Thomas Okey
Born 30 September 1852
Died 4 May 1935
Active: 1863 - 1935
Country of birth and death: England
Basket maker, italian scholar
Born at Spitalfields, London, one of eight children of Thomas Okey, a basket maker. Self-taught scholar, he gave up basket-making professionally in 1896 and became a full-time teacher. He published a number of books on Italian literature and culture. However he continued basket making in his spare time and published a highly regarded text 'An Introduction to the Art of Basket-Making', published in 1912. He was appointed the first holder of the Serena chair of Italian at Cambridge University in 1919. After retirement in 1928 he returned to basket making. He died at his home, Barnwood, Brasted, Sevenoaks, Kent.
Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards and other Events
Speaker at The Ornamental Use of Cast-Iron (Art Workers Guild), 1914
Speaker at Temporary Street Decoration (Art Workers Guild), 1914
Speaker at The Influence of Race, Climate and Diet on Artistic Expression (Art Workers Guild), 1915
Speaker at Social Conditions in Great Epochs of Art (Art Workers Guild), 1917
Speaker at Wayside Shrines and Crosses (Art Workers Guild), 1917
Speaker at Baroque Architecture (Art Workers Guild), 1916
Speaker at Architects, Painters and Sculptors, and Schemes of Decoration (Art Workers Guild), 1917
Speaker at Craft Movement and Agricultural Conditions (Art Workers Guild), 1916
Institutional and Business Connections
Master of Art Workers Guild
1914
Member of Art Workers Guild
1894 - 1935 (Presumed)
Sources
Art Workers Guild Annual Reports, 1913-1933
1914, p.10; 1915, p.17.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
2004
Jonathan Usher, ‘Okey, Thomas (1852–1935)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/54191, accessed 13 Aug 2010]
Citing this record
'Thomas Okey', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib2_1217242063, accessed 23 Sep 2023]
