ABSTRACT
George Wallis was well qualified to discuss design progress, as he had been one of the commissioners of the Great Exhibition held in London in 1851 and also of the 1853 exhibition at New York's Crystal Palace. Wallis invited responses to the paper in the hope that it would add to the evaluation of the then current situation and offer ideas for future developments. In silks there is a decided progress in design, as applied to some classes of goods, and these, too, of the cheaper kind, and, consequently, most in demand. In furniture silks the designs of the last three or four years appear to have been based upon much sounder principles than formerly. The progress made in the manufacture of church plate and general metal work for ecclesiastical purposes, as indeed in all matters connected with church ornaments, is well known to all who take an interest in the progress of the arts of design.
