THE ROMANCE of LACE

Ladies' Mirror, Volume 2, Issue 8, 1 February 1924, Page 33

THE ROMANCE of LACE

r, O-DAY it is difficult to imagine any time when lace was not known. Whether rich or poor today, everyone may wear —of . some kind, but records show that lace was first known only in the fourteenth century, and the oldest scrap, and it is only a scrap, of lace known was found in a Roman tomb in Ancient Egypt. The Origin of Lace There have been many claims and hot disputes as to which nation should wear the laurels as the originator of lace, but there does not seem to be any doubt but that to Italy belongs this right. A scrap of gold lace was found in a barrow in Wareham in Dorsetshire, and another later in the coffin of St. Cuthbert in Durham Cathedral, but both these are of Italian origin. It has been stated that lace originated in the Far East, but this is not easily believed, because, if so, why in those lands that are so conservative that to-day one may see, made from exactly the same designs, and by the same methods, things that were made centuries ago, is lace conspicuous by its absence? China and Japan have practically no records of lace-making lace we see to-day from these countries has been principally taught in the mission schools of comparatively recent years. In India it is the same, and in Persia a kind of drawn-thread work is known, but no true lace. Why, if Orientals originated lace, did they cease to make it when Europeans began? It seems beyond doubt that it is in the West and not the East that the earliest forms of lace were made. Examples of elaborate netting have been found in Egyptian and Roman tombs. Homer also mentions “veils of net, woven of gold,” and in the Book of Isaiah, reference is made to “They that work in fine flax, and they that weave net work.”

Laws were passed, called Sumptuary Laws, which restricted both the making and wearing- of lace — in spite of this, the industry grew apace. In France, as well as Italy, women worked in secret, and men and women devised means of smuggling to circumvent the law, and the demand increased instead of lessening. A Sumptuary Law issued in the sixteenth century is amusing, the reason given for it being that the general custom of wearing lace was undesirable, as it caused the distinction between high and low to disappear! It seemed to be a case of ‘‘Lace maketh the man or woman”! 1 From then on, the industry struggled in spite of all that could be done to hamper it. It reached the pinnacle of its beauty in the seventeenth century, especially during the reign of Louis XI V. of France. At the very climax of its beauty it began to decline, and at the end of the eighteenth century the art of hand-made lace was practically dead. At the beginning of the seventeenth century lace was being made in England, Ireland and France, different designs reigning “favourite” in turn. Spanish laces were also most popu—especially the beautiful silk blonde laces. A quaint story is told of the origin of bobbin lace: —• “A young fisherman of the Adriatic had a net made for him by Ids betrothed. The first time he used it, the only catch was some strands of grass or white coralline weed. Before he could use it a second time, he was pressed into the service of the Venetian Navy, and his sweetheart was left with the now useless net. While weeping beside it, she wove delicate coralline strands in and out of the net, and played with the small weights attached, twisting and throwing the leads like bobbins. The effect was so unusual that the girl became interested, and followed up her discovery, evolving in time serviceable tools not unlike the bobbins and cushion of to-day.” The story does not say what happened to the lover; we will hope he came back to enjoy her discovery with her.

Materials Used Lace was made in Italy with threads of only gold and silver at first, and consequently was exceedingly costly to both maker and buyer. - The demand, however, for it increased so tremendously fast, and its quality became so varied and wonderful in texture and design, and in spite of the cost such huge prices ere paid for it, that the various authorities in England and France, and even in —the home, of lace —became alarmed, and. tried to stem the rising tide of extravagance in many ways, some of which, in the light of modern liberty of action, appear most amusing. A heavy duty was imposed on all gold and silver threads in 1650. This was counteracted by the discovery of the attractiveness of flax thread for lace making, thus enabling the peasant workers to carry on.

In France, in the early part of the sixteenth century, Catherine de Medici did her best to encourage the wearing of lace from Italy, thinking it would divert attention from the great political and religious unrest then brewing. Exquisite lace was then being made in France and Flanders, and smuggled into England, and when a duty of 20s. per yard was passed on all foreign lace coming into England the Government of Flanders retaliated by prohibiting the importation of English woollen stuffs. This naturally caused such distress amongst the woollen workers that the prohibition had to be withdrawn, and lace grew more popular than ever. Queen Mary’s lace bill for one year was £2,000, and that of her Royal husband £2,500, and it is said that Queen Elizabeth did not care what

she paid or how she got it —so long - as she could indulge her craving for lace. At the end of the seventeenth century, Colbert, the minister of Louis XIV., in establishing the home factories, foresaw the increase to the exchequer which the huge sums hitherto spent on foreign lace would entail, if only French lace could be made to equal the Italian creation. He said, “Fashion should be to France what the mines of Peru were to Spain,” and it came true to the letter. Lace may be thought to be only a simple, graceful, womanish fabric, unlike to affect the affairs of a nation, but it has done much for France. She holds a very different position to-day from that which she held in the days of the seventeenth century, but thanks to Louis’s clever minister she still retains her position as mistress of the wardrobe of the world. The Cause —and its Effect The height of the lace-weaving period was during the reign of Louis XIV., at the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century. In spite of laws, in spite of punishments for smuggling King Louis encouraged the making and wearing of lace, and finally it was the growing discontent of the masses of the French people that effected what Royal edicts could not, and even while still more lace than ever before was being made, and worn by every class of people, when it was impossible to know the burgher from the nobleman, the churchman from the cavalier, the seeds of decay ’were sown and a spirit of reaction and economy grew, which was to culminate in the citizen period and the horrors of the French Revolution at the end of the eighteenth century. During the early part of the eighteenth century religious persecution had caused the scattering of skilled workmen, who fled to England and Flanders and Germany, taking with them their secrets, and the French had to buy lace now from the works they had before practically owned. The workmen and women scattered, and the period of strict simplicity of dress ordered by the leaders of the French Revolution, when to be seen in France wearing lace meant, perhaps, death; the destroying of quantities of exquisite lace . in England by the revenue officers, where, once into the country, £3O, and even £SO, per yard would be willingly paid for it, and the heavy duty on all allowed to pass, all had their part in the scattering and waning of the industry; and so it passed, like a wave that grew in volume to the crest of its height, and —breaking receded, leaving only fragments of foam to mark where it had been. Smuggling Smuggling was rife all through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; many of the plans schemed were clever, but some were most cruel, as, for instance, when lace was being smuggled in the eighteenth century between France and Belgium, and so into England. A dog would be petted and fed in France, and then starved in Belgium, and cruelly illtreated after a time of utter wretchedness, the skin of a larger dog was fitted to its body, and the intervening space filled with costly lace and sewn up, and the dog allowed to escape. He naturally went straight back to his old home in France, and was soon relieved of his contraband burden. Once safely into England and past the revenue officers, lace was easy to dispose of, and great profit was made—sometimes £3O, and even £SO, per yard was paid. To-day there is a strong tendency to revive both the wearing and the making of the hand-made article. Quite a number of English women of wealth are endeavouring to build up a cottage industry. Ireland still has her hand lace workers, but, unfortunately, the best designs have been made use of so much by the Indian Mission workers that it has to a certain extent lost its association. Machine-made lace was first known in the early part of the eighteenth century, when it was invented by a man named Heathcote. We all know the exquisite results that are now obtained by machine, and yet there is a something that the machine-made article will never have. There is an appeal and a charm about the hand-made article that Ruskin has expressed perfectly, and whimsically. “If you think of it, you will find the whole value of lace as a possession depends on the fact of its having a beauty which has been the reward of industry’ and attention, that the thing itself is a price, a thing everybody cannot _ have. That it proves by the look of it the ability of the maker, that it proves by the rarity of it the dignity of its wearer. “The real good of a piece of lace, then, you will find, is that it should show first that the designer of it had a pretty fancy, next that the maker of. it had fine fingers, and lastly that the wearer of it has worthiness or dignity enough to obtain what it is difficult to obtain-—and common-sense enough not. to wear it on all occasions.” ,