ENGLISH LACE MAKING.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 160, 8 July 1922, Page 24

ENGLISH LACE MAKING.

Apropos <>f an exhibition of English 1, ind-madc lace recently held by the \r--i and Craft* Circle of the Auckland Women's Club, an interesting letter con-

ccrninjs the- revival of this ancient art in England has just been received iroir Mrs. H. Armstrong, who has charge o: the Bucks Cottage Workers' Agency at Olnev.

'■English pillow lace is all made by tile villagers in their own homos," writes Mr-. Armstrong "The origin of lacemiking dates back to the time of Queen Catherine of Aragon, who. according tc tradition, taught the art to the wouicr :it Ampihill, and who. during a spell of dull trade, burnt all her lace, so that Hi w i'a,| to be given and a genera! revival of the industry took place. Some time after her death, the Flemish refugee? who landed on English shores and brought with them their pillows sne linl-Hins, introduced the brnutiful curlint, waved designs of Upper Flanders, which; Btil) remain the special feature of Buck- , iniiham laces. people settled in Great Marlow. Bedfordshire, Cambridge shire, and Northamptonshire, and the in j dustry grew and flourished, till at th* j end of the ISth century there were 80C| lace-makers out of a populition of 1200 in the village of Hanslope alone. I

Times alter, however, and through one cause or another lace-making lan piished again. >lon grew less decora tive in outward appearance, changes of fashion set in, and machine-made la<-f began to be popular. All this, together with foreign competition, brought lace making to a very low ebb. Fortunately ho-wever, the art never entirely died out the travelling lace-buyer keeping v; ■what little demand there was.' If an; , ■worker sold to a rival burer, no fresh orders were given to hex —a mctho : ■which served to keep the lace-makev together and their work to maximur quality. This proved a great lielp to thi Bucks Cottage Workers' Agency an , other associations, which recently se . themselves to encourage and revive thi lace-making industry by finding a largo; and more extensive market for the ■wor'.-v and by organising the sales, in a wa; that should eliminate the exeessivr profits of the middleman.

"As a result, the various association j have succeeded in rescuing a self-sup-porting and dainty industry from threat ened extinction. There are to-day scattered among the various rural villages of Bucks, Beds ana Northants, ove a thousand lace-makers, bending ove their pillows -with bundles of bobbin hanging from innumerable pins. In thei spare moments they instruct their chil dien in the twisting and twining of thbobbins and the pulling out and adding of ping, which is the art of laee-makinc | If the hands are not early formed to I the habit of the bobbins, swiftness ancf consequent liigh earning power are never acquired. In many a cottage in thes" rural districts, where the men's wage; are so low, the lace pillow is the principal source nf income, and helps tide! over many bad times. It is proof of the excellence of the threads used in making these laces that they outwear the linen many times, the threads being specially manufactured for use on the bobbin. There are three varieties of lace ninde— torchon, -which is usually made of liuon thread and specially adapted for underwear; made of lace-thread, sillc or cotton: which can be pat to any use; and point ground, the finest pillow lace made, and a kind of Sue net, which with duo care wears for generations, specimens being handed down as heirlooms. The average time for a worker at her pillow is eight hours daily, but an energetic worker will put in ten hours. Pillow lace is one of t!ie very few handwork industries which dees not ruin the eyesight. J2ven old, old women may be seen sitting at their cottage doors, their cunning, old fingere busily forming on the cushion the patterns of their youth. The workers, however, ar? very keen on fol lowing the trend of fashion, and are always evolving new and charming desisns."