technically called "gimp," is made by interweaving a thread much thicker than that forming the groundwork, according to the design pricked out on the parchment.[101] Such has been the pillow and the method of using it, with but slight variation, for more than three centuries.
To avoid repetition, we propose giving a separate history of the manufacture in each country; but in order to furnish some general notion of the relative ages of lace, it may be as well to enumerate the kinds most in use when Colbert, by his establishment of the Points de France, in 1665, caused a general development of the lace manufacture throughout Europe.
The laces known at that period were:—
1. Point.—Principally made at Venice, Genoa, Brussels, and in Spain.
2. Bisette.—A narrow, coarse thread pillow lace of three qualities, made in the environs of Paris[102] by the peasant women, principally for their own use. Though proverbially of little value—"ce n'est que de la bisette"[103]—it formed an article of traffic with the mercers and lingères of the day.
3. Gueuse.—A thread lace, which owed to its simplicity the name it bore. The ground was network, the flowers a loose, thick thread, worked in on the pillow. Gueuse was formerly an article of extensive consumption in France, but, from the beginning of the last century, little used save by the lower classes. Many old persons may still remember the term, "beggars' lace."
4. Campane.[104]—A white, narrow, fine, thread pillow edging, used to sew upon other laces, either to widen them, or to replace a worn-out picot or pearl.
Campane lace was also made of gold, and of coloured silks, for trimming mantles, scarfs, etc. We find, in the Great Wardrobe Accounts of George I., 1714,[105] an entry of "Gold Campagne buttons."
Evelyn, in his "Fop's Dictionary," 1690, gives, "Campane, a kind of narrow, pricked lace;" and in the "Ladies' Dictionary," 1694, it is described as "a kind of narrow lace, picked or scalloped."[106]
In the Great Wardrobe Account of William III., 1688–9, we have "le poynt campanie tæniæ."
5. Mignonette.[107]—A light, fine, pillow lace, called blonde de fil,[108] also point de tulle, from the ground resembling that fabric. It was made of Lille thread, bleached at Antwerp, of different widths, never exceeding two to three inches. The localities where it was manufactured were the environs of Paris, Lorraine, Auvergne, and Normandy.[109] It was also fabricated at Lille, Arras, and in Switzerland. This lace was article of considerable export, and at times in high favour, from its lightness and clear ground, for headdresses[110] and other trimmings. It frequently appears in the advertisements of the last century. In the Scottish Advertiser, 1769, we find enumerated among the stock-in-trade, "Mennuet and blonde lace."
6. Point double, also called point de Paris and point des champs: point double, because it required double the number of threads used in the single ground; des champs, from its being made in the country.
7. Valenciennes.—See Chapter XV.
Fig. 17.
Old Mechlin.
8. Mechlin.—All the laces of Flanders, with the exception of those of Brussels and the point double, were known in commerce at this period under the general name of Mechlin. (Fig. 17.)
9. Gold lace.
10. Guipure.
GUIPURE.
Guipure, says Savary, is a kind of lace or passement made of "cartisane" and twisted silk.
Cartisane is a little strip of thin parchment or vellum, which was covered over with silk, gold, or silver thread, and formed the raised pattern.
The silk twisted round a thick thread or cord was called guipure,[111] hence the whole work derived its name.[112]
Guipure was made either with the needle or on the pillow like other lace, in various patterns, shades and colours, of different qualities and several widths.
The narrowest guipures were called "Têtes de More."[113]
The less cartisane in the guipure, the more it was esteemed, for cartisane was not durable, being only vellum covered over with silk. It was easily affected by the damp, shrivelled, would not wash, and the pattern was destroyed. Later, the parchment was replaced by a cotton material called canetille.
Savary says that most of the guipures were made in the environs of Paris;[114] that formerly, he writes in 1720, great quantities were consumed in the kingdom; but since the fashion had passed away, they were mostly exported to Spain, Portugal, Germany, and the Spanish Indies, where they were much worn.[115]
Guipure was made of silk, gold and silver; from its costliness, therefore, it was only worn by the rich.
Plate VIII.
Italian, Venetian, Flat Needle-point Lace. "Punto in Aria."—The design is held together by plain "brides." Date, circ. 1645. Width, 11⅝ in.
Victoria and Albert Museum.
Plate IX.
Portion of a Band of Needle-point Lace representing the Story of Judith and Holofernes.—The work is believed to be Italian, made for a Portuguese, the inscription being in Portuguese. Date, circ. 1590. Width, 8 in. The property of Mr. Arthur Blackborne.
Photo by A. Dryden.
To face page 36.
At the coronation of Henry II. the front of the high altar is described as of crimson velvet, enriched with "cuipure d'or"; and the ornaments, chasuble, and corporaliers of another altar as adorned with a "riche broderie de cuipure."[116]
On the occasion of Henry's entry into Paris, the king wore over his armour a surcoat of cloth of silver ornamented with his ciphers and devices, and trimmed with "guippures d'argent."[117]
In the reign of Henry III. the casaques of the pages were covered with guipures and passements, composed of as many colours as entered into the armorial bearings of their masters; and these silk guipures, of varied hues, added much to the brilliancy of their liveries.[118]
Guipure seems to have been much worn by Mary Stuart. When the Queen was at Lochleven, Sir Robert Melville is related to have delivered to her a pair of white satin sleeves, edged with a double border of silver guipure; and, in the inventory of her clothes taken at the Abbey of Lillebourg,[119] 1561–2, we find numerous velvet and satin gowns trimmed with "gumpeures" of gold and silver.[120]
It is singular that the word guipure is not to be found in our English inventories or wardrobe accounts, a circumstance which leads us to infer, though in opposition to higher authorities, that guipure was in England termed "parchment lace"—a not unnatural conclusion, since we know it was sometimes called "dentelle à cartisane,"[121] from the slips of parchment of which it was partly composed. Though Queen Mary would use the French term, it does not seem to have been adopted in England, whereas "parchment lace" is of frequent occurrence.
From the Privy Purse Expenses of the Princess Mary,[122] we find she gives to Lady Calthorpe a pair of sleeves of "gold, trimmed with parchment lace," a favourite donation of hers, it would appear, by the anecdote of Lady Jane Grey.
"A great man's daughter," relates Strype[123] "(the Duke of Suffolk's daughter Jane), receiving