M. Joseph Garnier, the learned Archiviste of Dijon, informed Mrs. Palliser that "les archives de l'hospice Sainte-Anne n'ont conservé aucune trace de la manufacture de dentelles qui y fut établie. Tout ce qu'on sait, c'est qu'elle était sous la direction d'un sieur Helling, et qu'on y fabriquait le point d'Alençon."

Descr. du Dép. de la Vienne, par le Citoyen Cochon. An X.

"Ce n'est pas une grande chose que la manufacture de points qui est établie dans l'hôpital de Bourdeaux."—Savary. Edit. 1726.

Table of the Number of Lace-workers in France in 1851. (From M. Aubry.)

In his Report on the Universal Exhibition of 1867, M. Aubry estimates the number at 200,000—their average wages from 1 to 1½ francs a day of ten hours' labour; some earn as much as 3½ francs. Almost all work at home, combining the work of the pillow with their agricultural and household occupations. Lace schools are being founded throughout the northern lace departments of France, and prizes and every kind of encouragement given to the pupils by the Empress, as well as by public authorities and private individuals.

In the Census of 1571, giving the names of all strangers in the city of London, we find mention but of one Dutchman, Richard Thomas, "a worker of billament lace."

In 1689 appears an "Arrest du Roi qui ordonne l'exécution d'une sentence du maître de poste de Rouen, portant confiscation des dentelles venant d'Amsterdam."—Arch. Nat. Coll. Rondonneau.

1685.

We have frequent mention of dentelle à la reine previous to its introduction into Holland.

1619. "Plus une aulne ung tiers de dentelle à la reyne."—Trésorerie de Madame, Sœur de Roi. Arch. Nat. K. K. 234.

1678. "Les dames mettent ordinairement deux cornettes de Point à la Reyne ou de soie écrue, rarement de Point de France, parce que le point clair sied mieux au visage."—Mercure Galant.

1683. "Deux Aubes de toille demie holande garnis de point à la Reyne."—Inv. fait apres le decedz de Mgr. Colbert. Bib. Nat. MSS. Suite de Mortemart, 34.

C. Weisse. History of the French Protestant Refugees from the Edict of Nantes. Edinburgh, 1854.

Grandson of Simon Châtelain. See Chap. VI.

In the paper already referred to (see Normandy) on the lace trade, in 1704, it is stated the Flemish laces called "dentelles de haut prix" are made of Lille, Mons and Mechlin thread, sent to bleach at Haarlem, "as they know not how to bleach them elsewhere." The "dentelles de bas prix" of Normandy and other parts of France being made entirely of the cheaper thread of Haarlem itself, an Act, then just passed, excluding the Haarlem thread, would, if carried out, annihilate this branch of industry in France.—Commerce des Dentelles de Fil. Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 14,294.

And. Yarranton. 1677.

"Flax is improved by age. The saying was, 'Wool may be kept to dust, flax to silk.' I have seen flax twenty years old as fine as a hair."—Ibid.

Commerce de la Hollande. 1768.

Edinburgh Amusement.

Six Weeks in the Court and Country of France. 1691.

Treillis d'Allemagne is early mentioned in the French inventories:—

1543. "Pour une aulne deux tiers trillist d'Allemagne."—Argenterie de la Reine (Eléonore d'Autriche). Arch. Nat. K. K. 104.

1557. "Pour une aulne de treilliz noir d'Allemagne pour garnir la robbe de damars noir ou il y a de la bizette."—Comptes de l'Argentier du Roi (Henry II.). Arch. Nat. K. K. 106.

"At a meeting of the Society of Polite Arts, premiums were given to a specimen of a new invention imitating Dresden work. It is done with such success as to imitate all the various stitches of which Dresden work is composed, with such ingenuity as to surpass the finest performance with the needle. This specimen, consisting of a cap and a piece for a long apron, the apron, valued by the inventress at £2 2s., was declared by the judges worth £56."—Annual Register. 1762.

"Smash go the glasses, aboard pours the wine on circling laces, Dresden aprons, silvered silks, and rich brocades." And again, "Your points of Spain, your ruffles of Dresden."—Fool of Quality. 1766.

Caledonian Mercury. 1760.

Letter from Koestritz. 1863.

In 1713.

Weisse.

Dated Oct. 29, 1685.

Anderson.

Arch. Nat. Coll. Rondonneau.

"Commissions and Privileges granted by Charles I., Landgrave of Hesse, to the French Protestants, dated Cassel, Dec. 12, 1685."

Peuchet.

Anderson.

La France Protestante, par M. M. Haag. Paris 1846-59.

"Item. Dix carrez de tapisserye a poinctz de Hongrye d'or, d'argent et soye de differends patrons."—1632.

Inv. après le decès du Maréchal de Marillac. Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 11,424.

Hungary was so styled in the seventeenth century. In a Relation of the most famous Kingdoms and Common Weales through the World, London, 1608, we find "Hungerland."

"City Madam." Massinger.

Pictures of German Life in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries, by Gustaf Freytag.

Merveilleux Amusements des Bains de Bade. Londres, 1739.

Bishop of Salisbury. "Letters." 1748-9.

Modelbuch in Kupfen gemacht. Nürnberg, 1601.

Poppenreuth is about a German mile from Nuremberg.

"Austria."—Report of the International Exhibition of 1862.

As quoted in Lefébure's Embroidery and Lace.

Haag. La France Protestante.

The Neufchâtel trade extended through the Jura range from the valley of Lake Joux (Vaud) to Porentruy, near Bâle.

Statistique de la Suisse. Picot, de Genève. 1819.

A curious pattern-book has been sent to us, belonging to the Antiquarian Society of Zurich, through the kindness of its president, Dr. Ferd. Keller. It contains specimens of a variety of narrow braids and edgings of a kind of knotted work, but only a few open-work edgings that could be called lace.

On her marriage, 1515.

"1619. Sept. 11. Paid for a lace, 63 rixd. 11 skillings.

"1620. Oct. 11. Paid to a female lace-worker, 28 rixd.

"Nov. 4. Paid 10 rixd. to a female lace-worker who received her dismissal.

"Nov. 11. Paid 71 specie dollars to a lace-seller for lace for the use of the children.

"Paid 33 specie dollars and 18 skill. Lubec money, to the same man for lace and cambric.

"1625. May 19. Paid 21 rixd. for lace.

"Dec. 20. Paid 25 specie dollars 15 skill. Lubec money, for taffetas and lace."

1639.

Rawert's Report upon the Industry in the Kingdom of Denmark. 1848.

"The Great Recess."

Two-thirds of a yard.

Dated 1643.

"Tönder lace, fine and middling, made in the districts of Lygum Kloster, keeps all the peasant girls employed. Thereof is exported to the German markets and the Baltic, it is supposed, for more than 100,000 rixdollars (£11,110), and the fine thread must be had from the Netherlands, and sometimes costs 100 rixdollars per lb."—Pontoppidan. Economical Balance. 1759.

"In the Victoria and Albert Museum collection, Denmark is represented by a few skilful embroideries done on and with fine linen, muslin and suchlike, which are somewhat similar in appearance to lace fabrics of Mechlin design."—(A. S. Cole.)

"The lace fabric in North Sleswick in 1840 was divided into two districts—that of Tönder and Lygum Kloster on the western coasts, and that of Haderslaben and Apenraade on the east. The quality of the lace from these last localities is so bad that no Copenhagen dealers will have it in their shops."—Report of the Royal Sleswick-Holstein Government. 1840.

Mr. Jens Wulff, an eminent lace-dealer, Knight of the Danebrog, who has made great exertions to revive the lace industry in Denmark.

Tönder lace was celebrated for its durability, the best flax or silk thread only being used.

"A lace-maker earns from 3½d. to 4½d. per day of sixteen hours."—Rawert's Report. 1848.

The Tönder lace-traders enjoy the privilege of offering their wares for sale all over Denmark without a license (concession), a privilege extended to no other industry.

The early perfection of Bridget herself in this employment, if we may credit the chronicle of the Abbess Margaretha, 1440-46, may be ascribed to a miraculous origin.

When, at the age of twelve, she was employed at her knitted lace-work, a fear came over her that she should not finish her work creditably to herself, and in her anxiety she raised her heart above. As her aunt came into the chamber she beheld an unknown maiden sitting opposite to her niece, and aiding her in her task; she vanished immediately, and when the aunt asked Bridget who had helped her she know nothing about it, and assured her relation she had seen no one.

All were astonished at the fineness and perfection of the work, and kept the lace as of miraculous origin.

Wadstena Past and Present (Förr och Nu).

The letter is dated March 20th, 1544.

In the detailed account of the trousseau furnished to his daughter, there is no mention of lace; but the author of One Year in Sweden has seen the body of his little granddaughter, the Princess Isabella, daughter of John III., as it lies in the vault of Strengnäs, the child's dress and shoes literally covered with gold and silver lace of a Gothic pattern, fresh and untarnished as though made yesterday.

In the Victoria and Albert Museum there is a collection of Norwegian cut-work of the eighteenth century.

Weber. Bilberbuch.

Leipzig, 1746. Handbok for unga Fruntimmer, by Ekenmark. Stockholm, 1826-28.

Some are twice the width of Fig. 117.

For this information, with a collection of specimens, the author has to thank Madame Petre of Gefle.

The Russian bobbins are interesting by reason of their archaic simplicity. Lacking any trace of decoration, whether suggested by sentimental fancy or artistic taste, they are purely utilitarian, mere sticks of wood, more or less straight and smooth, and six or seven inches long.

A depôt has been opened in London, where Russian laces and embroidery of all kinds are shown.

Rot. Parl. 37 Edw. III. Printed. P. 278, Col. 2, No. 26.

See her monument in Westminster Abbey.—Sandford's Genealogical History.

"Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster, wife of John of Gaunt, wears a quilted silk cap with a three-pointed border of broad lace network." (Sandford. St. Paul's monument, after Dugdale.) "Elizabeth, Duchess of Exeter, died 1425 (Sandford, p. 259), wore also a caul of network with a needlework edging."

In the Statute 2 Rich. II. = 1378, merchant strangers are allowed to sell in gross and in retail "gold wire or silver wire" and other such small ware. Neither in this nor in the Treaty 13 Rich. II. = 1390, between England, the Count of Flanders, and "les bonnes Gentz des Trois bonnes villes de Flandres Gand, Brugges et Ipre" (see Rymer), is there any mention of lace, which, even if fabricated, was of too little importance as an article of commerce to deserve mention save as other "small wares."

Pins not yet being in common use, any lace would be called "work of the needle."

3 Edw. IV., cap. iv.

"1463. John Barett bequeaths to 'My Lady Walgrave, my musk ball of gold with p̄le and lace.

"'Item, to John Eden, my o gr. of tawny silk with poynts of needle work—opus punctatum.'"—Bury Wills and Inventories.

Bib. Harl. 2,320.

Such as "Lace Bascon, Lace endented, Lace bordred on both syde, yn o syde, pykke Lace bordred, Lace Condrak, Lace Dawns, Lace Piol, Lace covert, Lace coverte doble, Lace compon coverte, Lace maskel, Lace cheyne brode, Las Cheveron, Lace Oundé, Grene dorge, Lace for Hattys," etc.

Another MS. of directions for making these same named laces is in the possession of the Vicar of Ipsden, Oxfordshire, and has been examined by the author through the kindness of Mr. W. Twopenny.

Bows, loops.

Additional MSS. No. 6,293, small quarto, ff. 38. It contains instructions for making various laces, letters and "edges," such as "diamond stiff, fly, cross, long S, figure of 8, spider, hart," etc., and at the end:—

In the British Museum (Lansdowne Roll, No. 22) is a third MS. on the same subject, a parchment roll written about the time of Charles I., containing rules and directions for executing various kinds of sampler-work, to be wrought in letters, etc., by means of coloured strings or bows. It has a sort of title in these words, "To know the use of this Booke it is two folkes worke," meaning that the works are to be done by two persons.

Probably of this work was the "Brede (braid) of divers colours, woven by Four Ladies," the subject of some verses by Waller beginning:—

1 Rich. III. = 1483. Act XII.

Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York, and Wardrobe Accounts of King Edward IV., by Sir H. Nicolas.

1 Rich. III. renews 3 Edw. IV. for ten years, and that of Richard is continued by 19 Henry VII. for twenty years more.

4 Hen. VII. = 1488-9.

P.R.O. The same Warrant contains an order to deliver "for the use and wearing of our right dere daughter the Lady Mary," together with a black velvet gown, scarlet petticoat, etc., "a nounce of lace for her kyrtel," and a thousand "pynnes."

In the list of the late King Henry's plate, made 1543, we have some curious entries, in which the term lace appears:—

"Item, oone picture of a woman made of erthe with a carnation Roobe knitt with a knott in the lefte shoulder and bare hedid with her heere rowlid up with a white lace sett in a boxe of wodde.

"Item, oone picture of a woman made of erthe with a carnacōn garment after the Inglishe tyer and bareheddid with her heare rowled up with a white lace sett in a boxe of wodde."—P. R. O.

19 Hen. VII. = 1504.

Sir H. Nicolas.

Statute 1 Hen. VIII. = 1509-10. An act agaynst wearing of costly Apparell, and again, 6 Hen. VIII. = 1514-15.

Under forfeiture of the same shirt and a fine of 40 shillings.

7 Hen. VIII. = 1515-16.—"Thacte of Apparell."

24 Hen. VIII. = 1532-33.—"An Act for Reformation of excess in Apparel."

In 1539.

Lisle. Corr. Vol. i., p. 64. P.R.O. Lord Lisle was Governor of Calais, whence the letter is dated.

"Madame,—Je ne vous eusse vollu envoier ceste demi dousaine pour changier nestoit que tous celles que menvoiez dernierement sont trop larges, et une dousaine estoit de cestuy ouvrage dont jestis esmerveillé, veu que je vous avois escript que menvoissiez de louvrage aux lozenges, vous priant que la demy dousaine que menvoierez pour ceste demy dousaine soient du dict ouvrage de lozenge, et quil soient plus estroictes mesmement par devant nonobstant que lexemple est au contraire."

Among the marriage clothes of Mary Neville, who espoused George Clifton, 1536, is:—

"A neyge of perle, £1 4s. 0d."

In the pictures, at Hampton Court Palace, of Queens Mary and Elizabeth, and another of Francis II., all as children, their ruffs are edged with a very narrow purl.

1538. Lisle. Corr. (P.R.O.)

See Note 776.

Privy Purse Ex. Hen. VIII. 1529-32. Sir H. Nicolas.

Father of Lord Burleigh. There are other similar entries:—"8 pieces of yellow lace, 9s. 4d." Also, "green silk lace."

1632, "green silk lace" occurs again, as trimming a pair of French shoes in a "Bill of shoes for Sir Francis Windebank and family."—State Papers Dom. Vol. 221. P.R.O.

"Inv. of Hen. VIII. and 4 Edw. VI." Harl. MS. 1419, A and B.

38 Hen. VIII. = 1546. Rymer's Fœdera. Vol. xv., p. 105.

Harl. MS. 1419. Passim.

See Holbein's portraits.

"The old cut-work cope."—Beaumont and Fletcher. The Spanish Curate.

We read, too, of "3 kyrcheys y^t was given to the kyrk wash," large as a woman's hood worn at a funeral, highly ornamented with the needle by pious women, and given to be sold for the good of the impoverished church, for which the churchwardens of St. Michael, Spurr Gate, York, received the sum of 5s.

1 and 2 Ph. and Mary.

"White work" appears also among Queen Elizabeth's New Year's Gifts:—

"1578. Lady Ratcliff. A veil of white work, with spangles and small bone lace of silver. A swete bag, being of changeable silk, with a small bone lace of gold.

"1589. Lady Shandowes (Chandos). A cushion cloth of lawne wrought with whitework of branches and trees, edged with bone work, wrought with crowns."—Nichols' Royal Progresses.

Roll of New Year's Gifts. 1556.

Stowe, Queen Mary. An. 1554.

It is not known when brass wire pins were first made in England, but it must have been before 1543, in which year a Statute was passed (35 Hen. VIII.) entitled, "An Act for the True Making of Pynnes," in which the price is fixed not to exceed 6s. 8d. per 1,000. By an Act of Rich. III. the importation of pins was prohibited. The early pins were of boxwood, bone, bronze or silver. In 1347 (Liber Garderobæ, 12-16 Edw. III. P. R. O.) we have a charge for 12,000 pins for the trousseau of Joanna, daughter of Edward III., betrothed to Peter the Cruel. The young Princess probably escaped a miserable married life by her decease of the black death at Bordeaux when on her way to Castille.

The annual import of pins in the time of Elizabeth amounted to £3,297.—State Papers, Dom., Eliz. Vol. viii. P. R. O.

In Eliz., Q. of Bohemia's Expenses, we find: "Dix mille espingles dans un papier, 4 florins."—Ger. Corr. No. 41. P. R. O.

"In Holland pillow-lace is called Pinwork lace—Gespelde-werkte kant."—Sewell's Eng. and Dutch Dict.

An elderly woman informed the author that she recollects in her youth, when she learned to make Honiton point of an ancient teacher of the parish, bone pins were still employed. They were in use until a recent period, and renounced only on account of their costliness. The author purchased of a Devonshire lace-maker one, bearing date 1829, with the name tatooed into the bone, the gift of some long-forgotten youth to her grandmother. These bone or wood bobbins, some ornamented with glass beads—the more ancient with silver let in—are the calendar of a lace-worker's life. One records her first appearance at a neighbouring fair or May meeting; a second was the first gift of her good man, long cold in his grave; a third the first prize brought home by her child from the dame school, and proudly added to her mother's cushion: one and all, as she sits weaving her threads, are memories of bygone days of hopes and fears, of joys and sorrows; and, though many a sigh it calls forth, she cherishes her well-worn cushion as an old friend, and works away, her present labour lightened by the memory of the past.

Surtees' Wills and Inv.

"Hearing bone lace value 5s. 4d." is mentioned "in y^e shoppe of John Johnston, of Darlington, merchant."

1578. "James Backhouse, of Kirby in Lonsdale. Bobbin lace, 6s. per ounce."

1597. "John Farbeck, of Durham. In y^e Shoppe, 4 oz. & ½ of Bobbing lace, 6s. 4d."—Ibid.

"Bobbin" lace is noted in the Royal Inventories, but not so frequently as "bone."

"Laqueo ... fact. super lez bobbins."—G. W. A. Eliz., 27 and 28. P. R. O.

"Three peces teniar bobbin."—Ibid. Car. I., vi.

"One pece of bobin lace, 2s.," occurs frequently in the accounts of Lord Compton, afterwards Earl of Northampton, Master of the Wardrobe of Prince Charles.—Roll, 1622-23, Extraordinary Expenses, and others. P. R. O.

In the Ward. Acc. of his brother, Prince Henry, 1607, and the Warrant to the G. Ward., on his sister the Princess Elizabeth's marriage, 1612-13, "bone" lace is in endless quantities.

Bobbin lace appears invariably distinguished from bone lace, both being mentioned in the same inventory. The author one day showed an old Vandyke Italian edging to a Devonshire lace-worker, asking her if she could make it. "I think I can," she answered; "it is bobbin lace." On inquiring the distinction, she said: "Bobbin lace is made with a coarse thread, and in its manufacture we use long bobbins instead of the boxwood of ordinary size, which would not hold the necessary quantity of this thread, though sufficient for the quality used in making Honiton flowers and Trolly lace."—Mrs. Palliser.

Randle Holme, in his enumeration of terms used in arts, gives: "Bone lace, wrought with pegs."

The materials used for bobbins in Italy have been already mentioned.

Lord Compton. "Extraordinary Expenses of the Wardrobe of K. Charles, before and after he was King."—Roll, 1622-26. P. R. O.

An. 1635.

A miniature of Old Hilliard, now in the possession of his Grace the Duke of Hamilton.

1614.

Massinger. 1612.

Beaumont and Fletcher.

"The things you follow and make songs on now, should be sent to knit, or sit down to bobbins or bone-lace."—Tatler.

"We destroy the symmetry of the human figure, and foolishly combine to call off the eye from great and real beauties to childish gewgaw ribbands and bone-lace."—Spectator.

It is used in Walpole's New British Traveller. 1784.