Marthe La Perrière, born Barbot, was born c.1605 in Alençon, France, where she died on January 12, 1677. She is the inventor of the "point d'Alençon", or

Alençon lace Alençon lace (, ) or point d'Alençon () is a needle lace that originated in Alençon, France. It is sometimes called the "Queen of lace." Lace making began in Alençon during the 16th century and the local industry was rapidly expanded d ...

Biography

Marthe Barbot grew up in Alençon with a sister, Suzanne. Her parents were Jean Barbot, a public prosecutor, and Suzanne Hourdebourg, from whom she likely got her lace-making skills. Marthe married Michel Mercier, sieur de La Perrière, in March 1633, bringing to the marriage 300 livres as earnings from her work with lace before their marriage. They had a son. Her husband died after 12 years of marriage in 1645, and La Perrière remained a widow. In 1657 and 1658, La Perrière was ill and bedridden. However, she survived to make her most notable contribution - "point d'Alençon."

Contributions

In around 1650, La Perrière introduced an Italian lace technique called ''points de Venise'' to Alençon. She fine-tuned her craftsmanship, and around 1660, invented "point de France" that later became "point d'Alençon." This technique involved using

vellum Vellum is prepared animal skin or membrane, typically used as writing material. It is often distinguished from parchment, either by being made from calfskin (rather than the skin of other animals), or simply by being of a higher quality. Vellu ...

to create the pattern. In addition to the technique of lace-making, La Perrière also improved the production of lace-making through dividing tasks to different workers, using

division of labor The division of labour is the separation of the tasks in any economic system or organisation so that participants may specialise (Departmentalization, specialisation). Individuals, organisations, and nations are endowed with or acquire specialis ...

. By encouraging workers to specialize in a specific part of the lace-making process, La Perrière increased the quality of the outputted lace. In 1665, the local lace industry expanded rapidly, during the reign of

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

Jean-Baptiste Colbert Jean-Baptiste Colbert (; 29 August 1619 – 6 September 1683) was a French statesman who served as First Minister of State from 1661 until his death in 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV. His lasting impact on the organization of the countr ...

. Colbert established a Royal Workshop in the town to produce lace in the Venetian style, including a monopoly on the production of point de France, which La Perrière had previously produced. La Perrière continued to secretly make her lace throughout the ten-year monopoly.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:La Perriere, Marthe 17th-century French inventors 1600s births 1677 deaths Women inventors People from the Province of Normandy