CORONATION PALL

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 54, Issue 3899, 10 May 1937, Page 10 (Supplement)

CORONATION PALL

ROMANTIC TASK. CLOTIj COSTING £l4 A YARD. Thirty-five of the world’s finest needlewomen have for weeks past been engaged upon a romantic task — the fashioning of the Coronation pall, which will be held over the King and Queen during the anointing ceremony at the Coronation on Wednesday. Cloth of gold, costing £l4 a yard, will be used to make the pall—or canopy, as it is sometimes called. The needle women were chosen by Lady Smith-Dorrien, principal of the Royal School of Needlework. They are all regular workers at the school, the most famous of its kind in Great Britain. The Queen herself is its president. Besides working the Royal pall, the needlewomen worked on the King’s Coronation robe —which was made at the school in 1902 for King. Edward VII. They also embroidered the Queen’s dress and train. The King’s robe is of cloth of gold, embroidered all over with emblems of the British Isles —red Tudor roses, green shamrocks, purple thistles and silver eagles. Inch by inch the robe was gone over by these expert craftswomen. Loose threads were fastened down and. worn embroidery reworked. PURE CLOTH OF GOLD. The golden pall was made entirely at the school. When I visited the workrooms there 1 ’was shown half a dozen girls and older women working on the silver eagles which were appliqued on to the pall border. There are 18 of these eagles round the edge. Two samples of cloth of gold, from which the pall was made, were inspected. One of the samples is pure cloth of gold, and is priced at £l4 a yard. The canopy is lined with rich white satin, and supported at each corner by four slender silver poles made by a famous court jeweller. The whole pall is edged with silver tassels. One of the women also helped to make the pall which was used at King Edward VIPs Coronation. She is Miss H. Girdlestone. “I came here in 1902 especially to help make the canopy, and I have remained at the school ever since,” she explained, as her needle flashed in and out of the silver cloth from which she was fashioning one of the eagles. “I have been very happy here, and I am thrilled to think that I am now helping in the preparations for another Coronation.”