Lace

Brussels as a court centre, produced the finest fabrics, a type which has a distinguishing feature in the delicate tape-like veining of its scrolls and leaves worked in a raised technique—a technique that was carried into England by Belgian refugees and reproduced in Devonshire Honiton. Brussels lace is worked in sections and the mesh or brides added. Especially fine were the old laces of Binche and Valenciennes, both worked fil continu. Early Valen ciennes is distinguished by its round mesh, 19th century work having a square mesh and a quality less fine, while of special interest is the potte kant (flower pot) type of the Antwerp district. During the World War the Belgian relief made considerable progress in establishing better schools with modern methods, some of which have been continued in the different districts.

Holland.

Dutch portraits of the 17th century record in the lace-edged collars of Van Dyck's subjects, a closely worked pointed lace similar to, but less delicate than the Italian fabric. It is probable, however, that such lace may have been of Flemish rather than Dutch origin. What may be strictly termed Dutch lace is that made by the peasants for their native head-dresses. This in its close texture, reflects all the sturdy characteristics of the Dutch people. The fabric is so closely worked as to have the appearance of linen cloth in which the pattern is barely visible. A typical pattern, however, is an oval flower motive resembling a highly conventionalized chrysanthemum blossom considered by some authorities to have been inspired by the Chinese chrysanthe mums in Oriental porcelains; other patterns for cap-bands are designed with a floral vase between confronted birds, or again, confronted swans. But little is known of the early laces produced in Holland. The Dutch excelled in bobbin lace.

England.

In the opus Anglicanum of the 13th century the art of England's needle-craftsmen had already attained its zenith in the great ecclesiastical embroideries of that period. But de spite this perfected technique, England never excelled in the art of needlepoint lace, and it was to foreigners that she owed the introduction and development of her pillow-lace industry. The first reference to such occupation is that contained in a "Com plaint" made in 1454 in consequence of the importation of six women, probably Flemings, who, it is said, at that time intro duced Netherlandish linen-work and darning into England. Prior to the middle of the i6th century, however, there is little docu mentary evidence of anything other than imported fabrics, gold, silver and thread "lace" having become an article of commerce during the reign of Henry VII.

The earliest record of "laced linen" occurs in an inventory of 1519 which mentions Holland linen and a yard of lace. In the portraits of the wives of Henry VIII. the caps are edged with simple purles except in the case of Anne of Cleves, whose head dress shows a band of lettered drawn-work designed in the style of the libertas piece in the pattern book of Vavassore (1532). During this reign while cutwork and reticello decorated the robes and vestments of church dignitaries, it did not yet appear in feminine attire. In Queen Mary Tudor's time (1553-58), how ever, the use of gold and silver lace and cutworks in costume had attained sufficient popularity to warrant a sumptuary law for bidding foreign cutworks to anyone under the degree of baron, while to a woman of a station beneath a knight's wife it was en tirely prohibited. Throughout this early period lace was variously described as purle, passemayne or "bone work," the latter refer ring to bobbin or pillow-made lace.

The establishment of England's lace industry owes its inception to the influx of continental refugees that poured into the country during the third quarter of the 16th century which occurred at three different times :—( ) 1563. Netherlandish Protestants flee ing from the terrors of the Spanish Inquisition. Among these were many "parchment lace" makers who settled along the coast of Kent. (2) 1568. A second group from the Mechlin lace district settled in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. (3) 1572. A third group of French refugees who emigrated to England at the time of the slaughter of the Huguenots.

Thus at the time of the accession of Queen Elizabeth, while England was well supplied with lace-makers, foreign markets were still supplying the court with Genoese gold and silver edgings and simple Netherlandish bobbin laces such as were needed for the elaborate neck-ruffs, aprons and recently introduced hand kerchiefs demanded by the current mode. In the midland counties and Devon, however, these foreign-born lace-workers were lay ing the foundations of a thriving industry for future generations. The geometric or reticello type of the Elizabethan period con tinued well into the reign of James I. ; but with Charles I. the early i 7th century mode that demanded elaborated points in lace patterns was established, a mode that gave way toward the middle of the century to broad, rounded scallops which gradually changed to a straight-edged variety in the latter part of the cen tury. This century also witnessed the development of the foli ated scroll in lace design following Venetian models.