Studio: international art (25.1902)

Reviews

and Denmark in gold and colours. The casket
was carried out by Mr. A. Michelsen.

G. B.

REVIEWS.

History of Lace. By Mrs. Palliser. Revised
and Enlarged by M. Jourdain and Alice Dry-
den. (London : S. Low & Co.) £2 2s. net.—It is
fortunate that this beautiful and deeply interesting
volume has appeared at a time when it can be
considered on its merits, and has not been over-
looked in the overwhelming mass of literature of all
kinds which poured from the press in December.
There is no need to recommend the original book
by Mrs. Palliser; it was accepted as the standard
work on the subject of which it treats half a century
ago. More than thirty years have, however, elapsed
since its third edition was published, during which,
alas ! many priceless relics of the past have been
lost or destroyed, or, where they have been pre-
served, they have changed hands so often as to
have been practically forgotten by the public. The
editors of the new publication—for new publica-
tion it practically is—whilst preserving intact so far
as possible the original narrative of Mrs. Palliser,
have been at infinite pains to bring it up to date,
supplementing it with a vast number of valuable
notes, and adding an account of the bobbin and
machine-made lace, the manufacture of which has
of late years become a national industry in England
and France. The last chapter is succeeded by an
appendix giving transcripts from rare manuscripts
and books, whilst a Glossary of terms and an
excellent Index make the book an ideal work of
reference for the student. No expense or trouble
has been spared in collecting characteristic ex-
amples of every variety of lace, from the earliest
times of lace-making, properly so called, down to
the present day. The numerous illustrations, which
are of considerable technical excellence, include
reproductions of old portraits showing lace-trimmed
costumes, altar cloths, hangings, specimens not
only of famous completed lace, but of pretty well
every stitch employed in its production, groups of
women engaged in making the different kinds, etc.

Mrs. Palliser had the rare gift—and her present
successors share that gift in a marked degree—of
writing on a technical subject in such a manner as
to make her narrative interesting even to those to
whom its special subject would not at first sight
seem to appeal. She reconstructs the surround-
ings of those for whom the beautiful fabrics she
describes were created, and with a few slight
touches brings back the very atmosphere in which

they lived. In fact, she traces not only the history
of lace-making from its first evolution out of the
open-work embroidery fashionable in the sixteenth
century, to its decadence in modern times, but also
that of the changes in society which were
reflected in costume and domestic decoration. She
tells, for instance, how, when Mary Queen of
Scots was a prisoner at Lochleven, Sir Robert
Melville delivered to her a pair of white satin shoes
edged with a double border of silver guipure, notes
the fondness of Princess Mary for giving away lace,
her Privy Council expenses recording several dona-
tions of it, describes the gold and silver parchment
lace-trimmings of Charles the First's nightcaps,
relates with considerable humour the adventures
of high-born lady smugglers who endeavoured to
elude the tax on their favourite adornment, and
tells gruesome tales of the substitution of lace for
bodies in the coffins of those who had died abroad.

The Human Figure in Motion. By Eadweard
Muybridge. (London: Chapman & Hall, Ltd.)
20s. net.—As an accompaniment to the work by
the same author on " Animals in Motion," this
volume will be generally welcomed by artists and
designers. It presents the results of what Mr.
Muybridge calls " an electro-photographic investi-
gation of consecutive phases of muscular actions,"
and shows instructively, by instantaneous photo-
graphs of male and female figures, the way in which
various familiar movements are performed. The
chief value of these studies is that they enable the
artist or student to test and correct his visual im-
pressions of different kinds of action, and so to
avoid contradictory suggestions in his work ; they
are not intended to save him the trouble of making
his own investigations. Used with judgment, the
book has great educational possibilities.

Old Dutch Towns and Villages of the Zuider
Zee. By W. J. Tuyn. Illustrations by W. O. J.
Nieuwenkamp and J. G. Veldheer. (London :
Fisher Unwin.) 2\s.—This work consists of a
series of illustrations, accompanied by descriptions
of churches and other buildings in various Dutch
towns and villages. Some of the illustrations
consist of drawings in strongly-lined pen-and-ink
work ; others are woodcuts of the most legitimate
type. In the former, black lines are laid down on
a white ground ; in the latter, white lights are cut
out of a black ground. In both cases the drawings
are broadly decorative in character, and are inte-
resting for their technical qualities as well as for
their topographical value. In a work of the artistic
pretensions which this one assumes, in virtue of
its illustrations, better judgment ought to have

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