Featured Antique lace? cross stitch? Unusual - girl sheppard w/sheep & her dog

I found this beautiful - and unusual - framed lace? or stitching? of a girl sheppard walking with her sheep & her dog running in front of her (while looking back at her with a dog's smile!) and carrying a stick to herd the sheep.
Is it lace? Some form of stitching? (on lace?)
Is it old?
Thank you for any information or thoughts about it!
PS - it is very white so some photos I used a filter to make it easier to see.

 

@Northern Lights Lodge

 

Looks older than dirt to me. Left in the sun far too long however; the colors in the "silks" were fugitive and they decamped.

 

First ones are closest but without filters you couldn't see details ' it's actually really white.

 

I don't know what it is but it is lovely! I would have snapped that up in a heart beat!!!!!

Please show the back, plus, if you open it up, show us that also.

 

Fabulous antique embroidery work!

 

Embroidery! Is that what it is? Was it done on lace?

 

I will! (It is ...lovely - I'm a 62 yr old guy & this is the first embroidery/lacy thing I've bought but I thought it was so cool and different!)

 

If you can open it up to see the back, it may show us whether it is badly faded on the front, or white on white embroidery such as a style called Mountmellick.

 

That is what it looks like to me.

 

Looks to me like it's behind that glare-free glass. Not a fan of that stuff. It's a fun piece. To me, it has a 1920s look.

 

As [2manybooks] has already alluded to,true Mountmellick embroidery is white stitch on white lace and was mainly floral patterns or things from nature (leaves,foliage etc).Mountmellick was originally one of the few Quaker towns in Ireland,and the embriodery for which it is famed for was first introduced there in 1825.To me this piece of embroidery seems to be much later than that,and to have elements of a Quaker sampler and a Victotian sampler entwined into one.My guess would be somewhere about turn of the centuary 1890s -1910.

 

The back is brown paper covered but as 2manybooks suggested I will take the paper off so we can see the back - I'd love to know if it's Montmellick as antiquefab suggests!

 

I don't think @Antiquefab was saying your piece was Mountmellick - he was noting that while it may be white on white, the difference in subject matter would suggest a different and later style/origin. I only used Mountmellick as an example of white on white embroidery, and did not mean to identify your piece as such.

Nevertheless, it might be informative to determine if it is badly faded or not. Perhaps a small window cut in the backing paper would suffice.