Mary Delany (1700–1788), a prominent and accomplished Englishwoman whose friends included Queen Charlotte and George III, combined science and craft in her many creative endeavors. Smart, inquisitive, industrious, sociable, and twice widowed, Delany kept up a lively correspondence, gardened, drew, painted, and excelled in many handicrafts, including shellwork, needlework, and, most famously, her paper collages. As Horace Walpole wrote with great admiration, Delany, then in her seventies, “invented the art of paper-mosaic” and rapidly constructed nearly 1,000 botanical collages of such precision and beauty they never fail to astonish viewers. Although she was part of her era’s leading circle of writers, scientists, and artists, the full story of her life, achievements, and influence has never before been told as sensitively and thoroughly as it is in this sumptuously illustrated volume. From a step-by-step explanation of Delany’s paper-mosaic technique to appreciation for her dazzling floral textile designs to a discussion of the social role of women’s handicrafts, this portrait of a “lover and conscientious observer of the natural world” and consummate craftswoman is superbly illuminating.

At the age of seventy-two, Mary Delany, née Mary Granville (1700-1788), embarked upon a series of nearly a thousand botanical collages, or “paper mosaics,” which would prove to be the crowning achievement of her rich creative life. These delicate hand-cut floral designs, made by a method of Mrs. Delany’s own invention, vie with the finest botanical works of her time. More than two centuries later her extraordinary work continues to inspire.

Although best known for these collages, Mrs. Delany was also an amateur artist, woman of fashion, and commentator on life and society in 18th-century England and Ireland. Her prolific craft activities not only served to cement personal bonds of friendship, but also allowed her to negotiate the interconnecting artistic, aristocratic, and scientific networks that surrounded her. This ambitious and groundbreaking book, the first to survey the full range of Mrs. Delany’s creative endeavors, reveals the complexity of her engagement with natural science, fashion, and design.