Ida Delamer obituary: First woman master of the Company of Goldsmiths of Dublin

Born: November 20th, 1932

Died: January 7th, 2023

Ida Delamer, who has died aged 91, was a leading Irish expert in silver and the first woman member, and later master warden, of the Company of Goldsmiths of Dublin. Established and incorporated by a royal charter of Charles I on December 22nd, 1637, the company governs the assay office in Dublin Castle which is responsible for hallmarking all items of gold, silver and platinum for sale in Ireland.

With the late silversmith Conor O’Brien, Delamer wrote the catalogue for the 2005 permanent exhibition, 500 Years of Irish Silver in the National Museum of Ireland.

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This publication was a comprehensive guide to the development of the silversmith craft in Ireland and its historical and social context.

In the 1980s, Delamer researched the origins of two city of Dublin mayoral swords with the late Claude Blair, a scholar of arms and armour and keeper of the metal work in the V&A Museum in London. They discovered that one of the swords – known as the Great Sword – was a 15th century piece of personal armour belonging to Henry IV of England and one of the most important surviving late medieval swords. Their findings were published by the Royal Irish Academy in 1988 in a paper entitled The Dublin Civic Swords.

Generous with her knowledge of Irish silver and an enabler of other people’s artistic endeavours, Delamer was a warm, lively and engaging person. John Bowen, former master warden of the Company of Goldsmiths and scholar of Irish silver said: “She was very accommodating to those who sought her advice and scholarship on Irish silver.”

Her training as an architect – she was one of the first women to study architecture at University College Dublin – gave her excellent drawing skills which she put to good use when producing the definitive chart of historical Irish silver hallmarks. This is on display in the National Museum of Ireland’s Decorative Arts branch in Collins Barracks alongside the museum’s collection of Irish silver. Delamer’s historical knowledge and sharp eye for detail meant that she was often called on to verify the authenticity of various pieces of silver.

Delamer was a long-time member of the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) and a member of its council and committee of arts. In 1996, while chairing the crafts subcommittee, she introduced the Company of Goldsmiths Award as part of the RDS Craft Awards. She was also involved in the initial stages of the restoration of the Dublin Lord Mayor’s ornamental coach in the 1970s.

She was awarded a medal from the Old Dublin Society in the late 1970s for a paper she wrote on freedom boxes, the ornamental silver boxes that were gifted to distinguished non-residents who received the Honorary Freedom of the City title.

Together with her friend, renowned Irish pianist John O’Conor, Delamer was one of the founders of the Dublin International Piano Competition in 1988. She was also a trustee of the National Library for several years and a member, and later chairman, of the Silver Society, an international group of collectors, dealers, researchers and working silversmiths.

Ida Lacy was born the third of five children to William Lacy and Helen Gilmore. She grew up in Howth, Co Dublin. Following her secondary school education at St Angela’s Ursuline School in Waterford, she studied architecture at UCD.

She met her husband to be, Peter Delamer, when they were both queuing to register as engineering students at UCD. At that time, women weren’t encouraged to study engineering so she opted for architecture instead. Cathal O’Neill, the late professor of architecture at UCD, was one of her contemporaries and a lifelong friend.

In spite of studying different disciplines, the relationship between Delamer and Lacy blossomed and they even gave each other grinds (he taught her maths and she taught him physics). The couple married in the summer of 1956 just after she completed her finals.

They settled in Howth and ran a sociable home that welcomed a wide network of friends. Peter worked in telecommunications with his brother-in-law, the Dublin-based and Austrian-born telecoms pioneer Otto Glaser.

The ban on married women working at the time meant that Delamer couldn’t practice as an architect but that didn’t stop her pursuing various interests while looking after her three children – Sandra, Mandy and David. One of her great interests was sailing, which she had taken up at the age of 10. An avid sailor throughout her life, Delamer was a member of the Howth Yacht Club and the London-based Royal Ocean Racing Club.

Delamer remained active until the last two years of her life, after which she was comfortable and cheerful in a nursing home close to her family home. “My mother believed in equal opportunity and was a great enabler. She was an exceptionally positive person who looked for and worked towards the bright side of every scenario,” said her son David, who works in telecommunications. Interestingly, given that she had so wanted to be an engineer herself, both her daughters became successful engineers.

Ida Delamer is survived by her husband Peter; her children, Sandra, Mandy and David; her seven grandchildren; her great-granddaughter; and her sister Ursula. She was predeceased by her sisters, Helen and Alice, and her brother Billy.