and previously in London. This 
 Thierry taught him many new methods in the manu- 
 facture of colours. Le Begue wrote a full account 
 of all he learned and noted, and his manuscript is 
 preserved to this day. 
 
 By such gleanings and interchanges of ideas the 
 number of tones and colours available for the use of 
 
 * See Sonnets, 166 and 168. 
 
 f Quicherat's Histoire du Costume, p. 279. 
 
 \Les Manuscrits, by Lecoy de La Marche, p. 306.
 
 100 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 the embroiderer was considerably augmented. The 
 celebrated dyer Jean Gobelin lived in the middle of the 
 fifteenth century. His dye works and model work- 
 rooms were erected on the banks of the Bievre, where 
 his descendants continued the business for two centuries ; 
 but his name is made more famous by reason of its 
 inseparable association with the national manufactory 
 of the Gobelins tapestries, which was in truth a de- 
 velopment of Jean Gobelin's original workshops. 
 
 In 1462 Rene d'Anjou, who had been crowned King 
 of Naples and Sicily, presented Angers Cathedral with 
 very gorgeous ornaments at a cost of 40,000 ecus. 
 They were the works of one of the famed embroiderers 
 of Avignon, Pierre du Vaillant by name, on whom the 
 title of Painter to the King of Sicily was also conferred. 
 These ornaments, dedicated to " Messire St. Maurice," 
 the patron saint of the cathedral, consisted of a chasuble, 
 a tunic, a dalmatic, a cope, and an altar hanging ; in 
 all, five articles, entered in the inventories of the 
 chapter under the comprehensive title of " the Great 
 Embroidery " (la Grande Broderie).* The design, dis- 
 playing a history of St. Maurice, was executed upon 
 a groundwork, dotted with blossoms. The altar frontal 
 was of velvet " paramentum de velosio, cum armis 
 Domini Renati Regis Sicilice et defunctce Regince 
 Ysabellis" with the arms of the Sovereign Lord Rene, 
 King of Sicily, and of the defunct Queen Isabella. 
 Around these escutcheons were panels of cloth of gold 
 " panno aureo" on which were emblems of the Passion, 
 "ad ymagines Passiom's," lozengy diaperings, "alia 
 cum lozangiis et corona" and crowns, "seminata stellis" 
 * Broderies et Tissus de la Cathedrale d 'Angers, by de Farcy.
 
 THE CRUSADES TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. IOI 
 
 spotted with stars, " angelis aureis quorum quidem in- 
 censunt" with golden angels, some of them swinging 
 censers, " alii portant cruces et catices," others bearing 
 crosses and chalices. This variety of devices conveys 
 an impression of the splendour of this "great em- 
 broidery" which evoked great admiration during the 
 three hundred years it was preserved as the most im- 
 portant ornamental work in the cathedral at Angers. 
 
 Still to be seen in the church of Naintre near 
 Chatellerault, in Vienne, is a remarkable chasuble of 
 corresponding date. Upon its orphrey is figured 
 St. Thomas holding the New Testament in one hand 
 and a spear in the other ; above is an archbishop robed 
 in chasuble, adorned with a cross, and carrying an 
 archiepiscopal processional cross, with one cross bar. 
 Upon the cross, embroidered at the back of the 
 chasuble, is the Virgin seated in majesty, wearing 
 shoes on her feet in accordance with iconographical 
 ruling, and holding the naked infant Jesus on her 
 lap ; below are St. James the Greater and St. Barbe, 
 who carries in his hand a tower, representative of 
 that in which his father confined him ; the whole 
 work is finely wrought.* 
 
 Wherever a royal or princely court attracted stateli- 
 ness and luxury, its influence gave impulse to the art 
 of embroidery, as we have seen in regard to the rich 
 surroundings of Philip the Good and Charles the Bold 
 in Flanders. 
 
 Charles VII., having established his court at 
 Bourges, many embroiderers came to work there, 
 amongst whom we note Colin Jolye as the producer, 
 
 * See Broderies et Tissus, by M. L. de Farcy.
 
 102 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 in 1454, of a splendid cope ordered by the king, and 
 of which a description is given in the Bulletin Arche'o- 
 logique (vol. iii., p. 86). Simonne de Gaules was 
 another equally distinguished needle-worker at Bourges. 
 
 Louis XL was deeply interested in the industry 
 of his kingdom. From Orleans he issued, 23rd 
 November, 1466, letters patent to establish a manufac- 
 ture of silken cloths in the town of Lyons, " in which, 
 it is said, the industry has already been begun." 
 Shortly after, he took up his residence at Tours, and 
 watched with close interest the embroiderers at work, 
 of whom Jehan de Moucy was the best known. His 
 Majesty determined to associate silk-weavers with them, 
 and accordingly had artisans brought over from Italy 
 in 1470, amongst whom were " a silk-trimmer, a dyer, 
 a thread-spinner, and a gold thread-drawer." The 
 chief of this body of artificers was Francois le Calabrais. 
 Mulberry trees were planted and cultivated, and weaving 
 frames set up ; the Gros de Tours became celebrated, 
 and in 1546 a Venetian ambassador reports finding 
 eight thousand frames weaving silks in Touraine. 
 
 For many years, and after Gregory X. had made it 
 the residence of the popes, and had imported workers 
 from Sicily, Naples, and Lucca (1309 1377), Avignon 
 was noted for its chasuble embroiderers' workrooms. 
 Pierre du Vaillant, the maker of the " great embroideries" 
 for Angers Cathedral, already mentioned, hailed from 
 Avignon. 
 
 Nismes adopted the arts of making silk stuffs from 
 Avignon, and has ever since been an important centre 
 for them. 
 
 In 1494 King Charles VIII., like Rene of Anjou,
 
 THE CRUSADES TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 103 
 
 returned victorious from an expedition into Sicily and 
 the kingdom of Naples, bringing with him great wealth 
 in the shape of objects of art and valuable textiles, and 
 surrounded himself with Italian artists who resided 
 close to his palace, the Chateau d'Amboise, where he 
 and his wife, Anne of Brittany, lived (fig. 44). Philip 
 de Comines mentions " the many workmen excelling 
 in divers crafts," whom the king " brought back from 
 Naples." They were placed under the direction of 
 Panthaleon Conte and his wife, whose wages amounted 
 to twenty Tournese pounds, or nearly ^4 a month.* 
 
 From this time may be said to have commenced the 
 growth in France of Italian influence, which developed 
 itself throughout the whole of the sixteenth century. 
 
 Italy had become the seat of a luxury unknown to 
 any other country, since the splendours of Byzantium 
 seven or eight centuries previously. 
 
 The Medici lived in a magnificence and pomp of 
 which we can form some conception from contemporary 
 paintings. Benozzo Gozzoli's fresco in the Riccardi 
 Palace at Florence presents us with a portrait of Lorenzo 
 dei Medici on horseback, in the character of one of the 
 Magian kings bringing gifts, and it is difficult to know 
 which most to admire, the sumptuous and glittering 
 embroideries with which his costume is decorated, or 
 the rich and elegant trappings of his white steed. 
 
 With the Medicean period we enter upon an epoch 
 of the Renaissance, the glory of which culminated in 
 the sixteenth century. But before leaving the Middle 
 Ages we must refer to the charm of their art. If less 
 studied in the refinement of its productions than that 
 
 * Archives de I' Art Fraitfais, by A. de Montaiglon.
 
 IO4 
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 of a subsequent and dazzling age, it was nevertheless 
 inspired with truer sentiment and purer taste, as may 
 have been inferred from our sketch of embroidery done 
 from the twelfth to the sixteenth century. 
 
 Summary. Stuffs upon 
 which embroidery was 
 worked in the Middle Ages 
 were called by various 
 names, such as linen cloths, 
 cloth of gold and of silver, 
 baudekin, samit, cendal 
 (often mentioned as Indian 
 cendal), velvet, camoca, 
 and tiraz or silk weavings, 
 etc. Many long disserta- 
 tions have been written by 
 different persons as to the 
 technical nature of the 
 stuffs so named; Francisque 
 Michel, in his Recherchcs 
 sur les Etoffes de Soie, has 
 nearly exhausted the sub- 
 ject,* dealing with it in a 
 masterly manner. Those 
 
 Brittany (m 
 
 collection). 
 
 Hochon 
 
 various methods of produc- 
 
 . . 
 
 ing textile fabrics will find 
 in Monsieur Michel's and Dr. Rock's learned books 
 material and guidance for their studies. We of 
 course cannot here propose to do more than discuss 
 ornamental embroidery; and in this respect we may 
 * See also Textile Fabrics, by the Very Rev. Daniel Rock, D.D.
 
 THE CRUSADES TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 105 
 
 broadly say that the unaffectedness of design which 
 marked the immediately preceding period is less con- 
 spicuous in work of the Middle Ages. One perceives 
 that the extension of Oriental and Byzantine influence, 
 aided by the crusades, helped both designer and em- 
 broiderer to step as it were on to a new stage. 
 
 Hence their 
 work is more 
 varied in execu- 
 tion, stiches are 
 better selected 
 and applied, 
 colouring is 
 richer, and shapes 
 of forms are 
 rendered with less 
 restraint; the 
 whole effect is 
 still characterized 
 by sincerity and 
 frankness in in- 
 spiration and 
 execution. 
 
 Heraldic and Fig- 45- Italian embroidery, fifteenth century 
 ,. . . . (in the Hcchon collection). 
 
 religious subjects 
 
 almost equally engaged the needle of the embroiderer, 
 a preference being shown for saints with militant 
 attributes. And it seems as though religious art in its 
 expressions in churches and monasteries was imbued 
 with the spirit animating the crusaders on their way to 
 Jerusalem. St. Maurice, centurion of Roman phalanxes ; 
 St. Martin, who was a soldier before he was consecrated 
 
 F
 
 106 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 bishop ; St. George represented as " a knight on horse- 
 back killing a wild beast " (ting chevalier a cheval qui occit 
 nn bestc), and above all, St. Michael piercing with his 
 lance the devil beneath his feet the famous saint 
 invoked by pious pilgrims at his shrine on the " mount 
 exposed to the buffetings of the waves," all these saints 
 are those whose effigies embroiderers from the twelfth 
 to fifteenth centuries preferred to depict. Saints 
 wearing armour were thus favourite subjects ; and this 
 militaryism is more or less distinctive of embroideries 
 at this period. 
 
 When our Saviour was represented it would be as 
 Christ crucified, surrounded by soldiers nailing Him 
 to the cross, or throwing dice for His garments ; or else 
 as Christ issuing from the tomb (issant d'ung tumbet), 
 to the amazement of the soldiery set to guard it. 
 
 Four ecclesiastical ornaments, sent as a gift to the 
 King of England, his son-in-law, were chosen by 
 Charles VI. for their embroideries of " the Blessed 
 Trinity, the Mount Olivet, St. Michael and St. George." 
 
 We have mentioned the importance assigned to the 
 display of heraldic bearings and pennons by knights 
 on going into battle or taking part in tournaments. 
 Princesses presided as umpires over these latter, which 
 were held in the lists ; and when applying themselves 
 to make embroideries for a church of either "our 
 Lady enthroned " or " a coronation of our Lady in the 
 midst of angels," they would introduce their own 
 portraits into them. 
 
 Thus, then, religious and heraldic subjects give the 
 peculiar characteristic observable in artistic needle- 
 work of the Middle Ages. It is one which does not
 
 THE CRUSADES TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. IO/ 
 
 similarly reveal itself in works of a later time when 
 customs more pacific and manners less severe pre- 
 vailed. At the commencement of the new period there 
 was doubtless a tendency towards refining and per- 
 fecting methods of execution, in the results of which, 
 however, we may look in vain for that noble boldness 
 and loyal frankness of style which pervaded the arts 
 of the Middle Ages.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 FROM THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO THE DEATH OF 
 LOUIS XIV. 
 
 LIKE other arts, embroidery in France and elsewhere 
 during the sixteenth century was dominated by Italian 
 influence. 
 
 Italy, of all countries that were engaged in weaving 
 industries, was the most proficient ; from Sicily to 
 Genoa, Milan and Venice, every town more or less had 
 its workrooms for weaving flax, cotton, and especially 
 silk. 
 
 Genoa and Venice were the principal European ports 
 for trade in silks from the Levant. Both in Sicily and 
 Lombardy silk-worm nurseries (niagnaneries) were 
 started, and sericulture was successfully pursued. 
 Lucca gold threads rivalled those of Cyprus, whilst 
 Milanese needles were reckoned as good as those 
 from Damascus. Circumstances therefore concurred 
 in making Italy a principal centre for beautiful 
 textiles. 
 
 The court of the popes, at the times of such pontiffs 
 as Julius II. de la Rovere, Leo X. dei Medici, and 
 Paul III. dei Farnesi, became the rallying point of the 
 best artists and handicraftsmen. And at the hands of 
 the popes, the Venetian doges, and dukes of Florence,
 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO DEATH OF LOUIS XIV. 109 
 
 Milan, and Ferrara, there was no lack of constant 
 orders for important works, which kept the Italian 
 embroiderers unceasingly employed. 
 
 The execution was carried to a very high degree 
 of finish. The smallest details were solicitously cared 
 for by the embroiderers, and the perfection of work 
 complied with the exactions of consumers possessing 
 a love for artistic productions. The flat tints of the 
 Middle Ages were wholly inadequate for embroideries, 
 which were required to be as subtle as paintings in 
 delicate tones and imperceptible blendings of colours. 
 Gradation of colours for threads, etc., was carried as far 
 as possible, split stitches of minute size were employed 
 for rendering with artful effect undulating contours 
 and skin textures in figure subjects, and these were 
 carried to exaggeration, when with questionable pro- 
 priety embroiderers called in the aid of the paint brush 
 to second the work of their needles. 
 
 Variety in embroideries was inexhaustible. Vene- 
 tians, noted for skill in glass-work of all sorts, 
 embroidered with coloured glass beads, much in the 
 manner of the ancient Egyptians.* To some extent 
 these bead embroideries may be likened to mosaics 
 made with little tesserae. At the South Kensington 
 Museum some few remarkable specimens are to be 
 seenf (fig. 46). But they are scarcely commendable 
 from the artistic point of view, notwithstanding a 
 certain gayness of effect in them. A few little beads 
 and pearls can no doubt be happily introduced into 
 certain portions of embroideries, whereas work ex- 
 
 * See Egyptian bead work in the Louvre and British Museum, 
 f These are considered to be of late twelfth-century work.
 
 110 
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 clusively done with them is usually unworthy of con- 
 sideration from any high standpoint of criticism.* 
 Their weight loads the stuff on to which they are 
 worked, and necessarily gives 
 it a disagreeable rigidity. The 
 least accident almost may break 
 the thread holding them, with 
 the result that they fall off and 
 leave bare spaces in the em- 
 broidery. Any analogy this 
 beadwork may have with mosaic 
 inlaying enforces the reserva- 
 tion of anything in the nature 
 of mosaic work to its special 
 purpose in connection with 
 architecture, and demonstrates 
 also that the flexible nature of a 
 textile is incompatible with any 
 modification of a decorative 
 process thoroughly suited to 
 flat, rigid, wall surfaces. 
 
 From one end of Europe to 
 the other Italian styles of em- 
 broidery were more or less 
 imitated. 
 
 Fig. 46. Venetian bead em- j -- the p ar j s i an Corpo- 
 broidery of the twelfth JJ 
 
 century (?) (in the Ken- ration of Embroiderers issued a 
 
 notice that, "for the future 
 
 the colouring in representations of nude figures and 
 faces should be done in three or four gradations 
 * It certainly recalls the wampum or belts and moccasins of North 
 Americans.
 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO DEATH OF LOUIS XIV. 1 1 1 
 
 of carnation dyed silk, and not as formerly with white 
 silks." * 
 
 Artists of distinction were not above making and 
 supplying designs for embroidery. Vasari relates 
 that Perino del Vaga made drawings of eight sub- 
 jects from the life of St. Peter for embroideries upon 
 a cope for Pope Paul VIII. 
 
 Raphael himself paid some attention to designs for 
 embroidery, and in Paris is a specimen worked from 
 a design which he made in compliance with an order 
 from Francis I. It is an oval medallion preserved in 
 the Cluny Museum (fig. 47). Originally it was part 
 of a set of furniture embroideries done upon a golden 
 ground, which consisted of coverings and hangings 
 for a bed, four arm-chairs, eighteen folding-stools, a 
 table-cover, a fire-screen, and a canopy for " the 
 coronation chamber." This chamber was decorated 
 with forty subjects, representing episodes in the 
 history of the Jews, and set within panels or 
 cartouches, surrounded by many figures. These 
 magnificent embroideries were in later years given 
 to the abbey of St. Denis, where they were kept 
 until the Revolution. Then, alas ! they were de- 
 stroyed, and nought remains of them but the solitary 
 fragment in the Cluny Museum. This measures 
 .80 metre in width and .50 metre in height. Upon 
 it is depicted the scene of the Israelites dancing in 
 a plain round the golden calf, which surmounts a 
 silver column. In the background to the left is 
 Moses receiving the tables of the Law; on the right 
 are the Israelitish tents. The action of the figures 
 
 * Victor Gay, Glossaire Arche'ologique, p. 227.
 
 112 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 is pourtrayed with great grace, whilst the whole 
 
 composition reflects a masterly execution. It is 
 much to be regretted that this embroidery of first-
 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO DEATH OF LOUIS XIV. 113 
 
 class historical importance is in a bad state of 
 preservation. A book published in Paris in 1775, 
 entitled the Richesses Tire'es du Tre'sor de I'Abbaye de 
 Saint Denis, contains a complete description of " the 
 Coronation Chamber," with its forty medallions of 
 embroidery.* 
 
 Many French inventories include mentions of " em- 
 broidered pictures." In that of Charles V. there is 
 one of "a picture of embroidery, with a portrait of 
 Monseigneur le Dauphin mounted on a black horse, 
 driving it with a stick which he holds in his hand." 
 
 Margaret of Austria owned several portable em- 
 broidered pictures. One of a pair is described as a 
 " broidery, in which are Our Lady, St. Catherine, and 
 St. John the Evangelist, fitted into a scarlet velvet case." 
 
 When the Augustinian friars came in 1659 and took 
 up their abode at the convent of Brou, they made an 
 inventory of the things they found there, amongst 
 which were " two pictures of needlework done by 
 the very hand of the foundress, one representing the 
 entombment of our Lord, the other the Presentation 
 in the Temple." 
 
 Soon pictures of this class were made of a larger 
 size than previously. Monsieur Ldon de Laborde 
 writes : " The art of embroidery then became a serious 
 and esteemed sister of painting ; for the needle, in truth 
 a painter's brush, traversed its canvas, leaving behind 
 it a dyed thread as a colour, producing a painting soft 
 in tone, ingenious in touch a picture without glistening 
 surface, brilliant without harshness." 
 
 * Leon de Laborde, La Renaissance ties Arts a la Cour de France, 
 vol. i., p. 993. 
 
 8
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 In the Spitzer collection we find one of such pictures, 
 most curious as an historical scene of manners and 
 customs (fig. 49). In the yard of one of his palaces 
 is Henry II., with Diane de Poitiers and numerous 
 courtiers, looking on at a fight between dogs and a 
 bear. The energy of the dogs and the keen interest 
 of the spectators are admirably interpreted. Moved 
 to pity by the sad plight of one of the dogs, which 
 is covered with gore from the savage wounds of the 
 
 bear, Diane is directing 
 an attendant to stay 
 the fight. 
 
 All the figures of the 
 persons are excellently 
 rendered, particularly 
 that of the king. The 
 stitches in silks used 
 to depict his face are 
 minute, and so ably dis- 
 posed as to give a most 
 
 Fig. 48. Panel or cartouche of Italian lifelike appearance to 
 embroidery of the sixteenth century. . , , . 
 
 the kings countenance- 
 
 The animals are treated with greater breadth of 
 execution, and this is increased to give due imitative 
 effect to the textures of the ground and of the masonry 
 of the castle about it. This is a very fine work of 
 French art. 
 
 We can safely say as much of another picture in 
 the same collection, the principal composition in which 
 represents the Entombment of our Lord, and might 
 possibly have belonged formerly to the Augustinians 
 at the Convent of Brou. Beneath this foremost scene
 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO DEATH OF LOUIS XIV. 1 15
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 are compartments displaying Hell, where Jesus is 
 seeking the prophets and saints of the old dispensa- 
 tion to bring them into the Kingdom of the Elect ; 
 all of which is interpreted with a really remarkable 
 purity and vigour of drawing and needlework. 
 
 But the needle has even surpassed itself in the 
 marvellous execution of its work for two panels, 
 adapted for a lectern cover. The more interesting 
 
 Fig. 50. Panel, displaying a sacramental procession, of Italian 
 sixteenth-century embroidery. 
 
 of these shows a symbolical procession of the Holy 
 Sacrament, in which both Old and New Testaments 
 are typified (fig. 50). At the head of the procession 
 is King David, dancing and singing psalms as he plays 
 his harp. Four monks vested in copes, whose gestures 
 are most naturally given, form the central group, carry- 
 ing the Holy Sacrament upon a brancard, overshadowed 
 by an elegant, golden, canopied shrine ; behind comes, 
 in sixteenth-century costumes, a troop of priests,
 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO DEATH OF LOUIS XIV. 1 1/ 
 
 nobles, magistrates, and common folk, amongst whom 
 may be descried a negro. A woman wearing a crown 
 is seated at a window, expressing by signs her admira- 
 tion. The style of the figures, and beautiful drawing 
 of the different facial expressions, together with the 
 masterly treatment of the perspective of the build- 
 ings and monuments, recall the manner of Paul 
 Veronese. Carried to such a pitch of perfection, 
 embroidery certainly attains to the charm of dis- 
 tinctive and unapproachable individuality. Executed 
 with a freedom not possible in tapestry-weaving, it 
 has quality of greater brilliancy than painting, and 
 the texture of its silks secures a play of light which 
 cannot be as well obtained by other means. For 
 subjects of small dimensions requiring close inspection, 
 embroidery, when of such perfection as that of this 
 panel, is sui generis and absolutely unrivalled. 
 
 The Museum of Art and Industry at Lyons contains 
 a picture of great beauty, representing an Ecce Homo, 
 of which we give an illustration. It is in the style 
 of Rembrandt's school (fig. 5 1 )- 
 
 At South Kensington is a picture, or small panel, 
 probably from an orphrey, of a saint seated beneath 
 a circular-headed niche, holding a cross and reading 
 the Gospels, embroidered after a design by the Floren- 
 tine Raffaellino del Garbo, pupil and friend of Philippb 
 Lippi. 
 
 But besides pictures we find at South Kensington 
 a series of embroidered specimens all worthy of close 
 study. In them, indeed, we have an incomparable 
 collection of works fully setting forth the history 
 of the art of embroidery. Let us now, however,
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 merely pause : to examine a bewitching specimen of 
 sixteenth-century embroidery, the design of which 
 might almost have been inspired by Virgil's Georgics. 
 The embroidery covers the outside of a casket, or 
 coffer, fourteen and three-quarter inches long by six 
 and a quarter high, and is evidently of French work 
 under Italian influence. The various subjects, each 
 
 of which is em- 
 blematical of a 
 month, are twelve 
 in number. Four 
 occur on the lid, 
 namely, those applic- 
 able to September, 
 October, November, 
 and December. The 
 two long panels, 
 one at each end of 
 the coffer, represent 
 April, in the epi- 
 sode of a noble 
 
 Fig. 51. EcceHomo (an embroidered pic- receiving a flower 
 ture in the Museum of Art and Industry rom a draped 
 at Lyons). 
 
 maiden, and August 
 
 in the harvest scene of a reaper cutting a rich field 
 of golden wheat ; the back and front sides of the coffer 
 are each split up into three panels, for the months 
 of January, February, March, and May, June, July. 
 The French inscriptions of these latter months Mai, 
 Jun, Julet are legible ; the other months are identifi- 
 able by the zodiacal signs, one in each panel. The 
 embroidery, which is padded, to give relief effects in
 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO DEATH OF LOUIS XIV. 1 19 
 
 various parts, such as the architectural ornaments, 
 is worked with gold threads, whipped round with fine 
 coloured silks ; certain forms are defined by gold 
 cords stitched down to outline them ; the faces of the 
 figures, and some of the charming glimpses of land- 
 scape, are wrought in long and short stitches with 
 coloured silks.* 
 
 Spanish embroiderers were almost equally skilful in 
 this class of work, and did not fail to adopt many 
 refinements of the art from the Italians. Although 
 the execution of the Spanish work was less compact 
 than that of the Italian, certain samples of it are hardly 
 of inferior artistic quality ; this is specially the case 
 with embroideries which owe both charm and style to 
 having been made from paintings by Murillo, the 
 master above others of the Spanish school. Of such, 
 the Spitzer collection contains a remarkable specimen, 
 an embroidered picture of a holy family seated 
 beneath a spreading tree in the midst of a sunny 
 landscape. 
 
 Some of the Spanish embroidered pictures are worked 
 with as sharp and crisp a relief as can be obtained in 
 wood-carving; as, for instance, are Adam and Eve in 
 the Cluny Museum, a monument of deplorable taste 
 which is in no way qualified by the surprising skill in 
 the execution of the reliefs. 
 
 Apart from pictures, and of a broader and more 
 decorative class, are certain very striking Spanish 
 altar-cloths of red velvet with arabesques, having the 
 
 * See description of this, pp. 285, 286, Descriptive Catalogue of 
 the Collections of Tapestry and Embroidery in the South Kensington 
 Museum.
 
 I2O 
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 appearance of being cut or chiselled out of solid gold ; 
 one similar to fig. 52, but with heraldic shields, has 
 been frequently engraved, notably in an interesting 
 report by Gaston le Breton upon the exhibition of 
 
 Fig. 52. Altar frontal of velvet with Spanish embroidery of the 
 sixteenth century. 
 
 textiles held under the auspices of the Union Centrale 
 des Arts Decoratifs* 
 
 One of the finest sets of embroidery exhibited in the 
 Ancient Art Section of the Paris Universal Exhibition 
 of 1878 consisted of four pieces of Spanish work for 
 
 * Les Arts du Bois, des Tissus et dii Papier, p. 173 (published by 
 Quantin).
 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO DEATH OF LOUIS XIV. 121 
 
 funeral ceremonies (figs. 53 and 54). Square panels 
 containing cartouches, in which were skulls, with 
 balanced arrangements of floriated scrolls about them, 
 formed the principal decorative motifs of these em- 
 broideries. The play of the elegant golden scrolls was 
 in happy contrast 
 with the sombre 
 objects within the 
 cartouches, and 
 is likened by 
 M.Theodore Biais, 
 in the Gazette des 
 Beaux Arts for 
 September 1878, 
 to a hymn of hope 
 arising with con- 
 soling tones 
 amidst the stern 
 realities of death. 
 The design (fig. 
 53) is masterly; 
 the workmanship 
 precise and accu- 
 rate, without pre- 
 tentious pettiness 
 
 of elaboration. 
 
 Fig. 53. Dalmatic of Spanish embroidery. 
 The subjects in 
 
 the centre are wrought with gold threads couched in 
 coloured silks, whilst with felicitous counterchange, the 
 cartouches are worked with coloured silks couched in 
 gold thread. The scrolls are of gold thread laid, and 
 their leafy termination and fruits are of coloured silks
 
 122 
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 overstitched with gold. The whole, from its breadth 
 of style, harmonious relationship of the materials in 
 which it is wrought, completeness of execution, and 
 
 just correlation of details, is one ot the best specimens 
 that can be recommended for the study of this sort 
 of embroidery.
 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO DEATH OF LOUIS XIV. 123 
 
 Another piece, probably of Spanish origin also, lovely 
 in its details, but a little heavy in its relief, belongs to 
 the Spitzer collection, and is a lectern cover, said to have 
 been a gift of Charles V. to the monastery of St. Juste, 
 in Estramadura, whither he retired to end his days in 
 1558. This lectern cover is a sort of long rectangular 
 scarf of red velvet, the main portion of which is 
 powdered over with blossom, and crossed S devices 
 worked in gold thread. At the ends of the velvet cover 
 are panels, the more sumptuous of which contains a 
 figure subject. The other is blazoned in gold, with a 
 large eagle (emblem of St. John the Evangelist), accen- 
 tuated in relief and almost filling up the panel. In the 
 spaces between its head, wings, and claws, are golden 
 spanglings shaped like little blossoms. Upon the breast 
 of the bird is a medallion, in which is a portrait of 
 the saint delicately embroidered in coloured silks. The 
 panel at the other end of the cover shows us St. John, 
 seated in the midst of landscape scenery, writing his 
 Gospel, inspired thereto by the Virgin who is figured 
 in the skies above. The embroidery is well carried 
 out, though with less refinement than one would find 
 in a correspondingly important piece of Italian work- 
 manship. The border around the whole cloth is 
 composed of a pattern of repeated truncated and leafy 
 branches.* 
 
 The date of this embroidery is that of the best period 
 of the Flemish and Dutch schools of painting, which 
 were noted for extraordinary care in minutely depicting 
 detail. 
 
 In a way we may trace a similar scrupulousness 
 
 * Theodore Biais, Gazette des Beaux Arts, August 1874.
 
 124 
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 of execution in Flemish embroideries of this period, for 
 which a fair justification can be pleaded from the 
 materials so used being under more restraint than 
 
 those of the 
 painters. 
 
 Many orphreys 
 and chasuble 
 crosses vie with 
 painted panels of 
 Flemish trip- 
 ty chs . One 
 selected as an 
 illustration of this 
 (fig. 5 5) is typical 
 of the finest 
 work of its kind. 
 The design is a 
 s ixteen th-cen tu ry 
 version of the 
 Jesse Tree device. 
 King David with 
 a long beard is 
 in the centre ; and 
 the character of all 
 the figures is 
 forcibly rendered. 
 Supreme quality 
 of Flemish em- 
 
 Fig- 55- Cross or orphrey from a Flemish 
 chasuble (in the Hochon collection). 
 
 broidery is to be seen in an altar frontal, 4.60 metres 
 long and I.IO wide, exhibited in the Royal Museum of 
 Antiquities and Armour of the Porte de la Hal at 
 Brussels. It comes from the abbey of Grimbergen,
 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO DEATH OF LOUIS XIV '125 
 
 and bears the arms of Christopher Outers, prior, from 
 1615 to 1647.* 
 An inscription, Panis confortans Christus, indicates 
 
 Fig. 56. The Last Supper, embroidered on a panel to an altar frontal 
 (in the Museum of Antiquities and Armour at Brussels). 
 
 that the main idea of the design is the glorification of 
 the mystical feast of the Eucharist. This the artist 
 illustrates by means of a series of panels separated by 
 
 * See Classified Documents concerning Flemish Art in the Fifteenth 
 and Sixteenth Centuries, Van Ysendeck.
 
 126 
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 architectural ornaments, each panel containing incidents 
 from the Gospel, in which Jesus Christ figures as 
 taking part in a repast of some sort. The Last Supper 
 of course occupies the first place 
 (fig. 56), then follow panels with the 
 wedding feast in Cana of Galilee, 
 the entertainment in Bethany in 
 the house of Simon the leper, the 
 repast with Zacchseus, and the 
 dinner at Emmaus. The archi- 
 tectural surroundings, and acces- 
 sories couched in both glistening 
 and burnished gold, are designed 
 with great elegance, and modelled 
 in gentle relief. The grouping of 
 the different figures in each panel 
 is admirable ; Christ, sometimes at 
 the centre, at others at the side of 
 the table, is always rendered with 
 dazzling majesty. The faces, em- 
 broidered with utmost skill in silks, 
 are fine and full of expression, the 
 actions appropriate to the scene, 
 and the attitudes nobly expressed. 
 
 Fig- 57- Spanish relief ~,, . n >-. 
 
 embroidery in gold The specimen is in fine condition, 
 threads and coloured \y e know of no better nor more 
 
 silks (on an orphrey 
 
 from the Fortuny important piece of needlework. It 
 collection). ^ j fl ^ thg gem of the highly 
 
 remarkable set of embroideries to be seen in the Porte 
 de la Hal Museum. 
 
 Before this period embroidery had been done in con- 
 siderable quantities with coloured threads upon canvas
 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO DEATH OF LOUIS XIV. I2/ 
 
 and on white linen articles. Linen had been somewhat 
 rare. Queen Isabella of Bavaria had in her wedding 
 trousseau three dozen " chemises of Holland," a quan- 
 tity which seemed a great luxury to the French court.* 
 Her spouse, Charles VI., wore silk shirts, however, one 
 of which is recorded as of " white 
 silk, striped with red silk and 
 embroidered with letters of gold 
 (1422)." 
 
 In the accounts of Margaret 
 of France, dated 1545, we find 
 " four livres, twelve sous (about 
 twelve shillings), for a trimming 
 to a chemise, ornamented with 
 crimson silk." 
 
 White thread embroideries 
 were hardly known ; 
 linen garments, || 
 rarely of very fine % 
 texture, were quite 
 plain and without 
 decoration. 
 
 But in the six- 
 teenth century this 
 
 gradually changed ; Fig. 58. Border of red silk embroidery 
 
 on a linen cloth (in M. E. Bocher's 
 collection). 
 
 the manufacture of 
 linen was im- 
 proved, and finer qualities played an important part 
 in costume, whilst other varieties were; more largely 
 used for household purposes. 
 
 Considerable numbers of towels or napkins, em- 
 
 * Bezon, Diet. Gen. des Tt'ssus Anc. et Mod., vol. viii., p. 232.
 
 128 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 broidered with nice effect in red silk, etc., thus came 
 into use (figs. 58, 59, and 60). 
 
 A desire for more pronounced effects of decoration 
 in the borders of such clothes also arose. Point coupe 
 (cut work) was accordingly adopted, resulting in the 
 production of patterns with cut-out and open details, 
 many filled in with small devices of needlework, which 
 gave value to the more solid sections of the design 
 about them. Through the influence of a taste for 
 lighter and less compactly woven grounds the limits of 
 needlework were extended, and embroidery on linen, 
 
 from which certain 
 threads had been 
 withdrawn (a fils 
 tire's), leaving such 
 as were sufficient to 
 carry an overcasting 
 
 of stitches, came into 
 Fig. 59. Border of embroidery, with de- 
 
 vices of double-headed eagle, crown, VOgUC J and, later 
 
 ' ""'" Cl ' h <m sti ". embroidery 
 
 on net. 
 
 At this period it was the fashion for all ladies to 
 apply themselves to embroidering. Catherine de 
 Me'dicis was renowned for her skill in it. Brantome 
 tells us that she would gather round her her daughters, 
 Claude, Elizabeth, and Margaret, with their cousins the 
 Guises, and sometimes the exiled Mary Stuart, and 
 with them " she passed a great portion of her time 
 after dinner in silk needlework, in which she was as 
 great an adept as possible." 
 
 Ronsard, referring to Queen Margot, sister of 
 Francis I., writes :
 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO DEATH OF LOUIS XIV. 129 
 
 Elle adonnot son courage 
 A faire maint bel onvrage 
 Dessus la toile, et encor 
 A joindre la soye et For.* 
 
 But for such broideries ladies required special patterns, 
 and drawings of these would be passed from hand 
 to hand for each to make copies from them. Hence 
 the circulation of patterns was somewhat slow. 
 
 Happily new inventions at this time came to the 
 
 Fig. 60. Coloured silk embroidery on linen of the 
 sixteenth century (in the Cluny Museum). 
 
 assistance of the ladies. Engraving on wood had been 
 practised for a century. Maso di Finiguerra had given 
 a new impulse to the use of engraved metal plates from 
 which impressions could be taken, and Gutenberg 
 issued his first proofs of printing from movable type in 
 1454. Such various means, of bringing writings and 
 designs within the reach of all, were adopted early in 
 the sixteenth century for the publication of beautiful 
 embroidery patterns made up as pattern books. Their 
 * Ronsard, Ode a la Royne de Navarre, Book II., ode vii. 
 
 9
 
 130 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 success was considerable ; since their numbers in- 
 creased as if by enchantment. In a few years 
 French, German, Italian, Flemish, and English pub- 
 lishers spread broadcast books of designs made by 
 their best engravers, in addition to those previously 
 issued. 
 
 Pierre Quinty seems to be the first of such publishers. 
 In 1527 appeared his "new and subtle book respecting 
 the art and science of making embroidery, fringes, 
 tapestries, as well as of other crafts done with the 
 needle." * 
 
 Francis Pelegrin at Paris, William Vostermans at 
 Angers, Claude Nourry dit Leprince at Lyons, 
 Tagliente, Nicolo d'Aristotile, Vavassore le Guadagnino 
 and twenty others at Venice, published in rapid suc- 
 cession books of ingenious and interesting patterns. 
 
 The new style of open work led to further develop- 
 ments of needlework, and little by little from embroidery 
 was evolved needlepoint lace, of which more here- 
 after, when we shall also go more fully into the 
 question of the pattern books here merely referred to 
 incidentally. 
 
 Many of them, and especially the earlier ones, like 
 that of Pierre Quinty, relate solely to embroidery; 
 but the arts of embroidery and lace-making, as dis- 
 played by the patterns in some of the books, frequently 
 merged into one another in such a way as to render the 
 distinctions between the several points of union difficult 
 of definition. Later on we shall endeavour to dis- 
 engage these difficulties one from the other. 
 
 * " Livre nouveau et subtil touchant 1'art et science tant de brouderie 
 fronssures, tapisseries, c6me autre mestiers quo fait a Pesguille.''
 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO DEATH OF LOUIS XIV. 1 31 
 
 Under Henry II. costume was scarcely more than 
 a mass of embroidery. Black velvet, principally em- 
 ployed, was enlivened by dainty gold threads, which 
 deviously coursed in traceries along borders, and as 
 insertions over men's doublets and cloaks. In women's 
 dresses the bodies, sleeves, and borders of the skirts 
 were embroidered, and a panel, or band of similar 
 work, ran up the front of the dress.* The more fre- 
 quent ornamental devices, repeated in series, were those 
 of reversed and interlaced S's, truncated leafy branches, 
 and little compartments enclosing flowerets and pome- 
 granates, dolphins and intertwisted scrolls, all of which 
 occur in the pattern books in delightful variety. 
 Amongst such we meet with the combined cypher of 
 Diane de Poitiers and Henry II. 
 
 At this time, too, hand-knitting of stockings was a 
 favourite occupation. The first pair is said to have 
 been worn by Henry II. when he attended the marriage 
 of his sister, Margaret of France, with Emmanuel 
 Philibert, Duke of Savoy. Embroidery was worked 
 on stockings as on everything else, from velvet caps to 
 linen underclothes. When dead, the king was laid out 
 in state, "dressed in a Holland shirt most excellently 
 broidered about the collar and the cuffs."f 
 
 After the demise of her royal spouse, Catherine de 
 Medicis adopted, in her mourning garb, a fanciful 
 luxuriousness, of which we can scarcely form a con- 
 ception ; amongst other things she had a mourning 
 bed, concerning which M. Bonnaflfe has gathered 
 
 * Carrying one back to a similar band of embroidery in the peplos 
 of Athene Polias (fig. 19, p. 36). 
 
 f See description by Godefroy in Le Ceremonial de France.
 
 132 
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 numerous particulars in following his close investiga- 
 tions of the queen's accounts, recorded after her 
 decease in 1589. This bed was astounding in its 
 wealth of embroidery, as may be inferred from the 
 following extract : 
 
 11 A bed of black velvet, embroidered with pearls, 
 powdered with crescents and suns, a foot-board, head- 
 
 Fig. 61. French embroidery in small tent and cross stitches on 
 canvas (in Mademoiselle de Bressolles' collection). 
 
 board, nine valances, and coverlet of state similarly 
 bedecked with crescents and suns; three damask cur- 
 tains, with leafy wreaths and garlands figured upon a 
 goH-and- silver ground, and fringed along the edges 
 with broideries of pearls." 
 
 It stood in a chamber all hung " with rows of the 
 queen's devices in cut black velvet on cloth of silver."
 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO DEATH OF LOUIS XIV. 133 
 
 The adjoining room was draped " with black satin, 
 ornamented with white gimp work." 
 
 The reign of Charles IX. was melancholy with its 
 religious warfares, and his subjects suffered great 
 miseries. Complaints of the extravagance of the court 
 were endless, and petitions were numerous. One, 
 presented to Catherine de Medicis in 1586, is typical. 
 It is entitled " An Address upon the Extreme Dearness 
 of Living, . . . etc., presented to the mother of the 
 king by one of her faithful servitors, Du Haillan de 
 Bordeaux." Referring to the court circle it sets forth 
 that "their mills, their lands, their pastures, their 
 woods, and all their revenues are wasted upon 
 embroideries, insertions, trimmings, tassels, fringes, 
 hangings, gimps, needleworks, small chain stitchery, 
 germanders, quiltings, back stitchings, etc., . . . new 
 diversities of which are invented from day to day." 
 
 When Henry III. succeeded Charles IX. his depen- 
 dents gave themselves up to an exaggeration of fashion 
 in wearing velvets damasked with gold thread. Their 
 ornamentation was almost always in the best taste, and 
 this partially accounts for the employment during a 
 protracted period of such fabrics. The same decorative 
 motives were to be seen in men's doublets as in the 
 delicate chasing of their daggers; sword-guards and 
 ivory mounts to muskets repeated the favourite wreaths 
 and garlands and scrolls, amongst which birds, dogs, 
 and other animals disported themselves with delightful 
 ornamental effect. 
 
 Henry III. founded the Order of the St. Esprit 
 (3 1st December, 1578), the regulations of which applied 
 to the veriest details of its ceremonials. All the knights
 
 134 ! EMBROIDERY. 
 
 wore costumes and mantles of red velvet embroidered 
 with gold ; the hat, mantle, doublet, and even the backs 
 of the gloves were all worked in gold with the duly 
 prescribed emblems of the order, the chief of which 
 was typical of the Holy Ghost. The vestments of the 
 clergy engaged in the religious functions of the order 
 were also sumptuously embroidered with this emblem. 
 
 At length, however, the rage for costumes made with 
 heavy velvets, which had been so generally worn for 
 more than a century, came to an end ; and a reaction 
 set in in favour of brocades and brocatelles, stuffs of 
 flowery patterns, the designs for which gave birth to 
 the use of pomegranates and other fruits with fine 
 foliage. The designers sought inspiration from plants 
 blossoming in luxuriant fulness. An intelligent horti- 
 culturalist (Jean Robin) set himself to meet the demand 
 in this respect, by opening a garden with conservatories 
 in which he cultivated strange varieties of plants, then 
 but little known in our latitudes. This proved , an 
 immense success. 
 
 In a short time the king (Henry IV.) purchased 
 Jean Robin's horticultural establishment, which, under 
 the name of Jardin du Rot, became crown property. 
 The learned Guy de la Brosse in 1626 propounded the 
 suggestion that medical students might study the plants 
 without interference with the designers for embroideries 
 and tapestries ; whence the first Jardin des Plantes 
 (Botanical Garden), with its Natural History Museum, 
 came into being. This institution seemed so excellent 
 that every country Adopted it as an example and founded 
 similar ones. Who would have thought it possible for 
 embroidery thus to have come to the aid of science !
 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO DEATH OF LOUIS XIV. 135 
 
 But, as may be easily divined, taste for showy 
 stuffs could but stimulate the wild expenses in- 
 curred by great nobles. In spite of the personal 
 simplicity observed by good King Henry IV., and 
 the austere disposition of his minister Sully, fops and 
 exquisites took advantage of public ceremonies to 
 uphold luxurious displays, at times carried to amazing 
 excess. Bassompierre, in his Memoires, tells how, for 
 the baptism of Louis XIII., he had a costume made of 
 flowered cloth of gold bedizened with so many pearls 
 that they alone cost 8,OOO ecus, not to mention 6,OOO 
 ecus for the stuffs and the making of the clothes, in all 
 14,000 ecus, or about 167,000 francs (6,680) of current 
 coin. 
 
 Henry IV., opposed to this courtly folly, issued 
 several edicts against " the glitterings and gildings." 
 
 But the most important of such edicts was that by 
 Louis XIII., in 1629, bearing the title "Regulation of 
 Superfluity in Clothes." This law put a limit to ex- 
 penditure for costume and for the table. Article 133 is 
 interesting here on account of its enumeration of the 
 ornamental articles then worn. It runs : 
 
 " We forbid men and women to wear in any way 
 whatsoever embroidery on cloth or flax, imitations of 
 embroidery, of bordering made up with cloth and 
 thread, and of cutwork for ' rebates/ capes, sleeves, done 
 upon quintain and other linens, laces, ' passamaynes,' 
 and other threadwork made with bobbins. 
 
 " And we forbid the use of all other ornaments upon 
 capes, sleeves, and other linen garments, save trimmings, 
 cutwork, and laces manufactured in this country which 
 do not exceed at most the price of three pounds the ell,
 
 136 
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 that is, for the band and its trimmings together, without 
 evasion ; 
 
 " Upon pain of confiscation of the aforesaid capes, 
 chainworks, collars, hats, and mantles which may 
 be found upon offending persons; as well as the 
 coaches and horses which may be found similarly 
 bedecked." 
 
 It is almost impossible to believe that such a 
 
 sumptuary law was 
 either seriously en- 
 forced or respected, 
 in the face of the 
 pleasing and nume- 
 rous engravings of 
 costume published at 
 this date by Abraham 
 Bosse, which we shall 
 have to discuss more 
 amply in the section 
 on laces. 
 
 Fig.62. Embroidered ammunition pouch Moreover, these 
 of the time of Louis XIII. (in the edicts really con- 
 
 cerned embroideries 
 
 at court only, and did not affect those on ecclesiastical 
 vestments, the output of which was always consider- 
 able. Louis XIII., on the advice of his famous 
 minister, Cardinal Richelieu, must have been careful 
 to avoid doing anything to militate against the pro- 
 duction of such rich ecclesiastical adornments. We 
 even find in the Theatre cCHonneur, published in 1620 
 by Andre Favyn, a description of superb religious vest- 
 ments, etc., made to the order of the king in 1619, by
 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO DEATH OF LOUIS XIV. 137 
 
 his Majesty's embroiderer Alexandre Paynet, for pre- 
 sentation to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 As a specimen of the character of ecclesiastical work 
 done at this period we give a cut (fig. 63) of a hand- 
 some chasuble, belonging to Messrs. Tassinari and 
 Chatel, on which, set in massive gold couchings, are 
 medallions wrought in coloured silks. 
 
 Louis XIV. gave the highest encouragement to 
 embroidery; its splendour in house decorations, on 
 furniture and costume, surpassed that previously dis- 
 played. 
 
 The wondrous luxury at Versailles dazzled the whole 
 of Europe ; but the gorgeousness of many details in 
 it overshot the bounds of good taste, and was monstrous 
 in exaggeration. There were, for instance, gold em- 
 broidered caryatid figures in the king's apartment 
 measuring fifteen feet high, and proportionately bold in 
 relief. Such a substitution of embroidery for decoration, 
 which should have been executed rather in metal or 
 wood carving, was clearly a mistake. A textile fabric 
 and threads are not materials appropriate to a design of 
 this nature. And no matter what amount of skill may 
 have been involved in embroidering them, we cannot 
 acquiesce in Saint Aubin's statement that these Louis 
 XIV. caryatids were " specimens of masterwork beyond 
 eulogy." 
 
 The king, however, showed better taste in matters of 
 costume, and the blue uniforms which he recognized as 
 " regulation uniforms " (fig. 64) were pleasing in appear- 
 ance. In 1664 an order was issued that the right of 
 wearing them would be granted only by special favour
 
 Fig. 63. Cross or orphrey on the back ol a cope of Louis XIII. 's period, 
 embroidered in gold and silver (in the collection of Messrs. Tas- 
 sinari and Chatel).
 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO DEATH OF LOUIS XIV. 139 
 
 of the king, and on a licence signed by himself ! The 
 number of wearers was limited ; and when one died 
 another was appointed. 
 
 The coat was of blue, lined with red, embroidered 
 with a fine pattern in gold picked out with silver; metal 
 spangles were freely scattered between the forms. 
 Given the sparkling saloons in which these uniforms 
 were worn, the golden equipages which conveyed the 
 
 Fig. 64. Design of the embroidery on regulation uniforms 
 (Louis XIV.), after St. Aubin. 
 
 wearers, and the magnificence of the scene is easily 
 pictured. 
 
 Louis XIV. had many embroiderers attached to his 
 household ; and we find in the list of his domestic 
 officers, amongst those of his hereditary grooms of 
 the chamber, the names of Jean le Boyteux, Jacques 
 Remy, Jean Henry, and his son Etienne Henry, all 
 embroiderers. 
 
 On the 2nd June, 1679, Jacques Remy receives a 
 payment of 4,000 livres (about 200), " on account of
 
 140 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 embroidered brocade, which he was making for the 
 king," a typical instance of the important commissions 
 given to such workmen. 
 
 Besides the above-mentioned embroiderers specially 
 retained for the king's service, his Majesty employed 
 others at the Gobelins factory where their workrooms 
 adjoined those of the tapestry-makers. These were 
 Simon Fayette and Philibert Balland, who were en- 
 gaged upon the embroidering of the hangings, door 
 and other curtains and coverings for furniture of all 
 sorts. Fayette's speciality was for figures, whilst 
 Balland's was for landscapes.* 
 
 The designs for their work was supplied by the 
 king's designers : Bailly, who painted in miniature, 
 Bonnemer de Falaise, Testelin, and Boulongne the 
 younger. 
 
 Their names frequently recur in the accounts for the 
 king's buildings.f We give a few extracts from those 
 of the years 1671 and following : 
 
 " Paid to Testelin for a painting of Jupiter on his 
 eagle, to be used as a pattern for embroidery, 300 
 livres (or 15). 
 
 " To Fayette, for works in which he embroidered the 
 figures, 2,345 livres (about ^117). 
 
 " To Balland, for works in which he embroidered the 
 landscapes, 2,855 livres (about ^143). 
 
 "To Balland, for embroideries representing the 
 capture of birds in flight, 400 livres (or 20). 
 
 "To Boulongne, for drawings of birds, 72 livres 
 (or 3). 
 
 * A.-L. Lacordaire, Notice Historique sur les Gobelins. 
 f Jules Guiffrey, Contptes des Bailments du Roi.
 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO DEATH OF LOUIS XIV. 14! 
 
 " To Bonnemer, painter, for six paintings upon 
 vellum, used as patterns for the furniture embroideries 
 in the gallery at Versailles, 300 livres (or 15)." 
 
 Other evidence indicates the lavish expenditure 
 incurred by the king for woven fabrics used in his 
 palace at Versailles. We find Berain furnishing the 
 design for a figured velvet which the king ordered from 
 a weaver of St. Maur at a cost of 1,000 livres (or 50) 
 the ell! Its manufacture was so intricate and slow 
 that only a few ells of it were completed before the 
 king died. 
 
 But the patterns of these fine fabrics, magnificent 
 tapestries, and sumptuous embroideries were all of a 
 grandiose style. The noble attitudes of the persons 
 depicted in them, the bold ornamental forms, the 
 luxuriance of flowers, the excellent selection of emblems 
 always clear and straightforward in their symbolism, 
 such as royal suns, helmets, swords, standards, and 
 triumphal trumpets, all contributed to a greatness of 
 style, which is still impressive. 
 
 Amongst the emblems thus embroidered occurs the 
 baton of the Marshal of France, the shape in which it 
 was then designed being retained to the present time. 
 It is a staff eighteen inches long, covered with blue 
 velvet and embroidered in gold satin stitch with thirty- 
 six fleurs de lys. The name of the marshal and date 
 of his appointment are engraved upon the gold ferrule 
 on the end of the staff. 
 
 The admirable portraits by Hyacinthe Rigaud, Lar- 
 gilliere, and many others, which have been faithfully 
 engraved by Nanteuil, Leonard Gautier, and Pierre 
 Simon, supply us with accurate pictorial information
 
 142 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 as to minutest particulars in the beautiful embroidery 
 used during this brilliant period upon costumes. 
 
 Ladies' dresses were generally less flowered and 
 bedecked with gold work than men's. With a refined 
 taste, women gave preference to wearing soft and fine- 
 textured linens, white embroideries, and thread laces, 
 so becoming to the skin. Persons having a taste for 
 real elegance ridiculed the ostentatious gold trimmings 
 and embroideries. Here, for example, is some of 
 Madame de Sevigne's delightful banter about them : 
 " M. de Langlee has given Madame de Montespan a 
 dress of gold upon gold, wrought over with gold, with 
 hems of gold, and then over it a curling additional 
 embroidery of one gold mixed with another certain 
 gold, making altogether the most divine fabric that 
 I could possibly have imagined ! ! ! Fairies certainly 
 made all this in secret." 
 
 But it should not be supposed that in the midst of 
 this abundant luxury women were indolent and dis- 
 played no taste in the choice and making of em- 
 broideries. Of Madame de Maintenon it is said that 
 she herself worked at embroidery, not only in her 
 apartments, but when out walking or driving. "Hardly 
 fairly ensconced in her carriage," according to a letter 
 of the time, " and before the coachman had flicked his 
 horses, this good lady put on her spectacles and 
 pulled her needlework out of the bag she carried with 
 her." 
 
 Then again, when the college at St. Cyr was under 
 her direction, Madame de Maintenon devoted the 
 greater measure of her efforts towards having the 
 young and aristocratic girls in the school instructed
 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO DEATH OF LOUIS XIV. 143 
 
 in embroidery, and a quaint print now in the Biblio- 
 theque Nationale displays her, surrounded by pupils, 
 holding pieces of needlework, and grouped, by stand- 
 ards of difficulty suited to schoolgirls, of one, two, or 
 three years' training. There can be little doubt that 
 work by three years' pupils is still to be seen in the 
 palace at Fontainebleau, on the hangings in Madame 
 de Main tenon's 
 apartment. These 
 hangings, em- 
 broidered at St. Cyr, 
 are covered with 
 Chinese scenes upon 
 a jonquil yellow 
 ground. 
 
 Workboxes and 
 delicious little cases 
 for scissors, needles, 
 and thimbles, de- 
 positories special to 
 a lady's boudoir 
 known as bonheur 
 
 Fig. 65. Indian coloured embroidery 
 (in the Cluny Museum). 
 
 du jour, etc., reveal 
 
 the fact, as testified 
 
 by specimens of them in collections, that many ladies 
 
 did not disdain employing some part of their leisure 
 
 in the art of the needle. 
 
 Europe followed the lead of France in the fashion 
 of embroideries, and never perhaps had so enormous 
 a quantity of costly specimens been consumed. 
 
 On its part, the East continued to put forth needle- 
 work of fantastic splendour. When Sobieski, King of
 
 144 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 Poland, overcame the Turks in 1683, compelling them 
 to raise the siege of Vienna, he took possession of a 
 canopy hung with curtains, beneath which the Koran 
 and Mahomet's standard had been reverentially kept 
 in the Turkish camp. It was made of Smyrna gold 
 brocade, embroidered in turquoises and pearls, with 
 verses from the Koran. Its supports were of silver- 
 gilt, beautifully chased and profusely set with enamelled 
 and jewelled medallions. Sobieski had it converted 
 into a state bed, which at his death was valued at 
 700,000 Tournese livres. 
 
 An interesting attempt was made at this period to 
 induce the Chinese to imitate in embroidery the great 
 decorative tapestry hangings that Louis XIV. had hung 
 on the walls of his palaces. It seems probable that em- 
 broidery was producible in the far East at a minimum 
 cost, and so tempted the enterprise of Portuguese or 
 Dutch merchants, who were almost the only traders 
 with these distant parts. Vasco de Gama was the first 
 to double the Cape of Good Hope, and disembarked at 
 Calcutta in May 1498. A hundred years later, in 
 1602, the Dutch had united under one powerful Com- 
 pagnie des Grandes Indes all the associations which 
 had been formed to deal in the products of the then 
 little-known Asiatic countries. 
 
 Colbert, aiming at a greater extension of French 
 export trade, gave every encouragement to shipowners 
 at Marseilles, Bordeaux, Rochefort, St. Malo, and 
 Havre, to found a Compagnie des Indes, which should 
 compete with the Portuguese and Dutch. And it may 
 have been under his directions that commissions were 
 given to the Chinese to make embroideries on large
 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO DEATH OF LOUIS XIV. 145 
 
 cloths previously prepared with drawings and paintings 
 of figure subjects, such as those done by eminent 
 painters like Le Brun and his pupils. 
 
 There are some important door hangings at the Cluny 
 Museum, in the borders of which are French fleurs de lys 
 intermixed with Indian ornament (fig. 66). Other parts 
 of them more whimsical in effect were probably left 
 
 Fig. 66. Indian embroider}-, with the device ofthefleitr de lys 
 introduced (in the Cluny Museum). 
 
 blank by the designers, and the embroiderers accord- 
 ingly worked over them as their own taste dictated ; 
 whence it happens that persons with distinctly European 
 poses and actions are represented as wearing clothes, 
 and moving in scenery and amongst surroundings all 
 decorated or treated in a Chinese style. Incomplete as 
 these experiments really are, we felt that it would be 
 
 10
 
 146 
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 wrong to ignore them, since the effort made by those 
 undertaking them was very considerable. 
 
 Fig. 67. Velvet costume embroidered in gold and silver for Catherine 
 of Brandebourg, seventeenth century (in the Buda-Pesth Museum). 
 
 Looking back we see that the sixteenth and seven- 
 teenth centuries are periods of great splendour in
 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO DEATH OF LOUIS XIV. 147 
 
 embroidery. No temerity was wanting on the part of 
 those giving orders for all sorts of needlework ; and 
 workers of marvellous aptitude and dexterity in France, 
 Italy, Spain, and Flanders were always to be found, 
 capable of carrying out the unconditional and almost 
 priceless commissions given to them. The patrons of 
 embroidery at this time may be occasionally charged 
 with the reproach of having instigated the production 
 of articles exaggerated in character, and of having 
 indulged an inordinate craving for effect of unstinted 
 and tawdry pretentiousness, which beguiled workers 
 into an unhealthy style. Still, embroidery of this 
 period, on the whole, attained a condition of perfection 
 which leaves the bulk of that subsequently produced far 
 in the lurch.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 FROM LUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 
 
 THE character of ornament and decoration during the 
 reign of Louis XV., which commenced under the 
 inauspicious influence of the Regency, reflected the 
 dissolute tone in manners developed at that period. 
 It consequently stands in marked contrast with the 
 breadth of style that had obtained in the previous 
 reign. Dignity of warlike pageants and pomp of 
 regal majesty now virtually disappeared; and pencil 
 and needle were called upon to set forth with frothy 
 effeminacy the triumphs of love. All artistic work 
 dwindled and shrank in aim, and embroideries of course 
 did not escape from the prevalent demoralization. But 
 ladies' toilettes more especially became vehicles for a 
 thousand and one little fripperies, most of which 
 verged upon the grotesque. Queen Marie-Leczinska 
 a very thin dame set a fashion of wearing hoops of 
 great circumference beneath her petticoats. And one 
 of the more extraordinary instances of such enormities 
 is referred to by the Marquise de Crequy, in the de- 
 scription she gives of her grandmother's costume, the 
 Duchesse de la Ferte, a celebrated and extravagant 
 woman of fashion. The Marquise writes that her 
 grandmother wore a dress of reddish brown velvet, the
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. [49 
 
 skirt of which, adjusted in graceful folds, was held up 
 by big butterflies made of Dresden china. The front 
 was a tablier of cloth of silver, upon which was 
 embroidered an orchestra of musicians, arranged in a 
 pyramidal group, consisting of a series of six ranks of 
 performers, with musical instruments wrought in raised 
 needlework. The skirt was supported upon a hoop 
 four ells and a half in circumference.* The Marquise 
 averred that the cheeks of the musicians were as big 
 as plums, from which the scale of the other parts can 
 be fairly imagined. 
 
 Men's clothes, on the other hand, were of a more 
 rational type. The broidered coats, and especially the 
 daintily ornamented waistcoats, on which elegant little 
 flowery sprays gracefully trickled about buttonholes, 
 along pockets, and over trimmings of cuffs, are notice- 
 able amongst the more pleasant results of the art of 
 embroidery at this time. As taste in such matters 
 became refined, it was difficult to satisfy the exactions 
 which consequently arose for very delicate execution in 
 tiny details. This tendency led many nobles, pedantic 
 amateurs of this class of embroidery, to remain satisfied 
 no longer with what European workmen could do for 
 them. Accordingly many sent their clothes, ready cut out, 
 to be embroidered in China (fig. 68). St. Aubin writes 
 that at his time embroideries done with fine and evenly 
 whipped cords or gimps came into fashion. " This," 
 he says, "we owe to the Chinese, by whom many 
 embroideries, most precise in regularity, have been made 
 for fanciful dandies." The importation of this excellent 
 Chinese work was the means of securing for us many 
 * Souvenirs de la Marquise de Cre'quy, vol. i., p. 205.
 
 ISO 
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 of those fascinating coats of the period of Louis XV. 
 and Louis XVI., which no one tires of admiring 
 (figs. 68, 69, 70, and 72). 
 
 Never, perhaps, will finesse in embroidery be carried 
 further. Floss and spun silks were made up into diffe- 
 rent kinds of threads, such as gimps, and chenilles, and 
 even small narrow ribands like those used on book 
 tassels, and these varieties were intermixed in embroi- 
 deries. Gold and silver 
 was employed not only in 
 smooth threads, but also 
 for granulated ones, and as 
 beads and spangles of all 
 sizes, as wires, and little 
 bars, in laminations, in 
 bullion, as frizzed threads 
 for chain-stitch work, and 
 narrow flat braids. The 
 number of stitches in- 
 creased in a remarkable 
 
 way. 
 
 On the other hand we 
 
 Fig. 68. Embroidery in Chinese 
 style upon a coat of the 
 eighteenth century (in the mee t with specimens of 
 Museum of Decorative Arts). 
 
 work most curious in their 
 
 close resemblance to embroidery, and yet entirely 
 made without a single needle stitch. The method 
 of producing them seems to have been as follows : 
 Over an engraving, fixed to a card, a layer of trans- 
 parent adhesive wax mixture was floated on with a brush. 
 The card thus prepared was then placed upon the hot 
 plate of a chafing-dish, so as to render the wax soft 
 and bring the other adhesive ingredients into a gently
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 151 
 
 melting state. Flat silk threads could then be applied 
 to the lines of the engraving as seen through the trans- 
 parent glue. By pressing them with a nail of the finger 
 or a small instrument the flat silk threads were made 
 to adhere to the surface, being carried backwards and 
 forwards from right to left and left to right and 
 laid close to one another, over the portion to be 
 covered with the same coloured silk. When care- 
 fully done, the illusion is complete, and conveys the 
 
 Fig. 69. Embroidered pocket of a satin waistcoat of the eighteenth 
 century (in the Museum of Decorative Arts). 
 
 impression of flat embroidery in fine silk. Skin textures 
 were obviously very difficult of treatment in this 
 manner, consequently, wherever they occurred in the 
 engraving, blank spaces were as a rule left, which were 
 subsequently painted in water-colour. This process, 
 as will have been seen, is fantastic and ingenious, but 
 scarcely commendable as an artistic substitute for 
 embroidery. 
 
 A great deal of wool work on canvas (cross and tent 
 stitch) was done in the eighteenth century. It is easy of
 
 152 
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 execution, the stitches are counted and taken according to 
 the meshes, but the results of the work are rarely artistic. 
 Seats, which before Louis XIII. 's 
 time had generally but little stuffing 
 in them or trimming on them, 
 were considerably upholstered under 
 Louis XIV. But appetite for any- 
 thing contributing to luxurious 
 ease and comfort was prodigiously 
 developed under Louis XV., and a 
 great quantity of seats in shapes 
 hitherto unknown were then pro- 
 duced : sofas, causeuses (small sofas), 
 tcte-a-tetes, or double seats, came 
 into use, and were covered with 
 tapestry-weavings or with canvas 
 embroidered in cross and tent- 
 counted stitches. 
 
 When human figures were part 
 of the ornamentation in this class of 
 work they were done with silks in 
 very small cross and tent stitches. 
 Furniture embroideries so made in 
 the time of Louis XIV. are not- 
 able for rich flowery patterns and 
 ornamental details of a bold style 
 Under Louis XV. gro- 
 
 the wedding coat of tesque forms, monkeys, squirrels. 
 
 the "Grand Dau- J ' 
 
 phin," after St. clowns, and such-like at times pour- 
 
 trayed with great spirit, very finely 
 worked, but often in very mediocre taste, were freely 
 adopted. Francois Boucher, when appointed court 
 
 Fig. 70. Embroidery in ,,* \ 
 
 gold and pearls upon V n S' /*)
 
 Fig. 71. Chair covered with superb embroidery, of the end of the 
 seventeenth century.
 
 154 
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 painter, supplied pastoral designs which, however 
 mannered, were always elegant. 
 
 This counted stitch work on canvas is the easiest of 
 all embroideries, and many fashionable women applied 
 themselves to it. Marie Antoinette herself, with 
 Madame Elisabeth, commenced some work of this sort, 
 which she intended for her apartments on the ground- 
 floor of the Louvre, but its completion was cut short 
 
 Fig. 72. Embroidery with spangles and tinsel for a coat, Louis XVI. 
 period (in the Museum of Art and Industry at Lyons). 
 
 by the Revolution. The specimens themselves were, 
 at the commencement of the Empire period, exhibited 
 on sale at Mademoiselle Dubucquois', who had been 
 purveyor to the queen.* 
 
 Returning to the period of Louis XV. we must make 
 special mention of a circumstance giving rise to an 
 unwonted output of embroidery. A chapter of the 
 
 * Comte de Reiset, Livre Journal de Madame Etoffe, vol. i., p. 478.
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 155 
 
 Order of the St. Esprit had not been held since the 
 reign of Henry III., so the king decided to celebrate 
 with much ceremony a general reassemblage of the 
 knights and officers of the order. His embroiderer 
 (Rocher) was commissioned to produce a magnificent 
 throne. Three hundred workwomen were employed 
 for many months in embroidering the stuffs for its 
 canopy, hangings, and coverings. Emblems of the St. 
 Esprit, interchanged with Jleurs de fys, were scattered 
 over the grounds, whilst the borders were rich in gold 
 work. The vestments of the officiating clergy were 
 thickly embroidered with gold, and powdered over with 
 St. Esprits in silver. In the Memoires Secrets of 
 Bachaumont the value of these embroideries is placed 
 at more than three hundred thousand livres. 
 
 Princely nuptials were also occasions for the giving 
 of important orders for embroideries (fig. 70). La 
 Fage, Jean Perreux, and Trumeau are cited as having 
 been engaged by the Due de Choiseul to embroider 
 satin fittings and linings of superb coaches used in the 
 wedding cortege of the Grand Dauphin when he married 
 Marie-Joseph of Saxony. 
 
 Monsieur de Montgomery contributed to the exhi- 
 bition of the Union Centrale des Arts Decoratifs held 
 in 1882 a bed and arm-chair worked in feather stitch, 
 which had belonged to Queen Marie-Leczinska. The 
 canopy and head of the bed are decorated with 
 medallions, containing subjects such as Psyche rising 
 and looking at Cupid. Upon the coverlet are Cupid, 
 Jupiter, and Mercury. 
 
 A very marked impulse was given to the Lyons 
 silk manufactories in the eighteenth century, and to
 
 I$6 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 embroideries made in that town. The designers for 
 them displayed high skill in their compositions ; 
 particularly two, Bony an inhabitant, previously at 
 Gisors, and Philippe de la Salle, both of whom left 
 behind them a great reputation." 
 
 Linen was of a most exquisite quality, consonant 
 with this age of frivolity. Inimitable skill was shown 
 in embroidering delicate cambrics, with which coquettish 
 duchesses, equally punctilious in their dishabille as in 
 their grandes toilettes, would envelop themselves. The 
 needle-workers of Saxony were conspicuous for the 
 excellence of their drawn thread and all sorts of white 
 embroideries ; and the Queen and the Dauphin set 
 a fashion for these as well as for porcelain wares from 
 Saxony. 
 
 The rococo style, which had its vogue in the reign 
 of Louis XV., was based upon the employment of 
 forms like conch and other shells nestling amongst 
 frizzy mosses and imaginary rocks, joined together 
 by ornaments of fantastic shape, but of absolutely false 
 construction. Under Louis XVI. a tentative reaction 
 towards classic ornament was manifested. Greek 
 friezes and wreathings, daintily drawn by Salembier 
 and other able designers of the eighteenth century, 
 encouraged the adoption of a purer style in treating 
 floral decoration. Tulips, carnations, and roses, tied 
 with coloured ribands of tender tones, surrounded 
 medallions edged with bead ornaments, from which 
 depended garlands mixed with groups, or trophies 
 of sylvan and mythological attributes. Such devices 
 embroidered on satin produced refined and elegant 
 
 * Bezon, Dictionnaire des Tissus, vol. iv., p. 253.
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 157 
 
 effects, especially when used in conjunction with baskets 
 garnished with ribands, motifs, which find frequent 
 imitations at the present day. 
 
 The Revolution closed this volatile century, and gave 
 melancholy employment to embroiderers in setting them 
 to pull to pieces the finest and most beautiful work 
 of antecedent times. It is not without a sense of 
 sorrow that one reads of forty or fifty needlewomen, 
 at Angers, in Vendemaire, of the year 3, being 
 engaged to carefully unpick and spoil the various 
 pieces of a set of embroideries, such as the valances 
 of a bed or of a canopy, in order, as it was asserted, 
 to make the restoration of them by persons attached 
 to the old regime all the more difficult. These work- 
 women were compelled to unstitch braids and all 
 articles in which gold and silver thread had been 
 used, which were then sent to the smelting pots for 
 the benefit of the nation. Circumstances of this de- 
 scription caused the destruction of the fine specimens 
 known since the time of Rene d'Anjou as the great 
 embroidery of Messire Saint-Maurice. The art of 
 the needle thereby suffered an irreparable loss, the 
 reality of which gains in vividness if one recalls the 
 facts that certain velvet copes, bereft of their golden 
 figures, orphreys, and laces, were even then purchased 
 at prices from 695 to 800 livres (about ,27 to 32), 
 the bids for those disposed of at a single sale alone 
 amounting to 24,350 livres (or .1,217). 
 
 When the tumult and horrors of the Revolution, so 
 inimical to the gentle pursuits of embroideresses, had 
 subsided, bees, in lieu of Jleurs de lys, were abundantly 
 embroidered ; but as wars virtually absorbed the
 
 158 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 attention and energies of the nation during the Empire, 
 embroidery received scanty recognition and encourage- 
 ment. Comparatively few of such handsome costumes 
 and uniforms as are painted by Gerard in his portraits 
 of Napoleon, Josephine, and Marie-Louise were to be 
 seen in the saloons of the imperial court (fig. 73). 
 
 At the coronation of Charles X. the robes of state 
 were profusely worked with gold, as the big picture of 
 the ceremony, now at Versailles, shows us ; but on 
 
 Fig. 73. Silver spangle embroidery ior a coat, Empire period 
 (in the Museum of Decorative Arts). 
 
 passing into a few rooms further on, similar pictures of 
 the splendid functions, under Louis XIV., will be found 
 significantly emphasizing the decadence which, mean- 
 while, had ensued and culminated in later phases of 
 poor artistic needlework. 
 
 Within the last fifty years works of embroidery have 
 been very widely diffused, and their use adopted amongst 
 all classes of society, as well as in countries which 
 follow European fashions. Development of commercial 
 relations has singularly favoured the life of the industry,
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 159 
 
 though much more so as regards quantity than beauty 
 of production. 
 
 It may be safely stated that embroidered ornaments 
 have been, and are still, very considerably applied to 
 costume, house decoration, and furniture. 
 
 The East has of late years sent us, by numerous and 
 easy modes of transit, marvels of old-time and tradi- 
 tional art, with which Europe has been but little 
 acquainted. 
 
 Not only have we been supplied with lovely Persian 
 and Turkish carpets, but from the valley of Cashmere 
 we have received stores of shawls, some wonderfully 
 woven, others embroidered with the characteristic and 
 exquisitely soft wool (or pushmena) that eclipses any 
 analogous material. India has sent us muslins finely 
 worked with gold thread palmates and stitched over 
 with iridescent beetle's wings. Theophile Gautier, in 
 a passage full of colour, thus conveys the impression 
 he received from Oriental embroideries : 
 
 " It might almost be said that Indian embroidery 
 seeks to engage in a contest with the sun, to have a 
 duel to the death with the blinding light and glowing 
 sky; it attempts to shine as brilliantly beneath this 
 fiery deluge ; it realizes the wonders of fairy tales ; it 
 produces dresses in colours of the weather, of the sun, 
 of the moon ; metals, flowers, precious stones, lustres, 
 beams of light, and flashes are mixed upon its incan- 
 descent palette. Over a silvery net it makes wings of 
 beetles to vibrate like fluttering golden emeralds. With 
 the scales of beetles' bodies it gives birth to impossible 
 foliage mixed with flowers of diamonds. It avails itself 
 of the shimmer of tawny silk, of the opalescent hues of
 
 i6o 
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 mother-of-pearl, of the splendid gold blue blendings of 
 the peacock's plumage. It disdains nothing, not even 
 tinsel, provided it flashes brightly ; not even crystal, so 
 long as it irradiates light. At all costs its duty is to 
 
 Fig. 74. Slavonic peasant's cap embroidered in gold, eighteenth 
 century (in Monsieur G. Bapst's collection). 
 
 shine, sparkle, and glitter, to send forth prismatic rays ; 
 it must be blazing, blinding, and phosphorescent ; and 
 so the sun acknowledges its defeat."* 
 
 * Theophile Gautier's I' Orient a FExposition, quoted by Didron in 
 his Report upon the Decorative Arts, 1878.
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. l6l 
 
 What more could this glowing writer have said had 
 he even seen the astounding splendours of the specimen 
 presented some forty years ago to Mahomet's tomb by 
 Kinderao, Rajah of Baroda ? It was a chadar or veil 
 composed entirely of inwrought pearls and precious 
 stones, disposed in an arabesque pattern, and said to 
 have cost a crore of rupees (a million pounds). Al- 
 though the richest stones were worked into it the effect 
 was most harmonious. When spread out in the sun it 
 seemed suffused with a general iridescent pearly bloom, 
 as grateful to the eyes as were the exquisite forms of 
 its arabesques.* 
 
 China and Japan have flooded the markets of Europe 
 with their silks, vivaciously embroidered with sym- 
 pathetically designed natural objects. By the side of 
 Chinese robes, ornamented with the imperial dragon, so 
 chatoyant in tint, with its green-toned golds, one equally 
 admires Japanese foukouses, " those squares of stuff, more 
 or less worked over, which are used by the Japanese as 
 covers to their ceremonial gifts ; the plumage of birds is 
 above all rendered upon them with exquisite feeling, the 
 tones and surface effects of silk being subtly employed 
 in securing surprising effects of colours" (fig. 75). 
 
 Georgians and Greeks work charming meanders upon 
 cloth in gold threads or cords, picked out sometimes 
 with small discs or little coins. 
 
 To the East again we must turn for the best embroi- 
 deries produced during the first half of our century. 
 Excepting some few good imitations of ancient work, 
 there is little to engage our attention in the masses of 
 
 * The Industrial Arts of India, by Sir George Birdwcod, vol. ii., 
 p. 118. 
 
 II
 
 1 62 
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 European embroidery produced at that time. France, 
 Switzerland, Saxony, and the United I Kingdom have 
 
 Fig. 75. Embroidered Japanese foukouse or cover (in the 
 Montefiore collection). 
 
 employed native talent in the art, but with alternations 
 
 of success and discouragement.* All sorts of needlework 
 
 * Felix Aubry Report on the London Exhibition ofl&$l.
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 163 
 
 have been successively attempted, especially such as are 
 easy of execution. Fashion has capriciously inclined to 
 one or other of them, evoking, during the periods of its 
 heat, enormous quantities of hurried work, often designed 
 with spirit, but almost always deficient in that quality 
 of persevering care and conviction, the impress of which 
 is always seen in a work of real art. Quick work and 
 cheap labour especially, heedlessness of the particular 
 use to which an embroidery is to be put, attempt to 
 make it do equally well for a church, for a bit of furni- 
 ture, or a dress, are elements which invariably militate 
 against style in workmanship. 
 
 The machine invented by the Alsatian Hellmann has 
 in latter years supplied what is wanted for the super- 
 ficial requirements of present days. By ingenious 
 mechanism a hundred double-pointed needles, threaded 
 in the middle, are made to pass backwards and forwards 
 through a vertically stretched textile. Little carriages 
 fitted with nippers seize the needles as they emerge 
 through the stuff, thus playing the part of hands to pull 
 through and return the needles, almost in the same 
 way as the manipulation described in chap, i., p. 6. 
 The bars on which the stuff is fixed in the machine are 
 brought into relation with a pantograph and are adjusted 
 accordingly for each stitch, so that the stuff can be 
 shifted in any direction, as the requirements of the 
 design render necessary. This machine is very cleverly 
 devised, and produces results that satisfy a demand for 
 effective and low-priced goods. 
 
 But, confronted with such a formidable rival, is the art 
 of embroidery to be lost to such supple and submissive 
 fingers as those which in bygone times realized with
 
 164 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 devotion and toil the lovely needleworks we have 
 endeavoured to describe in the foregoing pages ? Are 
 mechanical processes ceaselessly pouring forth abundant 
 quantities of things to supplant artistic handicrafts ? 
 Well-cared-for handworks have, however, always been, 
 and presumably always will be, wanted where mere 
 hasty selection of patterns is not the only exercise of 
 artistic taste. Concurrently with the extraordinary 
 development of mechanical processes, there is a wide- 
 spread movement in favour of closer study of artistic 
 works of past periods. Artists furnish their studios with 
 ancient stuffs, and tapestries and embroideries of great 
 age are rescued from beneath the accumulations of dust 
 where, since the last century, public apathy left them. 
 Thus the exercise of the art of embroidery, and an 
 appreciation of its possibilities, are stimulated, and 
 new and delightful phases of the art manifest them- 
 selves. 
 
 Many persons have acquired portions of those pic- 
 turesque costumes formerly beloved in their respective 
 provinces, but now fast disappearing before the relentless 
 current of modern customs. Breton waistcoats, Norman 
 caps, Alsatian coifs glistening with gold, have been sought 
 for and obtained in France and abroad by intelligent 
 collectors, who prize them for their excellence as objects 
 of study and as remains of local art stamped with 
 originality and character (figs. 47 and 80). 
 
 Under a cultivated guidance skilful embroiderers 
 have zealously reproduced well-chosen, genuine, and 
 typical specimens of old-time embroidery (fig. 76). 
 Encouraged by success in this direction, and emulating 
 methods in vogue during the best epochs of em-
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 165 
 
 broidery, all who have seriously engaged their talents 
 in producing ornamental broideries for furniture or 
 costume, have at length ventured into the confines of 
 the higher branches of the art. 
 
 Chasuble-makers now produce ecclesiastical orna- 
 ments worthy to be used in our cathedrals side by 
 side with the scarce relics preserved from the despoiling 
 
 Fig. 76. Reproduction of a sixteenth century embroidery in gold and 
 coloured silks, by M. Henry. 
 
 touch of revolutions. The mitre, figured with the 
 Crucifixion (fig. 78), wrought in feather stitch with 
 coloured silks upon a tissue of gold and enriched with,, 
 pearls, and the peacock-blue rep cover, set with crystal 
 bosses, for the Papal Bull of the Immaculate Conception 
 (fig. 79), are works which reflect honour upon our 
 time. 
 
 Tapestry-weavers and upholsterers make coverings
 
 166 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 and embroideries for furniture incomparably superior 
 in design and suitability to those twenty years ago.* 
 
 But more marked improvements are seen in fancy 
 work. Instead of the conventional square of canvas 
 covered with a cross-stitch parrot or a horrible 
 
 Fig. 77. Small screen of modern embroidery, by M. Henry. 
 
 little dog, work of charming design and good work- 
 manship is produced. Every assiduous woman now 
 embroiders in satin stitch, feather stitch, check or chess- 
 board stitch, and point de Hongrie (Hungary stitch) ; 
 whilst those having greater skill do petit point (small 
 
 * We would call attention to the very remarkable modern em- 
 broideries with the verses of the Credo, made for the stalls of the 
 Cologne Cathedral.
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 167 
 
 cross and tent stitch), various sorts of couching, and 
 shading stiches; they lay and stitch down traceries 
 of gold thread about panels and medallions, as was 
 
 Fig. 78. Mitre figured with the Crucifixion, embroidered by Biais. 
 
 done in the sixteenth century, or represent playfully 
 twining ribands as in the eighteenth century. 
 Thus it comes to pass that, in the presence of records of
 
 1 68 
 
 I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 knowledge and of specimens brought together by modern 
 eclecticism, in a way that no other age has attempted, 
 and composed of ingatherings from the East and the 
 West, from primitive and polished civilizations, arranged 
 
 Fig. 79. Embroidered cover made tor the Papal Bull of the 
 Immaculate Conception, by Biais. 
 
 in museums, and representative of all ages and peoples, 
 the embroiderer of the present day finds himself plen- 
 teously provided with exceptional means for taking a 
 great step forward in the progress of his art.
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 169 
 
 Called upon to take part in such an advance, we have 
 written these pages, convinced that they coincide with 
 the dawn of a great epoch in the art of the needle. A 
 fixed intention of reviving the noble, but too long for- 
 gotten traditions of embroidery, manifests itself every 
 day in France, England, Germany, Hungary, Italy in 
 
 Fig. 80. Alsatian peasant's cap embroidered in gold on black 
 velvet (in Monsieur G. Bapst's collection). 
 
 fact, everywhere. A justification of our hopes is therefore 
 clearly found in the general movement alluded to. 
 
 We feel certain that many women, especially the 
 better educated, will become more and more conversant 
 with the artistic delights derivable from the use of their 
 needles. That they will grow to love the " needle's
 
 I/O I. EMBROIDERY. 
 
 excellency," and find this incomparable little instrument 
 always willing to translate with variety of stitches, 
 designs, or paintings which shall ornament a textile 
 and give it desirable attributes. But there must be no 
 scamped or superficial work ; the machine can always 
 beat that. On the contrary, let us strive to perfect 
 methods of the handicraft ; and in such a manner that 
 the artist, having made his sketch on paper, shall not 
 disdain to transfer his design to the stuff on which it is 
 to be wrought, to consider the colours to be used in 
 it, the reliefs, details, spangles, beads, gold threads, or 
 whatever appears to him to be necessary for it ; nor 
 to delegate the transfer of his design to some prentice 
 hand which shall, as has too often been the case, contort 
 the shapes and curves of his composition. As a matter 
 of the highest importance, utmost care in drawing 
 patterns and selecting materials should be thoroughly 
 inculcated at all schools of artistic needlework. Under 
 such guarded circumstances the success of the embroi- 
 deress is better assured. 
 
 We have endeavoured to bring before our readers 
 salient features of the history of Embroidery. And our 
 aim is attained, firstly, if we have successfully demon- 
 strated that no superior process for the decoration of 
 textiles exists ; and, secondly, if we have been able to 
 do justice to those humble workwomen too frequently 
 neglected and left to starve by a public, which haggles 
 over the acquisition of the earlier marvels of the needle- 
 worker's art, and yet, when modern work is in question, 
 gives preference to the showy but altogether less artistic 
 embroideries produced by machinery.
 
 PART 1L LACES. 
 
 NEEDLEPOINT LACE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY TRANSITION FROM 
 EMBROIDERY TO NEEDLEPOINT LACE-MAKING. 
 
 THERE are two classes of laces : those made with a 
 needle, and those made with bobbins on a pillow. We 
 shall consider needlepoint laces first, since their analogy 
 with embroideries, whence they are derived, entitles 
 them to the precedence given them in this book. 
 
 Lace, whether of needlepoint or pillow make, is a 
 textile fabric with open-work grounds ; and both the 
 ornament and the ground are entirely produced by the 
 lace-maker. Needlepoint lace is made by first stitching 
 thread along the outlines of a pattern drawn on paper 
 or parchment, by which means a skeleton thread pattern 
 is produced. This skeleton threadwork serves as the 
 scaffolding, as one might call it, upon and between 
 which the stitches, for the shapes and ground between 
 them, are cast and so wrought into needlepoint lace. 
 
 With these few words of definition, let us now enter 
 upon the history of this industry. 
 
 Origin. All authors on the subject have attempted
 
 1/2 II. LACES. 
 
 to show when the making of lace was commenced. 
 Some, dealing in a summary way with this question, 
 have stated that the origin of the work is lost in the 
 mists of early time ; but that, according to certain 
 expressions found in Greek and Latin writings, lace- 
 making may be supposed to have been practised in 
 the classic periods of industry. 
 
 But successive and more precise researches made by 
 the principal of modern writers Felix Aubry, Mrs. F. 
 Bury-Palliser, Alan S. Cole, and J. Seguin leave little 
 room for doubting that there is no documentary or 
 reliable evidence to prove the existence of lace before 
 the fifteenth century. 
 
 In the East, the cradle of our industries, light tissues, 
 such as gauzes, and muslins, and nets (see fig. Si), were 
 undoubtedly made at very early times, and were used 
 as veils and scarfs, etc., after the manner of subsequent 
 laces ; and women enriched them with some sort of 
 embroidery (fig. 82), or varied the openness of them 
 by here and there drawing out threads. 
 
 With a view to variety and ornament early makers 
 of fringes plaited and knotted the threads of them ; and 
 it is also probable that they may have tied them 
 together or worked stitches upon them, since such 
 work might plausibly answer to the description of 
 ancient trimmings for the scutitlata vestis, a sort of 
 Roman toga, of which the borders, according to 
 Dupont-Auberville, were of open reticulated weaving.* 
 
 But, whatever may be said, we do not, in these, 
 recognize lace, the production of which involves much 
 
 * See L'Ornement des Tissus, by Dupont-Auberville and Victor 
 Gay.
 
 THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 173 
 
 more refined and artistic methods, and postulates a com- 
 bination of skill and varied 
 execution carried to a higher 
 degree of perfection. 
 
 The monk Reginald, who 
 took part in opening the 
 
 urc.-r-4.uu . Flg ' 8l. Egyptians making net 
 
 tomb Of St. Cuthbert at (from Wilkinson's Ancient 
 
 the cathedral of Durham in Egyptians). 
 the twelfth century, writes that the Saint's shroud had 
 __ a fringe of linen threads an inch long; 
 
 surmounted by a border " worked upon 
 the threads " with representations of birds 
 and pairs of beasts, there being between 
 each such pair a branching tree. This 
 tree was a survival of the sacred Oriental 
 " horn " tree, previously mentioned. But 
 from this description of the work no one 
 can decisively say that it was a species 
 of open stitched embroidery ; * and not 
 before the end of the fifteenth century do 
 we find indications of such open em- 
 broidery becoming the staple production 
 : of a specialized industry, 
 lished with We explained in the history of em- 
 (EgyptianMu- broidery how luxury in the use of fine 
 
 seum of the textiles was developed after the Crusades. 
 Louvre). r 
 
 when princes and kings stimulated the 
 
 manufacture of silken stuffs. Velvets and silks came 
 
 * The contemporary MS. by Reginald the Monk speaks of this 
 border to the winding-sheet as being " inwoven," and seems to suggest 
 that the weaving produced equally good effects on the back and front 
 of the material ; not, therefore, that the fabric was consequently in 
 the nature of an open-work or ornamented net.
 
 174 II. LACES. 
 
 to be the habitual materials for the costumes of lords 
 
 mm 
 
 
 m^*4&&iMi*mi 
 
 Fig. 83. Cut work (point coupe) sixteenth century 
 (Musee des Arts decoratifs). 
 
 and their ladies. Linens in Brittany, those too of
 
 THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 175 
 
 Alencon and Lille, and 
 more especially of Hol- 
 land, were made in finer 
 qualities ; and luxury in 
 using them succeeded to- 
 that of employing other 
 costly and heavier fabrics. 
 Embroideries with open 
 grounds. Embroidered 
 linen consequently came 
 into vogue. White em- 
 broidery on linen has a 
 frigid and monotonous 
 aspect : that with coloured 
 threads is more vivacious 
 in effect, but by frequent 
 washings the colour gets 
 fainter and fainter until 
 it almost disappears. But 
 white embroidery, re- 
 lieved by open spaces in, 
 or shapes cut from, the 
 linen ground, is possessed 
 of an altogether new 
 charm; and from a sense 
 of this the birth may be 
 traced of an art in the 
 results of which happy 
 
 contrasts are effected be- Fig. 84. Linen band ornamented 
 tween ornamental details wi ? em broideries in white thread 
 
 and parts of cutwork, sixteenth 
 of close texture and Others century (Bonnaffe collection). 
 
 of open work.
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 Of this character is cutwork embroidery, or cutting 
 out certain selected spaces from between the devices 
 
 Fig 85. Embroidery of drawn threadwork (Musee des Arts 
 decoratifs, from a design published in 1588). 
 
 embroidered on the linen. Such cut spaces filled in with 
 open devices (a jours) were at first sparingly adopted
 
 THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 1 77 
 
 (fig. 84) ; but by degrees, as the pleasant effects ensuing 
 from the use of them were appreciated, they were more 
 extensively employed (figs. 83 and 88). Sometimes 
 the flower or other ornament would be worked on the 
 linen and edged with stitching of the button-hole class, 
 and adjoining it corresponding devices would be wrought 
 with the needle in the middle of empty spaces cut out 
 of the linen (see fig. 84). Thus cutwork as a title is 
 applicable to specimens of varied ornamental effect ; 
 and although the principle of the process remains the 
 same in all, it is distinctively a class of embroidery 
 upon a material and comes within the definition given 
 in chap, i., p. 9, of this book. 
 
 Drawn thread embroidery was another cognate work. 
 For this certain threads would be drawn out from the 
 linen ground, and others left, upon and between which 
 needlework was made. With Turkish women this 
 class of embroidery seems to have been a very 
 favourite pastime, and is still much affected in harems 
 at Constantinople ; its employment in the East dates 
 from very early times * (figs. 85 and 86). 
 
 Contemporary with these drawn threadworks were 
 embroideries of similar effect, in which the skill in 
 
 * Withdrawing threads from a fabric is perhaps referred to in the 
 ollowing quotation from Lucan's Pharsalia, book x., ver. 142 : 
 
 " Candida Sidonio perhtcent ptctora filo, 
 
 Quod Nilotis aciis compressum pectine Serum, 
 Solvit, et extenso laxavit stamina veto." 
 
 " Her white breasts shine through the Sidonian fabric, which pressed 
 down with the comb (or sley) of the Seres, the needle of the Nile 
 workman has separated, and has loosened the warp by stretching out 
 (or withdrawing) the weft," p. 5, Descriptive Catalogue of the Collec- 
 tions of Tapestry and Embroidery in the South Kensington Museum. 
 
 12
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 needlework was almost entirely devoted to working over 
 the threads left to form the interstices or open reticula- 
 tions about the pattern ; or else to taking stitches so as 
 to convey the impression of a reticulated ground about 
 the pattern which was left on the linen (fig. 87). 
 
 From the first of the two just-mentioned methods 
 sprang the idea that instead of laboriously with- 
 drawing threads from stout linen it would be more 
 convenient to introduce a needle-made pattern into 
 
 an open reticulated 
 ground, a "quintain," 
 as it was termed, 
 after the name of a 
 little town in Brit- 
 tany, a district fa- 
 mous in the Middle 
 Ages for its linens. 
 The reticulations or 
 meshes of these 
 " quintains " were 
 made more and more 
 open, so that at 
 length many of these 
 special fabrics were nothing more than nets. Such nets 
 go by the name of "lads " in France. "Lads" accord- 
 ing to the Dictionnaire Antique de Furretiere, published 
 in 1684, "is a sort of thread or silk formed into a 
 tissue of net or re'seuil, the threads of which were 
 knotted or interlaced the one into the other." 
 
 Embroidery was done upon the lads by darning or 
 running threads into a certain number of meshes ; the 
 monotony of the open meshes forming the ground about 
 
 Fig. 86. Design for a drawn threadwork 
 (belonging to Madame Franck).
 
 THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 179 
 
 Fig 87,-Short-stitch embroidery on linen, the ornament being left in 
 
 worl lnen '/ n ^ characte r of P atterns Dually done in drawn thread" 
 work, sixteenth century (Musee des Arts decoratifs). 
 
 the pattern, would sometimes be broken by working
 
 i8o 
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 into them little delicate devices such as stars or crossed 
 diagonals, or making little loops or picots upon their 
 threads. This darning work "was easy of execution ; 
 and, the stitches being regu- 
 lated by counting the meshes, 
 effective geometric shapes 
 could be produced ; less skil- 
 ful embroiderers excelled in 
 this more than in the drawn 
 threadwork. Small squares of 
 lads could be worked sepa- 
 rately, and this characteristic of 
 the process found much favour 
 with women, who applied them- 
 selves to making all sorts of 
 textile ornaments for religious 
 and secular use. Altar cloths 
 and baptismal napkins, as well 
 as bed coverlets and table- 
 cloths, were decorated with 
 these squares of net embroidery, 
 inserted most often into larger 
 squares of plain linen, which 
 again might be picked out here 
 and there with little cut points.* 
 Many specimens of such 
 embroideries are extant. 
 A linen cap, ornamented with cutwork and very 
 finely wrought white thread embroidery, in which 
 
 Fig. 88. Sampler with 
 squares of cutwork (Musee 
 des Arts decoratifs). 
 
 * This combination of open embroideries was called " Punto reale" 
 or Royal point, by some of the Italian designers (see Pattern Book, by 
 Parasole, 1616).
 
 THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. l8l 
 
 appear eagles, is in the Cluny Museum, and is said 
 to 1 have belonged to Charles V. 
 
 In linen bands embroidered like that in fig. 84, 
 personages are sometimes figured in the open cut out 
 spaces. 
 
 An alb, said to be the work of Anne of Bohemia 
 (1527), is preserved in the cathedral at Prague, and is 
 of linen drawn-threadwork. 
 
 Punto a redexelo, embroidery upon open reticulated 
 ground, is mentioned in the deed, dated 1493, appor- 
 tioning various articles between the sisters Angelo and 
 Ippolita Sforza-Visconti of Milan, a document to which 
 we shall have occasion to make several references. 
 
 Catherine de Medicis had a bed draped with squares 
 of re'seuil or lads, and it is recorded that " the girls and 
 servants of her household consumed much time in 
 making squares of re'seuil" What she possessed in 
 the way of squares of embroidered net is incredible ; 
 the inventory of her property and goods includes a 
 coffer containing three hundred and eighty-one of such 
 squares, unmounted, whilst in another were found five 
 hundred and thirty-eight squares, some worked with 
 rosettes or with blossoms, and others with nosegays.* 
 
 At a very slightly later date, lengths of insertions 
 made of darned or run net (lads) were used, and of 
 such there are good specimens in the Muse'e des Arts 
 de'coratifs (fig. 89). 
 
 Part of a handsome curtain border of darned net, 
 with numerous personages, amongst whom is a hunter, 
 is shown in fig. 91. 
 
 At the opening of the sixteenth century we have 
 * Inventory of Catherine de Me'dicis, by Bonnaffe.
 
 182 
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 Fig. 89. Band of stout threads darned into network (/acts'), sixteenth 
 'century (Musee des Arts de'coratifs) .
 
 THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 183 
 
 white thread embroideries on linen, cut points, and 
 drawn threadwork, followed by needlework upon quin- 
 tain or open canvas, and lastly by darning or running 
 upon net or lads. 
 
 Fig. 90. Italian design taken from Cesare Vecellio's Corona delle 
 virtuose donne. 
 
 Pattern books. Now, during the early development 
 of these open ground embroideries, some difficulty was 
 experienced in procuring patterns for them. Such as 
 could be drawn by pen upon parchment, or made into
 
 1 84 
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 needlework samplers on bits of linen, were passed from 
 hand to hand. This was soon found to be tedious and 
 
 Fig. 91. Curtain border of darned net (lads), French work 
 of the sixteenth century. 
 
 insufficient to satisfy a demand, the sources of which 
 multiplied with rapidity. 
 
 The assistance which embroiderers derived from
 
 THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 185 
 
 the art of engraving and various modes of printing has 
 already been alluded to. Printers of books became 
 numerous, first in the Rhenish countries, and subse- 
 quently in France, Italy, and elsewhere. 
 
 The plan, of reproducing and publishing gleanings 
 of different and well-contrived patterns for embroidery 
 with open grounds, seems to have been first taken 
 advantage of by Pierre Quinty of Cologne. 
 
 In 1527 he published his " New and Subtle Book con- 
 cerning the Art and Science of Embroidery, Fringes, 
 Tapestry-making, as well as of other Crafts done with 
 the Needle." This work passed through many editions.* 
 The first is in French, but succeeding ones are in 
 German, signed Quintell instead of Quinty, and con- 
 tain a portrait of Charles V. All the designs are for 
 embroidery and not for lace. This is also the case 
 with an identical reprint of patterns issued by 
 Vostermans, published at Antwerp, with English 
 letterpress. 
 
 The successive issues of new pattern books made by 
 French, Italian, and other publishers supply one with a 
 means of tracing the stages in the transition from white 
 thread embroidery to needlepoint lace. With those for 
 squares and bands of lads, patterns for indented or 
 vandyke borders or edgings, involving new departures 
 in execution, gradually appear. And we now meet with 
 a style of needlework which differs from embroidery in 
 not being wrought upon a stuff foundation. As the 
 
 * For further details as to pattern books, see the appendix to 
 Mrs. Bury-Palliser's History of Lace, and articles by Girolamo 
 d'Adda in the Gazette des Beaux Arts, 1863-64, and those by 
 Duplessis in the Revue des Arts de'coratifs, 1887.
 
 1 86 II. LACES. 
 
 dentations and Vandykes become more and more 
 elaborated with open devices, so the needlework for 
 them assumes the phase of embroidery, without 
 apparent foundation whatever, done as it were " in the 
 air." We thus find ourselves confronted with the newly 
 evolved lace, which in a few years and by rapid strides 
 specializes itself in an immense variety of patterns and 
 subtleties of stitchery. 
 
 A new fashion arose amongst men and women in 
 Italy for decking their necks with fluted or pleated 
 collars called ruffs. The connections formed by the 
 Medicis with families of the French court introduced 
 this Italian fashion, which soon spread over Europe. 
 But it was hardly one of common sense and con- 
 venience, for the most fashionable ruffs were made of 
 grotesque sizes. Contemporary writers, referring to 
 them, speak of them as "gadrooned like organ pipes, 
 contorted or crinkled like cabbages, and as big as the 
 sails of a windmill." 
 
 Poets satirized these absurd collars in passages 
 similar to the following, taken from the Vertus et 
 proprie'tes des Mignons in 1576: 
 
 " Le col ne se tourne a leiir aise 
 Dans le long reply de feur /raise."* 
 
 * "The most curious wives," says Stowe, " now made themselves 
 ruffs of cambric, and sent them to Madame Dinghan to be starched, 
 who charged high prices. After a time they made themselves ruffs of 
 lawn, and thereupon arose a general scoff or byword that shortly 
 they would make their ruffs of spiders' webs." Stowe in another 
 passage writes, " Both men and women wore them intolerably large, 
 being a quarter of a yard deep, and twelve lengths in a ruff." In 
 London this fashion was termed the "French ruff"; in France, on the 
 other hand, it was the "English monster." MRS. BURY-PALLISER'S 
 History of Lace.
 
 THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 187 
 
 But what chiefly interests us in the matter is that a 
 fashion had been created which stimulated the use of 
 a large quantity of laces, as trimming borders for ruffs 
 and their companion cuffs or sleeves. 
 
 During this period ladies' dresses and nobles' 
 doublets were enriched with lace insertions, interlacing 
 designs for which are to be seen in the majority of the 
 pattern books we are now about to examine. 
 
 Those by Antonio Tagliente (1528) and Nicolo 
 d'Aristotile (1530) are the earliest published in Venice. 
 They are interesting, not solely on account of their 
 patterns, but also because the introductory text to them 
 gives us insight into the different methods of needle- 
 work, stitches, etc., then used in Italy. Tagliente 
 entitles I his first book, "Samples for Embroidery" 
 (Esempio di Ricami). He states that his patterns 
 may be wrought in thread and in silk, " sete di varii 
 colori," also " con argento i oro tirato" with silver and 
 gold wire or thread. He enumerates amongst the 
 stitches in which his patterns may be worked, " dis- 
 filato" drawn threads ; "fatto sur la rete" work on net- 
 ground, " a magtiete," of small meshes ; "punto damas- 
 chino," damask stitch; " rilevato," raised work; " filo 
 supra punto" darning; " croceato" cross stitch ; "punto 
 tagtiato, cut point ; and, lastly, "punto in aere," point in 
 the air, a term, as we shall see, which was henceforward 
 descriptive of needlepoint lace in Italy. Notwithstand- 
 ing that he named his book " Samples for Embroidery," 
 Tagliente seemed to be acquainted with the specialty 
 known as punto in aere, as patterns for its earlier pro- 
 ductions are included by name at least in his work. 
 
 He further is careful to specify the purposes to which
 
 1 88 II. LACES. 
 
 the different embroideries may be put ; for men's and 
 women's collars, for " camisciole con pettorali" shirts or 
 chemises with embroidered fronts, for "frisi di contorni 
 di letti" bed vallances ; and for " entemelle di cuscini" 
 insertions on pillowcases. 
 
 Here, then, we have instances of ornamental needle- 
 work, the immediate ancestor of needlepoint lace, in its 
 application to costume and articles of furniture. 
 
 Nicolo d'Aristotile inscribes his book to ladies and 
 young girls, fanciulle, who will learn from it how to 
 " lavorare, cusire, ricamare i far tutte quelle gentilleze que 
 una dona virtuosa podra far con Vaco in mano" to 
 work, sew, embroider, and do all the fancy work that a 
 virtuous woman can with a needle in her hand. 
 
 To this end his compilation consists of old and new 
 patterns, and its title is Gli Universali dei Belle Ricami 
 Antichi e Moderni ("The Universality of Fine Ancient 
 and Modern Embroideries "). 
 
 The foregoing suggests that, prior to the books just 
 noticed, others had been produced, or, at least, that 
 there were early drawings of patterns which publishers 
 utilized and developed. Tagliente writes that he him- 
 self designed " con studio continuo et vigilante cura," 
 with continuous study and vigilant care, a large part 
 of his book, the remainder of which is made up of 
 " varii disegni di maestri copiuti" different designs copied 
 from the masters. 
 
 The existence of drawn patterns and worked samplers 
 is attested by various documents, etc. 
 
 The inventory of Edward VI., King of England 
 (1552), contains the entry of a parchment book with 
 a variety of patterns :
 
 THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 189 
 
 Item : (Sampler) or set of patterns worked on Nor- 
 mandy canvas, with green and black silks. These may 
 possibly have been used by the king's sisters. 
 
 In the preface of the first of his books, known to us, 
 Vavassore writes, " Havedo io pel passato fatto alcuni 
 libri di esempli" having myself produced some time ago 
 a few books of patterns. 
 
 This Giovanni Antonio Vavassore, reputed to have 
 been a pupil of Mantegna, and known amongst en- 
 gravers under the name of Zoan Andrea, pilfered in the 
 most shameless manner from the works of other 
 publishers, and was accordingly dubbed Guadagnino, 
 the Rapacious. His first work, V Esemplario di Lavori 
 (1530), reproduces designs of German embroideries 
 with double-headed eagles and other motifs of anything 
 but an Italian character. During the course of twenty- 
 five years he issued innumerable impressions and 
 editions of his patterns, heading the. series with the 
 pompous titles so much affected by the Italian pattern- 
 book publishers ; at one time it is Fontana de gli 
 Esempli (" The Fountain of Patterns "), 1546; La Fior 
 de gli Esempli (" The Flower of Patterns ") ; La Corona 
 di Ricami (" The Crown of Embroideries "), 1550. He 
 takes credit to himself that the authors of other similar 
 books have not known, as he has, how to count stitches, 
 " numerar li punti" and that, consequently, the ladies 
 have been left without guide as to the way in which the 
 patterns were to be worked, " le donne noli possino meter 
 in opera" 
 
 But Venice was not the only publishing centre for 
 open stitched patterns. Francisque Pelegrin, styled 
 " noble home de Florence" printed his tl Fleur de Science
 
 1 90 II. LACES. 
 
 de Pourtraicture et Patrons de Broderie Fafon Arabique 
 et Ytalique" in France, securing the sanction of the 
 king, Francis I., thereto, on the " i/th day of June, 
 in the year 1530, and sixteenth of our reign." 
 
 Thus the name of Francis I. is connected with this 
 work of Francisque Pelegrin, as Charles V.'s is with 
 that of Quintell, an instance of the simultaneous 
 encouragement bestowed by two rival courts upon 
 needlework and pattern books to propagate its practice. 
 
 It is, moreover, interesting from the point of view 
 of style in pattern to note the two currents of supply 
 for pattern publishers, the one coming from the North 
 and the other from Italy. 
 
 Embroideries upon open grounds, done by counted 
 stitches, are almost entirely of a German character. 
 Their patterns are principally composed of eagles, and 
 heraldic emblems, oak leaves, acorns, holly and thistles, 
 all of which belong to Northern vegetation ; and, lastly, 
 of hunting scenes, designed with a remarkable air of 
 truth. 
 
 The motifs in Italian needleworks which were largely 
 of cut points, and punti in acre, points in the air, consist 
 on the other hand, of oleander blossoms, and elegant 
 wreaths and scrolls, conventional foliage of the acanthus 
 type, figures of people real or imaginary, standing under 
 arcades or separated by columns, vases, and fountains ; 
 and very often musical instruments are introduced 
 (fig. 90). Besides these, paesi con historie antiche, 
 landscapes with mythological scenes play an important 
 part ; saints are at times alternated with Olympian 
 gods ; and hunting episodes, less realistic than the 
 Northern ones, are pictured with fauns, and nymphs
 
 THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. IQI 
 
 or amorini shooting arrows. In French and German 
 patterns lifelike huntsmen wind their hunting horns, 
 and chase boars (fig. 91). 
 
 That the publishers were not the designers of the 
 patterns may be inferred from the fact that in a set of 
 collected designs, Italian, French, Flemish, English, and 
 even those of the fafon arabique (Saracenic style), were 
 heterogeneously mixed together. 
 
 In 1543, fifteen years after the books by Tagliente 
 and d'Aristotile had been issued, Rob. Mathio Pagan 
 published at Venice his Giardinetto novi di punti tagliati 
 i gropposi, or "New Garden of cut and knotted Points." 
 These are for cut linen embroideries, or embroideries 
 upon open linen, or net, but with more relief im- 
 parted to them than earlier ones. This relief was 
 obtained by knotted stitches "gropposi" The motifs 
 of the patterns are " a fogliamt," of foliage as well as 
 " in storia " of episodes. A little later, in his edition 
 of 1558, entitled La Gloria di Punti ("The Glory of 
 Stitches "), he adds li punti in acre, points in the air, of 
 which he had not spoken previously. His book in its 
 two editions thus displays the transition from embroidery 
 with open stitches to needlepoint lace with raised work. 
 
 A certain number of these pattern books bear no 
 authors' names, and some are undated ; these are there- 
 fore only classifiable by analogy with those of which 
 the authors and dates are known. One of the most 
 interesting of them is Le Pompe, dated 1558, author 
 unknown. Many were produced by friars or monks, as, 
 for instance, the Triompho di Lavori a Fogliami (" The 
 Triumph of Foliated Work"), by Fra Hieronimo of Padua, 
 in 1555, and that by Antoine Belin, recluse of St. Martial
 
 IQ2 II. LACES. 
 
 at Lyons, who co-operated with Jehan Mayol, Carmelite 
 monk at Lyons. The publisher of the last-named book 
 was Pierre de St. Lucie dit Le Prince. On the title-page 
 is a cut of women instructing children in needlework. 
 Monks probably designed such books for purposes of 
 instruction ; for use as class-books, in fact. 
 
 The same sort of remark applies to a large number 
 of patterns brought together and published under 
 the direction of women, the designs of which have 
 great individuality. Dame Isabetta-Catanea Parasole 
 brought out a book in 1594, at Venice, an issue of 
 which she repeated the next year at Rome, entitled 
 Specchio delle Virtuose Done (" The Mirror of Virtuous 
 Women "). The drawing of the patterns proclaims the 
 practised hand of a workwoman thoroughly conversant 
 with the punli in aria, needlepoint laces, and the punti a 
 piombini, bobbin laces. 
 
 Another woman (Lucrezia Romana) to some extent 
 influenced Venetian wood engravers. Mathio Pagan dedi- 
 cated his Giardinetto di Punti '(" Garden of the Stitches ") 
 to her ; and on one of the pages of Giovanni Ostans' 
 pattern book (fig. 92) is a woodcut, in which she is 
 represented surrounded by a group of women, whose 
 work she is directing. 
 
 In 1584 Dominique de Sera, an Italian, follows the 
 example of Francisque Pellegrin, by publishing a set of 
 patterns at Paris, called Livre de Lingerie, for instruction 
 in the noble and gentle art of the needle (de I'esguille) 
 according to the methods he saw " in Italy, Spain, 
 Roumania, Germany, and other countries." But, fearing 
 that this may be insufficient attraction for French 
 patrons, he adds " several patterns designed by Jean
 
 THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 193 
 
 Cousin, painter at Paris," youthful works of one who 
 subsequently ranked anionst the most illustrious of 
 French artists. 
 
 Queen Catherine de Medicis, wife of Henry II., and 
 mother of Charles IX., 
 induced one Federic 
 Vinciolo to come from 
 Italy and make ruffs and 
 gadrooned collars, the 
 fashion of which she 
 started in France. Ac- 
 cording to Brantome she 
 gave him the sole right, 
 for many years, of selling 
 such articles. 
 
 This encouraged the 
 said Vinciolo to collect 
 a number of patterns 
 specially suitable for the 
 trimmings of these ruffs. 
 Under the patronage of 
 Louise de Lorraine, wife 
 of Henry III., who suc- 
 ceeded Charles IX., 
 Vinciolo published the 
 
 COmpletCSt known series Fi S- 92.-Design from pattern book 
 
 1 by Giovanni Ostans. 
 
 of patterns. Its first 
 
 part is dated 1587; the title is as follows: 
 
 "The singular and new designs (^pourtraicts) and 
 work for linen (lingerie} for use as patterns for all sorts 
 of stitches, cutwork, /act's, and others. Dedicated to 
 the Queen. Newly invented, to the profit and content 
 
 13
 
 194 II. LACES. 
 
 of noble ladies and young ladies, and other gentle 
 spirits, amateurs of such art. By the Seigneur Federic 
 de Vinciolo, Venetian. In Paris at Jean Le Clerc the 
 younger, Rue Chartiere, St. Denis, 1587. With the 
 sanction of the King." On the last page of the work 
 is : " Sanction granted for nine years to Jean Le 
 Clerc the younger, dealer in storybooks at Paris, signed 
 the 27th June, 1587. From the printing press of David 
 Le Clerc, Rue Frementel, at the sign of the Golden 
 star : in 410." 
 
 For twenty years, at least, new editions of the Singu- 
 liers Pourtraicts appeared without intermission ; and each 
 succeeding edition contained a few new additional plates. 
 
 Vinciolo, who dedicated them to the Queen with 
 multitudinous compliments in prose and verse, adds in 
 his inflated style : " I have greatly desired, honourable 
 readers, to place before you, for works of a magnificent 
 standard, the present designs, which I have kept back 
 hidden and unknown until now, when I offer them with 
 a cheerful heart to the French nation ! " 
 
 All, however, are not entirely invented by himself, 
 since he owns to " having obtained from Italy certain 
 rare and singular patterns, and having originated a few 
 to the best of my poor powers." . . . Still he asserts 
 his superiority over all his predecessors in the art, by 
 stating patronizingly that " he is assured that those 
 patterns, less perfected and more rudely outlined, have 
 already served and been of some profit." Although 
 Vavassore had counted and numbered stitches (numerare 
 li punti) before him, Vinciolo does the same in his 
 third edition, and placidly states it to have been " never 
 before seen or thought of." After which, one cannot
 
 THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 195 
 
 resist smiling at his saying, " I think, friend reader, 
 that you will not ignore in any way the great and 
 sedulous labour I must have expended in drawing 
 and giving light to the larger quantity of most excellent 
 patterns for needlework contained in this present book." 
 
 We will not prolong our remarks upon these 
 pattern books ; * as we turn over the leaves of many of 
 them it is not difficult to identify most with the period 
 of the Medicis and to recognize the widespread 
 influence of Italian taste in the publications of other 
 countries. Venice, moreover, asserts its supremacy in 
 producing fine laces, and drives a considerable trade in 
 collars and cuffs, worn as frequently by men as by 
 women of quality. 
 
 Perhaps the oldest painting in which lace is depicted 
 is that of a portrait of a lady by Carpaccio, who died 
 about 1523. It is in the academy at Venice. The cuffs 
 of the lady are edged with a narrow lace, the pattern 
 of which reappears in Vecellio's Corona, not published 
 until 1591 ; this particular pattern was therefore in use 
 
 * It will suffice here to note that the better-known pattern books, 
 esides those already named are 1534? Johan Schwartzemberger, 
 Augsburg; 1546, Gormont, Paris; 1554, Balthazar Sylvius or Dubois, 
 Paris; 1560, Christofer Froschowern, Zurich; 1593, Jeromino 
 Calepino, Venice ; 1564, Ve. Jean Ruelle, Paris ; 1568, Nicolas Basseus 
 (four editions), Frankfurt; 1591, J. Woolff, London; 1591, Cesare 
 Vecellio (nine editions), Venice (fig. 90) ; 1597, Jeande Glen, Liege, 
 1597, Balthazar Laimoxen, Nuremberg; 1598, Jacques Foillet, 
 Montbeliard ; 1661, Johan Sibmacher, Nuremberg; 1604, Paul Tozzi, 
 Padua ; 1605, The Englishman Mignerak, Paris. 
 
 Interesting reproductions of many of these books have been recently 
 made by F. Ongania of Venice, and other foreign publishers ; in 
 France by Hippolyte Cocheris, Emmanuel Bocher, Madame Veuve 
 Perrault & Son, and Armand Durand.
 
 196 II. LACES. 
 
 at least eighty years before it got into circulation with 
 other published patterns. 
 
 Of similar date, no doubt, were the "ancient laces" 
 mentioned in an inventory, dated 1598, which furbished 
 the bed of J. Bta. Valier, bishop of Cividale di 
 Belluno. 
 
 Notwithstanding the success which attended the 
 first appearance of Venetian laces, they met with 
 opposition even in their own country; for officers of 
 the Republic, the Proveditori alle Pompe, issued several 
 ordinances against the wearing of punti in aere in towns, 
 under pain of a fine of two hundred ducats. One of 
 these sumptuary laws passed in 1514 lays down the 
 limits of fashion in " ladies' cloaks, laces, gloves em- 
 broidered with gold and silk, embroideries generally, 
 fans, gondolas, and sedan chairs." * 
 
 However, on the occasion of the French king's 
 (Henry III.) passing through Venice in 1574, special 
 leave was granted to ladies to wear all sorts of costume, 
 ornaments, and jewellery whatsoever, " even such as 
 were prohibited by the ordinances." 
 
 Henry III. certainly brought back with him on his 
 return from this journey a lively taste for all sorts of 
 Italian affectations to which his mother Catherine de 
 Medicis had accustomed him from his childhood. And 
 we hear of him being so punctilious over his ruffs, that 
 he would set himself to iron and goffer his cuffs and 
 collars rather than see their pleats and gadroons 
 limp and out of shape. f This probably explains 
 why Vinciolo, in dedicating his patterns to the 
 
 * Venice, by Charles Yriarte, p. 222. 
 
 f Charles Blanc, L' Art dans la Parure, p. 297.
 
 THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 197 
 
 Queen, did not forget, in sly courtier manner, to add 
 a portrait of the King who gave so much heed to 
 his laces. 
 
 Summary. These detailed explanations seemed 
 necessary with the view of giving some insight into 
 the transition from white embroideries to laces : they 
 indicate that in the sixteenth century no laces beyond 
 the punti in aere were really known, although these 
 were used in bands of insertion and for edgings of 
 dentated shapes. The close portions of the motifs and 
 floral devices in such punti were worked in a filling-in 
 stitch, lightened with small holes arranged like veins in a 
 leaf, or ornamentally grouped together ; the contours of 
 these close-worked devices were rarely outlined with 
 a thread ; and the portions, when rendered in relief, 
 were worked with a knotted stitch. More elegant 
 effects were obtained by means of small loopings or 
 purls cast upon the edges of some of the details, with 
 charming effect. 
 
 In conclusion it may be said that needlepoint lace 
 of this period is found to be so closely allied with 
 embroidery in cut or drawn-thread work, or embroidery 
 on lads (net), and other needlework wrought with open 
 grounds, that it seems to be merely a slight variety of 
 one or the other of them. It is not until the succeeding 
 century that it acquires a really independent character 
 and individuality.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY VENETIAN POINTS- 
 MARKED INFLUENCE OF LOUIS XIV. AND COLBERT 
 POINT DE FRANCE. 
 
 To properly follow the course of, and deviations, in 
 lace-making it is necessary to study costume from the 
 sixteenth century to our time. This at least is the advice 
 given by M. G. Duplessis in his remarkable articles 
 entitled " Indications sommaires sur les documents utiles 
 aux artistes industriels dans le de'partement des estampes 
 a la Bibliotheque nationale* One result of his researches 
 deserves our special attention. He finds distinct 
 evidence that the production of the more noteworthy 
 of earlier laces owes more to the influence of men 
 than to that of women. When men adopted the 
 fashion of wearing laces, designs for them become of 
 a distinctively artistic character. Man readily criticizes 
 the adornments of the opposite sex, and cannot there- 
 fore but feel flattered in nowadays reviving the re- 
 membrance that the costliest productions of the art 
 of lace-making originated under his direct influence, 
 whether he exercised it for the enrichment of his courtly 
 costume as a great noble or for that of his alb and rochet 
 as a prelate. 
 
 * See two articles by M. G. Duplessis (director of the De'partement 
 des Estampes in the Bibliotheque Nationale) in the Revue des Arts 
 de'coratifs tor February and March, 1887.
 
 THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 199 
 
 Ruffs and their companion cuffs, says Quicherat 
 made their first appearance as articles of costume about 
 1540.* At this time needlework for the punti in acre 
 also is first practised, and designers begin to relax the 
 geometric character of their devices and to enter upon 
 a freer and more wealthy style of pattern for the punti 
 a fogliami. 
 
 The spirit of Flemish and Dutch painters, great 
 lovers of flowers, readily infuses itself into this period 
 of pattern-making, and is as speedily apparent in Italy 
 as in France. Under Henry IV. (1589 1610) and 
 Louis XIII. (1610 1643) pleated and gadrooned ruffs 
 disappear and are replaced by wide flat collars of 
 Dutch linen, garnished with laces falling over the 
 shoulders of men or perked up fan-fashion at the back 
 of women's heads. The shapes still retain the orna- 
 mentation imparted to insertions and trimming borders, 
 bandes et passements ; but the dentations of the borders 
 are less pointed than under the Valois. The well- 
 balanced scallop forms are finely curved, and give rise 
 to the employment of other than geometric motifs. 
 Expanding tulips come into vogue as ornamental 
 devices, and remind us of the costly extravagances of 
 Dutch tulip fanciers. Nothing so completely conveys 
 an idea of the style which collars assume at this time 
 as the engravings by Abraham Bosse. " There is 
 hardly a specimen of Abraham Bosse's work," writes 
 Quicherat, ''which does not display the forms of collars, 
 frills (jabots), or cuffs." Fig. 95 shows us a lace shop 
 in the "Gallery of the Palace," decked out with its wares, 
 and provides us with incontrovertible authority for the 
 * Quicherat, Histoire de Costume en France.
 
 200 
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 Fig. 95. Lace shop in the Galerie du Palais 
 (after Abraham BosseJ. 
 
 style of laces then in use. Everything in the embellish-
 
 THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 2OI 
 
 rnent of male attire of the time lends itself to enrich- 
 ment by means of laces. Great collars, cuffs turned 
 back, gloves, doublets, breeches, and even boots are all 
 profusely trimmed. 
 
 Bits of furniture are literally enveloped with lads 
 work or laces, especially beds ; head and foot-boards, 
 canopies and their supporting pillars, are completely 
 hidden beneath these cloudy fabrics ; from the corners 
 of the canopies spring plumes reaching to the ceiling, 
 and all below them is a pendent mass of lacy draperies. 
 
 The inventory of Charles de Bourbon, 1613, and 
 that of his wife, Countess of Soissons, 1644, includes 
 mention of a bed decked with " a pavilion of linen 
 hangings, with bands of net made up of squares, the 
 head-board covered with similar material, the inside of 
 the canopy, the covers for the pillars, three curtains 
 and a head curtain, a sheet of similar linen with a band 
 of re'seitil, a state coverlet, all bordered with lace." . . . 
 
 Laces, too, were used as trimmings for the interiors, 
 and along the great open window-sashes, of coaches and 
 carriages, which increased in number as well made royal 
 roads superseded the badly kept highways of the Middle 
 Ages. 
 
 These exaggerated uses of lace, etc., vexed Henry IV. 
 very much. For all that, however, he was a good and 
 patient prince, anxious to see progress made with the 
 industries of his country. In 1607 he called the Royal 
 Tapestry Manufactory into being. Previously, in 1598, 
 he had had planted in the Bois de Boulogne fifteen 
 thousand mulberry trees which had been brought from 
 Milan by one Balbani, and were put under the charge 
 of Olivier de Serres. At the chateau de Madrid close
 
 2O2 
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 at hand the king had established a silk-worm nursery ; 
 but the austere disposition of Huguenot Sully, the 
 
 Fig. 94. A dandy discarding his laces (after Abraham Bosse). 
 
 king's first minister, did not harmonize with such pre- 
 occupations. "You want iron and soldiers," said he
 
 THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 203 
 
 to his master, "and not laces and silks to trick out 
 fops ! " 
 
 In the face of absurd abuses through which certain 
 nobles ruined themselves, Henry IV. felt compelled 
 to issue a few sumptuary edicts intended to lessen 
 them. 
 
 Louis XIII., with his religious rigour in striking 
 contrast with Henry IV.'s geniality, was much more 
 severe, and promulgated in 1629 the edict already 
 referred to, under the title of " Regulation as to Super- 
 fluity in Costume." Draconic as this law appeared, its 
 application was not rigidly enforced, and people did 
 not dissemble their contempt for it. Many of Abraham 
 Bosse's engravings cheerfully caricature the supposed 
 effects of this law, and the first series of them were 
 extremely popular. The same subject was used by 
 him for three distinct versions of the "Courtier obey ing 
 the last edict," in which a gentleman is represented 
 pulling off his collar, cuffs, and the minor elegancies of 
 his court dress, throwing them on to a chair, and 
 re-clothing himself in simple attire, so little trimmed 
 that he presents a comparatively sorry appearance after 
 the transformation (fig. 94). His valet de chambre is 
 about to lock up the laced clothes. Beneath him are 
 the lines : 
 
 C'est avec regret que mon matire 
 Quitte ces beaux habillemens 
 Semes de riches passemens 
 Qui lefesoient si bien paroistre. 
 Mais, d'un autre cote, je pense 
 Qu'etant avare comme il est, 
 Asseurement I edit luy plats t, 
 Pour ce qu'il regie la depense.
 
 204 H. LACES. 
 
 Je vais done mcttre dans le coffre 
 Tons ces vetemens superflus, 
 El quoiqu'il ne les forte phis, 
 Je ne crains pas qtiil me les offre* 
 
 Fig. 95 displays us the lady inconsolably dressing 
 herself in clothes without laces : 
 
 Quoiqnc faye assez de beaute 
 
 Pour asseurer sans vanite 
 
 Qii'il n'est point de femme plus belle, 
 
 II semble pouriant, d mes yeux, 
 
 Qu'avec de Vor ct la dentelle, 
 
 Je triajuste encore Men mieux.^ 
 
 The king's severity against the prodigalities of 
 courtiers is nevertheless justified when one finds, for 
 example, that Cinq Mars left at his death in 1642 more 
 than three hundred sets of collars and cuffs trimmed 
 with lace ! 
 
 At the end of Louis XIII.'s reign, lace-making had 
 become an industry quite distinct from that of em- 
 broidery. Embroidery with open stitches and upon 
 nets was still slightly practised ; but active and special 
 centres were organized for the pursuit of the novel and 
 charming industry of lace-making, the origin of which 
 and its admission into the confederation of the industrial 
 arts do not reach back into fabulous ages ; from its 
 
 * It is with regret that my master doffs the fine clothes covered 
 with trimmings, which gave him such a handsome appearance. On 
 the other hand, I think, that being a niggard as he is, the edict must 
 surely please him, so far as it affects his expenses. I go then 
 and put all these superfluous garments in the cupboard, and as he will 
 wear them no more, I shall not fear he will give them to me. 
 
 f In spite of my personal beauty which, without vanity, cannot 
 be surpassed by that of another woman, it still seems to my eyes 
 that with gold and laces I further enhance my charms.
 
 THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 2O5 
 
 commencement it at once took a position of the first 
 rank in industrial arts. 
 
 Fig- 95- A lady of fashion discarding her laces (after Abraham 
 Bosse). 
 
 Moreover, at this moment there succeeded to the 
 throne of France a young king whose influence in
 
 206 II. LACES. 
 
 developing the new-born industry was decisive ; it may 
 be safely said that the sixty-eight years of his reign wit- 
 nessed the production of the most stately needlepoint 
 laces ; the transformation of Venetian point, an(J the 
 outburst of Points d'Alen$on, d'Argentan, de Bruxelles, 
 d'Angleterre, occur during this period of the Grand 
 Monarque, which, in respect of many of these laces, 
 covers both those of their birth and apogee. 
 
 Nevertheless, at the commencement of the vogue for 
 laces, under the regency of the queen-mother, Anne 
 of Austria, they were objects of divers sumptuary 
 edicts. 
 
 One issued during the last year of Mazarin, 1660, 
 kindled very great anxiety, its publication taking place 
 on the eve of the young king's marriage. Everybody 
 had had their gala dresses trimmed with braids, 
 guipures, and fine laces, in honour of the arrival of the 
 bride, and so the cruelty of the edict was doubly felt. 
 On all sides murmurs arose to such a degree that 
 Moliere, at the risk of giving offence to the king, en- 
 deavoured to mollify public discontent by a mock eulogy 
 of the decree which he introduced into the Ecole des 
 Marts. 
 
 Oh / trots et quatrefois beni soit cet edit 
 Par qui des -vetements le luxe est interdit ! 
 Les peines des marts ne seront plus si grandcs 
 Et lesfemmes auront unfrein a. leurs demandes. 
 Oh .' que je sais au roi bon gre de ces decris, 
 Et que, pour le repos de ces memes marts, 
 Je voudrais bien qu'onfit de la coquetterie 
 Comme de la guipure et de la broderie. 
 
 The edict of 1660 provoked a clique of fashionable 
 dames, who used to meet at the Hotel de Rambouillet,
 
 THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 2O/ 
 
 to compose a set of satirical verses, the mere technical 
 interest of which is so conspicuous that it cannot be 
 passed by in silence, as every then known lace is men- 
 tioned in it. It is entitled La Revolte des Passements. 
 No author's name is given, but the verses are dedicated 
 to Mademoiselle de la Trousse, a cousin of Madame de 
 Sevigne. Mrs. Bury-Palliser has in her book on the 
 History of Lace made an excellent resume of these 
 verses, and we extract it in full. 
 
 " In consequence of the sumptuary edict against 
 luxury in apparel Mesdames les Broderies, 
 
 " Les Poincts, Dentelles, Passemens, 
 Qui, par une vaine despence, 
 Ruinoient aujourd'hui la France 
 
 meet and concert measures for their common safety. 
 Point de Genes, with Point de Raguse, first address the 
 company. Next, Point de Venise, who seems to look 
 on Point de Raguse with a jealous eye, exclaims, 
 
 " Encor pour vous, Poinct de Ragtise, 
 II est bon, crainte d'attentat, 
 D'en vouloir purger un Estat. 
 Les gens aussi fins qtie vous etes 
 Ne sont bons que, comme vous faites, 
 Pour ruiner tous les Estats. 
 Et nous, Aurillac et Venise 
 Si nous plions notre valise, 
 
 what will be our fate ? 
 
 " The other laces speak in their turn, most despond- 
 ently, till a ' Veille broderie d'or,' consoling them, talks 
 of the vanity of this world : ' Who knows it better 
 than I, who have dwelt in kings' houses ? ' One 
 ' grande dentelle d' Angleterre ' now proposes they 
 should all retire to a convent. To this the ' Dentelles
 
 208 II. LACES. 
 
 de Flandres' object. They would sooner be sewn at 
 once to the bottom of a petticoat. 
 
 "Mesdames les Broderies resign themselves to become 
 ' ameublementsj the more devout of the party to appear 
 as ' devants d'autels.' Those who feel too young to 
 renounce the world and its vanities will seek refuge in 
 the masquerade shops. 
 
 " ' Dentelle noire d'Angleterre ' lets herself out cheap 
 to a fowler, as a net to catch woodcocks, for which she 
 felt ' assez propre ' in her present predicament. 
 
 "The Points all resolve to retire to their own countries 
 save Aurillac, who fears she may be turned into a 
 strainer ' pour passer les frontages d'Auvergne,' a smell 
 insupportable to one who had revelled in civet and 
 orange-flower. 
 
 " All were starting 
 
 " Chacun, dissimulant sa rage, 
 Doucement ployoit son bagage, 
 Resoht d'obeir au sort. 
 when 
 
 " Une pauvre tres malheureuse, 
 Qrfon appelle, dit-on, la Gueuse, 
 
 arrives, in a great rage, from a village in the environs 
 of Paris. She is not of high birth, but has her feelings 
 all the same. She has no refuge, not even a place in 
 the hospital. Let them follow her advice, and ' elle 
 engageoit sa chainettej she will replace them all in 
 their former position. 
 
 " Next morn the Points assemble. ' Une grande 
 cravate fanfaron ' exclaims, 
 
 " // nous faut venger cet affront; 
 Revoltons-nous noble asscmblee.
 
 THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 209 
 
 " A council of war ensues. 
 
 " Ld-dessus, le Point d'Alenfon, 
 Ayant bien appris sa lefon, 
 Fit -line fort belle harangue. 
 
 " Flanders now boasts how she had made two cam- 
 paigns under Monsieur as a cravat, another had 
 learned the art of war under Turenne, a third was 
 torn at the siege of Dunkirk. 
 
 " Racontant dcs combats qu'ils ne virent jamais, 
 one and all had figured at some siege or battle. 
 
 " Qu'avons a redouter? 
 
 cries Dentelle d'Angleterre. Not so, thinks Point de 
 Genes, ' qui avait le corps un peu gros.' 
 
 " They all swear, 
 
 " Foy de Passement 
 Foy de Poincts et de Broderie, 
 De Guipure et d' Orfevrerie 
 De Gueuse de toutefafon, 
 
 to declare open war and to banish Parliament. 
 
 " The Laces assemble at the fair of St. Germain, 
 there to be reviewed by General Luxe. 
 
 "The muster-roll is called over by Colonel Sotte 
 De'pense. Dentelles de Moresse, Escadrons de Neige, 
 Dentelles de Havre, Escrues, Soies Noires, and Points 
 d'Espagnes, etc., march forth in warlike array, to 
 conquer or to die. At the first approach of the 
 artillery they all take to their heels, and are con- 
 demned by a council of war, the Points to be made 
 into tinder for the sole use of the king's musquetaires, 
 the Laces to be converted into paper, the Dentelles, 
 Escrues, Gueuses, Passemens, and silk lace to be made 
 into cordage and sent to the galleys, the Gold and
 
 210 II. LACES. 
 
 Silver Laces, the original authors of the sedition, to 
 be burned alive. 
 
 " Finally, through the intercession of Love, 
 " Le petit dieu plcin de finesse, 
 
 they are again pardoned and restored to court favour." 
 The poem is of the highest value to us, in its 
 enumeration of the laces in use in 1661, and in its 
 pourtrayal of the character peculiar to each. 
 
 From amongst the names thus given we select two 
 for special note in connection with needlepoint laces. 
 These are the Point de Raguse and the Point de Venise. 
 The investigation of the origin of the great transforma- 
 tion which was taking place in patterns of Venetian 
 laces leads us to inquire if the rivalry between the two 
 towns, as set forth in the poem, may not point to a 
 suggestion that the rich foliated scroll patterns possess- 
 ing Oriental character, were first designed in Ragusa, 
 before Venice adopted kindred works. Venice, as 
 Queen of the Adriatic, shared her power with no other 
 place ; still, the poem certainly seems to say that 
 Ragusa had made even finer laces than Venice, as 
 
 Les gens aussijins que -vous etes, 
 Ne sont bons que, comme vousfaites, 
 Pour ruiner tons les iLstats* 
 
 But, Ragusa being so effectually beaten out ot the 
 field, in the matter of laces, by Venice, no means are 
 really left us for determining the exact character of 
 the Points de Raguse apparently so highly esteemed 
 by the clique of the hotel de Rambouillet.f 
 
 * " The people (Venetians), as skilled as you (of Ragusa) are, a: e 
 only useful, as you are, to ruin all estates." 
 
 f Ragusa is comparatively near the Montenegrin seaboard, and 
 north-western ccast of Greece, and in the fifteenth and early six-
 
 THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 211 
 
 However this may be, Venice certainly monopolized 
 the production of, and commerce in, all fine needle- 
 point laces, and the returns of her trade in them, 
 particularly with the court of France, the centre for 
 such elegancies, are enormous. At this juncture the 
 young king, taking counsel with his far-seeing minister 
 Colbert, cast away the vexatious measures inspired a 
 short time earlier by his mother, and forthwith deter- 
 mined to enrich his own kingdom with the means of 
 pursuing an industry which had proved so remunera- 
 tive to Venice. As lace-making was already to some 
 extent practised in many parts of France, Alencon 
 already enjoying a reputation for its skill in this 
 direction, Colbert, with statesmanlike perception, set 
 inquiries on foot respecting those towns whose local 
 circumstances would best favour the contemplated de- 
 velopment ; and selected them as special centres for the 
 privileged manufacture of lace. 
 
 Monseigneur de Bonzy, bishop of Beziers, was then 
 French Ambassador at Venice ; to him Colbert natur- 
 
 teenth centuries was one of the principal Adriatic ports belonging 
 to the Venetian Republic. The peasants of the Ionian Islands and 
 neighbouring Greek coast were noted for geometric-patterned drawn 
 thread and cutwork, and many wares of such character must have 
 been imported by the Venetians through Ragusa. Hence they appear 
 to have been named Points de Raguse. Venice, with her unlimited 
 artistic resources in the sixteenth century, developed richer versions of 
 these laces, and her later seventeenth-century sumptuous foliated scroll 
 patterns (hardly displaying Oriental feeling) completely superseded, 
 at the time of the Revolte cies Passements, the Greek laces or Points de 
 Raguse. The poetical lament of the coterie at the hotel de Ram- 
 bouillet, over the extinction of the Points de Raguse, is, I think, to be 
 accepted as reflecting the condition above indicated, and, if so, 
 furnishes but slender grounds for the supposition that the Points de 
 Raguse entered into rivalry with the finer developments of Venetian 
 lace, by which they were certainly superseded.
 
 212 II. LACES. 
 
 ally turned, and received from him many communica- 
 tions on the subject. "All the convents,"* writes Mon- 
 seigneur de Bonzy, "and poor families make a living 
 out of this lace-making." In another letter he says, 
 " I see how easy it would be for you to establish the 
 making of Venetian needlepoint laces in France, if you 
 were to send over here a few of the best French lace- 
 makers' daughters to be taught, so that in time they 
 should impart their instruction to others in France." 
 This suggestion was accepted. And a few years later 
 (January 1673), M. le Comte d'Avaux having suc- 
 ceeded M. de Bonzy as ambassador at Venice, 
 Colbert writes : " I have gladly received the collar 
 of needlepoint lace worked in relief that you have 
 sent me, and I find it very beautiful. I shall have 
 it compared with those now being made by our own 
 lace-makers, although I may tell you before-hand that 
 as good specimens are now made in this kingdom " 
 (fig. 96). 
 
 But it is worth while to follow all the steps taken by 
 Colbert to establish lace-making in France which are 
 described in the careful history of Point d'Alen^on^ 
 compiled by Madame Despierres. 
 
 An exclusive privilege, dated August 5th, 1665, for ten 
 years, together with a subsidy of 36,000 livres (about 
 2,700) was granted by the minister to a company, the 
 first shareholders in which were Pluymers, Talon, and 
 another Talon, surnamed de Beaufort, etc. The prin- 
 cipal office and shop were opened at Paris in the hotel 
 de Beaufort. 
 
 * The convent of San Zaccaria was the most noted for its fine 
 needlepoint laces. 
 
 Histoire du Point d'Alenfon, by Madame Despierres, p. 1 8.
 
 THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 213 
 
 As we have already pointed out preference in start- 
 ing centres for the manufacture was shown for those 
 towns already engaged in lace-making, whether with 
 the needle or with bobbins ; the company thus expect- 
 ing to find, ready to hand for its operations, such 
 conditions as would best favour the attainment of the 
 object in view. The principal centres were Aurillac, 
 Sedan, Reims, le Quesnoy, Alencon, Arras, Loudun, etc. 
 
 The title of Points de France was given to all the 
 laces made at these centres, without distinction as to 
 variety in make. In order to adopt all the processes 
 of foreign lace-making, the company engaged, at the 
 king's cost, workers from Italy and Flanders, placing 
 them at the different suitable centres. Voltaire says that 
 thirty came from Venice and two hundred from Flanders. 
 
 The most brilliant results came from the Alencon 
 centre, which accordingly stood first on the list. It is 
 true that since the commencement of the seventeenth 
 century Alencon had turned out needlepoint lace, and 
 that some of the lace-makers there showed great talent 
 in the art, and earned high wages. Marriage contracts 
 and wills, the terms of which have been extracted by 
 Madame Despierres, with the utmost care, furnish 
 significant figures. A notable instance is that of a 
 family named Barbot, the mother having amassed 
 500 livres (about 57 ios.). Her daughter, Marthe 
 Barbot, married Michel Mercier, sieur de la Perriere, 
 on 1 8th March, 1633, and brought him a wedding 
 portion of 300 livres (about 22 ios.), the earnings 
 of her industry; whilst her sister Suzanne Barbot's 
 wedding portion upon her marriage with Paul 
 Fenouillet, on 28th August, 1661, amounted to "6,000
 
 214 II. LACES. 
 
 livres (about ,450), earned in making cutworks and 
 works en ve'lin (needlepoint lace done on a parchment 
 pattern), which command a high price." This last 
 sentence indicates that the elder sister, Madame de la 
 Perriere, many years before the founding of the royal 
 manufacture, had acquainted herself with the Venetian 
 methods of making needlepoint laces. 
 
 It seems quite evident here, that the difference 
 between the point lace made at Alencon before 1665, 
 and that made by Madame de la Perriere, on her own 
 initiative, in imitation of Venetian specimens for which 
 Colbert established a special manufacture, was one in 
 respect of design or pattern, and quality of work. 
 Point on vellum (point en ve'lin), so termed because 
 the work was done on a vellum or parchment pattern, 
 had been wrought at Alencon for fifty years. It was 
 evidently the same as that, rightly called by the 
 Italians punto in aere, made on parchment patterns, but 
 usually of geometric character ; survivals, indeed, of 
 kindred patterns for cutworks and cognate open em- 
 broideries, which by the circulation of pattern books for 
 a hundred and fifty years, i.e., from 1500 to 1650, had 
 become generally known throughout Europe. 
 
 But what had meanwhile given new features to 
 Venetian laces was a departure, reflecting the greatest 
 taste in the composition of patterns, and consisting of 
 flowering and interlacing scrolls, blossomed with 
 flowers "worked over in relief," as Colbert says in 
 his letter to Comte d'Avaux, and enriched with most 
 admirable details. 
 
 From the lace insertions and dentated borders of 
 the sixteenth century, to the laces of flowering scrolls
 
 THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 215 
 
 brought to high perfection by the Venetians in 
 1640, a considerable progress had taken place which 
 Louis XIV. and Colbert fully appreciated. And it 
 was in the direction of extending this progress that 
 the Grande Monarque and his minister introduced 
 subtle developments at Alencon and other centres of 
 the royal manufacture. 
 
 Surrounded as he was by artists who furnished 
 designs for all works undertaken for his court, 
 Louis XIV. would not have contented himself for long 
 with simple copies of the patterns brought over by the 
 Venetian lace-workers who had been engaged to teach 
 their art in France. The studios of the Gobelins, 
 where a bevy of talented designers for tapestries, 
 costumes, and festive decorations was regularly em- 
 ployed, must certainly have supplied designs for the 
 lace manufactures.* Who indeed can now say whether 
 the transformation in the patterns of Venetian laces, 
 of which but little trace is to be detected in the Italian 
 pattern books, was not largely owing to the orders 
 sent from the French court ? 
 
 During that time the Venetian Senate, exercising a 
 vigilant guardianship over the interests of the Republic, 
 regarded the departure of Venetian workers to France 
 as a State crime. Forthwith was issued the following 
 decree, the severity of which is out of tune with 
 modern ideas : 
 
 " If any artist or handicraftsman practises his art 
 in any foreign land, to the detriment of the Republic, 
 
 * In the accounts of the king's buildings is the entry of a payment 
 to " Bailly, the painter, for several days' work with other painters, in 
 making designs for embroideries and Points d'Espagne."
 
 2l6 II. LACES. 
 
 orders to return will be sent to him ; if he disobeys 
 them his nearest of kin will be put into prison in order 
 that through his interest in their welfare his obedience 
 may be compelled. If he comes back, his past offence 
 will be condoned, and employment for him will be 
 found in Venice ; but if, notwithstanding the imprison- 
 ment of his nearest of kin, he obstinately decides to 
 continue living abroad, an emissary will be commis- 
 sioned to kill him, and his next of kin will only be 
 liberated upon his death."* 
 
 This decree applied not only to the lace-makers but 
 also to the glass and mirror-makers whom Louis XIV. 
 had induced to come to France. 
 
 Happily no emissaries were deputed to carry into 
 effect the terrible threats held over these truant work- 
 people. The experiment of bringing Venetian lace- 
 workers to France required no repetition ; the women 
 were free to return with sufficient promptitude to their 
 native land, since the first attempt had answered 
 admirably ; for, as Voltaire writes, in a short space of 
 time sixteen hundred girls were in full occupation at 
 lace-making at the royal centres of the industry. 
 
 The production of the Points de Venise, and conse- 
 quently of the Points de France which in many cases 
 involved the closest imitation of the Venetian stitches, 
 was all that could be wished. As rapidly as patterns 
 became elaborated from the times of Louis XIII., so 
 quality in the craft of reproducing them as laces 
 improved. A close and detailed inspection of the 
 splendid rabato or neck-band in the Cluny Museum 
 (No. 6,587 in the Catalogue) is indispensable to any 
 
 * Venice, by Charles Yriarte, p. 228.
 
 THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 2I/ 
 
 one who wants to really appreciate the extraordinary 
 standard of work to which the art of the needle can 
 attain (fig. 96). Nothing in embroidery can compare 
 with such marvels of elegance, delicacy, and at the 
 same time vigour, as those displayed in this specimen 
 
 Fig. 96. Splendid rabato of Venetian needlepoint lace (in the 
 Cluny Museum). 
 
 of needlepoint lace. Not only do the scrolls of the 
 design flow with dignity and grace, but the lace-worker 
 herself would appear to have invented an almost super- 
 abundance of wonderfully dainty devices, giving light- 
 ness in effect to the otherwise heavy forms of the 
 flowers. Firmness of outline marking the different
 
 218 
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 contours, results from employing a horsehair, over which 
 minute stitches are cast ; and by the same means a 
 
 Fig. 97. Venetian needlepoint lace (seventeenth century). 
 
 finished crispness is imparted to tiny loops or picots 
 elegantly inserted in the spaces between the scrolls and 
 flowers. This method is still in use in the making of
 
 THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 2 19 
 
 Points cFAlen$on which for sharp definition bear the 
 palm over other laces. It is related of a collar made at 
 Venice for Louis XIV., that the lace-workers being 
 unsuccessful in finding sufficiently fine horsehair em- 
 ployed some of their own hairs instead, in order to 
 secure that marvellous delicacy of work which they 
 aimed at producing. The specimen cost 250 golden 
 ecus (about 66). 
 
 It was for men, then, that these magnificent things 
 were made. They were chiefly in the form of rabatos* 
 or bands falling from beneath the chin over the breast, 
 the fashion for which, succeeding that of ruffs and 
 collars, when large wigs were worn (fig. 98). Cuffs of 
 similar fine lace were also worn. These latter were 
 occasionally so large that Moliere was incited to write 
 
 De ces manches, gu'd table on -voit tdter les sauces.^ 
 
 Fine guipure laces of this character are also to be seen 
 in rochets worn by Bossuet (fig. 99), Fenelon, and 
 other prelates, whose portraits are well worth referring 
 to according to the indications of them given by G. 
 Duplessis. 
 
 Ladies trimmed their berthes and sleeves with these 
 guipures ; when the sleeves were short they were 
 called engageantes ; when long, pagodes. Upon skirts 
 laces were worn, volantes or as flounces, whence the 
 name volant or flounce, which has come into use for all 
 
 * Towards the end of Louis XIV.'s reign flat rabatos were superseded 
 by others which fell in folds, and were called cravates, after, it is said 
 the Creates, or Croatian guards who were much esteemed by Maria 
 Theresa of Austria. 
 
 t Ecole des Man's.
 
 22O 
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 wide laces ; these flouncings were draped either in 
 tournantes or quilles; the former laid horizontally, 
 the latter vertically upon skirts; but in either 
 case these were stitched down on each edge of the 
 
 Pig, 98 Louis XIV., 1670 (after Hyacinthe Rigaud). 
 
 lace, whereas flounces were fastened to dresses by the 
 engrelure or footing, a small band along the upper 
 border of a flounce. Lace barbes and fontages (a sort 
 of erection like a sheaf of lace) were used as head-
 
 THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 221 
 
 dresses ; besides these, handkerchiefs, fichus, scarves, 
 mantillas thrown over the head, and mantles across 
 the shoulders, were all trimmed with lace. 
 
 Berain and Le Brun gave a new and most artistic 
 turn to patterns for laces, which fully justified the 
 success achieved. In portraits painted immediately 
 after 1665, the year when 
 the Royal Alencon manu- 
 facture was started, we 
 have sufficient data for 
 recognizing the style of 
 the first points de France 
 designed by the king's 
 artists. The laces, to be 
 there noted, are entirely 
 of a French character 
 with ornamental motifs 
 more or less emblemati- 
 cal of the attributes 
 belonging to the Sun 
 King. 
 
 It may be gathered, Fig> 99 ._ Fragment O f an alb or 
 
 from what we have Said, rochet of Point de France (from an 
 
 engraving by Drevet of Bcssuet's 
 
 that towards the end of portrait). 
 the seventeenth century 
 
 the make of French laces was identical with that of 
 the Venetian, the difference between the two classes 
 being one solely in respect of pattern. At Venice 
 patterns retained their Italian character of graceful 
 scrolls embellished with rich floral and blossom 
 devices, of an Oriental flavour perhaps, suggestive 
 in a measure of those dreams without termination
 
 222 II. LACES. 
 
 or definite climax which are so entirely in the vein of 
 Arabian or Persian poetry. 
 
 In French contemporary lace patterns we observe 
 a tendency to similar ornament, which, however, is 
 treated in a more precise and less dreamy manner, 
 and intermixed with ideal architectural elements of 
 an extremely light character, generally subordinated to 
 well-balanced arrangement of grouping about some 
 central device possessing strongly marked symbolism. 
 
 This style of pattern, based upon a regularity in 
 arrangement of its component parts, gave birth to an 
 influence the effects of which seem to be visible in 
 some of the smallest of the details in the lace orna- 
 mentation at this period. We have no hesitation in 
 attributing to this influence, for regularity in arrange- 
 ment, the germs of that important transition to grounds 
 of regular meshes. Little by little the intercrossing 
 and arbitrarily placed bars or brides which contrasted 
 pleasantly with the devices in the composition of a 
 pattern, were subjected to a regularity in arrange- 
 ment. 
 
 The fine flounce of Point de France (fig. 100) filled 
 with personages, portraits, and emblems of the time 
 of Louis XIV., is an illustration of the transition to 
 regular grounds just mentioned. The specimen has 
 for many years been in the possession of Madame 
 Dupre of Tours ; and Leon Palustre assigns a date 
 between 1675 and 1680 for its production. The 
 ground consists of bars with tiny loops on each, 
 (brides a picots) similar in workmanship to Venetian 
 brides, but arranged in a series of hexagonal shapes 
 thus forming a ground of regular large meshes, the
 
 THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 223 
 
 Fig. IOO. Flounce of Point de France, in the pattern of which. are 
 introduced figures and attributes of Louis XIV.'s reign. 
 
 orderly arrangement of which corresponds with that
 
 224 H. LACES. 
 
 regulating the disposition of the larger devices in the 
 pattern. 
 
 At this time Point de France is supreme. Watteau's 
 painting of the Presentation of the Grand Dauphin in 
 1668 displays the babe robed in " Holland linen 
 enriched with Points de France." When the Prince de 
 Conti marries Mademoiselle de Blois, the king's wed- 
 ding gift is a set of toilet hangings, all trimmed with 
 Points de France." It is of Mademoiselle de Blois that 
 Madame de Sevigne writes in a letter dated 27th 
 January, 1674, describing her as "beautiful as an angel 
 with a tablier and bavette of Point de France " (a sort 
 of panel on the front of the body to her dress, and a 
 large one on the front of the skirt). 
 
 Before discussing the different classes of laces with 
 meshed grounds (a rc'seaux) we must say a few words 
 about the term which really applies to the larger section 
 of older laces, that is guipure. 
 
 Originally the term was used in connection with cord 
 composed of an inner core or stout thread, whipped 
 round with fine threads, and the name in this sense is 
 used by trimming and gimp-makers of the present day. 
 With cords of gimp of this description (cordonnet- 
 guipure) trimming ornaments were made, which were 
 frequently stitched (applique's), on to a stuff, after the 
 manner of the furniture hangings belonging to 
 Catherine cje Medicis, which are described as " velvet 
 hangings with white gimp (guipure) ornaments, besides 
 cloths of gold and of silver and dove-colour, with figures 
 and scrolls of gold gimp and tinsel.* 
 
 Lace-makers also employed gimp for bars and tyes in 
 
 * Inventory already quoted by Bonnaffe (see p. 131).
 
 THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 225 
 
 imitation of the dainty brides a picots of the Venetians. 
 This, by degrees, gave rise to an extension in the use 
 of the term guipure, and its subsequent application to 
 all laces in which bars or tyes were used ; whilst 
 those, in which the grounds were of small regular 
 meshes (re'seaux), were distinguished under the name 
 dentelles. Hence it may be right to speak of all 
 those splendid laces with their bars (brides) embellished 
 with tiny loops (picots), little stars, and semilunes, 
 the fame of which reflected glory* upon the city of 
 the Doges, as " Guipures de Venise" 
 
 To recapitulate briefly, the reign of Louis XIV. is 
 notable for the display both of the Venetian guipures 
 in their most sumptuous development, and of Points 
 de France, which touched the highest standard of 
 magnificence possible in needlepoint laces. But varia- 
 tions in pattern and make, broadly classifiable under 
 these two groups, are not so numerous as those which 
 arose in the succeeding reign of wild caprices in taste. 
 The pre-eminently artistic character of lace made during 
 Louis XIV.'s period has, however, never been surpassed. 
 
 * Amongst portraits at Venice, ornamented with the finest guipures, 
 we may cite that of the Dogeress Quirini Vallier and that of Morosina 
 Morosini, wife of Doge Marino Grimani.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 
 
 IN the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the grounds 
 of laces may be broadly described to have been 
 varied and irregular, like those in guipures. Meshed 
 grounds (re'seaux) when they first appeared were sub- 
 ordinate accessories to a pattern. In the eighteenth 
 century they play another part altogether; and we find 
 them as grounds superseding the irregular barrings of 
 the guipures. 
 
 The word re'seau, formerly termed re'seuil, is derived 
 from rets (nets) ; and, as we have seen, re'seuil was used 
 as a descriptive name for the net ground of lads. When 
 laces with grounds of regular meshes came into fashion, 
 re'seau was the generic appellation for such grounds ; 
 and the varieties of special local makes of re'seaux were 
 known under the names of the several localities, whence 
 we have the re'seau d'Alencon, that of Argentan, and 
 of Chantilly, Brussels, Mechlin and Valenciennes, etc. 
 
 Points de France, under Louis XIV., had more or less 
 been distinguished by grounds of regular meshes, large 
 in size and enriched with tiny loops or picots. The large 
 mesh was, however, soon reduced to smaller dimensions, 
 and thus the petit re'seau (ground of small meshes) was 
 evolved, in which the elegancies of little picots, etc.,
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 22/ 
 
 could not be used to break the monotony of regular 
 meshes. Nevertheless, re'seaux possess a peculiar 
 charm, as we shall see in the case of the Argentan 
 laces, where re'seaux with meshes of various sizes have 
 been happily contrasted in making up a ground. But 
 their encroaching predominance in laces is coeval with 
 a falling off in general artistic quality of design. 
 
 Of the Points de France at the commencement of the 
 eighteenth century there is one variety the Point de 
 Sedan which calls for some notice. Sedan was one 
 of the lace centres selected by Colbert,* and to it no 
 doubt belongs the greater share of the reputation 
 attaching to this lace, which, however, was also made 
 at Alen9on ; for the characteristics of Points de Sedan 
 were merely such as resulted from a slightly varied 
 arrangement of stitches, all of which were also worked 
 at Alencon. The floral devices in Points de Sedan, 
 somewhat large, and heavy in execution, spring from 
 bold scroll forms, and in between them are big meshes 
 of the grande maille picote'e, of the Point de France. 
 Instead of an even and slightly raised stitching along 
 their contours, these big flowers are accentuated here 
 and there in well-chosen parts by raised stitching, 
 worked somewhat with the effect of vigorous touches 
 of rather forced high lights in a picture. These re- 
 current little mounds of relief, as they may be called, 
 are frequently introduced with admirable artistic result. 
 The finest bishops' rochets, which appear in the later 
 portraits by Hyacinthe Rigaud and De Largilliere, are 
 of Point de Sedan. But this lace soon became tainted 
 
 * See Louis XIV. 's letter of the gth November, 1666, addressed to 
 M. de la Bourlie, Governor of Sedan.
 
 228 II. LACES. 
 
 with the pretentiousness of the rococo style so much 
 affected during the Regency, and one can express but 
 a guarded admiration of works bearing the impress of 
 this style. 
 
 Alencon made a speciality of very regular mesh 
 grounds. At first the meshes were large, similar to the 
 hexagonal barring (brides) of the Point de France, but 
 quite simple and without picots (fig. 101) ; refinements in 
 making the ground ensued, and the button-hole stitched 
 barring was gradually felt to be too clumsy for delicate 
 work ; accordingly a lighter and more simply constructed 
 mesh was invented, and this has survived as the per- 
 fected hexagonal mesh known in all countries as 
 distinctive of the Alencon ground or rc'seau. 
 
 During the transition in the make of meshes, Argentan 
 simplified the method of producing the larger hexagonal 
 meshes. As has been said, they were first constructed 
 by means of button-hole stitching, but instead of this the 
 Argentan workers took to a bride tortille'e; that is, twisting 
 or whipping thread around each of the six brides which 
 form a single mesh. To fix the twisted thread on each 
 bride, a button-hole stitch was taken on commencing the 
 twisting, and a second one on its termination at the 
 other end of the bride. This simplification in producing 
 a bride mesh is well explained by Madame Despierres 
 in her history of Alencon laces. The facility with 
 which this twisted bride mesh could be made, con- 
 duced to simpler and more economical work, the 
 results of which obtained considerable vogue in the 
 middle of the eighteenth century, and were generally 
 known (especially in laces with large meshes made in 
 this way) as Points d' Argentan. Laces in which these
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 229 
 
 Argentan bride meshes are happily blended or con- 
 trasted with smaller mesh grounds (of the Point 
 
 Fig. 101. Point d'Alencon with hexagonal bride ground or r/seau, 
 commencement of the eighteenth century. 
 
 d'Alenfon class) are frequently of the choicest descrip- 
 tion.
 
 230 II. LACES. 
 
 But the grounds of regular meshes led to an impover- 
 ishment in the patterns of laces, and when this was 
 perceived, ingenuity devised the employment of little 
 fanciful devices (jours or modes) with which the centres 
 of blossoms and other appropriate spaces in the pattern 
 would be filled in. From these modes or fillings sprang 
 a series of most charming little devices, in which the 
 skilfully plied needle often surpassed all that it had 
 previously effected. Such fillings or modes will be 
 found generally to be inserted like little jewellings in 
 the centres of blossom forms, though they also spread 
 over wider spaces, as in medallions, shells, or spaces 
 between garlands and along the borders of laces. Some 
 of these fillings (jours or modes) were even used as 
 entire grounds for such laces as were to be richer in 
 effect than when made with simple mesh grounds- 
 And one of these fillings used as a ground, greatly 
 favoured at the beginning of the eighteenth century, 
 has been named by Mrs. Bury-Palliser Argentella 
 ground a name which has given rise to discussion.* 
 
 The great success of the Alencon and Argentan 
 centres of the lace industry raised up many competitors 
 with them. 
 
 In the first place, Venice, finding that laces of lighter 
 texture were being sought after, that men wore less as 
 women wore more of them, introduced refinements in her 
 productions, and, in lieu of the vigorous scrolls with 
 rich reliefs, such as she had made in the seventeenth 
 century, she set herself to make the point de rose (rose- 
 
 * Alan S. Cole, Les Dentelles Anciennes, translated by C. P. Haus- 
 soullier. (The English edition is Ancient Needlepoint and Pillow Lace. 
 Arundel Society. 1874.)
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 231 
 
 point) and other laces, the patterns in which resemble 
 coral branches. Rosepoint is a Venetian needlepoint 
 
 Fig. 102. Venetian needlepoint lace (rosepoint), eighteenth 
 century (belonging to Madame G. Dreyfus). 
 
 lace of delicate scrolls enriched with many little off- 
 shoots, held together by tiny bars or brides a picots,
 
 232 II. LACES. 
 
 and freely spotted with small blossoms consisting of 
 wreaths of microscopic loops or picots superposed one 
 on the other with the daintiest effect (fig. 102). This 
 lace, infinitely less bold than the great and splendid 
 Venetian guipures, is more elegant and precious look- 
 ing, and reflects eighteenth-century taste for pettiness 
 of detail. 
 
 According to Zeno of Udine, Joseph II., Emperor of 
 Germany (1765 1790), ordered on the occasion of his 
 marriage a set of rosepoint laces at a cost of thirty 
 thousand florins, which from all accounts seem to have 
 been of the finest quality ever reached in this style. 
 
 Attempts were also made at Venice to produce 
 needlepoint laces with meshed grounds. Burano, one 
 of the islands in the lagoon, gave its name to a lace 
 with a ground of meshes ; but no slightly raised over- 
 cast outlines (festons) were used to mark its details, 
 as is the case with Point d'A/enfon, and with later 
 Burano lace, such as that shown in fig. 112. The 
 outline of the ornaments in Burano lace, and indeed in 
 all the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century 
 Venetian laces made with meshed grounds, are of 
 scarcely perceptible single threads. It seems as though 
 the Venetians did not grasp the extent of variations in 
 effect of which filmy needlepoint laces are capable.* 
 
 * I may here note that M. Lefebure refrains from mentioning a class 
 of fine needlepoint lace which has been termed by many (Monsieur 
 Dupont-Auberville amongst them) Point de Vcnise a reseau. For 
 employment of wonderfully fine thread this class of lace is remarkable. 
 But there is a formality in its patterns which appears to have suc- 
 cumbed before, and been altogether superseded by, the floral playful- 
 ness of the French and Flemish contemporary laces. Hence Point de 
 Venise a reseau is rare. Fig. 103, although called by Monsieur
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 233 
 
 Flanders, which hitherto had almost entirely restricted 
 her making of laces to the pillow or bobbin method; 
 soon attempted to copy the needlepoint laces of 
 Alencon. The needlepoint laces made at Brussels 
 were flatter and less firm than the Points d'Alenfon, 
 and in some instances were of finer texture (fig. 103). 
 Belgium spun the most slender and delicate of all 
 flax threads : Felix Aubry states that it was sold at 
 
 Fig. 103. Flemish needlepoint lace, end of the seventeenth 
 century (belonging to Madame Franck). 
 
 from eight to ten thousand francs (^"320 to ,400) the 
 pound weight. Hence it will be understood that with 
 such dainty material laces of the utmost filminess 
 could be produced ; and the variety of little open 
 devices (jours or modes) was multiplied with charming 
 
 Lefebure Flemish needlepoint lace of the late seventeenth century, 
 might, I think, be equally entitled to the name Point de Venise a 
 re'seau. Certain differences between Flemish needlepoint lace (the 
 Point a I' aiguille de Bruxelles) and the Point de Venise a reseau are 
 stated in Ancient Needlepoint and Pillow Lace.
 
 234 n. LACES. 
 
 dexterity, and ranked amongst the triumphs of Brussels 
 needlepoint. 
 
 As fashion favoured the application (applique) of 
 floral devices, made in pillow lace, to meshed grounds 
 separately made (as we shall explain later), laces known 
 as Points (V Angleterrc , had a great success. One 
 of the kinds of application lace consisted of floral 
 devices, etc., made in needlepoint, and applied or stitched 
 on to pillow-made mesh grounds (vrai rc'seau de 
 Bruxclles). Some of the more sumptuous of the Points 
 d'Angleterre are made in this manner. The exquisite 
 softness of the meshed ground, the dainty workmanship 
 in the flowers, of which the outlines (cordonnets) have 
 little or no relief, the gem-like wealth of the fillings 
 (jours or modes), have placed these Brussels points in a 
 category quite distinct from those of Aleii9on, Argentan 
 and Venice, which are more remarkable for their firm- 
 ness of texture and crisp accentuation of their reliefs. 
 
 Supple light and beautiful lappets for the head were 
 made in Brussels point, and during certain phases of 
 fashion were preferred before similar but rather heavier 
 things made in Point de France or Point d'A/enfon. 
 Although etiquette required that at court presentations 
 ladies should wear only point lace lappets on their heads, 
 the Brussels points were deemed to comply with this 
 regulation. 
 
 These court presentations were attended with much 
 ceremony and show. When a lady had secured the 
 privilege of such honour, she arrived at the appointed hour 
 and presented herself at the door of the grand chamber, 
 waiting her turn to be called in, dressed in the most 
 magnificent stuffs, tricked out with the finest point laces
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 235 
 
 of her wardrobe, and glittering with all the diamonds 
 she could collect from the jewel-boxes of her re- 
 lations. A court robe or train trailing behind her 
 eight ells in length was fastened to her waist, and 
 from her hair, cunningly plumed, hung point lace 
 lappets, falling in the regulation lengths prescribed for 
 respective degrees of nobility. Every detail of this sort 
 was subject to minute rule. Princesses of the blood 
 alone enjoyed the right of wearing full length lappets in 
 their head-dresses. 
 
 The use of finery, thus encouraged under Louis XIV. 
 in reception-rooms, was in Louis XV.'s reign extended 
 to boudoirs and bedrooms. Never were dishabilles 
 more elegant; coverlets of beds, trimmings of cur- 
 tains and pillow-cases, of toilet tables, etc., involved 
 a consumption of laces far in excess of what had been 
 necessary for dresses in the preceding reign. 
 
 The Marquise de Crequy, speaking of her aunt, 
 the Dowager Duchesse de la Ferte, said that she 
 had, in 1714, a quilt made of one single piece of 
 Venetian point. "I am certain," she adds, "that 
 the trimmings of her curtains, which were of Point 
 d'Argenfan, were worth at least forty thousand 
 ecus." 
 
 At this date two rival manufacturers at Argentan 
 contended for workpeople,* and their disputes in- 
 dicate how much store was set upon Point d' Argentan. 
 One of them, named Duponchel, complained that Mdlle. 
 James, his competitor, enticed his workwomen from 
 him, and sought special protection on the grounds that 
 
 * Madame Despierres, Histoire du Point d'Alenfon, p. 95.
 
 236 
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 he worked for the king and his court. On the other 
 hand, Mdlle. James maintained to the king's steward 
 
 Fig. 104. Fragment of Point d'Alencon lace, early period of Louis XVI. 
 
 that " it is I who supplied laces for the king's chamber 
 this year, by order of the Due de Richelieu. I also
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 237 
 
 have the honour of furnishing the king's wardrobe, by 
 order of the Due de la Rochefoucauld. Moreover, I 
 am purveyor to the King and Queen of Spain, and at 
 this very moment I am engaged in supplying lace for 
 the marriage of the Dauphin " (Letter of the Qth Sep- 
 tember, 1744). Duponchel rejoins that " he had supplied 
 two toilettes and their suites, several bourgognes 
 (ladies' head-dresses), as well as a cravat for the 
 queen." 
 
 The number of lace-makers then at work was at least 
 i,2OO at Argentan and its vicinity ; whilst at Alencon 
 and the neighbouring villages it is said that there 
 were 8,OOO. Boucher, the painter, appears to have 
 preferred Point d' Argentan ; and no one knew better 
 than he how to make charming effects in his patterns, 
 by contrasting and interchanging the delicate and 
 bolder grounds which are so characteristic of this 
 lace. 
 
 Under Louis XVI. the taste for great lightness in 
 design proved unfavourable to needlepoint laces. 
 Instead of point laces, worn flatly for the display of all 
 the daintinesses of their exquisite fillings and delicate 
 reliefs, it became the fashion to multiply the number 
 of flounces to dresses and to gather them into small 
 pleats, or, as it was termed, badiner them, so that the 
 ornamental motives, more or less broken up or partially 
 concealed by the pleats, lost their decorative value. 
 The spaces between the motives were therefore widened 
 more and more, until at last nothing was left but 
 grounds of meshes, very slightly ornamented with 
 flowers ; or else these grounds would be powdered over 
 (seme's) with tiny blossoms and sprays a style of
 
 238 II. LACES. 
 
 design v/hich offered little opportunity for invention, 
 especially when the little devices to be used were re- 
 stricted to peas or dots. 
 
 The kinds of laces with powderings of such insig- 
 nificant ornaments, and suitable for gathering into pleats 
 or being fluted, were more successfully produced on 
 the pillow, and were altogether of a more filmy nature 
 than the needlepoint laces. Nevertheless a consider- 
 able quantity was made of similarly patterned Points 
 d'Alen^on a petitcs brides* This ground of pc fifes 
 brides consists of meshes made with twisted threads 
 in the manner of that of the Point d'Argentan, as 
 described on page 228, but more closely twisted. 
 The effect is rather cloudy and thick. The greater 
 number of men's jabots (shirt frills or neckerchiefs), 
 which, in Louis XVI. 's reign, fell in pleats over the 
 openings of their long waistcoats, were usually of Point 
 d'Alen$on a petite bride (fig. 105). This kind of lace 
 is very compact in make, and stands much washing, 
 which at that time was rendered necessary through the 
 fashionable habit of snuffing, the yellow stains from 
 which often displayed themselves upon the frills of 
 noble counts and marquises. 
 
 The Revolution contributed to ruin the manufacture 
 of needlepoint laces. Many districts were severely 
 tried, and the traditions of an art, which had been 
 their former glory and profit, were lost. For close 
 upon fifty years, Argentan and Venice herself illus- 
 trious Venice produced no more laces. 
 
 Alencon fared better. Napoleon, solicitous for a 
 
 * Madame Vigee-Lebrun, in one of her prettiest portraits, wears a 
 Point d Alenfon powdered lace (a petits semes).
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 239 
 
 revival of the manufacture, encouraged it, and en- 
 deavoured toxenew the courtly etiquette of Louis XIV. 
 in requiring point lace to be worn at court receptions. 
 Some few important orders were given by the imperial 
 circle, and a bed-trimming of lace, powdered over with 
 bee devices, and costing 40,000 francs, is cited as an 
 instance. It is true that it was begun for the Empress 
 Josephine, and that in the course of its making her 
 escutcheons were replaced by those of Marie-Louise ! 
 
 Fig. 105. Point d'Alenfon, with ground ot small hexagonal meshes 
 (a petite bride), later period of Louis XVI. 
 
 who, little flattered by the notion of possessing what 
 had been destined for another, made difficulties about 
 receiving it. 
 
 In May 1811 the Emperor and Empress visited 
 Alencon. Marie-Louise received the lace-makers at 
 the Prefecture, saw them at work, and made a number 
 , of purchases. Napoleon remarked, "It is marvellous 
 how well they work in France ! I ought to encourage 
 such an industry." But incessant wars frustrated any
 
 240 
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 Fig. 106. Flounce of Point d'Alen9on of modern manufacture. 
 real extension of trade in luxuries like lace, and con-
 
 RFOM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 241 
 
 stantly interrupted commercial relations with foreign 
 countries. Russia before others has always shown a 
 liking for Point d'Alenfon. 
 
 Peace restored prosperity to Alen9on ; and at each 
 of the great international exhibitions she has secured 
 the highest prizes for her sumptuous works of the 
 needle (fig. 106). Hers are still the more dexterously 
 
 Fig. 107. Belgian needlepoint lace, modern manufacture. 
 
 wrought and costly of laces, and she proves herself 
 worthy of her illustrious past. 
 
 Latterly, Argentan has once more renewed the 
 practice of her almost forgotten art, and the tradi- 
 tions have been revived of her laces with large 
 meshes enhanced by fillings of small mesh grounds 
 (reseaux) (fig. 108). 
 
 16
 
 242 
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 Bayeux has witnessed the establishment of a model 
 
 workshop for 
 needlepoint laces, 
 where the making 
 of many varieties 
 of point lace is 
 revived which, if 
 ^^H not forgotten, had 
 wW^i certainly been 
 'f-.^f.^mJim abandoned since 
 ^ the Revolution. 
 Every sort of 
 needlepoint lace 
 made during the 
 best periods can 
 be produced now. 
 The name Point 
 Colbert, adopted in 
 grateful memory 
 of the great mini- 
 ster, protector of 
 lace, is applied to 
 point laces in 
 high relief, with 
 scrolls enriched 
 with magnificent 
 blossoms and 
 flowers, with 
 
 grounds of bars 
 ornamented with 
 dainty pi cots 
 (loops), in pre- 
 
 Fig. 108. Point d'Argentan, modern 
 manufacture.
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 243 
 
 cisely the same fashion as that of those laces made 
 by the Venetian mistresses of their craft who were 
 brought to Alencon in 1665 (see figs. 109 and in). 
 Belgium has not been behindhand in the matter of 
 needlepoint lace-making : if Point d"Alen$on remains, 
 according to hallowed expression, the Queen of Laces, 
 
 Fig. 109. Collar of needlepoint lace (modern) worked at Bayeux, 
 and called Point Colbert. 
 
 Brussels and its neighbourhood produce a vast quantity 
 of ably wrought needlepoint laces, under the name of 
 "Point Gaze" (fig. 107). The shawl (fig. no) is a 
 beautiful specimen of such work. The/eston or outline 
 to the ornament in Point Gaze has no horsehair in 
 it, and is not therefore so firm and crisp in appear- 
 ance as that of Point d'AIenfon. But the fillings 
 (jours) are of cunning work and great diversity. The
 
 244 
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 floral ornaments are cleverly depicted with delicate 
 gradations of close and open textures. The export 
 of this lace, to America particularly, is very con- 
 siderable at times. Unfortunately the manufacture of 
 flax threads as fine as those of earlier dates is almost 
 
 Fig. I IO. Shawl of Belgian needlepoint lace (modern), from a design 
 by Alcide Roussel. 
 
 extinct ; and many of the modern laces are made with 
 cotton instead of flax. Nevertheless, whatever orders 
 she is called upon to meet, Belgium carries them out 
 with skill untrammelled by routine (fig. 1 1 3). In 
 questions of pattern the impulse of novelty and style
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 245 
 comes from Paris, which fairly claims to be the 
 
 Fig. in. Cuff of needlepoint lace (modern) called Point Colbert. 
 
 foremost inspirer of artistic motive in all lace pro- 
 duction.
 
 Fig. 112. Point de Burano, of modern Belgian 
 manufacture.
 
 Fig. 113. Lappet of modern needlepoint lace.
 
 248 
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 Obedient to the dictates of that invisible but supreme 
 queen, named fashion, the making of these different 
 laces in France, as in Belgium, is more or less 
 extensive, and prospers. 
 
 High patronage within recent years has revived 
 Venetian lace-making, which had died out. Under its 
 auspices a school of lace- workers has been established 
 in the island of Burano, a name already mentioned. 
 
 Fig. 114. Irish crochet lace (Point d'Irlande). 
 
 11 The little isle of Burano," writes an Italian author, 
 " is situated two leagues to the north-east of Venice ; 
 it is the poorest of the archipelago in the lagoon, and 
 withal the richest in beautiful and steady young girls." 
 Lace-making, as one sees, retains its former place as 
 the occupation of the virtuose donne. Some admirable 
 copies of ancient laces made at the Burano school were 
 exhibited in Paris at the Exhibition in 1878. 
 
 Austria's contribution to this Exhibition, and that of
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 249 
 
 Vienna in 1882, consisted of needlepoint laces, for the 
 most part copies of old specimens in her Museum of 
 Industrial Art. In Austria and Hungary there are 
 
 Fig. 115. Flounce of Limerick lace (Ireland), embroidery on net. 
 
 many able hands, requiring but well-regulated encour- 
 agement to evoke a more serious development of their 
 industry. 
 
 At Moscow, in Russia, a lace school produces capital
 
 250 II. LACES. 
 
 work, bearing the impress of a Russian taste which 
 leans to a Byzantine style of art. 
 
 Lastly, we may mention Ireland, where for some 
 
 Fig. 116. Part of a flounce of Kenmare lace (Ireland), flat and 
 slightly raised needlepoint lace. 
 
 time lace-making has been pursued. At the time of 
 the famine in 1846 special efforts were made to 
 encourage the industry as a means of assisting a 
 suffering, poverty-stricken population in the " Emerald 
 Isle." The story goes that the first piece of Venetian
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 251 
 
 lace used as a pattern in Ireland was procured by 
 a Jesuit, and much of the needlepoint lace has been 
 since called "Jesuit lace." In the schools attached 
 to many convents the girls are trained to embroider 
 on net, and to do needlepoint lace. Crochet lace- 
 
 ^i*f < ^rfSrttfl: ; :: JSLff 
 
 S^-Tr-"''- :^-^-PIvt / <fJK'Jjra*ifePP 
 
 ^ii^i^^^i^^ 
 
 p^MMS^yi ^^^^\\^^ >* 
 
 b?^^^^^-^?!^^ 
 
 Fig. 117. Borders of New Ross lace (Ireland), raised needlepoint lace. 
 
 making is a speciality (see fig. 1 14), from which much 
 better results could be obtained. The Department 
 of Science and Art of the Committee of Council on 
 Education has latterly been called upon to aid in the 
 development of the Irish lace industry.* 
 
 * The particular form of encouragement given by this Department 
 has been that of payments on results of instruction in drawing and
 
 2$2 II. LACES. 
 
 In crochet lace, which starts from no foundation, as 
 does embroidery with a crochet needle (see p. 4), the 
 work is done upon no tracing on parchment or paper : 
 the work is done in the hand, very much after the 
 manner of knitting. The thread is looped, pulled 
 through the loop as in chain-stitch, knotted, and so 
 forth. By a series of interlocking chain-stitches this 
 crochet lace is produced. Without attaining to great 
 
 Fig. Ii8. Border of Youghal lace (Ireland), flat needlepoint lace. 
 
 value, this class of work is capable of considerable 
 refinement. 
 
 Summary. This slight sketch of needle-made laces 
 
 design. Within the last few years lace-making convents have esta- 
 blished drawing and designing classes in connection with their lace- 
 schools. These drawing classes are branches of schools of art at 
 Cork and Waterford. The Cork School of Art, under the able 
 guidance of Mr. James Brenan, R.H.A., now supplies lace-schools 
 with patterns for the various classes of Irish lacework. Fig. 115 
 displays a flounce of embroidery on net worked at Limerick from a 
 design by a student of the school ; fig. 1 16 is part of a flounce worked 
 at the convent of Poor Clares Kenmare, in needlepoint lace, from a 
 design by Miss Julyan, of the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art ;
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 253 
 
 will at least show what an important part they have 
 played in sumptuary arts from the fifteenth century to 
 our days. 
 
 It is to be noted that these laces have almost in- 
 
 Fig. 119. Borders and insertion of Cork crochet lace (Ireland). 
 
 variably been made of white thread. The needle seems 
 to have disdained using any fantastic threads ; and 
 
 fig. 117 shows two borders of raised needlepoint lace made at the 
 Carmelite Convent, New Ross, from designs by the master of the 
 Waterford School of Art; fig. 118 is a border of dainty needlepoint 
 lace made at Youghal from a design by the mistress of the Dublin 
 School of Art; and fig. 119 shows some crochet recently made at 
 Cork from new designs by Mr. Holland. Carrickmacross lace consists 
 of cut cambric guipure and cut cambric applique on net. Fig. 120 is of 
 a border and insertion of the latter class of lacework from designs by 
 Miss Anderson.
 
 254 II. LACES. 
 
 specimens in which coloured or gold and silver threads 
 have been employed are excessively rare ; such materials 
 have been more frequently used for pillow-made laces. 
 The delicate sculpturesque creations of the needle, with 
 gradations of gentle relief, may be said to be compar- 
 able with other laces, as marbles culpture is with wood- 
 
 Fig. 120. Border and insertion of Carrickmacross lace (Ireland), 
 applique and other embroidery on net. 
 
 carving. Charles Blanc, comparing the two classes of 
 hand-made laces, makes the following very apposite 
 remarks : 
 
 " The dominant character of pillow-made laces is the 
 soft blending of its forms : the needle is to the bobbin 
 and pillow what the pencil point is to the stump. The 
 pattern of which the definition becomes softened when
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 255 
 
 wrought in pillow lace is depicted with crispness by 
 the needle." This in a measure accounts for the rela- 
 tive importance of needlepoint lace, and its higher value. 
 Point lace is most suited to occasions of state, and rightly 
 possesses an universally recognized prestige. 
 
 Notwithstanding many severe trials and ups and 
 downs, the traditions of this beautiful art are not lost. 
 Modern eclecticism, perhaps, even engenders a number 
 of favourable circumstances : it is possible nowadays 
 to reproduce the finest works of other notable times, 
 and there is no lack of skilful workers. Artists and 
 people of taste know how to appreciate the refinements 
 of old laces. If instead of incontinently decrying 
 modern lace they would encourage the execution of 
 well-considered commissions, there is little doubt that 
 modern art could produce results as excellent as those 
 of past centuries. May we then have inspired our 
 readers with a lively interest for the noble and charm- 
 ing art of needlepoint lace-making, which fascinated 
 Louis XIV. and Colbert, and by which many towns and 
 villages have acquired legitimate renown !
 
 BOBBIN OR PILLOW-MADE LACES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FROM THEIR ORIGIN TO THE END OF THE REIGN 
 OF LOUIS XIV. 
 
 Manufacture. We have already explained the make of 
 bobbin or pillow laces ; briefly, they are tissues pro- 
 duced by intercrossing and plaiting the threads, which 
 are rolled at one end around bobbins and fastened at 
 the other upon a cushion or pillow by means of pins. 
 
 Bobbins. Bobbins (fig. 9) are called fuseaux or 
 bloquets in French, and fuselli or piombini in Italian ; 
 the latter term apparently implies little shaped blocks 
 of lead. Bobbins were also made of bone, whence the 
 Italian name ossi, and the English, bones. But it is 
 customary to speak of them in English as bobbins. 
 They are, in fact, small elongated spindles or reels 
 tapering and swelling at one end into little handles 
 for convenience of manipulation. 
 
 The size of bobbins varies according to the usage of 
 districts and the thickness of threads employed. In 
 Belgium bobbins, generally thin and very light, are 
 appropriate for the making of filmy fabrics like Valen- 
 ciennes and Mechlin laces ; in Auvergne, on the contrary,
 
 TO THE END OF THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 257 
 
 where stout guipures or torchon laces are made, involv- 
 ing the use of very different materials, bobbins are much 
 larger. But pillow lace-makers frequently use, for the 
 same piece of work, bobbins of different sizes, in order 
 to readily distinguish the different degrees of thread 
 corresponding with the different bobbins upon which 
 they are respectively wound. 
 
 Sometimes a small covering of thin horn is placed 
 around the head of the bobbin, to protect and keep 
 clean from dust its supply of thread. In Normandy 
 these little coverings are called noquettes. 
 
 Pillows or Cushions. These are of greater variety 
 even than the bobbins. Some are square, some cylin- 
 drical, some pyramidal, some like drums, and some like 
 large pincushions with firm flat base. In England they 
 are generally pillows or cushions (as in fig. 1 1), and 
 when used without a stand are held on the lap ; in Italy 
 they are called tombola. 
 
 Small and flattened cushions are used in Belgium for 
 making single devices and flowers for applique lace ; 
 long cushions are used at Barcelona ; big cushions 
 (fig. 10), upon which upwards of six hundred bobbins 
 may be used, are employed for making delicate laces, as 
 at Bayeux. But the bulkiest forms of cushion are those 
 of the almofadas,or species of drum, which the Portuguese 
 of Vianna do Castello or of Peniche gracefully place 
 between their feet on end upon a basket high enough 
 to bring the cushion level with their hands. 
 
 Pricking the Patterns. The pattern over which a 
 pillow lace is made is traced and pricked upon a 
 card or bit of parchment of close and smooth surface, 
 so that the threads, as thrown one over the other, 
 
 17
 
 258 IT. LACES. 
 
 may not be caught by any little irregularity. The 
 pricked holes show the worker where she is to stick 
 her pins as points cfarrel for the formation of the 
 several stitches. In certain classes of laces as many pin- 
 holes or prickings are necessary as there are meshes in 
 the network of the ground. By means of the prickings, 
 as well as directions written across floral or other 
 ornamental devices of the pattern, several lace-makers, 
 working quite independently, finish similar portions of 
 patterns with such uniformity that the parts can be 
 easily united together to make up one large piece of 
 lace. 
 
 If the pattern, instead of being for a particular 
 shape, as for a collar, a head-dress, or a lappet, is 
 for a continuous band of some sort, consisting of 
 repeats of the same ornament, the cushion may .be 
 fitted with a rotating cylinder, round which a complete 
 repeat is fastened. With such an appliance, revolving 
 as the work proceeds, the worker has a continuous 
 pattern to work from. The method of two sorts 
 of revolving endless patterns is displayed in figs. 
 10 and ii. It is, however, attended with one draw- 
 back, and that is, that, as the threads have to hang 
 in one direction, the make of the lace must follow 
 that direction. Upon a flat cushion the making may 
 spread out in all directions. The lace-worker using 
 a revolving pattern meets with difficulties in rendering 
 certain fillings in flowers, etc., which run across, 
 instead of with, the pattern ; whilst the worker upon 
 a flat cushion is not similarly inconvenienced. 
 
 On the other hand, the making of lace by the yard 
 is not suited to flat cushions, since each time that a
 
 TO THE END OF THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 259 
 
 piece of lace is completed up to the end of the 
 pattern all the pins have to be taken out, and the 
 completed portion of the lace has to be moved up 
 to the head of the pattern and fixed there before 
 its continuation is possible. This, of course, involves 
 loss of time. 
 
 However, each kind of cushion or pillow has its 
 peculiar advantages and inconveniences. That best 
 adapted to the special class of lace made in a district 
 is naturally the one most commonly in use there. 
 
 Origin of Pillow Lace. For a long time the question 
 whether pillow-made lace was older in origin than 
 needlepoint lace has been discussed. But it is 
 unlikely that one should be earlier than the other, 
 since the development and use of both sorts of lace 
 are identified with the same period. 
 
 Flanders, conceding to Venice priority in needle- 
 point lace-making, lays claim to the honour of having 
 invented the bobbin or pillow method. Up to the 
 present time no serious or definitive proof has been 
 produced to substantiate this claim. J. Seguin offers 
 the following reasons to show that Belgium did not 
 make pillow lace sooner than Italy : 
 
 The only pattern-books published in Belgium are 
 those of Wilhem Vostermans, who died at Antwerp 
 in 1542, and of Jean de Glen, who died at Liege in 
 1597. Neither contain patterns for bobbin or pillow 
 laces. 
 
 No Flemish portrait earlier than the end of the 
 sixteenth century shows laces upon costume, whereas 
 after that time they abound plentifully. 
 
 The Church of St. Gomar, at Lierre, in the province
 
 26O II. LACES. 
 
 of Antwerp, possesses a retable, said to have been painted 
 in 1495 by Quentin Matsys, in which, amongst other 
 figures, is one of a young girl making lace on a 
 pillow. But connoisseurs deny the authorship at- 
 tributed to this painting, and consider the work to 
 be by Jean Matsys, probably son of Quentin, who 
 painted at a later date in the manner of his father. 
 
 Then again, the words "gold laces," which occur 
 in a treaty of the fifteenth century between the town 
 of Bruges and England, apply to laces in the sense 
 of shoe-laces and cords for lacing up sleeves and 
 dresses. 
 
 Se"guin concludes : " As soon as Belgium acquired 
 the art of pillow lace-making, she unremittingly 
 applied herself to it, and in a short time converted 
 it into a widespread industry, possessing well-merited 
 reputation on account of the delicacy and beauty of 
 its productions. All countries turned to her for them, 
 and she became, as it were, the classic country of pillow 
 lace. Credit for the invention of the special process 
 was readily given to her, and no one has since taken 
 the trouble to closely examine her title to it." 
 
 If as close an investigator as Madame Despierres 
 could some day do for the history of Italian laces 
 what she has done for that of Alencon laces, it seems 
 quite probable that evidence would be forthcoming 
 to corroborate what is at present a conjecture that 
 towards the year 1 500 the north of Italy was the true 
 cradle of the arts of pillow and needlepoint lace-making. 
 
 Meanwhile, and in the absence of anything more 
 authentic, one may here repeat the pretty legend of 
 Venice concerning pillow or bobbin lace-making.
 
 TO THE END OF THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 26 1 
 
 " A young fisherman of the Adriatic was betrothed 
 to a beautiful girl of one of the isles in the lagoon. 
 Industrious as she was beautiful, the girl made a new 
 net for her lover, who took it with him on board his 
 boat. The first time he cast it into the sea he dragged 
 therefrom an exquisite petrified wrack-grass, which he 
 hastened to present to his fiancee. 
 
 " But war breaking out, the sailors and fishermen 
 were pressed into the service of the Venetian navy, 
 and departed for the East. 
 
 "The poor young girl wept at the departure of her 
 lover, and for many days inconsolably contemplated 
 his farewell gift to her. But whilst absorbed in follow- 
 ing the wondrous and lovely ribs of the petrified 
 wrack-grass, knitted together by the lightest of fibres, 
 she began to twist and plait the threads weighted w r ith 
 small leads which hung around her net ; little by little 
 she wrought in a skilful manner a thread imitation of 
 the beloved petrification, and thus was created the 
 merletti a piombini (bobbin lace) ! " 
 
 The story, if not true, is good : Si non e vero e ben 
 trovato. 
 
 The most ancient mention, known at the present day, 
 of bobbin lace in Italy, occurs in a deed, drawn up at 
 Milan the I2th September, 1493, of assignment of pro- 
 perty to two sisters, Angela and Ippolita Sforza, Visconti. 
 One there reads of " Una binda lavorata a poncto de doii 
 fuxi par uno lenzo/o" a band of work done with twelve 
 bobbins to trim a sheet. The question of course arises, 
 are these twelve bobbins early types of those which 
 in later times were used by thousands of women for 
 bobbin or pillow lace ? Amongst other entries of the
 
 262 II. LACES. 
 
 property given to the sisters Sforza is one of " la 
 mita de un Jagotto quale aveva dentro certi designi da 
 lavore le donne" half a scrap-book containing several 
 drawings or patterns for ladies' work. 
 
 Here, again, is another piece of evidence a collection 
 of patterns preserved in the Royal Library at Munich, 
 entitled Neues modelbuch allerley gattungen Dantelschniir, 
 printed at Zurich by Christopher Froschowern, for all 
 sorts of lace made and used in Germany, for the in- 
 struction of apprentices and other women working in 
 Zurich and elsewhere ; quarto in twenty-four sheets. 
 On the title- page is a woodcut of two women making 
 bobbin or pillow lace. Then follows a long preface, in 
 which it is said : " Amongst the different arts we must 
 not forget one which has been followed in our country 
 for twenty-five years. Lace-making was introduced in 
 J 53^ by merchants from Italy and Venice. Many 
 women seeing a means of livelihood in such work, 
 quickly learned it, and reproduced lace with great 
 skill. They first copied old patterns, but soon were 
 enabled to invent new ones of great beauty. The 
 industry spread itself about the country, and was 
 carried to great perfection : it was found to be one 
 specially suitable for women and brought in good 
 profits. In the beginning these laces were used solely 
 for trimming chemises and shirts; soon afterwards 
 collars, trimmings for cuffs, caps, and fronts and bodies 
 of dresses, for napkins, sheets, pillow-cases and cover- 
 lets, etc., were made in lace. Very soon such work 
 was in great demand, and became an article of great 
 luxury. Gold thread was subsequently introduced into 
 some of it, and raised its value considerably ; but this
 
 TO THE END OF THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 263 
 
 latter sort was attended with the inconvenience that 
 it was more difficult to clean and wash than laces 
 made with flax threads only." 
 
 This book of patterns establishes the facts that 
 in 1536 Venice had for some years previously made 
 lace, which had been exported, and that women in 
 Germany and Switzerland had learned, from dealers 
 coming from Venice, the way of making bobbin 
 lace. 
 
 What occurred at Zurich also happened in other 
 countries which had similar relations with Italy. Few 
 countries were more closely connected, commercially 
 and otherwise, with Italy than Belgium. Flemish 
 artists flocked in numbers to study painting in Italy. 
 Merchants or designers from Italy probably prompted 
 the imparting of instruction in bobbin lace-making to 
 the Flemings. And from the interest displayed by 
 Flemish artists in this kind of lace Belgium soon 
 assumed a first place as producer of it. 
 
 Quicherat tells us that towards the end of the 
 fifteenth century it was the fashion in France to wear 
 silken waistbands or girdles edged with a plaiting 
 of meshes called bisctte. The name appears to 
 have been derived from the colour of the silk, 
 which was of brown-bread hue (pain bis), whence 
 bisette; reminding us of another lace which similarly 
 owes its name to its colour namely, blonde. In the 
 account of the entry of King Henry II. into Lyons on 
 the 23rd September, 1548, we read that " the costumes 
 were of velvet and satin, the humblest being of taffetas; 
 some ornamented with gimp applications, others trimmed 
 with bisette or with edgings of silver thread." A few
 
 264 
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 years later, Elizabeth of France, on the occasion of her 
 marriage with Philip II., made purchases in 1559 of 
 " bisctte and trimmings made with white thread of 
 Florence." 
 
 Judging laces worn at the time by such portraits 
 as that of Henry II. at Versailles (the earliest French 
 painting in which lace is depicted), it will be seen that 
 they were of no greater importance than that belonging 
 to the sisters Sforza-Visconti, which was made with 
 twelve bobbins. The collar of the king is in fact 
 
 trimmed with a 
 tiny dentated edging 
 of open work. 
 
 The name passe- 
 ment (also used in 
 England in the six- 
 teenth century), was 
 given to the earliest 
 plaited thread laces 
 or bobbin laces (see 
 figs. 12 1 and 1 22). It 
 comes from the title of the corporation of Passementiers, 
 who had the monopoly, according to their statutes of 
 1663 (article 21), "of making all sorts of passements of 
 lacework on the pillow, with bobbins, pins, and by 
 hand " (probably in this case with a hooked or crochet 
 needle), " in gold and silver thread, both real and false, 
 in silk, and white and coloured thread." In the accounts 
 of the king's treasurer, 1557 {Archives Nationales., KK., 
 106), appears, " Passement of fine black silk dentelle 
 (with open dentations) on one side." 
 
 The accounts of the Queen of Navarre (1577) also 
 
 Fig. 121. A bobbin or pillow-made passe- 
 ment of the sixteenth century.
 
 TO THE END OF THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 265 
 
 show an entry : " For two ells of silver passement with 
 deep dentations (haute dantclle), to be used as a facing, 
 at sixty solz the ell." * 
 
 An inventory (1645) f the Church of St. Medard, 
 at Paris, has mention of "four lengths of fine 
 cambric to surround the pulpit, and a beautiful surplice 
 for the preacher, trimmed with deep passements a dan- 
 teller 
 
 Hence passement and dentelle are convertible terms 
 for bobbin lace, or open work trimmings of plaited and 
 twisted thread. 
 
 As we have stated, the passementiers or trimming 
 makers often used gimp cord. For bobbin work this 
 gimp cord, from its stiffness, could only be used in 
 respect of large open passements. Whence the name 
 of guipure came to be used for all lace in which the 
 grounds were very large and of irregular openings. 
 
 Bobbin laces, of less elaborate pattern than needle- 
 point laces, were cheaper, and gladly welcomed for 
 use by such as could not afford the expense of point 
 lace. 
 
 Further, as Charles Blanc so justly says, "When 
 ruffs or gadrooned (pleated) collars were imported 
 from Italy, the needlepoint laces with which some 
 would be trimmed presented a hard appearance, con- 
 verting the encircling ornament of the neck into a 
 sort of collar bristling with sharp points. But when 
 these stiff guipures were superseded by bobbin laces, 
 these lighter and more supple articles softened the con- 
 tours which they trimmed, and almost gave a vaporous 
 effect to the cut-out shapes of the triple-staged 
 * Archives Nationales. KK., 162.
 
 266 
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 ruffs imprisoning the heads of their wearers " * 
 
 (fig- 123). 
 
 As rapidly as the industry of pillow lace-making 
 passed into various countries, so, as we have seen in 
 the case of Switzerland, each locality specialized it in 
 some manner, that various characteristic laces were 
 accordingly produced, and came to be identified with 
 their native places. 
 
 In Italy, Milan and Genoa were two principal towns 
 
 in which pillow lace 
 was extensively 
 
 made, whilst Venice 
 remained the chief 
 centre for needle- 
 points. Very fre- 
 quently the less 
 complicated of the 
 patterns for needle- 
 made laces were 
 adapted and repro- 
 duced by the pillow- 
 lace makers. Gradually, however, the more skilful 
 of the pattern designers of whom Isabetta Catanea 
 Parasole is an instance, invented patterns for pillow 
 laces, marking under them the number of bobbins to be 
 used in working each. 
 
 In Saxony Dame Barbara Etterlein, wife of Chris- 
 topher Uttmann, a great proprietor of mines, living 
 in the castle of St. Annaberg, introduced the industry 
 of pillow lace-making to the wives of the miners, as 
 a means of profit for the family purse. A story is 
 * Charles Blanc, FArt dans la Parure, p. 291. 
 
 Fig. 122. Bobbin or pillow-made 
 passement (Muse'e des Arts de'coratifs.)
 
 TO THE END OF THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 267 
 
 told of an old woman somewhat of a sorceress, no 
 doubt who, noticing the kindly devotion of the good 
 Chatelaine of St. Annaberg in instructing the poor 
 peasant women to make pillow lace, foretold that 
 St. Anne would reward her in making her. children 
 
 Fig. 123. Portrait attributed to Van Mierevelt, 1568 1641 
 (belonging to M. G. Duplessis). 
 
 prosper, in allowing none to die during her lifetime, 
 and in multiplying their descendants so that they 
 should be as numerous as the bobbins in the district. 
 The prediction was approximately verified, since, on 
 her death in 1575, Barbara Uttmann left sixty-five 
 children and grandchildren.
 
 268 
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 In Spain, fine and rich fabrics made at the different 
 
 hotels des Tiraz were 
 greatly esteemed ; 
 and silk and gold and 
 silver thread passe- 
 ments were freely 
 produced to adorn 
 them. These passe- 
 ments were for a long 
 time known under 
 the name of Spanish 
 points (Points d'Es- 
 pagne), on account of 
 the admirable work- 
 manship displayed in 
 them. Finesse was not 
 perhaps so marked 
 a quality in them as 
 that of glittering and 
 massive effect. This 
 characteristic makes 
 it easy to distinguish 
 a Point d'Espagne 
 when one happens 
 to meet with it (fig. 
 124). 
 
 Belgium and Hoi- 
 Fig. 124. Pillow lace of gold and silk land were noted, not 
 thread made in Spain (Point d'Espagne). for ^^ ^^ ^^ 
 
 with silk, gold and silver thread, but for those made 
 with delicate flax threads. In those countries the best 
 linens of the world were woven ; with threads of similar
 
 TO THE END OF THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 269 
 
 material were made the very fine laces for trimming 
 broad collars and great linen cuffs, which are to be 
 seen in the Flemish portraits of the period* (fig. 125). 
 The designs for such laces were distinct from the 
 Italian patterns, and were usually composed of devices 
 derived from the local flora. These departures and 
 improvements raised Flanders to the front rank as a 
 pillow lace-making country. 
 
 Whilst the French Court enriched itself with both 
 Italian and Flemish laces, its humbler followers con- 
 tented themselves with laces of less pretence. The 
 farmer's wife trimmed her caps and the townsfolk 
 their dresses with laces called mignonnette, catnpane, 
 and gueuse the latter a very popular passement 
 all of which play a part in the Revolt of the Laces 
 (Re'volte des Passements), already cited, and were made 
 in considerable quantities in the suburbs of Paris. 
 The greater part of these smaller laces were rigid, 
 without much ornamental design in them, and it is 
 scarcely fitting to mention them in a treatise which 
 proposes in the main to deal with the artistic side of 
 lace-making. 
 
 Of the French provinces where pillow lace-making 
 was soonest established as an industry the Auvergne 
 is the first in age. 
 
 Many of the men there were employed as carriers 
 an occupation of considerable importance before good 
 highways and the means of wheel traffic were known. 
 These hardy mountaineers, travelling by short stages, 
 with packs on their backs, undertook long journeys, 
 and storing themselves in the Midi with costly merchan- 
 
 * Histoire de la Peinture Hollandaise, by Henry Havard, p. 72.
 
 270 
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 dize like silks and laces, which are easily portable, 
 would come to Paris and the north of France to find 
 
 Fig. 125. Portrait of a courtier of the period of Louis XIII. 
 (after Abraham Bosse). 
 
 markets for them. Thus, no doubt, they returned 
 to their native districts with intelligence of the new
 
 TO THE END OF THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 2/1 
 
 industry of pillow lace-making, in the produce of 
 which considerable trade flourished between Paris and 
 Italy. The women of the Auvergne set themselves to 
 imitate these new wares, which in course of time 
 their husbands took off to sell, selling them with good 
 profit on their line of journey here and there, and often 
 at great fairs like those of Beaucaire and Guibray , 
 where places in the fosse aux toiles were assigned to the 
 itinerant lace vendors. 
 
 The same sort of dissemination of knowledge about 
 lace-making and of traffic in its wares took place in 
 Lorraine, whence, in 1615, Claude Gelee, a young man 
 afterwards surnamed Le Lorrain, travelled into Italy in 
 company with his uncle, a carrier and dealer in laces, 
 who was anxious to get his nephew instructed in the 
 art of painting, for which he displayed precocious 
 predilection. 
 
 Aurillac and Le Puy-en-Velay were the chief centres 
 of lace-making in the Auvergne. Gold and silver laces 
 were made principally at Aurillac, and were exported in 
 great quantities to Spain, where the consumption of such 
 goods often exceeded the home production. Le Puy, how- 
 ever, was more noted for thread laces and silk guipures. 
 
 The lace industry was found to be of much profit 
 by the numerous families adopting it ; and when its 
 development and the accompanying prosperity were 
 menaced through sumptuary edicts, public feeling ran 
 high against them. 
 
 Outdoing the edict of Louis XIII., passed in 1629, 
 which permitted " a consumption of laces provided they 
 were manufactured in the kingdom at a cost not exceed- 
 ing three livres the ell for insertion and edging," the
 
 2/2 II. LACES. 
 
 Parliament of Toulouse issued a decree which the 
 Seneschal of Le Puy made known in 1639 to the 
 sound of the trumpet throughout the town, and was 
 severer than the king's. This decree forbade, under 
 penalty of a heavy fine, " everybody of either sex, 
 quality, or condition from wearing any sort of lace, 
 whether of silk or white thread with glittering passe- 
 ment of gold or silver, real or false." This naturally 
 produced consternation amongst the inhabitants of 
 Le Puy ; and well-nigh annihilated the industry 
 throughout the province. At this juncture a Jesuit 
 Father, since canonized by the Church as St. Francois 
 Regis, appeared as a preacher in Le Puy and in Au- 
 vergne, distributing wherever he went pious advice and 
 charitable relief so effectually as to lighten the unhappy 
 effects of the decree. Moved by the sufferings and 
 lamentations of women reduced to misery, he said, 
 " Have confidence ; pray to God to help me, and lace- 
 making shall not perish ! " Then taking his departure 
 for Toulouse, he interceded with much fervour in 
 favour of the Auvergnese lace-workers, and obtained 
 from the local Parliament a revocation in the following 
 year, 1640, of its cruel decree. In addition he com- 
 mended to the tender protection of his religious brethren 
 Spanish Jesuits- -the lace-workers who carried their 
 laces for sale to the southern side of the Pyrenees. Trade 
 and prosperity revived, and to this day the lace-makers of 
 the Auvergne invoke St. Frat^ois Regis as their patron 
 saint. 
 
 That consummate connoisseur of gems, fine stones, 
 and objets d'art, Cardinal Mazarin, held the Aurillac 
 laces in high appreciation. These laces are frequently
 
 TO THE END OF THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 273 
 
 mentioned in the inventory of the property he left at 
 his death in 1661. "The doublet and breeches of scarlet 
 cloth belonging to Mons. le Cardinal are bordered with 
 red and black silk laces." 
 
 The Mercure Galant, giving a description of a masked 
 ball, says that " the Prince de Conti wore a mantle of 
 Point d'Aurillac of gold and silver ; " the Duchesse de 
 Mortemart " wore below her plumes a veil of silver 
 Aurillac lace falling over her shoulders;" whilst the 
 Marquis de Colbert, as an African, had " long hanging 
 sleeves bordered with gold Aurillac laces." 
 
 The king, Louis XIV., wore a costume made by 
 his tailor, Claude Hochar, of black brocaded with gold 
 flowers, for which he paid thirteen hundred livres, and 
 which consisted of doublet, breeches, shoes, cloak, 
 and gloves, all bordered with silk guipure." 
 
 Under such excellent patronage it is easy to under- 
 stand why in the Revolte des Passements Aurillac laces 
 are represented as being so accustomed to perfumed 
 saloons, that they hesitate about returning to their 
 mountain homes to be used probably for no better 
 purpose than for tying up Roquefort cheeses ! 
 
 Early pillow laces were comparatively narrow ; 
 throughout Italy, France, Spain, and Flanders, they 
 were made in strips on the pillow, the bobbins hang- 
 ing in one and the same direction. When the demand 
 for wider trimmings arose, increased width of lace was 
 obtained by adding a passement or dentated border 
 to the band " bande ct passement" In the sixteenth 
 century similar means were resorted to. But in the 
 seventeenth century the making of wide laces was 
 attempted. . Then arose the question of how to divide 
 
 18
 
 274 
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 and distribute the work for facility of execution. In 
 Italy, France, and Spain large pieces of lace were 
 made by dividing the pattern into horizontal bands, 
 
 Fig. 126. Louis XIV. when a child, after a portrait by Mignard. 
 
 the pieces of which could be stitched together. In 
 Belgium another means was invented ; this consisted 
 of dividing the pattern, not by bands, but into small
 
 TO THE END OF THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 2/5 
 
 and separate pieces, the boundaries of which coincided 
 with the capricious curves of flowers, leaves, or other 
 ornaments in the pattern, after the manner of dividing 
 up needlepoint lace patterns. This ingenious division, 
 whereby the distribution of a single large pattern 
 could be effected in numberless small pieces, was to 
 a large extent a cause of the great success which 
 attended the Belgian industry. By working each motif 
 of a pattern independently, the union of the separate 
 pieces together became a more certain and successful 
 operation, especially when each happened to be of 
 rich and complicated work. Instead of passements like 
 those of Italy and France, in which the open parts 
 dominated around slender and thin devices of patterns, 
 the Flemish bethought them of a totally different 
 character of lace. They gave greater attention to the 
 making of the close portions, obtaining richer con- 
 trasts between them and the adjoining parts rendered 
 in open stitches. The compact work in the floral de- 
 signs assimilated admirably with the wide flat linen 
 collars which were fashionable in Flanders. This 
 fashion passed over to France ; and under Louis XIII. 
 the wide flat collar (see figs. 125 and 126) superseded 
 the pleated ruffs, the edgings of which had been the 
 means of creating a reputation for the punti in acre and 
 the Italian passements (or merletti a pfombim). Flemish 
 guipures therefore mark a progress in the making of 
 pillow laces, and deservedly enjoyed a success. Up to 
 the death of Mazarin, Louis XIV. himself wore nothing 
 but rabats (or bands falling over the chest from below 
 the chin) of pillow-lace guipures, to which several 
 portraits of the young king by Mignard testify. It
 
 2/6 II. LACES. 
 
 was only at the age of twenty-five, and at the sugges- 
 tion of Colbert, who had succeeded Mazarin, that the 
 king took to wearing Venetian needlepoints. Two or 
 three years later he thought of having them reproduced 
 by French skill. 
 
 In the course of the seventeenth century, laces with 
 meshed grounds or nets (re'seaux) were first made in 
 Belgium. These were produced by much the same 
 methods as those for the Flemish guipures, and 
 often after the same patterns, with modifications in 
 the grounds only. But by a strange anomaly such 
 laces, although made in the same way and in the same 
 country, were variously called guipures de Flandres 
 when bars or tyes were introduced between the 
 ornamental devices, or dentelles or Points d'Angleterre 
 when meshed grounds were used instead of bars or 
 tyes. 
 
 Many explanations have been offered as to the 
 variation in naming these laces. England no doubt 
 has made lace, but all the world knows that she has 
 sold a much larger quantity than she herself ever pro- 
 duced. She imported them from Belgium, and sold 
 them to France and elsewhere, giving them her own 
 name, and not that of the country of their origin. Mrs. 
 Palliser explains what took place thus : 
 
 "The English, close neighbours of the Flemish, were 
 amongst the first to appreciate the beautiful laces made 
 by the latter. From the seventeenth century England 
 consumed an immense quantity of Flemish laces ; and 
 when those with meshed grounds made their appear- 
 ance she literally monopolized the wearing of them. 
 But extravagance in this direction provoked, as it did
 
 TO THE END OF THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 
 
 in France, the issue of sumptuary edicts. In 1662 
 the English Parliament, alarmed at the sums of money 
 expended on foreign point, and desirous to protect 
 the English bone lace manufacture, passed an Act 
 prohibiting the importation of all foreign lace. The 
 English lace-merchants, at a loss how to supply the 
 Brussels point required at the court of Charles II., 
 invited Flemish lace-makers to settle in England and 
 there establish the manufacture. The scheme, how- 
 ever, was unsuccessful : England did not produce the 
 necessary flax, and the lace made was inferior in 
 quality. The merchants therefore adopted a more 
 simple expedient. Possessed of large capital, they 
 bought up the choicest laces of the Brussels market, 
 and then smuggling them over to England, sold them 
 under the name of Points d'Angleterre, or ' English 
 Point.' The account of the seizure made by the 
 Marquis de Nesmond of a vessel laden with Flanders 
 lace, bound for England, in 1678, will afford some idea 
 of the extent to which this smuggling was carried on. 
 The cargo comprised 744,953 ells of lace, without 
 enumerating handkerchiefs, collars, fichus, aprons, 
 petticoats, fans, gloves, etc., all of the same material. 
 From this period, Point de Bruxelles became more and 
 more unknown, and was at last effaced by Point 
 d'Angleterre, a name it still retains." 
 
 What seems evident from this, is that the name 
 Points d'Angleterre was adopted, not for the Guipures 
 de Flandres already known in England and passing as 
 English laces, but for the newly invented laces with 
 meshed grounds. 
 
 Another explanation, and possibly a more logical
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 one, might be that English pillow lace-makers may have 
 made laces with meshed grounds. These becoming 
 the vogue, the English supply may have been in- 
 adequate to the demand, and so the English dealers 
 had recourse to Flemish labour in the production of 
 similar laces, which would be termed " Points d'Angle- 
 terre a re'seaux." 
 
 " Une grande dcntelle d' Angleterre " is spoken of in 
 the Revolte des Passetnenis (1661). In all inventories 
 of the period entries of such lace occur : the Mercure 
 Galant often mentions it, and goes so far as to say, in 
 1678, that " corsage and sleeves were bordered with a 
 white and delicate lace, which undoubtedly came from 
 the best lace-making centres in England." 
 
 The earliest Points d 1 Anglderre were made in 
 separate pieces, each, however, consisting of ornament 
 and meshed ground. Later, however, the subdivision 
 of labour was increased. The flower (fig. 146) or 
 ornament alone was made by certain hands, whilst 
 others would be employed in making bands of net or 
 meshed ground, on which the flowers were appliques or 
 stitched with a needle. This class of lace was called 
 application d" Angletcrrc. It is not quite determined 
 whether this lace was made towards the end of the 
 seventeenth or in the succeeding century. On this 
 point we shall have more to say in the next chapter. 
 , When Colbert founded the Royal Manufactory in 
 1665, at the Hotel de Beaufort, Paris, he directed the 
 head administration to arrange for the making " of all 
 sorts of threadwork, both with the needle and with 
 bobbins on the pillow," in the various selected 
 centres. But if this experiment was less successful in
 
 TO THE END OF THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 279 
 
 respect of bobbin laces than of needlepoint laces, 
 the making of the two sorts has a bearing on the 
 history of bobbin or pillow lace-making which is of 
 importance and cannot be ignored. Besides, has not 
 Voltaire told us that whilst two hundred head lace- 
 makers were induced to come from the Netherlands 
 into France, not more than thirty came from Venice? 
 
 The French towns in which lace-making was 
 organized as an industry were numerous ; some, no 
 doubt, achieved little or no success with it ; and one 
 never hears now of the lace-making efforts of Rheims, 
 Auxerre, Loudun, La Fleche, Le Mans, all of which, 
 however, are mentioned in Colbert's Correspondence, 
 which reveals the minister's close interest in the for- 
 tunes of the industry he so warmly promoted. Of the 
 towns materially benefited by his energy and en- 
 couragement, we may name above others Aurillac, 
 Arras, and Le Quesnoy. 
 
 The latter town is probably unknown to most of our 
 readers as one famed for its lace-making. This, how- 
 ever, is accounted for by its having been supplanted in 
 the eighteenth century by its better-known neighbour, 
 Valenciennes. The invention of Valenciennes laces, 
 amongst the most esteemed of bobbin or pillow laces, 
 is undoubtedly a development of the lace-making 
 operations founded at Le Quesnoy by Colbert. On its 
 first appearance in the seventeenth century little was 
 said about Valenciennes lace ; and, as we shall further 
 on show, it was not until the following century that it 
 became famous. 
 
 The first Norman centre of lace-making was Havre ; 
 and as early as 1661 Havre laces were known and
 
 280 II. LACES. 
 
 are referred to in the Revoke des Passements. In 
 1692 the Governor, M. de St. Aignan, gave a great 
 impulse to the Havre industry, in which some twenty 
 thousand fisherwomen or peasants of Caux were 
 engaged. The Due de Penthievre, who lived at the 
 Chateau d'Eu, was also a leading patron of this pillow 
 lace-making. 
 
 Paris was affected by the general movement initiated 
 by Louis XIV. and Colbert. Apart from the offices 
 of the royal lace manufactories, at the Hotel de 
 Beaufort in Paris, rooms for lace-workers were pro- 
 vided in the Chateau de Madrid,* in the Bois de 
 Boulogne, principally for pillow lace-makers. Their in- 
 fluence extended to the Ile-de-France, where, according 
 to the Marquis de la Gomberdiere, " the children of ten 
 thousand families were taught to make laces." Chan- 
 tilly also dates its lace manufacture from this time. 
 
 The Point de Paris was a somewhat common little 
 lace, made in the Faubourg St. Antoine. And on this 
 account, no doubt, the Comte de Marsan, youngest son 
 of the Comte d'Harcourt, fixed upon this quarter of 
 the town as the more suitable in which to find lodgings 
 for his former nurse, a Madame Dumont of Brussels. 
 He obtained from the king a licence for her to employ 
 all the pillow lace-makers there. Assisted by her four 
 daughters, Madame Dumont supervised nearly two 
 hundred of the lace-workers in the suburb. Her 
 management was attended with such prosperity that 
 she determined to transfer her workwomen to a more 
 central place. She accordingly placed them in one or 
 
 * A silk stocking manufactory also found accommodation in the 
 Chateau de Madrid.
 
 TO THE END OF THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 28 1 
 
 other of the numerous buildings which formed the 
 Hotel de Chaumont, situated in the Rue St. Denis and 
 the Rue St. Sauveur. Whether it was from the great 
 and unnecessary size of the hotel buildings, or what, 
 Madame Dumont's prosperity did not follow her here ; 
 and shortly after she took her departure for Portugal to 
 establish a lace-making centre there, leaving the direc- 
 tion of the manufactory in the Hotel de Chaumont to 
 Mdlle. de Marsan. 
 
 The Livre Commode; or, Addresses in the City of Paris, 
 by Pradel, published in 1692, shows that the lace- 
 makers during the reign of Louis XIV. occupied work- 
 rooms, near the beginning of the Rue St. Honore, 
 between the Place aux Chats and the Piliers des Halles. 
 Two streets intersected it, the Rue des Bourdonnais, 
 in which silk laces were specially sold ; and the Rue 
 de Bethisy where points and thread laces were sold. 
 
 Summary. The details given in the foregoing 
 pages indicate that the demand for bobbin or pillow 
 laces began to display itself very little later than that 
 for needlepoint laces, and that in the seventeenth 
 century the manufacture of them sprang up in different 
 places. The success of pillow lace-making in the first 
 periods of its life was not as great as that of needle- 
 point lace-making. Venice and Alencon reigned supreme 
 in the latter industry. Some years intervened before 
 pillow lace-making rose in public estimation, and was 
 called upon to interpret designs of artistic character. 
 Many of the now better-known places, like Valenciennes, 
 Mechlin, Chantilly, had enjoyed no reputation in the 
 earlier days of pillow lace-making. Colbert neverthe- 
 less had well prepared the soil ; in the north, as in
 
 282 II. LACES. 
 
 the centre, of the country, from Arras and Le Quesnoy 
 to Aurillac and Loudun, he had spread a network of 
 instruction, and had sown seeds which were destined 
 to bear fruit. 
 
 Belgium, through the invaluable aid of English trade, 
 began to find outlets to all countries for the produce of 
 her lace industry, and infused into pillow laces special 
 technical characteristics which have not since been 
 superseded. Their development, in many branches, 
 belongs to the reign of Louis XV., when, as we shall 
 see, filmy and supple pillow laces flourished in an 
 extraordinary manner, whilst needlepoint laces appear 
 to have been stricken with a sort of decadence after 
 the death of the Grand Monarque. 
 
 Whilst, then, the apogee of the needlepoint method 
 of making laces is in the seventeenth century, that 
 of the bobbin or pillow process belongs to the eigh-. 
 teenth century.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 
 
 PILLOW laces have preserved those well-marked 
 characteristics which are to be observed in specimens 
 made at the beginning of the eighteenth century. 
 Instead of their patterns being, as they were at first, 
 imitations of those for needlepoint laces, a new de- 
 parture was made when patterns were designed to meet 
 the peculiar requirements of the bobbin or pillow method 
 of manufacture. Woman's coquetry, cultivated to its 
 utmost limits during a century of elegance, whetted 
 keenness of perception in initiating all the effects 
 which were possible with such supple and diaphanous 
 tissues, soft and yielding to the touch, graceful in folds, 
 and ethereal in filminess, as were procurable from dainty 
 twistings and plaitings done with bobbins. Hence 
 arose that series of charming productions known 
 respectively as Valenciennes, Mechlin, Angleterre, 
 Chantilly, and Blonde laces, each of which possesses 
 individuality of style. In attempting to describe them, 
 we hope to demonstrate their right to the reputation 
 which they have inherited down to the present time. 
 
 Foregoing chronological order in our remarks upon 
 these laces, we hope to avoid much repetition which 
 would be inevitable were we to deal with these laces
 
 284 II. LACES. 
 
 by historic periods analogous to those touched upon in 
 describing embroidery and needlepoint laces. At the 
 same time, it is but right to say that this plan of pro- 
 ceeding cannot but be somewhat incomplete, since little 
 short of a separate volume would suffice for fully setting 
 forth all the variety of details to be found in these 
 typical classes of pillow lace. Our remarks will there- 
 fore be limited to generic types of pillow lace, to one 
 
 Fig. 127. Guipure of Le Puy, also called Cluny lace. 
 
 or the other of which other pillow laces are nearly 
 related. 
 
 Passement. The oldest class of bobbin or pillow 
 lace is, as we have previously stated, that of passements, 
 the light and open guipures figured in the pattern books. 
 The making of these has not ceased since its com- 
 mencement early in the sixteenth century. From being 
 somewhat spasmodic, and undertaken by few women, 
 the industry became localized in different parts of 
 France, particularly Le Puy and at Mirecourt.
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 285 
 
 The Auvergne has ever since retained its celebrity 
 as a classic home of guipures made in bands, for which 
 designs of geometric character, with motifs like squares, 
 stars, and formal blossoms, have been and continue to 
 be chiefly used. The great number of women engaged 
 in this industry, the simplicity of their life in the 
 mountains, and its modest requirements, have helped to 
 make this local lace-making the most important in the 
 world. In 1851 Felix Aubry computed from official 
 returns that upwards of 130,000 women were then 
 
 Fig. 128. Passement'm fine thread (Le Puy or Mirecourt). 
 
 engaged in it. Thread passeinents, as shown in fig. 122, 
 have always been made by them. From time to time 
 fashion discards, whilst at others it favours these 
 passemenls, as was recently the case when a demand 
 for Guipures de Cluny arose (fig. 127). This purely 
 fanciful name was adopted from the Musee de Cluny, 
 where samples of ancient laces are preserved. 
 
 But that which has tended more than anything else 
 to the perpetuation of the industry, is the versatility of 
 the Auvergnese workers in using with equal facility 
 variety of threads. As circumstances require, flax,
 
 286 
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 silk, worsted, goat's hair, and Angora rabbit hair threads 
 are employed. Black guipures (figs. 1 29 and 1 30), in 
 
 the production of 
 which the industry 
 has for a great part 
 of the present cen- 
 tury been engaged, 
 are made with a rich 
 and strong silk 
 thread. These cer- 
 tainly reflect more 
 honour upon the 
 lace-making of Le 
 Puy than any other 
 kinds of kindred 
 work made there ; 
 and it is perhaps 
 surprising that they 
 do not keep a longer 
 hold upon public 
 taste. No where 
 have better woollen 
 laces been made than 
 in the Auvergne. 
 Somewhat thick in 
 texture and bold in 
 pattern, they never- 
 theless harmonize 
 admirably when 
 
 Fig. 129. Black silk guipure (Le Puy). 
 
 used as trimmings to dresses made of similar material. 
 Gold and silver laces long famous at Aurillac con- 
 tinue to be made in the Auvergne.
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 287 
 
 Fig. 130. Flounce of black siVs. guipure (in the museum of Le Puy). 
 
 Craponne is notable for its furniture stout thread 
 guipures of low price. 
 
 Mirecourt in the Vosges makes a similar lace to
 
 288 II. LACES. 
 
 that of Le Puy, but rather finer in quality. The 
 workmanship is careful and the patterns are well 
 chosen. Considerable efforts have been put forward 
 to develop this class of lace-making which has existed 
 for so long in Lorraine, but the double competition 
 of the Auvergne on the one hand, and Belgium on 
 the other, in each of which a far larger number of 
 lace-makers are at work, has often pressed the Lorraine 
 industry sorely ; still it maintains its reputation as one 
 of the best directed branches in 'respect of artistic aim 
 (% 128). 
 
 In Italy, Genoa has remained faithful to the pro- 
 duction of well-made guipures with small blossom 
 or seed devices but rather gross in quality. A 
 characteristic which is noticed in the Re'volte des 
 passements when the Point de Genes is spoken of as 
 having a too stout substance (" le corps un peu gros "). 
 Black silk guipures made in the villages of the sea- 
 board are very much of the same nature as those made 
 in Malta. 
 
 No matter what may be the class of material used in 
 respect of the threads and their size, the make of all 
 these guipures accords with that of the primitive 
 passements ; the patterns, on the whole, are geometric, 
 and the work is made in bands. 
 
 Point de Milan. Milan, after first making passements, 
 adopted patterns of flowing scrolls and blossoming 
 flowers, after the style of the Venetian points a foliami. 
 In these we have another sort of guipure, the leading 
 feature of which is the bold flowing scroll devices. 
 These undoubtedly lacked the rich reliefs which 
 abounded in the Venetian needlepoint laces of similar
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 289 
 
 ornamental motifs : the flowers in this Milanese lace 
 were flat and wrought with the appearance of compactly 
 woven linen ; here and there, somewhat sparsely, would 
 be introduced open fillings (a jours'), or else small holes 
 would be left to lighten the tape-like effect of the close 
 work. At the same time, the plaited bars or tyes used 
 as a ground to the earlier patterns very admirably set 
 
 Fig. 131. Milanese pillow lace with mesh ground. 
 
 off the curved and scrolled devices. As in the Vene~ 
 dan points, eagles, armorial bearings, and crowns were 
 frequently intermingled with them. 
 
 Unfortunately the taste for grounds of small meshes 
 carried all before it in the eighteenth century ; and 
 although characteristic scrolls and flowers were still 
 used in patterns, they were not so effective in contrast 
 with the meshed grounds (figs. 131 and 132) as they 
 had been with the bars or tyes of the guipures. Genoa
 
 2QO II. LACES. 
 
 imitated Milan ; and Venice herself did the same in 
 respect of those of her pillow laces which were made 
 in the island of Palestrina and Chioggia. A distinc- 
 tiveness, however, belongs to the Points de Milan as a 
 class of pillow-made laces.* 
 
 A version of these Milanese laces has been produced 
 by using tape for the scroll forms and flowers, and filling 
 in the open portions, between the tapes, with needle- 
 point stitches. 
 
 Fig. 132. Milanese pillow lace with mesh ground, eighteenth century 
 (the property of Madame Franck). 
 
 Belgium, as already stated, was the earliest of lace- 
 making countries to free herself from Italian influence 
 in the matters of make and pattern, and to strike out 
 an independent path. The development of the Point 
 de Flandres about the period of Louis XIII. has been 
 sketched. The style of its patterns was flowery and 
 rich, somewhat heavy in detail, of very flat work 
 (fig. 126), notable for delicate veinings composed of 
 
 * This industry is still kept up round about the little town of Cantu 
 in the province of Milan.
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 29! 
 
 pinholes to lighten with happy effect the close white 
 surfaces. Comparatively primitive as this style is, it 
 nevertheless contains the germs of the later and varied 
 productions we now propose to allude to. 
 
 Valenciennes Lace. This did not acquire a distinc- 
 tive appellation until the eighteenth century ; it will 
 be remembered that the centre of the manufacture 
 
 Fig. 133. Valenciennes lace with "snowy ground" (fond de neige). 
 
 at the time of Colbert was Le Quesnoy. But the 
 Flemish mistresses of the craft clearly instructed the 
 workers there to produce flat and closely made pillow 
 lace such as we have described. This make of lace, 
 especially in respect of floral and other ornamental 
 details, survives throughout various phases of what 
 is known as Valenciennes lace. The modifications, 
 which gave birth to the features of these various 
 phases, applied to the grounds and portions intervening
 
 292 II. LACES. 
 
 between the floral and ornamental devices. Little by 
 little the intervening spaces were enlarged and sub- 
 jected to different treatments. The small bars or tyes, 
 to be noted in the prototypes of Valenciennes laces, 
 were superseded by groupings of dots or pea forms 
 which, in dainty white thread intertwistings, assumed 
 the appearance of orderly sprinklings of snow-flakes, 
 whence Valenciennes laces in which these grounds 
 occurred were spoken of, as in the Revolte dcs passe- 
 
 Fig. 134. Valenciennes lace, seventeenth century (in the Muste des' 
 Arts decoratifs). 
 
 ments, as Escadrons de Neige (Squadrons of Snow) 
 (fig. 133). 
 
 After divers variations (fig. 134) in the making of 
 grounds, the classic meshed ground, with which the 
 name of Valenciennes has since become identified, was 
 developed. In this the mesh is square or diamond 
 shape, of great regularity, very open, and each side 
 of it is of closely plaited threads (fig. 135). Both 
 floral ornament and ground of meshes are worked 
 together with the same quality of thread. The orna- 
 ment is not picked out with any outline of thread, 
 as is the case with Mechlin lace (see fig. 139); and
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 293 
 
 the absence of such thread or of any work in the 
 nature of relief, conduces to facility in successfully 
 washing Valenciennes lace, which, of all laces, is 
 most easily ironed and suitable for being " got up " 
 with linen. 
 
 The elegant dishabilles of duchesses and mar- 
 chionesses in the eighteenth century were bedecked 
 with exquisite laces of this sort; their light flowery 
 patterns, very delicately veined in the fine filmy parts, 
 were agreeably set off by the intervening grounds of 
 diamond-shaped meshes, which formed a dainty trellis- 
 
 Fig. 135. Valenciennes lace (eighteenth century). 
 
 work about them. These laces certainly justified their 
 reputation. 
 
 Up to the period of the Revolution, the town of 
 Valenciennes had been the centre of this particular 
 industry. Its name has always been associated with it, 
 notwithstanding that for some time lace-making has 
 disappeared from the town itself. The industry is now 
 carried on in two provinces of Belgium. Almost all 
 the convents for poor girls, and the be'guinages, where 
 widows and spinsters congregate in communities, make 
 Valenciennes laces. Along the line between Poperinghe, 
 Courtrai, and Ghent an active commerce in these laces
 
 294 
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 is carried on ; the town of Ypres makes a better 
 
 quality (fig. 136). 
 
 In France, Valenciennes laces are made at the small 
 
 frontier town of Bailleul, 
 where a museum of laces 
 has been established. 
 Valenciennes and other 
 large towns have, how- 
 ever, taken no trouble 
 to preserve the smallest 
 specimen of the fabrics 
 which made their names 
 famous. 
 
 During the last thirty 
 years a lace termed 
 Valenciennes-Brabant has 
 been made, in which the 
 division of labour, com- 
 mon to Flemish laces, has 
 been adopted. Instead of 
 being made in one piece, 
 as is the case with Valen- 
 ciennes lace, the flowers 
 and ornaments are made 
 first and the groundwork 
 is then inserted between 
 them. This process is well 
 adapted to the production 
 of large pieces which could 
 not be conveniently pro- 
 
 Fig. 136. Modern Valenciennes 
 (Ypres) lace, with square 
 mesh ground. 
 
 duced in narrow bands or strips of lace (fig. 137)- 
 Mechlin Lace. This is a light-looking lace, the close
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 295 
 portions of the ornament and flowers, etc., being more 
 
 Fig. 137. Flounce of Valenciennes-Brabant lace. 
 
 filmy than those in Valenciennes laces. It is indeed 
 the most supple of all laces ; but a more distinguishing
 
 296 
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 feature in it is the fine bright thread which outlines all 
 the ornamental shapes in it. Before the meshed ground, 
 ultimately adopted as the more suitable, was decided on, 
 various attempts and experiments were made, as in the 
 case of the Valenciennes ground, and amongst these a 
 notable snow ground (fond de neige, see fig. 138) sur- 
 vived for some time. At 
 length, however, a normal 
 type of ground with small 
 hexagonal meshes, some- 
 what resembling that of 
 Brussels pillow lace, only 
 with shorter plaited sides 
 to each mesh, was adopted. 
 It is without question the 
 prettiest of all pillow-made 
 grounds. Mechlin lace was 
 in great request during the 
 reign of Louis XV., and 
 the rococo style of ornament 
 prevailed in its designs. To 
 some extent in their light- 
 ness and transparence they 
 may be compared with simi- 
 lar patterns upon contempo- 
 rary engraved glasses from 
 Saxony and Bohemia (fig. 139). Under Louis XVI. 
 floral sprays and delicate interfacings w r hich gave oppor- 
 tunities for varieties of fillings (a jours') were used in 
 the patterns. Later on, the patterns consisted of 
 orderly scatterings of tiny blossoms, spots, and so forth, 
 which make a pleasing play of effect in contrast with 
 
 Fig. 138. Lappet of Mechlin lace 
 " snowy ground " (fond de neige).
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 297 
 
 the regularity of the meshed grounds. No better lace 
 can be found to assimilate with, and adorn, light textures 
 such as gauze and muslin. It is admirably suited for 
 barbes and headdresses, and our grandmothers showed 
 cunning appreciation of its appropriateness in bedeck- 
 ing their undulating mounds of white hair. 
 
 The district between Mechlin, Antwerp, and Louvain 
 has always been celebrated for its make of Mechlin 
 lace. 
 
 Lille and Arras laces are somewhat of the same 
 
 Fig. 139. Mechlin lace (eighteenth century). 
 
 character; the principal difference between them and 
 Mechlin being in the less elaborated make of their 
 grounds, in which the meshes are made by twisting, 
 not plaiting, threads ; the other portions of the lace are 
 of the same make as Mechlin. 
 
 In the country about Bayeux, laces, having a close 
 affinity to Mechlin lace, are manufactured with fine 
 thread. Important pieces for fichus, mantillas, or head 
 scarves, coming from this district, have all the suppleness 
 and softness which contribute to the seductive charm of 
 this class of lace (fig. 140). 
 
 Chantilly. Chantilly, in the seventeenth century,
 
 298 
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 became the rallying point of the lace-makers from 
 the Ile-de- France. After producing lace of modest 
 artistic pretension, such as gueuse and the Point 
 de Paris, which latter was a sort of second-rate 
 Mechlin or Valenciennes type of lace, Chantilly 
 suddenly achieved a reputation by making silk laces, 
 especially those in black silk. 
 
 Specimens of old Chantilly lace, 
 whether of white or black silk, are 
 remarkable for patterns in which are 
 introduced vases and flowery baskets 
 similar in shape and decoration to 
 those made in Chantilly pottery, 
 which were highly esteemed at the 
 same time as Chantilly lace (fig. 141). 
 The material employed for the 
 Chantilly black laces is a silk termed 
 grenadine d'Alais. The peculiar twist 
 in spinning these silk threads dimi- 
 nishes the brilliant silkiness of the 
 unspun material, and persons fre- 
 quently imagine that Chantilly black 
 lace is therefore made with black flax. 
 The earliest form of mesh in Chantilly 
 
 Fig. 140. White 
 thread pillow lace 
 (Bayeux). 
 
 lace grounds is a lozenge, crossed at its two opposite 
 points by horizontal threads. Grounds with meshes of 
 this description are termed fonds chant, an abbreviation 
 of the name Chantilly (fig. 142). The fillings introduced 
 into the flowers and other ornaments in Chantilly lace 
 are of mesh grounds of old date, which, according to 
 the districts where they were made, are called vitre, 
 marriage, or cinq trous. Chantilly, however, less than
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 299 
 
 its sister centres of manufacture, withstood the tempta- 
 tion of imitating the mesh common to Alengon grounds, 
 which for a long time has been employed in almost all 
 other black laces. 
 
 Black lace, however, has not been in such general 
 demand as white laces. That it possesses characteristic 
 charm, and is peculiarly suitable for the wear of 
 ladies of a certain age, few will be disposed to deny. 
 As Directress of St. Cyr, Madame de Maintenon, always 
 wore Chantilly black lace. For shawls and ample 
 
 Fig. 141. Chantilly lace (eighteenth century). 
 
 scarves, for mantles and other articles of outdoor 
 costume, black lace is probably without a rival. 
 
 After, as it were, making the fortune of Chantilly 
 and the neighbouring districts as far as Gisors, for 
 many years, the black lace industry disappeared from 
 the suburbs of Paris, to be revived in Normandy 
 about Caen and Bayeux, where, during the present 
 century, it has been extensively followed. According 
 to Felix Aubry, upwards of sixty thousand workers are 
 there engaged in it at their homes. It has become a 
 valuable auxiliary means of livelihood in a district
 
 300 II. LACES. 
 
 almost wholly dependent upon agriculture. Such 
 patient application as is indispensable in its practice, 
 involving the constant use of a large number of 
 bobbins, is rarely to be met with amongst dwellers 
 in the vicinity of a great city like Paris. 
 
 The make of Normandy black laces has been carried 
 to a higher condition than previously attained any- 
 where else. Patterns in which flowers and ornamental 
 motifs are rendered with the utmost delicacy of grada- 
 tion in texture have been produced with the greatest 
 
 Fig. 142. Chantilly black lace with the grounds interchanged (the 
 fond chant and the imitation Alen9on ground). 
 
 success at Bayeux, and defy all comparison with the 
 earlier Chantilly laces. This specialty in gradation of 
 texture pertains to modern black lace, and is unknown 
 in old laces of a cognate class (fig. 143). 
 
 The towns of Grammont and Enghien in Belgium also 
 produce black laces, which may be distinguished from 
 French work by being less elaborated in changeful 
 nuances or gradations : the threads to indicate veinings 
 of leaves have no delicate open work about them like 
 that to be seen in the French black lace.
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 301 
 
 Fig. 143. Black lace lappet (Bayeux).
 
 302 II. LACES. 
 
 Blonde, or white silk pillow lace. Certain sorts of 
 pillow-made laces derive their names from some 
 characteristic of the material with which they are made, 
 instead of from the town of their manufacture. Such, 
 for instance, is blonde, which is one of the more 
 important types we shall mention. Originally, blonde 
 was made with unbleached silk, the pale straw colour 
 of which gave rise to its name. Bisette is another lace 
 which, in the sixteenth century, was so called in conse- 
 quence of the colour of the thread with which it was 
 made. But blonde is now made only with white and 
 black silk. Two different sizes of thread are employed 
 in its manufacture, a fine one for the meshed ground, 
 and a coarser and more fluffy one for the ornament. 
 
 Early patterns for blonde show but few details of 
 close work (mat), the ornament being principally in 
 outline wrought sinuously with a single thread, thereby 
 producing a diversity of interlacing open forms. This 
 style, much affected in the eighteenth century, was 
 adopted at Gaen towards 1 840, when quantities of such 
 work was produced (fig. 144). 
 
 Marie Antoinette's predilection for blonde of this 
 description is well known ; the book of her dress- 
 maker (Madame Eloffe)* gives evidence of it on almost 
 every page. The patterns she affected were thin and 
 poor in effect ; but it is well to note the distinction 
 between the elegancies of the first years of her reign 
 and the almost sad simplicities of the later years, as 
 exhibited in fashions adopted by this Queen who under- 
 went cruel fluctuations of fortunes. It was during her 
 
 * Comte de Reiset, Reproduction du livre journal de Madame Eloffe, 
 published by Didot.
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 303 
 
 later years that Marie Antoinette wore considerable 
 quantities of the light patterned blonde laces. 
 
 Since then, blonde has been more frequently made in 
 the Spanish style, with big flowery motifs wrought 
 in excellent close work (mats), sheeny as satin, and 
 standing out in vigorous contrast with the delicate net 
 ground (fig. 145). Occasionally, spaces, filled in (grille's) 
 
 Fig. 144. Light blonde of white silk (Caen). 
 
 with thin silk thread, alternate with the compact parts 
 of flat and stouter silken thread ; this variety is termed 
 Blonde mi-genre. 
 
 The mantilla, the national headdress of Spanish 
 women in Europe and America, is made in both sorts of 
 blonde, blondes mates and blondes mi-genres; the Mexican 
 and Havannah patterns being bolder and heavier 
 than the European Spanish ones. Unfortunately the
 
 304 
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 Fig. 145. Black close-patterned (mate) blonde (Spanish style made at 
 Bayeux).
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 305 
 
 mantilla is rapidly being supplanted by the modern 
 bonnet and hat. Barcelona and Bayeux are the two 
 principal centres for the manufacture of mantillas ; and 
 one may hope that the Spaniards will not allow this 
 local and characteristic head ornament to fall out of use 
 and disappear. 
 
 All the laces we have mentioned are made in lengths 
 or bands upon pillows or cushions ; ornament and 
 meshed grounds being worked together. 
 
 We are now, however, going 
 to notice those laces which are 
 made in small pieces to be after- 
 wards joined together ; that is, by 
 separate flowers and bits of orna- 
 ment, or in segments analogous to 
 those used in the needlepoint lace 
 process. This manner of dividing 
 a pattern for the pillow-lace 
 method of work is certainly due 
 to Belgian initiative. 
 
 Guipures de Flandres (Flemish 
 Guipures). The first time that 
 a Flemish lace-maker made a 
 her bobbins upon a flat cushion (fig. 146), it 
 probably did not occur to her that, by so doing, she 
 had rendered her country a great service. Still, it is 
 perfectly obvious that this peculiar modification in the 
 making of pillow lace has, to a large extent, affected 
 the industry. 
 
 A separate flower or ornament once completed, the 
 ground, or some such means of connecting it with other 
 similar flowers, was necessary. At first these connec- 
 
 2O 
 
 Fig. 146. Pillow-lace 
 flower for applique 
 lace (Flemish). 
 
 single flower with
 
 306 
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 dons were small bars of three or four threads plaited 
 together. These bars would sometimes be enriched 
 with little loops (picots). Separate ornaments and 
 
 
 Fig. 147. Linen and white thread Flemish guipure curtain. 
 
 flowers with intervening looped bars or tyes (bar- 
 rettes picote'es), are the main features of Guipure de 
 Flandres, a class of lace much in demand during the 
 seventeenth century. Fine trimmings for albs and
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 307 
 
 such-like were made in it ; and although its texture 
 is flat and without reliefs, it derives a richness of 
 effect from the ample and soft folds into which it 
 falls. Bruges was specially noted for making this class 
 of lace. 
 
 For furniture purposes Flemish guipures have been 
 considerably used, in 
 respect of hangings 
 and trimmings about 
 beds, toilet tables, 
 and such-like (figs. 
 147 and 149). 
 
 Honiton Lace (fig. 
 146). But they have 
 also been used for 
 ladies' costume. In 
 Devonshire, Honiton 
 has created and main- 
 tained a reputation 
 for making pillow-lace 
 guipures in the same 
 manner as Bruges at 
 
 an earlier date. But Fig- 148. Pillow-made lace, Dttchesse 
 
 guipure (of Belgian make). 
 
 there is a marked 
 
 difference of style in pattern between the -Bruges and 
 
 the Honiton laces.* 
 
 Duchesse Lace. In Belgium, the lighter sorts of 
 guipures are called Guipure Duchesse (see fig. 148). 
 
 * Besides the guipure laces, Honiton and other villages in Devon- 
 shire occasionally produce laces with a ground of regular meshes. 
 Latterly some superior specimens have been made, in which this 
 meshed ground is of needlepoint work. On the whole, however,
 
 308 II. LACES. 
 
 Application dAngkterre (English Applique lace). 
 As grounds of small meshes came into fashion, bars 
 
 Fig. 149. Flemish guipure for furniture purposes. 
 
 and tyes in Flemish guipures disappeared, and lengths 
 
 Honiton lace has conserved its guipure character. At the same time, 
 there is no reason why it should not make new departures and 
 achieve as high a success with these as with the styles of former 
 days, for which there is comparatively little present demand.
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 309 
 
 of meshed grounds (reseaux) were made, to which were 
 applied the flowers or ornaments brought by other 
 workers. This led to a more or less well-recognized 
 division of labour. Certain workers excelled in making 
 meshed grounds, and were solely employed in doing 
 so ; whilst others were restricted to the making of the 
 flowers or ornament. 
 
 The new applique lace was in high favour during 
 Louis XV.'s reign. The vrai re'seau was the name 
 given to the finest and softest of the mesh grounds 
 made on the cushion. It was produced chiefly at 
 Brussels. The mesh is hexagonal in shape, and its 
 two longest sides consist of four plaits of four threads, 
 the other four shorter sides being of two threads 
 twisted twice. The delicate linen thread with which 
 vrai re'seau was produced possessed a fair creamy tone 
 admirably suited to the complexions of blonde beauties, 
 and this subtle charm of the lace gave rise to the custom 
 of steeping other whiter laces in tea, so that they, too, 
 might have the same kind of tint. 
 
 Applique lace was made in less quantities in England 
 than in Belgium, notwithstanding that for purposes of 
 trade it was always called English application {Appli- 
 cation (f Angleterre) (fig. 150). Certain connoisseurs, 
 anxious to show that they could not be imposed upon, 
 adopted for this lace the Due de Penthievre's appella- 
 tion : " d 1 Angleterre de Flandres ; " but this hybrid name 
 never became general, and it was eventually deemed 
 correct to speak of the lace as "point d 'Angleterre '." 
 
 Of this we have evidence in a letter of the Due de 
 Luynes written in 1638 : 
 
 " To-day were brought to Madame de Luynes the
 
 3io 
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 laces she had chosen for the Queen, which, after 
 use, revert to the ladies of honour. They consist of 
 coverlets trimmed with point d'Angleterre for the big 
 bed, and of pillow-cases similarly trimmed. This set 
 of things cost thirty thousand livres, Madame de Luynes 
 
 not deeming it 
 necessary to give 
 orders as to re- 
 newing the best 
 coverlets belong- 
 ing to the 
 Queen." Thisex- 
 tract shows that 
 it was the custom 
 for the bed trim- 
 mings of the 
 Queen, upon their 
 renewal each 
 year, to pass into 
 the possession of 
 Her Majesty's 
 ladies-of-honour. 
 In spending no 
 more than thirty 
 Fig. 150. Application lace, called Angleterre, t h ni]C . anf 4 li v res 
 on pillow-made mesh ground. uvres, 
 
 Madame de 
 
 Luynes is to be credited with the exercise of an economy 
 and discretion not displayed by her predecessors in 
 office. 
 
 Other decorations of a room would match those of 
 the bed. The luxury displayed by Louis XV. in 
 this direction is historic. The Duchesse de Bourbon
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 311 
 
 has "a toilet table and her bonhomme" completely 
 draped with spotted muslin and lengths of a beautiful 
 " dentelle a'Ang/eterre." Monseigneur the Dauphin had 
 six comb cases and a dozen pincushions trimmed with 
 " Angleterre" 
 
 And we may finally quote the Princesse de Conde 
 who had " two bathing cloaks trimmed with lace, and 
 drapery about her bath edged with wide Angleterre" 
 It would be difficult to further extend the employment, 
 not to say the abuse, of laces ! 
 
 The patterns for these appliques laces are generally 
 insignificant in design, consisting for the most part of 
 a few sprays or leaves, etc., scattered over a ground of 
 meshes ; this is obviously insufficient to give such lace 
 artistic character. It will be well then to beware of 
 the unstinted admiration so freely given, as a rule, 
 to every old bit of vrai re'seau applique lace which 
 may come under notice. It is preferable to reserve 
 one's appreciation for works in which good execu- 
 tion has been applied to graceful and well-composed 
 designs. 
 
 In certain of the applique's laces we meet with admir- 
 able contrasts of two sizes of meshes for the grounds, 
 a device for obtaining variety in effect which had been 
 happily used in the Argentan needlepoint laces. 
 
 The little town of Binche in Belgium has given its 
 name to some pretty laces in which contrasting mesh 
 grounds are used, as well as others in which the 
 irregular barring of guipures is interchanged with 
 regular mesh grounds (re'seaux), all with excellent 
 result, especially as settings to patterns. 
 
 Application de Bruxelles. About 1830 the invention
 
 312 
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 of machines for making fine nets (tulle) gave a new 
 impulse to this class of work. Its costliness being 
 considerably diminished through the substitution of 
 tulle for the hand-made mesh ground or vrai re'seau, 
 a large trade has ensued in quantities of these Brussels 
 application laces (Applications de Bruxelles), a name 
 usually restricted to applications of lace, ornament, 
 flowers, etc., upon Brussels tulle (fig. 151). 
 
 This simplification 
 of process and lower- 
 ing of price in its 
 productions has been 
 attended with some 
 advantages. Larger 
 pieces, for instance, 
 such as big shawls 
 and ample bridal 
 veils, which, on the 
 score of cost, could 
 but rarely have been 
 attempted with the 
 h a n d-m a d e net 
 (re'seau), are now 
 easily made. It can- 
 not be maintained, however, that machine-made tulle is 
 as charming a material as vrai re'seau ; its dressing, as a 
 rule, tends to make it wiry and harsh to the touch, and 
 although this may be lessened by modification, the cotton 
 thread, employed both for the lace ornaments and the 
 tulle, lacks that delicate suppleness which is characteristic 
 of the pure and fine flax thread used in vraie Angleterte 
 laces. It is a matter even of congratulation when these 
 
 Fig. 151. Flounce of Brussels application 
 lace.
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 313 
 
 modern cotton fabrics are not powdered with white 
 lead, a pernicious and perfectly useless ingredient, 
 frequently used, with dire effect to the health of the 
 lace-workers and the good preservation of the lace. 
 
 Lace ornaments applied to tulle are not solely made 
 on the pillow, some are of needlepoint work done in the 
 same way as in the eighteenth century, when lace 
 applications of pillow- made and needlepoint were sewn 
 with admirable effects upon vrai re'seau. Specimens of 
 modern work, in which this mixture of lace applications 
 occur, are given in figs. 152 and 153. Considerable 
 skill is displayed in the little fillings or devices, a jours 
 (see also fig. no). The selection of details which are 
 to be of needlepoint or pillow work rests with the 
 designer of the pattern. 
 
 The town of Brussels, and one or two others, like 
 Ghent and Alost, have derived handsome profits from 
 this particular branch of the lace industry. Belgium 
 has kept a pre-eminent position in it, notwithstanding 
 efforts to compete with her on the part of England and 
 France. 
 
 Tulle et Marli. The fashion for meshed grounds 
 (re'seaux], so freely referred to in the course of our 
 remarks upon pillow-made laces during the eighteenth 
 century, culminated in the reign of Louis XVI. in one 
 for almost patternless laces of mesh grounds with an 
 insignificant little edging of loops. There were two 
 kinds of such laces, distinguishable one from the other 
 merely by the shape of the mesh; the one was called 
 tulle, the other marli. 
 
 Although the precise date of its production cannot 
 be stated, tulle would seem to have derived its fame
 
 314 
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 Fig. 152. Lappet ol Modern Brussels mixed needlepoint 
 and pillow lace.
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 315 
 
 as a fabric when made in the town bearing its name. 
 Tulle, the chief town of Correze, is not far distant from 
 Aurillac ; the character of its lace being simple, it was 
 speedily imitated by many other places, but nowadays 
 lace-making has disappeared from the province of Cor- 
 reze. But in an annual of 1775 there is mention of lace- 
 makers at Tulle, certain Mesdemoiselles Gantes, aunts 
 of the Abbe Gantes, who succeeded M. de Talleyrand 
 as Bishop of Autun, and met his death at the guillotine 
 after having been president of the constituent Assembly. 
 Lace was certainly manu- 
 factured at Tulle in the 
 eighteenth century, and by 
 some fortuitous circum- 
 stance the name of the town 
 came to be given to all 
 simple net grounds (re'seaux) 
 produced by the machine. 
 Of these a considerable Fi g- * 53- Bit of Modern Bras- 
 
 sels application lace, with 
 
 variety has been manu- the roses worked in 
 
 factlired With Sufficient needlepoint. 
 
 differences to entitle each sort to be called by 
 some qualifying title, such as Brussels tulle, Mechlin 
 tulle, bobbin tulle, tulle illusion, tulle point d'esprit, etc- 
 Originally, however, tulle was merely a lace of simple 
 and regular meshes, almost bereft of ornament, and was 
 called tulle afil (thread net). 
 
 Marli lace no doubt takes its name from the village 
 between Versailles and St. Germain, where Louis XIV. 
 built his celebrated residence. The peculiarity of this 
 lace consisted of its innumerable little square spots 
 dotted over the gauzy tulle, which was frequently further
 
 3l6 II. LACES. 
 
 embellished with light embroidery. It was used for 
 ruches and cloud-like, vaporous coverings. The 
 patterns of Tulle and Marli lace, whenever there were 
 any, were composed of different little dots, little peas, 
 or rosettes, but more often of little spots called point 
 d* esprit. 
 
 Tulle and Marli lace was much worn by Marie 
 Antoinette during the latter years of her life ; entries 
 of them occur over and over again with those for 
 blondes and embroidered linens in Madame Eloffe's 
 accounts with the Queen. Taste grew poorer and 
 poorer, so far as ornamental lace was concerned, and 
 when one meets with typical items like " a gauze fichu 
 trimmed with white pretention" it is not difficult to 
 realize that the art of lace as previously known, had 
 become extinct. Moreover, this period was one of 
 general sadness ; the Queen wore black net laces only, 
 and on leaving Versailles (October 6th, 1789) for the 
 last time she distributed amongst her suite all that 
 remained of her fans and laces. 
 
 Still, so great had been the demand for tulle a few 
 years prior to the Revolution, that, according to the 
 Tableau de Paris of that date, at least 100,000 work- 
 women were engaged in France in its manufacture. 
 
 Many ladies applied themselves to making the simple 
 mesh laces, for which comparatively few bobbins had 
 to be used. Jean Jacques Rousseau recommended it 
 as a suitable occupation for females : 
 
 " But what Sophie knows best, and has been more 
 thoroughly trained to, is work special to her sex, 
 such as cutting out and making up her dresses. There 
 is no needlework in which she is not an adept, knowing
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 317 
 
 how to do it well, and doing it with pleasure ; but that 
 which she prefers above others is lace-making, because 
 it necessitates a pretty attitude, and provides an exercise 
 for the fingers which involves more grace and lightness 
 of touch." (Emile, Book IV.). 
 
 The reference to a species of network at which 
 Teresa Panza was able to make " eight marave'dis a 
 day," as she writes to her husband Sancho, is obviously 
 not of the same nature as the fine bobbin tulle of which 
 we have been speaking. Such delicate fabrics were 
 virtually unknown during Cervantes' lifetime. 
 
 We cannot here undertake to speak of all the coun- 
 tries which have been, and are still, engaged in the 
 pillow-lace industry. The principal types of pillow 
 lace have, however, we hope, been so described as to 
 at least enable our readers to identify their make when 
 met with. 
 
 Every lace-making village or centre doubtless has 
 some feature special to its work, but considerations of 
 space prevent us from attempting a close survey of 
 what at best are but minute variations in typical 
 methods of manufacture. 
 
 The groundworks of certain German pillow laces 
 consist of vermiculated plaitings. Russian laces are 
 noted for patterns of meanders and sinuous forms 
 (fig. 154). The Danubian provinces of Austria and 
 Hungary make laces very similar in character of pattern. 
 
 Much as these laces at first sight may appear to be 
 of distinctive manufacture, they will, upon examination, 
 be found to come within the classification of passements 
 for which the Auvergne is noted. The same methods 
 of plying the bobbins and of producing tissue in strips,
 
 318 
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 or bands, obtain in all these laces. So true is this, that 
 Russian designs are frequently reproduced in laces 
 made at Le Puy and Mirecourt. 
 
 Spain and Portugal enjoy a certain reputation for 
 imitation white Chantilly laces. The island of Madeira, 
 and places along the South American coast, have 
 adopted traditions of the industry from Portuguese and 
 Spaniards. 
 
 Pillow laces made by women in Ceylon and Travan- 
 core, as well as elsewhere in India, seem to owe more 
 
 to the instruction of Por- 
 tuguese than to that of 
 either Dutch or English. 
 And the specimens of 
 Indian pillow laces, 
 wrought with white and 
 black threads, in the 
 India Museum are ap- 
 parently made in single 
 Fig. 154Russian pillow lace. pieceg> an( j ^ ag j n 
 
 Honiton laces, by separate flowers, which are subse- 
 quently placed together for the ground to be worked in 
 between them. 
 
 On the other hand, the Honiton method is known at 
 Yokohama, where the Japanese Government has en- 
 couraged the development of a school of pillow-lace 
 makers under the supervision of an English lady. 
 
 All pillow laces, from one end of the world to the 
 other, are in a manner closely related one to another, 
 though not to such an extent as to obscure certain 
 slight peculiarities which contribute towards establish- 
 ing characteristics of individuality. Circumstances of
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 319 
 
 manufacture, together with local traditions, leave a 
 trace upon the productions. Valenciennes lace, for 
 instance, is made along the whole of the Franco- 
 Belgian frontier. And yet each village or town between 
 Bailleul and Ypres, and Ypres and Courtrai, etc., has 
 its particular make, which is quite perceptible to any 
 one on the look-out for it. It is the same in Normandy 
 in respect of difference in manufacture between similar 
 laces that may have emanated from Caen or Bayeux, 
 notwithstanding the proximity of these two towns. 
 The same remark applies to other lace centres near 
 to one another.* 
 
 Members of conventual communities, sent by their 
 superiors from one country or district into another, 
 have introduced the art of lace-making into a locality 
 where it was previously unpractised. Hence, Bayeux 
 owes the establishment of its lace industry to nuns 
 from the Convent de la Providence at Rouen. They 
 were sent there at the end of the seventeenth century, 
 to undertake the supervision of the workroom founded 
 by the Canon Baucher in the old church of St. Georges. 
 In 1747 the Abbe Suhard de Loucelles provided addi- 
 tional room for them in a house in the Faubourg St. 
 Loup, close by the church of Notre Dame de la Poterie. 
 In a short time more than four hundred young women 
 were employed at the two sets of workrooms ; and 
 in 1758 the aldermen of the town presented to the 
 Intendant of the province a pair of thread lace cuffs, 
 which, according to the accounts of the municipality, 
 cost 144 livres. 
 
 Dieppe and Cherbourg are also indebted, as are 
 * See observations as to this in Felix Aubry's Report of 1851.
 
 32O II. LACES. 
 
 many other places in Normandy, to nuns for their 
 lace industry. 
 
 The Revolution was as disastrous to pillow as to 
 needlepoint lace-making. Valenciennes never re- 
 covered from the effects of it ; and Chantilly gradually 
 declined. At the Industrial Exhibition of Paris held in 
 1802, two Chantilly makers shared the honours, then 
 conferred, with several lace-makers from Le Puy ; but this 
 was the last occasion when Chantilly asserted herself as 
 a lace-making town. She was superseded by Bayeux 
 and Caen, where intelligent direction struck out a new 
 line for the Chantilly make of lace, and gave new life 
 to it. In 1823, Madame Carpentier of Bayeux won 
 the first gold medal ever awarded for lace, and at each 
 succeeding exhibition Norman lace-makers have added 
 to their laurels. It may be safely said that France has 
 preserved an eminent place in the first rank of lace- 
 making countries. 
 
 Imitation Laces. But the prosperity attaching to this 
 position has been seriously menaced through the in- 
 vention of machines for making lace, more so as 
 regards pillow than needlepoint laces. 
 
 At Nottingham, whose reputation for its hosiery is 
 of long standing, the mechanical manufacture of bobbin 
 net or tulle was started in 1768. This was due to the 
 ingenuity of a workman named Hammond, who con- 
 ceived the idea of mechanically making a net tissue on 
 a stocking-knitting machine. Hammond's somewhat 
 crude machine was greatly improved upon in 1809 by 
 Heathcote's bobbin net-loom, since which time the 
 manufacture has flourished to a very important 
 extent.
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 321 
 
 Notwithstanding war and difficult commercial rela- 
 tions between England and France, a few English 
 bobbin net-looms or frames were imported during the 
 first Empire and set up in Lyons; and in 1817 a 
 manufactory supplied with English plant was started 
 at St. Pierre-les-Calais. 
 
 The production of net in wide lengths being thus 
 brought within the range of mechanical means, imitations 
 of lace were made by hand embroidery upon machine- 
 made net. In 1837 Jacquard invented his apparatus for 
 fancy weaving, and an adaptation of it to the net- 
 weaving machines gave rise to the production of tulles 
 broche's, or flowered nets, which were still closer 
 imitations of hand-made lace. The new manufacture, 
 with its low-price results, speedily developed itself, 
 and became a source of exceptional prosperity to the 
 manufacturers engaged in it at Nottingham, Lyons, and 
 St. Pierre-les-Calais. In a few years St. Pierre, which 
 had been but a small suburb of Calais with 1,000 or 
 1,200 inhabitants, grew into an important centre of 
 manufacture with a population of from 35,000 to 40,000 
 persons. 
 
 Without lamenting over the progress which has 
 taken place in the employment of machinery, and of 
 which this century is so justly proud, we need not; 
 therefore, hold with those who believe that machinery 
 will supplant the hand. 
 
 It would be an obvious loss to art should the making 
 of lace by hand become extinct, for machinery, as 
 skilfully devised as possible, cannot do what the hand 
 does. No doubt, from pretty patterns specially selected 
 for reproduction by the machine, admirable illusions 
 
 21
 
 322 II. LACES. 
 
 are produced to the satisfaction of those who have no 
 care beyond superficial appearances. But these are 
 the results of processes, not the creations of artistic 
 handicraft. Where truth is wanting, art is absent 
 absent where formal calculation pretends to supersede 
 emotion absent, moreover, where no trace can be 
 detected of intelligence guiding handicraft, whose 
 hesitancies even possess peculiar charm. The machine 
 truly supplies cheap substitutes ; but, as M. Didron well 
 expresses it, " cheapness is never commendable in 
 respect of things which are not absolute necessities ; 
 it lowers artistic standard. Lace must inevitably lose 
 the best features of its delight for us, on the day that it 
 ceases to be precious and relatively rare." * 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 THIS century has produced much lace, fashion being 
 favourable to it. Never, probably, has so much been 
 made as within late years, when 300,000 Frenchwomen 
 alone have derived a livelihood from an industry which 
 is one of the best alternatives to agricultural labour. 
 It can be taken up, without damage to the work, at 
 intervals between occupations in the fields. The imple- 
 ments and material, whether for making needlepoint or 
 pillow lace, require little room, and can be stowed away 
 with facility in the humblest of dwellings. The mother 
 works her lace surrounded by her girls, who from their 
 earliest years become instructed in the art. Jules Simon, 
 in his book L'Ouvriere, and all economists interested 
 
 * Didron, Report on the Decorative Arts at the Universal Exhibition 
 oj 1878, p. 190.
 
 FROM LOUIS XV. TO THE PRESENT TIME. 323 
 
 in women's industries, have remarked how consonant 
 the occupations of embroidery and lace-making are with 
 family life. 
 
 We shall be glad if this, our book, in any way 
 contributes towards maintaining the supremacy of lace- 
 making by hand. Our remarks are intended to supply 
 young women with information concerning women's 
 artistic work, and it may perhaps be found useful by 
 others who have an interest in such questions. All 
 possibly may find in it some means for appreciating 
 the difference between styles and periods of lace- 
 making. 
 
 It will be seen that discrimination is necessary to a 
 perception of the really admirable in ancient laces, and 
 that unreflective enthusiasms vented upon old laces, 
 merely because they are old, are in no way evidences 
 of knowledge of and feeling for beauty of design and 
 fine quality of workmanship. Our readers will be wary 
 of being deceived by specimens of detached and incon- 
 gruous bits of lace speciously and tastelessly made up 
 by dealers. 
 
 Whilst, as regards modern lace, the fitness of its use, 
 its special appositeness to certain portions of costume, 
 and the qualities it should possess to be truly beautiful, 
 will reveal themselves through study of the subject. 
 This, too, will enlarge our sympathies with the humble 
 and skilful workwomen who eke out a meagre living 
 with their needles and bobbins. 
 
 A favouring return of general appreciation for hand- 
 made lace and embroidery is observable in the interest 
 with which books on the subject, by artists and savants, 
 are read nowadays. Lace bibliography is becoming
 
 324 
 
 II. LACES. 
 
 very considerable, and is supplemented with the highest 
 advantage by museums of specimens for public inspec- 
 tion, and technical schools for the practice of the 
 handicrafts. 
 
 Under such circumstances it would seem that these 
 branches of contemporary art acquire sufficient vitality 
 for a long and successful career in the future. Machines 
 will respond to demands for large supplies ; connois- 
 seurs, however, will rely upon artistic handwork for 
 what they want. 
 
 Women assuredly have at heart the interests of 
 those artistic productions which come under the 
 title of Embroidery and Lace. Young women who 
 learn to draw and to paint, this book has been 
 written for you above all others ; take your needles, 
 cross your bobbins, and teach yourselves how best your 
 designs may be put into execution ! Study the works 
 of old time, and understand the possibilities of your art ! 
 Our aim has been to help you in this direction, and, 
 like the old authors, to have been of service "to 
 virtuous women and other gentle spirits who feel the 
 want of such arts " as embroidery and lace-making.
 
 LIST OF LACES 
 
 ACCORDING TO THEIR NAMES AND LOCAL ORIGINS. 
 
 Acre (ptmto in), 187, 196, 197, 
 
 199, 214. 
 Alencon, 206, 213, 219, 226, 
 
 228, 238, 241. 
 Alost, 313. 
 America, 318. 
 
 Application, 278, 305, 309, 312. 
 Angleterre (Point d'\ 206, 234, 
 
 277-. 
 
 Antwerp, 297. 
 Argentan, 206, 226, 228, 235 
 
 237, 238, 241. 
 Argentella (ground), 230. 
 Arras, 213. 
 
 Aurillac, 213, 271, 282, 286. 
 Austria, 317. 
 
 Auvergne, 269, 272, 279, 285. 
 Auxerre, 279. 
 
 Bailleul, 294, 319. 
 
 Barcelona, 257, 305. 
 
 Bayeux, 242. 
 
 Binche, 311. 
 
 Bisette, 263, 302. 
 
 Blonde, 302. 
 
 Brabant, 294. 
 
 Bride, 228, 238. 
 
 Bruges, 307. 
 
 Brussels, 206, 233, 309, 312. 
 
 Burano, 232, 246. 
 
 Caen, 299, 319. 
 
 Calais, 321. 
 
 Campane, 269. 
 
 Carrickmacross, 252. 
 
 Ceylon, 318. 
 
 Chantilly, 281, 297, 320. 
 
 Chant (ground or fond ), 298, 
 
 300. 
 
 Cherbourg, 319. 
 Chioggia, 290. 
 Cluny, 284, 285. 
 Colbert (Point), 242, 254. 
 Cork, 253. 
 Courtrai, 319. 
 Craponne, 287. 
 Crochet (Irish), 248, 253. 
 Cutvvork, 174, 176, 1 80. 
 
 Dieppe, 319. 
 Duchesse, 307. 
 
 Enghien, 300. 
 English, 276, 307, 308. 
 Esprit (Point d'), 315. 
 
 Flanders (Flandres), 275, 277, 
 
 35- 
 
 Fleche (la) 279. 
 France (Point de), 213, 223, 
 
 226.
 
 0099(5 
 
 326 
 
 LIST OF LACES. 
 
 Fogliamo (punto a), 199. 
 
 Gaze (Point), 243, 314. 
 
 Genoa, 266, 288. 
 
 Germany, 263, 266, 317. 
 
 Ghent, 293, 313. 
 
 Gisors, 299. 
 
 Grammont, 300. 
 
 Gueuse, 269. 
 
 Guipure, 224, 265, 276, 235, 305. 
 
 Havre, 279. 
 
 Honiton, 305, 307, 318. 
 
 Hungary, 249, 317. 
 
 India, 318. 
 Ireland, 248, 251. 
 
 Japan, 318. 
 Kenmare, 250, 252. 
 
 Lacis, 178, 181, 184, 197. 
 Lille, 297. 
 Limerick, 249, 251. 
 Lorraine (see Mirecourt), 284, 
 
 288. 
 
 Loudun, 279. 
 Louvain, 297. 
 Lyons, 321. 
 
 Madeira, 318. 
 Malta, 288. 
 Mans (le), 279. 
 Marli, 313, 315. 
 Mechlin, 294. 
 Mignonette, 269. 
 Milan, 266, 288. 
 Mirecourt, 284, 285, 318. 
 
 Moscow, 249. 
 
 Neige (Point de), 291, 296. 
 Net (lace on), 308. 
 New Ross, 251. 
 Nottingham, 320. 
 
 Palestrina, 290. 
 
 Paris (Point de\ 280. 
 
 Passement, 264, 284. 
 
 Poperinghe, 293. 
 
 Portugal, 281, 318. 
 
 Puy (le), 271, 284, 286, 318. 
 
 Ouesnoy (le), 213, 279. 
 
 Ragusa, 210. 
 Reims, 213, 279. 
 Reseau, 224, 226, 312, 315. 
 Rose point, 231. 
 Russia, 317, 318. 
 
 Saint Pierre les Calais, 321. 
 Saxony, 266. 
 Sedan, 213, 227. 
 
 Tape lace, 290. 
 
 Threadwork, drawn, 176, 177, 
 
 197. 
 Tulle, 313, 320. 
 
 Valenciennes, 279, 291, 319. 
 Venice, 207, 210, 217, 218, 231, 
 232, 288. 
 
 Yokohama, 318. 
 Youghal, 252. 
 Ypres, 294. 
 
 Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.
 
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