'Decorators may be compared to doctors': An analysis of Rhoda and Agnes Garrett's Suggestions for House Decoration in painting, woodwork and furniture (1876)

Journal of Design History

Volumn 16, Issue 1, 2003, Pages 15-33

  Ferry, Emma ^a  

^a KINGSTON UNIVERSITY

Author keywords

Domestic advice manuals; Female employment; Garrett, Rhoda and Agnes; Gender politics; Interior decoration; Women designers

Indexed keywords

EID: 34249118611     PISSN: 09524649     EISSN: 17417279     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/jdh/16.1.15     Document Type: Review

References (88)

1. N. Cooper, The Opulent Eye: Late Victorian and Edwardian Taste in Interior Design, Architectural Press, 1979, p. 8.
2. E. Showalter, A Literature of Their Own (revised and expanded edition), Virago Press, 1999, p. 14.
3. This is explained in detail in her two essays, 'Towards a feminist poetics', in M. Jacobus (ed.), Women's Writing and Writing About Women, Croom Helm, 1979
4. and 'Feminist criticism in the wilderness', in Critical Inquiry, vol. 8, Winter, 1981.
5. Both essays were re-printed in E. Showalter (ed.), The New Feminist Criticism: Essays on Women, Literature, and Theory, Virago Press, 1986.
6. G. Lemer, The Majority Finds Its Past: Placing Women in History, Oxford University Press, 1979.
7. See: E. Ardener, 'Belief and the problem of women', in S. Ardener (ed.), Perceiving Women, Dent & Sons Ltd., 1975.
8. S. Spaull, 'Gynocriticism', in S. Mills et al., Feminist Readings Feminist Reading, Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1989, p. 117.
9. E. Showalter, 'Literary criticism', Review Essay, Signs, vol. 1, Winter, 1975, p. 435.
10. N. Humble, Introduction to Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, 1861, Oxford World Classics, 2000, pp. xv-xvi.
11. Rhoda published a lecture entitled 'The Electoral Disabilities of Women', which she delivered in the Corn Exchange, Cheltenham on 3 April 1872.
12. Englishwoman's Review, 15 December 1882, pp. 547-8.
13. A. Callen, Angel in the Studio: Women in the Arts and Crafts Movement 1870-1914, Astragal Books, 1979, p. 172.
14. S. Rowbotham, Hidden from History, Pluto Press, 1973.
15. The literature written by and about the more famous Garretts has been invaluable in piecing together the personal histories of Agnes and Rhoda. See, for example: E. T. Cook, Edmund Garret: A Memoir, Edward Arnold, 1909;
16. M. Garrett Fawcett, What I Remember, T. Fisher Unwin, 1924;
17. R. Strachey, Millicent Garrett Fawcett, John Murrary, 1931;
18. J. Manton, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Methuen & Co., 1965;
19. A. Oakley, 'Millicent Garrett Fawcett: duty and determination', in D. Spender, (ed.), Feminist Theorists: Three Centuries of Women's Intellectual Traditions, The Women's Press, 1983;
20. D. Rubinstein, A Different World For Women: The Life of Millicent Garrett Fawcett, Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991;
21. B. Caine, Victorian Feminists, Oxford University Press, 1993;
22. and J. Purvis & H. S. Stanley, Votes for Women, Routledge, 2000.
23. This article was written before the publication of E. Crawford's study of the Garrett family, Enterprising Women: The Garretts and Their Circle, Francis Boutle, September 2002.
24. A. Briggs, Victorian Things, Penguin Books, 1988.
25. The Builder, vol. 43, 1882, p. 765.
26. See E. Moberly Bell, Storming the Citadel: The Rise of the Woman Doctor, Constable & Co., 1953.
27. J. Manton, Elizabeth Garret Anderson, Methuen & Co., 1965, p. 221, n. 3, Edmund Garrett, Agnes's brother objected to the scandal this would cause.
28. Women's Penny Paper, 18 January 1890, p. 145.
29. M. D. Conway, Travels in South Kensington: With Notes on Decorative Arts and Architecture in England, Trübner, 1882, p. 168.
30. R. & A. Garrett, Suggestions for House Decoration in Painting, Woodwork and Furniture, Macmillan & Co., 1876, pp. 9-10.
31. M. D. Conway, Autobiography, Memories and Experiences of Moncure Daniel Conway, Vol. 1, Cassell & Co. Ltd., 1904, p. 403.
32. E. Smyth, Impressions That Remained, Longman, Green & Co., 2 vols., 1919, vol. ii, p. 7.
33. The Cabinet-Maker and Art Furnisher, 'Trade biographies: the late Miss Rhoda Garrett', 2 April 1883, p. 194: 'These enterprising ladies were represented at the Paris Exhibition by a cottage room shown in the Palace of the Trocadero, in addition to an exhibit which appeared in the ordinary furniture section of the Exhibition.'
34. P. Levine, Victorian Feminism 1850-1900, Hutchinson, 1987, p. 92
35. Manton, 1965, p. 239; M. Girouard, Sweetness and Light: The 'Queen Anne Movement' 1860-1900, Yale University Press, 1984, pp. 53-4. This building, one of a new block of six-storey red-brick mansions, designed by T. H. Wyatt for the Portman Estate has been demolished.
36. The Garrett cousins were his neighbours, having leased a cottage at Rustington, which they used as a holiday retreat. See Smyth, Sweetness and Light: The 'Queen Anne Movement' 1860-1900, op. cit., p. 12
37. and Cook, op. cit., p. 8.
38. See Obituaries for Rhoda Garrett: The Builder, vol. 43, 1882, p. 765;
39. and Women's Suffrage Journal, 1 December 1882, p. 195.
40. Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, Catalogue of the 1st Exhibition 1888, London, The Society, 1888.
41. Lynn Walker, in her essay 'The Arts and Crafts alternative', in J. Attfield & P. Kirkham (eds.), A View from the Interior: Women and Design, The Women's Press Ltd., 1995 edn., seems unaware of Rhoda's early death, writing that 'The Garretts designed a complete interior which consisted of furniture, metalwork, carpets, wallpaper and woodwork' for the 1888 exhibition, p. 168. In a separate essay in this publication, 'Women architects', she also gives the impression that they were commissioned to design furniture for the Drawing Room at Standen, p. 99.
42. W. Hitchmough, The Arts and Crafts Home, Pavilion Books, 2000, p. 101 claims that the Garretts were cousins of the Beales.
43. R. & A. Garrett, The Arts and Crafts Home, op. cit., pp. 29-30.
44. D. Attar, A Bibliography of Household Books Published in Britain 1800-1914, Prospect Books, 1987, pp. 31-2.
45. I am very grateful to Robert Machesney at the Macmillan Archive for providing me with details of the full list of titles, which is as follows: Rev. W. J. Loftie, A Plea for Art in the House (1876);
46. Rhoda & Agnes Garrett, Suggestions for House Decoration (1876);
47. Mrs Orrinsmith, The Drawing-Room (1877);
48. Rev. J. Hullah, Music in the House (1877);
49. Mrs W. J. Loftie, The Dining Room (1877 but dated 1878);
50. Lady Barker, The Bedroom and Boudoir (1878);
51. Mrs Oliphant, Dress (1878);
52. Lady Pollock, Amateur Theatricals (1879);
53. C. G. Leland, The Minor Arts (1880);
54. E. Glaister, Needlework (1880).
55. A. Lang, The Library (1881);
56. and T. J. Ellis, Sketching from Nature (1883).
57. Rev. W. J. Loftie, A Plea for Art in the Home, Macmillan & Co., 1876, p. 29.
58. Rev. W. J. Loftie (1839-1911), correspondence with Macmillan, 1875-81. British Library, Manuscripts Collections, Reference: Add MS 55075. Letter to Macmillan dated 11 March 1876.
59. See W. C. Sellar & R. J. Yeatman, 1066 and All That. A Memorable History of England: Comprising All the Parts You Can Remember ..., Methuen, 1931, Ch. XXXVIII, 'Williamanmary.
60. Loftie, correspondence with Macmillan, 1875-81.
61. R. & A. Garrett, correspondence with Macmillan op. cit., p. 6.
62. It is notable that Clarence Cook's chapter on 'The Entrance' makes a similar reference to the likely occupants of the hall chair: C. Cook, The House Beautiful: Essays on Beds and Tables, Stools and Candlesticks, Scribner, Armstrong & Co., 1878, Dover Editions 1980, p. 33: 'these settees and arm-chairs are comfortable, though there is nothing soft about them. They are not recommended for the parlour or sitting-room, however, but only for the hall, where it is true their comfort will be wasted on messenger-boys, book-agents, the census-man, and the bereaved lady who offers us soap at merely nominal prices, with a falsetto story of her woes thrown in. As visitors of this class are the only ones who will sit in the hall, considerations of comfort may be allowed to yield to picturesqueness.'
63. R. & A. Garrett, The House Beautiful: Essays on Beds and Tables, Stools and Candlesticks op. cit., p. 41.
64. See, for example, N. Armstrong, Desire and Domestic Fiction: A Political History of the Novel, Oxford University Press, 1987;
65. J. Newton, 'Making and re-making patriarchy', in S. Benstock, Feminist Issues in Literary Scholarship, Indiana University Press, 1987;
66. A. Vickery, 'Golden Age to separate spheres? A review of the categories and chronology of English women's history', Historical Journal, vol. 36, no. 2, 1993;
67. and E. Langland, Nobody's Angels: Middle-class Women and Domestic Ideology in Victorian Culture, Cornell University Press, 1995.
68. Vickery, op. cit., p. 389.
69. C. L. Eastlake, Hints on Household Taste, Longman & Co., 1868, 1878, pp. 8-9.
70. C. Dresser, Principles of Decorative Design, Cassell Petter & Galpin, 1873, Academy Editions, 1973, pp. 1-2.
71. Conway, op. cit., p. 168
72. M. E. Haweis, The Art of Decoration, Chatto & Windus, 1881, p. 200.
73. Rev. W. J. Loftie (1839-1911), correspondence with Macmillan, Correspondence with Macmillan op. cit.
74. Eastlake,Correspondence with Macmillan op. cit., pp. 43-4.
75. R. & A. Garrett,Correspondence with Macmillan op. cit., p. 36.
76. See J. Kinchin, 'The gendered interior: nineteenth century essays on the "masculine" and the "feminine" room', in P. Kirkham (ed.), The Gendered Object, Manchester University Press, 1996, pp. 12-29.
77. R. & A. Garrett, op. cit., p. 28.
78. The inversion is a classic technique of Utopian fiction.
79. Eastlake, op. cit., pp. 8-9.
80. House Decoration contains many references to 'the days of our grandmothers', a time when footstools were much bigger and ladies had far fewer dresses. This can be partially explained by Girouard's analysis of the English Aesthete and the development of 'Queen Anne' style: 'As an antidote to the present they recreated the past as an ideal world of pre-industrial simplicity, at once homely and Arcadian.' See Girouard, op. cit., p. 5.
81. See L. Holcombe, Wives & Property: Reform of the Married Women's Property Law in Nineteenth-Century England, Martin Robertson, 1983.
82. R. & A. Garrett,Wives & Property: Reform of the Married Women's Property Law in Nineteenth-Century England op. cit., p. 75.
83. Smyth,Wives & Property: Reform of the Married Women's Property Law in Nineteenth-Century England op. cit., p. 12.
84. Building News, 26 June 1874, pp. 689-92;
85. The Builder, 27 June 1874, pp. 537-8.
86. See Girouard,The Builder op. cit., pp. 57-63.
87. Dresser, The Builder,The Builder op. cit., p. 2.
88. Conway, The Builder,The Builder op. cit., p. 170.