Christian IV. protected the native manufacture, and in the Act of
1643,[733] "lace and suchlike pinwork" are described as luxurious articles,
not allowed to be imported of a higher value than five shillings and
sixpence the Danish ell.[734] A later ordinance, 1683, mentions "white and
black lace which are manufactured in this country," and grants permission
to the nobility to wear them.[735]
Christian IV. did not patronise foreign manufactures. "The King of
Denmark," writes Moryson, "wears but little gold lace, and sends foreign
apparel to the hangman to be disgraced, when brought in by gentlemen."
[Illustration: Fig. 116.
TÖNDER LACE, DRAWN MUSLIN.--Denmark, eighteenth century. Width 2¾ inches.
Victoria and Albert Museum.
_To face page 274._]
{275}About the year 1712 the lace manufacture again was much improved by
the arrival of a number of Brabant women, who accompanied the troops of
King Frederick IV. on their return from the Netherlands,[736] and settled
at Tönder. We have received from Jutland, through the kind exertions of Mr.
Rudolf Bay, of Aalborg, a series of Tönder laces, taken from the
pattern-books of the manufacturers. The earlier specimens are all of
Flemish character. There is the old Flanders lace, with its Dutch flowers
and double and trolly grounds in endless variety. The Brabant, with fine
ground, the flowers and _jours_ well executed. Then follow the Mechlin
grounds, the patterns worked with a coarse thread, in many, apparently, run
in with the needle. There is also a good specimen of that description of
drawn muslin lace, commonly known under the name of "Indian work," but
which appears to have been very generally made in various manners. The
leaves and flowers formed of the muslin are worked round with a cordonnet,
by way of relief to the thick double ground (Fig. 116).[737] In the
Scandinavian Museum at Copenhagen is a pair of lappets of drawn muslin, a
fine specimen of this work.
The modern laces are copied from French, Lille, and Saxon patterns; there
are also imitations of the so-called Maltese. The Schleswig laces are all
remarkable for their fine quality and excellent workmanship. Guipure, after
the manner of the Venice points, was also fabricated. A fine specimen of
this lace may be seen decorating the black velvet dress of the youthful
daughter of Duke John of Holstein. She lies in her coffin within the
mortuary chapel of her family, in the castle of Sonderborg. Lace was much
used in burials in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when it really
appears people were arrayed in more costly clothing than in their lives.
The author of _Jutland and the Danish Islands_ has often seen mummies in
the Danish churches exposed to view tricked out in points of great
richness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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