Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 8.djvu/553

Rh Valenciennes lace was made in other towns of the province, but "vraie Valenciennes" only at Valenciennes. The Lille makers, for instance, would make from three to five ells a day (an ell is forty-eight inches), while those of Valenciennes would make not more than an inch and a half in the same time. Some lace-makers made only twenty-four inches in a year; hence the costliness of the lace. Modern Valenciennes is far inferior in quality to that made in 1780.

The manufacture is now transferred to Belgium, to the great commercial loss of France, for it is the most widely consumed of any of the varieties of lace. It is the most important of the pillow-laces of Belgium. Yprès, which is the chief place of its manufacture, began to make this lace in 1656. In 1684 it had only three forewomen and 63 lace-makers, while in 1850 it numbered from 20,000 to 22,000. The Valenciennes of Ypres (Fig. 3) is the finest and most elaborate of any that is now made. On a piece not two inches wide, from 200 to 300 bobbins are employed, and for greater widths 800 bobbins are sometimes used on the same pillow. The large, clear squares of the ground contrast finely with the even tissue of the patterns. The Yprès manufacture has greatly improved since 1833, and has reached a high degree of perfection. Irish Valenciennes closely resembles the Yprès lace. Valenciennes lace as fine as that of France was at one time made in England (Fig. 9).



Mechlin is a fine, beautiful lace, made in one piece on the pillow, and is distinguished by the flat thread which forms its flower. Before 1665 all pillow-lace, of which the pattern was relieved by a flat thread, was known as Mechlin lace. "It is essentially a summer lace, not becoming in itself, but charming when worn over color."

Silk laces were first made about 1745. At first this new fabric was manufactured from silk of the natural color brought from Nanking and it was hence called blonde. After a time, however, it was prepared from the purest and most brilliant white silk. "Not every woman can work at the white lace. Those who have what is locally termed the haleine grasse (greasy breath) are obliged to confine