LOUIS XIV. 133 with cravats and ruffles of the finest point. 16 These cravats were either worn of point, in one piece, or partly of muslin tied, with falling lace ends 17 (Fig. 66). In 1679, the king gave a fete at Marly to the elite of his brilliant court: when, at sunset, the ladies retired to repair their toilettes, previous to the ball, each found in her dressing-room a I'obe fresh and elegant, trimmed with point of the most exquisite texture, a present from that gallant monarch not yet termed “ l’inamusable.” Nor was the Yeuve Scarron behind the rest. When, in 1674, she purchased the estate from which she afterwards derived her Fig. 60. Louvois. 1691. From his statue by Girardon. Musee Nationale, Versailles. title of Maintenon, anxious to render it productive, she enticed Flemish workers from the frontier to establish a lace manufacture u pon her newly acquired marquisate. How the fabric succeeded, history does not relate, but the costly laces depicted in her por traits (Fig. 67) have not the appearance of home manufacture. Point lace-making became a favourite employment among ladies. We have many engravings of this reign: one, 1691, of a “ fille de qualite ” thus occupied, with the motto, “ Apres diner vous travaillez au point.” Another, 18 from an engraving of Le 10 “Mercure Galant,” Fe'v. 1685. 17 Ibid. 1678. At the Mazarin Library there are four folio volumes of engravings, after onnard and others, of the costumes of the time of Louis XIV.; and at the Archives Nat. is a large series preserved in cartons numbered M. 815 to 823, &c., labelled “ Gravures de Modes.”