Cap crown 1720-40 French Laces produced in Alençon and Argentan, where the French lacemaking industry was established in the seventeenth century, evolved in tandem with changing fashions. For a brief period in the first half of the eighteenth century, these laces, called Argentella, were produced with a background, or mesh, of solid hexagons enclosed within hexagonal outlines. They were intended to mirror the patterns of contemporary dress silks. Both silks and laces of the period often employed motifs of exotic foliage, such as the palm trees in this cap crown.. Cap crown 229617