Description

Extended Data

DAAO URL

https://www.daao.org.au/bio/dorothy-elspeth-wilson

Birth Place

Newtown, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Biography

bookbinder, was born in Sydney and raised in the family home, Duncraggan, Raglan Street, Mosman. She was educated at Fort Street Girls High School, Sydney. On 9 August 1906 Dorothy invited six decorative artists to Duncraggan to discuss their crafts and provide a forum of friendly criticism for their work. At the meeting it was decided to form the Society of Arts and Crafts of NSW and office bearers and rules were chosen. Miss Wilson was elected Honorary Secretary (with Mrs Danvers Power President). A week later, the first discussion of members’ work occurred at Duncraggan and meetings of this kind have been regularly held ever since. By 1907 the Society was meeting in the (more central) studio of Suzanne Gether in King Street, Sydney, where the first display of members’ work was held in March. By July it was decided that in order to maintain a high standard of work, a selection committee was needed; Dorothy Wilson was elected an inaugural member. At the First Annual Exhibition, held on 30 August 1907, Dorothy was awarded first and second prizes for her bookbinding. Most of the exhibits had been prepared for the Women’s Work Exhibition at Melbourne, to open in the Exhibition Building in October. At this major event Dorothy Wilson won nine prizes in the artistic bookbinding categories. Prior to the opening in Melbourne, the NSW work was exhibited at the Royal Agricultural Society’s Grounds in Moore Park, Sydney. Dorothy was the only book-binder to have a range of her decorative bindings illustrated in the special section of the Sydney Mail on 11 September 1907, although five women were listed in the article as having shown 'hand-bound books, which, as volumes de luxe, would be welcomed in any artistic home’. Three were members of the Society of Arts and Crafts of NSW. At the first annual meeting in March 1908, Dorothy Wilson was re-elected Honorary Secretary. Then the minutes of July 1908 record that, due to her approaching marriage, she had tendered her resignation from the Society. The minutes later record an informal meeting at the Women’s Patriotic Club on 8 December to farewell Dorothy, now Mrs Richard Wardill, prior to her departure for Melbourne. Fortunately, marriage did not prevent her from participating in the annual exhibition of the Arts and Crafts Society of Victoria in December 1908. She submitted a volume of Rossetti’s poems with a vellum binding she had designed with Ethel A. Stephens , first Vice-President of the NSW Arts and Crafts Society, and Stephens executed the painted finish on the book. The catalogue of the exhibition notes that the volume was for sale at the considerable sum of four guineas. One year after her triumph at the First Australian Women’s Work Exhibition in Melbourne, Dorothy Wilson produced a beautiful en relief leather binding for an album presented to the visiting Canadian-American actress Margaret Anglin (Hordern House Rare Books). In crafting this memento Wilson demonstrated her mastery of the art nouveau style. The sinuous organic lines flowing over the cover are combined with the freshness of the native flannel flower to produce a strongly nationalistic Australian arts and crafts design. Every element in the work contributes to the overall design concept: the decorative handmade endpapers, the gilt edges, the maker’s signature in blind on the back endpapers, and the initials 'DEW’ subtly worked in amongst the stems on the front cover. Her skill and artistry as a bookbinder are not only evident the high quality relief work but also in the finely tooled dedication, decorated edges, and raised bands on the spine. It was not Wilson’s first experiment with free-style relief. This example resembles one of her pieces in the 1907 Women’s Work Exhibition, which also used the flannel flower motif to great effect. Indeed, perhaps it was the recognition she received for her work in 1907 that led to this commission. The album was presented to Margaret Anglin in Sydney as 'an affectionate remembrance’ by one 'A.T.’ during her six-month season with J.C. Williamson in 1908. Anglin was raised in Canada and had trained as a dramatic actress in New York. By the time of her visit to Australia, aged thirty-two, she had starred in a great number and variety of major productions, including Mrs Dane’s Defence , Diplomacy , The Importance of Being Earnest , The Devil’s Disciple and Camille . Internationally acclaimed as one of the finest dramatic actresses of her day, her arrival in Sydney aboard the Acrangi was reported with fawning excitement in the press, the smitten Sydney Morning Herald reporter rhapsodising about her 'fine dark eyes, aquiline nose, [and] masses of nut-brown hair’. Her presence caused quite a stir in Sydney’s social circles too; a welcoming party held for her by the Williamsons at their home, Tudor, on the harbour at Elizabeth Bay, was one of the occasions of the year. Anglin starred in a number of Williamson productions, appearing as Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew , Viola in Twelfth Night and Marise Voysin in Bernstein’s The Thief . By all accounts local audiences were rapturous in their response to this substantial visit by an international star. The night before she sailed for Europe in the Mongolia on 19 December, the Herald reported that she 'thrilled and fascinated her audience’ at the Theatre Royal and, after countless recalls, gave a warm and rousing farewell speech to a packed house of adoring fans. The Wilson bound scrapbook, never used, remained in her possession until she died in 1958. After her marriage to Richard Wardill, Captain of the Melbourne Football Team, Dorothy continued her bookbinding activities in a very limited way from 'the bindery’, i.e. the attic of her home in Dudley Street, Brighton. Often, however, as a mother of three, her considerable talents were lent to more prosaic tasks such as making the children’s school bags. Writers: Carlson, Adrienne Date written: 1995 Last updated: 2011

Born

b. c.1878

Summary

Dorothy Elspeth Wilson (Mrs Richard Wardill) was a very talented bookbinder. In 1906 she invited a group of six decorative artists and together they decided to form the Society of Arts and Crafts of NSW. Wilson was elected its Honorary Secretary.

Gender

Female

Died

1954

Age at death

76