The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-02-16
PLACE OF LACE IN HISTORY.
Fortunes Spent by Queens and Royal
Personages.

New York Tribune.
All collectors or students of antique hand
made lace are familiar with the classic
work on the subject written by the late
Mrs. Bury Pallister. the last edition of
which was published nearly thirty years
ago. and has long been out of print. says
the London Daily Telegraph. A new edi-
ton has just been issued by Messrs. Samp-
son Low, Marston & Co, which has been
entirely revised. rewritten and enlarged,
under the editership of NJ. Jourdain and
Miss Alice Dryden. The chapters on Spain,
Alencon and Argentan and the introduce
tory chapters on needlework nave been
wholly remodeled and rewritten, and a
hundred new illustrations have been added,
together with several historical portraits,
TO show the different fashions of wearing
lace. The result is a volume of singular
beauty and completeness giving practically
for the first time an exhaustive history of
what is one of the daintiest and most ex-
quisite products of industry. Its popularity
has not been confined to any one country
or any one century, though the days of
gigantic ruffs and ruffies and long dropping
collars have long since passed away.
The ruff at the close of the sixteenth CEN
fury had attained such an outrageous size
that the wearers could scarcely turn their
heads. They were so stiffened that they
cracked like paper, and the story is told
that Queen MargOt of Navarro was COM
PEELED one day, when seated at dinner, to
send for spoon with a handle two feet in
length wherewith to eat her soup. England
suffered from the same mania. and the rage
lasted in one form or another down to the
close Of the eighteenth century, affecting
both men and women alike. When prin-
cess OF France married, 1t was no uncom-
mon thing for the bill for her laces and
lace-edged linens and counterpanes to
amount to e25.oO0 and a $4,000 trousseau
was of ordinary occurrence. Similarly
throughout the Stuart regime in England
cavaliers and their wives delighted to en-
cumber their estates in order to crafty
their taste for lace; and even if Cromwell
lived as Puritan his body after death was
more gorgeousy attired than that of any
deceased sovereign, with purple velvet, err
mine and the richest Flanders lace.
James III died at St Germans in a laced
was put on when the King was in extremis
as a compliment to Louis XIV. 1t was the
court etiquette for all the royals to die
with a nightcap on, and this toquet is still
preserved In the museum at Dunkirk,
adjoining wax model of the Kings head.
Both William III and Queen Mary had a
passion for lace. The Queens lace bill for
Kings in 1895 rose to e2.459 The lace for
six new razor cloths cost him ego, and the
cut work for twelve handkerchefs Sass.
ne idCS lIduS pIoSpeIeu With SuCn Benef-
Gus patronage, and BlandfOrd point lace
sold for much as $50 per yard. On their
tombs in Westminster Abbey the Queen is
represented as wearing lace tucker and
double sleeves of the finest raised Venice
point while the King wears a rich lace
cravat and ruffles.
In the reign of Queen Anne a woman of
fashion would give about $50 for a French
point Flanders head and ruffies, so for
a handkerchief and So for a black French
laced hood. The bill of Margareta Jolly
for the year 17l2 for providing the Queen
with Mechlin and Brussels lace amounted
to 81,41S. Lace for long continued the
mania of the day. when you are among
yourselves" wrote the bitter tongued Dean
Swift in letter to young woman, how