NANDUTI.--A lace made by the natives of Paraguay, Ecuador and Peru, South America, from the soft, brilliant fiber of the agave plant. It is made in silk or thread by a needle on a cardboard pattern. In Peru and Ecuador it is also needle-made in the form of small squares and united together. NEEDLE-POINT.--Real lace of any kind worked with a needle, on a parchment pattern, and not with bobbins or on a pillow. The distinction between needle-point and bobbin-made, or pillow lace, is also illustrated by the solid part of the pattern, and also the ground of the former. In needle-point the solid parts are invariably made of rows of {56} buttonhole stitches, sometimes closely worked and sometimes with small open spaces left in the patterns. The "brides" in needle-point consist of one or two threads fastened across from one part of the pattern to another, and then closely buttonholed over; it will be found, also, that true needle-point is made with only one kind of stitch, the looped or buttonhole stitch already mentioned, and that this is constant amid all varieties of design in this kind of lace. Pillow lace, on the contrary, has a "toile" made of threads crossing each other more or less at right angles; its "brides" consist of twisted or plaited threads, and the "picots" are simple loops, while the network ground of pillow lace is of far greater variety than that of needle-point. In all kinds of pillow lace the net groundwork is made by twisting and plaiting the threads, sometimes in twos and sometimes in fours. Briefly speaking, the fundamental difference between needle-point and pillow lace is that the former is made with looped stitches throughout, while the latter is made with twisted or plaited threads, which last is really weaving, though it is done with bobbins and the hand instead of with the loom. ORIENTAL.--A lace made on the embroidering machine, which by combined needle and shuttle action produces either simple or complex designs upon netting. The action of the Schiffli machine somewhat resembles that of a sewing-machine, and the product is more properly called embroidery than lace. The openwork effects are produced either by the action of chemicals upon the foundation material, or by the use of the scissors. The threadwork results from the combined action of the shuttle and needles. St. Gall, Switzerland, and Plauen, Saxony, are the chief manufacturing centers for these laces, which include trimming and border laces, curtains, bed sets, shams, and the like. In the broad historical sense, Oriental laces and embroideries refer to the products of the East, especially to the Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Persian and Turkish. All these were remarkable for the labor expended upon them, their great cost, and the originality and boldness of idea and coloring which marked their design. {57} [Illustration: Real Renaissance.] [Illustration: Machine Valenciennes.] {58}