ENGLISH NEEDLEWORK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21807, 23 May 1934, Page 4

ENGLISH NEEDLEWORK

A VALUABLE COLLECTION A collection of needlework insured for nearly £IO,OOO was shown in a Royal residence in London. The exhibition. "English Needlework: Past and Present," was by permission of Lord Carnegie and Lady Maud Carnegie, at 15 Portman Square, for many years the homo of the late Princess Royal and her daughters— Princess Arthur of Connaught and Lady Maud Carnegie. It was in aid of the Artists' General Benevolent Institution. The high insurance which covered tho entire exhibition scarcely indicated the historic and romantic value of even one or two pieces in tho antique section. There was, for instance, an exquisitely embroidered chasuble of preReformation period, which for more than 200 years lay buried in the ground. The story is that in the middle of Queen Elizabeth's reign a member of a Roman Catholic family, who had been collecting Church vestments and vessels to preserve them from the Reformers, buried the chasuble, with other objects, in a lead-lined box in Gloucestershire. He left behind a document giving the site and directions for unearthing tho treasure, which was dug up in the middle of last century. Another priceless piece was a Tudor embroidered coat which was worn by one John Carter, one of the group of men who signed the death warrant of Charles I. '