Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 8.djvu/552

534 over to the workman, who has no responsibility in these matters. "The lace industry of Brussels is now divided into two branches, the making of sprigs, either point or pillow, for application upon the net-ground, and the modern point gaze. The first is the Brussels lace, par excellence, and more of it is produced than of any other kind. Of late years it has been greatly improved by mixing point and pillow-made flowers.

Point gaze is so called from its gauze-like needle-ground, fond gaze, comprised of very fine, round meshes, with needle-made flowers, made simultaneously with the ground, by means of the same thread, as in the old Brussels. It is made in small pieces, the joining concealed by sprigs or leaves, like the old point, the same lace-worker making the whole strip from beginning to end. Point gaze is now brought to the highest perfection, and is remarkable for the precision of the work, the variety and richness of the jours, and the clearness of the ground. It somewhat resembles point d'Alençon, but the work is less elaborate and less solid. Alençon lace, it is said, could not compete with Brussels in its designs, which are not copied from Nature, while the roses and honeysuckles of the Brussels lace are worthy of a Dutch painter. When flowers of both pillow and needle-lace are marked upon the "fond gaze it is erroneously called point de Venice."

Lace-making is at present the chief source of national wealth in Belgium. It forms a part of female education, and one-fortieth of the entire population (150,000 women) are said to be engaged upon it.

But some of the pillow-laces have had immense popularity as well as those of the needle. Fig. 1 is a beautiful example of the pillow-lace made at Valenciennes in the eighteenth century.

This kind of lace was first made in the city of Valenciennes, and the manufacture reached its height in that town about 1780, when there were some 4,000 lace-makers employed upon it; but fashion changed, lighter laces came into vogue, and in 1790 the lace-workers had diminished to 250. Napoleon made an unsuccessful attempt to revive the manufacture, and in 1851 only two lace-makers remained, and they were over eighty years old. At one time this manufacture was so peculiar to the place that it was said, "if a piece of lace were begun at Valenciennes and finished outside the walls, the part not made at Valenciennes would be visibly less beautiful and less perfect than the other, though done by the same lace-maker with the same thread and pillow," The city-made lace was remarkable for its richness of design, evenness, and solidity. It was known as the "beautiful and everlasting Valenciennes," and was bequeathed from mother to daughter like jewels and furs. It was made by young girls in underground rooms, and many of these workers are said to have become almost blind before they were thirty years of age When the whole piece was done by the same hand the lace was thought much more valuable.