Montgomery, Mary (fl. 1891–1914)

Irish artist and metalworker. Flourished between 1891 and 1914 in Fivemiletown, County Tyrone, Ireland; studied metalworking in London; married.

Mary Montgomery was the wife of a landowner in Fivemiletown, County Tyrone, in what is now Northern Ireland, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She taught sewing and embroidery to local women to improve their income-generating potential before traveling to London, England, in 1891 to study repoussé metalwork. Montgomery proved to have natural metalworking talent, and by 1893 her work was shown at the Home Arts and Industries Exhibition (HAIE) at the Albert Hall in London. She also received numerous awards for her metalwork from the HAIE, the Royal Dublin Society, and the Cheltenham and Bristol exhibitions.

Montgomery returned to Fivemiletown, where she established her own metalworking school and organized annual exhibitions. The school made home furnishings such as frames and candlesticks, initially in copper and brass and later also in pewter and silver. Her work was greatly appreciated by both artists and the public, and Queen Victoria is said to have purchased products made by the Fivemiletown school. Montgomery closed down the school and discontinued her exhibitions at the onset of World War I in August 1914.

sources:

Newmann, Kate, comp. Dictionary of Ulster Biography. The Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen's University of Belfast, 1993.

Grant Eldridge , freelance writer, Pontiac, Michigan