Mary Eleanor Joachim (1874–1957) was a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

book-binder in the

Arts and Crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

tradition.

Early life

Joachim was born in

Littlehampton Littlehampton is a town, seaside resort, and pleasure harbour, and the most populous civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the English Channel on the eastern bank of the mouth of the River Arun. It is south sout ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, to Susanna Wimperis and George Joachim. The family emigrated to New Zealand in 1876 and settled in Mornington,

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

. Joachim was educated at home and then in 1892 and 1893 attended

Otago Girls' High School , motto_translation = The Right Education Makes The Heart As Strong As Oak , type = State , grades = 9 - 13 , grades_label = Years , gender = Girls-only , established = ; years ago , address = 41 Tennyson Street ...

. She then travelled to

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

for language study. Joachim's home life was richly artistic - in addition to her mother being a painter, her two artist aunts, Fanny and

Jenny Jenny may refer to: * Jenny (given name), a popular feminine name and list of real and fictional people * Jenny (surname), a family name Animals * Jenny (donkey), a female donkey * Jenny (gorilla), the oldest gorilla in captivity at the time of ...

, also lived in the household.

Adult life

In 1903, Joachim travelled to London to learn book-binding, tooling and gilding from leading craftspeople of the time,

Francis Sangorski Sangorski & Sutcliffe is a firm of bookbinding, bookbinders established in London in 1901. It is considered to be one of the most important bookbinding companies of the 20th century, famous for its luxurious jewelled bookbinding, jeweled binding ...

and George Sutcliffe. She returned to Dunedin the following year and set up business in the city. She worked on commissioned projects and for exhibitions, and her work was noted for her use of gold tooling and blind tooling. Some of her most significant works were the binding of a book to present to

Queen Alexandra Alexandra of Denmark (Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia; 1 December 1844 – 20 November 1925) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 22 January 1901 to 6 May 1910 as the wife of King ...

in 1906, and the binding and decoration of an illuminated address presented by the city of Dunedin to the Prime Minister Sir Joseph Ward in 1908. Joachim exhibited at the Otago Arts Society, the

New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts The New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts (also referred to as the Wellington Art Society) was founded in Wellington in July 1882 as The Fine Arts Association of New Zealand. Founding artists included painters William Beetham (first president of the Ass ...

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

, and with the

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

Arts and Crafts Club exhibition. She also exhibited her work in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

at the First Australian Exhibition of Women's Work of 1907, where she won a silver medal and a special prize. In 1908, Joachim and her aunt Fanny Wimperis unsuccessfully attempted to establish a retail business in Dunedin for

Liberty's Liberty, commonly known as Liberty's, is a luxury department store in London, England. It is located on Great Marlborough Street in the West End of London. The building spans from Carnaby Street on the East to Kingly Street on the West, where ...

of London.

Legacy

During her lifetime, Joachim donated ceramics to the

Dunedin Public Art Gallery The Dunedin Public Art Gallery holds the main public art collection of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand. Located in The Octagon in the heart of the city, it is close to the city's public library, Dunedin Town Hall, and other facilities such as t ...

and embroidery by

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

to the

Otago Museum Tūhura Otago Museum is located in the city centre of Dunedin, New Zealand. It is adjacent to the University of Otago campus in Dunedin North, 1,500 metres northeast of the city centre. It is one of the city's leading attractions and has one of t ...

. On her death, further donations were made to the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. Examples of Joachim's work are held by the

Dunedin Public Library Dunedin Public Libraries is a network of six libraries and two bookbuses in Dunedin, New Zealand, owned and operated by the Dunedin City Council. The Libraries' collection includes over 700,000 items, and around 30,000 books and audiovisual ite ...

, the Theomin Gallery at the historic home

Olveston Olveston is a small village and larger parish in South Gloucestershire, England. The parish comprises the villages of Olveston and Tockington, and the hamlets of Old Down, Ingst and Awkley. The civil parish population at the 2011 census was 2, ...

and the

Hocken Collections Hocken Collections (, formerly the Hocken Library) is a research library, historical archive, and art gallery based in Dunedin, New Zealand. Its library collection, which is of national significance, is administered by the University of Otago. Th ...

. In 2002, the Hocken Library (now known as the Hocken Collections) staged an exhibition featuring the work of Joachim, her mother Susanna, and her two aunts, Fanny and Jenny.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Joachim, Eleanor 1874 births 1957 deaths 20th-century New Zealand artists English emigrants to New Zealand Artists from Dunedin People educated at Otago Girls' High School People from Littlehampton Bookbinders