Filet lace patterns

I’ve been enjoying reading the historical section in The technique of filet lace by Pauline Knight. She notes that in the late nineteenth century few English magazines published articles and patterns for filet lace but many French albums of designs were produced, several of them reproducing designs from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These designs cover a variety of styles and also include pictorial designs from the fables of La Fontaine and Perrault. These designs were popular for filet lace and also for crochet so had a wide audience. Interestingly Pauline suggests that the interest in filet lace at this time may have been sparked by the availability of machine lace bedspreads and curtains with elaborate designs. This reinforces my own idea that the lace curtain designers were using the filet lace designs as inspiration for their own work as both are based on a square mesh.