About 1660 important centres of lace-making were developed and subsidised in France by the Government at Alençon, Paris, Sedan, and other places, and the French needle-point then made was scarcely to be distinguished from the Venetian. This was to be expected, as the first workers of lace of this kind in France were imported from Venice. In a letter to Colbert, the minister of Louis XIV., dated 1665, Catherine de Marcq writes, "I am starting for Alençon with four Venetian lace workers."[N] [N] Bibliothèque Nationale, "Lettres à Colbert," vol. 132, fo. 14 bis. As our King Charles II. revived his father's edict against foreign lace at about the same time (1662), it would almost seem a concerted action to check the Italian and Flemish superiority in the fabrication of the finest lace, whether needle- or bobbin-made. But although the French were successful in part in rivalling the Venetian needle-point, the finest bobbin-lace of Flanders was never approached by the English workers, and now, of course, can never be equalled, as the secret of the thread used in the finest laces, such as Angleterre, Binche, etc., is lost. Nothing was too ambitious for the Venetian or French designers of the seventeenth century. Coats of arms under canopies, scriptural or classical figures, wreaths and vases of flowers, were frequently worked into the same design for a piece of lace. The subsequent changes of design which took place in the Alençon lace are most interesting to note, the patterns gradually losing their Venetian character. In No. 61 vases and pots of flowers are introduced, and the floral patterns of the specimens which follow become more and more realistic in drawing. Towards the end of the reign of Louis XVI. enormous quantities of lace were required for the new fashion of frills and flounces, and the change in design is much marked by the adoption of borders of very light effect, the réseau ground being spotted with little sprigs, slender riband devices, and dots or pois, whence the term semé de larmes. (_See_ Plate 66.) In the numerous specimens shown, the changing fashion can be marked, until in Plates 64 to 67 the Venetian character of the designs of Alençon needle-point has quite disappeared. The patterns are practically designed for borders only; and the réseau is, as I have said, spotted with tiny sprigs, or dots. The expression semé de larmes is said to have arisen in allusion to the misfortunes of Queen Marie Antoinette, by whom much lace of this style was worn.