Karen Palliser was the first lace writer in English who tried to write as a scholar, giving sources for her statements. But I would still be cautious about accepting her statements as facts.
I have come across statements that point ground began in the last quarter of the 1700s, but I have never seen any lace that can be clearly verified as from that time period that has point ground. During the last third of the 18th century laces began to have most of their surface area taken up by ground rather than motifs. Apparently people of that time liked the open transparency uncluttered by dense spots. As time went on style continued to change. During the early years of the 19th century there are a lot of laces with floral designs with a "Napoleonic" type of design: very short repeat made of smallish motifs at the headside, a nearly straight headside (although the scallops began to deepen in the 1820s), square tallies spotted on the net in the area between the motifs and the footside. Laces of this description might have either Mechlin ground or point ground, and I have seen and handled several pieces of each. From a distance the style of the lace is the same, and you have to get very close to see the little white stacks of half stitches that identify Mechlin ground. http://lynxlace.com/bobbinlace18th.html#early mechlin http://lynxlace.com/bobbinlacenapoleonic.html http://lynxlace.com/bobbinlace19thcstraightmesh.html The 19th century, particularly after 1830 or so, was the heyday of point ground. Black chantilly and blonde are point ground laces that were at their peak in the 19th century. I've made no absolute statements because I don't think that absolute statements are possible. It seems obvious to me that point ground developped when lace designers and lace makers realized that there was an easier, faster way to work the ground, than doing Mechlin ground. Mechlin and point ground co-existed for a time while designers experimented. Finally Mechlin ground was abandoned for fashion laces, because the 19th century was all about trying to find ways to make lace by hand faster and more cheaply than before. Competition from machine made laces was part of it, but only part of it. The other part was that industrialists were not into spending their vast accumulation of wealth on personal adornment for their wives and daughters. They preferred investing their money in railroads and factories, so they could get richer still. Those 2 factors reduced demand for hand made lace, and the designers tried to react be inventing faster methods. But the designers and lace merchants didn't really understand everything that was happening around them. I am not certain about when point ground appeared for the first time. If it appeared in the 18th century, it didn't get much use. Point ground and Mechlin ground co-existed during the period c 1800-1830. After that point ground became virtually the only ground used in fashion laces (except for Valenciennes). (The revival era at the end of the 1800s changed that, but I don't think you are asking about that time period.) Lorelei Halley - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
