the William Shipley group FOR RSA HISTORY JOHNSON TERCENTENARY 1709-2009 Newsletter 26 December 2010

Forthcoming meetings

Wednesday 23 March 2011 at 12.00pm The 6th AGM of the William Shipley Group for RSA History, which will be followed at 12.30pm by the Chairman’s Annual Address. Sanitation, water supply, competitive examinations and physical training: Sir Edwin Chadwick and the Society of Arts, by Dr Nicholas Cambridge. Thanks to the generosity of The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL both these meetings will take place in their Lecture Theatre at 183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE. (nearest tube stations: Euston and Euston Square)

Thursday 31 March 2011 12.30-1.30pm The Capture of an Eagle Commemorated: Denis Dighton’s prize winning sketch of 1811, by Dr David Allan at The National Army Museum, Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea, London SW3 4HT. Admission free (nearest tube station: Sloane Square)

Wednesday 11 May 2011. 12pm. Twickenham artists associated with Society of Arts, by Dr David Allan. To be held courtesy of the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art at 16 Bedford Square, London WC1B 2JA. Admission free (nearest tube station: Goodge Street)

Book reviews Jon Kear and Ben Thomas, In Elysium. Prints by James Barry. Canterbury: University of Kent (2010) with 14 illustrations

From the 4th October to 17th December last year the University of Kent School of Arts mounted an exhibition in its Jarman Building Gallery of forty one prints (etchings, engravings and mezzotint) illustrating the work of James Barry. Visitors were able to see in their appropriate sequences the artist’s interpretation of his paintings in the Society’s ‘Great Room’ c.1792-1802, of his Birth of Venus and his King Lear both c.1790, and the rarely framed etching of The Pandora 1804-5 by Luigi Schiavonetti. Also on display were related works by those Society of Arts’ stalwarts John Boydell, Valentine Green and John Hamilton Mortimer, and some 16th and 17th century renderings of Barry’s classical and Renaissance sources.

The catalogue of the exhibition is introduced with a scholarly essay by Jon Kear entitled ‘Staring into the Abyss: James Barry and British History Painting’. After outlining the known facts of Barry’s early career and taking account of the ever growing volume of modern critical commentaries on the artist’s biography and the evolution of his art. Jon Kear concludes by proposing the interesting idea that the ‘Abyss’ in the right hand corner of the Elysium into which Barry (as Timanthes) stares across from the other side of the Great Room, represents the final oblivion of his ideals and aspirations. Seen in this way The Progress of Human Knowledge and Culture was for

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Barry paradoxically both the moment of the realisation of his objectives as a history painter but also their end point; ‘Barry’s staging of the birth of British History Painting was also the staging of self annihilation’ (p.18).

The catalogue of the exhibition is the work of Ben Thomas who has much to say about Barry’s uncertain temper and unequal patience as well as pointing out his experimental side as an etcher and engraver and his varying responses to the needs of pen, brush and needle. Regarding the significant relationship between Barry’s ‘Great Room’ paintings and the etchings which illustrate them, Thomas writes: For Barry...printmaking became in practice a significant and active part of an ongoing process of design and was not simply the passive or subordinate consequence of an initial act of creation created in another medium’ (p.22).

Thomas also shows his sympathy for the artist’s work in the medium through the arrangement of the exhibits, many of which are fine state examples lent from the collection of David Alexander of York. The frames and mounts for the prints are of the highest quality. Keir and Thomas supply scholarly end notes and a useful pre and post 1900 bibliography. Their intention is to mount the exhibition in a London location in the New Year. (contact [email protected])

Some minor corrections which could be made in a future edition of the catalogue would be p.2 - the title of the Dublin Society, p.7 – 1771 and 1776 not 1871 and 1876, p.8 ten not six artists, p.58 ref 28 Sir George not Lord Saville. D.G.C. Allan

‘Cultivating the Human Faculties’. James Barry (1741) and the Society of Arts edited by Susan Bennett. Bethlehem: Leigh University Press, 2008 Queen Isabella In his review in The Age of Johnson, vol.20 (2010), pp.389-395 Dr John Abbott describes the essays in this volume as calling particular attention to the particular centrality the arts played in the life of the Society. He concludes that this is ‘one of the best single presentations about the artist’ and as a scholar who has enjoyed a unique relationship with the artist through his series of murals, The Progress of Human Knowledge and Culture, it is particularly appropriate that ‘these studies are presented to Dr David G.C. Allan as a tribute to his work as a writer and teacher on RSA history for over half a century’.

James Barry lecture report On Wednesday 8 December 2010 the Group’s Honorary President, Dr David Allan, visited the University of Kent’s School of Arts at the university’s Canterbury campus and spoke on James Barry’s paintings in the RSA’s Great Room, and the development of Barry’s career as an artist. The lecture was entitled ‘“A Monument to Perpetuate his Memory”: James Barry’ Paintings for the Society of Arts 1777-1805’ and was illustrated with digital coloured images of Barry’s works and related items.

WSG Occasional papers 16 and 17 The William Shipley Group has just published two new Occasional Papers. No.16 on The Development of Museums in Victorian Britain and the Contribution of the Soicety of Arts by Anthony Burton, FRSA considers the museums established by the many literary and philosophical societies founded in the 19th century. William Ewart's Act allowed local authorities to levy a rate to set up and support museums and consideration is also given to the Society of Arts' Free Public Libraries and Museums campaign of 1869-70, and the National Museums and Galleries and Public Education campaign of 1873-5. An appendix provides a list of 'Lit and Phil' museums up to 1869. Copies are available from the WSG Honorary Secretary at a cost of £5 a copy (includes p&p). Cheques should be made payable to the 'William Shipley Group'.

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Occasional Paper no.17 is on the subject of Sculpture in and on the Society’s House. Dr David Allan considers the sculptural objects which the Society has displayed over the years in its building in John Adam Street. He then looks at the sculptural features on the house itself, including the three figures representing ‘arts, manufactures and commerce’ commissioned in 1994 to sit on the pediment over the main entrance.

Antonio Sciortino (1879-1947) Antonio Sciortino’s relationship with the Royal Society of Arts, though indirect, is of interest. He was head of the British Academy of Arts in Rome which had a fascinating history of relations with The Royal Society of Arts and the Royal Academy of Arts. Sciortino, an eminent Maltese sculptor, was the last Director of the British Academy before its ‘temporary suspension’ in 1936 which later transpired to be a permanent closure of the prestigious Academy. The Maltese artist continued his struggle to revive the Academy till his death in 1947, unfortunately without succeeding in his Sisyphean endeavours. In 1953 at the Royal Society of Arts (Selwyn Brinton Lecture, 2nd December, 1953) Col. Ion S. Munro, who was the press attaché of the British Embassy in Rome at the time gave an interesting lecture, on the British Academy of Arts in Rome and Sciortino’s role as director of the Academy. The archives of the Academy have unfortunately been lost. On the Academy’s closure these were placed in the British Consulate and later transferred to the British Embassy, but now are untraceable. The Academy’s funds have been held by the British School in Rome. Books were placed with the British Council in Rome. For the last three years Dr Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci (giuseppe.schembri- [email protected]) has been researching this particular period in Sciortino’s life and oeuvre.

“Mr Baker gave a Paper”: early links between the Royal Society and the Society of Arts The Royal Society has provided an audio and video podcast of the talk given by Dr Allan on the early connections between both societies as part of their autumn 2010 history of science programme. The podcasts are arranged in date order and Dr Allan’s talk can be found at Friday 8 October at http://royalsociety.org/Podcasts-of-Library-events/

Open Plaques : an RSA Fellow led project RSA Fellows Deirdre Molloy, Frankie Roberto and Jez Nicholson, funded by the RSA Catalyst Fund, have set up an open source website to document and collect information on all types of commemorative plaques that can be found across the UK and worldwide. Currently they are aware of 3197 plaques, including surviving Society of Arts memorial tablets. Over 50% have been photographed for this website with 76% identified with a geolocation. http://openplaques.org/

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Reeves watercolour paintbox The original Reeves and Inwood watercolour paintbox, which Becca Gauldie Antiques has for sale, includes a letter dated 17th May 1781 from the Samuel More, Secretary of the Society of Arts: Gentlemen I am desired by the Society to return you thanks for the obliging present you have been pleased to make them of a Box of Colours prepared by you for the use of Painters in Water Colours. An Art so well adapted to the purpose of forwarding that elegant Branch of polite Arts could not fail to be acceptable to the Society http://beccagauldie.com/catalog/i80.html

Obituary Robin Day RDI (1915-2010) Many people in the design world will now recall 2010 as the year when we bid farewell to both Robin and Lucienne Day – known to many in the mid 20th century as ‘the Golden Couple’ of design. In their separate ways they are both amongst the ‘design greats’ of their time.

My most vivid memories of Robin Day, who died recently aged 95, are of a man of quiet strength, charm and great humanity, a gentle humour and a determination that, through his designs, he would develop well-designed objects at affordable prices

For some years he chaired the RSA Student Design Awards Furniture Jury and always treated the students and their designs with great respect – even those who were not ultimately winners were sent away with kind words of encouragement.

Robin Day was perhaps best known for designing the famous ‘Polyprop’ chair for Hille in the early 1960s. Polypropylene had only been invented in 1954 and the particular properties of this new thermoplastic seemed likely to achieve Robin’s wish to produce a low-cost chair for mass-production by the Hille team. His stacking chair design became one of the most popular and versatile (the one-piece shell seat could be used in many different forms, from a straight-forward stacking chair, to bar stools and for use as multiple seating in theatres and auditoria) and in 2009 it was featured on a postage stamp showing great British designs.

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An instant success, it was soon licensed to 50 firms world-wide to manufacture. The measure of its success can be found in the production figures since its inception. I have seen estimates which range from 14-50 million units. Whichever figure is correct I’d be surprised if any other single chair design has reached such heights.

Furniture was always one of his major interests and in his early years a plywood storage system won a prize from the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. Later his seating graced the Royal Festival Hall, London, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford, Nottingham Playhouse and the Barbican Centre auditoria as well as various stadia around the world.

However, Robin’s talents also let to interior design of aircraft, television sets, store interiors and graphics – notably for the John Lewis Partnership whilst he and his wife were Consultants to the group from the early 1960s until the 1980s.

I recall a fascinating retrospective exhibition of the work of both Lucienne and Robin Day at the Barbican in 2001 when some of his designs were brought back into production.

Robin Day had an enduring love of nature, pitting his wits against the landscape, frequently going on long-distance ski-ing trips – at one time spending 12 weeks covering 2,500kms of sub-Arctic wilderness. Aged 76, at a time when many people have decided Poster by Robin Day for the Royal that their climbing days are over, Robin successfully tackled the Society for the Prevention of 17,000 ft Mt Kenya. Accidents, 1954

It is said of many people that they were a ‘legend in their lifetime’ but this was quite true of this essentially modest man. Helen R Auty

2010 marks the bicentenary of the award of a silver medal to Mr Ezekiel Baker for his ‘method of rendering Fire-Arms, more safe to the Bearer, and more effectual in use. Baker submitted his invention to the Society as he was ‘desirous to claim the merit’ for his design which would be useful to gentlemen, sportsmen and others’ and he wanted the Society to publish it for public benefit. Lieutenant-Colonel B. Bloomfield of the Royal Horse-Artillery and Lieutenant-Colonel Otway of the 18th Light Dragoons, Lieutenant-Colonel G. Quintin of the 10th Light Dragoons, and Lieutenants Thomas Smith, late Quarter-Master in the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards, and Thomas Shiels of the 7th Royal Veteran Battalion Tower, also supported his submission with the statement that Baker’s cavalry pistols were a great advantage over other weapons as his design not only prevented waste of powder and uncertainty of loading on horseback but also prevented the pistol from cocking itself as it was being sheathed in the holster causing accidental firing.

Baker was a well respected firearms manufacturer. He was gun contractor to the British Board of Ordnance and ‘Pistol Maker to the Prince of Wales’. His muzzle-loading flint-lock rifle was adopted for infantry use by the army in 1800 and was used by the British army throughout the Napoleonic Wars. The ‘Baker’ rifle had the distinction of the longest service by any rifle in the British Army and has been described as both robust and practical. It was

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Exhibition of Ancient and Medieval Art 2010 marks the 160th anniversary of the Exhibition of Ancient and Medieval Art held by the Society of Arts in 1850. This exhibition, wrote Augustus Wollaston Franks (1826-1897), ‘would not only be extremely interesting to the Public, but would also be useful to manufacturers’. Over 898 objects were lent by collectors ranging from Queen Victoria to Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The exhibition was a great success attracting nearly 20,000 paying visitors, as well as the thousands granted free admission as a privilege of membership. For the last two weeks the exhibition was open to artisans at a charge of threepence each. A lavishly illustrated catalogue was also produced.

Prince Consort’s Library 2010 marks the 150th anniversary of the Prince Consort Library at Aldershot. Prince Albert had been active in the Army reforms and improvements in military education. As a consequence of these concerns he determined that there should a military library at the first permanent Army training camp at Aldershot. Once Prince Albert had bought 1,000 books for this purpose he asked the Army for a plot of land on which to begin building a library. Captain Francis Fowke, R.E., who had designed exhibition buildings and galleries for the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A), was chosen as the architect, and the library opened in 1860. The cost of the building, furnishings and maintenance, totalling just over £4,000 was met by the Prince. Following his death a year later Queen Victoria undertook to pay for the library until her own death in 1901. The Prince Consort’s Library is now part of the Army Library and Information Service and is charged with providing specialist military information services.

The main library room with its gallery and librarian’s office on the first floor, has hardly changed from its opening in September 1860. The original bookshelves, tables and chairs commissioned by Prince Albert are still in use today. John Mayall’s large portrait of the Prince (1868) hangs on the end wall. During her visit in 1864 Queen Victoria presented the library with the engravings of the portraits of the royal couple by Franz Winterhalter which can be seen in the centre of the library, together with other prints. Armour and weapons, dating from the English Civil War to the nineteenth century from the Royal Armouries, have also been in the library from the beginning.

The library is for the use of serving personnel only but others carrying out research may be granted access by special arrangement with the Librarian.

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King Edward VII 2010 marks the centenary of the death of King Edward VII (1841-1910). In memory of one who had been so closely associated with the Society, as its President and Patron, the RSA decided to cancel its annual conversazione in 1910, the first time since it was started in 1858. Two years earlier, in 1908, the King had granted the Society the title ‘Royal’. On accepting the Presidency the then twenty-two year old Prince of Wales stated that in this role ‘he might be better able to promote the great and beneficent objects which his dear father had so much at heart, and in which he was zealously supported by the Society’. He was never content to be a nominal President and it was ‘said that no new action of any importance was ever undertaken by the Council, without its being submitted to His Royal Highness for his consideration and approval’. On his accession to the Throne in 1901 the Society awarded him the Albert Medal ‘in recognition of the aid rendered by His Majesty to Arts, Manufactures and Commerce during thirty-eight years Presidency of the Society of Arts, by undertaking the direction of important Exhibitions in this country and the executive control of British representation at International Exhibitions abroad, and also by many other services to the cause of British Industry’. When he had to vacate the Presidency on his accession he accepted the position of the Society’s first Patron, a post he held until his death in 1910.

JUST PUBLISHED The Coloured Mass. Art and artists in the Twickenham area from Tudor Times to the 21st century.

Dr David Allan, Honorary President of the WSG, takes the reader on a vividly constructed and scholarly journey through the art history of the Twickenham area from the 16th century to the modern day.

112 pages, over 100 illustrations and maps, 22.5 x 18.5cm. ISBN 978-0-90334184-4 £11.99

Copies available from Mike Cherry, 75 Radnor Road, Twickenham TW1 4NB Make cheques payable to London Borough of Twickenham Local History Society and add £2.00 p&p per copy.

Honorary Patron: Lord Asa Briggs of Lewes FRSA. Honorary President: Dr David Allan, FRSA; Honorary Vice- Presidents: Gerry Acher, CBE, LVO, FRSA; Sir Paul Judge, FRSA; Professor Franz Bosbach, Director, University of Duisburg-Essen. Honorary Benefactor: Ronald Gerard OBE, FRSA. Honorary Member: Hermione Hobhouse MBE; Committee: Dr Nicholas Cambridge FRSA (Chair); Dr David Allan FRSA (Director of Studies); Prof John Davis FRSA (Deputy Chair); Anthony Burton, FRSA; Mrs Susan Bennett, MA, FRSA (Honorary Secretary and Treasurer): Observer; Rob Baker, RSA Head of Archives and Library

The history of the Society is extremely important to establish at almost every point in time, Lord Asa Briggs 2004

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