Thiruvananthapuram: Aficionados of history fondly recall the century-old textile items which include the intricate French lacework exhibited at the British Empire Exhibition held at the Wembley Stadium in London, UK in 1924. The 100-year-old textile items will be put on display at the Napier Museum, Thiruvananthapuram from Tuesday onwards coinciding with the World Heritage Week celebrations.
The British Empire Exhibition was a colonial exhibition held at Wembley Park, London, from 23rd April to November 1st 1924. The British government organized the British Empire Exhibition, which was inaugurated by King George V. Old documents pertaining to the exhibition which is currently with the Napier Museum reveal that the popular exhibition had attracted 25 million visitors. P S Manjula Devi, director, of Thiruvananthapuram Museum and Zoo, told TNIE that the textile items which include intricate lace were put on display at the Napier Museum.
“Coinciding with the World Heritage Week celebrations we decided to hold the exhibition at Napier Museum as we understood that there are lots of art aficionados who are keen to see works on gold embroidery and lace which are a century old. But it has been interesting to note that the lace works look as good as new even after 100 years”, said Manjula Devi.
The lace from South Kerala was referred to as Travancore lace. It was initially started as a cottage industry among the Christian fisherwomen in South Travancore.
Manjula Devi added that the Travancore lace gained a wide reputation and won medals at various exhibitions held in Europe. The Wembley Exhibition Medal was struck to commemorate the 1924 British Empire Exhibition. If one side of the medal had King George V the reverse had the iconic image of the roaring Wembley Lion with the towers of Wembley in the background with "British Wembley Exhibition 1924"