Fashion trends affected the market for quality hand-made lace in the later 19th century. It became increasingly popular once again in the later 1880s, and it experienced a boom in the 1890s and 1900s, peaking between 1895 and 1905. Point de gaze needle lace was the most fashionable type, and fine pieces were made for exhibitions or special commissions.
This veil was worn by Roxana Atwater Wentworth (1854-1935), daughter of a former Chicago mayor, for her wedding to Clarence Winthrop Bowen (b.1852) on 28 January 1892. It was said by the family to have been exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago, U.S.A., in 1893.The veil was also worn by Roxana Wentworth Bowen, their daughter, when she married in 1917.