Emily Wynne

Emily Wynne (1872 – 12 June 1958) was an Irish textile artist at Avoca Woollen Mills and author.

Early life and family Emily Adelaide Wynne was born in Germany in 1872. Her parents were Albert Augustus Wynne, a civil and mining engineer, and Alice Katherine (née Wynne). She was the eldest of five children, with three sisters, Winifred Frances (1873–1969), and Alice Clara 'Veronica' (1890–1969), and two brothers John Brian (1877–1977) known as Jack and Charles (1895–1917). The Wynne family were originally from Hazelwood or Annagh, County Sligo, and were related to Dr Kathleen Lynn and Constance Markievicz. Their family home was the Georgian Tigroney House, beside the Avoca Woollen Mills in the village of Avoca, County Wicklow. Along with his brother, Wyndham, their father held mining interests in Germany, with the family frequently visiting the country. While their parents traveled, the children would stay with their great aunts, Clara (Aunt Gigi) and Frances (Aunt Fanny), at Corris House in Bagnalstown, County Carlow. She became known for cultivating primulas including one named "Julius Caesar".

The Avoca Woollen Mills products were sold through the Country Shop on 23 St Stephen's Green, Dublin, and supplied tweed to the designer Elsa Schiaparelli. Wynne visited Schiaparelli in Paris in 1933 and 1937. She also made a trip to New York and Boston in 1935 with the American agent Carol Brown. They opened a shop in London in the 1930s, overseen by Wynne's cousin, Barbara Donovan, acting as the mill's English agent. The company was at its peak in the 1940s, employing 70 men and producing 500 yards of cloth a week.

Death and legacy Wynne died on 12 June 1958 at home in Tigroney House. The mill struggled without her direction, but continued into the early 1970s, when it was purchased by Donald Pratt who restarted the business using the Wynnes' palette of colours.