MADAME SOPHIE DE FRANCE, 1782, DAUGHTER OF LOUIS XV. By Drouais. M. de Versailles. (In this picture the hexagonal brides and heavy relief of Point d'Argentan are clearly to be seen.)]
MADAME ADÉLAÏDE DE FRANCE, DAUGHTER OF LOUIS XV.--(M. de Versailles.)]
Madame de Créquy, describing her visit to the Duchesse Douairière de La Ferté, says, when that lady received her, she was lying in a state bed, under a coverlet made of point de Venise in one piece. "I am persuaded," she adds, "that the trimming of her sheets, which were of point d'Argentan, were worth at least 40,000 écus."[521] To such a pitch had the taste for lace-trimmed linen attained, that when, in 1739, Madame, eldest daughter of Louis XV., espoused the Prince of Spain, the bill for these articles alone amounted to £25,000; and when Cardinal Fleury, a most economical prelate, saw the trousseau, he observed, "Qu'il croyait que c'etait pour marier toutes les sept Mesdames."[522] (Figs. 81, 82). Again, Swinburne writes from Paris:[523] "The trousseau of Mademoiselle de Matignon will cost 100,000 crowns (£25,000). The expense here of rigging[524] out a bride is equal to a handsome portion in England. Five thousand pounds' worth of lace, linen, etc., is a common thing among them."
[Illustration: MADAME LOUISE DE FRANCE. Trimmings and tablier of Point d'Argentan.
Painted by Nattier at the age of eleven, 1748. M. de Versailles.]
MARIE THÉRÈSE ANT. RAPH., INFANTA OF SPAIN, FIRST WIFE OF LOUIS DAUPHIN, SON OF LOUIS XV.
--By Tocqué. Dated 1748. M. de Versailles.]
The masks worn by the ladies at this period were of black blonde lace[525] of the most exquisite fineness and design.[526] They were trimmed round the eyes, like those described by Scarron:--
"Dirai-je comme ces fantasques Qui portent dentelle à leurs masques, En chamarrent les trous des yeux, Croyant que le masque en est mieux."
In the reign of Louis XV., point de France was rivalled { 178}by the productions of Angleterre[527] and Malines. Argentan and Alençon (Fig. 83) were declared by fashion to be "dentelles d'hiver:" each lace now had its appointed season.[528] "On porte le point en hiver," says the Dictionary of the Academy.
There was much etiquette, too, in the court of France, as regards lace, which was never worn in mourning. Dangeau chronicles, on the death of the Princess of Baden, "Le roi qui avoit repris les dentelles et les rubans d'or et d'argent, reprend demain le linge uni et les rubans unis aussi."[529]