The second half of the Nineteenth century is usually known in England as the Victorian Age or, in France, the Restoration. The international scene is dominated by the figures of Queen Victoria, with her 64 year of reign and of the very elegant Empress Eugenie of Montijo, wife of Napoleon III. Since the first official visit of the French imperial couple in England (in April, 1855) a strong friendship flourished between Eugenie and Victoria, a friendship that grew stronger after the death of Albert in 1861; afterwards, Victoria will wear mourning clothes for the following forty years of her life. Eugenie will be a guest of Victoria several times, at Osborne, Windsor and Abergeldie; it is in the much loved Scotland that Eugenie will seek refuge after the death of her sister Paca, in 1860. Both shared the same passion for travelling and the same romantic inclination brings them to chose a pseudonym when they travelled incognito: Countess of Balmoral and Countess of Pierrefonds.

In this period, BRUGES, CHANTILLY, DUCHESSE, HONITON, are the most important bobbin laces that share their success with the famous needle-made POINT DE GAZE.

Circa 1876, following the end of Eugenie’s mourning period for the death Napoleon III. An interior of Balmoral Castle, Scotland, where Empress Eugenie is received in the privacy of Victoria’ s own room. It is a very intimate gesture with which queen Victoria welcomes the friend in her private apartment, holding her hands. Not far away is the personal maid of the queen that has arranged her nightgown on the bed.

• On February 10th, 1840 Victoria marries Albert of Saxe-Coburg. It is a sumptuous and romantic wedding, with a wedding cake weighing 150 kilos, decorated with cupids and satin hearts. Among the guests, in the middle of all the European crowned heads, has been also invited Jane Bidney, the master lace makers of a small village in Devon, who, presiding over a hundred of lace makers that worked for eight straight months, created the wedding veil of the queen, made in precious Honiton lace. The veil is rather short, almost a stole, and its pattern has been later destroyed, in order to avoid that the risk that anyone could copy it. The queen did bring the veil in her tomb when she died, on January 22, 1901. (L.Baldrige, Spose Celebri, Milan, 2000, pp.12-14).

• At Beer, a small village on the Devon coast, between Seaton and Exmouth, the industry of lace went unexpectedly back in fashion: here had been realized the wedding dress of queen Victoria, worth 1,000 pounds. The unexpected, but certainly appreciated, interest of the queen for Honiton lace, and the following court visits at Sidmouth, were critical for the comeback in fashion of this trimming, the popularity of which will continue during the long reign of Victoria. (M. Eirwen Jones, The Romance of Lace, London, 1951, p.153).

• Princess Paulina Metternich, in a letter following her meeting with Empress Eugenie, writes: "The charm that the Empress exercised on everybody who approached her, hit me forever, too; her grace, her kindness, her amazing beauty. I admired that sovereign beauty, and she amazed me for her extreme simplicity and the quality of her elegance – thanks to her look and her taste she did become the undisputed queen of fashion". (H. Kurtz, L'Imperatrice Eugenia, Varese, 1972, p.187).

• The English Charles Frédérick Worth was the first real fashion designer, the couturier of the courts and of the rich upper class; Empress Eugenie will trust the realization of her wedding trousseau to him, making him later the exclusive supplier of the reigning house. The first novelty was the introduction of the crinoline, an accessory that was extremely suitable to Eugenie’s style to the point that during her reign it was exhibited with pride and effectiveness. Worth demanded that the ladies came to his atelier for the fittings and no longer the other way around, with the only exception of the Empress and of her court. (J.Laver, Moda e costume, Breve storia dall'antichità a oggi, Milan, 2003, p.200).

• Beside queen Victoria, other members of the royal family supported the use of Devon laces and in fact, the wedding dresses of princess Alice and queen Alexandra had also been realized using these laces. Undocumented sources affirm that the art of bobbin laces had been introduced for the first time by the Dutch seeking refuge in England in 1568. (N. Hudson Moore, The Lace Book, London, 1937, pp.184-185).