Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-02-07
THE LACE INDUSTRY.
How the Costly Venetian Fabric Is
Manufactured.

From the Epoch.
Within late years the lace industry has re-
vived in Venice, and not only in Venice. but
throughout all Italy, and is taught in the public
schools of Rome. There are two kinds Of We
netian laces-that made with needles and that
made with bobbins only one person being en-
gagged in the former to every twelve persons
engaged in the latter. The lsces made with
the needle are far more elegant and costly than
those made with the bobbin. The difference
is almost as marked as the difference between
a steel engraving and an engraving on wood
One is an elevated and difficult art, the other
is an industrial one and serves the ordinary
uses.
The costliness Of what is known as point
d'Alencon lace is owing to the fact that il is
worked with the finest needles on parchment
patterns, the pieces afterward united by invis-
ible seams. Twelve different hands are re-
CURED to produce a 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 numbered in a given
order. The pattern ispricked upon the parch-
ment by the marker; then the tracer traces
piece of coarse linen attached TO the parch-
ment. The ground netting of the lace is then
worked in, and it thus passes from hand to
hand until completed, when il is cut from the
pattern with a sharp razor.
A point dAlencon shawl has been known to
sell for $4,000. One of the most marvellous
laces owned by the Empress Eugene was a
point de Brouxelles shawl. No less than eighty
experts were employed for one year in making
1t, and it cost $4,000 in sold. II is in imita-
ton of Royal Venice point, in its magnificent
web, in its tracery of the renaissance period
and Its devices of antique figures and Moorish
concerts. Heavy ferns droop over the almost
invisible mesh, there are groups of medallions
set In exquisite garlands of foliage. and the
borders are worked around concealed horse
hair. to give it greater stiffness, and to offer
striking contrast to the airy grace of the Brus-
sells manufacture. Queen Isabella's laces are
valued at : 100000. and represent all kinds,
epochs and nationalities; in her collection are
Spanish mantilla wells worth $4,000. dresses in
point d Alencon, and antique guipure valued at
$4,000 each
The handmade lace of France is principally
produced at Caen, Bayeux, Chantilly, and the
surrounding districts, and is executed with re-
markable ability. The articles manufactured
at Chantilly are ordinarily very costly, and only
within the command of the wealthy. but the
Bayeux silk lace closely resembles it, There
are no such assemblages of hand-lace workers
In Ireland or Scotland as at Caen and Bordeaux,
where upwards Of fifty thousand females are
engaged in the occupation. The value of the
annual export Of Saxony lace approaches
Sl,OOO,000. The workers in the north of Ire
land and Scotland have an especial aptitude in
producing difficult work.
modern improvement in the production of
lace is the introduction of shaded tints in the
flowers and patterns, giving them the relief of
picture. The art has been most successfully
used in the laces made in France. The effect
is produced by varying the application of the
two stitches used in making the flowers-the
first being the ''toile" stitch which forms the
close stitch, and the other the grille" stitch
employed in the more open part of the pattern