ne specimens from the school occupy a
place at South Kensington Museum, and the lace industry of Ireland may
be said to be in a healthy condition.

[Illustration: CARRICK-MA-CROSS LACE.

(_Author's Collection._)]

XIII

HOW TO IDENTIFY LACE

[Illustration: THE CENTRE STRIP IS OLD "RETICELLA," WITH GENOA BORDERS.

(_Author's Collection._)]

XIII

HOW TO IDENTIFY LACE

Style--Historical data--Reseaux.

The great difficulty in attempting to identify any specimen of lace is
that from time to time each country experimented in the manners and
styles of other lace-making nations. The early Reticella workers copied
what is known as the "Greek laces," which were found in the islands of
the Grecian Archipelago. Specimens of these laces found in the
excavations of the last thirty years show practically no difference in
method and style. France copied the Venetian laces, and at one period it
is impossible to say whether a given specimen was made at Alencon or
Venice. Italy, in turn, imitated the Flemish laces--to such an extent
that even the authorities at South Kensington Museum, with all their
leisure and opportunities for study and the magnificent specimens at
hand for identification, admit that certain laces are either "Italian or
Flemish." Valenciennes was once a Flemish town, and though now French,
preserves the Flemish character of lace, some specimens of Mechlin
being so like Valenciennes as to baffle certainty.

Later, Brussels borrowed the hand-made grounds of France and Venice, and
still later England copied Brussels, the guipures of Flanders, and the
ground and style of Lille! All this makes the initial stages of the
study of lace almost a hopeless quest. The various expensive volumes on
lace, although splendidly written and gorgeously illustrated, leave the
student with little more than an interesting and historical knowledge on
which to base the actual study of lace. Here I may refer my readers to
the one and only public collection of lace, I believe, in England--that
of the South Kensington Museum, where specimens of lace from all
countries and of all periods are shown, and where many magnificent
bequests, that of Mrs. Bolckow especially, make the actual study of lace
a possibility.

It is to be hoped that the governing body of the museum will, in its own
good time, make this a pleasure instead of a pain. The specimens, the
_most important to the student_, are placed in a low, dar