Studio: international art (3.1894)

Bungalows

would be wiser if he trusted these matters to a

practical lithographic printer. B

* j ■ • *l ,u • , f A 9 BRIGGS, F.R.I.B.A.

A drawing on stone cannot be manipulated as an 1 <^ '

etching on a copper-plate. In lithographic printing j These little dwellings have become

the ink is applied from a rigid wooden cylinder -M -J very popular in England, as they appeal
covered with leather, on which it has been quite not only to the economical side of our nature,
evenly distributed from a supply spread on a slab, but also to our artistic feelings. It is not neces-
hence retroussage and varying quantities of ink are sary to go either historically or technically into
not possible. It would no doubt seem very tempt- the term—a bungalow. " 'Specs I growed," said
ing to set up a press, and pull one's own proofs; Topsy ; and so, as necessity is the mother of in-
vention, bungalows have "growed,"
because they supply a want that was
felt. Suffice it that what we mean by
a bungalow is an artistic little dwelling,
cheaply but soundly built, with a proper
regard to sanitation, and popped down
in some pretty little spot, with just
sufficient accommodation for our own
particular needs. Moreover, it is not
necessary that an English bungalow,
like its Eastern original, should be a
one-storied building. A cottage is a
little house in the country, but a
bungalow is a little country house, a
homely, cosy little place with veran-
dahs, balconies, oriels, and bay windows,
while the plan is so arranged as to
ensure complete comfort with a feeling
of rusticity and ease; a place where
Herrick might have sung :

'1 Here, here I live with what my board
Can with the smallest cost afford ;
Here we rejoice because no rent
We pay for our poor tenement
Wherein we rest, and never fear
The landlord or the usurer."

It would be unsuitable to build, here
in England, bungalows like those that
may be seen in India—low, squat,
but it would be necessary to first spend a complete rambling houses, with latticed windows and flat
apprenticeship in etching and printing. roofs, and every conceivable arrangement for keep-

No exact formula can be given for etching a ing out the scorching rays of the sun; nor can
lithograph. In copper-plate etching it might be we have bungalows like those that are put up in
possible, but in lithography it is a matter of judg- some rude settlement in one of our colonies, huts
ment and experience, that cannot be imparted by built of logs hewn from the tree with possibly,
written instruction; without this practical know- if not probably, no glazing to the windows. We
ledge, the complete destruction of many drawings have to consider that our sun is not such a constant
on which much time and love have been spent is nor such a passionate visitor that we should shut
inevitable, and repeated failures would soon dismay him out of our houses, and we are not allowed to
the most enthusiastic amateur, and lead him to forget that land must be paid for, as well as bricks,
give up the whole art in despair; when, had he timber, and labour. We must also have our roofs
called in a good practical printer, a perfect result so constructed that the rainwater can easily get
would have been produced each time. away; and although we can have balconies and

W. verandahs, we must have our rooms well lighted,

20

UNGALOWS. BY R. A.

FROM A LITHOGRAPH BY EUGENE ISABEY