Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-04-19
REVIVING AN INDUSTRY
QUEEN ALEXANDRA PATRONlZ-
ING HoNITON LACE MAKING.
An Entertaining Account Of Its Manu-
facture-The Irish Variety Takes
Precedence Of ALL.
From the London Telegraph.


English ard Irish lace bid fair to share
with home worked embroideries the fash
ionabie honors of the coming season. and
more than one notable event in recent days
has directed attention to the share that the
beautiful handicraft of Devonshire may
hope to enjoy in it. Queen Alexandra, who
is not only foremost in supporting home
industries. but is one of the keenest col
lectors and most expert connoisseurs OF
fine lace wore at the state opening or par
lament a maryeiously fine and beautiful
Honiton veil beneath the small diamond
crown. and permitted 1t to be mace geher-
ally known that she did so in order to bring
lace Of this type into notice How success
full her majesty's gracious thought has been
may be judged from the fact. that MRS
Barnard of Coombe Raleigh, honorary
treasurer of the Ladies Guild in connection
with the Honiton Lace School, has obtaJned
orders to the value of over $1,000 to be ex-
ecuted between now and June. Inc Prln-
cess of Wales is patroness of this guild
and has honored it with repeated orders,
but royaI support and sympathy are OF
coarse, no new thing for the industry
There are old women living whose mothers
helped to make a wonderful dress Tor Queen
Adelaide in which every flower was copied
direct from nature. Queen Victoria, who
realized that the workers were often In pow
erty and distress. ordered through Miss
Ridney the finest dress they had ever made
men and girls were employed upon it for
several weeks and in order that its lovely
design should not be repeated the patterns
used were destroyed. The bridal veil and
f1ounces worn by Princess Louise, Duchess
of Argyll, at her wedding were also Of this
type.
At the present time, Honiton, Beer. Sid
bury and Branscombe are in healthy rival
ry as to the good work they are turning
out, and the present revival owes much to
the zeal and enterprise of private ladies.
Mrs Fowler. at Honiton. has been fore
most among these, giving employment all
the year round to women and girls, even
though she saw little immediate prospect
Of disposing Of their work. The county
council has come to her support now with
a handsome grant-in-aid and she will be
able to hold classes to instruct beginners.
No less enthusiastic has been Mrs. I5ar-
nard, who has supplied fine designs, and
striven to emphasize the Flemish infiu-
ences to which this lace unquestionably
owes its origin The people could not af-
ford to buy new patterns, and without help
were slow in adapting The examples put
before them, but one Of Mrs. Barnard's
greatest triumphs has been that OF preserv-
ing the art of making real net upon the
pillows. This had so nearly died out that
only one old woman could be found who
place of the guipures which had ousted
1t is immensely to the gain OF the artistic
character of the lace Her own view was
that IL the industry was to be soundly re-
established greater attention to style. de-
sign and workmanship was needed. Eng
lish lacemakers could not work at the
same rates as those of the continent. and
therefore they should compete through
finer and choicer wares.
Raising the Craft.
At Beer that charmingly picturesque lit
tie village so beloved of artists, the rector
(the Rev. Henry Gibbon) Is fully alive TO his
parishioners' interests in the industry, and
possesses a valuable ally in Miss Audrey
Trevelyan, who has some fourteen highly
skilled workers. while at the church day
school there are a dozen young girls learn.
ing and about twenty more In the tech
nical classes Of the county council When
Miss Trevelyan first set herself to raise the
craft from the slough Of bad design and
worse execution into which II had fallen
some years ago she found that the wretch
ed prices given by dealers. who were also
very harsh and tyrannical in their treat
ment of the workers, seemed to have
robbed them of all ambition. As an in
stance she mentioned one aged woman who
was so miserably remunerated that she had
scarcely clothes enough to cover her. but
who under encouragement and Just pay,
produced a piece of lace which won a spe-
ciai medal in the Paris exhibition of 1900.
In the Chicago exhibition also high honors
were attained for beautiful adaptations of
are not yet, however, sufficiently fastidious
as to what they will buy, and provided that
the handkerchief. or berthe. or flounce, is
real in the sense Of not being machine
made they are not sufficiently exacting as
to pattern, fineness of thread employed, or
execution. Perhaps the very finest speci-
mems now being turned out come from
Branscombe, where the workers. who num-
Der upward OF seventy, In addition to many
girls under instruction, are extremely skill
full. silbury. Sidmouth and Exeter-this