Preston Guild Collectables - 1922
for pictures of 1922 collectables, see the 1922 album
There seem to have been many commemorative items to have survived from the 1922 Guild.
1922 was a period of decline for Preston, and indeed for most of Lancashire. The Great War had finished only 4 years previously, and cotton mills were closing in Preston as mills opened in Japan and India, where labour costs were cheaper. 1922 was the last Guild in which the cotton trade was at the forefront, and there were many floats to "King Cotton." This was reflected in the popular choice of Mayor, Henry Astley-Bell, an Accrington born man and company director in the cotton trade. The image of him and his wife, Mabel, looking replendent in their robes and chains of office, adorn many pieces of 1922 commemorative ware. He "had lived among the people of Preston, worked among them and prospered among them."
The 1920's was the era of the flapper girl. Women were out of their restricting corsets and into short skirts and wearing their hair short. The dancing craze meant that at this Guild there were less concerts at which people sit and watch others perform, and more balls where people could dance.
The rosebowl below is a rare 1922 piece.
