Designer Biography

Richard Norman Shaw

Born: 1831

Died: 1912

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Born in Edinburgh, Shaw moved to London in about 1849 and entered the office of William Burn, where he met W. E. Nesfield. His travels in Europe from 1854 to 1856 resulted in Architectural Sketches from the Continent (1858). In 1856 he joined W. E. Nesfield in Anthony Salvin's office, and in 1859 he succeeded Philip Webb as G. E. Street's principal assistant. Furniture to his design was shown at the Architectural Exhibitions of 1859 and 1861, and his work was featured in the 1862 Medieval Court. This early furniture was made by James Forsyth, Salvin's carver, whom he and Nesfield frequently used. Shaw set up his own architectural practice in the same year, sharing an office with Nesfield from 1863.   Shaw's stained glass was usually supplied by Heaton, Butler & Bayne to his own or Henry Holiday's designs, and his embroidery designs were executed by the Leek Embroidery Society. His busy and successful architectural office consumed most of his time and energy but he continued to design furniture, moving from the Gothic of his early pieces to Queen Anne revival style, such as the pieces made by Lascelles, his builder, and decorated by J. Aldam Heaton, exhibited at the Paris Exhibition of 1878, where Shaw also designed the layout of the Minton display. He designed cast iron fire surrounds for Elsleys and Coalbrookdale, and glass for the Italian firm of Salviati. His pupils and assistants, who included W. R. Lethaby, J. M. Brydon, Sidney Barnsley and Robert Weir Schultz, formed the nucleus of the Art Workers' Guild in the 1880s.