Morning journal and courier., 1881-07-04
Laces, Ancient and Modern.
Changes i'm Fashion, from "Rose''
 

Changes i'm Fashion, from tsRose'' to
 ssPlfsse''
 The decadence of taste, so far as lace is concerned, affords curious chapter in the records of degeneration. It is easily traced; for lace, properly so called-that is to say in which groundwork and flowers are equally made by needle or bobbin-is comparativelv a new thing Those industrious antiquaries who cannot do without the Greeks and the Romans may rave of ''woven air'' and "Coan robes" but these were probably only the muslins of Dacca, or it's predecessor and the needlework of the Bible seems to have been embroidery. Lace may have been rep resented in Rome by ''cut and drawn work, :" which seems to have been of great antiquity, and certainly heralded the advent of lace in the modern world.
 This "cut work, in which a design is made by drawing out some of the threads of material already woven, is, however, quite distinct from the genuine needle-poin lace, which is entirely made by the needle accord ing to design previously drawn upon parch- ment.~ Fhe' Concurrent testimony of DOT traits and pattern books points to the six teenth century that of the invention and progress of lace, and to the seventeenth as that of fruition What is absurdly called Gothic" lace is the product of the run sad farthingle period, and is the older pisnt0 tGgliat0 which preceded pUnt0 tagliatO C .j;3g- hdmt, called also bone lace, bone- point, Span ish lace, etc, but which is really Italian, and composed of great flowers made in 'buttoIi>N hole stitch" and then linked together with brides as they were called, or pieces of light CT work which held the massive flower to- gether.
 Venice became an important centre of lace- making and the best of the beautiful ''rose," or rather, raised" point, was made there. The period during which this noble lace pre- vailed was short. In Vandykes pictures the g,etnt0 tdg1idtO occurs as often as the 'rose' point, which is many degrees more beautiful, and by Kneller's time both were quite old fashioned. By swift transition the great, heavy flowers became smaller, fatter and lighter, and the reseau or ''body" of the lace grew out of the brides, or connecting links, and acquired an importance of it's own. Ven ice point completely changed its character in the reigns of Louis XIII. and Louis XIV. h. stead of massive, richly modelled fabric, de- pending in some measure for it's full display on the surface over which 1t was spread, it became an independent and extremely beau tiful material, quite apart from any backing of velvet.
 It was the manufacture of this higher kind of Venice point that Colbert introduced at Alencon and which spread thence to Argen- tan. It is the lace which served and still serves as model for what is now popularly known as ''real' Brussels point, and more technically known as point gauge. The body is beautifully delicate, and the flowers are daintily outlined and superbly worked. From this perhaps, with ''rose'' point, the highest expression of lace work, rapid decline was brought by bobbin or pillow lace, which, pretty as 1t is, was at first merely cheap imitation of the more costly needle point and in it's best period lacked the beautiful preci- sion of the elder art
 By degrees taste, probably influenced by price, veered round in favor of bobbin lace. The older needle point was pronounced stiff and heavy, and the aerial productions of Flanders proper and French Flanders, the fabrics of Mechlin and Valenciennes usurped the place of those of Venice and Alencon. It was no longer the design and it's execution which made the value of lace work. On the contrary the body or reseGu might be said to have eaten up the design almost completely, or reduced it to mere edging or scattering of petSts lots. To these base uses fell lace- making during the regin of Louis XVI, whose wife may be said to have set the fashion for the simpler, gauzier kinds of laces, ''frliled' and s'quilled'' into cloudlike addition tothe toilet.
 If poor Marie Antoinette owned only small percentage of the lace said to have been in her possession, her collection of every style and period must have been as vast as the industry of Mary Queen of Scots in working samplers and pin-cushions. AS & matter of fact, Marie Antoinette gave death blow to the grander style of lace work by the introducing toilets of Indian muslin during theTrianon times of affected sim plicity. Still the point d. Aencon died hard, clinging to the last to the curtains of "per- sons of quality,'' and lurking in the "bath equipage," and bathing dresses of those very great ladies so far above public opinion as to receive guests while actually in 6 bath, 1t is true Gu tdat-that is to say, made milky and opaque by the addition of some es- sence
 Holcroft, the ex-jockey and author of the s'Road to Ruin,'' was mortified at this prac- tice albeit there is no doubt that the lady who received him "up to her chin in water' was suitably enveloped in point lace. The golden days of lace, when the trimmings of the dowager Duchesse de Ia Fertes couch were worth 10000 crowns" and e5, 900 sterling was paid for brides outfit in the matter of lace, were over but the degrada- ton to the machine level was not yet consum- mated. It was the ease < ith which Mech lin lace could be machine-made that threw lace out of fashion, despite the efforts of the first Napoleon to sustain the Brussels work IL
 Lace, except to the most practised eyes, fell under suspicion until the taste for needle point revived few years ago. JN- revul- sion of feeling is by no means h-eiy to in- iure the manufacture of machine made lace, which considered as "quiling" or other trim ming of the ruflied or plisse kind, may do as well as needle or bobbin work What is gain ed is revived taste for the superior kinds of needle-point, which partake as essentially of the character of art manufacture as the | Ana