The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-05-21
A Current Exhibition in Paris Shows
Old and Modern Handmade Laces
and the Machine Product Side by
Side Modern Work Rivals the Best
Antique Work. ~ l

The exhibition OF handmade lace
In the Galleria Museum in Paris,
opened by Nine. Loubet, arouses keen
interest among American women now
in Paris. A revival Of the hand made
lace industry Of Bayeux and Alencon
where the finest handmade lace in
point Colbert and point de France,
Is produced by 1900 skilled women
and girls-has set in, owing to the in.
creasing demand for handmade lace
for gowns, wells, handkerchiefs and
trimmings for ball and dinner toilets
and for furs, One Of the results Of
the present exhibition has been to.
prove that the handmade lace
worked to-day in, Normandy Is quite
equal to the celebrated lace produced
In the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. No piece of old lace can
now be found In France that discloses
finer and better work than the lace
dress made by the dentellieres of
Alencon for the Empress Eugenie, or
than the point ID Alenco on Wedding veil
which was made for the Countess
Boni de Castellane and which, as Miss
Gould, she wore on her wedding day.
These laces are, of course, objects Of
great luxury. The dress made for the
the lace portion alore-$20,000, and
$4,000 francs, or $1,000 was paid for
the Countess de CastelIane's bridal
VEIL Indeed, the average price of the
best handmade Alencon lace is $40
a meter.
A capital feature Of the hand lace
exhibition is the juxtaposition of
handsmade lace produced to-day with
specimens Of lace made in the sew
enteenth and eighteenth centuries and
with machine made lace. Even cur
sorry inspection shows that the mod
ern handmade point de France" is
equal to the most famous historic
specimens and beside the machine
| made lace the Norman handwork
seems very much as the finest cham
payne when compared with the rough
est cider. s=-
The Revolution well-nigh proved
! the ruin Of the French lace makers.
During the troublous years that fol-
lowed nobody bought their costly
lhandfwork, and many girls and wom-
en- abandoned the bobbin and needle
( for field or homework. Attic Napol-
con protected and encouraged the In
dustry, It had only a. temporary reviv-
al Of prosperity during the First En-
pire, and the last fifty years have seen
/ a hand-to-hand struggle for life with
q mortal enemy--modern machinery.
The number Of women engaged in the
lace industry has dwindled from $780,
/ coo in 1850 to something under 150,-
/ 600 to-day thruout the whole OF
1 France. The prodigious production OF
Icheap imitation machine made lace
crowded their delicate work almost
out OF the field. It is curious to notice
1 on even costly and beautiful dresses
7 that the majority Of women, five and
4 ten years ago, were content to wear
worthless Imitation laces which their
ancestresses would have scorned. Not
30 to-day. however, when the grande
danes OF the Faubourg st. German
and leading actresses Of Paris pay $50
i a meter for handmade lace trimmings
for their gowns and their fur nantes
i and for their delicate underlinen and
4 insertions In their silk stockings.
i A walk around the exhibits at the
Galltera Museum should suffice to In
lduce every woman Of taste to burn