Mystery Flower and Gold Leaf

Remember this?

http://elmsleyrose.blogspot.com/2009/03/historical-sampler-buttonhole-flower.html
Eowyn (Melinda Sherbring) suggested that it just might be a ranunculus. I do know that Mrs Christie did take flowers from embroideries and tapestries from 1200 to 1700 or 1800 (not modern ones).
I had a look for some history and found :
“The history of Ranunculus cultivars is rather startling, with unexpected ups & downs of popularity. According to Alice M. Coates' reconstruction in Flowers & Their Histories (1956), we find its rise & decline goes something like this: John Gerard writing in the late 1590s knew only one variety, a double dark red, while John Parkinson in 1633 knew but eight, whereas twenty were cataloged in the Royal Gardens in Paris in 1665. This slow start led to a veritable explosion of varieties, for near the end of the next century, in a 1792 plant catalog from James Maddock, there were a whopping 800 named cultivars! “
http://www.paghat.com/ranunculusficaria.html
From Elizabethan Flowers http://home.netcom.com/~janeabbt/flowers/browse.html

Ranunculus	aconitifolius		white, double form	Florilegium/1612	Emanual Sweerts/Amsterdam & Frankfurt
Ranunculus	acris	Meadow Buttercup		Checklist of English native plant species	Dr. Chris Preston/England
Ranunculus	asiaticus		white inside/red outside, double form; orange-vermillion, double form; brownish red; white/pink speckles; yellow/red stripes	Florilegium/1612	Emanual Sweerts/Amsterdam & Frankfurt
Ranunculus	bulbosus flore pleno		yellow	Florilegium/1612	Emanual Sweerts/Amsterdam & Frankfurt
Ranunculus	bulbosus	Bulbous Buttercup		Checklist of English native plant species	Dr. Chris Preston/England
Ranunculus	bullatus		yellow	Florilegium/1612	Emanual Sweerts/Amsterdam & Frankfurt
Ranunculus	ficaria	Lesser Celandine		Checklist of English native plant species	Dr. Chris Preston/England
Ranunculus	repens	Creeping Buttercup		Checklist of English native plant species	Dr. Chris Preston/England
Ranunculus	sardous	Hairy Buttercup		Checklist of English native plant species	Dr. Chris Preston/England

The double flowers look like this, and the list includes an "orange vermillion double form" under Ranunculus Asiaticus!


http://fireflyforest.net/firefly/2006/02/12/persian-buttercup-ranunculus/
- wavy, multiple layers! Similar, no?
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I finished the gold leaf.

I used Pearl Purl No. 1 for the rib, and Super Pearl Purl to outline it – I thought a contrast in the sizes in the Purl would be attractive.