Bible Encyclopedias
Lace

Needlepoint Lace

The way in which the early Venetian " punto in aria " was made corresponds with that in which needlepoint lace is now worked. The pattern is first drawn upon a piece of parchment. The parchment is then stitched to two pieces of linen. Upon the leading lines drawn on the parchment a thread is laid, and fastened through to the parchment and linen by means of stitches, thus constructing a skeleton thread pattern (see lef t hand part of fig. 30). Those portions which are to be represented as the " clothing " or toile are usually worked as indicated in the en larged diagram (fig. 29), FIG. 28. FIG. 29.

and then edged as a rule with buttonhole stitching (fig. 28). Between these toile portions of the pattern are worked ties (brides) or meshes (reseaux), and thus the various parts united into one fabric are wrought on to the face of the parchment pattern and reproducing it '(see' right-hand part of fig. 30). A knife is XVI. 2 a passed between the two pieces of linen at the back of the parchment, cutting the stitches which have passed through the parchment and linen, and so releasing the lace itself from its pattern parchment. In the earlier stages, the lace was made in lengths to serve as insertions (passements) and also in vandykes (dentelles) FIG. 30. - Parchment Pattern showing work in progress: the more complete lace is on the right half of the pattern.

to serve as edgings. Later on insertions and vandykes were made in one piece. All of such were at first of a geometric style of pattern (Pl. II. figs. 3-5 and 6).

Following closely upon them came the freer style of design already mentioned, without and then with links or ties - brides - interspersed between the various details of the patterns (Pl. II. fig. 7), which were of flat tapelike texture. In elaborate specimens of this flat point lace some lace workers occasionally used gold thread with the white thread. These flat laces (" Punto in Aria ") are also called " flat Venetian point." About 1640 " rose (raised) point " laces began to be made (Pl. III. fig. 12). They were done in relief and those of bold design with stronger reliefs are called " gros point de Venise." Lace of this latter class was used for altar cloths, flounces, jabots or neckcloths which hung beneath the chin over the breast (Pl. III. fig. 11), as well as for trimming the turned-over tops of jack boots. Tabliers and ladies' aprons were also made of such lace. In these no regular ground was introduced. All sorts of minute embellishments, like little knots, stars and loops or picots, were worked on to the irregularly arranged brides or ties holding the main patterns together, and the more dainty of these raised laces (Pl. IV. fig. 17) exemplify the most subtle uses to which the buttonhole stitch appears capable of being put in making ornaments. But about r660 came laces with brides or ties arranged in a honeycomb reticulation or regular ground. To them succeeded lace in which the compact relief gave place to daintier and lighter material combined with a ground of meshes or reseau. The needle-made meshes were sometimes of single and sometimes of double threads. A diagram is given of an ordinary method of making such meshes (fig. 31). At the end of the 17th century the lightest of the Venetian needlepoint laces were made; and this class which was of the filmiest texture is usually known as " point de Venise a reseau " (Pl. V. fig. 20a). It was contemporary with the needle-made French laces of Alencon and Argentan 1 that became famous towards the latter part of the 17th century (Pl. V. fig. 20b). " Point d'Argentan " has been thought to be especially distinguished on account of its delicate honeycomb ground of hexagonally arranged brides (fig. 32), a peculiarity already referred to in certain antecedent Venetian point laces. Often intermixed with this hexagonal brides ground is the finemeshed ground or reseau (fig. 20b), which has been held to be distinctive of " point d'Alencon." But the styles of patterns and the methods of working them, with rich variety of insertions or modes, with the brode or cordonnet of raised buttonhole stitched edging, are alike in Argentan and Alencon needle-made laces (Pl. V. fig. 20b and fig. 32). Besides the hexagonal brides 1 After 1650 the lace-workers at Alencon and its neighbourhood produced work of a daintier kind than that which was being made by the Venetians. As a rule the hexagonal bride grounds of Alencon laces are smaller than similar details in Venetian laces. The average size of a diagonal taken from angle to angle in an Alencon (or socalled Argentan) hexagon was about one-sixth of an inch, and each side of the hexagon was about one-tenth of an inch. An idea of the minuteness of the work can be formed from the fact that a side of a hexagon would be overcast with some nine or ten buttonhole stitches.

ground and the ground of meshes another variety of grounding (reseau rosace) was used in certain Alencon designs. This ground consisted of buttonhole-stitched skeleton hexagons within each of which was worked a small hexagon of toile connected with the outer surrounding hexagon by means of six little ties or brides (Pl. V. fig. 21). Lace with this particular ground has been called " Argentella," and some writers have thought that it was a specialty of Genoese or Venetian work. But the character of the work and the style of the floral patterns are those of Alencon laces. The industry at Argentan was virtually an offshoot of that nurtured at Alencon, where " lacis," " cut work " and " velin " (work on parchment) had been made for years before the well-developed needle-made " point d'Alencon " came into vogue under the favouring patronage of the stateaided lace company mentioned as having been formed in 1665.

FIG. 32. - Border of Needlepoint Lace made in France about 1 74 0 - 1 75 0, the clear hexagonal mesh ground, which is compactly stitched, being usually regarded as characteristic of the point de France made at Argentan.

Madame Despierre in her Histoire du point d'Alencon gives an interesting and trustworthy account of the industry.

In Belgium, Brussels has acquired some celebrity for needlemade laces. These, however, are chiefly in imitation of those made at Alencon, but the toile is of less compact texture and sharpness in definition of pattern. Brussels needlepoint lace is often worked with meshed grounds made on a pillow, and a plain FIG. 33. - Shirt decorated with Insertions of Flat Needlepoint Lace. (English, 17th century. Victoria and Albert Museum.) thread is used as a cordonnet for their patterns instead of a thread overcast with buttonhole stitches as in the French needlepoint laces. Note the bright sharp outline to the various ornamental details in Pl. V. fig. 20b.

Needlepoint lace has also been occasionally produced in FIG. 31.

FIG: 18. - Charles Gaspard Guillalme De Vintimille, Wearing Lace Similar In Style Of Design Shown In Fig. Iq. About 1730.

FIG Iq. - Portion Of` Flounce, Needlepoint Lace Copied At The Burano Lace School From The Original Of The So-Called " Point De Venise A Brides Picotees." 17th century. Formerly belonging to Pope Clement XIII., but now the property of the queen of Italy. The design and work, however, are indistinguishable from those of important flounces of Point de France." The pattern consists of repetitions of two vertically-arranged groups of fantastic pine-apples and vases with flowers, intermixed with bold rococo bands, and large leaf devices. The hexagonal meshes of the ground, although similar to the Venetian " brides picotees," are much akin to the button-hole stitched ground of "Point d'Argentan." (Victoria and Albert Museum.) XVI. 42.

A FIG. 20. B A. - A Lappet Of " Point De Venise A Reseau." The conventional character of the pseudo-leaf and floral forms contrasts with that of the realistic designs of contemporary French laces. Italian. Early 18th century.

B

A Lappet Of Fine " Point D'Alencon." Louis XV. period. The variety of the fillings of geometric design is particularly remarkable in this specimen, as is the button-hole stitched cordonnat or outline to the various ornamental forms.

FIG. 21. - Border Of French Needlepoint Lace, With Ground Of " Reseau Rosace." 18th century.

England. Whilst the character of its design in the early 17th century was rather more primitive, as a rule, than that of the contemporary Italian, the method of its workmanship is virtually the same and an interesting specimen of English needle-made lace inset into an early 17th-century shirt is illustrated in fig. 33. Specimens of needle-made work done by English school children may be met with in samplers of the 17th and 18th centuries. Needlepoint lace is successfully made at Youghal, Kenmare and New Ross in Ireland, where of late years attention has been given to the study of designs for it. The lace-making school at Burano near Venice produces hand-made laces which are, to a great extent, careful reproductions of the more celebrated classes of point laces, such as " punto in aria," " rose point de Venise," " point de Venise a reseau," " point d'Alencon," " point d'Argentan " and others. Some good needlepoint lace is made in Bohemia and elsewhere in the Austrian empire.

Pillow-made Lace. - Pillow-made lace is built upon no substructure corresponding with a skeleton thread pattern such as is used for needlepoint lace, but is the representation of a pattern obtained by twisting and plaiting threads.

These patterns were never so strictly geometric in style as those adopted for the earliest point lace making from the antecedent cut linen and drawn thread embroideries. Curved forms, almost at the outset of pillow lace, seem to have been found easy of execution (see lower border, Pl. II. fig. 3); its texture was more lissom and less crisp and wiry in appearance than that of contemporary needle-made lace. The early twisted and plaited thread laces, which had the appearance of small cords merging into one another, were soon succeeded by laces of similar make but with flattened and broader lines more like fine braids or tapes (Pl. I. fig. 2, and Pl. III. fig. 10). But pillow laces of this tapey character must not be confused with laces in which actual tape or braid is used. That peculiar class of lace-work does not arise until after the beginning of the 17th century when the weaving of tape is said to have commenced in Flanders. In England this sort of tape-lace dates no farther back than 1747, when two Dutchmen named Lanfort were invited by an English firm to set up tape looms in Manchester.

The process by which lace is made on the pillow is roughly and briefly as follows. A pattern is first drawn upon a piece of paper or parchment. It is then pricked with holes by a skilled " pattern pricker," who determines where the principal pins shall be stuck for guiding the threads. This pricked pattern is then fastened to the pillow. The pillow or cushion varies in shape in different countries. Some lace-makers use a circular pad, backed with a flat board, in order that it may be placed upon a table and easily moved. Other lace-workers use a well-stuffed round pillow or short bolster, flattened at the two ends, so that they may hold it conveniently on their laps. From the upper part of pillow with the pattern fastened on it hang the threads from the bobbins. The bobbin threads thus hang across the pattern. Fig. 34 shows the commencement, for instance, of a double set of three-thread plaitings. The compact portion in a pillow lace has a woven appearance (fig. 35).

About the middle of the 17th century pillow lace of formal scroll patterns somewhat in imitaFIG. 35. tion of those for point lace was made, chiefly in Flanders. The earlier of these had grounds of ties or brides and was often called " point de Flandres " (Pl. IV. fig. 14) in contradistinction to scroll patterns with a mesh ground, which were called "point d'Angleterre" (Pl. IV. fig. 16). Into Spain and France much lace from Venice and Flanders was imported as well as into England, where from the r6th century the manufacture of the simple pattern " bone lace " by peasants in the midland and southern counties was still being carried on. In Charles II.'s time its manufacture was threatened with extinction by the preference given to the more artistic and finer Flemish laces. The importation of the latter was accordingly prohibited. Dealers in Flemish lace sought to evade the prohibitions by calling certain of their laces " point d'Angleterre," FIG. 36. - Border of English Pillow-made (Devonshire) Lace in the style of a Brussels design of the middle of the 18th century.

and smuggling them into England. But smuggling was made so difficult that English dealers were glad to obtain the services of Flemish lace-makers and to induce them to settle in England. It is from some such cause that the better 17thand 18th-century FIG. 37. - Border of English (Bucks. or Beds.) Pillow-made Lace in the style of a Mechlin design of the latter part of the 18th century.

English pillow laces bear resemblance to pillow laces of Brussels, of Mechlin and of Valenciennes.

As skill in the European lace-making developed soon after the middle of the 17th century, patterns and particular plaitings FIG. 38. - Border of Pillow-made Lace, Mechlin, from a design similar to such as was used for point d'Alencon of the Louis XV. period.

came to be identified with certain localities. Mechlin, for instance, enjoyed a high reputation for her productions. The chief technical features of this pillow lace lie in the plaiting of the meshes, and the outlining of the clothing or toile with a thread cordonnet. The ordinary Mechlin mesh is hexagonal' in shape. Four of the sides are of double twisted threads, two are of four threads plaited three times (fig. 39).

In Brussels pillow lace, which has greater variety of design, the mesh is also hexagonal; but in contrast with the Mechlin mesh whilst four of its sides are of double-twisted threads the other two are of four threads plaited four times (fig. 41). The finer specimens of Brussels FIG. 39. - Mechlin lace are remarkable for the fidelity and Mesh.

grace with which the botanical forms in many of its patterns are rendered (Pl. VI. fig. 23). These are mainly reproductions or adaptations of designs for point d'Alencon, and the soft quality imparted to them in the texture of pillow-made lace contrasts with the harder and more crisp appearance in needlepoint FIG. 34. - Diagram showing six Bobbins in use.

lace. An example of dainty Brussels pillow lace is given in fig. 42. In the Brussels pillow lace a delicate modelling effect FIG. 40. - Border of Pillow-main 1,ace, Mechlin, end of the 18th century.

is often imparted to the close textures of the flowers by means of pressing them with a bone instrument which gives concave shapes to petals and leaves, the edges of which consist in part of slightly raised cordonnet of compact plaited work.

Honiton pillow lace resembles Brussels L lace, but in most of the English pillow laces (Devonshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire) the reseau is of a simple character (fig. 43). As a rule, English lace is made with a rather coarser thread than that used in the older Flemish laces. In real Flemish Valenciennes lace there are no twisted sides to the mesh; all are closely plaited (fig. 44) and as a rule the shape of the mesh is diamond but without the openings as FIG. 41. - Enlargement shown in fig. 44. No outline or cordonnet of Brussels Mesh. to define the pattern is used in Valenciennes lace (see fig. 45). Much lace of the Valenciennes type (fig. 54) is made at Ypres. Besides these distinctive classes of pillow-like laces, there are others in which equal care in plait FIG. 42. - Portion of a VV edding Veil, 7 ft. 6 in. X6 ft. 6 in., of Pillow-made Lace, Brussels, late 18th century. The design consists of light leafy garlands of orange blossoms and other flowers daintily festooned. Little feathery spirals and stars are powdered over the ground, which is of Brussels vrai re'seau. In the centre upon a more open ground of pillow-made hexagonal brides is a group of two birds, one flying towards the other which appears ready to take wing from its nest; an oval frame containing two hearts pierced by an arrow, and a hymeneal torch. Throughout this veil is a profusion of pillow renderings of various modes, the reseau rosace, star devices, &c. The ornamental devices are partly applied and partly worked into the ground (Victoria and Albert Museum).

ing and twisting threads is displayed, though the character of the design is comparatively simple, as for instance in ordinary pillow laces from Italy, from the Auvergne, from Buckinghamshire, or rude and primitive as in laces from Crete, southern Spain and Russia. Pillow lace-making in Crete is now said to be extinct. The laces were made chiefly of silk. The FIG. 44.

patterns in many specimens are outlined with one, two or three bright-coloured silken threads. Uniformity in simple character of design may also be observed in many Italian, Spanish, Bohemian, Swedish and Russian pillow laces (see the lower edge of fig. 46).

Guipure

This name is often applied to needlepoint and pillow laces in which the ground consists of ties or brides, but it more properly designates a kind of lace or " passementerie," made with gimp of fine wires whipped 7; round with silk, and with cotton thread. An earlier kind of gimp was formed with " Cartisane," a little strip of thin parchment or vellum covered with silk, gold or silver thread. These stiff gimp threads, formed into a pattern, were. held together by stitches worked with the needle. Gold and silver thread laces have been usually made on the pillow, though gold thread has been used with fine effect in 17th-century Italian needlepoint laces.

Machine-made Lace

We have already seen that a technical peculiarity in making needlepoint lace is that a single thread and needle are alone used to form the pattern, and that the buttonhole stitch and other loopings which can be worked by means of a needle and thread mark a distinction between lace made in this manner and lace made on the pillow. For the process of pillow lace making a series of threads are in constant employment, plaited and twisted the one with another. A buttonhole stitch is not producible by it. The Leavers lace machine does not make either a buttonhole stitch or a plait. An essential principle of this machine-made work is that the threads are twisted together as in stocking net. The Leavers lace machine is that generally in use at Nottingham and Calais. French ingenuity has developed improvements in this machine whereby laces of delicate thread are made; but as fast as France makes an improvement England follows with another, and both countries virtually maintain an equal position in this branch of industry. The number of threads brought into operation in a Leavers machine is regulated by the pattern to be produced, the threads being of two sorts, beam or warp threads FIG. 43.

FIG. 45. - Lappet of delicate Pillow-made Lace, Valenciennes, about 1750. The peculiarity of Valenciennes lace is the filmy cambric-like texture and the absence of any cordonnet to define the separate parts of the ornament such as is used in needlepoint lace of Alencon, and in pillow Mechlin and Brussels lace.

and bobbin or weft threads. Upwards of 8880 are sometimes used, sixty pieces of lace being made simultaneously, each piece requiring 148 threads - ioo beam threads and 48 bobbin threads. The ends of both sets of threads are fixed to a cylinder upon which as the manufacture proceeds the lace becomes wound.

? W1',1 i ;Fii;i;iiiii'i.;',vi? ?r,i;,r,' iii;i'.i;i;?'rrki:i;i;?i?i%i?;i.??'iii?i,:;l:?i.i'?,. ' ',.,_.. ,;!. .,,? i?i;wiiiv FIG. 46. - Border to a Cloth. The wide part bearing the doubleheaded eagle of Russia is of drawn thread embroidery: the scalloped edging is of Russian pillow-made lace, though the style of its pattern is often seen in pillow laces made by peasants in Danubian provinces as well as in the south of Spain.' The supply of the beam or warp threads is held..upon reels, and that of the bobbins or weft threads is held in bobbins. The beam or warp thread reels are arranged in frames or trays beneath the stage, above which and between it and the cylinder the twisting of the bobbin or weft with beam or warp threads takes place. The bobbins containing the bobbin or t 4 weft threads are flattened in shape so as to pass conveniently between the stretched beam or warp threads. Each bobbin can contain about 120 yds. of thread. By most ingenious mechanism varying degrees of tension can be imparted to warp and weft threads as required. As the bobbins or weft threads pass like pendulums between the warp threads the latter are made to oscillate, thus causing them to become twisted with the bobbin threads. As the twistings take place, combs passing through both warp and weft threads compress the twistings. Thus the texture of the clothing or Mile in machine - made lace may generally be detected by its ribbed appearance, due to the compressed twisted threads. Figs. 47 and 48 are intended to show effects obtained by varying the tensions of weft and warp threads. For instance, if the weft, as threads b, b, b, b in fig. 47, be tight and the warp thread slack, the warp thread a will be twisted upon the weft threads. But if the warp thread a be tight and the weft threads b, b, b, b, be slack, as in fig. 48, then the weft threads will be twisted on the warp thread. At the same time FIG. 49. - Section of Lace Machine.

the twisting in both these:cases arises - from - the conjunction of movements given to the two sets of threads, namely, an oscillation or movement from side to side of the beam or warp threads, and the swinging or pendulum-like movement of the bobbin or weft threads between the warp threads. Fig. 49 is a diagram of a sectional elevation of a lace machine representing its more essential parts. E is the cylinder or beam upon which the lace is rolled as made, and upon which the ends of both warp and weft threads are fastened at starting. Beneath are w, w, w, a series of trays or beams, one above the other, containing the reels of the supplies of warp threads; c, c represent the slide bars for the passage of the bobbin b with its thread from k to k, the landing bars, one on each side of the rank of warp threads; s, t are the combs which take it in turns to press together the twistings as they are made. The combs come away clear from the threads as soon as they have pressed them together and fall into positions ready iiiiiiililifFi?iti '