- Felix Slade
Felix Joseph Slade FRA (
6 August 1788 [His baptismal record, Baptism Register of St Mary's Lambeth, notes his birthdate ( [http://www.fownc.org/newsletters/no55.shtml] ), usually incorrectly given as 1790..] -29 March 1868 ), was an English collector ofglass , books and engravings, a fellow of theSociety of Antiquaries (1866) and aphilanthropist who endowed chairs offine art (professorships) atOxford University and Cambridge University, and atUniversity College London , where he also endowed scholarships which formed the beginning of theSlade School of Art (founded 1871).His endowment supports the Slade Lectures given at Oxford and Cambridge, one of the most prestigious series of lectures on the history of art, which are commonly published. The first Slade Professors at Oxford and Cambridge were
John Ruskin and SirMatthew Digby Wyatt , and at University College, London, SirEdward Poynter RA.He was the son of Robert Slade, a Surrey landowner and proctor in Doctors' Commons, who eventually became deputy lieutenant for Surrey, and his wife Eliza Foxcroft of Halsteads (near Thornton-in-Lonsdale, Yorkshire). From his father he inherited a considerable fortune, which supported his purchases of books and engravings. He lived with his bachelor brother Henry in the family house in Walcot Place, made a valuable collection of historical glass. When he died unmarried he left a fortune of £160,000 and bequeathed the bulk of his art collection to the
British Museum ; the books are now in theBritish Library . £35,000 was specified for the endowment of art professorships, to be known as Slade Professorships, at Oxford, Cambridge, andUniversity College, London . University College received the additional bequest of six art scholarships for students, the nucleus of theSlade School of Art .He meticulously catalogued his collection of glass, which was published in 1869 and 1871.
Notes
References
*"Encyclopedia Britannica" 1911 ( [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Felix_Slade On-line text] )
External links
* [http://www.fownc.org/newsletters/no55.shtml (Friends of West Norwood Cemetery) Genealogical notice]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
