A family heirloom from the 19th century, this lace collar (actually one half of a complete collar) was found packed away, damaged and stained. 

Its conservation required careful cleaning and blocking, to reveal the detail of the handmade lace and to clarify where there were missing sections. 

This was then mounted on a backing fabric that was supplemented with hand embroidery stitches in a similar thread, to visually compensate for the lost sections and not distract from the beauty of an ancestor’s handiwork. Archival framing completed the preservation work.