The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-02-21
THE LACE INDUSTRY.
How the Costly Venetian Fabric is
Manufactured.
From the ED9ch

How the Costly Venetian Fabric is
Manufactured.
From the Epoch
Within late years the lace industry has
revived in Venice, and not only in Venice,
but throughout all Italy, and is taught in
the public schools at Rome. There are two
kinds of Venetian laces-that made with
needles and that made with bobbins, only
one person beng engaged in he former TO
every twelve persons engaged in the after
The laCeS made with the needle are ia r
more elegant and costly than these made
with the b0boin. The difference is almost
as marked as the difference be ween a eel
engraving and an engraving on wood. O. g
is an elevated and difficult art, the other
is an industrial one and serves the ordinary
uses.
EThe costumes of what is known as point
d AlencOn lace is owing to TIE fact that it is
worked with the finest needles on parch-
ment patterns, the pieces afterward united
by invisible seams. Twelve different hands
are employed to produce single piece of
the lace. The design is engraved upon
copper plate. and is then printed upon slips
of parchment 10 inches long, each slip num-
bored IL a given order. The pattern is
pricked HSon the parchment by the marker;
then the trAcer traces the pattern of the
parchment with thread upon a piece of
coarse linen attached to the parchment
The ground netting of the lace is then
worked il, and it thus passes from hand t.
hand until completed, when it is cut from
the pattern with sharp razor.
A point d'Alencon shawl has been known
to sell for $4,000. One Of the most marvel
Gus lsces owned by the Empress Eugeuie
was point de BrOuxelles shawl No less
than eighty experts we're employed for one
year in making it, and II cost $4,000 in
gold. 1t is an Imitation of Royal Venice
point in its mag niticent web, in its tracery
Of the renaissance period and its Device of
antique figures and Moorish conceits.
Heavy forms drOop over the almost invisible
Iuesh, there are groups of medalliOns set in
exquisite garlands of foliage, and the bord-
ers are worked around concealed horse
hair, 70 give it greater stiffness, and 10 offer
striking contrast TO the airy grace of the
brussels manufacture. Queen Isabella's
laces are valued at $1,000, 0OO and represent
all kinds, epochs and natiunaites: in her
collection are Spanish mantilla wells worth
$4,000. dresses in point d'Alenc0n, and
antique guipure valued at 5000 each.
The handmade lace Of FIR nee is princi-
pally produced at Caen Baveux Chautilly
and the surrounding districts, and is ex-
ecuted with remarkable ability. The
articles manufactured at Chantilly are or
Glnaruy very costly, and only within the
command OF the wealthy, bu the Bayeux
silk lace closely resembles il. There are no
sucl assembiages OF hand-lace workers in
lrela"d Or Scotani as at C1en and Bor-
deauX, where upwards of $4,000 females
are engaged in the occuunti0l. The value
Of the annual export of Saxony lace ap
proaches Sl000,0O0. Tho workers in tie
north of Ireland and Scotland have an Is.
peeial aptitude in producing difficult
work.
A modern improvement in the production
of lace Is the introduction Of shaded Tits
II the flowers and pate us. giving EN- tie
relief Of picture. Tae art has been mos
successfully used in the lace, maie in
France. The effect is produced by VARYING
the application o. the TWO stitches used In
making the f1wers-the first beiag the
"tolle' .ch which forms the close stitch.
ana the other the grille" stitch employed
IN the more open part Of he pattern.