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NORMANDY. 193 adds, may earn fifteen. Previous to the Revolution the lace made at Dieppe amounted to 400,000 francs annually. But Normandy experienced the shock of 1790. Dieppe had already suffered from the introduction of foreign lace when the Revolution broke out in all its fury. The products of Havre, with the manufactures of Pont-l’ldveque (Dep. Calvados), Harfleur, Eu, and more than ten other neighbouring towns, entirely disappeared. Those of Dieppe and Ilonfleur alone trailed on a precarious existence. CALVADOS. The principal lace centres in the Department of Calvados are Caen and Bayeux. From an early date white thread lace was made at Caen. It was not until 1745 tliat the blondes or silk laces made their appearance. The first silk used for the now production was of its natural colour, “ ecrue,” hence these laces were called “ blondes.” 15 After a time silk was procured of a more suitable white, and those beautiful laces produced which before long became of such com mercial importance. A silk throwster, M. Duval, who died lately at Caen, was in a great degree the originator of the success of the Caen blondes, having been the first to prepare those brilliant white silks which have made their reputation. The silk is pro cured from Bourg-Argental, in the Cevennes. The Caen workers made the Chantilly lace, “ grille blanc,” already described, and also the “ blonde de Caen,” in which the flower is made with a different silk from that which forms the reseau. It is this kind of blonde which is so successfully imitated at Calais. Lastly, the“ blonde mate,” or Spanish, already mentioned. In ao other place, except Chantilly, have the blondes attained so pure a white, such perfect workmanship, such lightness, such brilliancy as the “blondes de Caen.” They had great success in France, were extensively exported, and made the fortune of the surround ing country, where they were fabricated in every cottage. Not every woman can work at the white lace. Those who have what is locally termed the “ haleine grasse ” are obliged to confine 15 “ The silk came from Nankin, by prepared at Lyons, the thread was from way of London or the East, the black Haarlem.”—Boland de la FlatUre. silk called ‘ grenadine 1 was dyc<l and