DOI Heft:
No. 336 (March 1921)
DOI Artikel:Studio-talk
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21392#0133
HILDA GRJFFIN
STUDIO-TALK
France as Point d'lrlande, is concerned,
has practically a monopoly of this branch
of the trade. Ireland has always remained
faithful to the handmade article which has
ever been a woman's trade, and was,
indeed, first known as " nun's work,"
convents being the usual centres of the
industry, as is still the case in Ireland, a
The industry seems to have owed its
origin and success always to individual
effort, and this was especially the case in
the black famine years of 1846-48, when
lace-making took a real hold in Ireland.
Nowherejperhaps was the distress of the
peasantry more deeply realised than in the
bookplate Presentation Convent at Youghal, where
the Reverend Mother, Mary Magdalen
Gould, had already exhausted all her re-
by m. power
native has covered with thin leather of a
crimson colour and decorated with flat
interlaced strips of another colour. Work
such as this prompts the question whether
after all it would not be better to foster
and develop the handicrafts for which they
show a marked aptitude rather than en-
deavour to transplant and acclimatise a
type of art which is utterly alien to native
traditions. Native races throughout the
world have most of them an art of their
own which is organically related to their
mode of life, but unfortunately contact
with so-called " advanced" civilisation
is year by year making this art a mere
relic of the past. 0000
BELFAST.—Two very fine examples of
Irish lace are reproduced on page 119,
both of them being from the collection of
Messrs. Robinson & Cleaver of this city,
and it may be of interest to enumerate
briefly the chief facts in connection with
the industry and the various kinds that are
made. The term " Irish lace " is somewhat
of a misnomer, inasmuch as there
never was anything of the kind native to
the country, all Irish laces being copies of
continental originals introduced into
Ireland at a comparatively recent date.
Nevertheless, the peasant women have
shown such an aptitude for this class of
work that Ireland now ranks with France,
Belgium and England as one of the princi-
pal lace producing countries of Europe,
and, as far as Irish crochet, known in m. power
117
STUDIO-TALK
France as Point d'lrlande, is concerned,
has practically a monopoly of this branch
of the trade. Ireland has always remained
faithful to the handmade article which has
ever been a woman's trade, and was,
indeed, first known as " nun's work,"
convents being the usual centres of the
industry, as is still the case in Ireland, a
The industry seems to have owed its
origin and success always to individual
effort, and this was especially the case in
the black famine years of 1846-48, when
lace-making took a real hold in Ireland.
Nowherejperhaps was the distress of the
peasantry more deeply realised than in the
bookplate Presentation Convent at Youghal, where
the Reverend Mother, Mary Magdalen
Gould, had already exhausted all her re-
by m. power
native has covered with thin leather of a
crimson colour and decorated with flat
interlaced strips of another colour. Work
such as this prompts the question whether
after all it would not be better to foster
and develop the handicrafts for which they
show a marked aptitude rather than en-
deavour to transplant and acclimatise a
type of art which is utterly alien to native
traditions. Native races throughout the
world have most of them an art of their
own which is organically related to their
mode of life, but unfortunately contact
with so-called " advanced" civilisation
is year by year making this art a mere
relic of the past. 0000
BELFAST.—Two very fine examples of
Irish lace are reproduced on page 119,
both of them being from the collection of
Messrs. Robinson & Cleaver of this city,
and it may be of interest to enumerate
briefly the chief facts in connection with
the industry and the various kinds that are
made. The term " Irish lace " is somewhat
of a misnomer, inasmuch as there
never was anything of the kind native to
the country, all Irish laces being copies of
continental originals introduced into
Ireland at a comparatively recent date.
Nevertheless, the peasant women have
shown such an aptitude for this class of
work that Ireland now ranks with France,
Belgium and England as one of the princi-
pal lace producing countries of Europe,
and, as far as Irish crochet, known in m. power
117