We possess no contemporaneous history of the origins and development of the lace art, partly, perhaps, because of the tradition, strong among the initiated3, of hiding its secrets, and of the consequent difficulty of an outsider to master them, and partly because successive wars and world cataclysms4 have interrupted or destroyed its progress.
We have ample proof, however, that [26]lace in some form existed in remote antiquity,—in early Egypt, in Persia, in Bysance and Syria, where it was chiefly made by slaves; the Greeks and Hebrews speak of needle lace as known throughout all time. It was not, in these oriental countries, the delicate white mesh that we call lace, which would have been most unbecoming to dark skin, but included richly colored passementeries and filets and fringes, woven of gold and silver thread, of dyed wool and cotton, and of the coarse linen6 fiber7 of the Nile Valley. It was usually of hieratic and symbolic8 design, and sometimes sown with gems—all capable of brilliantly enhancing the beauty of the East. Egyptian ladies of 6,000 years ago trimmed their robes with elaborate lengths of filet5, and covered their dead with it. In the Cinquantenaire Museum at Brussels there is the photograph of a remarkable10 little woven linen bag, similar to one we might carry to-[27]day, which was found in the tomb of a Priestess of Hathor, bearing the mark of one of the earlier dynasties. Its mesh is almost identical with that of our modern Valenciennes, and it was undoubtedly11 made with bobbins.
Between ancient and medi?val times, the lace-gap is unbridged by written record; we must gather what we can from the archeologist and from the works of the sculptor12 and painter. Occasionally we are thrilled by such a discovery as that of M. Bixio, who in excavating13 at Claterna, an old Roman City near Bologna, came upon a set of bone bobbins, lying in pairs, as we employ them in lace-making to-day. But interesting discoveries are rare, and the body of our knowledge of lace history so far is meager14.
However, we are interested primarily, not in the ancient origins of the two great lace groups, nor in early passementeries and filets and their processes, but in the [28]marvelous efflorescence of the lace art of the Western Europe of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, and in its still lovely expression of to-day.
In medi?val painting, before the appearance of linen and its use as trimming, or as lingerie, I know of no picture showing lace. Stuffs were stiff and heavy, and ornamented15 with metal, or with gold or silver thread. As they became more supple16, we find, as in the portrait of Wenceslas of Luxemburg (about 1360) decoration introduced in the clipped cloth border of the collar and hood17. This serrated edge suggests the first simple Cluny lace patterns that appeared later. Then we see the first linen showing through the slashed18 sleeve or above the corsage,—one of many paintings illustrating19 this development, is that of the Duke of Cleves, by Memling (second half of the 15th century). And shortly afterward20 the first lace edgings appear, the beginning[29] of our lace of the middle ages, of its rebirth in Western Europe. The search for these details of progress in the paintings of European galleries is a fascinating and rewarding game; a Belgian friend of mine has spent many years at it.
The flowering of the lace-art was part of the great Renaissance21 (lagging behind, to be sure, the major arts) and now was no longer the work of slaves, but regarded as an important, independent métier, and happily it usually escaped the despotism of the medi?val corporations. Italy, probably through her exploitation in the early part of the 15th century of her Greek Colonies, was its first western home, and Venice, the center for the exquisite22 needle laces of which our museums fortunately still preserve specimens23. While laces made with the needle and single thread were flourishing under the Doges, bobbin laces, [30]twisted and braided with many threads, were being made in Sicily and in other sections of the country.
From Venice, the secrets of the art traveled easily in several directions, and probably about the close of the 15th century by way of the thriving port of Antwerp, to the industrious25 and beauty-loving Flanders, where the seed fell on most fertile soil. Flanders possest a multitude of workers already skilled in an allied26 art, that of weaving, and the necessary lace material in her valley of the Lys, the finest flax region of the world. Valenciennes, Lille, Malines, Ghent, Bruges, turned to lace-making with a veritable passion; it spread throughout wide districts of what are now Northern France and Belgium.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, the lace industry made phenomenal progress, both extensively and intensively. Holland and England sent continually [31]larger orders to Flanders. As cloths grew finer and softer, and the mode of wearing them more graceful27, and as daintier linens28 were increasingly employed, lace became ever more filmy and exquisite. A worker spent perhaps a whole year on a single meter of Valenciennes, one head-dress cost as much as 200,000 livres. Every lace had its time, its season. During this epoch29, needle laces were supreme30, as bobbin laces were to be in the 18th century.
Under Louis XIV lace reached its climax31 of perfection and beauty. Colbert imported lace-women from each center where they had been conspicuously32 successful. He encouraged the invention of new designs and technique; he subsidized schools in many cities, at Reims, Alen?on, Arras, Sedan, and he threatened with the death penalty those who might attempt to carry lace secrets beyond the French borders,—in every way he sought [32]to develop an art that should belong peculiarly to France. Thus directed and subsidized by the state, and nurtured33 and stimulated34 by a beauty-seeking court, whose love of luxury was still controlled by taste and refinement35, it is not surprizing that this lace-period surpassed any other known. It was true of the Court of Louis XIV as of that of Louis XIII that a seigneur was known by the number and quality of his lace points; some of them possest several hundred garnitures. Unfortunately the workers did not profit by this brilliant development,—they seem from the beginning predestined to be the victims of a social and economic slavery.
But there were already evidences of an attempt to control a demand for luxury that threatened disaster. With the 16th century, heavy duties and excess taxes were levied36 upon lace. An edict, dated 1729, prohibited the wearing of it, in the hope of checking over-extravagance in dress.
FIFTEENTH CENTURY PORTRAIT
Showing heavy brocade as yet unrelieved by linen or lace trimming
[33]
PORTRAIT OF CHARLES IX (1570)
Linen collar showing picot edge made with the needle
After its apogée under Louis XIV, lace-making was caught, along with the other arts, in the tide of degeneracy. Its designs were marked by fantasy and grotesqueness37, rather than by the delicacy38 and beauty of the preceding period; tho while it deteriorated39 in design, its technique grew constantly finer and more complicated, until, from the point of view of the workmanship at least, it seemed almost superhuman. But in the second half of the 18th century, wearied of complications and extravagance, people amused themselves by a return to simplicity40. The Marquise de Pompadour affected41 laces sown with simple “flowers,” and Marie Antoinette went further in preferring a pattern of scattered42 “points” or peas. With this return to the primitive43 in design, the technique of lace reverted44 also. In many quarters, the sheer [34]muslins of the Indias gained favor over lace. Trade, already burdened with the duties and imports that had grown up around the extravagant45 laces, suffered further from the sudden popularity of the simple costume.
The death-blow of the industry in France was to follow close on the heels of this new fashion. Since lace had been the particular pride of the aristocrat46, the Revolution made it a crime to appear in it. In such one-time famous centers as Valenciennes and Lille, the bobbins ceased, tho the industry of that region sought refuge farther west, in Bailleul,—in Bailleul, dust and ashes to-day! Fortunately in Belgium, lace-making generally survived the crisis of the Revolution, tho it has suffered from succeeding disastrous47 influences.
At the opening of the 19th century and under the Empire, taste was heavy, design rigid48 and military, with nothing in common[35] with true lace motifs49. During the opening years of 1800 the invention of machine-made tulle, brought from England to Calais, effected further sad changes in the lace-world; scarfs, veils, entire robes of tulle, ornamented with applications of needle or bobbin-made details—often palms and laurel wreaths—were all the mode. People preferred these to the exquisite lace jabots and flounces of the preceding century. In 1833 cotton thread began to be used instead of the stronger linen of the best lace periods. The delicate lace-art continued to suffer with all the others under the general decadence50 of the reign51 of Louis Philippe and the Second Empire. Industrial and commercial development was the note of the age; the rich amused themselves in travel, in new scenes and sports, rather than in fostering the arts. In fact, during the thirty years following the war of 1870, lace seemed almost forgotten except in America.[36] The number of workers in Belgium fell from between 100 and 150,000, to 50,000 or less.
But before the world was plunged52 into this last, most destructive of wars, there had been signs of a renaissance in the decorative53 arts. People had begun to read and compare, and refine their taste. The rulers of Italy and France and Belgium were winning results in their attempts to rescue, and to revive and develop the lace-art, which had seemed threatened with extinction54. Then came the war—and the devastation55 of entire lace regions, like that of Bailleul in France, and of Ypres in Belgium. It is true that many of the refugee lace-women have been employed and encouraged during the four years, by certain committees in France and free Belgium. And in occupied Belgium, the unceasing efforts of the Brussels Lace Committee have borne rich fruit. Whether the higher [37]standards of lace design and technique, and the improved condition of the lace workers—better education, shorter hours, higher pay—will be maintained under post-war conditions is yet to be proved. Over this difficult hour of reconstruction56, of transfer from war to what we fondly call normal conditions, we can but hope to carry the hard-won gains of the testing period.
In this little book I make no attempt to present a history of lace, or a detailed57 analysis of its processes. I have wished merely to set down in simple form a few of my observations in the lace districts of Belgium, as the war has left her. To follow them one does not need even an elementary knowledge of the important lace forms, tho that is easily acquired. For there are but two large groups; the needle-lace group, and the bobbin-lace group, between which we learn quickly to distinguish. We can not prove the time [38]of their respective origins; as we know them, they seem to have existed side by side, as they do in the Belgium of to-day. Sometimes one was more popular, sometimes the other.
To place a piece of lace, we have first but to ask the question, “Was it made with a needle, and by looping and twisting and weaving a single thread; or was it made by braiding and twisting and weaving several threads, by means of bobbins and a round or a square cushion?”
In general, there is but one technique for all needle laces, tho there is no limit to the variety of stitches the needle worker may employ. I have seen a scarf, made during the war for Queen Elizabeth, in which there were many hundred different points. One comes soon to recognize the important needle laces; the exquisite French Alen?ons and Argentins of earlier days, with their meshes58 made [39]with a buttonhole loop, and their flowers stiffened59 with horsehair; the various Venetian points,—Venise, Burano, and Rose point; and the extremely popular Brussels point, with its gauze mesh and raised flowers. It is characteristic of these needle laces, that the flowers are thrown into relief, sometimes high, sometimes scarcely perceptible.
Bobbin laces may be made with a dozen or with one hundred times as many threads, according to the design and width of the lace. They fall into two sub-groups, the first including laces made with uncut threads, in a single piece; the second, those made detail by detail, in which the threads are cut as each is finished, the completed lace piece being made by joining these separate parts. This second method was not introduced until the latter half of the 17th century.
In the first group, made with uncut threads, are the early Clunys and the [40]common Torchons, Old Flanders, the beautiful Valenciennes, Point de Paris, Point de Lille, Malines and Binche, with their delicate round, or square or hexagonal meshes, from which the pattern blossoms. Their flowers are flat, never lifted in relief, tho a heavy outlining thread often sets them off brilliantly from the surrounding field.
The second bobbin group, in which the final lace piece is composed of united details, includes black and white Chantilly, Blonde, popular with Spanish peoples, Brussels Duchesse and Bruges Duchesse, most frequently displayed in our American shops, and the finer Rosaline, which was in great demand when the war broke out. This group of bobbin laces admits a kind of relief.
PORTRAIT TOWARD CLOSE OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY
Showing collar ornamented with bobbin-made cluny
Some laces combine both needle and bobbin points. In the lovely Point d’Angleterre, increasingly difficult to obtain, bobbin-made flowers are united by an airy needle mesh. And the coarser Flanders lace has the same composition.
[41]
ANNE OF AUSTRIA BY VAN DYCK
About 1635, cluny lace made with bobbins
There are, besides, the familiar and often beautiful Applications, in which either needle or bobbin-made flowers are stitched, or appliquéd on machine-made tulle, or, rarely, on a tulle made by hand. And various mixed laces, fantasies and embroidered60 tulles, as well as a whole company of cheaper tissues called lace, but which can not honestly claim the name, are trying always to crowd the true lace from the market.
Naturally, the technique of any given kind of lace has undergone various transformations61 through the centuries. The Valenciennes mesh, for instance, first had round spaces, while square ones became more popular later. During a certain period the introduction of jours, or open-work effects, added an airy lightness to many laces.
I had the pleasure recently of being [42]with a friend of mine, the sister of the Belgian Consul-General at New York, Madame Kefer-Mali, who has devoted62 twenty years to the study of lace, when she first examined a lace collection lately presented to the Cinquantenaire Museum. With magnifying glass I followed from case to case, as she placed each specimen24 in its country and century, according to its design, its mesh, the manner of directing the threads, the relief of the flowers, the various stitches or the kind of thread employed. As I listened to her, it was easy to appreciate why lace may become an all-absorbing interest. Madame Kefer-Mali’s love for the lace itself is now subordinate to her passionate63 desire to secure justice for the lace-worker. As she takes a filmy length in her hand, her first thought is of the talent and patience of the girl or woman who made it, of the eye-straining, meticulous64 labor9 it represents, and of the pittance65 still paid her [43]for her gift to the world of art. Madame Kefer-Mali has already won something for the dentellière and she will continue to fight for more.
Tho there are lace sections in widely scattered parts of Belgium, none (except Turnhout) is so important as those of the two Flanders. Western and Eastern Flanders form an almost continuous and unrivalled lace region, which breaks up irregularly into districts, each celebrated66 for a particular kind, or for several kinds of lace. However, it would be impossible to draw an accurate map illustrating the Belgian lace situation, either from the point of view of the varieties made and their quality, or of the workers. It seems, indeed, at times that lace was invented to defeat the statistician, for he no sooner reaches a conclusion than it proves inexact; a factory rises near a certain river and the lace women desert their cushions to accept its better wages; in a village [44]long devoted to Needle Point, young girls discover that the bobbin-made Clunys pay better, or they marry and make no lace at all until their children are partly grown; poor crops and resulting misery67 may send others who have not for some time been listed as workers back to their cushions. For, since despite the many schools and work-rooms, the great majority of women still work at home, lace-making is peculiarly sensitive to every change in family and community life. We may say, however, that despite constantly shifting conditions, Western Flanders forms a great bobbin-lace area, unquestionably the most important in the world to-day, while Eastern Flanders has been for centuries and still is, famous for its needle points.
Unfortunately, too, because of the miserable68 lace-wage (in Belgium, before the war, it averaged about a franc a day) this industry has been regarded always [45]as a supplementary69 occupation, on which the family could not rely for its main support, and which was not capable of organization and amelioration as other industries are. The slavery conditions have undoubtedly been due chiefly to lack of good schools and constructive70 lace training, and to the system by which a facteur, or first buyer, collects the laces, to re-sell them to a fabricant, or dealer71, who in turn may sell them to a larger fabricant—a system permitting any number of intermediaries—and also to the fact that the women, scattered as they are throughout the agricultural regions, have never protected themselves by forming syndicates. The first step toward emancipation72 has been taken; the new teaching is under way. The fatal system of the many intermediaries remains73 to be dealt with—to be swept away. And it is hoped that feeling the new power education will give them, the dentellières will [46]at last find w
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1
mesh
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| n.网孔，网丝，陷阱；vt.以网捕捉，啮合，匹配；vi.适合； [计算机]网络 | |
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embroideries
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| 刺绣( embroidery的名词复数 )； 刺绣品； 刺绣法 | |
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initiated
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| n. 创始人 adj. 新加入的 vt. 开始，创始，启蒙，介绍加入 | |
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cataclysms
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| n.（突然降临的）大灾难( cataclysm的名词复数 ) | |
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filet
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| n.肉片；鱼片 | |
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linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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fiber
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| n.纤维，纤维质 | |
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symbolic
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| adj.象征性的，符号的，象征主义的 | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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sculptor
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| n.雕刻家，雕刻家 | |
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13
excavating
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| v.挖掘( excavate的现在分词 )；开凿；挖出；发掘 | |
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meager
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| adj.缺乏的，不足的，瘦的 | |
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ornamented
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| adj.花式字体的v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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supple
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| adj.柔软的，易弯的，逢迎的，顺从的，灵活的；vt.使柔软，使柔顺，使顺从；vi.变柔软，变柔顺 | |
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hood
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| n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖 | |
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slashed
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| v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减 | |
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illustrating
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| 给…加插图( illustrate的现在分词 )； 说明； 表明； （用示例、图画等）说明 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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renaissance
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| n.复活，复兴，文艺复兴 | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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industrious
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| adj.勤劳的，刻苦的，奋发的 | |
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allied
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| adj.协约国的；同盟国的 | |
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graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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linens
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| n.亚麻布( linen的名词复数 )；家庭日用织品 | |
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epoch
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| n.(新)时代；历元 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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conspicuously
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| ad.明显地，惹人注目地 | |
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nurtured
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| 养育( nurture的过去式和过去分词 )； 培育； 滋长； 助长 | |
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stimulated
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| a.刺激的 | |
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refinement
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| n.文雅；高尚；精美；精制；精炼 | |
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levied
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| 征（兵）( levy的过去式和过去分词 )； 索取； 发动（战争）； 征税 | |
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grotesqueness
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delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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deteriorated
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| 恶化，变坏( deteriorate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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42
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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43
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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44
reverted
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| 恢复( revert的过去式和过去分词 )； 重提； 回到…上； 归还 | |
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extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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46
aristocrat
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| n.贵族，有贵族气派的人，上层人物 | |
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47
disastrous
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| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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49
motifs
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| n. （文艺作品等的）主题( motif的名词复数 )；中心思想；基本模式；基本图案 | |
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decadence
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| n.衰落，颓废 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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52
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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53
decorative
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| adj.装饰的，可作装饰的 | |
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54
extinction
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| n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种 | |
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55
devastation
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| n.毁坏；荒废；极度震惊或悲伤 | |
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56
reconstruction
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| n.重建，再现，复原 | |
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detailed
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| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
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meshes
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| 网孔( mesh的名词复数 )； 网状物； 陷阱； 困境 | |
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stiffened
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| 加强的 | |
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embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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transformations
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| n.变化( transformation的名词复数 )；转换；转换；变换 | |
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62
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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meticulous
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| adj.极其仔细的，一丝不苟的 | |
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65
pittance
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| n.微薄的薪水，少量 | |
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celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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67
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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68
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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supplementary
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| adj.补充的，附加的 | |
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constructive
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| adj.建设的，建设性的 | |
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dealer
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| n.商人，贩子 | |
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72
emancipation
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| n.（从束缚、支配下）解放 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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