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Canadian Society for Creative Leathercraft
1950–2026
CSCL·People·People of the Society·Anne Hook
The Society’s Records

Anne Hook

← People of the Society · on record 1955–1978

Everything the Society’s own records say of Anne Hook — the offices held, the standings conferred, and the awards won — gathered on one page. Where the records are silent, so is this one.

In memoriam · 1 November 1978 (reported January 1979)

Born in Ireland and in Canada from 1922, and one of the Society's most decorated craftsmen: three times winner of the award for the most original entry at the C.N.E. with the Canadian Guild of Crafts, including Best in Show for her lidded jar in 1974; the Chatelaine Award of 1971; awards at the Western Fair in London and the Pacific National Exhibition in Vancouver; and three times winner of Best Functional Design in the Society's biennial Exhibition, the last of them at Leather '78, where she also took the Ontario Crafts Council award for the most outstanding piece in the show. Largely self-taught, though guided by the art staff of Central Technical School in Toronto and helped by the public libraries, she held scholarships from London, the United States and Toronto, and worked in oil, watercolour, tempera and leather as well as in lino-cut, woodcut, serigraph, etching, aquatint, lithograph, drypoint and impasto relief; her nine-block lino-cut “Gentian” was the 1960 Presentation Print of the Canadian Painter-Etchers and Engravers. She was represented in Hart House, the Edmonton Art Gallery, the University of Maine, the Windsor and London art galleries and the Melbourne Museum. She became a Fellow of the Society in 1958 after studying with Reta Larmour, was elected Chairman of the Council of Fellows in 1974, and “gave many demonstrations both in Canada and the United States”. Her obituary fills a page of the January 1979 newsletter, headed “ANNE HOOK — IN MEMORIUM” (the newsletter's own spelling); The 29th Annual Meeting programme (1979), reprinting the Council of Fellows' report for 1978, gives the precise date: "On November 1st... Everyone was greatly saddened by the news that Anne Hook had passed away that morning" — confirming and dating the death the January 1979 obituary itself left unstated. The archive files it under the year of the notice.

From January 1979, page 7.

Also recorded as Ann Hook

Branch

Toronto · recorded in the papers in 1971

Certification

  • Associate of the CSCL 1956
  • Fellow of the CSCL 1958
    The election notice prints the town as “Toronto, Ont.”.

An early member of the Society, remembered among its legendary figures of the 1970s. Dr Larmour photographed her work repeatedly, among it a handbag in 1954, small purses, a coaster set, a trillium tray and moulded trays. A slide of 1955 has her at Timmins with Jim McClung and Don MacKinnon. Three of her pieces were chosen for “Ontario Crafts – Leather Today”, the Society’s Centennial travelling exhibition: a large framed cowhide purse, a gavel and anvil and an oblong tray with rolled edges. The Canadian Guild of Crafts (Ontario) selected the articles; the exhibition opened at the Guild Shop on 2 October 1967 and was to travel across Canada during 1968. She showed four pieces at Leather '74, the Society's exhibition at the Toronto Public Libraries' Learning Resources Centre, 666 Eglinton Avenue West, Toronto, 3-28 June 1974; four pieces in the Society's exhibition at the Craft Gallery and Resource Centre of the Ontario Crafts Council, 346 Dundas Street West, Toronto, 2-28 March 1976; and three pieces at Leather '78, the Society's exhibition at the Etobicoke Civic Centre, 550 Burnhamthorpe Road, November 1978.

From Winter 2005–2006, page 2; Leather ’74 — exhibition catalogue, Toronto Public Libraries, page 5; Exhibition catalogue 1976 — Craft Gallery of the Ontario Crafts Council, Toronto, page 5; Leather ’78 — exhibition catalogue, Etobicoke Civic Centre, page 5; The Larmour Library slide index and Librarian's Report, 1989; and Fall 1967, page 9.

Served the Society as

  • Executive Council 1956–1973
  • Executive Council Member 1956–1957
  • Publicity 1958
  • Members at Large 1959
  • Council 1960–1978
  • 10th Assembly Committee - Demonstrations 1964
  • Council of Fellows Secretary 1972
  • Chairman, Council of Fellows 1974–1976
  • Chairman of the Council of Fellows 1975
  • Library Committee 1975–1977
  • World Crafts Council Delegate 1976
  • Council of Fellows Chair 1977

Awards

  • Best Leather Entry 1974
  • C.N.E. Class 221, Any carved leather article, original design — 2nd 1961
  • Canadian Handicrafts Guild Competition 1958
  • Canadian Handicrafts Guild Competition First Prize 1955–1962
  • Canadian Handicrafts Guild Competition Honourable Mention 1956
  • Canadian Handicrafts Guild Competition Second Prize 1959
  • Canadian National Exhibition Best Functional Design (C.S.C.L.) 1970
  • Canadian National Exhibition Leathercraft Prize (Women's Division) 1971
  • Canadian National Exhibition Second Prize 1970
  • Chatelaine Award 1971
  • Craftsman Ribbon 1967–1978
  • International Assembly Craftsmanship Ribbon 1963
  • International Assembly Salon Exhibit 1961
  • International Assembly Salon Ribbon 1963
  • Leather '74 Award 1974
  • Leather '76 Award 1976
  • Leather '76 Craftsman Award 1976
  • Leather '78 Award 1978
  • Leather '78 Honourable Mention 1978
  • Ontario Souvenir and Handcraft Competition Idea 1963
  • Pacific National Exhibition Honourable Mention 1964
  • Salon Award 1970
  • Salon Ribbon 1978
  • Western Fair 1st Prize 1973
  • Western Fair First Prize 1974
  • Western Fair Honourable Mention 1976

Demonstrations given

Where this comes from

This name in the index of people →