Lace-making in the Midlands, past and present

The history of lace-making is the history of an art. A piece of lace is an artistic composition expressed in twisted thread, just as a piece of wood-carving is the expression of the artist's idea in chiselled wood. Lace is not, like embroidery, an ornamented fabric ; it is itself ornament. It is not the application of art to a craft ; the whole pattern is the fabric, and the fabric is the pattern. It is this peculiarity that distinguishes lace from needlework and from woven-work.

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