Pfri.ow LACE. The invention of pillow lace has been (•:11111Cd for Barbara Uttmann, who lived at Saint Annaberg, Saxony, about the middle of the sixteenth century. Whether she invented or merely introduced the art can not now he proved; hut certain it is that it soon became established in Saxony. and spread thence to the Netherlands and France. Pillow lace. sometimes called cushion or bobbin lace, is so called from the pillow or cushion being used to work the pattern upon, and the various threads of which the figures are made up each being wound upon a bobbin, usually of an ornamental •haracte•. to distinguish one from the other. The pattern on parchment or paper being at tached to the pii/ow or cushion, pins are stuck in at regular intervals in the lines of the pat tern, and the threads of the bobbins are twisted or plaited round them so as to form the net work arrangement which is characteristic of this class of lace, the patterns or figured portions being worked out by a crossing of threads, which, although actually plaiting, gives the effect of weaving. As many as 1200 bobbins are required for the more elaborate patterns. :Many pillow lace patterns are made in strips, and are cleverly united by a stitch called point de raecroc, which consists in finishing off the two outer parallel edges of a strip with a series of half instead of whole meshes, which are subsequently united in a way that defies detection.
The name passement was given to the earliest bobbin laces. Being cheaper and simpler than the point lace, they at once became popular with those wino could not afford the latter. Gradu ally, however, wider and more elaborate pillow laces were made.
In 176S the manufacture of machine net or tulle was started at Nottingham, England, and from that time it became common to sew patterns or figures of pillow lace upon a machine-made or tulle background. This machine-made net (known as 'bobbin net') marked beginning of the In a nu fact u re of machine-made lace, which has worked a complete revolution in the lace trade, so that the prices formerly obtained for hand made lace can no longer be commanded. The lace machine, or frame, is so complicated that it would be hopeless to convey any really intelli gible appreciation of it without a voluminous description of all its parts. One or two points of chief importance may, however, remove any difficulty in understanding its general principles. First, then, as in the loom (see Loom), there is a series of warp threads, placed. however, per pendicularly instead of horizontally, and not so close as in ordinary weaving. Behind these threads, and corresponding to the interspaees, is a row of ingeniously constructed flat bobbins or reels resting in an arrangement called a comb bar or bolt-bar. These are so placed that, with the first• movement of the machine, each bobbin, which carries its thread with it, passes through two of the parallel and perpendicular threads of the warp, and is lodged in another and similar bolt-bar in front of the warp. But this front holt-bar. besides an advancing and receding mo tion, has another movement, called shooing— from right to left. When it receives a bobbin by its forward motion it draws back, bringing the bobbin and thread through two of the up right throads: it then shops or moves to one side, and goes forward again, taking the thread through the next two warp threads, and lodging the bobbin on the back bolt-bar again, one dis tance beyond its last space: this it recovers by the next movement, and it again passes through the first space. to be again received by the front holt-bar. By these movements the bobbin thread is twisted quite round one upright thread of the warp: another movement then shifts the bobbin, so that it will pass through the next pair of up right threads, and so carry on its work, the warp threads moving at the same time, unwind ing from the lower beam and being rolled on the upper one. There are twice as many bobbins as there are threads in the warp. each bolt-bar hay ing a set which it exchanges with the other, and all being regulated with great nicety. The varia tions upon these operations. which apply only to bobbin net, all depend upon the variations which can be given to the movements of the flat, disk like bobbins.
The application of Jacquard's apparatus for patte•n-weaving to lace, in 1837, made possible the production of tulle broehe or flowered nets.
and since that time the process of reproducing the patterns of hand-made lace by machinery, as well as of making new designs, has been ex tensively developed. Nevertheless. there is no danger that the production of maehine-made lace will efface the demand for the hand-made prod yet, any more than that. of process engraving will supersede the work of the artist.
The following list contains the names and a brief description of some of the most important kinds of point. and pillow laces: A lencon. a needle-point lace first made, in the seventeenth century at Aleneon, France. sometimes called the queen of laces. It is characterized by a reseau of hexagonal mesh and the eordonnet, stiffened with horsehair Arycntan is similar to the point d'Alencon, but the design is of a larger, holder pattern, and the brides are twisted. Bay eux, modern bobbin lace, made at Bayeux, Nor mandy, in imitation of rose point and other old patterns. It is often made in large pieces for shawls, hellos, etc. Monde, originally made of unbleached silk, from which it derived its name, hut now made only of white or black silk, and in large flowery patterns. It is a favorite with the the mantilla or national headdress being made of this lace. Bisettc, a coarse and simple lace made by French peasants, and of little value. Bride, ground composed wholly of bars or brides without any reseal' or network. Brussels (see BRUSSELS LACE). Chantilly, a silk lace, either black or white, the older pat terns of which are vases and baskets of flowers similar to the Chantilly pottery. The material used in weaving these laces is a silk called grenadine d'Alais, which is so spun that it is lustreless and looks like black flax. Cluny, a purely fanciful name adopted from the Musee de Cluny, where examples of ancient lace are preserved. This is a pillow lace made chiefly by the peasant women of Le Puy, France. Dtl chesse, a variety of pillow lace originally made in Belgium, containing raised work somewhat. similar to that in Honiton lace. English or point d'ingleterre, a pillow lace much admired. during the eighteenth century. It was probably a Brussels lace smuggled into England by mer chants, and given an English name to evade the sumptuary edicts which in 16I12 were issued by Parliament to check the enormous slims spent on foreign lace and to encourage the home prod uct. Lace of equal fineness, however, could not be produced in England, on account of the in ferior quality of English flax. The term gui pure was originally applied to a lace in which a eordonnet was composed of a stout cord whipped around with finer threads, and in this sense is applied to the trimming gimps of the present day. Gradually, however, the name is extended to all laces in which the patterns are connected by brides or ties instead of being on a network or re'seau, and still later for all laces in which the grounds were very large, with ir regular openings. Boniton, a pillow lace made at IToniton, in Devonshire, England. The pat terns. consisting of sprays or flowers, are made separately and then bound together with brides or seemed to a net background. ifech/in, a light, filmy pillow lace, a distinguishing feature of which is the fine, bright thread which out lines all the ornamental shapes in it. The r6seau is a hexagonal mesh. Yottingham, a general name for machine-made lace. from Nottingham, England. where :t was first made. Spanish, a modern black silk lace with a flowered pattern, mostly of Flemish make. Tor(-hofi, a bobbin lace made of soft and loosely twisted but stout linen thread: an imitation of it is largely made by machine. Valenciennes, a bobbin lace with a square or diamond reseal", and the same kind of thread throughout the pattern and ground. It is admirably suited for washable fabrics, and as such has always been a favorite.
Consult: Lefi•ire. Embroidery unit' Lace, trans lated from the French by Alan S. Cole (London, 1:881: Cole. _I neient Yredle-Point and Pillow home (London. 1S75) : id., Cantor Lectures on the Art of Lace-Making (London. ISS1) : id., Deseriplire Catalogue of the Collection of Lace in the South Kensington Museum (London, BSI) ; supplements to above (1891 and 1895) ; id. (editor), Hand-Jlade Laces (London, 1890) ; Palliser, History of Lace (New York, 1902).