Anne Hook

The People

Anne Hook

← People of the Society · on record 1955–1978

The Society’s records

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

In memoriam · 1 November 1978 (reported January 1979)

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; 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. She studied with Reta Larmour before becoming a Fellow, and “gave many demonstrations both in Canada and the United States”. The 29th Annual Meeting programme (1979), reprinting the Council of Fellows' report for 1978, dates her death: "On November 1st... Everyone was greatly saddened by the news that Anne Hook had passed away that morning".

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. Her laminated leather box illustrated the Canadian Guild of Crafts' account of the CNE '74 juried craft show.

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; Fall 1967, page 9; and Canadian National Exhibition ’74.

Served the Society as

Executive Council 1956–1973
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, 1956, 1957, 1960, 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, 1970, 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

Design and Appraisal 1965
15th Annual
From Spring 1965.
Lino cuts 1976
26th Annual
From Summer 1976, page 6.

Where this comes from

Life and work

From her obituary in the Society's newsletter. Other lines come from the sources named under each.

Background: Born in Ireland, she lived in Canada from 1922.
From January 1979, page 7.
Study: 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.
From January 1979, page 7.
Teaching: She taught textile block printing in a Simcoe County Arts and Crafts Association course at St. George's Anglican Hall, Barrie (four Saturdays, Jan–Mar 1962); the notice describes her as a graduate in commercial art of Central Technical School, Toronto, a water-colour painter and well-known printmaker, and a Fellow of the Society.
From Barrie Examiner, 9 January 1962, p. 2, 'Plan Creative Craft ... Instructors', https://news.ourontario.ca/2919457/data.
Art: She worked in oil, watercolour and tempera as well as leather, and 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, and her work was represented in Hart House, the Edmonton Art Gallery, the University of Maine, the Windsor and London art galleries and the Melbourne Museum.
From January 1979, page 7.

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