GOVERNMENT LACE SCHOOL


  The products of these schools are such
distinctive and distinguished specimens of
L'Art Nouveau in its best sense, that it will
be interesting to study a series of designs
first presented in the August issue of the
French Magazine: Art et Dicoration.
  Our first illustration is a design for a
fan-cover. It is a pleasing, well-balanced,
rich, but not overburdened composition.
Conventionalized thistles are seen in combi-
nation with light foliage disposed in grace-
ful curves.  The effect is one of finely


alternated "lights and darks," of open and
close meshes. The work is a happy union
of the artistic with the technical.
  Then follow two collars: long disused
objects of feminine adornment, whose res-
toration must be welcomed by all lovers of
art. The effect of beautiful lace as a fit-
ting frame for a woman's head was appre-
ciated by the great Netherland and Vene-
tian masters of portraiture, and it is com-
ing again to be recognized by those inter-
ested in costume. The two specimens here


shown are of shapes necesgarily growing
out of the demands. of the floral mofif. -
employed, and are therefore structural atid.
good. Both are arrangements of simple-.
one might better say-of humble flowers,
and they so add one more proof to the, evi-
dences which to-day surround us of the
growing democracy of art, not cnsid~red
as 1to its wide diffusion among the people,
but as to'the means and symbols which it
employs in expression.
  The third example is a fan-cover, excel-


lently composed of roa. motift.ý The ar-
rangement of the four parts is well defined,
without crudeness, and very successful.
The original note of the composition is
struck by the treatment of the stems of the
rose-plant. These are joined together by
long thorns which form meshes, and, as in
another instance already noted, satisfy at
once an artistic and a technical necessity.
They unify the design and actually make
lace.
   Next follows a piece designed for table
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