The Lace Dictionary

Antique Lace

ALOE. A form of bobbin lace made in many towns in Italy and Spain, especially Albissola, Barcelona, Genoa, and later in the Philippine Islands, and, being made of the fibers of the aloe plant, it is mucilagenous. Made with a bobbin; also made by tatting.

ALOST. A town in France famous for simple bobbin laces, Valenciennes, Honitons and darned laces

ALTAR LACES. Used for altar decoration; usually of Medieval character, usually darned, drawn or cut-work; sometimes reticella

Alencon

Showing a definitely defined cordonnet edge to pattern

ALTO-E-BASSO: see Velvet

AMERICAN LACE. AS early as 1882 A. G. Jennings was making machine lace, Spanish lace and guipure. In 1884 Loeb & Schoenfeld made tambour lace curtains in Camden. In 1885 the Nottingham industry was started with one machine brought over by John Willoughby and put up at Ford-ham, New York.

AMPTHILL. Queen Catherine of Aragon introduced the making of lace into Bedfordshire during her residence at Ampthill.

AMSTERDAM. Famous for reproduction of French Alen-50ns, Argentans and Brussels laces. Dentelle a la Reine was a generic term applied to these Amsterdam needle-point laces

ANGLETERRE. POINT D'ANGLETRRE. Originally a Brussels lace smuggled into England and called Angleterre to avoid duty; subsequently made in England; sometimes classified as needle-point lace, although the net is bobbinet, the designs only being made with a needle.

ANGLICANUM. OPUS ANGLICANUM. English cut-work, needle-work and embroidery work are included in this term.

ANNABERG. Famous for its early bobbin laces. Barbara Uttmann, who introduced bobbin lace-making into Germany, was buried at Annaberg.

ANTIQUE LACE. See Opus Araneum.

ANTHERAEA MYLITIA : Raw silk

ANTHERAEA PERNYL: Raw silk

ANTWERP (Flanders). Mechlin, Lille, Brussels and Trolle Kant laces made here as early as the Seventeenth Century.

APPENZELL. Town in Switzerland where much lace is made by the peasants.

APPLIQUE. Applique or application lace is a lace in which the motif or the design detail is made separate from the background and applied thereon. Applique lace must not be confused with tambour, which is made by working upon machine-made net a design in chain stitch; nor must it be confused with run work which is made by running a thread in and out of the net in a manner to make a design. Point Applique is an application of needle-point details upon a net, usually machine-made. The history of old laces practically ends with the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, when machine-made net or bobbinet was made. In 1833 cotton thread was substituted for flax and the English particularly

produced many cheap reproductions of old Brussels, Alencons and Argentans in appliques.

ARABIAN. POINT ARABIAN. A curtain lace usually of drab color; tape-like figures heavily corded and connected bv brides.

ARABIAN LACET. Practically a "Renaissance" tape curtain lace, the tape corded in imitation of Arabian or Point Arabian effect and color.

ARANEUM. OPUS ARANEUM. A coarse, open form of darned work. At an early period in Italy regular netting darned in a way to show a design was called Lacis or Opus Filatorium. In France the modern survival is called Filet

ARGENTAN. POINT D’ARGENTAN. In 1650 Alengon and Argentan laces were generally known as Point de France laces. The workers at Argentan were often the same people who worked at Alengon. The Argentan net is firmer and larger than other needle-point nets; the pattern is bolder and flatter, not employing the fine cordonnet of Alencon. Argentan excels in brides or bars, particularly in the six-pointed star motifs to which are added three or four pearls on each side. This kind of bar is called bride epingle.

"Argentan" is the term given to lace (whether made at Alencon or Argentan) with large bride ground, which consists of a six-sided mesh, worked over with button-hole stitches. " It was always printed on the parchment pattern, and the upper angle of the hexagon was pricked ; the average side of a diagonal taken from angle to angle, in a so-called Argentan hexagon, was about one-sixth of an inch, and each side of the hexagon was about one-tenth of an inch. An idea of the minuteness of the work can be formed from the fact that a side of a hexagon would be overcast with some nine or ten button-hole stitches."
In other details, the workmanship of the laces styled Alencon and Argentan is identical; the large bride ground, however, could support a flower bolder and larger in pattern, in higher and heavier relief, than the reseau ground.

ARGENTELLA POINT. Early Italian needle-point net lace resembling Argentan and Alen^on and following the efforts of the Italians to compete with the French in light net laces. There is no raised outline and the designs are conspicuous in small circles, ovals, small sprays; often called Burano point. The designs are very delicate, the thread exceed are very delicate, the thread exceedingly white; no raised work, everything flat.

ARIA. PUNTO IN ARIA. Meaning, broadly, "stitches in the air." A term applied to the earliest form of needle-point laces following reticellas, which were an evolution of cut-work. Punto in Aria was accomplished without cutting any background. See Venetian Point.

ARMENIAN. Chiefly a low-grade crochet. See Asia.

ARRAS. Town in France where early Valenciennes were made.

ART. GUIPURE D'ART. See Opus Araneum.

ARTIFICIAL LACE. A term applied to a lace that is not woven or embroidered, produced entirely by chemical methods, frequently made of celluloid or pulp.

ASBESTOS LACE.

The non-combustible mineral asbestos has been woven into a lace-like fabric. This curiosity was at one time kept in the Cabinet of Natural History at the Jardin des Plantes, in Paris.

A solution of asbestos is sometimes used for rendering lace non-inflammable. Lace draperies and flounces used on the stage near naked lights are frequently steeped in such a solution.

ASIA. Earliest forms of lace came from the countries contiguous to Asia Minor. Egypt produced net work in fine flax, frequently darned in gold, silver or colored silks. (Isaiah xix, 9.) Mummy wrappings in Graeco-Roman tombs were ornamented or of drawn or cut-work. Armenian women have from the earliest times made veils and nettings, but to-day are chiefly employed on low-grade commercial laces. The Arabs excelled in embroideries and laces, distinguishing between Arabuna, embroidery, and Targe, lace.

AURILLAC. Old plaited and coarse bobbin laces were made here as early as the Sixteenth Century.

AUSTRIAN.

Lace-makers of Austria are skilled in bobbin lace, Brussels and crochet laces. There is a comparatively modern variety made in Austria, in Bohemia. It resembles old Italian bobbin lace; the school where it is made is under government Anstro-Hungarian Bobbin Lace, 6J inches wide ; nineteenth centary. patronage. The industry was commenced as a means of relieving the distress in the Tyrol in 1850, and continues to flourish. A.t Lay bach, in Austria, there was at one time a bobbin lace factory which produced lace much esteemed in the eighteenth century ; this factory no longer exists. Point Gaze and a few less important laces are made in Bohemia still, but little of artistic merit. Hungarian lace is made at the present day, some of it being of good and artistic design.

AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN. Term applied to bobbin lace, some of it of great artistic value.

AUVERGNE.

At an early period the French town Au-vergne prospered in the manufacture of gold and silver laces, and many modern Cluny and simple bobbin laces and Maltese laces as well as point laces are still made here. The origin of the making of lace in the province of Auvergne is assigned to the fourteenth century, and nearly all the point lace of Aurillac passed through for exportation to Spain. At the end of the seventeenth century the products of Aurillac and other fine laces of Auvergne, sold on the Place at Marseilles, were valued at 350,000 livres per annum. It seems that the Point d'Aurillac of that period was a gold and silver lace. The fabrication ended with the demand for less costly ornaments at the time of the Revolution. The laces of Murat (Upper Auvergne) were points much valued on account of their beauty, and were chiefly made at La Chaise Dieu, Alenches, and Versailles. At Tulle a speciality was made in galloons, which were tied together with a net similar to the twisted ground of Torchon lace. These galloons were called entoilages, and were used as insertions with the finest laces. The industry died with the French Revolution.

At Le Puy the lace industry still flourishes, and an account of it will be found under that heading.

AUXERRE. Lace sometimes called Luneville lace or St. Michel lace. Made of hemp on the bobbin.

AVE MARIA. A name given by the peasants at Dieppe to a bobbin lace of Valenciennes variety.

AVORIO, Punto. Term applying in Italy to needle-point Sixteenth Century lace.

AXMINSTER. At one time headquarters of the Devonshire lace trade.

AYLESBURY. Town in England where old cotton bobbin laces were made.

BABY. A term for narrow and light laces.

BABY IRISH. Irish crochet of delicate character.

BADEN. Famous for peasant laces.

BANTA. A lace tie worn by Italians early in the Eighteenth Century.

BARBE. A lace tie worn in Italy and France in the early part of the Nineteenth Century.

BARCELONA. City in Spain famous for its heavy plaited bobbin laces, blonde, black silk and maltese laces; much tatting is also made at Barcelona.

BARMEN (Germany). Machine-made torchons in imitation of the French and Belgian designs and braids from which hand-made laces are made.

BARS. Connecting threads ornamenting open spaces in lace, sometimes called brides, claires, coxcombs, legs and ties.

BATH (England). Devonshire bobbin lace is sometimes called Bath brussels lace.

BATTENBERG. A name applied to Renaissance lace when made of Battenberg braid or tape.

BAVARIAN. Inexpensive torchon laces are made in Bavaria.

BAYEUX (France).

In the department of Calvados, Bayeux and Caen are celebrated as centres of the lace-making industry. Before 1745, the lace-workers made a white thread lace of Venetian design, the needle-point flowers being surrounded by a thick heavy cordonnet. Light thread laces were occasionally made.

In 1740 a merchant, M. Clement, opened an establishment in Bayeux, and from that time the lace-making trade there has flourished exceedingly, until at the present time it is one of the first in France. The lace of Bayeux closely resembles that of Chantilly and is frequently sold as such. Many of the so-called Chantilly lace shawls in the Exhibition of 1862 were made at Bayeux ; the designs are the same ; the mode of working is identical ; the most experienced lace judges are sometimes unable to detect the difference. Silk laces were first made at Bayeux, Caen and Chantilly in 1745; the silk was of ecru colour, brought from Nankin ; white silk from Cevennes was afterwards used. One thickness of silk is used for the ground and another for the pattern ; the manufacture of hand-made white blonde lace has languished since the invention of machines for lace-making at Nottingham and Calais. When large pieces of lace, such as veils, scarves, and deep flounces for skirts are made, the beautiful raccroc stitch is used and the pieces are joined imperceptibly, so that a shawl which would at one time have taken two women a year to make, can now be completed by fifteen women in six weeks. Alencon lace is now made at Bayeux. (Further information will be found under Black Silk Lace and Chantilly.)

BEAD EDGE. A series of looped threads edging a lace.

BEDFORDSHIRE.

This is a bobbin variety differing but little from Lille lace. Its manufacture flourished during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Queen Catherine of Aragon introduced the making of lace into the county during her two years residence at her jointure manor of Ampthill, and encouraged by example and subsidies the industry of the workers.

Much Bedfordshire pillow lace is still disposed of by itinerant lace-sellers. Baby lace was made in Bedfordshire when babies' tiny frilled caps were worn, quantities being used for sewing to the edges of cambric frills. This is sometimes called English Lille, on account of the resemblance to the Lille patterns and to those of Mechlin. The industry in this county, however, as in Devonshire, is, unfortunately, dying out, especially with regard to the working of the finer patterns. The work is carried out chiefly in the cottages, and geometric or Maltese designs are worked, frequently in cotton thread or flax with cotton admixture.

BEGGAR'S.

A term of contempt once given to the narrow braid laces of gueuse, bisette, compane and mignonette patterns. In the reign of Louis XIV., many edicts were published to prevent the courtiers from squandering their wealth on foreign laces, and to encourage the home manufactures by compelling the nobles to wear the coarse kind of Torchon made in France at the time ; but the fastidious Frenchmen would have none of the " Beggars' Lace," which was never worn except by the lower classes who could only afford a cheap and easily executed lace. Cheap laces are no longer called Beggars' Lace.

BELGIAN.

The only original lace of Belgium is the old Flanders Point. All other kinds are reproductions of the laces of the other countries of Europe. The Italian laces are made, the application, and fine French and English varieties. During the Austrian occupation of Italy, when the lace industry declined considerably in the Peninsula, the trade in Belgium was extremely prosperous. Again when Point d'Angleterre was required for England and France, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Belgium supplied large quantities. The imitative faculty is extraordinary. "Made in Belgium" is to the lace trade what "Made in Germany " is to the trade of the nineteenth century in fancy goods ; that is to say, whenever a new type or pattern in hand-made lace appears in Italy, France, or elsewhere, that same lace, at a rather cheaper price, will a month afterwards appear from Belgium,

Flanders has disputed with Italy the honour of introducing to the world so lovely a fabric as lace, but we think there are conclusive proofs of the priority of Venice in making needle-point lace, as we have briefly shown in our opening chapters. As to bobbin lace, the arguments used in favour of the invention in Flanders are based upon a picture in a side chapel in the Church of St. Peter's, at Louvain. Quentin Matsys has depicted a girl working at a pillow. This picture was painted in 1495, and the occupation was evidently chosen as one common in the country at the time. But on close examination it will be found that it is embroidery and not lace which is being made.

Every northern country in modern Europe learnt the art of bobbin lace-making from the Netherlands, chiefly through the refugees who brought their knowledge of the handicraft with them when they fled from the horrors of the religious persecutions of the sixteenth century.

So keenly alive were the Belgians to the profit accruing from the national handicraft of lace-making, that in 1698 an Act was passed in Brussels making it a criminal offence to suborn the workpeople, as so many of the most skilful were emigrating, led away by the high wages offered in France and other countries. Well organised ecoles dentellieres, or lace schools, still exist in Belgium, and children's education in lace-making commences at five years of age. This being so, it is little wonder that lace is a source of national wealth. Large quantities are made in the ateliers and lace schools in the towns, some also by the villagers in their own homes throughout the country.

As early as the sixteenth century, the Emperor Charles V. ordered that lace-making should be taught in the schools and convents, and we have seen an interesting proof in the Musee Cluny in Paris that he patronised the lace-makers in a practical manner by wearing cut-work and embroidery. The form it takes is that of a cap worn by the Emperor underneath his crown. It is made of evenly woven linen and designs of very fine lacis or cut-work alternating with the imperial arms embroidered in relief.

Large quantities of black lace are manufactured in Belgium at the present day, this industry especially flourishing in and around Grammont. The lace-making industry of Mechlin has declined considerably on account of this lace being an easy one to imitate by machinery. Louvain and Antwerp were the towns which once gave their names to laces made in the neighbourhood. Special descriptions of Belgian laces will be found under the headings Antwerp, Binche, Brussels, Flanders, Mechlin, Trolle Kant, Valenciennes, etc

BINCHE.

Binche Lace, or Guipure de Binche, made at a town in Hainault. The variety now executed is of the Brussels bobbin make. Flat sprigs wrought with the bobbins are afterwards appliqued on to machine-made net. The making of lace at this town began early in the seventeenth century, and the fabric produced was at one time a rival to the now more famous Brussels ; it was then, and until the end of the eighteenth century, called Guipure de Binche. The plait ground was never made: spider and rosette grounds were used together with the mesh patterns. It resembled old Valenciennes more than any other kind of lace. This is accounted for by the fact that Valenciennes, when lace was first made there, formed part of the ancient province of Hainault, and was only transferred to France by treaty and conquest at the end of the seventeenth century. It is almost impossible to distinguish Binche Lace from that made at the French centre.

BISETTE.

A bobbin lace made during the seventeenth century in the villages in the neighbourhood of Paris. It was coarse and narrow as a rule, though there were three grades, of varying widths and quality. The peasant women who made it used it principally for ornamenting their own caps. Gold and silver thread laces were also called Bisette. These were sometimes further ornamented with thin plates of the metal

BLACK SILK.

It would be extremely difficult to determine when the black silk lace industry was commenced. In the reign of Louis XV. in France the fabric wa's worn ; as early as the occasion of the marriage of Louis XIV. with the Infanta Marie Therese it is mentioned. At this time it was used over coloured brocade, and also as a trimming for the decolletage. Black silk guipure has never been very popular, though at the time when in the early Victorian Era Indian shawls were much worn in winter, black silk lace shawls replaced the warm material in summer, and the arrangement of the folds was considered a severe test of elegance. The shawl was worn folded, the two points nearly reaching the edge of the skirt at the back, and the front being fastened across with a shawl brooch or ornamental pin specially made for the purpose.

Black silk lace is now made at Bayeux, at Chantilly, in Malta, and in Catalonia. Embroidered net lace work is extensively made in the prisons in Italy, machine-made black net being darned with silk in bold effective patterns. A coarse loosely-woven silk thread is used for the purpose

BLANDFORD. Bobbin lace at one time famous in England.

BLONDE. Bobbin lace originally silk, in color cream or white. Later the term was applied to the silk type which was called blonde even when black. Black blonde made Chantilly famous. (See Caen.) Barcelona produced fine black or white blondes; so also Bayeux and Venice, and machine-made blondes are produced in Lyon.

Blonde de Caen.

A silk bobbin-made lace. It was about 1745 that the blonde laces, which have rendered Caen famous, first appeared ; both black and white flax thread laces had formerly been made in the neighbourhood.

At first the blondes were of a creamy colour, hence the name nankins or blondes, the silk being imported from Nankin. Later improvements in the preparation of the silk made white blondes possible, and their lightness and brilliancy account for their popularity.

BLONDE DE FIL. See Mignonette.

BLONDE NET LACES.

Bobbin lace with a fine network ground and heavy pattern. Blonde lace has a silk reseau resembling that for which the thread laces of Lille are celebrated, and the toile is worked with a broad, flat strand, which glistens effectively ; to this brightness blonde laces owe their popularity, for there is usually little artistic merit in their design. Such laces are made at Caen, Chantilly, Barcelona, and Catalonia, and they are more fully described under Blonde de Caen and Chantilly.

BOBBIN LACE.

Made on a pillow or cushion by means of bobbins. A variety of interlacing or plaiting, but the term plaiting was dropped during the Sixteenth Century, when Barbara Uttmann (born 1514, died 1575) introduced bobbins into Germany. She is credited with having invented this method, although the claim is denied by those who believe that she learned the use of bobbins in France or Italy. Her work was adopted and prosecuted by the Flemish. In Venice as early as 1557 a book of patterns for bobbin laces was published. The French term for bobbin lace is dentelle au Fuseau.

Italian a Piombini refers to weighted bobbins and Merletti a Fuselli bobbin lace. Bobbin lace is made upon pillows, the design being laid out by means of pins, around which the thread is drawn and interlaced. Before the use of pins, fine fishbones were used, hence the term bone lace. In the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries bobbin lace was known as torchon, beggar's lace, eternelle, fisherman's lace, guese, peasant lace, and point pecheur. It was made by the peasantry, and frequently made poorly; when the same sort of thing was made a little better, a little stronger, with raised plaited wheels and circles, or what are known as paddles, it is called Cluny; but with little or no relationship between the ancient Cluny guipure and modern Cluny.

BOBBINET. The net made by the bobbin as distinguished from the needle. Modern bobbinet is a machine imitation. There are several forms of net. See Nets.

BOHEMIAN. A term applied distinctively to the kind of bobbin lace made in Bohemia under government auspices in imitation of old Italian bobbin lace. The distinguishing features are the tapelike designs.

BONE LACE. Old Italian documents, especially one of 1493, an inventory in the Sforza family, referred continually to bone lace, and bone lace in after years was understood to be lace made on a cushion with bone bobbins and pins.

BONNAZ.

The name of a sewing machine which conveys a chain stitch to the mesh in producing lace, usually curtain lace. Braid appliqued curtains are sometimes called Bonnaz curtains, but the term is a misnomer, as braided curtains are also made with other than Bonnaz machines.

BONNE FEMME. A style of lace curtain having a flounced scalloped bottom.

BRAIDED. Braided lace curtains, sometimes called Bonnaz curtains, consist of a bobbinet ground on which a pattern of tape is appliqued by the use of the Bonnaz or kurbel embroidery machine.

BRABANCON. See Brussels.From Braban an Belgium region

BRANCHING FIBERS. Fibers or veins introduced into leaf forms in some bobbin laces, Honitons especially.

BRAZILIAN.

A bobbin lace of coarse texture and feeble design, used only amongst the natives. It resembles the bobbin laces of Europe in a slight degree, the patterns being in the style of the Valenciennes and Torchons, but is far inferior in wear, as Brazilian lace is made with cotton thread.

Maceio, in the province of Alagoas, was the chief centre middle of the nineteenth century

BRIDAL.

This is frequently mentioned in records of Elizabethan times, and seems to have been made of blue thread, being worn by the guests at a wedding rather than by the bride herself. Bridal lace was made at Coventry until the Puritans discountenanced the wearing of such gauds.

BRIDE BOUCTE. See Bride Picotee.

BRIDE EPIITCLE. See Bride Picotee.

BRIDES ORNEES. Bars or brides ornamented with loops or purls.

BRIDE FiCOTEE. Much used in Argentan lace, a six-sided buttonhole bar fringed with a little row of three four purls.

BRISE-BIES. A lace curtain that covers the lower w dow-sash only.

BRODE, FILET. French reproduction of Point Cot popularly called filet; old Italian work darned net.

BRODERIE DE MALINES. All light bobbin laces of Meet order were called malines, and imitations of such laces m; by embroidering were called Broderie de Malines.

BRODERIE DE NANCY. Drawn-work, embroidered f quently in colored silk.

BRUGES.

Old Flanders, now a city of Belgium. In Sixteenth Century one of the best examples of bobbin lace was called guipure de Bruges.

Guipure de Bruges, or Point Duchesse, is a bobbin lace of fine quality ; the sprigs resemble those of Honiton lace, and are united by brides or bars ornees.

A large quantity of Valenciennes lace is also made at Bruges, but the quality is not as good as that produced elsewhere, for in forming the ground, the bobbins are only twisted twice, while those, for example, at Ypres and Alost are twisted four and five times. The oftener the bobbins are twisted the clearer the effect of the mesh ground.Bruges pillow lace has the reputation of washing thick. The lace-making at Bruges is now mostly in the hands of religious communities. Duchesse is the most popular type. The Guipure of Honiton resembles it and the Venetian Mosaic, but the English lace is not worked with such fine thread, nor are the Devonshire leaves and sprays of such good and bold design, weak design being the chief defect of the modern Honiton lace.

BRUGGEN. See Bruges.

BRUSSELS. City of Belgium, formerly of old Brabant, adjoining Flanders, one of the southern provinces of old Netherlands. Both needle-point and bobbin laces were made here, the former called point gaze, the latter point plat. Brussels lace-makers used a fine flax thread. The earliest needle-point patterns followed the Italian methods but soon the lace-makers adopted the technique of the French and the term to-day applies strictly to a net lace. The cordonnet edging the pattern in needlepoint Brussels is not covered with buttonholing, but is tacked down flat. Sometimes Brussels lace shows bobbin and needlepoint combined. It is this type that was known as Point d'Angleterre, which see. To-day much of the Brussels lace is made in separate pieces, the flowers and other details being assembled. Machine-made net was promptly adopted in Old Brussels Needle-Point.

Brussels work; the designs were made separately and appliqued on the net. Brussels lace has the defect of dis-coloration. The flax for the manufacture of old Brussels lace was grown in Brabant and the term Brabancon was often used.

BRUSSELS. Saxony Brussels, Swiss Brussels. In the curtain trade effects that are beautiful at a little distance are produced in what is known as Saxony Brussels and Swiss Saxony or double-net Brussels curtain. Swiss Brussels curtain.

Brussels, the net ground for both being made by machinery in Nottingham. In Saxony Brussels the design is hand worked on a tambour drum. In Swiss, made chiefly at St. Gall, the embroidering in chain stitch is done by machine. In the Saxony Brussels patterns a fine mesh effect is produced by overlaying one net mesh upon another. Parts of the upper mesh are then cut away, leaving the pattern apparently of a finer character. These double-net effects are rather difficult, the trimming close to the applique requiring skill. Novelty meshes are introduced into the pattern of both the Saxony Brussels and the Swiss Brussels by run work or darning by hand. The main distinction between the Saxony and the Swiss is that the Swiss Brussels is single net throughout and utilizes machinery in the tambour work, while the Saxony has double net in the pattern and the stitching is done by Old Burano, in imitation of Brussels.

hand. The Swiss Brussels curtain imitates the double-net effect by a machine overstitching. The illustrations here show the technique; the curtains when hung have a beautiful effect.

BRUXELLES. See Brussels.

Bruxelles

BRYONY. Tulip design.

Buckinghamshire Lace.

The bobbin lace of Buckinghamshire is celebrated for its fine, clear grounds, which rival those of Lille, the twisted plaits used for such grounds being generally of the same model, though occasionally made according to the Valenciennes method. All Buckinghamshire lace is worked in one piece on the pillow, reseau and toile being formed by means of the bobbin.

Queen Catherine of Aragon did much in introducing and encouraging the lace-making industry in Buckinghamshire, as she did that of the neighbouring counties of Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire. It flourished exceedingly, until in 1623 a petition was addressed to the High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire from Great Marlow, showing the distress of the cottagers from " the bone lace-making being much decayed." In 1626 Sir Henry Borlase founded and endowed the Free School of Great Marlow, for twenty-four boys to read, write, and cast accounts, and for twenty-four girls " to knit, spin, and make bone lace," and, in consequence, the trade of that place flourished again, even French authors speaking of the town with its "manufactures de dentelles aufuseau," which, however, they say are "inferieure a celle de Flandres."

In the seventeenth century lace-making flourished in Buckinghamshire. Later, a petition from the poet Cowper to Lord Dartmouth in favour of the lace-makers declared that " hundreds in this little town (Olney) are upon the point of starving, and that the most unremitting"industry is barely sufficient to keep them from it." Probably some change in fashion had caused this distress. There were lace schools at Hanslope, and children taught there could maintain themselves, without further assistance, at eleven or twelve years of age. It is interesting to note that boys were taught the handicraft as well as the girls, and many men when grown up followed no other employment, which seems to us an economic mistake, as there are so many trades suitable for men, so few for women as home workers. The lace made at Hanslope in the eighteenth century was valued at from sixpence to two guineas a yard, and the lace trade was most important, 800 out of a population of 1275 being engaged in it.

Newport Pagnell, from its central position, was of great commercial importance with regard to the bone lace manufacture. In the Magna Britannia, 1720, it is spoken of as "a sort of staple for bone lace, of which more is thought to be made here Bobbin-Made Buckinghamshire Laces ;

BUCKLE STEM STITCH. Term used in Honiton lace. Beginners' stem, buckle stem and stem stitch.

BULLION.
A lace made of gold and silver threads. The earliest laces were made of gold threads. A specimen was discovered on the opening of a Scandinavian barrow near Wareham in Dorsetshire. Bullion lace is still much used in the East for ornamenting robes of state, and in Italy and France for elaborate priests' vestments and saints' robes. In the time of Queen Anne, Bullion lace was lavishly used for decorating the livery of menservants ; and in its braid form still serves this purpose, and that of ornamenting the uniforms of officers in the army and navy. Officers' epaulettes are of Bullion lace or braid, really of gold wire ; the thick kind is called Bullion; the thinner frisure; the flat kind or braid is termed clinquant; and all kinds are classed under the name cannetille

BUNT LACE. In 1752 women from France taught the Scotch peasants how to make bobbin laces and they were called bunt lace.

BURANO.

In the Island of Burano a considerable quantity of Venetian point lace was manufactured during the eighteenth century. The ground was the reseau, not the bride variety, so that, in this particular, the lace resembled Alencon and Brussels. The thread used was extremely fine and delicate. Until 1845 the art of lace-making lingered on in the nunneries, but little was made elsewhere. During recent years a revival has taken place, and the Burano lace of the present day is in no way inferior to the old fabric, while laces identical with the finest Venetian, Rose Point, Point de Gaze, Alencon, and Argentan are produced, which rival in beauty such laces made in the best years of their native manufacture.

In 1874 M. Seguin wrote, "There still exist some women who make needlepoint lace at Burano, a small island not far from Venice, where in past times the most famous laces were produced." The revival of the Burano lace industry, which took place at the same time as that of Venice, Pelestrina, and Chioggia, is one of the most interesting pages of modern lace history, and should inspire those who are desirous of helping the industrial classes of their own country to commercial prosperity. In 1872 the hard winter reduced the fishing population of Burano to semi-starvation. Relief was given temporarily and a fund was created, headed by Queen Margherita of Italy and the Pope, for resuscitating the lace industry. One old woman, Cencia Scarpariola, had worked at the old Burano point and could remember the stitches, but could not teach them. Madame Anna Bellorio d'Este, he present mistress of the Burano school, watched the worker, practised herself, then taught eight pupils. Ladies interested in the work came forward with the necessary funds ; and the excellence of the lace produced assured constant orders. The artist Signor Paulo Fambri, together with the Princesse Giovanelli and Comtesse Marcello, were on the board of direction, and during the first year prizes were gained for the excellence of the work. At the present moment 600 workers are constantly employed either at the Royal Lace School, which has its headquarters in the Municipal Buildings, or at their own homes, after receiving not less than two years' instruction at the school. There is a school of design in connection with the factory, and excellent results have been obtained from the slight artistic training which is necessary for the worker in the higher branches. The prosperity of the island has increased enormously, the marriage rate has doubled in twenty years, and many a young worker is able to save out of her earnings the ^"30 or ^"40 which will purchase a little cottage to serve as her dot.

Only the choicest and most beautiful kinds of lace are made at Burano at the present day; they include Point de Venise, Tagliato a fogliami, Point de Venise a la rose, Point d'Argentan, Point d'Alencon, Point de Bruxelles, and Point d'Angleterre.

BURNT-OUT LACE. Term applying to lace made by embroidery methods, the embroidery being of one material, the background being of another material. This background susceptible of destruction by acid bath leaving thus a lace, the material of the embroidery being unaffected.

BUTTONHOLE STITCH. Used in needle-point lace, as distinguished from the darning technique in bobbin work.

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