This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone

LACE-MAKING IN THE MIDLANDS PAST AND PRESENT -- CONTENTS PAGE I. PROGRESS OF LACE-MAKING IN EUROPE . . I IV. LACE SCHOOLS . 30 VI. DECLINE OF THE LACE INDUSTRY . 45 VII. REVIVAL OF THE LACE INDUSTRY . 53 VIII. THE CONDITION AND PROSPECTS OF LACE- MAKING AT THE PRESENT TIME . 61 LIST ILLUSTRATIONS FIG. PAGE At Work . Frontispiece I. Cut-Work or Greek Lace, Sixteenth Century . 2 2. Torchon Edging and Braid . 4 3. Italian Lace with Continuous Braid closely connected with Sewings. Photograph from South Kensington Museum . 6 4. Seventeenth-Century Italian Lace. Photograph from South Kensington Museum 7 5. Continuous Braid Pattern, with Fillings and Plaited Net. Photograph from South Kensington Museum 10 6. Dutch Lace. Braid and ground worked in one across the pattern . . 12 7. Catherine of Aragon Lace . 19 8. Lace made for Princess Royal when an Infant . 27 g. Draught for Parchment used for making Lace at the Exhibition of 185 I . 28 10 11. English Designs for Point Ground, earlier part of nineteenth century 42 J 12. Maltese Lace made in the Midlands . 46 13. Lace now made at Paulers Pury 59 14. Modern Lace made at East Haddon after old Italian Style . 67 IS. Lace in Italian Style, made by C. C. Channer . . 68 16. Design for Lace Fan, by M. E. Roberts . 79 LACE-MAKING IN THE MIDLANDS SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF LACE-MAKING IN EUROPE THE history of lace-making is the history of an art. A piece of lace is an artistic composition expressed in twisted thread, just as a piece of wood-carving is the expression of the artists idea in chiselled wood. Lace is not, like embroidery, an ornamented fabric it is itself ornament. It is not the application of art toa craft the whole pattern is the fabric, andthe fabric is the pattern. It is this peculiarity that distinguishes lace from needlework and . from woven-work. - The art is a comparatively modern one. No trace of it can be found on ancient monuments or in early records the term old lace is B IN-.TB . .. .X LL, 6 .. L n 2fL..3i MIDLANDS a relative term, for before the sixteenth century nothing that we should call lace existed. It was about the close of the seventeenth century that lace reached perhaps its highest point as a vehicle for the expression of artistic ideas. About the middle of the sixteenth century pattern - books began to be published, and it was the effort to carry out the ideas of the designers of patterns which perfected the craft of lace-making. In form, in line, in composition, the patterns belonging to the best periods of lace-making are among the most perfect works that artistic design can show. Without good design lace becomes worthless rubbish, like a picture without drawing. In seeking to discover the origin of the art we find two distinct but equally important sources. The first is the ornamentation of linen by means of drawn-thread work and cut-work the second is the twisting of threads into narrow ornamen- tal braids, known as lace or purling. Drawn-thread work, at least in its simpler forms, is familiar to most people. When very fine and elaborate it has much the same effect as a closely-worked piece of lace. Cut-work, or Greek lace as it is sometimes called, is less familiar. It is formed by cutting out in linen patterns, usually geometrical, and then closely button - holing over the threads which remain.