I've always got an eye out for handmade figurative lace, the folkier and more singular the better, so was delighted to find this piece this week, most of all for the fact that its subject holds a book in her hand! Though I'm not certain, I might guess this was made as a mourning piece, with our somewhat mournful looking woman holding one hand over her heart and perhaps reading a prayer from the book in the other, standing in front of what looks like it could either be an alter, and with what I believe is a lotus flower to her left, a symbol of strength and rebirth. Wonderful face and hair and hands and feet and everything in between, plus terrifically patterned swag draped overhead.
12" t x 6 3/4" and in very good condition. Early 20th c. I believe--1910s or so. A few tiny spots and a couple of bits detached at one end, easily repaired but I don't think at all detracting. Photographed in a couple of ways to try to give a good sense, color of thread is off white / ecru.
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