Part 8 (2/2)
[Ill.u.s.tration: LIMERICK ”FILLINGS.”]
Very dainty little sprays and flowers are produced in the fine chain or tambour st.i.tch, the hearts of the flowers or the centres of the scallops being worked over in an endless variety of extra st.i.tches, as will be seen in the ill.u.s.tration.
Another variety of lace is Carrick-ma-cross, which was contemporary with Limerick. This is merely embroidery again, but has more claim to the t.i.tle of lace, as the tiny little flowers and scrolls are connected with brides made of b.u.t.tonhole st.i.tch ornamented with picots. This is really a very handsome lace, its only drawback being that it will not _wash_.
The fine lawn of which it is made is b.u.t.tonholed round and then cut away. This, in cleaning or was.h.i.+ng, _contracts_ and leaves the b.u.t.tonhole edging, and in a few cleanings it is a ma.s.s of unmendable rags.
Slightly more serviceable is another variety of Carrick-ma-cross, on which the lawn is appliqued to a machine-made net, the pattern outlined with b.u.t.tonhole st.i.tches, and the surplus lawn cut away, leaving the network as a grounding, various pretty st.i.tchings filling up the necessary s.p.a.ces.
Yet another kind of lace is made, and is really the only real lace that Ireland can claim. This is the Irish crotchet, which in its finer varieties is a close imitation of Venetian Point, but made with fine thread and with a crotchet needle. Some of the best is really worth purchasing, but it is costly, realising as much as five guineas per yard. A very delicate ”Tatting” also comes from the Emerald Isle, and in comparing English and Irish laces one is inevitably struck with the reflection that there is more ”artistry” in the production of Irish laces and embroidery than in England with all her advantages. The temperamental differences of the two races are distinctly shown in this, perhaps more than any other art.
Much really notable work is now being executed in the Irish lace schools. At Youghal, co. Monaghan, an exact replica of old Venetian Point is being worked. Various fine specimens from the school occupy a place at South Kensington Museum, and the lace industry of Ireland may be said to be in a healthy condition.
[Ill.u.s.tration: CARRICK-MA-CROSS LACE.
(_Author's Collection._)]
XIII
HOW TO IDENTIFY LACE
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CENTRE STRIP IS OLD ”RETICELLA,” WITH GENOA BORDERS.
(_Author's Collection._)]
XIII
HOW TO IDENTIFY LACE
Style--Historical data--Reseaux.
The great difficulty in attempting to identify any specimen of lace is that from time to time each country experimented in the manners and styles of other lace-making nations. The early Reticella workers copied what is known as the ”Greek laces,” which were found in the islands of the Grecian Archipelago. Specimens of these laces found in the excavations of the last thirty years show practically no difference in method and style. France copied the Venetian laces, and at one period it is impossible to say whether a given specimen was made at Alencon or Venice. Italy, in turn, imitated the Flemish laces--to such an extent that even the authorities at South Kensington Museum, with all their leisure and opportunities for study and the magnificent specimens at hand for identification, admit that certain laces are either ”Italian or Flemish.” Valenciennes was once a Flemish town, and though now French, preserves the Flemish character of lace, some specimens of Mechlin being so like Valenciennes as to baffle certainty.
Later, Brussels borrowed the hand-made grounds of France and Venice, and still later England copied Brussels, the guipures of Flanders, and the ground and style of Lille! All this makes the initial stages of the study of lace almost a hopeless quest. The various expensive volumes on lace, although splendidly written and gorgeously ill.u.s.trated, leave the student with little more than an interesting and historical knowledge on which to base the actual study of lace. Here I may refer my readers to the one and only public collection of lace, I believe, in England--that of the South Kensington Museum, where specimens of lace from all countries and of all periods are shown, and where many magnificent bequests, that of Mrs. Bolckow especially, make the actual study of lace a possibility.
It is to be hoped that the governing body of the museum will, in its own good time, make this a pleasure instead of a pain. The specimens, the _most important to the student_, are placed in a low, dark corridor. Not a glimmer of light can be obtained on some of the cases, which also are upright, and placed so closely together that on attempting to see the topmost specimen on one side the unfortunate student literally bangs her head into the gla.s.s of the next one. A gentle complaint at the Directors' office concerning the difficulty brought forth the astonis.h.i.+ng information that there was no room at their disposal, but that in good time better light might be found. As these cases have been in identically the same place for the past fifteen years, one hopes that the ”good time” may come before one becomes a ”spectacled pantaloon” with no desire to see the wonders of that Palace of Art.
[Ill.u.s.tration: POINT D'ANGLETERRE.
Style Louis XV. Eighteenth Century
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