The favor in which laces were held among the Bohemians is astonishing. An edict issued in 1564 prohibited among other things “the extensive use of laces on shirts” and on ornaments of the body. The materials for dress to be worn by the nobility, the citizens and the serfs were prescribed therein.
It is not purposed to claim that lace making had its inception among the Slavs, for in all probability it did originate in the East and was introduced in the West where it was developed and perfected. But it is most seriously contended that neither of the lace worshippers, Venice nor Belgium, had a monopoly of its development, perfection and production and that the Slavs of Europe were in the foremost ranks if they did not actually outdistance the other Europeans in progressive achievment. To support this claim let us look to the year 1666, when Louis the Fourteenth instructed his Minister, Colbert, to cause a lace to be designed based on the patterns of the best laces available. The lace evolved was called “Point de France.” No other lace was permitted to be worn at the French court. Among the laces, three in number, from which “Point de France” was planned was a product of the Dalmatian women, “Point de Ragusa,” distinctively a Slav lace.
As to the origin of lace making in Bohemia we unfortunately possess no definite information. Traditions of the people oftentimes help to clear up mooted questions, but in this instance they fail us, for they are silent on the subject.
In Bohemia laces are made everywhere. No woman, young or old, lacks a knowledge of lace making. Up to a very recent time laces in Bohemia were produced mainly for trimming the distinctive national costumes. Of course, those of the seventeenth, eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were coarse in texture. They could not compare with the sumptuous laces of the ages before. The cause for this condition is not difficult to determine. After the battle of White Mountain the Bohemians were reduced to utter poverty by the confiscation of their estates, therefore their laces lost much of their richness because the people could not afford the more expensive materials. They had to be content with what their meager means and slender purses would allow. But during that trying period the Bohemians remained true to their nation, language, customs and even dress. Under such conditions they retained the early designs of their laces.
Vamberk is Bohemia’s leading lace producer. Almost every man, woman and child is an adept at it. It is no uncommon sight to see a tyke of six weaving laces. It is certain that the industry took root in this section many centuries back.
Before the first quarter of the seventeenth century the laces produced here were distinctively Bohemian. But in 1627 a Belgian lady, fondly called “Countess” Gramb, settled on the extensive confiscated estates awarded to her husband by the Austrian Crown and taught a few of the daughters of the serfs the Belgian laces. Being well versed in the use of the pillow in bobbin laces, it was a comparatively easy task for them to master the Belgian designs. These women devoted their entire time to producing laces for the “Countess,” and when she died her pupils taught their friends, and thus the art spread in this particular section.
It is well to draw the attention to the fact that at the height of their fame the Bohemians made lace for their individual use, except some small quantities for export, for their distinctive costumes, the house and the women’s lingerie. Nearly all of it was made in the winter, when the snows were deep and the days bleak, by the wives and daughters of the farmers and serfs. These women toiled hard, extremely hard, all through the farming season assisting their husbands and fathers with the crops. The only time they had for lace making was in the winter after they had finished their household duties, when the evenings were long and the nights bitter cold. Before the high tile stove the family would gather and there women to the tune of patriotic song or a sacred hymn, or possibly a pleasing folksong, would weave the intricate designs in their laces. One wonders how they could possibly do it, but they were equal to the task, and they performed it admirably.
When at the beginning of the eighteenth century the national costumes of Bohemia were beginning to be discarded, to be replaced by the universal dress, the art of lace making received a sad blow. Thereafter the only laces produced were those for house and the women’s individual use. Consequently the inquiry and demand for laces became almost nil.
