Elegant lace, colourful or shimmering embroidery... In the 17th and 18th centuries, men and women all use it to embellish their clothes.

Lace first appears on necklines and cuffs – literally on the edges of garments (‘kant' means edge in Dutch). The ruff is the most eye-catching but lace soon finds its way onto other items of clothing and accessories such as caps, aprons and fans. In the course of the 18th century, the lace becomes more transparent and the motifs increasingly sophisticated. The technique is now so advanced that different styles develop, usually named after the place where they are created: Mechlin (Mechelen) lace, Alençon, Valenciennes...

Producing lace involves a lot of work, which means it is expensive. No wonder then that old pieces of lace were sometimes recycled and used on new garments.

This elegant marble bust is of Baroness Augusta Liedts. She dies at the age of 35 and has already amassed an exquisite collection of lace. In 1889, four years after her death, her husband donates the collection to the city. After all, Bruges has a rich and vibrant lace tradition.

On this tactile element you can follow the complicated path these bobbins take to produce lace.

The tactile panel is a landscape-oriented rectangle comprising three parts: the lace pattern, the final piece of lace and the lace bobbins.

We start with the pattern at the top left of the panel. A lace pattern is a piece of cardboard pricked with holes. So when you turn it over, you feel all the bumps. It's a bit like Braille. For this tactile panel we have chosen to feel the bumps at the back instead of the holes at the front of the pattern. The lace pattern is represented by a sequence of dots. At the top, the dots are close together and form a line that goes up and down, like the teeth of a saw. The further down, the greater the distance between the dots. You may notice that there are two sections approximately in the middle of the pattern without any dots. They are shaped like a square standing on its point. Just below those squares, towards the bottom of the pattern, you can make out curved lines that are regularly repeated.

If you move your hands down a bit further from the lace pattern, you can feel the end result, the lace work. The final lace has a sophisticated motif. Right from the top you can feel different horizontal lines with a line in between that goes up and down, like the teeth of a saw, just like in the pattern you just felt. And remember the two square sections without any dots? More or less in the middle of the pattern you can feel those same two squares that stand on their points, but now they are filled with fine lace. Towards the bottom of the piece you may be able to make out the curved lines that are regularly repeated.

Both the pattern and the lace are displayed in white on the dark background of the tactile panel.

On the right side of the tactile panel you can explore the third and final part, the lace bobbins. At the top right of the panel you can feel dots connected by quite thick lines. If you feel the entire series of dots and lines, you notice that they form a pattern. This is the lace work that still has pins in between. About halfway in the tactile element, the thick lines become thinner. You have now reached the individual threads that make up the lace work. If you follow the thin lines, you end up at the bobbins. There are four in total.

The rest of the thread is wrapped around the top of each bobbin. The bobbin serves as stock and at the end is a shank to which it is fixed. The bobbins are always used in pairs, which stay together throughout the work. An experienced bobbin lace maker can work with hundreds of bobbins at a time, which are passed over each other very quickly, but on this tactile element you will find four with which one stroke is performed.
After making a number of strokes, a pin is inserted into the pattern, which keeps the work in place. The pins are represented by the thick dots.

The next element you can explore corresponds to number 51 in the audio guide and is located on the 2nd floor. But don't forget about the prayer chapel that is located on this floor! Take the passage to the next room. The entrance to the prayer chapel is there on the left in the corner. Please take care, there are three steps leading down and no handrail. But before that comes number 41, which relates to the lace room, right here.

Painted portraits from different periods reveal how lace fashion evolves, and how people wear lace. Sometimes, the lace is highly visible and stands out, and sometimes it is extremely refined and almost transparent.

One of the portraits is of Maria Coutteau and there's also a portrait of her young daughter Maria Van Speybrouck wearing a floral dress. Both portraits are oval in shape and are approximately 70 cm high and 50 cm wide. Mother and daughter are both wearing a wide lace bonnet. The daughter's bonnet is adorned with a yellow ribbon. They are both wearing a large white shawl too. This is the fashion for women just before the French Revolution in 1789. Note the jewellery that the mother is wearing: a chain with a cross, earrings and an ornamental pin decorating the bonnet.

Decorative lappets complement the bonnets: they are the strips attached to the bonnet that hang down. In French they are called: des barbes. They were sometimes artistically draped on top of the bonnet. The longer the lappets, the more dignified the wearer: lappets are a status symbol. You can discover several in this room.

At first glance, this waistcoat seems rather understated, but if you look closely you can see how it is decorated with embroidery, white on white, in a sumptuous floral pattern. Here and there the pattern has been cut away. The sleeves and the left front panel are embellished with strips of Mechelen lace, with its characteristic, dainty motifs and an open background. In the 18th century, highly refined Mechelen lace is very popular, even in the royal courts. It is an extremely difficult type of lace to produce.

There is something odd about this gentleman's coat: it dates from between 1700 and 1730, but the back panel dates from the 1800s and is much too short compared with the front. They simply do not match. Perhaps the pieces were joined together to exhibit in the museum? After all, the coat couldn't be worn.

To reach the next room we are going to cross the stairwell. On the ceiling of the hall we find Louis de Gruuthuse's coat of arms, which we described under number 11 of this audio guide. Many of Louis' symbols crop up repeatedly in various places throughout the museum!
The ceiling is also special; it is a vaulted coffered ceiling. It looks like four reverse vaults ending in a point. On one of the walls hangs a huge tapestry from the series of the seven liberal arts we described under number 35 of this guide. In the tactile element under number 14 you explored a fragment of tapestry.

Once you have crossed the hall, you reach the next room via a fairly narrow opening in the corner on the right. The entrance to the prayer chapel is located in the room at the back on the left. Please take care, to enter the room there are three steps leading down with no handrail!