Paper cut

 

    You may remember this post about Mary Delany from last year, well I didn't get to the exhibition, nor did I acquire the books, but my interest was still keen so I'm delighted, now, to have a new book about her, The Paper Garden: Mrs Delany Begins Her Life's Work at 72 by Molly Peacock. I've had that on my wishlist ever since I read Darlene's post on attending a talk by Molly Peacock, and as it's one of those books which could sit equally well on this site or the other one (where I do mention it today), I thought I'd quote the opening passage here as, if that doesn't make you want to read on, I don't know what would:

"Imagine starting your life's work at seventy-two. At just that age, Mary Granville Pendarves Delany (May 14, 1700-April 15, 1788), a fan of George Frideric Handel, a sometime dinner partner of satirist Jonathan Swift, a wearer of green-hooped satin gowns, and a fiercely devoted subject of blond King George III, invented a precursor of what we know as collage. One afternoon in 1772 she noticed how a piece of coloured paper matched a dropped petal of a geranium. After making that vital imaginative connection between paper and petal, she lifted the eighteenth-century equivalent of an X-Acto blade (she'd have called it a scalpel) or a pair of filigree-handled scissors - the kind that must have had a nose so sharp and delicate that you could almost imagine it picking up a scent. With the instrument alive in her still rather smooth-skinned hand, she began to manoeuvre; carefully cutting the exact geranium petal shape from the scarlet paper.

    Then she snipped out another:

    And another, and another, with the trance-like efficiency of repetition - commencing the most remarkable work of her life."

    Read a bit more about this beautiful and inviting book here.

Comments

[Darlene]

Isn't it just a gorgeous book, Karen!? I can't wait to visit the British Museum while in London this September to try and sneak a peek of Mrs Delany's amazing craft. And Molly is just the lovliest of people and so entertaining!