No. 33 Altar Lace (Battenburg)
This very elegant specimen of altar lace is, in reality, about nine or ten inches deep; but, for want of space the engraving represents it as only about half as wide. The design, however, is perfect in detail, and the illustration fully displays its effectiveness, and discloses the variety of connecting and filling-in stitches used. A delicate Battenburg braid is chosen for the foundation, and in addition to regular lace stitches, those from drawn work are here and there interspersed. The cross is filled in in point de Venise, (or side stitch as it is sometimes called), and the same stitch is seen in the central design at each side of the cross. Drawn-work effects are seen also in these central figures and along the borders. Sorrento bars are here made and knotted at the center like drawn strands, or are connected by rosettes or “spiders” made in drawn-work style. At the center of the cross is a large drawn-work wheel, while small Maltese crosses and half-crosses are made elsewhere in the work by the drawn-work method, Sorrento bars taking the place of the usual strands. The central section of the border at the right of the cross is done in point de Bruxelles which is afterward button-holed as in bar-work, and a button-hole picot edge follows the lower outlines of the pattern. Raleigh bars with picots form the connecting ground-work throughout the work. This beautiful specimen shows two distinct methods of filling in the sections between the crosses. Either may be used alone, or the two may be used alternately with the crosses.