Brise bise lace curtains and blinds

 

Researching more brise bise curtains this week I came across these in a 1933 pamphlet of lace furnishings. Brise bise lace curtains were very fashionable in the early 1930s and were designed to hang across the lower half of a window. The name brise bise comes from two French words, briser meaning to break and bise meaning a light cold wind, so they are designed to stop a light breeze. All the examples in the booklet have an integral channel woven across the top of the curtain through which a rod or wire could be inserted for fixing them. Some of these channels are patterned but others are just plain weave and most have a scalloped lower edge. Brise bise curtains could be gathered along the rod or kept flat against the window and it may be that those labelled as blinds were designed to be used flat. However, it looks as if all the designs could be used either way depending on the preference of the householder.

The fruit design shown at the top is only available in one width (17 inches), but the design of flowers and trellis comes in three sizes (20, 31 or 38 inches). The smaller sizes are those usually associated with brise bise curtains; 38 inches seems quite large for a brise bise, but perhaps the idea was that you could have a combination of matching designs to fit a range of window sizes. The curtains were sold by the yard so would not be finished at the edges, just cut from the roll. Unfortunately there are no details of the manufacturers or the prices and I suspect those details were probably on an order form in the centre of the booklet which has been removed.