Detail of the Past - Battenburg Lace

I was perusing the interweb last week, and came across this entirely handmade Victorian battenburg lace bodice.  Battenburg is a tape lace. Loops of even-width, woven tape are formed, and then decorative filling stitches called bars or brides are used to join the tape edges, filling the gaps. 

Battenburg lace was first created when Queen Victoria of England named her son-in-law as the first Duke of Battenburg in the late 1800s. Every English Duke had his own lace pattern, how special is that?  This is supposed to be one of the easier laces as its open weave makes it less technical, but this is most certainly a bodice which looks anything but simple!