ANTIQUES AND CURIOS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 13 September 1927, Page 9

ANTIQUES AND CURIOS.

ST. MARY-S FLOWER SHOW. The exhibition of antiques and curio,s at the St. Mairy’s Flower Show and Children’s Pageant to-morrow and Thursday will be a great attraction. Nothing of the kind has been attempted in Hawera since; the Hawiara Exhibition. Owing to the generosity of a great number of Taranaki residents, many rare and beautiful articles have been received, -g The needlework section will hold special interest for those who love this ancient art. Perhaps the most interesting (example is a large bed-spread, the unfinished work of_ a lifetime. _ It was begun in its maker’s early childhood and consists of thousands of silk hexagons wrought into patterns. thinks of the patient work and romance of it all. Through childhood, youth, middle life and old age the work progressed until at last the busy fingers were still. Beside the bedspread are curtains worked generations ago by an entire household. Not only did the ladies of the family help to fashion them, but the maids also were assigned their portions. There is a patchwork table cover made l>y the tailor of the 57th Regiment during the Maori War from the vari-coloured uniforms of the Imperial and colonial troops. A picture of St. Martin of Tours exquisitely broidered on silk was the work of a little maid in a Yorkshire Convent nearlv a century and a half <ago. Paisley shawls, cross-stitch embroidery and tapestries are in this interesting section. Almost the tears come to the eyes when one handles the little l christening robe of 1740. There is a, complete set of doll’s clothes, and one learns that the doll’s name was Fanny and had real curls growing out of her waxen head. Each garment has. the monogram of the little owner worked in scarlet, very small, and the stiff .silk dress is ns fresh ns when it graced Fanny sixty years ago. Old pictures, books and china, reading glasses, candle snuffers and candlesticks are there. One wishes, in vain, that two silver-mounted rods of ivory could speak. They have seen history made, for th/'iv are the drumsticks of a regimental master drummer, and were used on service in the Crimea and probably many another campaign. Ihe drummers have long since answered tine last “Reveille.” _ These are only a few of the treasures, but what romance, what history, is represented there