CHAPTER HI.

I. ACE.

“ Je demandai de ladeutelle :

Voici le tulle de Bruxelles,

La blonde, le point d’Alen(;on,lit la Maline, si lc’gcre;

1/application d’Angleterro(Qui se fait a Paris, dit-on);

Voici la guipure indigene,

Et voici la Valenciennes,

Le point d’esprit, et le point de Paris;

Bref les dentellesLes plus uouvellesQue produisent tous les pays.”

Le Lalaie dee Denlellee, Jtothomago.

Race 1 is defined as a plain or ornamental network, wrought offine threads of gold, silver, silk, fiax, or cotton, interwoven; towhich may be added “ poil de chevre,” and also the fibre of thealoe, employed by the peasants of Italy and Spain. The term“ lacez,” rendered in the English translation of the statutes 2“ lace,” implies braids, such as were used for decorating thedifferent parts of the dress, and appears long before lace, properlyso called, came into use. “ Passament ” 3 also was a generalterm for gimps and braids, as well as for lace. Modern industryhas separated these two classes of work, but the words beingformerly used to express both renders it difficult in historicresearch to separate one from the other.

The same confusion occurs in France, where the first lace wascalled “ passement,” because it was applied to the same use, to braidor lay flat over the coats and other garments. The lace trade wasentirely in the hands of the “ Passementiers ” of Paris, who were

1 Lace. French, “dentelle;” German, 2 Statute 3 Edw. IV. c. iii.

“ Spitzen ; ” Italian, “ merletto,” “ trina 2 “ Passement, a lace or lacing.”— Col-Genoa, “ pizzo; ” Spanish, “eneaje;” grave.

Butch, “knnten.”