186 came laces of a freer style of design, and towards the end of the 16th century designs for scrolls with the introduction of all kinds of odd figures and leaves and blossoms were pro duced (fig. 4). Links or tyes brides came to be inter- FIG. 4. Italian Needle- FIG. 5. Needlepoint Lace, showing point Scallop. use of tyes or "brides." spersed between the various details of the patterns (fig. 5). The work was of a flat character. Some large and elaborate specimens of this flat point lace were made at this time. The lace workers occasionally used gold thread with the white thread. The nomenclature of these earlier needle- made laces is somewhat modern. At the present time the different sorts of early Venetian point laces are called " flat Venetian point," " rose (raised) point," "caterpillar point," " bone point," &c. ; and works of bold design done in relief are called " gros point de Venise." Lace of this latter class (figs. 6, 7) was used for altar cloths, flounces, and heavily trimmed jabots or neckcloths which hung beneath the chin over the breast. Tabliers and ladies aprons were also made of such lace. The laces which have hitherto been referred to are laces in which no regular FIG. 6. Venetian Needlepoint Lace, ground was used. All sorts of minute embellishments, like little knots, stars, and loops or jncots, were worked on to the irregularly arranged brides or tyes holding the main patterns together, and these de vices as a rule gave a rich effect to the laca work. Following this style of treatment came laces with groundworks; and grounds of brides or tyes arranged in a honey comb pattern were, it appears, first used early in the 1 7th century (fig. 8). To them succeeded a lighter sort of lace, one in which the rich and FIG. 7. Venetian Needlepoint Lace, compact relief gave place to much flatter work with a ground of meshes. The needle-made meshes were sometimes of single and sometimes of double threads. A diagram is given of an ordinary method of making such meshes (fig. 9). The delicate Venetian point lace made with a ground of meshes is usually known as " point de Venise a reseau." It was contemporary with the famed needle- made French laces of Alengon and Argentan. " Point d Argentan" has been thought to be especially distinguished on account of its ground of hexagonally arranged brides. But this has been noticed as a peculiarity in certain Venetian point laces of earlier date. 1 Often intermixed with this stiff hexa gonal brides ground is the fine-meshed ground or reseau, which hasbeen held to be distinctive of " point d Alengon : (fig. 10). But, apart from the assumedly distinctive grounds, the styles of patterns and the methods of work ing them, with rich variety of insertions or modes, with raised but ton-hole-stitched edg ings or cordonnets, are FlG - 8. Venetian Needlepoint Lace, precisely alike in the two classes of Argentan and Alencon needle-made laces. Besides the hexagonal brides ground and the ground of meshes there was another variety of grounding used in the Alen9on laces, which was exten sively used and forms a third class. This ground consisted of button-hole- stitched skeleton hexagons within each of which was worked a small solid hexagon connected with the outer surrounding hexagon by means of six little tyes or brides (see fig. 11). Lace with this particular ground has been called " Argen- tella," and some writers on lace have thought that it was a specialty of Genoese or Venetian work. The character of the work and the style of the floral patterns worked upon such grounds are those of Alencon laces, and specimens of this " Argen- tella " often contain insertions of the Argentan brides and the Alengon fine meshes. There are very slight indications respecting the establishment of a lace manufactory at Argentan, where as those regarding Alengon are nu merous. A family of thread and linen dealers, inhabitants of Alencon, by name Monthuley, are credited with the establishment of a branch manufactory or surcursale for lace at Argentan. In the course of business, the Monthuleys assisted the interchange of lace patterns between Argentan and Alengon, which are distant one from another about 10 miles. Thus if a piece of lace was produced at Alencon it was called " point d Alengon," and if at Argentan " point d Argentan," though both works might have been made The lace workers at Alengon and its neighbourhood produced work of a daintier kind than that chiefly made by the Venetians. As a rule the hexagonal bride grounds of Alei^on laces are smaller than similar details in Venetian laces. The average size of a diagonal taken from angle to angle in an Alencon (or so-called Argentan) hexagon was about one-sixth of an inch, and each side of the hexagon was about one- tenth of an inch. An idea of the minuteness of the work can be formed from the fact that a side of a hexagon would be overcast with some nine or ten button-hole stitches. FIG. in. French Needlepoint Lace. Pi
