Strip of needle lace with mirrored S-shaped ornamental band and iris
From the collection of Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
Strip of Natural-Colored Needle Lace: Alençon Lace. The repeating pattern consists of a flat S-shaped ornamental band in mirror image. The band continues at the top in a wavy branch of pointed and feathered leaves and with an iris lying over the next ornamental band. The bands touch the top of the strip and run with a shallow S-shaped curve diagonally downwards to end along the bottom of the strip. The motifs are built up from festoon stitches where sparingly very fine cutouts are used for decoration. The motifs are provided with relief contours and are connected to each other by a fine hexagonal mesh ground, an Alençon ground. Ornamental grounds with radar picots are applied in the ornamental bands, rocailles and flower hearts. The flat scalloped edge is finished with picots. The top of the strip is finished with a bobbin lace strip.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam’s own description