A French-language history of Point de France lace and the French lace-making centers of the 17th and 18th centuries, by Mme Laurence de Laprade, with a preface letter by Henry Lapauze. It covers Colbert's 1665 founding of the royal lace manufactures, competition with Venetian and Flemish lace, and town-by-town accounts of lace centers such as Alençon, Argentan, Auxerre, Sens, Arras, Le Puy and Sedan. It reproduces many royal decrees, Council orders, and letters on regulation, customs duties and smuggling. Later chapters treat the mercers, lace merchants and lingères, and lace thread. Illustrated with plates of needle and bobbin lace, portraits, and engravings of costume.