imple geometric square and pointed as in all the early lace, it now
takes on the lovely flowing scroll of the Renaissance that marks the
latter half of the seventeenth century.

The same grand styles may be noted all through the great period of
Italian Needlepoint lace. It will be seen in a lesser degree in the
Guipure laces of Milan and Genoa, but here the cramping influence of the
Flemish school shows itself distinctly.

[Illustration: ITALIAN ECCLESIASTICAL LACE.]

[Illustration: FLEMISH OR GENOESE ECCLESIASTICAL LACE.

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

The same bold lines may be noted in the early Needlepoint lace of
France, which had not then become sufficiently sure of her capacity to
develop a style of her own, and all show the Renaissance spirit.
Afterwards when the superb Point de France was at its height of
manufacture along with grand outline and exquisite handicraft, the
influence of the mighty monarch Louis XIV. asserted itself and although
the lace itself commands unbounded admiration, fantastic little notions,
symbolical and naturalistic, showed itself--as an illustration page 75:
little figures representing "the Indian," "canopied crown over a sealed
lady," trees growing all manner of bizarre fruit and flowers, all
symbolical of Louis the Magnificent's unbounded power and sway. In the
South Kensington Museum there is a still finer specimen, which has
not yet been photographed, I believe--a magnificent flounce, about
eighteen inches wide (really two boot top pieces joined), of what is
known as pseudo-Oriental character, which shows amongst the usual
exquisite scrolling no less than seven different figures on each
piece--viz., an Indian, a violinist in dress of Louis XIV. period, a
lady riding on a bird, two other ladies, one with a pet dog and the
other a parrot, a lady violinist, and another lady seated before a
toilet-table. These little figures are not more than three-quarters of
an inch high, but are worked with such minuteness that even the tiny
features are shown. This fantastic adoption of the human figure was
copied in Italy and Flanders. The finest specimens of Point d'Angleterre
(Brussels) show the same designs; and it may broadly be stated that all
lace with figures is of the Louis XIV. period, and over two hundred
years old.

Succeeding this period came the dainty elegance of the French laces,
when the workers of Alencon and Argentan had developed a purely French
style. Note the Point d'Alencon,