Studio: international art (72.1918)

Irish Arts and Crafts

chasuble' of white poplin, embroidered

DESIGNED BY JOHN LEES
EXECUTED BY EGAN AND
SONS

tasks, and securing that the cause should
not suffer avoidably through lack of funds.
It is satisfactory to know that the Earl of Mayo
considers that he has now gathered about
him in the Society a body which enables
him to feel the future is secured, and the So-
ciety’s achievements having received generous
recognition from the Department of Technical
Instruction for Ireland, some further useful
co-operation may yet be developed. This
exhibition has been organized with the Depart-
ment’s aid, and held in conjunction with one
of the Department’s own, which shows the work
of the craftsmen of the future in their training
at the Art Schools under the Department.

Thus, in a few lines, has the revival of Arts
and Crafts been brought about in a relatively
poor country and by the effort chiefly of one
man, who is not himself a craftsman. The
revival has responded therefore to influences
differing far from those that shaped the English
Arts and Crafts. The “ call ” in Ireland has
not been one for followers, and has not come from
creative masters. Herein lies the secret of
certain differences of character in the arts that

people of Ireland with the
qualities of true crafts-
manship and, what is still
more important, aroused
a sense of what they them-
selves might achieve.

No attempt can be made
to trace here in detail the
varied efforts of the So-
ciety for the guidance and
development of Irish ap-
plied arts since that time.

This, the Society’s fifth
exhibition, however, de-
monstrates what has been
so far achieved, and this
achievement has been due
to the continuous untiring
personal effort of the pre-
sident, who for these
many years has sustained
and guided the work of
the Society, taking the
large share of the most
arduous and difficult

WHITE EMBROIDERY. DESIGNED BY SAMUEL R. BOLTON
WORKED BY MARY WOODS

Ti6