Design
Date
1874
Level of description
Item
Creator
Wade-Palmer, Fairfax Blomfield: Fairfax (Blomfield) Wade was an architect (FRIBA), decorative artist, and designer, who exhibited at the Royal Academy and the third Arts and Crafts Society Exhibition. He was one of the first external designers to submit designs to the Royal School of Art Needlework. His earliest works for the school date to 1874. Fairfax's sisters, Louisa, Octavia and Edith were also employed by the school by 1875. Louisa became Assistant Manager, then Manager and eventually Principle of the RSAN. Fairfax's work for the Royal School of Art Needlework would have commenced towards the end of the period he was articled to Sir Arthur William Blomfield (1829-1899) a leading Gothic Revival architect.
Fairfax and his sisters were among fourteen children of the Revd Nugent Wade (1809–1893), curate of St Paul’s, later rector of St Anne’s Church, Soho, London, and canon of Bristol Cathedral, and his wife, Louisa, née Fenwick (1817–1891). The sculptor George Edward Wade was among their other siblings.
Fairfax continued his involvement with the school, later designing the schools new building on Exhibition Road which opened in 1903. He changed his name to Wade-Palmer in 1900.
Scope and content
Nemophelia design for embroidery partially coloured in blues, greens and browns. Watercolour and pencil on paper.
Designed by Fairfax Blomfield Wade this was embroidered and exhibited as part of the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876, one of a number of international shows that followed in the wake of the Great Exhibition of 1851.
The Nemophelia embroidery was displayed at Philadelphia as a chair seat and back on olive coloured satin. The finished embroidery was part of a collection of 4 chair seats and backs in floral themes. The group were put up for sale for £10.10s in 1877. (see RSN MS 136.15)
The design was commissioned by the Royal School of Art Needlework in the run up to the Philadelphia exhibition and is part of an album of some of the earliest designs commissioned for the school and passed by their 'Artists Committee'. It became, like many of the patterns first shown at Philadelphia, a pattern that could be adapted and offered to clients of the school in multiple guises.
A Nemophelia is a small blue annual that grows to about 20cm tall sometimes known as 'baby blue eyes' and native to the western united states of America.
Designed by Fairfax Blomfield Wade this was embroidered and exhibited as part of the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876, one of a number of international shows that followed in the wake of the Great Exhibition of 1851.
The Nemophelia embroidery was displayed at Philadelphia as a chair seat and back on olive coloured satin. The finished embroidery was part of a collection of 4 chair seats and backs in floral themes. The group were put up for sale for £10.10s in 1877. (see RSN MS 136.15)
The design was commissioned by the Royal School of Art Needlework in the run up to the Philadelphia exhibition and is part of an album of some of the earliest designs commissioned for the school and passed by their 'Artists Committee'. It became, like many of the patterns first shown at Philadelphia, a pattern that could be adapted and offered to clients of the school in multiple guises.
A Nemophelia is a small blue annual that grows to about 20cm tall sometimes known as 'baby blue eyes' and native to the western united states of America.
Transcription
FBW Nov/74
Reference code
D2/19
© Royal School of Needlework