Chats on Old Lace and Needlework Part 9

(_S.K.M. Collection._)]

This little protest is made in the hope that the "Lords of the Committee" may possibly have their attention drawn to what amongst the lace-lovers and students in this country is a "standing grievance."

It is almost impossible, even from the best of photographic ill.u.s.trations, to learn all the intricacies of identification. The photographs clearly show style, but it needs specimens of the actual lace to show method of working. From the ill.u.s.trations in this book, specially selected from the South Kensington Collection, and from specimens in my own collection, every variety of style may be easily understood, as they have been particularly selected to show each point of difference. Commencing with the earliest form of lacework--_i.e._, "cutworke"--nothing will better show this than the "Sampler" specimen, which, half way down, shows two rows entirely typical of this kind of early lace-making--for such it is. A little lower, examples of drawn threadwork are seen, while the upper portion ill.u.s.trates satin st.i.tch patterns, which more properly belong to embroidery.

The ancient collar from the South Kensington Collection, page 149, shows some of the finest developments of cutwork, when the foundation of linen was entirely dispensed with. The work is exceedingly fine, the threads being no coa.r.s.er, indeed in many cases less so, than the fine linen it adorns. This is known as Reticella, or "punto in aria." The last name is applicable to all the laces of Venice which succeeded Reticella, and means lace literally made out of nothing or without any building foundation.

The specimen is still of the same cla.s.s, but where before the design was simple geometric square and pointed as in all the early lace, it now takes on the lovely flowing scroll of the Renaissance that marks the latter half of the seventeenth century.

The same grand styles may be noted all through the great period of Italian Needlepoint lace. It will be seen in a lesser degree in the Guipure laces of Milan and Genoa, but here the cramping influence of the Flemish school shows itself distinctly.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ITALIAN ECCLESIASTICAL LACE.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FLEMISH OR GENOESE ECCLESIASTICAL LACE.

(_S.K.M. Collection._)]

The same bold lines may be noted in the early Needlepoint lace of France, which had not then become sufficiently sure of her capacity to develop a style of her own, and all show the Renaissance spirit.

Afterwards when the superb Point de France was at its height of manufacture along with grand outline and exquisite handicraft, the influence of the mighty monarch Louis XIV. a.s.serted itself and although the lace itself commands unbounded admiration, fantastic little notions, symbolical and naturalistic, showed itself--as an ill.u.s.tration page 75: little figures representing "the Indian," "canopied crown over a sealed lady," trees growing all manner of bizarre fruit and flowers, all symbolical of Louis the Magnificent's unbounded power and sway. In the South Kensington Museum there is a still finer specimen, which has not yet been photographed, I believe--a magnificent flounce, about eighteen inches wide (really two boot top pieces joined), of what is known as pseudo-Oriental character, which shows amongst the usual exquisite scrolling no less than seven different figures on each piece--viz., an Indian, a violinist in dress of Louis XIV. period, a lady riding on a bird, two other ladies, one with a pet dog and the other a parrot, a lady violinist, and another lady seated before a toilet-table. These little figures are not more than three-quarters of an inch high, but are worked with such minuteness that even the tiny features are shown. This fantastic adoption of the human figure was copied in Italy and Flanders. The finest specimens of Point d'Angleterre (Brussels) show the same designs; and it may broadly be stated that all lace with figures is of the Louis XIV. period, and over two hundred years old.

Succeeding this period came the dainty elegance of the French laces, when the workers of Alencon and Argentan had developed a purely French style. Note the Point d'Alencon, ill.u.s.tration page 83, where the characteristics of the period are fully shown. The ill.u.s.tration shows a mixed lace, which only recently has been acknowledged by the South Kensington people as Point d'Argentan. Along with the typical Argentan ground of the upper portion is the fine Alencon mesh and varied jours of the border. This also is Louis XIV. style. The lappet shown next is exceedingly instructive, as till quite lately the people who professed to understand lace agreed to call this Genoese, although it was quite unlike anything else made there. This lappet was so labelled at South Kensington, but now is admittedly Argentella (or little Argentan). It is remarkably like Alencon, being of the same period, the only points of difference being that the design is not outlined with a raised Cordonnet (though in different places of the design a raised and purled Cordonnet is often st.i.tched on it) and the special ground (partridge eye) which is agreed to denote "Argentella" lace--page 83. It is sometimes called the may-flower ground, but this is somewhat misleading as that design occurs in other laces. The only other great style is that of Flanders, which at its earliest period had received no influence from the Renaissance that had seized the southern countries of Europe and was still in the grip of mediaeval art. It was not until Italian influence permeated France that Flemish lace perceptibly altered in character.

These are to all intents and purposes the three great styles of lace.

England had no style: she copied Flemish, Brussels, and Mechlin laces.

Ireland, on the contrary, copied Italian in her Irish crotchet and Carrick-ma-cross (in style only, but not workmanship), and adapted Lille and Mechlin and Brussels and Buckingham in her Limerick lace.

The student must next make herself familiar with the methods pursued by the old lace-workers, and here the difficulty commences. All lace is either Needlepoint, pillow-made, or machine-made. _Needlepoint_ explains itself. Every thread of it is made with a needle on a parchment pattern, and only two st.i.tches are used, b.u.t.tonhole and a double-loop which is really a b.u.t.tonhole st.i.tch.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BRUSSELS LAPPET.

Nineteenth Century.

(_S.K.M. Collection._)]

This can be clearly understood by referring to Charts Nos. I. and II., where the _two Brussels grounds_ are shown. The Needlepoint ground, No.

I., is formed by a b.u.t.tonhole st.i.tch, which loops over again before taking the next. The pillow-made ground, No. II., shows the threads plaited or twisted together to form a hexagonal or a diamond-shaped network. This is all the difference between needle-made and pillow-made lace, and in itself helps to identify in many instances its country and period when it was produced. All the early Italian laces were Needlepoint, and all the early French laces were the same. All the Flemish laces (including Brussels) were pillow-made, and mixed laces in any of these countries are of later make. Italy adapted the Flemish pillow-lace, and produced Genoese and Milanese guipures, in addition to the coa.r.s.e imitation of Reticella which she now made by plaiting threads on the pillow. Brussels adopted the needle-made motifs and grounds of Italy, and produced perhaps her finest lace, weaving her beautiful designs and outlines on the pillow, and afterwards filling the s.p.a.ces with needle-made jours and brides, as in Point d'Angleterre.

A study of Chart II. will show the different style of grounds or reseaux of both Needlepoint and pillow-made lace, the b.u.t.tonhole grounds being either of "brides" with or without picots, or b.u.t.tonhole loops, as in Brussels, and Alencon (with a straight thread whipping across to strengthen the ground), loops b.u.t.tonholed over all as in Argentan, or made of tiny worked hexagons with separate b.u.t.tonholed threads around them as in Argentella. The pillow-made grounds are made of two plaited or twisted threads, except in the case of Valenciennes, when it is made of four threads throughout (hence its durability). In Brussels, it will be noted, the threads are twisted twice to commence the mesh. These meet two other threads, and are plaited four times, dividing into two again, and performing the same twist, the whole making a hexagon rather longer than round. Mechlin has precisely the same ground, only that the threads are plaited _twice_ instead of four times, as in Brussels, making the hexagon roundish instead of long.

The ground of Lille lace is of exactly the same shape as Valenciennes, but is composed of two threads twisted loosely twice each side of the diamond, and that of Valenciennes being made of four threads plaited.

With the aid of these little charts, a remembrance of the various styles and a few actual specimens of lace, and _a powerful magnifying gla.s.s_, it is not beyond the power of any reader of this little book to become expert in the identification of old lace.

[Ill.u.s.tration: REAL "POINT DE GAZE" (NEEDLE-MADE GROUND).

(_Author's Collection._)]

XIV

SALE PRICES

XIV

SALE PRICES

Lace is such an article of luxury, and, as a rule, only belonging to the wealthiest cla.s.s, that it seldom or ever comes into the open market. In 1907 two collections were dispersed at Christie's--those of Mrs.

Ma.s.sey-Mainwaring and Mrs. Lewis Hill.

The most costly laces are the Venetian Points, some of the fine Rose Points being priceless. It is so fragile that little of it remains, and the smallest piece is eagerly snapped up by collectors.

In 1904 at Christie's lace sold for the following prices--

A 58-inch length of 24-ins. deep Point de Venise 600

A 4-yards length of Rose Point, 11 inches deep 420

The same year--

4 yards of Point d'Argentan, 25 inches deep 460

44 inches Point d'Alencon, 17 inches deep 43

2-1/2 yards Point d'Alencon, 14 inches deep 46

In 1907, March 11, _Ma.s.sey-Mainwaring Sale_ at Christie's--

sold for s. d.

1-1/2 yards Venetian Gros Point, 8 inches deep 16 16 0

5 yards length of Reticella, 7-1/2 inches deep 33 12 0

4 short lengths 42 0 0

7 pieces of Point d'Alencon 21 0 0

4 yards narrow Point d'Argentan 15 15 0