Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 8.djvu/554

536 to black." To preserve purity of color it is made in the open air in summer, and in winter in the lofts over cow-houses, as the warmth of the animals enables the workers to dispense with fire, which makes more or less smoke. The most beautiful blondes were once made at Caen, but competition with the machine-made blondes of Calais and Nottingham has caused the manufacture of white blonde to be abandoned at this place, and its lace-makers now confine themselves to making black lace.

The manufacture of black-silk lace was first established in the town of Chantilly, near Paris, and hence, wherever this fabric is now made, it is called "Chantilly lace." It is always made of a lustreless silk, called "grenadine," which is commonly mistaken for thread. As it was only consumed by the nobility, its unfortunate producers became the victims of the Revolution of 1793, and perished with their patrons on the scaffold. This put an end to the manufacture for many years; but in 1835 black lace again became fashionable, and Chantilly was once more prosperous. But the nearness of Chantilly to Paris has, of late, increased the price of labor so much that the lace-manufacturers have been driven away. The so-called Chantilly shawls are now made at Bayeux. The shawls, dresses, and scarfs, that are still made at Chantilly are mere objects of luxury.

The black laces of Caen, Bayeux, and Chantilly, are identical. The shawls, dresses, flounces, veils, etc., are made in strips and united by a peculiar stitch. Great pains are taken in Bayeux in the instruction of lace-makers, so that the town now leads in the manufacture of large pieces of black lace. Fig. 10 represents a sample of this lace of the finest quality and of rich design.

Each country has furnished its special style of lace—Italy its points of Venice and Genoa; Flanders its Brussels, Mechlin, and Valenciennes; France its point d'Alençon and its black lace of Bayeux. England has also produced its unique Honiton, and Spain its silk blondes. Each of these laces is made in other countries, but in its characteristic lace each nation is unrivaled.

Honiton lace, the only original English lace of importance, was first made at Honiton, in Devonshire, in the seventeenth century. The art of lace-making is said to have been brought into England by Flemish refugees, and Honiton lace long preserved an unmistakable Flemish character. It is to its sprigs that it owes its reputation. They are made separately, and at first they were worked in with the pillow-ground; afterward they were sewed on, as shown in Fig. 4, which is a sample of the Honiton of the last century. The net is very beautiful and regular. It is made of the finest thread, brought from Antwerp at a cost of $350 per pound. There was no thread to be found in the British Islands fit for the purpose. Cotton thread, perhaps, might be had, but not the linen thread necessary in a work requiring so much labor, which alone would make it very costly.