134

HISTORY OF LACE.

Paultre, dated 1676, is entitled “Dame en deshabille de chambre”(Fig. 68).

“La France est la tete du nionde” (as regards fashion), saysVictor Hugo, “cyclope dont Paris est l’ceil;” and writers of allages, whether prose or poet, seem to have been of the sameopinion. It was about the year 1680 that the

“ Mode fe'conde en mille inventions,

Monstre, prodige etrnnge et difforme,”

was suddenly exemplified in France.

Fig. G7.

Madame de Maiuteuon. From her portrait. Musee Rationale, Versailles.

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All readers of this great reign will recall to mind the storyof the “Fontanges.” How in the hurry of the chase the locksof the royal favourite becoming dishevelled by the wind, the fairhuntress hurriedly tying the lace kerchief, with a ribbon thatbound them, round her head, produced, in one moment, a coiffureso light, so artistic, that Louis XIV., enchanted, prayed her toretain it for that night at court. The lady obeyed the royalcommand. The ribbon mixed with lace, now worn for the firsttime, caused a sensation, and the next day all the ladies of thecourt appeared “coiffees a la Fontange.” (See Madame de Lude,Fig. 70.)

But this head-dress, with its tiers of point mounted on wires, 19

10

La Fontange altiere.”— Boileau.