Old lace found...

Here is an interesting piece of tatted lace I found and brought home with me a from a trip back home to Montana this summer....

This was found at an antique shop in St. Regis, Montana that my Mother and I are fond of and purchased for just a couple of dollars...I was intrigued by it, in spite of or perhaps because of it's condition...there is quite a bit of damage to 3 of the 4 corners and some rust colored stains in those areas as well.  However, it is still a lovely and interesting piece of tatting...

I find the amount of bare thread in the individual motifs interesting, as well as the fact that each motif would be circular on it's own...but creates a square shape when joined as in this manner.  Also interesting is how the outside motifs create a half circle on the outside while the interior edge becomes pointed.  It must be an effect of the bare thread spacing that this is possible. 

The long picots must have created a lovely fringed effect to the edge of each motif, though they are now curled pretty badly. 

It's really quite pretty, I like the effect of the piece overall.  The open spaces create a nice contrast to the overall piece that is very beautiful.  This probably measures about 16 inches, each motif being about 2 inches.  The thread is probably a size 30 and was originally a white thread. 

I am still not sure what I will do with this...repair might be difficult as the thread would be hard to match well enough for it not to be noticable, but I might look through my vintage thread stash and see if there is something close.  I could remove the damaged portions and create more of a hexagon, but I like the diamond within a diamond effect...always seems attractive and well balanced to me when the small motifs within a design are matched to the overall design.  I also could simply keep it as it is...it's rustic appearance is somewhat endearing I think.  Any opinions as to what would be the correct route?

At any rate, thought you all might enjoy seeing this!