BY THE WAY

Southland Times, Issue 20615, 13 October 1928, Page 13 (Supplement)

BY THE WAY

IDENTIFYING EACES

(By

Rowan.)

It was owing to a deprecatory remark about “imitation” lace that I, in defence of my argument that in these days most of the laces procurable in shops were machine made, set about discovering something about this art which is known to have existed in ecclesiastical circles as early as the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. From the beginning of my inquiries women have told me, not once, but many times, that they “love laces but know nothing about them.” Yes this form of personal decoration has probably never been more popular, nor used more effectively, than it is at present. Ignorance of laces is regrettable, when with a little knowledge and a magnifying glass a great deal of pleasure can be derived from their identification.

If a piece of lace was made prior to 1800, it is hand work; the first fnachine for making lace was invented after that date. By 1825 a fine net was made by machine, and given to girls and women to be darned, they chose charming patterns, darning lace edgings, dresses and veils, amongst other things. Finally, when the machines were perfected, the entire strip, both pattern and ground, was made by machine, with the result that in these days every known type of lace is copied, and as the manufacturers have selected fine old patterns for their Valenciennes (“Vai”) and Mechlin edges, the pattern itself is seldom a help in determining whether the piece is real (handmade) or imitation (machine-made).

The hand-made laces are divided into two general classification needle or point lace, and bobbin or pillow lace. The crochet, knitted and macrame are unimportant types and are easily identified. Filet, which is darned netting, comes under the general heading of needle lace, which, as the name implies, is made with the point of a needle. The design is drawn on parchment (it was the original custom to use real sheep-skin parchment, but now a glazed cardboard Is substituted). An outline thread is couched on to this pattern by taking stitches through the cardboard with a fine needle and thread. These fine stitches serve to hold the lace on to the pattern, and are cut away to detach the finished lace. After the pattern is outlined the worker has a skeleton on which to build her lace, and she proceeds to fill in the solid portion of her design, to make the net or openwork background, or to join the different parts of the pattern with connecting bars, called brides. Then the finished lace is carefully cut from the pattern.

In cut work and reticella, which are older forms of point lace, buttonhole weaving and rolled stitch are employed; but in true point lace just one stitch is used, looped or button-hole stitch. The fact to remember is that no matter how intricate and elaborate a piece of neddlepoint lace may be, the effect has been accomplished by the use of a simple button-hole stitch. There are countless variations, but solid or open, the work is a series of button-hole stitches; so that armed with a magnifying glass even the least experienced should be able to recognise these looped stitches, and thus to identify a piece of lace, not only as handmade, but as needle or point lace. The Italians made the first needlepoint laces, and the French, under Louis XIV. copied them, sometimes excelling their teachers. Later, both the Belgians and the Spanish made quantities of needlepoint lace. The best known Italian points are Rose, Raised Venetian, and Burano. The best known French points are Point de France and Alencon. The Flemish or Belgian point, which is probably the best known of these laces, is Point de Gaze.

The second important division is the bobbin or pillow laces. The pattern, like that of point lace, was originally of sheepskin parchment; now an especially tough cardboard or blue-print paper is used, little holes in the pattern indicating the design. Thread is wound on slender sticks of wood called bobbins, the pattern is pinned on to the pillow, the bobbins with the thread are attached, and the work begins. The threads are woven and twisted, and pins are set in the holes to keep the work in place. Instead of the pillow, bobbins and pins, the hands were used in the early fifteenth century, each finger of a hand serving as a peg. With laces of more importance, and therefore of greater width, the hands of assistants were required. The size and shape of the pillows differ very much in the various lace-making centres, as do # the forms of the bobbins. Modern bobbins are turned in a simple shape, but the old bobbins were often beautifully carved and inlaid and trimmed with beads. The old English bobbins were often love tokens, decorated with hearts, initials, and sentimental designs and lines. Bobbin lace is more generally made than point lace, as it takes less time and skill, and the method adapts itself especially to simple laces, such as Torchon, Cluny and the heavy Italian and Russian edges. The finer types of bobbin lace are Valenciennes (“Vai,”) Mechlin, English thread, Chantilly and various other French laces. The little units, flowers or scrolls, are formed separI ately and then joined by bobbin made bars and brides. English Honiton or Devonshire lace is similar to the more familiar Duchess, a Belgian bobbin-made, but is of much finer workmanship. The pillow lace making was never so strictly confined to geometric designs as point lace making, curved forms, almost at its outset, seeming to have been found easy of execution. The designing of the latter is not constrained by a foundation of any sort; and the plaitings and twistings give the workers a greatter freedom in reproducing designs.

I quote a woman whom I consider an authority on such matters: If the specimen is buttonhole stitch, you may be sure that it is handmade and needlepoint lace. If it is woven, and feels “cottony” and poor, or is starched, it is machine made. If it is supple and the pattern is clear, and the threads seem to carry from the selvedge to the top, it is made by hand on a pillow with bobbins. It is by the mesh, or ground, that one is best able to distinguish between the different kinds of either point or bobbin laces. The Belgian Point de Gaze, for example, has a different mesh from the French Alencon, and the Valenciennes mesh is not like the Mechlin, although both are bobbin laces. These distinctions come later, but for the beginner these points are important: Lace older than 1800 is handmade. Needlepoint laces, no matter where they come from, are made with a needle and thread, and use buttonhole stitch throughout. Bobbin or pillow laces are made on a pillow with bobbins on to which thread has been wound.