LACE, a cobweb background of threads with delicate patterns of flowers, figures and scrolls, also of threads, and used for ruffs, cuffs, collars, caps, scarves, handkerchiefs, cravats and aprons, and to trim articles of clothing, was first made in the 16th century. It reached perfection in the 17th and 18th cen turies and deteriorated after the introduction of machinery. The word comes from lads, meaning braid. The translators of the Bible used the word lace to denote braid. This defini tion survives in the gold and silver lace on uniforms and liveries. What is now called lace was anciently called acut-work," "purls" and "points." It was also known as pcusament or passement; and passement dente!! (from the - French dent, tooth) occurs in the inventory of Henri II of France (1547-1559). Dentelle de Florence, occurring in an inventory of 1545, in troduces the French word for lace — dentelle. The word guipure, applied to all large patterned and coarse laces which have no threads joining pattern to pattern and no delicate net back ground,. was also anciently used for braid. The tape guipures of Italy and France were famous. Before the days of point-lace and pillow-lace people wore gent-work° and "drawn-thread work, also known as reticella, point gotico and needle-point gotico. Its effect s much the same as that of diaphanous lace.
Reticella, or cut-work, originated in the Ionian Islands and spread thence to Italy and throughout Europe. Reticella was made from about 1480 to 1620. handed down for generations, are stiff and geometrical and consist of circles, triangles and wheels, often decorated with tiny, spiky knots. Reticella was largely used for collars and cuffs and to edge ruffs and handkerchiefs. It appears in por traits of the 15th and 16th centuries and in old pattern-books. Lacis, which also antedated filmy lace, was the darned netting, or "spider work," known as filet. It was popular in Italy. One of its names is °Siena Point." The pat tern was darned with the needle upon a plain ground of coarse net. Lacis was made in squares and stripes and then joined. It was much used for household decoration. Catherine
de'Medici had a bed draped with such squares. Lacis was sometimes combined with reticella, as The pattern book of Isabella Catanea Para sole (1616) shows.
Filmy lace appeared in the 16th century and in Italy. Antiquaries have sought in vain for its origin. It was probably an effort to imitate by woven threads the exquisite cut-linen that had reached perfection in Italy. There are but two classes of this diaphanous fabric: one. made with the needle; the other, with bobbins. The first variety is called point-lace, or needle point; and the second, pillow-lace. Point takes its name from the French point (stitch). The French call it point d'aiguille (point of the needle). By extension, "point" has been given to a few laces of high quality to denote their excellence, such as point d'Angleterre, point de Valenciennes, point de Malines and punto di Milano, which are not made with the needle, but are bobbin (or pillow) laces. This produces more confusion regarding the classification of lace, already made difficult by the term pillow lace instead of bobbin lace. As the pillow is also used for making point-lace, the name pil low-lace is misleading; but the classification of point and pillow is, however, too well estab lished to admit of any,,change. The technical words used to describe lace are French. In both point and pillow the groundwork consists of a net of fine threads called riseau; or, in stead of this reseau, slender threads called brides connect the patterns with each other. These brides are sometimes tipped here and there with little spiky knots, called picots. The edge, or border, is often decorated also with these picots. In some laces the background consists of both riseau and brides. The solid part of the design is called toile. In point there is but one kind of stitch,— the old familiar button-hole, or looped; and no matter from what country the lace comes, or how intricate, or how solid its pattern, or how fine its reseau, every stitch is the If brides (.ccur, they are also button-holed over, and if picot ornamentation is used, that, too, is button-holed over.