rs, the fashion of which she started in
France; and Henry III. was so punctilious over his ruffs that he would
iron and goffer his cuffs and collars himself rather than see their
pleats limp and out of shape. The pattern-books also gave a great
impulse to the art. M. Lefebure mentions German books with patterns of
eagles, heraldic emblems, hunting scenes, and plants and leaves belonging
to Northern vegetation; and Italian books, in which the _motifs_ consist
of oleander blossoms, and elegant wreaths and scrolls, landscapes with
mythological scenes, and hunting episodes, less realistic than the
Northern ones, in which appear fauns, and nymphs or _amorini_ shooting
arrows. With regard to these patterns, M. Lefebure notices a curious
fact. The oldest painting in which lace is depicted is that of a lady,
by Carpaccio, who died about 1523. The cuffs of the lady are edged with
a narrow lace, the pattern of which reappears in Vecellio's _Corona_, a
book not published until 1591. This particular pattern was, therefore,
in use at least eighty years before it got into circulation with other
published patterns.

It was not, however, till the seventeenth century that lace acquired a
really independent character and individuality, and M. Duplessis states
that the production of the more noteworthy of early laces owes more to
the influence of men than to that of women. The reign of Louis XIV.
witnessed the production of the most stately needle-point laces, the
transformation of Venetian point, and the growth of _Points d'Alencon_,
_d'Argentan_, _de Bruxelles_ and _d'Angleterre_.

The king, aided by Colbert, determined to make France the centre, if
possible, for lace manufacture, sending for this purpose both to Venice
and to Flanders for workers. The studio of the Gobelins supplied
designs. The dandies had their huge rabatos or bands falling from
beneath the chin over the breast, and great prelates, like Bossuet and
Fenelon, wore their wonderful albs and rochets. It is related of a
collar made at Venice for Louis XIV. that the lace-workers, being unable
to find sufficiently fine horse-hair, employed some of their own hairs
instead, in order to secure that marvellous delicacy of work which they
aimed at producing.

In the eighteenth century, Venice, finding that laces of lighter texture
were sought after, set herself to make rose-point; and at the Court of
Louis XV. the choice of lace was regulated by still more elaborate