REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1909. 19 



tury, as well as other lace of like description which may have had 

 similar origin. The piece first referred to is, indeed, a splendid ex- 

 ample, firmly worked and uncommonly interesting in design, figures 

 of men and beasts being naively introduced in the well-balanced 

 pattern. 



'• The next step in the development of lace making was the intro- 

 duction of groundwork — a mesh of ' brides ' or ' tyes ' arranged in a 

 honeycomb pattern — ' reseau ' — which caused the compact relief to 

 give way to lighter and daintier patterns. Instead of simulating 

 ivory carvings, as do the Venetian points, the later laces suggest cob- 

 webs or frost tracery. This transition took place in the early part 

 of the seventeenth century and is illustrated in the loan collection by 

 a charming piece of Venetian jaoint lent by Mrs. Hitt, wherein many 

 brides are used, not apparently to hold the pattern together but, as it 

 were, to embellish the pattern. Laces of this description were 

 nowhere produced with greater perfection than at Alenyon and Ar- 

 gentan, in France, which in time outrivaled Venice in their produc- 

 tion. 



" How this came about is worth noting. Henry the Second, of 

 France, history tells us, appointed a Venetian. Frederic Vinciolo by 

 name, to be pattern maker for varieties of linen needlework and laces 

 to his court, through whom ' the seeds of a taste for lace in France 

 were principally sown.' A century later when Louis XIV came to 

 the throne, through the advice of Colbert, he bent his energies to fos- 

 tering these seeds which had given signs of life, and intrigued to 

 secure the services of Venetian lace makers as teachers for his oAvn 

 people, issuing, at the same time, an edict forbidding the importation 

 of Venetian lace. The result was that in 1676 an Italian of note, 

 referring to the craft of lace making, is reported to have declared that 

 ' as far as punto in aria went, the French could then do it to perfec- 

 tion.' 



" The distinguishing characteristic of point d'Argentan is sup- 

 posedly its ground of hexagonally arranged brides, but this has like- 

 wise been found a peculiarity of certain Venetian laces of earlier 

 date, and here it is that the student of laces finds confusion gathering 

 on his path. The migration of lace makers and the interchange of 

 pattern books make it almost impossible to assert with confidence, in 

 many instances, precisely in Avhich country, certainly in which city, 

 specimens have been produced. But while this may work the be- 

 wilderment of the connoisseur, it need not disturb the average ob- 

 server nor rob the specimens set forth of their significance as works of 

 art craftsmanship — of their real beauty. Xumerous splendid exam- 

 ples of both jjoint d'Alencon and point d'Argentan are shown in this 

 collection, but of extraordinary importance is a flounce, 27 inches 



