in commerce, a work composed of many threads of gold, silver, or silk, interwoven the one with the other, and worked upon a pillow with spindles according to the pattern designed. The open work is formed with pins, which are placed and displaced as the spindles are moved. The importation of gold and silver lace is prohibited.
Method of Cleaning Gold Lace and Embroidery when tarnished.—For this purpose alkaline liquors are by no means to be used; for while they clean the gold, they corrode the silk, and change or discharge its colour. Soap also alters the shade, and even the species of certain colours. But spirit of wine may be used without any danger of its injuring either the colour or quality of the subject; and in many cases proves as effectual, for restoring the lustre of the gold, as the corrosive detergents. A rich brocade, flowered with a variety of colours, after being disagreeably tarnished, had the lustre of the gold perfectly restored by washing it with a soft brush dipped in warm spirit of wine; and some of the colours of the silk, which were likewise foiled, became at the same time remarkably bright and lively. Spirit of wine seems to be the only material adapted to this intention, and probably the boasted secret of certain artists is no other than this spirit disguised. Among liquids, Dr Lewis says, he does not know of any other that is of sufficient activity to discharge the foul matter, without being hurtful to the silk: as to powders, however fine, and however cautiously used, they scratch and wear the gold, which here is only superficial and of extreme tenacity.
But tho' spirit of wine is the most innocent material that can be employed for this purpose, it is not in all cases proper. The golden covering may be in some parts worn off; or the base metal, with which it had been iniquitously alloyed, may be corroded by the air, so as to leave the particles of the gold disunited; while the silver underneath, tarnished to a yellow hue, may continue a tolerable colour to the whole: in which case it is apparent, that the removal of the tarnish would be prejudicial to the colour, and make the lace or embroidery less like gold than it was before. A piece of old tarnished gold-lace, cleaned by spirit of wine, was deprived, with its tarnish, of greatest part of its golden hue, and looked now almost like silverlace.
Method of separating the Gold and Silver from Lace without burning it. Cut the lace in pieces, and (having separated the thread from it by which it was sewed to the garment) tie it up in a linen cloth, and boil it in soap-lye, diluted with water, till you perceive it is diminished in bulk; which will take up but a little time, unless the quantity of lace be very considerable. Then take out the cloth, and wash it several times in cold water, squeezing it pretty hard with your foot, or beating it with a mallet, to clear it of the soap-lye; then untie the cloth, and you will have the metallic part of the lace pure, and nowhere altered in colour or diminished in weight.
This method is abundantly more convenient and less troublesome than the common way of burning; and as a small quantity of the ley will be sufficient, the expense will be trifling, especially as the same ley may be used several times, if cleared of the silky calcination. It may be done in either an iron or copper vessel.
The ley may be had at the soap-boilers, or it may be made of pearl-ash and quick-lime boiled together in a sufficient quantity of water.
The reason of this sudden change in the lace will be evident to those who are acquainted with chemistry: for silk, on which all our laces are wove, is an animal-substance, and all animal-substances are soluble in alkalies, especially when rendered more caustic by the addition of quick-lime; but the linen you tie it in, being a vegetable, will remain unaltered.
Bone-Lace, a lace made of fine linen thread or silk, much in the same manner as that of gold and silver. The pattern of the lace is fixed upon a large round pillow, and pins being stuck into the holes or openings in the patterns, the threads are interwoven by means of a number of bobbins made of bone or ivory, each of which contains a small quantity of fine thread, in such a manner as to make the lace exactly resemble the pattern. There are several towns in England, and particularly in Buckinghamshire, that carry on this manufacture; but vast quantities of the finest laces have been imported from Flanders.
LACEDÆMON. See Sparta.