Looking at the picture again, I second Tamara's view.
If this piece was crisp and straight off the pillow, it would look vastly
better than it does in its rumpled state, and apart from the not so good
leaves it is actually quite well made - in its fashion.
In the hands of a beginner the passives would have been far more likely to
have migrated to inside of every curve; in reality they are mostly spread
evenly across the braid with the single gimp centralised, and this is far more
difficult to do when the thread is on the fine side for the width of the
lace.
Also, we don't know how big the original piece of lace was, but this sort
of vague wandering braid is more usually found on a long length where the
quantity overides the lack of quality (or any?) design, and that suggest to me
at least, that it may even have been made for sale. In which case, if the
lacemaker knows that her leaves are never her best point, is she going to
keep undoing to try to make them better, if she knows she can sell the lace
anyway?
Is this an actual size photo (I see it at about 9 wide on my screen) or is
the lace much narrower, maybe as narrow as 2 or 3 inches? If this is the
case the uneven leaf edges, although poor by our modern exacting standards,
would be far less obvious. Although holly leaves, they are a reasonably
consistant shape and size, each for its own area of filling, and for a beginner
that is almost harder to do than avoiding holly leaves. Also the plaits
carrying the leaf pairs around the edges are neatly and inconspicuously made
and attached, another area of difficulty for a beginner.
Just my interpretation,
Jacquie in Lincolnshire.
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