/ " 



522 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Fuller of the seventeenth century, when he says : " Let it not he con- 

 demned for superfluous wearing, because it doth neither hide nor heat, 

 seeing that it doth adorn." But the subject has also its graver as- 

 pects ; for, as science is said to obliterate all diflerence between great 

 and small, so the history of lace may be said to eftace the distinction 

 between the frivolous and the serious. Though good for nothing but 

 decoration, the most earnest elements of humanity have been enlisted 

 in connection with it. Lace-making, a product of the fii*st rude begin- 

 nings of art, though complex, and involving immense labor, was yet 

 early perfected. As a source of wealth, it has been the envy of na- 

 tions and has shaped state policy ; as a local industry, it has enriched 

 and ruined provinces ; and, as a provocative of invention, it has 

 given rise to the most ingenious devices of modern times, which have 

 come into use only with tragic social accompaniments. The subject 

 has, therefore, various elements of interest which will commend it to 

 the readers of the Monthly. 



Lace, made of fine threads of gold, silver, silk, flax, cotton, hairs, 

 or other delicate fibres, has been in use for centuries in all the 

 countries of Europe. But long before the appearance of lace, jDroperly 

 so called, attempts of various kinds were made to produce open, gauzy 

 tissues resembling the spider's web. Specimens of primitive needle- 

 work are abundant in which this openness is secured in various ways. 

 The " fine-twined linen," the " nets of checker-work," and the " em- 

 broidery" of the Old Testament, are examples. This ornamental 

 needle-work was early held in great esteem by the Church, and was 

 the daily employment of the convent. For a long time the art of 

 makinff it was a church secret, and it was known as nuns'-work. 

 Even monks were commended for their skill in embroidery. 



A kind of primitive lace, in use centuries ago in Europe, and speci- 

 mens of which are still abundant, is called cut-work. It was made in 

 many ways. Sometimes a network of threads was arranged upon a 

 small frame, beneath which was gummed a piece of fine cloth, open, 

 like canvas. Then with a needle the network was sewed to the cloth, 

 and the superfluous cloth was cut away ; hence the name of cut-work. 

 Another lace-lrke fabric of very ancient date, and known- as drawn- 

 work, was made by drawing out a portion of the warp and weft 

 threads from linen, and leaving a square network of threads, which 

 wei-e made firm by a stitch at each corner of the mesh. Sometimes 

 these netted grounds were embroidered with colors. "* 



Still another ancient lace, called " darned-netting," was made by em- 

 broidering figures upon a plain net, like ordinary nets of the present 

 day. Lace was also formed of threads, radiating from a common centre 

 at equal distances, and united by squares, triangles, rosettes, and other 

 o-eometrical forms, which were worked over with a button-hole stitch, 

 and the net thus made was more or less ornamented with' embroidery. 

 Church-vestments, altar-cloths, and grave-cloths, were elaborately dec- 



