Back in 2018 we posted a blog piece on this website about the Flemish priest Constant Duvillers and the songs he wrote for use in the lace-school he set up in the parish of Middelburg, East Flanders, in the 1840s. We’ve extended the analysis and quoted more of the songs in a recent article: David Hopkin, ‘Lace Songs and Culture Wars: A Nineteenth-Century Flemish Village Soap Opera’, Folk Music Journal 12 (2024): 92-116. Unlike some other recent articles mentioned on this site, this one is not available open access. But if anyone would like a copy please just email David at david.hopkin@hertford.ox.ac.uk
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A group of lacemakers and children, probably in the Kleine Nieuwstraat, Bruges. Photograph Jaak A. Rau. Reproduced by courtesy of the Stadsarchief Brugge.