ORIGINAL DEERFIELD WORKERS SHOW SKILL AT CRAFTS.
Annual Exhibit of Work Famous All Over the Country-The Paintings.
The annual exhibition at old Deerfield is to be held during the first, second
and third of July and will be of interest to all visitors. The picture show
in the barn on the Albany road has a larger number of contributions than ever
before and a wider variety of work will be exhibited. The entire list of artists
represented is as follows: G. S. Fuller, R. C. Tuttle, Ethelbert Brown, E. Miller,
W. S. Adams, A. V. Tack, Lucia Fairchild Fuller, W. O. Swett, W. Hutchins, E.
Kingsley, M. C. Whiting, A. Balch, Louis Orr and Richard Black. The last two
will show some recent etchings of Deerfield subjects.
At the barn also will be displayed the always beautiful jewelry of Mrs. Wynne
and Miss Putnam.
The blue and white embroidery will have their usual notable display. A feature
will be some large pieces in a bedroom set for a Kentucky country house, with
bed spread and window curtains. One set of embroidery is done on some very thick
and beautiful homespun linen from France. There will be a number of interesting
color prints. In these the design is applied in the form of a mordant. The whole
cloth is then dyed, and only that part which has the mordant holds the color,
which forms the design, the rest of the piece being the color of the dye first
applied. The society is continuing the cross stitch pieces that were much admired
last year. Among their designs in this style are the "tulip garden,"
"court yard," "mulberry bush," "sedan chair,"
and vine and fig tree".
The makers of palm, reed, pine needle, and willow work will show considerably
over 1000 baskets this year. Their colorings are exceedingly beautiful and the
workmanship is perfect. One of the features of the willow baskets, is the leaving
of an open space at the rims for a handle. There are half a dozen new workers
on these baskets which have a very large sale.
For a few years there has not been any wood carving. This year Charles Franklin,
brother-in-law of Dr. Thorne, who formerly lived in Deerfield but is now of
Jamestown, N.Y., will have a handsome carved hand made bridal chest.
The showing of raffia baskets is to be unusually fine. Mrs. Ashley will have
what is probably the handsomest basket she ever made. It shows a landscape with
avenue of trees, river, meadows, etc. Mrs. Ashley also has a basket of particularly
harmonious color after a Japanese print, showing the outline of waves and surf.
Mrs. E. Jane Hawks is one of the best basket makers, and has a quite distinctive
stitch of her own. It is curious coincidence that Mrs. Cooley and Mrs. Belden
brought in two very handsome baskets of just the same design, but a little different
color. Neither knew the other was working on this design. Mrs. Ashley has something
of a novelty in grass baskets of square form. Mrs. E. C. Cowles has some very
nice table mats. Miss Natalie Ashley is very successful with grass baskets.
The work on these raffia baskets has reached a point of the most remarkable
excellence both in design and in fineness of execution of the stitches.
Mrs. E. Jane Hawkes is to have a novelty in the form of some all linen table
covers and other articles. It has often been thought that it was necessary to
have a cotton warp in linen weaving, but Mrs. Hawkes interesting work demonstrates
the contrary. She also has sofa cushions, bed spreads, etc. Mrs. Hawkes is using
some Kentucky home spun wool to add a note of color to some of her work. She
has table covers with hand woven figures. Few workers have developed the weaving
of linen as far as she has.
Mrs. David Henry is a worker along very original lines in the craft of netting.
She reproduces old styles of work in all their quaintness and freedom from modern
over elaboration. She has made an exhaustive study of the methods of dressing
the old-fashioned high poster beds, for which there is now something of a fad,
and also the copying of the old designs in many of these lines. She uses a cloth
for her spreads that is an exact copy of the old hand made dimity of 100 years
ago. This is not in the market, but is made especially for her in a Holyoke
mill. Then she uses for the decoration of this material a warp yarn that used
to be known as candle wicking, the stitches being copies of those made generations
ago. Mrs. Henry's work goes all over the country. She made 500 yards of fringes
for one woman alone. One of her old tidy patterns she calls the Deerfield pattern.
It was used by Mrs. Preserved Smith, and was copied by Mrs. Henry from a specimen
owned by Mrs. Mary P. Wells Smith. Mrs. Henry paid two women $50 to do the work
on one spread alone. She also makes bureau scarfs, pincushions, old-fashioned
handkerchief pockets, etc. In her netting she uses many famous old stitches.
The Deerfield rugs this year are as attractive as ever. For summer use the
indigo blue with white warp are very popular, as they have a cool appearance.
There are some interesting hand woven bureau covers in a Swedish pattern by
Miss Lathrop, also covers in white by Mrs. Caleb Allen. The range of the crafts
work is constantly broadening and many others besides those mentioned are doing
original work.
Admission to the Deerfield Industries is free, but a charge of 25 cents is
made for the admission to the barn with the paintings and the jewelry, which
fee includes also the blue and white embroidery shown at the Misses Millers'.
The Allens will show their many beautiful photographs.
The information bureau is at the rest room at Mrs. Lamb's house.
A private view of the exhibits will be given the convention delegates Monday
and Tuesday, and some of the crafts work will be open for general inspection
at that time. | 
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