Engageante of needle lace with tulips

Engageante of natural-colored Venetian needlepoint lace. The symmetrical pattern consists in the center of a more or less heart-shaped motif surrounded by feathered leaves, from which three flowers hang. Waving vines spring from the flower to the left and right, to which feathered and curling leaves, cluster flowers and large tulips are attached. The motifs are built up from undecorated buttonhole stitches with very many fine cutouts to suggest leaf veins and in a variation of patterns with diamonds, blocks, zigzag. Other decorative grounds applied are, among others, a diamond ground and a coarser decorative ground with picoted bars. A thicker incrustated outline thread runs around the motifs, creating a slight relief. The fine mesh ground connecting the motifs to each other is built up from lengthwise bars. The upper side of the engageante is straight finished with a buttonhole band. The shell border along the lower side is finished with picots.