fmr,'^ W^^"**^- '-^r ;H^#, "4 ^■f\ -1.,/. G\^tf\T B\\a/\\M ^oust 0^ co^it^on^ •■ifl*!! Co^v/ o\ V^^VDTt oi Mr. Ma-v^ Co\e -H^. ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 055 323 533 The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924055323533 fHONiTON LACE Industry. \ sk^.^s ♦ V RETURN to an Address of the Honourable The House of Commons, dated 20 March 1888 ;—/<»■, " COPY of Report of Mr. Alan Cole, Commissioner from the South Kensington Museum, on the present Conditipn and Prospects of tlie HoNiTON Lace Industry." Home Officej^ 1888.) ^- ^- STUART-WORTLEY. {Sir John Kennaway.) Ordered, by The House of Co mnions, to be Printed, 19 April 1888. LONDON: ' PRINTED BY HENRY HANSARD AND SON; AND Published by Etee and Spottiswoode, East Harding-street, Lcmdon, E.C and 32, Abingdon-street, Westminster, S.W. ; Adam and Chablbs Black, North Bridge, Edinburgh ; and Hodges, Figgis, and Co., 104, Grafton-street, Dublin, 124. 'V COPY OF REPORT. ON THE. COPY of Report of Mr. Alan Cole, Commissioner from the South Kensington Museum, on the present Condition and Prospects of the HoNiTON Lace Industry. Exeter, 31 May 1887. I called on Mrs. Treadwin, purveyor of laces to the Queen. Mrs. Treadwin is well acquainted with the condition of the lace business during the last 40 years. At the time of the Exhibition in 1851, she supplied information to Sir Digby Wyatt for his article on lace- making in his book, " Industrial Arts of the Nineteenth Century," published in 1853. When, in view of " Technical Education," at that time Mr. Octavius Hudson was deputed by the Department of Science and Art to report upon the condition of the lace industry in Devonshire, he derived informati^^from Mrs. Treadwin ; and supplied her with a design for a flounce, which she got worked and exhibited in Paris in 1855. Sir Stafford Northcote placed Mrs. Treadwin in communication with the School of Design at Somerset House, and she obtained one or two designs from Mr. Slocombe, &c.; but it appears that the student designers at Somerset House were either unable or un- willing to adopt or make use of suggestions given to them in respect of certain technical necessities to be complied with by anyone designing for the Devonshire pillow-made laces. Although she has largely dealt in the varieties of Devonshire pillow-lace, Mrs. Treadwin has made experi- ments with other kinds of lace ; and some of her best workers have produced faithful copies, in some cases actual fac-similes, of Venetian needle- point lace of the 17th century. (See specimen in the South Kensington Museum.) Mrs. Treadwin's best lace-makers are those who 30 years ago were trained at one or other of her lace-making schools. These workers are now scattered in different towns in or near Devonshire. Mrs. Treadwin finds their work better than any she can obtain elsewhere. She considers that the deteriora- tion of the general run of village-made lace is due in one respect to the absence of regular practice. So many workers merely take up their work spasmodically. If a demand comes, there is haste to supply it, and a con- sequent sacrifice of quality. Mrs. Treadwin produces standard pieces up to which her workers have to work. She rather complained that taste in the worker had not been culti- vated for the benefit of the manufacture. The wholesale trade has encouraged hastily-produced laces of poor quality. Mrs. Treadwin con- sidered that a well-made lace from a good design can always sell at a good price. The workers are gradually dying off. No new hands are being trained to succeed them. Lace-making might be taught in schools. It was no use to begin to teach a child who had passed the 4th or 5th standard. Such children, in fact, won't learn -the, art., Mrs. Treadwin thought that anything that could be done to call public attention to the gradual demise of the industry would be useful ; and that workers might get hints from old specimens, lectures, and such like. If a model lace-making school were started in Exeter, she would be glad to do what she could to help it by means of advice, in respect of material, patterns, &c. 1st June. I visited Beer (about a mile to the west of Seaton), and called upon B., a dealer, who keeps a small grocer's shop. His daughters under- stand how to prick patterns, join, lace together, and make pillow-lace. He buys sprigs from the laceymakers, and has them joined together, and made up into collars, cuffs, &c., by his daughters. He employs some 30 workers or so, frojn. time to time. Twenty years ago there; were probably nearly 400 workers at Beer, now there, are not more than 60 or 70. No children are taught to make lace, B. remarked how thei schools werd now " learning " the children to sew and, knit,, which he thought they -might 4saeasily learn at home from their parents. The schools did not " learn " the childreaf- any- thing they could get a livelihood out of afterwards. In the old " lace schools " ^ HONITON LACE INDUSTEY. « of 20 years or so ago, the dame who kept a school taught the children how to read ; but not how to write, nor to cypher. The parents used to send their children to be taught lace-making. It took about a year and a-half to turn out a lacemaker. The schoolmistress would give the instruction, in return for which the children had to give her the results of their labour ; or else, she would take pupils upon payment of 1 *. a week for the first month and 4 c?. a week afterwards. These " lace schools " closed because the demand for lace fell off so much, and then, when there was a slight revival, the parents declined to let the children go. Children of 12 or 13 who have passed the 4th standard are too old to then begin learning lacemaking. Besides, they look to do better class of work, and take to dressmaking, or go into service for the season at Seaton. There are a number of idlers notwith- standing ; and, although the earnings of a lacemaker may not in bad times be more than 3 .s. a week, they would be the better for that, if they could make it, than nothing. Competition with machine and foreign laces has lowered the price of the labour. The last really good season was 10 years or so ago. At that time almost every' female in the place made lace. I next called upon C, who, like B., keeps a grocer's or general stores shop; She made remarks about the industry, the teaching children^ the schools, &c., to the same effect as B. She thought the " book-learning " had killed the trade. C. occasionally tries a new pattern ; "sometimes," as she said, " we sees a new wall paper, and prick a pattern off it, changing a bit here, or leave a little, or add a little." Twenty years ago C. took 40 T. a week, chiefly for work for Mr. D. (a dealer who died some years ago, worth, it is said, over 70,000 I.) When the demand began to decline, C. bought lace as a dealer on her own account. She finds it best to keep to the old patterns, her experience being that when she produces a new one and offers it, the "gentlefolks" call it "machine." The sale at best is a "haphazardly" thing. Sometimes she sells a pound or two's worth of lace a week, some- times 5 /., and sometimes not a shilling's,. nor a sixpence's worth even. Visiting two other lace shops, I found them kept by lace-makers them- selves. One by E. She says new patterns are wanted. She could prick off any that might, be given to her. She tries to sell her lace direct to customers ; because, when she takes it to the dealers, they offer tenpence for a shilling's worth, and make you take the tenpence in goods. The dealers, ,in fact, get all the profit any way, whether they pay you in goods or in money. A lace worker who can sit at her work for ten or twelve hours daily may earn 9d. to 10 d. a day. E. finds that troublesome patterns don't pay as well as simpler ones. Upon my return homewards, I called at the vicarage to see Mr. Le Geyt, ■to whom Mr. C. E. Peek had given me an introduction. He would be glad .to welcome anything that might do good to the village, and thought it might be useful to try " optional " instruction in lace-making in the school, and -encourage it by payment on results. In the afternoon I went to Colyton, and I called at the chief lace-maker's. F., who had been in the business for fifty years, and more. He has a con- siderable stock of the commoner sort of lace, and I purchased a few specimens .at the cost of production {see 1). In past years, F. used to travel all over the kingdom with his specimens ; now he is too old. Few, if any, dealers travel now. He also keeps a very limited general store shop, and gets his lace in by bartering goods for it. He says that there may be now some 20 workers at Colyton. Formerly he used to employ 100 at a time. Many lace-makers now have taken up with putting bristles into handles for the brush manufactory at Axminster. Some few old women at Colyton earn 1*. or 2 s. a week a.t lace-making, ,and get out-door relief as well. ' 2nd June. Drove over to Branscombe, a small village down in a dell towards the shore, like Beer. G. keeps the grocer's and general store shcf> here, and deals in laces as well, chiefly of the commoner kind, though she had sprigs and small objects of fineish work and thread {see 2).* She finds a fairly ready sale for her lace. She gets it in from some thirty or forty- workers, * This Plate was not printed, but was deposited in the Library of the House of Commons. 124. 4 COPY OF EEPORT ON THE workers; she buys quantitiesof sprigs, which she arranges in different patterns, and joins together. There have been no new patterns lately. A few of the workers teach their children to make lace. "G." pricks the drawings for the workers, who, she says, are not, as a rule, at all " way wise " in pricking patterns. She is afraid that when she goes there will be no one to carry On the business. Her daughter does not care about it. I bought from her some specimens of various qualities of work and thread. "H." a second dealer in Branscomb, keeps no store shop, but deals only in lace. She says trade is very bad ; something is wanted to revive it. Formerly she employed 40 and 50 workers ; now scarcely half-a-dozen. The large dealers, she says, beat the workers' prices down as low as possible. Only a few weeks ago a traveller had some of her lace at 16.?. lid. a yard, and wrote to her to say the best offer he had had was 65. a yard for it. " H." gave me information as to the thread used. It is almost all made at Nottingham. The different sizes are identified by the number of skeins to the J oz. hank. The coarser are what are termed 6 and 8 " skip" (or skein). The finest "H.'s" workers use as a rule is 16 to 18 " skip." Ten years ago " H." would get rid of as much as 100^. worth of lace a week, whilst now 10?. worth a week is a good quantity. She complains that the industry stagnates for want of new and young hands. Children are kept at school, and learn to grow "proudlike, and above work." " I think," she said, "our country will " come to feel it some day, if they don't now, what with our children being " put to so much schooling, and not brought up as they used to be to a trade " or occupation." She hoped lace-making might be taught in schools ; but " then it would not be much use unless trade revived." I bought from her a small specimen of 12 to 14 skip thread lace (see 3).* Later, I called on Mr. Swanborough, the vicar, who would favour lace-making being taught in schools, as beneficial to the village. 3rd June. To Sidmouth, where I called upon " I." the principal lace dealer here. She does not, however, * supply the trade, but deals with private customers, preferring to produce as much as possible of the finer laces. She does not employ more than 10 or 12 workers now. She gets in lace worked by others who bring it to her. Three years or so ago, one of the best orders she had was for a flounce, at 50 guineas a yard. For this she used 22^ skip-thread. It took two years to make, and on its completion the workers had got into good training and organisation, so that had fresh orders for this class of work then come in they could have been well carried out. But if a similar flounce were now wanted it would take three years at least to make. The absence of regularity in employ- ment of the better hands necessarily tells upon the quality of such work when from time to time they may be called upon to produce it. " I.'s" experience is that it is only from private customers that orders for fine work are received. And the failure in a steady flow of such orders is chiefly due to public taste setting in the direction of effective laces at prices lower even than those paid for the Belgian and French hand-made laces. " I." has taken many prizes at the Bath and West of England Society's shows. Just at the present, she thinks there are slight symptoms of improved demand ; but she finds her own trade somewhat affected by the business, in commoner laces, done by a neighbouring linendraper. I bought from her specimens of work done in 12, 16, and 22^ skip-thread (see 4 and 5). I next called upon " J.," who has almost quite retired from the business with which she has been connected for over 45 years. She is sorry that foreign laces should command a sale to the exclusion of those made at home. Sixty years ago the state of the lace trade was almost as bad as it is now. It got an impetus by, Queen Adelaide's wedding dress being made at Honiton. "J.," however, has depended upon orders from wholesale merchants, and has rarely taken orders from private customers. She used to travel with her goods, and the larger firms were her best customers. In the early days of Schools of Design " J." " spent a ten pound note at Somerset House," but no good really came of it ; the students did not under- ■ stand * Tin's Plate was not printed, but was deposited in the Library of the House of Commons. HONITON LACE INDUSTEY. 5 stand the technical requirements of designing for the lace maker, and the delicately-painted white patterns were of no use to the worker. At Sidbury I called at " K.'s." She has now given up business in lace and only keeps a ^mall grocery and sweet shop. There used to be five or six lace schools here. Now, of course', there are none, and yet " K." thinks it would be a good thing if the children could be taught lace-making instead of leaving school " to beg in the street and learn themselves all sorts of wickedness because they don't know what else to do." The lace industry is the only industry here, and the 30 or 40 workers hardly have enough employment to gain their living. I saw one of the workers and bought from her two little bits of her work, of coarse thread {sec 6).* 4th June. I called upon Mrs. Fowler at Honiton. She is the successor to Mr. Davis (1), formerly lace-maker by appointment to the Queen. For the Jubilee celebration the lace-makers of Honiton are going to form a procession, and already over 100 have sent in their names for this purpose. Mrs. Fowler thinks there must be at least 150 in the town. None are under thirty years of age. No children are being taught. She thinks that not less than three hours a day's practical instruction would be effective in teaching the elder children in an elementary school to make lace, though two hours would do for the younger ones. As a rule thread from 12 to 18 " skip " is used at Honiton. The work made with coarser threads comes from the neighbourhood. Mrs. Fowler pricks all her patterns for the best work. She showed me a piece of lace which she is copying for a lady from a Brussels mixed pillow and needlepoint lace. She employs off and on some 70 workers ; fifteen years ago she kept 200 at work. Mrs. Fowler considers that a chief cause of the failure in the lace trade is connected with the unwillingness of people to believe that Honiton lace cannot be of patterns and quality different from, and superior to, those of a certain character. Laces of this certain character, commonly known as Honiton, do not fairly represent the capabilities of the industry; they are in small demand and not fashionable. But if new patterned lace made with finer thread is produced, the name Honiton seems to bar it from the market ; though if it be called by a foreign name it takes. Mrs. Fowler thinks this is unfair, and instanced how in 1871 the judges at an Agricultural show put aside a piece of lace 'she submitted, to which they would otherwise have given a prize, because they were con- vinced it could not have been made at Honiton. Mrs. Fowler says she offered to make the lace before the judges : they declined and would not be convinced. Some months after the exhibition was over she was offered a prize for the work, which she then, of course, refused. She has been lately engaged upon some lace, making it from a new design supplied by Mr. C. Peek, who ordered some lengths of it. I purchased some specimens of .work here of 12, 14 and 16 skip thread. {See 7.) . From Honiton I went to Ottery St. Mary's, and there saw " L." Twenty to fifteen years ago she used to employ 300 workpeople, but now cannot give regular employment to more than six, who live in Ottery St. Mary's. Villagers from the neighbourhood occasionally bring in work for her to buy. Forty years ago she kept a lace school with " as many as 50 children being taught lace-making at once." In those days the mother and children would earn as much as the husband; and, indeed, they would sometimes be kept hard at it "to indulge a drunken and lazy man." Now, however, for neither good nor bad can they earn anything from lace-making. The gentry in the district do a little for the industry by procuring orders for lace. Recently a lace dress was made here, or rather pai^s were made here, in 14 skip thread, for the Princess Beatrice {see 8).* " L." described the pattern as one with no " reality " in it, " nothing of sprigs and flowers." I bought a small specimen as well as a specimen in 12 skip from a "Flanders lace " copied by " L.'' {see 9).* She has had an order for some yards of this with variation^ made in it. On Monday 6th June, I went to Exeter en route to Exmouth, and again called at Mrs. Treadwin's, and had a considerable conversation with her. She is much averse to the purely literary training in Elementary Schools^ . and • This Plate was not printed, but was deposited in the Library of tha House of Commons. 124. B 6 COPY OF EEPOET OF THE and seems to look upon the establishment of technical schools, in which children will be taught lace-making, as a thing of the immediate future. She says good qualified lace teachers could be engaged at 12 s. a week. She, herself, cannot start a school for young children " as the law is against her." She looks upon the industry, which, nevertheless, is able to produce such fine work as that she showed me {see specimens in the South Kensington Museum), as dying and doomed, unless arrangements are made for some training of a young generation of lace-makers. She pays a fair rate of wages. Some of her youngest hands get 5 s. and 6 *. a week, wliilst the bes.t workers may earn from 2 *. to 2 *. 6 1 ^ n CD s p- w o ai :? 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