260

HISTORY OF LACE.

to have been made, as they are in the present day, of bone entinto the prescribed form.

Shakespeare, in “Twelfth Night,” speaks of

“ The spinsters and the knitters in the sun.

And the free maids that weave their threads with bone.”

The Devonshire lace-makers, on the other hand, deriving theirknowledge from tradition, consider the term as applying not tobone bobbins, but the bone pins used in pricking out the lace.When lace-making was first introduced into their county, pins , 41so indispensable to their art, being then sold at a price far beyondtheir means, the lace-makers, mostly the wives of fishermenliving along the coast, adopted the bones of fish, which, paredand cut into regular lengths, fully answered as a substitute. Evenat the present day pins made from chicken bones continue to beemployed in Spain; and bone pins are still used in Portugal . 42

“Done” lace 43 constantly appears in the wardrobe accounts;while bobbin lace 44 is of less frequent occurrence.

41 It is not known when brass wirepins were first made in England, but itmust have been before 1513, in whichyear a statute was passed (35 Hen.VlII.), entitled, “ An Act for the TrueMaking of Pynnes,” in which the price isfixed not to exceed Gs. Sd. per 1000. By anact of Rich. HI., the importation of pinswas prohibited. The early pins were ofboxwood, bone, bronze, or silver. In1347(“I.iberGarderobse,”12-16Edw.III.P. R. O.), we have a charge for 12,000pins for the trousseau of Joanna, daughterof Edward III., betrothed to Peter theCruel. The young princess probablyescaped a miserable married life by herdecease of the black death at Bordeaux,when on her way to Custille.

Tire annual import of pins, in the timeof Elizabeth, amounted to 32072. “ StatePapers, Dom.” Eliz. vol. viii. P. R. O.

In Eliz. Q. of Bohemia's Expenses, wefind: “Dix millo espinglcs dans unpapier, 4 florins.”— Ger. Corr. No 41.P. R. O.

“ In Holland, pillow-lace is called Pin-work lace — Gespelde-werkto kant.”—Sewell's Eng. and Dutch Diet.

42 Bone pins were in use until a re-cent period, and renounced only on ac-count of their costliness. The nnthor

purchased of a Devonshire lace-makerone, bearing date 1829, with the nametattooed into the bone, the gift ofsome long-forgotten youth to her grand-mother. These bone or wood bobbins,some ornamented with glass beads—themore ancient with silver let in—are thecalendar of a lace-worker’s life. Onerecords her first appearance at a neigh-bouring fair, or May meeting; a secondwas the first gilt of her good man, longcold in his grave ; a third, the first prizebrought home by her child from thedame school, and proudly added to hermother’s cushion : one and all, as she sitsweaving her threads, are memories ofbygone days of hopes and fears, of joysand sorrows; and though many a sigh itcalls forth, she cherishes her well-worncushion as an old friend, and worksaway, her present labour lightened bythe memory of the past.

43 44 Surtees Wills and Inv.”

44 Hearing bone lace value 5s. id." ismentioned 44 in y" shoppe of John John-ston, of Darlington, merchant.”

44 “ 1578. James Backhouse, of Kirby inLonsdale. Bobbin lace, 6s. per ounce.”

44 1597. John Farbeck, of Durham. Iny* Shoppe, 4 oz. & J of Bobbin lace,Cs. ■!(/.”— [hid.