Page 371 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots

364 History and Science of Knots

to give the impression the dog was still well-fed; the animal was then released,
and would return to its first owner who would welcome it with a hearty meal
and free it from its parcel of lace. Smuggling to England was a more elaborate
matter, but Romney Marsh in Hampshire was notorious amongst the Excise-
men. Despite the note dated 26-x-1666 in which Lord Arlington informed the
Lord Mayor of London that Their Majesties (Charles II and Catherine of Bra-
ganza) had decided to wear no more foreign stuffs excepting linen and calico,
and wished the London merchants to know so that they would not waste their
efforts by sending abroad for laces and silks, French fashions continued to be
popular. By 1674, the imbalance of trade showed a deficit of 1,000,000 on the
British side. The French Treasury subsidised Charles' II Privy Purse to con-
tinue this situation, and, despite Lord Arlington's efforts, Charles II continued
to wear French lace
In 1685 Louis XIV was seized with intimations of mortality and revoked
the Edict of Nantes. Once again non-Catholic lacemakers fled France, this time
settling in their host countries. Switzerland was one country which benefitted
from this. Meantime, Louis' second (morganatic) wife, was quietly modifying
the court style to something more in keeping with the rest of Europe, where
court dress was made in the style of the manteau/sacque (which allowed the
wearer to sneeze in comfort.) Shoulders were covered over, sleeves descended to
the elbow with `pagoda frills', hair was dressed to a lesser height to allow ladies
to sit in sedan-chairs, and petticoats were limited to nine rows of trimmings,
usually 3x(braid, lace, frill.) The skirts of the manteau were pulled back
to display the lace on the petticoat, and the train developed from this. By
1693, the train had developed into a cascade descending from a bustle, and an
engraved fashion-plate in the Victoria & Albert Museum dated 1697 shows a
manteau of velvet edged with metal lace while the petticoat is trimmed with
net frills. Silver lace was much in fashion in the last decade of the century,
so much so that two duchesses kidnapped tailors to be certain of having the
correct trims added to their grands habits at the wedding of Marie Adelaide of
Savoy! In Madame d'Aulnoy's collection of tales `Le Cabinet des Fees', lace is
mentioned as an article of value; treasure casks contain diamonds, pearls and
lace, the heroine invariably has rich lace decorating her ballgown, or her lace is
stolen by unkind friends. The true significance of this repeated emphasis is the
indication it gives us of how greatly lace was prized in this era. The fontange
head-dress with its towering cap-frills and streamers provided another way of
wearing lace.
Among other trade goods brought to Europe by the East India Companies
were the knotted embroideries of north China. These are characterised by
densely-packed `french knots' which follows the contours of the design, shading
the motifs by stripes of colour, and giving a mossy effect in contrast to the
better-known sheen of satin stitch. The hard-wearing but costly pieces were