te or black lace, heavily
bordered and lightly spotted with flowers, while the shawls were
sometimes nearly double that size, and of much heavier lace, as they had
need to be, to carry the wealth of decorative darning lavished upon
them.

The design was always a foliated one, generally proceeding from a common
center, representing a basket or a knot of ribbon, which confined the
branching forms to the point of departure. The edges were heavily
scalloped, with an extension of the ornamentation which included a rose
or leaf for the filling of every scallop. The centers of flowers, and
even of leaves, were often filled with beautiful variations of lace
stitches worked into the meshes of the ground, and were very curious and
interesting.

[Illustration: LACE WEDDING VEIL, 36 x 40 inches, used in 1806. From the
collection of Mrs. Charles H. Lozier.

_Courtesy of Bergen County Historical Society, Hackensack, N. J._]

[Illustration: HOMESPUN LINEN NEEDLEWORK called "Benewacka" by the
Dutch. The threads were drawn and then whipped into a net on which the
design was darned with linen. Made about 1800 and used in the end of
linen pillow cases.

_Courtesy of Bergen County Historical Society, Hackensack, N. J._]

Darning with flosses upon both white and black bobbinet, or silk net,
was a very common form of the art, and veils of white with seed or
all-over designs darned in white silk floss, may be called the "personal
needlework" of the period, and some of the shawls were superb stretches
of design and stitching. This art, although so beautiful in effect,
demanded very little of the skill necessary to the preceding methods of
embroidery. The lace was simply stretched or basted over paper or white
cloth, upon which the design was heavily traced in ink; the spaces which
were to be solidly filled were sometimes covered with a shading of red
chalk, and when this was done, it was a matter of simple running over
and under the meshes of the net, in directions indicated by the shape of
the leaf or flower. The work could be heavier or lighter, according to
the design and size or weight of the flosses used. I have seen a wedding
veil worked upon a beautiful white silk net, carrying a sprinkling of
orange flowers, darned with white silk flosses, and a heavy wreath
around the border. Certainly no veil of priceless point lace could be so
etherially beautiful as was this relic of the past, and certainly no
commercial product, however cos