Decorative Work.—Messrs. Simpson and Co. employ a large number of ladies in various kinds of decorative work, such as painting tiles, glass, decorating enamelled iron, &c., at salaries beginning at £40 a year, and rising according to the value of their services. The hours of work are from 9 to 6, with the usual interval of an hour.
A good knowledge of drawing is required, such as might be obtained by two years' hard work at a School of Art, and it is desirable that the human figure should have been carefully studied; but Messrs. Simpson and Co. prefer that the ladies who come to them should be without any special knowledge of the work they will be employed in, as they would rather impart it themselves.
Miss Collingridge, 9, Beaumont Street, Portland Place, N.W., undertakes all kinds of art decorative work, and receives pupils; the hours of study are from 9.30 to 4 o'clock. Many of her pupils have been very successful in obtaining engagements as designers, china painters, &c., and two are now employed in drawing for costumiers. To obtain constant work at the conclusion of a course of study, Miss Collingridge thinks versatile invention and refined feeling essential, as is also business capacity.
The Misses Rhoda and Agnes Garrett were in business as house decorators, cabinet-makers, and designers of all the details of household furniture and upholstery, at 2, Gower Street (corner of Bedford Square), London, and I understand they were very successful. They attributed their success entirely to the thorough training they went through, and their strict attention to business. Miss Rhoda Garrett has unfortunately lately died, but Miss Agnes Garrett still carries on the business. Miss Garrett takes pupils or apprentices for a not shorter time than three years, at a premium of £300. The hours of work are from 10 to 4. After the apprenticeship industrious ladies of ordinary intelligence would be prepared to start in business on their own account, but for this capital is of course required. If two sisters or friends went through the course of study together, and into partnership afterwards, as the Misses Garrett did, they would be much more likely to succeed than one would alone.
Plan Tracing.—It has been thought that women might very well be employed in tracing the plans of builders, architects, and engineers, and an office for the purpose has been established, through the agency of the Society for the Employment of Women, at 8, Great Queen Street, S.W. It is going on very satisfactorily; several ladies are employed; they give three months to learn the work, and after that time their pay commences at threepence an hour, rising to sixpence; they work seven hours a day. Ladies who wish to learn the work, without desiring employment, can be received on payment of a premium of £10; but it is requested that all inquiries should be addressed to Miss King, Secretary to the Society for the Employment of Women, 22, Berners Street, Oxford Street.
I think many of the large firms might be induced to employ women permanently in copying their plans, if personal application were made to them and specimens of work taken. The great requisites for success in this work are neatness and accuracy; the merely technical knowledge is easily acquired.
Although they do not actually teach plan-tracing at the schools of art, their architectural classes would be found to give most of the necessary information, sufficient to enable a careful student to apply for work with the full consciousness of being able to do it.
Photography.—The following particulars respecting the employment of ladies in photography have been kindly given me by Mr. Elliott, of the firm of Elliott and Fry, photographers, Baker Street, London. He requested me to warn ladies against wasting their time in learning to tint photographs, as the fashion for these has almost entirely died out, and he has innumerable applications from ladies anxious to tint them. A considerable number of women are employed by the trade in spotting photographs; their wages usually begin at 6s. a week, rising, when they have learnt their business, which can easily be done in two months, to 15s. or £1. The hours of work are from 9 to 5. Many are employed in mounting photographs on cards; it is work that requires great neatness and accuracy; the pay varies from £1 to £1 5s. a week.
Re-touching negatives is the most difficult and consequently the best-paid branch of photography open to women; it requires some knowledge of drawing, and, Mr. Elliott says, considerable common sense; a few lessons in the technicalities should be taken from some re-toucher before applying for work, a month would be quite long enough to acquire them, and the fee would probably be small. A re-toucher willing to give the necessary instruction could usually be heard of at the leading photographers'. The salaries vary from 30s. to £3 a week.
Art Needlework.—The Royal School of Art Needlework in the Exhibition Road, South Kensington, is by far the best of all the work societies, and the only one where ladies who are once admitted can be certain of constant employment; so it is the only one of which I shall give a description. These are the rules:—