More smugglers’ tales from the world of lace

 

Last time we heard about lace smuggled into England in coffins, this time we have tales of lace being smuggled across borders by dogs. In the early nineteenth century there was a great demand for Belgian lace in France and one way to get lace across the border without paying customs duty was by using dogs. The dog would be kept at a home in France where it was well looked after then taken to Belgium where it was badly treated. Once the dog had thinned down, lace was wrapped round its body and it was then covered with the skin of a larger animal. As soon as it was set free it would make its way back to France to the home where it had been well looked after and the lace was unwrapped. However, once the French government discovered this method of flouting the law a reward of 3 francs was offered for every dog captured and sadly between 1820 and 1836 over 40 thousand dogs were captured and destroyed. It seems a rather strange method of transporting delicate white lace to me so I’m sure the dogs were carefully selected. I know our dog would have been distracted by rabbits, waded through dirty puddles and rolled in mud before any lace would have been delivered!