Honiton museum curator Margaret Lewis
Published:
12:00 PM May 8, 2021
This banner screen was made by Miss Ann Ward for the Bath and West of England Agricultural Society Honiton lace competition in June 1871
- Credit: Honiton Museum
This banner screen was made by Miss Ann Ward for the Bath and West of England Agricultural Society Honiton lace competition in June 1871.
She was not awarded a prize because the gentlemen judges from South Kensington did not believe that the lace had been made in England owing to its high quality.
Ann offered to make another in front of the judges.
Later, the prize was sent to her, but she refused to accept it and sent it back. At the end of June that year the banner screen and other examples of Ann’s Honiton lace were exhibited at the Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter.