Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1874-02-04
Historic Lace.

Historic lace, that is, lace which ha
belonged to any celebrated parsonage
and to which an exact date can b,
assigned, is Of the greatest interest Il
the student, but unfortunately of rar,
occurrence. Perhaps the Oldest speci
men known, if tradition is to be be
ieved, is a part of a priests vestment
preserved under glass in the cathedra
of Prague, said to be the work and tn,
gift of Anne of Bohemia, queen o
Richard II. of England. It is q piec,
of embroidery, into which cutwork il
introduced, and very like, in workman
ship, coverlets of many centuries later
but at Prague it has always remained
carefully treasured as the work of $1,000
Queen Anne, as the English were won
to style her. Some years since Q por
ton of the vestment was taken off anG
washed, when it fell into holes, and wa,
set aside in the sacristy. From this
washed piece, q specimen was procured
by traveller, and is now in the South
Kensington Museum.
In the Musee des Dentelles, at Ii
Puy, is preserved gold lace, which goes
back to the Valois Kings Of France, tc
Henry II. and his sons, and in the
Musee de Cluny, at Paris, are the wire.
mounted ruffs Of Queen Marie de Medi.
cis, or fimsy, in-made geometric lace,
which, if they are to be taken as q spe.
cimen Of the art of that period, are little
to boast of. The blood-stained shirt oi
her consort, Henry w., worn when he
fell by the knife Of the assassin Ravail-
lac, has passed into the collection oi
Madame Tussaud. It was among some
property once belonging to Cardinal
Mazarin, and Charles Z. is said to have
offered twelve hundred dollars for the
relic. 1t is ornamented with cutwork
round the collar and breast, probably
similar to one which appears in the &C.
counts of his first wife, Margaret, Queen
of Navarro, "four breadths of point
coupe to make trimming for the shirt
of my love the king, at 18 ivres each. "
Christening-suits are handed down in
many old families to which o precise
date may be affixed, and We are told
that mantle trimmed with cutwork,
said to have been used in 1901 to cover
"the infant Anne Boleyn" on the occa-
sion of her being christened, has been
preserved for many generationa in q
Welsh family, ineal descendants of Sir
Thomas Boleyn, father of the ll-fsted
queen.
A vestment, enriched with cutwork,
worn by Mary, Queen Of Scots, at her
executian, is carefully kept as an heir
loom at Buckland, Berks, seat Of Sir
William Throckmorton, where it is
shown to all visitors to the castle. The
lace round the neck and sleeves is de-
scribed to be "sort Of point or needle
made lace, besides which there is an
insertion down the front, and on the
shoulders kind of drawn-work in the
linen"
The lace-edged vail worn by Queen
Mary at her execution, which we see
in her portrait, is described
by contemporary as "a dressing of
lawn, edged with bone-lace." 1t was
long kept as an heirloom by the e1iled
until Cardinal York bequeathed
1t to their faithful adherent, Sir John
Cox Hippesley. On one occasion, when
the vail at Baden. Sir John
threw it over the head of
the Queen of Bavaria. Her majesty
shuddered at the omen, and precipi-
lately withdrew from the apartment,
evidently much alarmed at the incident,
and could not be persuaded TO reioiu
the party.
In the house at Stratford upon-Avon
where Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare's
wife, was born, is to be seen, preserved
in an oaken chest, according to the an
cient fashion of the country, q pillow
case and large sheet, made of home
spun linen. Down the middle of the
sheet is an ornamental openwork or
cutwork insertion, about an inch and q
half deep, and the pillow case is simil-
arly decorated. They are marked ''F.
a., and have always been used on spe-
cial occasions by the Hathaway family.
This insertion, or "seaming lace" as
it was called, appears about that period
to have been universally used for unit
ing the breadths of linen instead of
sewing q seam, q custom which still
fingers on in many parts of Europe.
The wardrobe accounts of King James
1. and his son, Prince Charles, abound
in the employment of scanning" lace
for sheets, shirts, and other
articles of linen.
The shirts worn by King Charles L
on the day of his execution, for the
weather was cold and he wore two, one
over the other, are, We understand,
richly scanned and trimmed with lace.
One is in the possession Of the Earl Of
Ashburnham, the other of - Herbert,
Esq. Some years since one Of these
two was exhibited in the Loan Collec-
ton at South Remington. There is
also much good lace on the waxwork
efigies in Westminster Abbey. King
William wears q rich lace crsvat and
ruffles, and his consort, Queen Mary,
has Q lace tucker and double ruff1ed
sleeves of the finest raised Venetian
point. King Charles wears the same
description Of lace as Queen Mary. The
Duchess of Buckingham, daughter of
James IL, has also fine raised lace but
the figures having been 30 often re-
dressed, it is difficult to assign any
historic proof of the lace having be-
longed to the individuals on whose
efigies it is placed.