Lappet

The finest type of elaborate whitework embroidery in the 18th century was made in Saxony, and was traded throughout Europe via the city of Dresden. It was a cheaper alternative to Brussels lace, on which its designs were based, and became increasingly popular from the 1720s onwards.

When this lappet was acquired by the Museum in 1872, Sir Digby Wyatt wrote ‘I have never seen anything to surpass this specimen. It is of great beauty although so minute and of such almost painful elaboration’.