Also 8 Sc. Valentians. [See def.]
1. The name of a town in northern France, celebrated for the manufacture of lace, used attrib. in Valenciennes lace (see quot. 1858). Also Comb.
1727. Lady G. Baillie, Househ. Bk. (S.H.S.), 214. For narow valentians lace at 11s.
1854. Grace Greenwood, Haps & Mishaps, 120. There is also a class engaged in weaving Valenciennes lace, of a beautiful quality.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Valenciennes-lace, a rich lace which has a six-sided mesh formed of two threads partly twisted and plaited, the pattern being worked in the net.
1882. Caulfeild & Saward, Dict. Needlework, 507/2. In Belgium there are six centres for Valenciennes lace making.
2. ellipt. A variety of lace originally manufactured at Valenciennes; a ruffle or the like made of this.
1764. W. Varey, in Jesse, Selwyn & Contemp. (1843), I. 270. I shall be obliged to you for four pair of Valenciennes, as good as people wear when they dress, but not too deep.
1801. Mar. Edgeworth, Angelina, iii. Eight and twenty [shillings] … is really nothing for any lace you’d wear; but more particularly for real Valenciennes.
1859. Reade, Love me Little (1888), 169. ‘Well! does not every lady wear lace on her nightgown?… What is that on yours, pray?’ ‘A little misery of Valenciennes, an inch broad.’
1905. Elin. Glyn, Viciss. Evangeline, 99. Short sleeves ruffled with Valenciennes.
3. ‘A pyrotechnic composition, usually employed as incendiary’ (Cent. Dict., 1891).
