Ida Delamer

Ida Delamer (née Lacy) was born in November 1932 to parents William Lacy and Helen Gilmore. She was raised in Howth and continued her education in her teenage years at St. Angela’s Ursuline School in Waterford. Delamer was dedicated to the education of both herself and others throughout her life, contributing numerous times to the National Museum of Ireland. In 2005, along with Conor O’Brien, Ida Delamer catalogued the 500 Years of Irish Silver exhibition in the National Museum, and she also created a chart of historical Irish silver hallmarks which she hand drew; this is also on display in the National Museum.

Delamer’s draughtsman abilities came from her training as an architect in University College Dublin. She was, in fact, one of the first women to study architecture at UCD. Initially, she wanted to study to be an engineer, but due to the nature of society at the time, she chose to study architecture instead. However, had she not been in the line for registration that day, she may never have met her future husband, Peter Delamer. The two began as study partners, giving each other grinds in maths and physics, and eventually found out they had chemistry!

After the two were married in 1965, Delamer had to give up her career as an architect due to the ban on married women in the workplace (this was not lifted until 1987), but this could not keep down a woman with such ambitions as Ida. A trailblazer for women in the metallurgy world, Delamer was the first female Master of the Company of Goldsmiths in Dublin in 2000, just in time for the organisations 363rd anniversary.

In this month’s auction, we have a silver pit tray by Ida Delamer from the same year she became Master of the Company of Goldsmiths