Pillow lace

“ The first lesson usually given in pillow lace making is the braid work; the learner is at first puzzled by the number of fine bobbins, but if it is remembered that only four are used together, and that the plain or whole stitch is only weaving or plaiting across and back again, the difficulty vanishes.
Braid Work.
Mecklenburg linen thread, No. 8, six pairs of bobbins. For braid work three pairs of leaders are required. ”

“ There is something very remarkable about the manufacture of pillow lace, in that it is carried on in the villages of Buckinghamshire just as it was two or more centuries ago, and the pillow and the bobbins are almost identical in form and design—indeed, the patterns of the lace have changed little, for the workers cling tenaciously to the old designs, Flemish in their characteristics, just as they do to the old bobbins. ”

“ The pattern is surrounded by a heavy thread, and composed of a close stitch worked between the meshes of a coarse net ground. This lace somewhat resembles Dalecarlian lace. In the eighteenth century fine pillow lace was also made in these provinces. The celebrated industry of Offida in the Marche has sunk into artistic degradation. ”

“ The point de France supplanted that of Venice, [465] but its price confined its use to the rich, and when the wearing of lace became general those who could not afford so costly a production replaced it by the more moderate pillow-lace. This explains the great extension of the pillow-lace manufacture at this period—the production did not suffice for the demand. Encouraged by the success of the royal manufactures, lace fabrics started up in various towns in the kingdom. The number of lace-workers increased rapidly. ”

“ Valenciennes.—A solid and durable pillow lace having the same kind of thread throughout for both ground and pattern. Both the pattern and ground are wrought together by the same hand, and as this demands much skill in the manipulation of a great many threads and bobbins, the price of Valenciennes is very high. The mesh of the ground is usually square or diamond shaped, very open and of great regularity. It is a flat lace, worked in one piece, and no different kind of thread is introduced to outline the pattern or to be wrought into any part of the fabric. ”

“ Lace plaits similar to this require bobbins and a pillow, as well as a suitable lace or linen thread; but the gimps for embroidery can be made quite nicely by fixing the knots to some firm foundation and winding the cord, string, or braid on to a piece of cardboard. The plait is done by means of twisting and crossing. These terms are used in the making of pillow lace. “Twisting” always means passing the right-hand strand over the left (Fig. 38 A) , and “crossing” means the passing of the inner left-hand strand over the inner right-hand strand (Fig. 38 B) . ”

“ Bobbin-lace.— (Ceylon.)
The specimens of Indian pillow-laces, wrought with white and black threads, in the India Museum, are apparently made in single pieces, and not as in Honiton laces, by separate flowers, which are subsequently placed together for the ground to be worked in between them. [264] "A missionary taught a few Chinese women to make silk lace from the wild silk of this part of China," reports Consul Bullock from Chefoo (at the request of the Nottingham Chamber of Commerce) , but the small quantity of lace so produced is sold to Europeans only. The Chinese do not care to buy it. ”

“ Lace-making implies the production of ornament and fabric concurrently. Without a pattern or design the fabric of lace cannot be made.
The publication of patterns for needlepoint and pillow laces dates from about the middle of the 16th century. Before that period lace described such articles as cords and narrow braids of plaited and twisted threads, used not only to fasten shoes, sleeves and corsets together, but also in a decorative manner to braid the hair, to wind round hats, and to be sewn as trimmings upon costumes. ”

“ They say it was a woman, Barbara Uttmann, who invented pillow lace in the 16th century. Women have ever been patrons of lace-making. Victoria has kept the Honiton laces in fashion, and it was the Duchess of Argyle who introduced lace-making in Scotland. The Countess of Erne and Lady Denny and Lady Bingham began it in Ireland, and Lady De Vere gave her own Brussels point for patterns when the first Irish point was made at Curragh. It was Elizabeth of Denmark who introduced lace-making in that country, and the Archduchess Sophia who started lace schools in Bohemia. ”

“ Honiton.—A pillow lace originally made at Honiton, Devonshire, England, and celebrated for the beauty of its figures and sprigs. The manufacture is still carried on at that town, where there is a lace school, but a similar lace is made in the leading Continental centers of the industry.
(a) Honiton Application is made by working the pattern parts on the lace pillow and securing them to a net ground, separately made. At present it is customary to use machine-made net upon which hand-made sprays are sewn. ”

“ This is all the difference between needle-made and pillow-made lace, and in itself helps to identify in many instances its country and period when it was produced. All the early Italian laces were Needlepoint, and all the early French laces were the same. All the Flemish laces (including Brussels) were pillow-made, and mixed laces in any of these countries are of later make. Italy adapted the Flemish pillow-lace, and produced Genoese and Milanese guipures, in addition to the coarse imitation of Reticella which she now made by plaiting threads on the pillow. ”

“ Lace in pictures has, in the first place, been interpreted by the painter, and no pencil or brush can show more than the general effect. The stitches in the toilé, or ground of needle-point lace, amount sometimes to several thousand in every square inch; and the almost incredible fineness of the twists in the réseau of pillow laces makes identification very difficult, unless it is founded on observation of actual portions of the fabric. ”

“ The value of lace depends not only on the work but on the thread it is made of; all the D.M.C cottons [A] can be recommended for lace-making and coloured laces of all kinds are greatly improved by the addition of a little Chiné d’or D.M.C or Or fin D.M.C pour la broderie. [A]
Position and movements of the hands (fig. 783) .—Pillow lace is always made with two pairs of bobbins at once and the «stitches» are formed by the different ways of passing, plaiting, crossing and twisting the threads. ”

“ The makers of the best laces would sit nearest the light, and so on in order of merit.
A "down" in Northamptonshire is the parchment {391}pattern, generally about twelve inches long. In Buckinghamshire they have two "eachs" ten inches long, and putting one in front of the other, so work round the pillow, which to many commends itself as a better plan than having one "down" and moving the lace back on reaching the end of the "down." The pillow is a hard round cushion, stuffed with straw and well hammered to make it hard for the bobbins to rattle on. ”

“ As evidence for the early origin of pillow-lace in the Low Countries, Baron Reiffenberg mentions an altar-piece, attributed to Quentin Matsys (in a side chapel of the choir of St. Peter's, at Louvain) , in which a girl is represented making lace with bobbins on a pillow with a drawer, similar to that now in use. [318] There exists a series of engravings after Martin de Vos (1580-85) , giving the occupations of the seven ages of life: in the third, [319] assigned to âge mûr, is seen a girl, sitting with a pillow on her knees, making lace (Fig. 50) . ”

“ In 1874 more than thirty young lace-women left a village of four hundred inhabitants to seek work elsewhere. The old workers gave up making good laces and supplied the popular demand with Maltese, which grew more and more inferior both in design and quality of thread, and gradually the old workers died out and no new ones took their places. The Lace Association has been started with the object of stimulating and improving the local manufacture of pillow lace, of providing lace-workers with greater facilities for the sale of their work at more remunerative prices. ”

“ Mezzo Punto, or mixed Venetian guipure, was a mixed point lace, of which the scrolls and flowers were outlined in pillow-lace, or by a tape, and the designs filled in with needle fillings, and connected by pearled brides on a coarse needle-made réseau. This variety of lace was sometimes made of silk. In point de Venise, flat or raised, the pattern is always connected by an irregular network of pearled brides. Real brides connecting the flowers here and there hardly ever occur; and the number of picots attached to one single branch of the bride network never exceeds two. ”

“ Saxony, Russia, and the Auvergne produce quantities of pillow laces, having little pretence to design, though capable of pretty effects when artistically worn. There is no question that the want of a sustained intelligence in appreciating ingenious hand-made laces has told severely upon the industry; and as with other artistic handicrafts, so with{236} lace-making, machinery has very considerably supplanted the hand. ”

“ Pillow lace may be easily distinguished from Point lace, as in the former the ground, or réseau, is made of plaited threads. That of Point lace is composed of threads made by the use of the button{38}hole stitch only, or, in the case of Alençon point, the mesh is worked in a special manner. The later laces, i.e., those made during the last hundred years, have frequently a ground of machine lace, and thus, strictly speaking, are not lace at all, but only embroideries or appliqués. The machine-made ground can be distinguished by sense of touch alone. ”

“ Though no other lace manufactory can be said to exist in Sweden beyond that of Wadstena, still a coarse bobbin lace is made by the peasantry for home consumption. The author has received from the Countess Elizabeth Piper, late Grande Maîtresse to her Majesty the Queen of Sweden, specimens of coarse pillow laces, worked by the Scanian peasant women, which, she writes, "form a favourite occupation for the women of our province."
Plate LXXIV.
Russian.—Part of a long border setting forth a Procession. ”

“ This pricked pattern is then fastened to the pillow. The pillow or cushion varies in shape in different countries. Some lace-makers use a circular pad, backed with a flat board, in order that it may be placed upon a table and easily moved. Other lace-workers use a well-stuffed round pillow or short bolster, flattened at the two ends, so that they may hold it conveniently on their laps. From the upper part of pillow with the pattern fastened on it hang the threads from the bobbins. The bobbin threads thus hang across the pattern. Fig. ”

“ Not all people know the difference between point lace which is made with the needle, and pillow lace which is made with the bobbins—but much of the beautiful point lace of the present day is made with the needle, and its beauty stands a favorable comparison with the more costly pillow lace. ”

“ Great accuracy is necessary for this work, as all the beauty of the lace depends on the correctness of the prickings.
Position in Working Pillow Lace.
Devonshire workers usually sit on low chairs with their feet on the back rail of another chair, resting their pillow against the back of the chair. Ladies will find that they can work most comfortably seated on an ordinary chair with their feet on a footstool, and resting the pillow against a table.
Nos. 6 and 7.—Passements.
These are the passements for two useful lace sprays.
[Pg 15]
No. ”

“ It seems impossible to get the very fine, silky, pure flax thread in the home market. A greater part of the lace made at the present time is wasted labour by reason of the coarse cottony thread used.
The evolution (if it may be termed so) of Honiton lace is briefly this. The bone or bobbin lace before mentioned at first consisted of a small and simple imitation of the early Italian pillow laces—mere narrow strips made by coarse threads plaited and interlaced. They got wider and more elaborate as the workers gained experience. ”

“ To face page 416.
{417} A beautiful county and a beautiful art have come down to us hand in hand. Let us do our best to prevent the one being marred and the other lost, and keep them both together to be a joy and a pleasure for all time.
JAPAN.
The versatile Japanese have copied the Honiton method of making bobbin lace. The Government have encouraged a school at Yokohama for pillow lace making, under the supervision of an English lady, where they turn out lace of a distinctive Japanese character. ”

“ The writer saw at Chantilly an aged lace-maker employed in making a lace ground of hair on the pillow, used, she was informed, by wig-makers to give the parting of the hair; but the fabric must be identical with the point tresse sent by the mother of Darnley to the Queen of Scots. Point tresse, when made out of the hair of aged people, is occasionally to be met with on the Continent, where, from its rarity, it fetches a high price. ”

“ Point.—Principally made at Venice, Genoa, Brussels, and in Spain.
2. Bisette.—A narrow, coarse thread pillow lace of three qualities, made in the environs of Paris [102] by the peasant women, principally for their own use. Though proverbially of little value—"ce n'est que de la bisette" [103] —it formed an article of traffic with the mercers and lingères of the day.
3. Gueuse.—A thread lace, which owed to its simplicity {34}the name it bore. The ground was network, the flowers a loose, thick thread, worked in on the pillow. ”

“ An appreciable amount of pillow-made lace is annually supplied from Devonshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Northampton, but it is bought almost wholly for home use. The English laces are made almost entirely in accordance with the precedents of the 19th century—that is to say, in definite lengths and widths, as for borders, insertions and flounces, although large shaped articles, such as panels for dresses, long sleeves complete skirts, jackets, blouses, and fancifully shaped collars of considerable dimensions have of late been freely made elsewhere. ”