wool or
hair.

Bone laces in gold and silver, or the two mixed and interchanged, are
continually mentioned in the inventories of the fifteenth, sixteenth,
and seventeenth centuries. Bed hangings, chair and cushion covers, and
table cloths were constantly trimmed with gold and silver bone lace,
and fringes of the same.[364] Laces in coloured silks were made in
Spain and the Balearic Isles late in the last century.[365]

In 1542, a sumptuary law was passed in Venice, forbidding the metal
laces embroidered in silk to be wider than "due dita," i.e. about two
inches. This paternal interference in the details of life is truly
Venetian. It was intended to "protect the nobles and citizens from
injuring themselves and setting a bad example."

Perhaps this strict rule was relaxed in favour of crowned heads and
royal personages; for there is at Ashridge, among the relics of Queen
Elizabeth's enforced visit, a toilet-cover of red and gold striped
silk, with a trimming of lace, four inches broad, of Venice gold and
silver lace embroidered in coloured silk. Specimens of these laces are
rare, owing to the intrinsic value of the metal. We must suppose the
origin of these golden trimmings to belong to a very early period. A
piece of gold wire lace guimp was lately found in a tomb near Wareham,
and is supposed, with reason, to be Scandinavian.[366]

M. Blanc describes lace as a "treillage" or network, and says it is
made in three ways. You may complete the ground first, and then work
the pattern with the needle. This he calls lace "pure et simple;" and
he considers that it differs from guipure in that the latter consists
of flowers and arabesques worked separately, and then connected with
bars, lines, or meshes. This guipure is the second mode of
lace-making.[367] The third is by machinery; but this has the inherent
defect of all machine-made fabrics, to a practised eye; i.e. a certain
rigidity and coldness in the exactly repeated forms, in which the
human touch is wanting. It is curious how in art, even a "pentimento"
is valuable, recalling the hand that erred as well as created; the
attention that strayed, or reconsidered the design.[368]

M. Blanc, speaking of the beauty of point d'Alencon, praises it
especially as being entirely needlework. He names the different modes
of lace-making, and judges their merits. Of needle-made lace he says:
"And the value of this lace not only arises from its representing a
considerable amount of