Adult Day Classes at the Royal School of Needlework

Abstract

The Royal School of Needlework was founded in 1872 by a group of prominent ladies with the object of ";restoring ornamental needlework for secular purposes to the high place it once held amongst the decorative arts";, and was closely linked with William Morris, Edward Burne Jones and Walter Crane who supplied designs to be worked in the ";Artistic Room"; for execution in crewel wools. As well as this the School had its own studio where girls were instructed in drawing by such notable draughtsmen as Lord Leighton, then President of the Royal Academy, and the architect C.F. Bodley. The studio provided designs for sale in the School shop and for special commissions. The founders, who were determined from the outset that the School shou Id be selfsupporting, quickly discover that popular and readily saleable designs had to subsidise the more discriminating taste and requirements of the few; the eternal dilemma of Art versus Commerce.