REFLECTIONS ON LACE MAKING;
Pamela Fisk
Moorestown High School, Moorestwon, NJ
NEH Summer Seminar 2000
Historical Interpretations of the Industrial Revolution in Britain
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth at the University of Nottingham
“For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face.”
First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians
2
Five and twenty ponies
Trotting through the dark
Brandy for the parson
‘Baccy for the Clerk;
Laces for a lady, letters for a spy
And watch the wall my darling, while the
Gentlemen go by!
Rudyard Kipling
From the perspective of the twenty first century, it is difficult to imagine a world
in which a commodity such as lace was so highly prized that high born individuals
would risk the land upon which their wealth was based to acquire it. Traditional
classical economist would doubtless argue that supply was the key motivator, while
neo classical economists would emphasize demand, or as Professor Hudson would say
“exogenous factors.”
This paper, however, will examine the Lace Issue purely from a
cultural/historical viewpoint, exploring aspects of those who wore the lace, and those
who made it, concluding in the mid nineteenth century with the Great Exhibition of
1851. In the process, the question pondered will be whether the wearers and the
makers ever had occasion to interact, and in that connection the Lace Curtain will be
introduced as the climax to the piece.
Professor E.J. Hobsbawm, in his book, Uncommon People, Resistance, Rebellion and
Jazz, betrays his concern for the lives and struggles or ordinary men and women, whom
he identifies as “uncommon” people, and in whose ranks he includes the machine
breakers and the political shoemakers. He does not mention lace makers specifically,
but like the shoemakers, most of them have become as though they have never been,
however, they collectively left a rich and varied story. Hobsbawm noted,
“Their lives are as interesting as yours and mine, even if nobody has written about them.
--- collectively, if not as individuals, such men and women are major historical actors. What
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they do and think, makes a difference.”1
I f the uncommon people have left an indelible mark, their “common” masters
and mistresses did likewise. As evidence of their penchant for lace, there are
innumerable individual portraits, both painted and written, to entertain the reader, and
it is with these that this paper will begin.
In England, which is the setting for this essay, lace was originally used seldom
by women, little by men and quite lavishly by the church, whose prelates and altars
were highly decorated. As for notable folk, Henry V111 owned handkerchiefs and
shaving cloths with trimmings worked in both Flanders and Italy, while during the
reign of his younger daughter, Elizabeth, lace became a popular way of decorating
personal clothing, the most spectacular item of which was the neck ruff. Elizabeth’s
own ruffs were “bejewelled, spangled, bugled and pearled. They were made of
cutwork, sliver lace, gold lace, needlepoint lace and bone lace, and were constructed in
single, double and treble layers.”2 The care of them, moreover, was difficult
considering the damp English climate, for they had to be heavily wired and starched.
The former process involved the use of setting sticks, poking sticks and struts for
fluting, and for the latter, while members of the court imitated their royal mistress,
ordinary people apparently avoided them, calling the starch used to stiffen them, “the
devil’s broth.”
( Just as well, as it turned out, for late in her reign, Elizabeth actually forbade
Londoners from wearing ruffs above a certain size, and officials were sent out to cut
down any offending items in public, while apprentices who took to wearing white work
on their collars were publicly flogged.) A large household might employ a seamstress
specifically for ruff making, and considerable amounts of lace, lawn and lace edgings
were involved, as illustrated by an early seventeenth century letter,
1
2
Hobsbawm, E. Uncommon People. London: Butler and Tanner. 1998
Bullock, A-M. Lace and Lace Making. New York: Larousse and Co. 1981
4
“Commend me to your sister and tell her that the lace I gave her for Jackes ruff was butt
15 yeards: if it be not enoughe, as I think it is not, lett me knowe what wantehth and I will
send it for there was three yeards left behind”
Anne and Mary
Fytton, Gossip in a
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Muniment Room, 1617.
Eventually, the ruffs became so cumbersome that they were known as
“millstones” and it is calculated that a triple ruff could cost the equivalent of $600
today,
There is mention of the young gallant pleading that a friend come “not so close,
thy breath will draw my ruff” while a French Queen wore a ruff so large that she had to
send for a spoon over 60 cm ( 2 feet) long in order to eat her soup at dinner
Practical lace aprons and utilitarian handkerchiefs, were also fashionable by the
end of Elizabeth’s reign, the latter not merely to wipe the nose but to indicate favours, (
Figure 1) noted by a sixteenth century writer,
“Maydes and gentlewomen gave to their favourites as tokens of their love, little
handkerchiefs of about three or four inches square “
such favours were apparently worn in the hat. The former became fashionable in
upper circles, as parodied by the Stephen Gossons in his Pleasant Quippes for Upstart
Gentlewomen of 1596
“Those aprons white of finest thread
So choicley tied, so dearly bought,
So finely fringed, so nicelty spread,
So quaintly cut, so rich;y wrought.”4
The Stuart successors to the Tudors saw lace used as “roses” on shoes, as frills
on boots, and as decorations to stockings and garters, although the new royal house
started its odyssey so impoverished that James 1’s Queen, Anne of Denmark, had to
3
4
Bullock.
Earnshaw, P. Lace in Fashion. Guildford: Gorse Publications. 1985.
5
make do with wearing altered dresses of her famous predecessor, and was apparently
highly indignant that , “gowns previously worn by a woman of 74 should be considered
suitable for a blossoming young woman of 26.”5
At this stage, the ruffs were replaced by large, softly falling collars, which were easier to
care for and infinitely more comfortable, as noted by a contemporary observer, John
Morristown, in The Malcontent.
“ If you should;d chance to take a nap in the afternoon, your falling band requires no
poking stick to recover it.”6
By the mid seventeenth century, English lace was highly regarded overseas, and
the French eagerly purchased it. On the home front, nothing was too insignificant to be
decorated , whether it be linens, clothing , tooth cloths or footwear. Queen Henrietta
Maria set the fashion in decorated footwear, using green lace for that purpose, which
may have been responsible for “ irregular thoughts and desires in the youth of the
nation,” according to The Tatler.
Such thoughts and desires, along with lace, were carefully controlled during the
republic, however, upon the restoration in 1660, the carefully hoarded lace made a
reappearance , and small items such as lacy handkerchiefs were clearly highly prized,
judging from a London Gazette advertisement,
“Lost, as lawn pocket handkerchief with a broad hem, laced round with a fine
lace about four fingers broad, marked with an R in red silk.”7 8
point
The last two Stuart monarchs, the luckless daughters of James 11, and their
consorts, showed their support for lace - in the case of Mary and William, upon the
5
Bullock.
Bullock
7 Bullock
6
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death for the queen, William resolved not to use his trimmed razor cloths and
handkerchiefs for two years as a mourning gesture, however, upon the lapse of those
years he extravagantly replenished his supplies. William outlived his wife by almost a
decade and their effigies lie together in Westminster Abbey - adorned with lace.
William’s displays cravat and ruffles; Mary’s double sleeves and a raised lace tucker.
The Georgian period, ( 1714 - 1830) with its turbulent backdrop, including the
Seven Years War, the American War of Independence, the French Revolution and the
Napoleonic Wars, eventually saw a decline in the production of hand made laces in
England, although at the onset of the dynasty this decline was not apparent. Sleeve
ruffles took on a new dimension, becoming so exaggerated that they were difficult to
wear elegantly and caused many a problem for consumers of soups and sauces at the
dining table. Aprons , headresses, lappets ( strips hanging from a head dress) and caps
continued to be worn, and at least one lady thought the commodity might alter the
course of justice by appearing at her trial elegantly attired in lace flounces, sleeve ruffles
and a stomacher. Impressed though the jury may have been, nonetheless Margaret
Caroline Rudd was found guilty and sentenced to death.
If this lady wore her lace to the court of law, the fabric was much in evidence for
other special occasions, ranging from weddings, when ladies are recorded as wearing
lace aprons ( rather old fashioned, but in memory of her dear departed mother) lace
caps and , at the onset of the eighteenth century, lace veils. The marriage of Queen
Victoria to Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg displayed lace made in Honiton over which
two hundred lace makers toiled, and which cost the equivalent of $1,500 in 1840.
(Figure 2`) On less happy occasions, gentlefolk went to meet their Maker dressed in
their best lace ( though disguised by woollen outer shrouds as the law of the land
wished to protect the woollen industry.) Even those involved in executions, whether he
be a king, such as Charles 1, or a highwayman, felt the need to depart this life with lace.
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For the latter , one gentlemen of the road rode to the gallows atop his coffin, dressed in
his best lace. Children, too were decorated in their laces on formal and even informal
occasions. (Figure 3) Ostentation, however, sometimes had tragic results for the
innocent. An eighteenth century christening of a baby smothered in lace ended in her
death from suffocation. Little wonder that the officiate, the Archbishop of Canterbury,
commented on the docility of the infant.
The decline of hand made lace, however, was in the air and it was due to
another “revolution” of the period, the Industrial Revolution. Machine made net made
its appearance in the middle of the eighteenth century, and in 1809 Heathcoat
perfected the “twist” net machine, which was to revolutionize the lace industry.
Moreover, there was a literary movement afoot , which targeted the luxurious living and hence dressing - of the wealthy. For instance, Daniel Defoe decried the
uncleanliness which fashion could hide, and Swift tears apart the curtain of privacy
and pretension in his A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed,
Then seated on a three legged chair,
Takes off her artificial hair
Her eyebrows from and Mouse’s Hyde
Stuck on with art on either side
Untwist her gums and from her gums
A set of teeth completely comes
Proceeding on the lovely Goddess
Unlooses next her steel Ribbed Bodice ----9
Could this unfortunate woman have been looking in a mirror in the process of
undressing and exposing what Patricia Earnshaw describes as, “ the contrast between
the external illusion of beauty and the squalor of underlying reality?”10
It has been established that a demand for hand made laces maintained its
supply, and the attempt to protect the English lace makers from competition from
9
10
Bullock
Earnshaw, P. Lace in Fashion. Guildford, Surrey: Gorse Publications. 1985
8
abroad is exemplified by numerous bans on imported laces which were introduced by
parliaments throughout the period. Determination of those who wished to own lace is
verified by the high level of smuggling which took place to supply that demand. It is
to the “underlying reality” of the lace makers that the paper will now turn.
“The history of lace is a cruel story, fraught with cruelty and controversy,” notes
Bo Niles , “ at the height of its popularity, from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century ,
lace was the ultimate status symbol ---- but they were created by crafts people,
( almost all of them women) who endured abject poverty and grim working
conditions.”11 Moreover, as Virginia Bath notes, although lace making potentially
offered as much freedom of personal expression as painting or drawing, in fact
traditional lace patterns were almost always copied from someone else’s pattern.
“The lace maker was not the creator of the design and the designer did not make
lace..”12 Thus, the hand lace makers were at the mercy of a variety of elements,
ranging from their physical conditions to their exploitation by dealers ( or
manufacturers, as they preferred to be called) who sold the labours of their hands.
Conditions in Lace Schools, lace shop or cottages were grim. Commentaries of the time
observed that the day began at 4 a.m. and often lasted for eighteen hours, much of
which was spent working by candlelight. In addition, because it was important to keep
the threads clean, fires could not be in the proximity of the workers, even in the winter.
Furthermore, household chores and child rearing supplemented the workers’ days, and
many of them were blinded by the age of thirty by the close work they did. Moreover,
workers with babies found various ways to keep their offspring under control. Some
cottages sported “revolving posts” with a wooden arm to which the children were tied,
so that they could run around, but not escape. Other cottages had ”go carts,” or
walkers, but most simply used the “imprisoning board” at the door. An early twentieth
11
12
Niles, B. Living with Lace. New York: Stewart, Tabori and Chang. 1999
Bath, V.C. Lace. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company. 1974
9
century commentator on hand made lace workers observed,
“On the whole, the lace maker’s lot was a hard one. A year or two ago I overheard a
child telling her truobles to her grandmother, an old lace maker. ‘Get along with ye,’ was all
the comfort she got, ‘ ye don’t know what troubles are!’”13
A nineteenth century observer of the lace industry, Mrs. Bury Palliser, described
a contemporary Lace School work day in detail,
“--- the hours were from 6 a.am in the summer and from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. in the winter.
Half an hour was allowed for breakfast and tea and an hour for dinner (lunch) --- The girls
had to stick ten pins a minute or 600 an hour, and if they were behind at the end of the
day, they had to work another hour. --- they would earn about sixpence a day --- on the
evenings 18 girls worked by one tallow candle --- the “candle stool’ stood as high as an
ordinary table with four legs. In the middle of this was the “”pole board” with six holes
in a circle and one in the centre. In the centre hole was a long stick with a socket for a
candle at one end and peg holes through the sides so that it could be raised or lowered --In the six holes were place hollow wood pieces --- and into each of these was placed a very
thin glass filled with water. These bottles acted as condensors or lenses, and the 18 girls
sat around the table, three to a bottle, their stools being on different levels, the highest
nearest to the bottle, which threw light down on the work like a burning glass. In the day
time as many as 30 girls --- would work in a room about twelve feet square.”14
The girls were paid monthly, but the fickle behaviour of their patrons frequently
caused hardships. They often simply refused to make payments on their laces, arguing
that the design had gone out of fashion by the time the order was completed, (bearing
in mind that it took several months to complete even the smallest articles) thereby
hiding the reality - that the elaborate lace they had ordered to upstage rivals at court,
had simply become too expensive for them to purchase.
If payments were often late, punishment on the job was meted out on time. Little
girls (they were often put into the lace schools at the age of 5 or 6) were dressed with
bare arms and necks for “easier slapping,” while complaints were heard about boys
being a definite disadvantage to the lace mistress because “their arms and necks were
13
14
Wright, T. Romance of the Lace Pillow. Olney, Bucks: H.H. Armstrong. 1919
Niles, B. Living with Lace. New York: Stewart, Tabori and Chang. 1999
10
covered, and their heads were too hard to smack.” A woman recalled her grandmother
describing how she was smacked on the head six times and had her nose rubbed in the
pinheads, however, Thomas Wright, in his Romance of the Lace Pillow noted that there is
no record to the punishment administered to the boy whose solution to his problem
was to wind the thread round the bole of a tree! Another widespread issue was the
whiteness of the lace, which had to be maintained at all costs, and in some areas it was
practice to keep a bag of flour nearby to “whiten up” the lace and dry the hands. “
Whitening up” was frowned upon, however, and would bring a sharp slap from the
mistress. Even the delivery of the lace could be an unhappy experience for the makers
at “Cut-off Day.” This day occurred at five week intervals, when the lace was removed
from the pillows on which it was worked, and taken to the lace buyer or his agent. In
some villages the girls themselves delivered their work and one such situation
involving a Mr. Thomas Lester, “an awful autocrat.,” is described thus,
“In his shop was a drawer which was usually left open an inch or two, and it the lace was
not done well, he would take a girl’s hand and deliberately pinch her fingers in the drawer -- on the other hand, if her lace was done well she would be praised and rewarded with the
present of a bobbin dotted with the words, Thomas Lester.15
Yet, in spite of the privations of their daily rounds and common tasks, there
were lighter moments . Some evidence of this can be found in the inscriptions, on the
bobbins themselves, many of which sent messages of love to unidentified young men (
and occasionally women):
“U love me as I love U.
Nothing but death shall part us too.
We will love each other while we have breath
Nothing shall part us save only in death.
Great Linford, Bucks.
15
Wright, T. Romance of the Lace Pillow. Olney, Bucks: H.H. Armstrong. 1919.
11
“I love thee as the glad bird loves its wings.” Eynsbury, Hunts.
My boys if I am ragged my heart is true.
I’ll vow to be true.
My ear love me or leave me alone” Oxford16
Some messages did identify the recipient,
“Tis you my dear I wish to wed.
Richard Brooks is the man I love”
and not always in a positive light,
“Richard Cobb slited by one A.S.”17
Moreover, to make the hours pass more quickly, the girls composed rhymes,
which created some camaraderie and which they chanted in a sing song fashion, known
as “tellings” or “tells.” Some of these were gruesome,
“ The boughs did bend and the leaves did shake
I saw the hole the Fox did make
The Fox did look, the Fox did see,
I saw the hole to bury me!”
others were cheerful:
“With fingers so lissom, and bobbins so small’
While the poor servant girl goes down to the hall,
With holes in her stockings and rags on her back.
I’ll be a lace maker, if ever so slack.”
some were composed to be sung at the end of a “glum” (when workers were forbidden
to speak in order to catch up on their work)
16
17
Wright
Wright, T. The Lace Pillow Olney, Bucks: H.H. Armstrong. 1919.
12
“Tip and stitch and turn over,
Let it be hay or let it be clover,
For my glum’s done!”
A full “tell” might run as follows:
“Get to the filed by one
Gather the rod by two
Tie it up at three
Send it home by four,
Make her work hard at five
Give her support at six
Send her to bed at seven
Cover her up at eight,
Throw her down the stairs at nine
Break her neck at ten,
Get her to the well lid by eleven,
Stamp her in at twelve.
How can I make the clock strike one,
Unless you tell me how many you’ve done?”18
Could it have been “tells” such as this that attracted support of literary and
political figures for the uncommon lace makers? Certainly, William Cowper became a
champion for their cause, living, as he did at Olney, one of the centres of the hand made
lace industry. His poem, ‘Truth’ reflects his interest,
“ You cottager, who weaves at her own front door,
Pillow and bobbins all her little store;
Content, though mean; and cheerful, if not gay;
Shuffling her threads about the live-long day,
Just earns a scanty pittance; and at night
Lies down secure, her heart and pocket light.’19
Another more unlikely champion was Shelley, whose poem Revolt of Islam,
18Bullock,
19
A-M. Lace and Lace Making. New York: Larousse and Co. 1981.
Huetson, T. Lace and Bobbins. London: David and Charles. 1983
13
written in 1818, mentioned the misery inflicted upon the poorer classes after the
Napoleonic Wars, and specifically expressed concern for those involved in the
production of Black Lace.
Likewise, political figures were involved in relieving working conditions of the
less fortunate, and their labours bore fruit in a series of acts which restricted the hours
and environments of women and children in all aspects of industry. This, together with
protests of the workers such as the Luddite movement, and the formation of infant
unions to speak for the oppressed saw some improvements in conditions in the
workplace in general, however, in the hand made lace industry in particular, the
encroachment of machinery was eventually not only to remove the demand upon
which their livelihoods depended, but also to put in palce a new breed of industrial lace
maker .
Machine lace was to provide an explosion of supply, and old patterns of hand
made laces were eagerly sought after. For the less discerning “common” people there
was little to distinguish the machine from the hand made product. For the
“uncommon” there was now a possibility to own the product, whether it be a collar, an
apron or a curtain made of “lace.”
The ubiquitous lace curtain, simply a window veil, was the product of looms
which could weave a total of about three thousand threads to produce a web 224 inches
wide and twelve yards long .It was portrayed in novels and paintings of the Victorian
period in a multitude of romantic settings. Thus, country cottage, school, or inn can
be seen with windows veiled. ( Figure 4 ) In the Great Exhibition of 1851 at the Crystal
Palace, one of the prize exhibits was a pair of curtains five yards long and two yards
wide, the elaborate detail of which required between 12,000 and 15,000 jacquard cards,
manufactured by a machine in Nottingham.
Its commonality did eventually unite the common and the uncommon, for today
hand made laces are assiduously produced by skilled individuals “face to face” with
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those who admire their skills, while the lace curtain, drawn back lets light “through a
glass darkly.” (Figure 5)
15
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bath, V.C. Lace. Chicago: Henry Regnery Co. Chicago. 1974
Bullock, A-M. Lace and Lace Making. New York: Larousse and Co. 1981
Chapman, S. The Life and Work of William Felkin. Newton Abbott: David and
Charles. 1967.
Earnshaw, P.Lace in Fashion. Guildford, Surrey: Gorse Publications. 1991.
Earnshaw, P.The Identification Of Lace. Princes Risborough: Shire Publications. 1994
Foley, T. Linens and Lace. New York: Clarkson/Potter, 1990.
Harris, J. ed. Textiles 5,000 Years. London: Harry Abrahams Inc. 1993.
Hobsbawm E.J. Uncommon People. London: Wiedenfeld and Nicholson. 1998
Huetson, T. Lace and Bobbins. London: David and Charles. 1983.
Museum of Nottingham Lace. Audio Tour Script for the Museum. 1999 Version
Niles, B. Living with Lace. New York: Stewart, Taabori and Chang. 1990.
Payne, C. Rustic Simplicity. Scnes of Cottage Life in Nineteenth Century British Art.
Nottingham: University of Nottingham Art Centre. 1998.
Wardle, P. Victorian Lace. London: Herbert Jenkins. 1968.
Wright, T. Romance of the Lace Pillow. Olney, Bucks: H.H. Armstrong. 1919
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