(Good) Lace is More

No one product is as closely associated with Belgium as lace. “Chocolates!” you may cry, but these luscious morsels come in a distant second when stacked up against the power and position that lace has assumed in past and present Belgium.

Consider this: The country’s history, its art, politics and even its economy have been enmeshed in lace since the 16th century. Kings and princes, queens and courtiers from throughout Europe have coveted it, flaunted it, smuggled it and included it in dowries where it was valued beyond gold.

Today, when streams of tourists flow down the narrow streets and into the little shops of Brussels and Brugge, Ghent and Liege, it is lace they seek from its source. You can’t buy a postcard here, or a key chain, without also being confronted by a rack of lacy, initialed handkerchiefs or a tray of winsome, openwork butterfly brooches.

The enormous surprise, then, as I discovered last summer when I set out to explore Belgium’s realm of linens and lace, is how little of the mountains of gossamer goods sold here is authentically Belgian. Most of the lace sold in Belgium today is, in fact, imported from Asia. The patterns and techniques may be Belgian, carried to China and India and taught by missionary nuns a century ago. But the lace makers are Chinese and Indian, and the final products--the lace-trimmed tablecloths, napkins, handkerchiefs, blouses, coasters, place mats and doilies--are imported into Belgium by the container-load.

This makes sense when you ponder the realities: All the skilled lace makers in Belgium, working night and day, could not produce even one-tenth of the lace required to stock Belgian shops and fill the demand.

But you can buy a stack of pretty lace-trimmed handkerchiefs made in China for $5 each, and none of your recipients will be the wiser. Or you can buy one finer, prettier lace-trimmed handkerchief for $22, made in Belgium by a skilled lace maker, and only you will know you’ve acquired the real thing. For $250 you can have a large white linen tablecloth and 12 matching napkins trimmed, albeit a bit crudely, in swirls and whorls of Battenberg-style ribbon lace, created in Asia. Or for $800 you can have the same size cloth and 12 napkins, also lavished in ribbon lace but made from a finer grade linen, with fine, careful stitches and more intricate workmanship created in Belgium and certified as authentic with a Benelux Trade Commission label.

In a country well-stocked with foreign lace, how do you go about ferreting out the real thing? The first step is knowing what you’re looking for so that you can recognize what you’ll be looking at. Learning the bare-bones basics of lace making is a necessity. Herewith, a primer:

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All classic Belgian lace can he divided into three categories: bobbin lace, needle lace and mixed lace, a combination of the first two. In bobbin lace, the threads--usually linen, sometimes cotton and occasionally silk--are tethered to hand-carved wooden bobbins; some complex patterns require more than 1,000 bobbins. The work is painstaking and awesomely slow, the output often less than one-third inch per day. Binche, Duchesse, Brugge Flower Lace, Valenciennes, Chantilly, Rosaline and Torchon are all types of lace created with this system of bobbins. These days, only Torchon lace, the most elementary pattern, and the more complex Brugge Flower lace are produced in any quantity and available commercially.

Much rarer than bobbin lace, needle lace is created with a needle and thread. The finest example of this kind of lace in Belgium is Point de Gaze, or Gauze Point lace, also called Rose Point because of the pattern’s lavish rose motifs. In mixed lace, bits of bobbin lace are enhanced with needle lace embroidered with intricate detailing.

The two most common kinds of lace found throughout Belgium today are hybrids that don’t quite fall into any of the above categories: Battenberg lace and Princess lace. Battenberg lace (also called Brussels Ribbon Lace) is created from a long, skinny, tape-like strip of lace, perhaps one-fourth-inch wide, that is wound and stitched into a pattern, the ground between the swirls of tape then worked into a variety of openwork designs with needle and thread. Today most Battenberg lace is created from machine-made lace ribbon, which is then worked into the traditional patterns by hand, and finished by hand. All lace created by this method, whether domestic or imported, is sold as handmade lace, even though the lace ribbon was manufactured by machine.

Princess lace, used most frequently in wedding veils, christening gowns and handkerchiefs, is tulle netting embroidered with floral or figurative motifs. You will frequently see, on small items such as boudoir pillows, Kleenex holders and handkerchiefs, ribbon lace embellished with little medallions of Princess lace.

Lace has always been the work of anonymous artists, mostly poor women toiling for a pittance in miserable conditions, each hunched over a small pillow and working in bad light for up to 18 hours a day. Until modern times, girls began to learn their craft when they were still tiny, no more than 5 or 6 years old.

Buying authentic, Belgian-made lace today can be a confusing experience. A sign on an alluring tablecloth can say “Handmade lace, 100% Belgian linen” and the product can still originate in China. Many lace companies send the Belgian linen to China to be made into lace-trimmed tablecloths or other lace-trimmed items. So yes, the tablecloth is handmade and, yes, it’s made from pure Belgian linen but no, it is not a Belgian-made item.

Most authentic handmade-in-Belgium pieces now carry a special label devised under the aegis of the Benelux (Belgium/Netherlands/Luxembourg) Trade Commission: a stylized cross-stitched “L” with an adjacent squiggle resembling a “B” and the designation, “Handmade in Belgium.” The label also includes a small circled number identifying the producer.

For me, the greatest retail bargain in Belgium is the antique lace offered in the best shops. Here are patterns that will never be created again and workmanship virtually impossible to achieve today. Even the superfine linen threads used in the 18th and 19th centuries, spun from an unusual long-fibered flax no longer produced, are history. Never again will a lace maker produce items like two 19th century wedding veils I saw for sale at the Brugge ‘t Apostelientje shop. The more magnificent one was 12 yards long, of Rosaline Perlee adorned with 1,000 tiny embroidered “pearls,” each the result of an hour’s work. The veil required more than three years of woman hours and was offered at $10,000. The second veil, also superb in Rosaline but without the embroidered pearls, was nine yards long and about $7,000. Holding these rare and gorgeous creations, as fragile-looking as a butterfly’s wing, will give anyone who loves lace a shiver of excitement.

The best way to be certain of quality goods is to patronize the old and highly respected lace emporiums in the larger cities, particularly Brugge and Brussels--Belgian’s two major lace centers--and to ask specifically for authentic, Belgian-made lace once you are inside. Never, ever buy lace in a souvenir shop.

In Brugge there are several esteemed shops to choose from. Just steps from the Kantcentrum, the Belgian Lace Center and School, is ‘t Apostelientje, where I saw the 19th-century veils. Sisters Ann and Mieke Thys, who took over the business founded by their father, run this tiny shop, offering only Belgian-made products; so whether you buy a precious antique veil or an $11 Princess lace handkerchief, you are assured of getting the real thing. An attractive selection of large, lace-trimmed tablecloths, each with 12 napkins included, runs from $1,180 to $2,350.

A two-minute walk around the corner will take you to the gift shop at the Lace Center, where you can peek in to watch bobbin lace-making classes in progress. The Lace Center also sells small items made by Brugge lace makers. Here you can acquire black-lace pendant earrings for $12, an ecru handkerchief trimmed in Valenciennes lace for about $53 or a black floral lace brooch resembling an iris for about $18.

Among the dozens of lace shops that crowd the little streets near Brugge’s Grote Markt, or Market Place, are two of special note: Selections and Rococo. Both are established family firms several generations old, and both sell antique lace, recent Belgian lace and, to stay competitive, imported lace.

At Selections, owned by Christian Muylle, whose family has been in the lace trade since 1880, I was tempted by a sumptuous white linen tablecloth for $912. It was 110 inches by 64 inches, with Brussels lace insets and deep lace borders and included 12 matching napkins. Other attractive items here, displayed against a deep blue wall, were a Battenberg lace-trimmed place mat with a matching napkin in ecru for about $33, and a fine-quality cotton T-shirt with an inset Brussels-lace yoke for about $53.

At Rococo, whose manager, Mieke Brack, is the sixth generation of her mother’s family to join the lace business, there is a broad range of merchandise. In the stock of contemporary Belgian-made goods was a beautiful ecru linen tablecloth, 108 inches by 68 inches, lavishly trimmed with Brugge Flower Lace, and selling for $2,010, with 12 matching napkins included. At the other end of the financial spectrum wer small oval cocktail place mats trimmed in Battenberg lace, $6.50 each; with matching napkins, $13.50 for a set of six. A beautiful linen handkerchief rich with Brugge Flower Lace--a wonderful bridal gift--was $98, but there were many others for under $20. Beguiling lace butterflies to trim a hat or a suit went for $17; antique butterflies with elaborate wings ran $25 to $100.

The loveliest place I discovered on my Belgian lace quest was the Beguinage of Brugge. A convent sheltering an order of Benedictine nuns, the Beguinage was a unique Belgian institution dating from the 13th century--a spiritual retreat where widows and spinsters could come to live a pious, but still secular, life within the enclaves’ high walls. The beguines came for solace and protection and to contribute to the higher good. The Beguinage of Brugge thrived for more than 600 years (there were other beguinages throughout Belgium).

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Today, several of the resident nuns occupy themselves with lace-making to help support the Beguinage. A little shop just to the left of the entrance sells their creations, and although their output is small, their work is very fine. White or ecru coasters in Battenberg lace are $10 each; white linen handkerchiefs trimmed in Brugge Flower Lace run $75 to $110.

A delicate 19th century handkerchief with a deep border of Brugge Duchesse lace, which one of the nuns lifted lovingly from its bed of ecru tissue, seemed a bargain to me at $260. A fragment of 19th century Duchesse lace, about three inches around--a superbly detailed rose with embroidered petals--was set on velvet and framed for sale at $50. Among other treasures appearing from the display was a stunning, 4-foot-long table runner from the mid-1800s in Old Flanders lace, a mixed lace that was rarely produced after the turn of the century.

In Brussels, the must stop is at Rubbrecht. Housed in a 16th-century landmark building with leaded windows and a sculpted stone facade, Rubbrecht boasts one of the world’s finest collections of antique lace, with many pieces reserved for the family archives, but it still has many others for sale. The Rubbrecht family has been collecting antique lace for more than half a century, and its reputation for antique as well as contemporary lace is worldwide. The business is lovingly run by Frans Rubbrecht and his wife, Anne, whose aunts founded the establishment in 1957.

Among the spectacular antique pieces I saw for sale during my visit was a black silk Chantilly lace mantilla created at the turn of the century, offered at $661 (it would do wonders as a shawl with a strapless black evening dress); and a 1914 tray cover in Point de Malines, a rare, delicate pattern no longer produced, selling for $2,200.

The house of Rubbrecht is widely noted for its special commission work, with several royal families among its clientele.

In addition to their vast antique lace collection and the special-order side of the business, Rubbrecht sells a fine variety of contemporary Belgian lace, from wedding veils (I saw two beauties for $1,300 and $1,100) and lace blouses (one pretty number in ecru with short sleeves and pearl buttons was $300) to tablecloths, place mats, pillowcases, garter belts, doilies, purse-size Kleenex cases and a variety of butterfly brooches.

The Rubbrechts also sell some imported lace. “With some contemporary lace,” Frans Rubbrecht said, “there’s actually no choice about where it comes from. For example, most bobbin lace--there’s almost nothing in Belgian commercial circles left. Most handmade bobbin lace comes from India or China, and I don’t mind selling it if it’s good quality and not available in Belgium anymore.”

The Rubbrechts showed me a pretty Belgian linen handkerchief generously trimmed in a floral motif bobbin lace made in China, selling for $11.

In the intricate web of Belgium’s lace trade, it’s buyer beware. There are beautiful things to be had, whether you are ready to part with $10 or $10,000, but it’s crucial to find them in the right way. Remember, go only to the most respected shops, speak directly to the owners or managers if possible and ask to see only Belgian-made products. Unless you’re an expert, every purchase is inevitably a leap of faith dependent upon the integrity of the purveyors.

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GUIDEBOOK

Belgian Lace

Where to buy lace: Beguinage of Brugge, Begijnhof off Wijngaardstraat.

Belgian Lace Center and School, 3A Peperstraat, Brugge; local telephone 050-33-0072.

Rococo, 9 Wollestraat, Brugge; tel. 050-34-0472.

Rubbrecht, 23 Grand Place, Brussels; tel. 025-12-0218.

Selections, 10-14 Breidelstraat, Brugge; tel. 050-33-1186.

‘t Apostelientje, 11 Balstraat, Brugge; 050-33-7860.

For more information: Belgian Tourist Office, 780 3rd Ave., Suite 1501, New York, NY 10017; (212) 758-8130.