Alençon lace
‘The queen of lace’: needle lace stitched one stitch at a time, with a firmly corded outline.
Colbert founded a lace manufactory in Alençon in 1665 to stop imports from Venice. The technique survives among a handful of lacemakers and is on UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage. Examples are in the Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la Dentelle in Alençon.
Materials: Linen thread, horsehair in the outline
Manufacture: Stitched with a needle over a pattern on parchment, in ten stages by different specialists; a square centimetre took hours.
The raised outline round the motifs, worked over a horsehair.
The hexagonal needle-made net between the flowers.