Irish Lacemaking: Art, Industry and Cultural Practice (Critical Craft Studies)

Following the career of the Irish lace designer and inspector Emily Anderson (1856-1948), this book traces a network of designers, makers, organizations and institutions involved in the late-19th and early-20th-century Irish lace industry and explores their contemporary relevance.Molly-Claire Gillett maps the Irish lace industry’s connection to stakeholders such as the British Department of Science and Art, the Cork School of Art, The Irish Agricultural Organisation Society and the Irish Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, pairing a close study of patterns and techniques with an investigation of broader issues in design education, philanthropy and women’s professionalization.Concluding with a consideration of contemporary Irish lacemaking - now proudly claimed as an element of Ireland’s intangible cultural heritage - Gillett tells the story of a 20th-century shift in the conception of lace design as ‘art for industry’, and lacemaking as an economic necessity to both pr