Dora de Pedery Hunt

Not a member of the Society. The Winter 1961 newsletter reports a seminar she gave to the Society's Associates and Fellows the previous spring.

A second seminar, for Associates and Fellows

“The second seminar arranged for C.S.C.L. Associates and Fellows on ‘Design in Leathercraft’ was held on the evening of April 9, following the Annual Meeting. Twenty-five members attended the extremely stimulating talk given by Mrs. Dora de Pedery Hunt, and some of the criticisms and suggestions she gave could well affect decisively the development of leathercraft amongst our professional members.”

• Born in Budapest; trained in painting and sculpture at the Royal School of Applied Arts, and an Associate of the Royal Academy
• Came to Canada in 1948; a member of the Sculpture Society of Canada, with her own studio in Toronto and a teaching post at Northern Vocational
• Had studied in Europe on a Canada Council grant, returning by early 1959
• Addressed twenty-five C.S.C.L. Associates and Fellows on “Design in Leathercraft”, the Society's second such seminar, on the evening of 9 April, following the Annual Meeting
• Singled out three pieces shown at that Annual Meeting for particular approval: Sadie Roebuck's pipe stand, Jean Newton's shoe horn and Derrick Fielding's braided belt
• Also named in the newsletters as a speaker on General Design at the 1959 Canadian Craft Seminar in Design, and as a selector of the Salon at the 7th International Assembly, with Paul Payne, in 1961

Budapest, the Royal School, and a studio in Toronto

“Mrs. Hunt was born in Budapest, where she took her art training in painting and sculpture at the Royal School of Applied Arts. She is an Associate of the Royal Academy, where she took her general craft training. She came to Canada in 1948, is a member of the Sculpture Society of Canada, and spent last year studying in Europe on a Canada Council grant. She has her own studio in Toronto and also teaches at Northern Vocational.”

What she told the Society

The newsletter describes her talk as directed “entirely to those craftsmen who are striving to improve their work artistically to the point where it might find acceptance in top-ranking art and craft exhibitions and displays”, and as sympathetic to the difficulties Canadian leathercraftsmen faced — “the lack of well-trained teachers who can develop in their students the ability to appreciate the higher quality of professional art, and the dearth of superlatively crafted articles which would illustrate the goals toward which we should strive.” As a remedy she raised two ideas: a course taught by “a master craftsman, possibly brought from Europe” — “at present this is quite impossible financially, but is an idea which could be kept in mind” — and borrowing “small but excellent exhibitions of handmade leather articles from other countries, for careful study and visual appreciation”; she promised to inquire on her next trip to New York.

The pieces she praised, and her standard for craft

Reviewing the Associate and Fellow pieces shown at the Annual Meeting, she held that “all articles must be functional as well as beautiful” and that ornament which does not enhance an article “is much better omitted.” Three pieces met her particular approval — “Sadie Roebuck's pipe stand, Jean Newton's shoe horn and Derrick Fielding's braided belt” — while others she found lacking in character, poorly suited in colour to the leather, or overworked in their decoration. She closed on the Society's progress rather than its shortfalls: “Canadian leathercraft had improved greatly in the past few years, that our craftsmen were working in the right direction, but that the time had come to capitalize on the advances we have already made by arranging for better instruction design-wise and for careful study of superb leatherwork.”

Besides this report, Dora de Pedery Hunt appears twice more in the newsletters: as a speaker on General Design at the 1959 Canadian Craft Seminar in Design (Spring 1959, page 8), and as a selector of the Salon at the 7th International Assembly, with Paul Payne (Spring 1961, page 4). The newsletters do not say how the Society came to invite her, or whether either of her two proposals — an imported master class, a borrowed exhibition — was taken up.

From the Winter 1961 newsletter, pages 10–11.