after kerxken and erembodeghem i was not surprized, when inquiring about needle laces further south, to learn that the only school whose work could dispute first place with them was that of the mother house of the same order at opbrakel. i had come to know that the finest needle laces of belgium are made in these convents of the s?urs franciscaines.
it was a bitter day, but i determined to reach opbrakel despite shell-pitted roads and rain. i succeeded even in making a short stop on the way at cruyshautem[202] convent, famous, too, for its needle point, where the sisters would have detained me longer to describe again and again the entry of the american soldiers at 9 o’clock in the morning on all saints day—the wonderful american soldiers who had arrived to free them from their oppressors of four years, and who had remained to buy every scrap of lace in the convent, carrying away the address with the promise to send for more.
in my journeying i discovered a pretty way of learning whose army occupied a particular village—i looked for the first small boy to see which soldier’s cap he proudly wore. thus at opbrakel, tho it was late afternoon when i arrived, there were children still playing in the street, and the boys jauntily wearing the horizontal blue announced to me that the french were there. these small boys, and later the soldiers themselves, examined[203] my mud-splashed car with much curiosity, as it drew up in front of the convent door.
my visit was quite unannounced, but the sisters held out their hands in welcome, and drew me in out of the rain, speaking, as they did so, words i had almost forgotten, “hot milk; you must drink a cup of hot milk at once, madame, and your chauffeur also; this is a cruel day for journeying.” they led me to a little room, where i found another unaccustomed comfort, a tiny fire burning brightly. as i sat before it, sipping the sweet milk, the first i had had since leaving america, i remembered the gratitude of travelers in the middle ages toward the convents and abbeys whose doors they found open. the war had brought a return of many of the difficulties and perils that beset them, with the comfortable hostelries of pre-war days pillaged and ruined, the little restaurants [204]or cafés that could do business filled to overflowing with soldiers (i have spent hours in the wind and rain at night vainly trying to find a bed, or a place for my car), with roads wrecked, neither post nor telegraph, nor train, and natural accompaniment of all this disorganization, the necessity of being ever on guard against thieves—in the midst of conditions like these we can appreciate the meaning of the cheering hospitality the convent offers.
while we sat before the fire the mother superior had one of the sisters show me a treasure of the school, a framed exhibit, illustrating in miniature all the processes employed in the making of the needle laces, which they had prepared for the last international exposition at brussels. then she recounted for me a little of the history of her lace-making convent, which celebrates its centenary this year, this free year of 1919. i could [205]imagine what it would have meant to try to be joyful over such an anniversary with the enemy heel still on one’s back.
one hundred years ago the commune of opbrakel was in such a wretched state of poverty and misery that among its 2,000 inhabitants, 800 were beggars; and as often happened elsewhere during the period of suffering following the napoleonic wars, the curé of the commune sought to relieve it by founding a convent which should teach the art of lace-making, to furnish a means of earning bread. he called the franciscaine sisters who soon had 100 pupils in their lace-classes, and among them a number of boys. from those days to these, lace-making in this convent has never ceased; there are now not more than 125 pupils in the excellent school, but in the homes of the entire region are those who have learned their art there. the sisters taught first, chantilly (opbrakel is very [206]near grammont, the belgian home of chantilly), but about fifty years ago changed from bobbin to needle lace, and since about twelve years ago, they have specialized on the particular needle lace, venetian point, in which they are unexcelled. few of the enraptured tourists in venise realize that the laces they are buying there were very probably made in flanders!
important lace schools and work-rooms have from time to time concentrated all their skill on the production of a masterpiece that might represent them to the world and awaken wide interest and approval. we have a long list of such chefs-d’?uvres from the lace-rooms of belgium, of lovely scarfs and cloths and robes offered to sovereigns or distinguished patrons. and happily during the war the committee could encourage this practise by giving orders or special “commands” to be executed as gifts for [207]benefactors. several of these presentation pieces will have enduring value historically as well as artistically.
more than one command fell to the share of opbrakel, and among others that for a scarf offered to the queen of holland in appreciation of her country’s generosity to belgians within dutch borders. the dentellières, each proud to be selected for the royal task, worked many months on the countless exquisite needle points in this delicate veil. on the scarf ends they united the arms of holland and belgium, engarlanding them with hyacinths and tulips, the dutch national flowers, and about these in turn they wove lilies of the valley, symbolizing the return of happiness. below the medallion rest the belgian provinces, enchained, and above them they represented the children of holland showering flowers of abundance upon the martyred children of their sister kingdom.
[208]
“the tourney” banquet cloth
design reproducing a medi?val painting in tournai, executed in venise lace by 10 workers in one month, mounting and embroidery by five workers in one month. price in brussels, 1,000 francs
it would have been pleasant to talk of other master-works, but we had already sat too long before the fire and we hurried now to reach the large, airy class-room across the court before dark. when starting on my lace journey, i had been warned that, once i had visited the bobbin-lace work-room with all the picturesqueness of the cushion with its mounds of bobbins and clustered pins, and of the flying fingers and the continuous cadences of the clinking wood, i would find needle-lace classes uninteresting. in the beginning this was true; there was nothing particularly dramatic or stirring in a great room filled with girls and young women holding little black paper patterns in their hands and plying a needle above them. but the more i watched these little patterns and the fingers directing the needle and thread, the more marvelous the accomplishment appeared—cotton and linen [209]so fine that it seemed impossible that any finger should control them—cobwebby, diaphanous meshes, richly petalled tiny flowers, and delicately veined leaves growing beneath just a common needle and a single thread. in the end i looked eagerly for the needle rooms.
“arms of ypres” cushion cover in venise, with details in flanders
and this was the most rewarding one i had yet visited. it happened that the majority of the pupils were busy on the details of a tablecloth recently designed by madame allard, in which the linen center is encircled by a family of little beasts as gay as any ever gathered together to cheer a dinner company. i laughed outright, as a little girl, herself laughing, held up an exquisitely worked and most vividly real group of happy ducks floating on a pond. the next showed her enchanting rabbits, another her deer—all along the line they were chuckling over the success of their particular pets. they had captured the sunshine[210] and happy motion of a farm-yard world with just a needle and a single linen thread! here, as at erembodeghem, only linen thread is used, because tho it is more difficult to handle, it produces a finer and stronger lace than cotton. after several months (it took six months to execute the first cloth of this design) the details would be assembled and joined by special workers, following the large paper pattern the sisters were now spreading across a table, which had been sent down to opbrakel from the room of design at brussels. and the finished cloth, as delightful as an early naive tapestry with its smiling animals, would be sent to the committee for sale.
opbrakel stands unquestionably first in belgium in the production of figures in point de venise. during the war, its workers have repeated several times for the committee their beautiful [211]“fables de la fontaine” series of medallions, as well as those which represent so charmingly “little red riding-hood,” “puss in boots,” “the sleeping beauty,” and other much loved fairy-tale figures. these medallions have been sold separately as doilies, or have been combined with flanders lace or linen in handsome cloths.
it was fast growing dark, and the 125 girls began folding their patterns, and carefully wrapping their delicately pictured little rabbits and ducks to keep them clean till the morrow; maids appeared with dust-pans and brooms, and we gathered up our skirts and stept out into the courtyard. as we crossed it in the dark and the rain it was difficult to refuse the further hospitality of these sisters, who would have kept me for the night.
