The Gentle Arts

200 years of Australian women's domestic & decorative arts

by Jennifer Isaacs

Ure Smith Press, 1991, full-colour photographs throughout, oversized hardcover, dustjacket, ISBN 0725408391

Very Good Condition, minor edge and shelf wear, dustjacket has little edge and shelf wear with minor chips and creasing

'... a celebration of women's art works over the past 200 years.  Much of this art has been 'hidden' from general view because it was done for the family.  So only friends and visitors saw the beautiful embroidery, lace, clothing adn home embellishments that women have made.  For that reason it has been undervalued and not thought of as 'art' at all.
The material comes from all over Australia, the work of hundreds of grandmothers, great-grandmothers and great-great-grandmothers.  Much of it comes from families who responded to a national advertising campaign asking to see their hidden 'treasures', and this is the first time that it has been shown publicly.  It includes needlework, woodwork and metalwork done for the home and family, religious are, works done be women during the wars, commemorative works such as banners and work made for exhibition at country shows - including spectacular preserved fruits and jellies.'