Jennifer Isaacs The Gentle Arts Australian Women's Domestic Arts Hardcover 1997 GD

This book is really a celebration of the art of 'making. It celebrates women's domestic arts made for the family in the home whether they be d'oyleys, tablecloths, bedspreads, jellies, jams or birthday cakes. It has been a joy to research, find and photograph the five hundred or works included here.

The search began with a widely publicised notice in country newspapers and city municipal papers notifying women that the Australian Bicentenary provided an occasion which to research and publish a pictorial account of the handwork of Australian women. The response to this was an avalanche of photographs, memor abilia and letters recounting family legends such as a great win in the 1907 Australian Women's Exhibition in Melbourne or the successes of relatives who won country shows with their jams and jellies who made floral arrangements in wool or wax It was clear that almost accidentally we had exposed the tip of an iceberg of women's creativity in Australia

hitherto ignored. Even if contemporary women have, to some extent, thrown off their traditional role in the home, it seems they nevertheless take great pride in their female heritage within the family. They display with love and awe the extraordinary handwork of previous generations their mother's 1930s fancywork d'oyleys, their grandmother's filet crochet or World War 1 mementoes and their great-grandmother's tapestries embroideries from the 19th century.

Compiling this book became, as well, an excursion into my own family history exploring the handwork of previous generations kept by my mother and grandmother in bottom drawers, often assuming that no one but themselves was interested anymore. The search extended to the families of all the women involved with the book and great treasures emerged.

Because women, traditionally, devoted all their creative energies to the family, the home and the garden, most of the objects they made were hidden seen only by their family or friends and visitors. The history of Australian women's domestic and decorative arts is therefore largely unknown. As a result it has seemed of little value. Certainly, any surveys of women in the 'fine arts' have concentrated largely on painters who achieved reputations after the turn of the 20th century. No craft surveys fully explore the work done within the home most concentrate on professional 'studio work' commencing with the onset of the arts and crafts movement and continuing into the subsidised craft development of the last two decades.

Similarly, most Australian histories have shown little real examination of women's role within the family; discussing instead their political history, educational and legal battles. By extension, inadvertently perhaps, all things which might be called domestic in origin or function have been severely undervalued in the larger history of the development of Australian arts. This is by no means confined to Australia, but the time has come to change this historical omission.

Women's interest in domestic arts overrides social background and class. Mention the work of a grandmother and the bottom drawers would open CWA members, participants in the homecrafts section of the annual agricultural shows, feminist theor- eticians or contemporary crafts practitioners all reacted similarly their gaze would soften and with great pride the treasures would be produced. Each person hoped that they would, at last, be able to expose for public praise and recognition the art works, handmade with love by women within their own family.

The largest group of items photographed were probably made between 1880 and 1940. Most of the work in the book has a provenance mainly because we chose to work through families and through family histories of objects rather than to select more spectacular anonymous items in collectors' hands. It is extremely difficult to accurately date women's domestic art work, including lace and embroidery, as so few research tools are available. Therefore, the pieces in this book are those which families remember their relatives making; it is far easier, of course, to give an Australian provenance if the motifs themselves are indigenous.

At the turn of the 20th century, a Melbourne newspaper called crochet 'the scullion wench of the needle arts'. To try to overcome this handicap Mrs. Edwin Field invented a new form of crochet which imitated lace and, in doing so, 'hoped to raise the lowly crochet above its station'. In presenting this pictorial survey of women's domestic and decorative arts over the last 200 years I hope that they might be raised from 'the scullion wenches' that they were, to take their place as important and valuable components of the social and creative history of Australia.