DOI Heft:
No. 82 (January, 1900)
DOI Artikel:British decorative art in 1899, and the Arts And Crafts Exhibition, [4]
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19783#0274
Arts and Crafts
TILE PANEL DESIGNED BY JAMES POWELL
(Messrs. Powell &° Sons, Manufacturers)
BRITISH DECORATIVE ART
IN 1899 AND THE ARTS
AND CRAFTS EXHIBITION,
PART IV.
On the occasion of the Arts and Crafts Exhibi-
tion in 1896 a criticism was passed in certain
quarters upon the Whitefriars glass, that, for lack of
colour, its effect was too monotonous. This ob-
jection Messrs. Powell and Sons determined to
remove in 1899. Accordingly the keynote of their
latest work is colour. Particularly rich in appear-
ance is the goblet with a bowl engraved witli fish
on a blue and green ground for the water, studded
with more solid incrustations, known as " tears," to
represent air-bubbles. Other pieces are engraved
with dragon-flies,, or streaked with an irregular
pattern in colour, resembling seaweed or natural
moss; another, again, clouded from blue to ruby
at the upper rim ; others are sprinkled all over
with gold upon an opaque basis of blue, green or
red ; while some are semi-opaque, with a variable,
irridescent colour-tone, of which the name chame-
leon conveys the most adequate description. Other
pleasing effects, all proper to the material, are
obtained by means of spiral air-twists in a cylin-
drical or bulbous stem, by making the stem branch
into a triple loop called " three-ways," or again by
the process known as threading. The waves thus
produced in colour or opaque white may be drawn
into convex or concave loops, accordingly as they
are touched externally in an upward or downward
direction while the glass is still ductile and before
it has had time to cool into set rigidity. Some
beautiful table glasses are made in the shape of a
convolvulus bell, ribbed with green " tears." The
so-called "soda-glass" has very artistic properties,
MOSAIC PANEL DESIGNED BY JAMES POWELL
(Messrs. Powell & Sons, Manufacturers)
247
TILE PANEL DESIGNED BY JAMES POWELL
(Messrs. Powell &° Sons, Manufacturers)
BRITISH DECORATIVE ART
IN 1899 AND THE ARTS
AND CRAFTS EXHIBITION,
PART IV.
On the occasion of the Arts and Crafts Exhibi-
tion in 1896 a criticism was passed in certain
quarters upon the Whitefriars glass, that, for lack of
colour, its effect was too monotonous. This ob-
jection Messrs. Powell and Sons determined to
remove in 1899. Accordingly the keynote of their
latest work is colour. Particularly rich in appear-
ance is the goblet with a bowl engraved witli fish
on a blue and green ground for the water, studded
with more solid incrustations, known as " tears," to
represent air-bubbles. Other pieces are engraved
with dragon-flies,, or streaked with an irregular
pattern in colour, resembling seaweed or natural
moss; another, again, clouded from blue to ruby
at the upper rim ; others are sprinkled all over
with gold upon an opaque basis of blue, green or
red ; while some are semi-opaque, with a variable,
irridescent colour-tone, of which the name chame-
leon conveys the most adequate description. Other
pleasing effects, all proper to the material, are
obtained by means of spiral air-twists in a cylin-
drical or bulbous stem, by making the stem branch
into a triple loop called " three-ways," or again by
the process known as threading. The waves thus
produced in colour or opaque white may be drawn
into convex or concave loops, accordingly as they
are touched externally in an upward or downward
direction while the glass is still ductile and before
it has had time to cool into set rigidity. Some
beautiful table glasses are made in the shape of a
convolvulus bell, ribbed with green " tears." The
so-called "soda-glass" has very artistic properties,
MOSAIC PANEL DESIGNED BY JAMES POWELL
(Messrs. Powell & Sons, Manufacturers)
247