Lace and Lace Making

POWYS

CHAPTER I

The -Beauty of Lace

The beauty of lace is an intangible thing. The laces have a strange quality, hard to catch and hold. But once this quality is perceived and understood it enlarges and enriches the mind and life of the one who has come to love them.

The laces emanate something of the maker whose fingers created them, their thoughts floating around them, impregnating them with deep meaning. This may explain the influence of the lace in a house where it has come to live, making everything richer, more lovable, gentler and more urbane. At the same time the lace brings with it a homely simplicity, something of the natural simple way of life of the women by whose hands it was made.

Laces have their own different characters, some grand with beautiful lines, some soft and endearing, but they all make good friends and companions to the ones who love them. They are not alive and devoted, but they have a kind of life and sympathetic understanding. They are silent friends, faithful to death and beyond, passing on to the far future, carrying with them something of our character, grateful for the loving care which has enabled them to outlive their human companion by many, many years.

The life of a lace, even the finest Mechlin lace, has often a longer span than that of buildings of stone or steel. In ancient tombs lace is found still intact, faithfully standing by the one they served and helped to adorn in life.

The love of lace is a rare thing; like genius it strikes out of the unknown on certain beings, chosen ones, irrespective of sex, country or class. Genius brings with it responsibility, struggle, stress and sometimes despair, but the love of lace brings with it healing, tranquillity and serenity. Yet this peculiar passion has also the power of intensifying the interest of life, demanding perfection and still greater beauty and greater understanding of the beloved art. In search of these things the devoted one may travel far and see many grand and beautiful countries and many distinguished and historical personages. Should the cost of these journeys be too great, the study of lace will carry the student vicariously away to these lovely places through books and pictures.

The love of flowers, on the other hand, is universal. From the simplest to the most sophisticated the flower is a sacred thing. But the weather is often cold, no flowers blooming. In the glittering city one single flower, a little faded, will cost a dollar, many flowers a week’s living. Whereas in lace, there are all the flowers, flowers which do not fade, roses, carnations, lilies, forget-me-nots, foxgloves, lilacs, and iris, wild flowers from the hedges, buttercups and daisies from the field. Lace flowers do not fade: they do not need weeding, and support, dividing and watching and good, rich manure in the autumn.

There is a purity about the white flowers of lace, those soft creamy flowers, which makes the gay colored flowers of embroidery and textiles seem almost loud and garish and too imitative of the real. The whiteness of lace has a special beauty, like shadows of branches on snow or great white birds moving in deep foliage.

In lace it is essential to think of the pure beauty of line; color has no part in this thing. It is nearer allied to sculpture than painting. Embroidery can get away with second rate drawing, falling back on color to hide and cover any careless work. Many rugs are admired more for their quaint character: an amusing figure, a house with a familiar maple tree, scenes that have more sentiment than beauty. The designer of lace must work on sculptural or architectural lines, building up the pattern from the center boldly, strong and original, but always with an exquisite grace and delicacy.

The maker of lace has to be capable of such fineness of detail that it seems sometimes as though it were the work of insects rather than that of human hands. The anonymous craftsman — perhaps an old woman sitting in the sun at her door while her man is away fishing — can work out secret jeweled patterns in tiny spaces, but the designer, the one who assembles the sprays and segments of lace, has to have in mind always the beautiful lines of the finished lace and the purpose for which that lace is made.

Altar laces should be dramatic, raised in high relief, drawn in strong and powerful lines, effective at a great distance, dignified, in repose. Table laces to be laid flat can have a more pictorial effect in the manner of old Persian carpets or tiles. Personal laces should have a different character. These laces should be thought of more as a textile, falling in the right way, in noble folds, soft to the touch, yielding or firm according to the way in which it is to be worn.

For the deep appreciation and love of lace it is not necessary to know how it is made, where it is made or when it was made. But an intimate understanding of this unique art will accentuate that appreciation and may make it possible to find creative expression in lace.

CHAPTER II

The Naming of Lace

In order to understand and know the difference and resemblance between laces it is helpful to treat them as families, like old families in human history. The same dominating characteristics run through each family of lace appearing and disappearing in certain generations. With intermarriage these characteristics sometimes become confused but generally reappear on one side or the other. With laces, when transported or exiled, they are apt to change their quality and form but they keep the same general characteristics. There is a tendency in the hometown or original center of such lace to disown these adventurers, travelers or emigrants. Laws even in our own day are passed to the effect that the same lace made in a different country is not that lace at all. As an example, in the United States of America Valenciennes lace made in China is hardly accepted as Valenciennes, though made with the same motions and on the same pricking and even with thread imported from Belgium. At the time of Louis XIV in France, under the minister Colbert, the Gros Point de Venise was made by the French lace-makers very skillfully and called Point Colbert, as it was against the Venetian law that this lace should be made in any other country.

The laces are unfortunately most often named after the town in which they were originally made or the place where they were sold in the market. These names have interesting and historic associations and often lovely sounds, but it is to be remembered that the old cities are only the godmothers of the laces. It would be a fairer and better way to give each lace a new name of its own so that it may go out into the world freely in its own right. It is not where the lace is made that matters but the form of the finished work. It is of no importance to the public where a book is written; it is the book that matters. Let the discerning critic guess where the music was composed. To the listener it is of no consequence.

In the lace world the creator is anonymous and the place where the lace is made should also be anonymous. The beautiful Valenciennes is the same, made in a little cottage in England, made on a sunny porch in America, made in Russia, in the Philippines, in China or in the French city of Valenciennes. Indeed the city of Valenciennes has itself changed nationality more than once in history. The lace is almost as much Flemish as French.

In colonial America the homesick English people who could never find a cowslip or a sycamore tree called marsh-marigolds cowslips and plane trees sycamores. So in lace it would be possible and even desirable to give each lace a new name characteristic of the way it is made, of its own personality and its own peculiar beauty. Much confusion would in this way be cleared up. The pillow laces would not be called point as in the Point d’Angleterre, the Point de Paris, the Buckingham Point and others.

In the study of mushrooms it is well known that the difference between the Amanita of Caesar and the Amanita which is known as the Angel of Death is the difference between life and death to the one who tastes of this mushroom. In trying to become familiar with the different classes of mushrooms in the woods and fields it is very helpful for the student to make his own name for each humble toadstool or puffball, so that he may know them well and easily, instead of confusing himself with difficult long Latin names.

Lace names that are misleading or false should be given up and discontinued except as a matter of sentiment. So great a breaking of tradition may seem outrageous and irreverent, but if the names and traditions lead the learner astray it is better they should go in order to have everything clear and straight.

A good example of this confusion in the naming of laces is the fine pillow lace called traditionally Point d’Angleterre, though only comparatively a small part of these laces were made in England. It has been attempted to call this type of lace Brussels, but this name is used for many other laces. Point or Pillow Applique is very generally named Brussels lace. Brussels needlepoint, meaning Point de Gaze or Rose Point, is also called Brussels lace. Brussels is now celebrated rather for her fine needlepoints than for her pillow laces which are made more generally in other cities in Flanders.

The name Point d’Angleterre is now used to designate the modern form of this lace made in Belgium with a needlepoint ground instead of the Vrai Droschel and with needlepoint modes or fillings, whereas the modern form of this lace in England is called Honiton from the market town where it is sold by the Devonshire lace-makers.

The very word lace is a source of confusion. In the olden time it was used for boot-laces, stay-laces or strings. In the old inventories it is hard to be sure that the reference is to lace as we know it. Dr. Johnson in his dictionary, an edition as late as 1756, describes lace as (1) A string or cord, (2) surprisingly as A snare or gin, (3) A platted string and only lastly as Ornaments of fine thread, curiously woven.

Vague and misleading as these lace names are it would be hard to change them and call them A B C like the vitamins or to group them with beautiful Latin names as Linnaeus did for the plants and flowers. We know well that the name of Peter means a stone and Dorothea means the gift of God, but when we speak to our dear ones of that name we do not think .of stones or gifts. So it is better in the lace world to treat the names as names of lace and disconnect them with the town or country of that name.

It is helpful to clarify the issue by studying the different kinds of lace in relation to one another and to follow the pedigree of each lace down from her first ancestors to the present day.

CHAPTER III

The Pedigree of Lace

The old families of lace are divided into three groups: the needlepoints, the pillow laces, and the decorated nets. The needlepoint laces are directly descended from the embroideries of the Middle Ages. Needlepoint lace is made with only a skein of thread and a needle, using different forms of the buttonhole stitch. The stitches in the counted thread work or Punto Contato are embroidery stitches. Later the worker drew a few threads and decorated this more open space with the needle, Punto Tirato (drawn thread work). Then a bolder worker cut some open spaces in the linen to have more and larger openings to fill in with more elaborate stitches, Punto Tagliato (cut work). Soon the worker built up the lace decoration by throwing threads across these wide-open spaces in either direction, forming geometrical patterns and weaving in and out or buttonholing over the threads that bridge the gap, Reticello.

The worker then cast about to get free of the linen threads altogether and tried substituting her own threads for the threads of the woven linen. This was done by laying a thread on parchment and couching it down to make the outline of the desired pattern. Then the lace-maker would build up a cloth or Toilé on the foundation of these threads on the surface of the parchment, making lace free of all woven material, the outer threads being as it were the beams on which the house of lace is built. This lace is called Punto in Aria (point in the air). The needlepoint laces were now free as a bird in the air and could fly to the heights of beauty.

All needlepoint laces are made in this way, the difference being in the treatment of the groundwork and the cordonnet or raised work decorating the outlining thread to enhance the beauty of the finished work.

Pillow lace is made with only a skein of thread and bobbins on a hard pillow or bolster. The threads are twisted, crossed and braided.

It is hard to say how ancient is the making of some form of pillow lace, but this work was developed in the 16th century in Flanders and in Italy. Coptic, Peruvian and English excavations all have brought to light lace-like material made probably with sticks and pieces of wood later called lace sticks or bobbins.

The medieval costumes were laced and trimmed with braids and galloons and woven band strings and it was an easy step from the loom to the lace sticks, working on the surface of a hard straw- or hay-filled pillow.

The early pillow laces were narrow decorations for finishing linen table covers, altar pieces, collars or the cut parts of the costume of man or woman. These edges were often pointed and closely resembled those made with the needle.

Later in the 17th century the pillow laces divided into two groups, the straight and the free, à fil continu and the fils coupés or à pièces rapportées.

The straight laces are made with all the threads put on at one time running together on a straight pricking, sometimes necessitating hundreds of threads on the lace pillow at the same time and generally repeating the pattern ad infinitum.

The free laces are made with a set of thirty bobbins following the lines of the pattern wherever it may go, throwing out threads to join where the lines touch and putting in any background or fillings later. In this way larger laces, in the grand manner, can be made as with needlepoint.

The decorated net laces also began in the early times, how early none can say. Fishermen made knotted nets in the remote ages and the technique of these nets is exactly the same as that of the knotted filet. Lace industries, all the world over, are likely to be situated on the sea coast: this may be a coincidence or it may well be that the fisher folk started the tradition with their net-making.

Whether the filet lace-making began in the Greek islands or in Italy it is not known, but somebody somewhere tried decorating that knotted mesh with another thread, darning in and out, making a simple pattern. Then the net was made in finer thread and the lace called Lacis or filet was created.

Another enterprising worker tried weaving an open mesh on the loom which could be decorated with the needle in the same manner. This form of Lacis was called Buratto.

Later, in the 19th century, when the machine age began, a good net was made by machine. This net in its different forms was beautifully embroidered and a fine lace was made in many different lands in this way.

No machine can reproduce the looped or buttonhole stitch which is the foundation of all needlepoint lace, but the general effect can be