Point de France continued to be worn in the greatest profusion during the reign of Louis XIV. The King affected his new-born fabric much as monarchs of the present day do their tapestries and their porcelains. It decorated the Church and her ministers. Ladies offered "tours de chaire à l'église de la paroisse."[467] Albs, "garnies d'un grand point de France brodé antique";[468] altar-cloths trimmed with Argentan[469] appear in the church registers.[470] In a painting at Versailles, by Rigaud, representing the presentation of the Grand Dauphin to his royal father, 1668, the infant is enveloped in a mantle of the richest point (Fig. 74); and point de France was selected by royal command to trim the sheets of holland used at the ceremony of his "nomination."[471] At the marriage of the Prince de Conti and of Mademoiselle de Blois the toilette[472] presented {162}by the King was "garnie de point de France si haut qu'on ne voyait point de toile."[473] The valance, too, and the coverlet of the bed were of the same material.[474] In this luxury, however, England followed her sister kingdom, for we read in the _Royal Magazine_ of 1763 that on the baptism of the young prince, afterwards Duke of York, the company went to the council chamber at St. James's, where a splendid bed was set up for the Queen to sit on, the counterpane of which is described as of inimitable workmanship, the lace alone costing £3,783 sterling.[475] "What princes do themselves, they engage others to do," says Quintilian, and the words of the critic were, in this case, fully verified: jupes,[476] corsets, mantles, aprons with their bibs,[477] shoes,[478] gloves,[479] even the fans were now trimmed with point de France.[480] At the audience given by the Dauphine to the Siamese ambassadors, "à ses relevailles," she received them in a bed "presque tout couvert d'un tres beau point de France, sur lesquels on avoit mis des riches carreaux."[481] On the occasion of their visit to Versailles, Louis, proud of his fabric, presented the ambassadors with cravats and ruffles of the finest point.[482] These cravats were either worn of point, in one piece, or partly of muslin tied, with falling lace ends.[483] (Fig. 75.) [Illustration: Fig. 74. LE GRAND BÉBÉ. (M. de Versailles.) _To face page 162._] {163}In 1679 the king gave a fête at Marly to the élite of his brilliant court. When, at sunset, the ladies retired to repair their toilettes, previous to the ball, each found in her dressing-room a robe fresh and elegant, trimmed with point of the most exquisite texture, a present from that gallant monarch not yet termed "l'inamusable."