e
taking the next. The pillow-made ground, No. II., shows the threads
plaited or twisted together to form a hexagonal or a diamond-shaped
network. This is all the difference between needle-made and pillow-made
lace, and in itself helps to identify in many instances its country and
period when it was produced. All the early Italian laces were
Needlepoint, and all the early French laces were the same. All the
Flemish laces (including Brussels) were pillow-made, and mixed laces in
any of these countries are of later make. Italy adapted the Flemish
pillow-lace, and produced Genoese and Milanese guipures, in addition to
the coarse imitation of Reticella which she now made by plaiting threads
on the pillow. Brussels adopted the needle-made motifs and grounds of
Italy, and produced perhaps her finest lace, weaving her beautiful
designs and outlines on the pillow, and afterwards filling the spaces
with needle-made jours and brides, as in Point d'Angleterre.

A study of Chart II. will show the different style of grounds or reseaux
of both Needlepoint and pillow-made lace, the buttonhole grounds being
either of "brides" with or without picots, or buttonhole loops, as in
Brussels, and Alencon (with a straight thread whipping across to
strengthen the ground), loops buttonholed over all as in Argentan, or
made of tiny worked hexagons with separate buttonholed threads around
them as in Argentella. The pillow-made grounds are made of two plaited
or twisted threads, except in the case of Valenciennes, when it is made
of four threads throughout (hence its durability). In Brussels, it will
be noted, the threads are twisted twice to commence the mesh. These meet
two other threads, and are plaited four times, dividing into two again,
and performing the same twist, the whole making a hexagon rather longer
than round. Mechlin has precisely the same ground, only that the threads
are plaited _twice_ instead of four times, as in Brussels, making the
hexagon roundish instead of long.

The ground of Lille lace is of exactly the same shape as Valenciennes,
but is composed of two threads twisted loosely twice each side of the
diamond, and that of Valenciennes being made of four threads plaited.

With the aid of these little charts, a remembrance of the various styles
and a few actual specimens of lace, and _a powerful magnifying glass_,
it is not beyond the power of any reader of this little book to become
expert in the identification of old lace