Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 24. (Budapest, 2006)

Magdolna LICHNER: The reception of electroplates in Hungary I. - Electroplates in the collection of the Museum of Applied Arts 1873-1884

nization process, requiring large-scale investment in the beginning, to produce considerable profit eventually. Electroware was purchased in great quantities in the colonies and in the United States of America. According to price lists, essentially tableware, cutlery, ornamental vessels and small-size reproductions of famous sculptures were sold. Between 1867 and 1878. sales turnover increased from £100,000 to £200,000/ George Richard Elkington's aspiration, that is, to produce individually designed, non-series works of art for the elite, led him to cooperate with French artists.

5 Antoine Vechte, who gained reputation in London, made a hit with the Amazon Shield, which he produced for Frederick William, at the 1851 world exhibition. The company purchased the license for the electroplated reproduction of the artefact.

6 Elkington, being keenly aware of prevalent taste and of the changes of popular demands, aspired to persuade Vechte. When he failed, he employed Vechte's student, the highly talented Léonard Morel-Ladeuil. Morel-Ladeuil worked with shapes characteristic of the late Renaissance; his contemporaries compared his talent to that of Benvenuto Cellini. To employ the French goldsmith and sculptor proved to be a highly remunerative investment. The company profited 40,000 pound sterling with the electroplated reproductions of his most famous work, the so-called Milton Shield.

7 The Elkington Company advanced parallel with the 19"'-century evolution of pro-market policies and the liberalization of the British Empire. In 1832, the so-called Reform Bill came into force. Via a parliamentary reform, it introduced the parliamentary representation of owners interested in big industry; consequently, it increased the number of liberal members in the House of Commons and made way for free trade. Anna Somers Cocks, when reviewing the history of the Victoria and Albert Museum, concludes that the museum originated in that free trade spirit and radicalism that began to flourish after the Reform Bill. The men of influence of the British industry who believed in progress and attached importance to technical and mechanical innovations, attempted to break craftsmen's local traditions and standardize execution and design. In 1835, the House of Commons established the Select Committee of Arts and Manufacturers." The positive attitude to useful art predisposed the government to shoulder financial sacrifice. On the proposal of the Committee the system of state-subsidized designer schools was instituted for the upper classes of craftsmen. The first designer school was the London School of Design. It was established in 1837 and functioned in the Somerset House. The school possessed a minor collection of books and plaster reproductions; gradually, the former evolved into a library and became the basis of a would-be collection. Similar local schools were established soon. The head of the movement was Henry Cole (1808-82); Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband was a supporter (1840). When Prince Albert started to manage the preparation and the organizing work of the 1851 world exhibition, Cole worked as his assistant. After the success, Cole re-organised the selection committee and, with the financial help of the royal couple and with the £ 5000 provided by the government, established the Museum of Manufactures. For this purpose, the Queen donated him the Marlborough House. Subsequently, this collection later evolved into a model for museums of applied arts.

9 Those aspirations of Richard Elkington that were beyond mass production intertwined with Sire Henry Cole's ambitions: on 6 October 1853, the Science and Art Department entered into a contact with the company. Elkington offered reproducing, while Cole guaranteed the permission for making reproductions and put at his disposal the object owned or borrowed by the museum.

10 Cole was a selector of English artefacts to be sent to the Paris world exhibition; due to the success, his ambitions were supported with a major financial basis. Victoria and Albert, the royal couple, who were interested in arts'

1 and supported the industrial utilization of art donated a building site in 1857; this is where the huge building complex of the South Kensington Museum was constructed between the 1860s and the 1880s. The institution had several purposes: to train industrial designers, to