Official catalogue of the British section.

  • Great Britain. Executive Commission, Philadelphia International Exhibition (1876)
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Official catalogue of the British section. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    59/856 (page 51)
    collected all that remained of Polish Industries in 1841 and 1845. In Italy, the most noteworthy gatherings were in 1829, 1832, 1838, 1844, and 1850 for the kingdom of Sardinia at Turin, and for the Grand Duchy of Tuscany at Florence in 1844 and 1850. Madrid, representing all the Spains, takes the dates of 1827, 1828, 1831, 1841, 1845, and 1850 ; whilst Portugal convened her displays at Lisbon in 1844 and 1849. Such are the blazons on the Industrial banner of the Continent, tedious to recite and possibly still more tedious to read, but necessary still to the student of history of Art Industry as is the alphahet to the incipient reader or the gamut to the embryo composer. The list, home and foreign, is, however, in commercial phrase nearly totted; there are but a few who do not know how truly the Society of Arts have upheld their motto, Arts and Commerce promoted, and from the days of the King's Mews fiasco, frequent collections of raw materials, previously unknown or only heard of through books, of noteworthy manufactures, and new inven- tions were shown in the old room that has witnessed so many meetings. At various local centres of industry Exhibitions were intermittently carried out, regularly and triennial]y as before stated at Dublin from 1827 ; and now we arrive at the Free Trade Bazaar and the concomitant Exhibition of Manufactures held at Old Co vent Garden in 1845. In 1846 the Prince Consort was elected President of the Society of Arts, and almost his first advice was to encourage the application of Fine Arts to our Manufactures. This was the seed sown on no barren soil which has produced such good fruit in our generation, and the Society, wisely adopting the sug- gestion of their Royal President, instituted a Special Prize Fund, the object being to substitute shapeliness for deformity, colour for garishness, not merely in articles of luxury but in objects of every day use and moderate price. The latest date for receiving designs for competition was the 15th of May 1846, and amongst the objects sent in on that date was a tea service in one colour, the manufacture of Messrs. Minton, to which the Special Prize was awarded. Great events from trifling causes spring, and so it may be said that indirectly our Great Exhibition owes its institution to a tea-cup. It was then proposed that objects having gained a prize in 1846 should be displayed again in 1847, at a first Exhibition of Select Specimens of British Manufactures and Decorative Art; this was opened in March, and despite the supinencss of manufacturers was a success, 20,000 being the number of visitors. Next March, the March of a troublous year, 1848, saw the d 2