Miss Herbert, English Lace Manufacturer To The Queen, 5 Cathedral Yard, Exeter, 20th Century

This c.1911 trade card advertises the lace-making business of Miss Herbert, "English Lace Manufacturer to the Queen" and "successor to Mrs. Treadwin." Her premises were at No.5 Cathedral Yard (now Cathedral Close), next door to the Devon & Exeter Institution.

As this card indicates, Miss Herbert took over the business from Charlotte Treadwin in 1891, after serving as her assistant for some years. Charlotte Elizabeth Treadwin (née Dobbs), (1820-1890), had established a strong reputation for quality lacemaking. She was awarded a Royal warrant in 1848, after being commissioned to make a lace-bordered handkerchief for Queen Victoria. Treadwin was considered an expert in Honiton Lace, a type of Devonshire-based bobbin lace typically featuring ornate patterns of scrolls and flowers, a style the Queen had previously worn in her wedding veil, in 1840. In 1851, Treadwin won a medal at The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, London, for articles of Honiton lace, and in 1855 she began to cultivate a name for herself on the continent, after achieving another medal at the Exhibition Universalle, Paris. In 1859 she travelled again to Paris to engage assistants for her Exeter workshop, and made sure to stock the latest French lingerie for sale. As well as ensuring she was on the cutting edge of the latest fashions, Treadwin also restored antique lace, and completed a guide on this subject, "Antique Point and Honiton Lace" which contained instructions for 'Making, Transferring, Mending, and Cleaning laces of every description', in 1873.

After Charlotte Treadwin moved her premises from 27 Cathedral Yard to 5 Cathedral Close in 1868, Miss Ellen Herbert (d.1929), who had been in Treadwin’s employ since the age of thirteen, began to work as a supervisor of all the assistants on the premises. Following Charlotte Treadwin’s death in December 1890, Miss Herbert took charge of the business, and received the Royal Warrant in August 1891. Herbert continued to visit Queen Victoria with samples of lace, and in 1922 Princess Mary accepted a wedding gift of lace from the Exeter workshop. Miss Herbert also systematically collected and stitched examples of lace, some by Charlotte Treadwin, and some antique samples, into a dedicated lacework album, providing a significant document of Honiton lacemaking traditions and practices. Upon her death in 1929, the album was left to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum: Object 40/1929/1 . An example of Herbert's own lacework can be seen here: Object 40/1929/15/2

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