ABSTRACT
In 1864, Stewart advertised himself as a 'consulting and practical decorator', and in another advertisement, as a picture dealer based in Ironmonger Lane, Cheap-side London. Although it was over fifty years after women were enrolled in Schools of Design, Gordon still considered the necessity of the establishment of a School of Applied Design in London that dealt with practical design rather than art-based approaches. Art-decorations are, therefore, suggested as being peculiarly fitted to give extensive employment to the female pupils of these schools of design, without taking from the labour of men, because decorations in the style proposed are practically and socially unknown among the people of this country. The variety, combined with harmonious unity, of which such decorations are capable, places them infinitely above paper-hangings as a style of higher-class decoration, while the scope they afford for the exercise both of design and execution, often removes them entirely from the routine of trade to the dignity of Art.
