536 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



selves to black." To preserve purity of color it is made in the open 

 air in summer, and in winter in the lofts over cow-houses, as the 

 warmth of the animals enables the workers to dispense with fire, 

 which makes more or less smoke. The most beautiful blondes were 

 once made at Caen, biit competition with the machine-made blondes 

 of Calais and Nottingham has caused the manufacture of wliite blonde 

 to be abandoned at this place, and its lace-makers now confine them- 

 selves to making black lace. 



The manufacture of black-silk lace was first established in the 

 town of Chantilly, near Paris, and hence, wherever this fabric is now 

 made, it is called " Chantilly lace." It is always' made of a lustreless 

 silk, called " grenadine," which is cojumonly mistaken for thread. As 

 it was only consumed by the nobility, its unfortunate producers be- 

 came the victims of the Revolution of 1793, and perished with their 

 patrons on the scaffold. This put an end to the manufacture for many 

 years; but in 1835 black lace again became fashionable, and Chantilly 

 was once more prosperous. But the nearness of Chantilly to Paris 

 has, of late, increased the price of labor so much that the lace-manu- 

 facturers have been driven away. The so-called Chantilly shawls are 

 now made at Bayeux. The shawls, dresses, and scarfs, that are still 

 made at Chantilly are mere objects of luxury. 



The black laces of Caen, Bayeux, and Chantilly, are identical. 

 The shawls, dresses, flounces, veils, etc., are ma^le in strips and united 

 by a peculiar stitch. Great pains are taken in Bayeux in the instruc- 

 tion of lace-makers, so that the town now leads in the manufacture ol 

 large pieces of black lace. Fig. 10 represents a sample of this lace 

 of the finest quality and of rich design. 



Each country has furnished its special style of lace Italy its 

 points of Venice and Genoa ; Flanders its Brussels, Mechlin, and 

 Valenciennes ; France its point d'Alen^on and its black lace of Ba- 

 yeux. England has also produced its unique Honiton, and Spain its 

 silk blondes. Each of these laces is made in other countries, but in 

 its characteristic lace each nation is unrivaled. 



Honiton lace, the only original English lace of importance, was 

 first made at Honiton, in Devonshii'e, in the seventeenth century. 

 The art of lace-making is said to have been brought into England 

 by Flemish refugees, and Honiton lace long preserved an unmis- 

 takable Flemish character. It is to its sprigs that it owes its repu- 

 tation. They are made separately, and at first they were worked in 

 with the pillow-ground; afterward they were sewed on, as shown in 

 Fig. 4, which is a sample of the Honiton of the last century. The net 

 is very beautiful and regular. It is made of the finest thread, brought 

 from Antwerp at a cost of $350 per pound. There was no thread to 

 be found in the British Islands fit for the purpose. Cotton thread, 

 perhaps, might be had, but not the linen thread necessary in a work 

 requiring so much labor, which alone would make it very costly. 



