www.champanelle.net - Cercle Genealogic and Historical Champanellois (63) FRANCE

We met the rural lace maker

The rural lace maker divides her days between farm work and lace making, which provides supplementary income for the family.

b) The urban lace maker

She worked under very different conditions-no friendly gatherings where both tongues and bobbins were busy. For her, lace making took place in workshops employing women and also children as young as eight, both girls and boys. Even as late as 1872, a quarter of the 2,500 lace workers in one lace-making town were children under 15 years old. In 1882, a law would prohibit child labor before the age of 13.

The workday lasted 14 hours, starting at 5 a.m. Lace makers used oil or kerosene lamps (depending on the family's wealth) called “chaleil ” to light their work. The light was focused on the lace using a glass sphere filled with rainwater, known as the “douhli ”.

Lace making was predominantly the work of orphans, poor young girls, and women seeking to avoid prostitution. Workshops were often organized by religious communities and operated under very strict discipline.

In Valenciennes, workshops were set up in basements, where the humidity prevented the thread from drying out and breaking. There, as in other places, lace makers used lead salts, known as “white lead, ” to keep the lace bright white.

These working conditions caused a host of health issues, including eye strain, respiratory problems, nervous disorders, scoliosis, tuberculosis, and rheumatism, which quickly afflicted the lace makers. The same illnesses threatened those who chose to work from home rather than in a workshop.