Among the objects of religious art exhibited in 1864 at the General Assembly of the Catholics of Belgium at Malines was a "voile de bénédiction," the handkerchief used to cover the ciborium, of point d'Alençon, with figures of the Virgin, St. Catherine, St. Ursula, and St. Barbara. It belonged to the Church of St. Christopher at Charleroi.
Séez has now no records of its manufacture.
Descr. du Dép. de l'Orne. An IX. Publiée par ordre du ministre de l'intérieur.
Illustrated News, March 22, 1856.
It only requires to compare Figs. 74, 75, 76, and 80, with Figs. 82 and 83 to see the marked difference in the character of the lace.
"Sous Louis XIV. il y avaient de magnifiques rinceaux, guirlandes, et cornes d'abondance d'où s'échappent de superbes fleurs. Sous Louis XV. les fabricants changèrent encore leurs dessins pour prendre les fleurs qui s'épanouent et s'ensoulent capricieusement les unes aux autres.
"Le style de Louis XVI. n'a rien de l'ampleur ni de l'élégance des styles précédents. Les formes sont arrondies; des guirlandes et des fleurettes sont la base des dessins de cette époque.
"Sous la république et le premier empire, les dessins deviennent raides" (Madame Despierres.)
This effect is produced by varying the application of the two stitches used in making the flowers, the toilé, which forms the close tissue, and the grillé, the more open part of the pattern. The system has been adopted in France, Belgium, and England, but with most success in France.
"Li boen citean de Roem,
E la Jovante de Caem,
E de Falaise e d'Argentoen."
—Roman de Rou.
Henry founded a chapel at Argentan to St. Thomas of Canterbury.
"The average size of a diagonal, taken from angle to angle, in an Alençon or so-called Argentan hexagon was about 1⁄6 of an inch, and each side of the hexagon was about 1⁄10 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" (A. S. Cole). "So little is the beautiful workmanship of this ground known or understood, that the author has seen priceless flowers of Argentan relentlessly cut out and transferred to bobbin net, 'to get rid of the ugly, old, coarse ground'" (Mrs. Palliser, 1869).
"Les trois sortes de brides comme champ sont exécutées dans ces deux fabriques, et les points ont été et sont encore faits par les mêmes procédés de fabrication, et avec les mêmes matières textiles," writes Madame Despierres. Mrs. Palliser, on the other hand, was of opinion that the two manufactures were distinct, "though some lace-makers near Lignères-la-Doucelle worked for both establishments. Alençon made the finest réseau; Argentan specially excelled in the bride. The flowers of Argentan were bolder and larger in pattern, in higher relief, heavier and coarser than those of Alençon. The toilé was flatter and more compact. The workmanship differed in character. On the clear bride ground this lace was more effective than the minuter workmanship of Alençon; it more resembled the Venetian. Indeed, so close is its resemblance that many of the fine garnitures de robe, aprons, and tunics that have survived the revolutionary storm would be assigned to Venice, did not their pedigree prove them to be of the Argentan fabric" (Mrs. Palliser, 1869).
Letter of September 19th, 1744.
"Burgoigne, the first part of the dress for the head next the hair."—Mundus Muliebris. 1609. "Burgoigin, the part of the head-dress that covers up the head."—Ladies' Dictionary. 1694. In Farquhar's comedy of "Sir Harry Wildair," 1700, Parley, when asked what he had been about, answers, "Sir, I was coming to Mademoiselle Furbelow, the French milliner, for a new Burgundy for my lady's head."
The offenders, manufacturers and workwomen, incurred considerable fines.
Nov. 12th, 1745.
In 1765, under the name of Duponchel.
1772. Un ajustement de point d'Argentan—
| Les 6 rangs manchettes. | ||
| ⅓ pour devant de gorge. | ||
| 4 au. ⅓ festonné des deux costés, le fichu et une garniture de fichu de nuit | 2,500 | livres. |
| 1 au ¾ ruban de point d'Argentan, à 100 | 175 | — |
| Une collerette de point d'Argentan | 360 | — |
| —(Comptes de Madame du Barry.) |
1781. "Une nappe d'autel garnie d'une tres belle dentelle de point d'Argentan."—Inv. de l'Eglise de St. Gervais. Arch. Nat. L. 654.
1789. "Item, un parement de robe consistant en garniture, deux paires de manchettes, et fichu, le tout de point d'Argentan." (Dans la garderobe de Madame.)—Inv. de decès de Mgr. de Duc de Duras. Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 11,440.
"Une coiffure bride à picot complete."—Inv. de decès de Mademoiselle de Clermont, 1741.
These details on the manufacture of Argentan have been furnished from the archives of Alençon through the kindness of M. Léon de la Sicotière, the learned archæologist of the Department of the Orne (Mrs. Palliser, 1869).
Embroidery has replaced this industry among the workers of the town and the hand-spinning of hemp among those of the country.
Légende du point d'Argentan, M. Eugène de Lonlay.
Nouveau Réglement Général sur toutes sortes de Marchandises et Manufactures qui sont utiles et necessaires dans ce Royaume, etc., par M. le Marquis de la Gomberdière. Paris, 1634. In 8vo.
M. Fournier says that France was at this time tributary to Flanders for "passemens de fil," very fine and delicately worked. Laffemas, in his Réglement Général pour dresser les Manufactures du Royaume, 1597, estimates the annual cost of these "passemens" of every sort, silk stockings, etc., at 800,000 crowns. Montchrestien, at above a million.
This was established by Colbert, and there they made, as well as at Aurillac, the finest pillow lace in the style of point d'Angleterre. This manufacture was encouraged by the King and the Court, and its productions were among the choicest of the points de France.
Youngest son of the Comte d'Harcourt.
Vie de J.-Bap. Colbert. (Printed in the Archives Curieuses.)
"Livre commode ou les Adienes de la Ville de Paris" for 1692.
For the introduction of the gold point of Spain into France, see Spain. The manufacture of gold lace in Paris was, however, prior to Colbert.
"1732, un bord de point d'Espagne d'or de Paris, à fonds de réseau."—Garderobe de S. A. S. Mgr. le Duc de Penthièvre. Arch. Nat. K. K. 390-1.
In Statistique de la France, 1800, the finest silk lace is said to be made at Fontenay, Puisieux, Morges, and Louvres-en-Parisis. The coarse and common kinds at Montmorency, Villiers-le-Bel, Sarcelles, Écouen, Saint-Brice, Groslay, Gisors, Saint-Pierre-les-Champs, Etrepagny, etc. Peuchet adds: "Il s'y fait dans Paris et ses environs une grande quantité de dentelles noires dont il se fait des expéditions considérables." It was this same black silk lace which raised to so high a reputation the fabrics of Chantilly.
Inv. de decés de la Duchesse de Modène. 1761.
Inv. de decés du Duc de Duras. 1789.
"Une fraise à deux rangs de blonde tres fine, grande hauteur, 120 l.
"Une paire de sabots de la même blonde, 84 l.
"Un fichu en colonette la fraise garnie à deux rangs d'une tres belle blonde fond d'Alençon, 120 l.
"Un pouff bordé d'un plissé de blonde tournante fond d'Alençon, à bouquets tres fins et des bouillons de même blonde." This wonderful coiffure being finished with "Un beau panache de quatre plumes couleurs impériales, 108 l."
See preceding note.
"The bourgoin is formed of white, stiffly-starched muslin, covering a paste-board shape, and rises to a great height above the head, frequently diminishing in size towards the top, where it finishes in a circular form. Two long lappets hang from either side towards the back, composed often of the finest lace. The bourgoins throughout Normandy are not alike."—Mrs. Stothard's Tour in Normandy.
This must have included Honfleur and other surrounding localities.
By a paper on the lace trade (Mém. concernant le Commerce des Dentelles, 1704. Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 14,294), we find that the making of "dentelles de bas prix," employed at Rouen, Dieppe, Le Havre, and throughout the Pays de Caux, the Bailliage of Caen, at Lyons, Le Puy, and other parts of France, one quarter of the population of all classes and ages from six to seventy years. These laces were all made of Haarlem thread. See Holland.
"The lace-makers of Havre," writes Peuchet, "work both in black and white points, from 5 sous to 30 francs the ell. They are all employed by a certain number of dealers, who purchase the produce of their pillows. Much is transported to foreign countries, even to the East Indies, the Southern Seas, and the islands of America."
Dictionnaire Géographique. T. Corneille. 1707.
Gravures de Modes. Arch. Nat. M., 815-23.
"1683. Deux housses de toille piquée avec dentelle du Havre deux camisolles de pareille toille et de dentelle du Havre."—Inv. fait après le decedz de Monseigneur Colbert. Bib. Nat. MSS. Suite de Mortemart, 34.
"1651. Un tour d'autel de dentelle du Havre."—Inv. des meubles de la Sacristie de l'Oratoire de Jesus, à Paris. Bib. Nat. MSS. F. F. 8621.
"1681. Une chemisette de toile de Marseille picquée garnye de dentelle du Havre."—Inv. d'Anne d'Escoubleau de Sourdis, veuve de François de Simiane. Arch. Nat. M. M. 802.
"Les ouvriers n'étant apparemment rappelés par aucune possession dans cette ville, lorsqu'elle fut rétablie, ils s'y sont établis et ont transmis leur travail à la postérité."—Peuchet.
Point de Dieppe appears among the already-quoted lace boxes of 1688.
Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire de la Ville de Dieppe, composés en l'année 1761, par Michel-Claude Gurbert. P. 99.
Mémoires Chronologiques pour servir à l'Histoire de Dieppe, par M. Desmarquets. 1785.
Notices sur Dieppe, Arques, etc., par P. J. Feret. 1824.
Peuchet, of Dieppe, says: "On ne fait pas la dentelle en roulant les fuseaux sur le coussin, mais en l'y jetant."
Almanach de Dieppe pour 1847.
The Author has to express her thanks to Sœur Hubert, of the École d'Apprentissage de Dentelle, and M. A. Morin, Librarian at Dieppe, for their communications.
Arch. Nat. X. 10,086.
"The silk came from Nankin by way of London or the East, the black silk called 'grenadine' was dyed and prepared at Lyons, the thread was from Haarlem."—Roland de la Platière.
Letter from Edgar McCulloch, Esq., Guernsey.
Blondes appear also to have been made at Le Mans:—
"Cette manufacture qui etoit autrefois entretenue à l'hôpital du Mans, lui rapportoit un benefice de 4,000 à 5,000 fr. Elle est bien tombée par la dispersion des anciennes sœurs hospitalières."—Stat. du Dép. de la Sarthe, par le Citoyen L.-M. Auvray. An X.
The handkerchief of "Paris net" mentioned by Goldsmith.
In the Dép. du Nord, by Jean-Ph. Briatte. "Its fall was owing to the bad faith of imitators, who substituted a single thread of bad quality for the double twisted thread of the country."—Dieudonné, Statistique de Dép. du Nord.
In the Mercure Galant for June, 1687, we find the ladies wear cornettes à la jardinière "de Marly."
L'Industrie Française depuis la Révolution de Février et l'Exposition de 1848, par M. A. Audiganne.
M. Aubry thus divides the lace-makers of Normandy:—
| Department of Calvados— | |
| Arrondissement of Caen | 25,000 |
| Arr. of Bayeux | 15,000 |
| Arr. of Pont-l'Evêque, Falaise,* and Lisieux | 10,000 |
| Departments of La Manche and Seine-Inférieure | 10,000 |
| 60,000 |
The women earn from 50 sous to 25 sous a day, an improvement on the wages of the last century, which, in the time of Arthur Young, seldom amounted to 24 sous.
Their products are estimated at from 8 to 10 millions of francs (£320,000 to £400,000).
* "Falaise, dentelles façon de Dieppe."—Peuchet.
He had run away with the rich heiress of Coadelan.
Chants populaires de la Bretagne, par Th. Hersart de la Villemarqué.
The bringing home of the wedding dress is an event of solemn importance. The family alone are admitted to see it, and each of them sprinkles the orange blossoms with which it is trimmed with holy water placed at the foot of the bed whereon the dress is laid, and offers up a prayer for the future welfare of the wearer.
French Hainault, French Flanders and Cambrésis (the present Dép. du Nord), with Artois, were conquests of Louis XIII. and Louis XIV., confirmed to France by the treaties of Aix-la-Chapelle (1668) and Nimeguen (1678).
Photographed in the Album d'Archéologie Religieuse. It is supposed to have been made towards the end of the seventeenth century.
Founded 1630.
"1772. 15 aunes 3-16mes jabot haut de vraie Valencienne, 3,706 livres 17 sous"; and many other similar entries.
"⅝ Bâtarde dito à bordure, à 60 ll., 37 ll. 10 s."—Comptes de Madame du Barry.
Statistique du Dép. du Nord, par M. Dieudonné, Préfet en 1804.
"Among the various fabrics having the same process of manufacture, there is not one which produces exactly the same style of lace. The same pattern, with the same material, whether executed in Belgium, Saxony, Lille, Arras, Mirecourt, or Le Puy, will always bear the stamp of the place where it is made. It has never been possible to transfer any kind of manufacture from one city to another without there being a marked difference between the productions."—Aubry.
"After the French Revolution, when so many lace-makers fled to Belgium, Alost, Ypres, Bruges, Ghent, Menin, and Courtrai became the centres of this industry, and the lace produced in each town has a distinctive feature in the ground. That made in Ghent is square-meshed, the bobbins being twisted two and a half times. At Ypres, which makes a better quality of Valenciennes, the ground is also square-meshed, but the bobbins are twisted four times. In Courtrai and Menin the grounds are twisted three and a half times, and in Bruges, where the ground has a circular mesh, the bobbins are twisted three times."
In the already quoted Etat d'un Trousseau, 1771, among the necessary articles are enumerated: "Une coëffure, tour de gorge et le fichu plissé de vraie Valencienne." The trimming of one of Madame du Barry's pillowcases cost 487 fr.; her lappets, 1,030. The ruffles of the Duchesse de Modène and Mademoiselle de Charollais are valued at 200 livres the pair. Du Barry, more extravagant, gives 770 for hers.
"2 barbes et rayon de vraie valencienne; 3 au. ¾ collet grande hauteur; 4 au. grand jabot; le tout de la même main, de 2,400 livres."—Comptes de Madame du Barry. 1770.
Arthur Young, in 1788, says of Valenciennes: "Laces of 30 to 40 lines' breadth for gentlemen's ruffles is from 160 to 216 livres (£9 9s.) an ell. The quantity for a lady's headdress from 1,000 to 24,000 livres. The women gain from 20 to 30 sous a day. 3,600 persons are employed at Valenciennes, and are an object of 450,000 livres, of which the flax is not more than 1⁄30. The thread costs from 24 to 700 livres the pound."
The "barbes pleines" consisted of a pair of lappets from 3 to 5 inches wide each, and half an ell (20 inches) long, with a double pattern of sprigged flowers and rounded at the ends. A narrow lace 1 ½ ell long, called the Papillon, with the bande or passe, and the fond de bonnet, completed the suit.
The fault of the old Valenciennes lace is its colour, never of a clear white, but inclining to a reddish cast.
"Les dentelières avaient adopté un par-dessus de calamande rayée, un bonniquet de toile fine plissé à petits canons. Une médaille d'argent, pendue au cou par un petit liseré noir, complétait leur costume, qui est arrivé jusqu'à nous; car nous l'avons vu, il n'y a pas trente ans."—Hist. de Lille, par V. Derode. Paris et Lille, 1848.
Mémoires sur l'Intendance de Flandre.—MS. Bib. de Lille.
Period of the peace of Utrecht when Lille, which had been retaken by Prince Eugène, was again restored to France.
Histoire Populaire de Lille. Henri Brunet. Lille, 1848; and Histoire de Lille. V. Derode.
Report of the Commissioners for 1851.
As late as 1761 Lille was considered as "foreign" with respect to France, and her laces made to pay duty according to the tariff of 1664.
In 1708 (31st of July) we have an Arrest du Conseil d'Estat du Roy, relative to the seizure of seventeen cartons of lace belonging to one "Mathieu, marchand à l'Isle." Mathieu, in defence, pretends that "les dentelles avoient esté fabriquées à Haluin (near Lille), terre de la domination de Sa Majesté."—Arch. Nat. Coll. Rondonneau.
See Flanders (West), treille.
In 1789, thread was 192 francs the kilogramme.
Describing her trousseau, every article of which was trimmed with Angleterre, Malines, or Valenciennes, she adds: "A cette époque (1800), on ignorait même l'existence du tulle, les seules dentelles communes que l'on connût étaient les dentelles de Lille et d'Arras, qui n'étaient portées que par les femmes les plus ordinaires."—Mém. de Madame la Duchesse d'Abrantès. T. iii. Certainly the laces of Lille and Arras never appear in the inventories of the "grandes dames" of the last century.
Dieudonné.
Peuchet states much "fausse Valenciennes, très rapprochée de la vraie," to have been fabricated in the hospital at Lille, in which institution there were, in 1723, 700 lace-workers.
A piece of Lille lace contains from 10 to 12 ells.
"L'Abbaye du Vivier, etablie dans la ville d'Arras," Poëme par le Père Dom Martin du Buisson, in Mémoires et Pièces pour servir a l'Histoire de la Ville d'Arras.—Bib. Nat. MSS., Fonds François, 8,936.
Bib. Nat. MSS., Fonds François, 8,936.
We find in the Colbert Correspondence (1669), the directors of the General hospital at Arras had enticed lace-workers of point de France, with a view to establish the manufacture in their hospital, but the jealousy of the other cities threatening to overthrow their commerce, they wrote to Colbert for protection.
Gt. Ward. Acc. Geo. I. 1714-15 (P. R. O.), and Acc. of John, Duke of Montagu, master of the Great Wardrobe, touching the expenses of the funeral of Queen Anne and the coronation of George I. (P.R.O.)
In 1761 an Act was passed against its being counterfeited, and a vendor of "Orrice lace" (counterfeit, we suppose) forfeits her goods.
Statistique des Gens de Lettres. 1808. Herbin. T. ii.
A museum of lace has been established at Bailleul.
In 1788, Bailleul, Cassel, and the district of Hazebrouck, had 1351 lace-makers. In 1802 the number had diminished; but it has since gradually increased. In 1830 there were 2,500. In 1851 there were already 8,000, dispersed over twenty communes.
Haute-Loire, Cantal, Puy-de-Dôme, and Loire.
1640.
1833 and 1848.
By Médecis.
They represent to the king that the laces of the "diocèse du Puy, du Vélay et de l'Auvergne, dont il se faisait un commerce très considérable dans les pays étrangers, par les ports de Bordeaux, La Rochelle et Nantes," ought not to pay the import duties held by the "cinq grosses fermes."—Arrest du Conseil d'Estat du Roy, 6 August, 1707. Arch. Nat. Coll. Rond. They ended by obtaining a duty of five sous per lb., instead of the 50 livres paid by Flanders and England, or the ten livres by the laces of Comté, Liège, and Lorraine.
1715 and 1716.
See Milan.
Roland de la Platière.
Three-fourths were consumed in Europe in time of peace:—Sardinia took 120,000 francs, purchased by the merchants of Turin, once a year, and then distributed through the country: Florence and Spain, each 200,000; Guyenne exported by the merchants of Bordeaux 200,000; 500,000 went to the Spanish Indies. The rest was sold in France by means of colporteurs.—Peuchet.
In Auvergne lace has preserved its ancient names of "passement" and "pointes," the latter applied especially to needle-made lace. It has always retained its celebrity for passements or guipures made in bands. The simplicity of life in the mountains has doubtless been a factor in the unbroken continuity of the lace-trade.
Le Puy in recent years has named some of its coarse patterns "guipure de Cluny," after the museum in Paris—a purely fanciful name.
Savinière d'Alquie.
Savary. Point d'Aurillac is mentioned in the Révolte des Passemens.
Histoire du point d' Alençon, Madame Despierres.
"Voile de toile d'argent, garni de grandes dentelles d'or et argent fin, donné en 1711 pour envelopper le chef de S. Gaudence."—Inventaire du Monastère des Bénédictines de St. Aligre.
In the convents are constantly noted down "point d'Espagne d'or et argent fin," while in the cathedral of Clermont the chapter contented itself with "dentelles d'or et argent faux."
"1773. 6 au. de grande entoilage de belle blonde à poix."
"16 au. entoilage à mouches à 11 l., 1761."—Comptes de Madame du Barry.
"7 au. de tulle pour hausser les manchettes, à 9 l., 63 l."—1770. Cptes. de Madame du Barry.
Souvenirs de la Marquise de Créquy.
In an old geography we find, "Tulle, Tuille three hundred years ago."
The word Tule or Tuly occurs in an English inventory of 1315, and again, in "Sir Gawayn and the Green Knight"; but in both cases the word seems not to indicate a stuff but rather a locality, probably Toulouse.—Francisque Michel.
In Skelton's Garland of Lawrell, we find, "A skein of tewly silk"; which his commentator, the Rev. A. Dyce, considers to be "dyed of a red colour."
As early as 1615 there appears to have been a traffic with Italy in laces, the painter Claude Lorraine being taken to Italy in that year by his uncle, a carrier and dealer in laces.
Neufchâteau.
The trader who purchases the lace is called "peussemotier."
The Lorraine laces could only enter France by the bureau of Chaumont, nor could they leave the country without a formal permit delivered at Monthureux-le-Sec.—Arch. Nat., Coll. Rondonneau.
In a catalogue of the collection of objects of religious art, exhibited at Mechlin in 1864, we find noticed, "Dentelle pour rochet, point de Nancy," from the church of St. Charles at Antwerp, together with various "voiles de bénédiction," laces for rochets and altar-cloths, of "point de Paris."
The Tableau Statistique du Dép. des Vosges, by Citoyen Desgoulles, An X, says: "Mirecourt is celebrated for its lace fabrics. There are twenty lace merchants; but the workers are not attached to any particular house. They buy their own thread, make the lace, and bring it to the merchants of Mirecourt to purchase. The women follow this occupation when not engaged in field work; but they only earn from 25 to 40 centimes a day. Before the Revolution, ⅞ of the coarse lace was exported to Germany towards Swabia. Of the fine qualities, France consumed ⅔. The remainder went to the colonies."
So are those of Courseulles (Calvados).
Savary. Sedan was ceded to Louis XIII. in 1642.
"Eidem pro 6 divit̄ Sedan et Italiē colaris opere sciss̄ et pro 62 purles opere acuo pro 6 par̄ manic̄ lintear̄ eisdem, £116 6s."—Gt. Ward. Acc. Car. I., ix. to xi. P. R. O.
"Eidem pro 6 divit̄ Pultenarian Sedan de opere sciss̄ colaris et pro 72 purles divit̄ opere acuo pro manic̄ lintear̄ eisdem, £106 16s."—Gt. Ward. Acc. Car. I., xi. to xii.
In 1700 there were several lace manufacturers at Charleville, the principal of whom was named Vigoureux.—Hist. de Charleville. Charleville, 1854.
Savary. Ed. 1726.
Description de la France. Ed. 1752.
Savary.
John Roberts, of Burgundy, eight years in England, "a knitter of knotted wool."
Peter de Grue, Burgundian, "knitter of cauls and sleeves."
Callys de Hove, "maker of lace," and Jane his wife, born in Burgundy.—State Papers, Dom., Eliz. Vol. 84. P.R.O.