reliefs of needle-made points. These were guipure laces. The name has since been applied to all laces without grounds that have the patterns united by brides. The bold, flowing figures of Belgium and Italy, joined by a coarse network ground (Fig. 12), are also called guipure.
The guipure called Cluny, with its geometrical patterns, is a recent lace which derives its name from the circumstance that the first patterns were copied from specimens of old lace in the Musée de Cluny.
Thus far we have only spoken of hand-made lace, which, in Italy, was a purely domestic industry. It was made by women at home,
Fig. 12.—Guipure. Seventeenth Century.
and each piece of work was begun and finished by the same hand. But, when the statesman Colbert introduced the manufacture into France, the principle of the division of labor was adopted, and the work was done in large factories. By degrees, as we have seen, fine needle-made net replaced the bride-ground in costly laces, and cheaper laces of the same style were made upon the pillow. The sprigs were at first worked into the net; but at length, in the Valenciennes and Mechlin laces, the figure was made along with the ground, and it was the immense success of these laces which led to the invention and perfection of lace-machines, so that now almost every kind of lace is made by machinery, and often so perfect that it is difficult for experts to detect the difference.
