Lace Knitter

So many Civil-War-era knitting images show women working on socks, that I was delighted to find this lace knitter, albeit from Europe.

It's clearly knitted lace, not crocheted. The yarn seems surprisingly coarse, perhaps up to a fingering weight.

I've only seen a few printed lace patterns of the period. One is in Needlework a la Mode, but the quantity of knitted counterpanes gives evidence of the popularity of knitted lace.