This work formed the great delight of provincial ladies in France. Jean Godard, in his poem on the Glove,[75] alluding to this occupation, says:—
"Une femme gantée œuvre en tapisserie
En raizeaux deliez et toute lingerie
Elle file—elle coud et fait passement
De toutes les fassons. … "
The armorial shield of the family, coronets, monograms, the beasts of the Apocalypse, with fleurs-de-lys, sacrés cœurs, for the most part adorned those pieces destined for the use of the Church. If, on the other hand, intended for a pall, death's-heads, cross-bones and tears, with the sacramental cup, left no doubt of the destination of the article.
Plate IV.
Fan made at Burano and presented to Queen Elena of Italy on her Marriage, 1896.
Photo by the Burano School.
Plate V.
Italian. Punto Reale.—Modern reproduction by the Society Æmilia Ars, Bologna.
Photo by the Society.
To face page 24.
As late as 1850, a splendid cut-work pall still covered the coffins of the fishers when borne in procession through the streets of Dieppe. It is said to have been a votive offering worked by the hands of some lady saved from shipwreck, and presented as a memorial of her gratitude.
In 1866, when present at a peasant's wedding in the church of St. Lo (Dép. Manche), the author observed that the "toile d'honneur," which is always held extended over the heads of the married pair while the priest pronounces the blessing, was of the finest cut-work, trimmed with lace.
Both in the north and south of Europe the art still lingers on. Swedish housewives pierce and stitch the holiday collars of their husbands and sons, and careful ladies, drawing the threads of the fine linen sheets destined for the "guest-chamber," produce an ornament of geometric design.
Scarce fifty years since, an expiring relic of this art might be sometimes seen on the white smock-frock of the English labourer, which, independent of elaborate stitching, was enriched with an insertion of cut-work, running from the collar to the shoulder crossways, like that we see decorating the surplices of the sixteenth century.
Drawn-thread embroidery is another cognate work. The material in old drawn-work is usually loosely-woven linen. Certain threads were drawn out from the linen ground, and others left, upon and between which needlework was made. Its employment in the East dates from very early times, and withdrawing threads from a fabric is perhaps referred to in Lucan's Pharsalia:—[76]
"Candida Sidonio perlucent pectora filo,
Quod Nilotis acus compressum pectine Serum
Solvit, et extenso laxavit stamina velo."
"Her white breasts shine through the Sidonian fabric, which pressed down with the comb (or sley) of the Seres, the needle of the Nile workman has separated, and has loosened the warp by stretching out (or withdrawing) the weft."
CHAPTER III.
LACE.
"Je demandai de la dentelle:
Voici le tulle de Bruxelles,
La blonde, le point d'Alençon,
Et la Maline, si légère;
L'application d'Angleterre
(Qui se fait à Paris, dit-on);
Voici la guipure indigène,
Et voici la Valenciennes,
Le point d'esprit, et le point de Paris;
Bref les dentelles
Les plus nouvelles
Que produisent tous les pays."
Le Palais des Dentelles (Rothomago).
Lace[77] is defined as a plain or ornamental network, wrought of fine threads of gold, silver, silk, flax, or cotton, interwoven, to which may be added "poil de chèvre," and also the fibre of the aloe, employed by the peasants of Italy and Spain. The term lacez rendered in the English translation of the Statutes[78] as "laces," implying braids, such as were used for uniting the different parts of the dress, appears long before lace, properly so called, came into use. The earlier laces, such as they were, were defined by the word "passament"[79]—a general term for gimps and braids, as well as for lace. Modern industry has separated these two classes of work, but their being formerly so confounded renders it difficult in historic researches to separate one from the other.
The same confusion occurs in France, where the first lace was called passement, because it was applied to the same use, to braid or lay flat over the coats and other garments. The lace trade was entirely in the hands of the "passementiers" of Paris, who were allowed to make all sorts of "passements de dentelle sur l'oreiller aux fuseaux, aux épingles, et à la main, d'or, d'argent, tant fin que faux, de soye, de fil blanc, et de couleur," etc. They therefore applied the same terms to their different products, whatever the material.
The word passement continued to be in use till the middle of the seventeenth century, it being specified as "passements aux fuseaux," "passements à l'aiguille"; only it was more specifically applied to lace without an edge.
The term dentelle is also of modern date, nor will it be found in the earlier French dictionaries.[80] It was not till fashion caused the passament to be made with a toothed edge that the expression of "passement dentelé" first appears.
In the accounts of Henry II. of France, and his queen, we have frequent notices of "passement jaulne dantellé des deux costez,"[81] "passement de soye incarnat dentellé d'un costé,"[82] etc., etc., but no mention of the word "dentelle." It does, however, occur in an inventory of an earlier date, that of Marguerite de France, sister of Francis I., who, in 1545, paid the sum of VI. livres "pour soixante aulnes, fine dantelle de Florance pour mettre à des colletz."[83]
After a lapse of twenty years and more, among the articles furnished to Mary Stuart in 1567, is "Une pacque de petite dentelle";[84] and this is the sole mention of the word in all her accounts.
We find like entries in the accounts of Henry IV.'s first queen.[85]
Gradually the passement dentelé subsided into the modern dentelle.
Fig. 8.
Grande Dantelle