illustration page 83, where the
characteristics of the period are fully shown. The illustration shows a
mixed lace, which only recently has been acknowledged by the South
Kensington people as Point d'Argentan. Along with the typical Argentan
ground of the upper portion is the fine Alencon mesh and varied jours of
the border. This also is Louis XIV. style. The lappet shown next is
exceedingly instructive, as till quite lately the people who professed
to understand lace agreed to call this Genoese, although it was quite
unlike anything else made there. This lappet was so labelled at South
Kensington, but now is admittedly Argentella (or little Argentan). It is
remarkably like Alencon, being of the same period, the only points of
difference being that the design is not outlined with a raised Cordonnet
(though in different places of the design a raised and purled Cordonnet
is often stitched on it) and the special ground (partridge eye) which is
agreed to denote "Argentella" lace--page 83. It is sometimes called the
may-flower ground, but this is somewhat misleading as that design occurs
in other laces. The only other great style is that of Flanders, which at
its earliest period had received no influence from the Renaissance that
had seized the southern countries of Europe and was still in the grip of
mediaeval art. It was not until Italian influence permeated France that
Flemish lace perceptibly altered in character.

These are to all intents and purposes the three great styles of lace.
England had no style: she copied Flemish, Brussels, and Mechlin laces.
Ireland, on the contrary, copied Italian in her Irish crotchet and
Carrick-ma-cross (in style only, but not workmanship), and adapted Lille
and Mechlin and Brussels and Buckingham in her Limerick lace.

The student must next make herself familiar with the methods pursued by
the old lace-workers, and here the difficulty commences. All lace is
either Needlepoint, pillow-made, or machine-made. _Needlepoint_ explains
itself. Every thread of it is made with a needle on a parchment pattern,
and only two stitches are used, buttonhole and a double-loop which is
really a buttonhole stitch.

[Illustration: BRUSSELS LAPPET.

Nineteenth Century.

(_S.K.M. Collection._)]

This can be clearly understood by referring to Charts Nos. I. and II.,
where the _two Brussels grounds_ are shown. The Needlepoint ground, No.
I., is formed by a buttonhole stitch, which loops over again befor