A French illustrated book on lace and guipure by Auguste Lefébure, covering old and modern lace, imitations, and the varieties of lace types and stitches. It defines lace and distinguishes needle lace, bobbin lace, guipure and crochet, then traces origins and the use of lace in court costume from the 16th to 19th centuries, illustrated with 52 documentary portraits. Later chapters survey Italian, Belgian, English, Spanish, German, Austrian, Swedish and Russian lace, and French production centres (Calvados, Orne, Haute-Loire, Haute-Saône, Vosges), plus efforts to encourage lace-making schools in early 20th-century France, machine-made imitations, and a guide to telling genuine lace from copies. It contains many photographic plates and figures of lace samples, collars, ruffs and cuffs, with a table of figures at the end.