The National Competition

MODELLED DESIGN FOR FRIEZE PANEL BV KATHLEEN RICKEARD
(PLYMOUTH TECHNICAL SCHOOL)

with their ingenious border, show a delicate origin-
ality and inventive charm. The plates by Francis
Van H. Phillips are not quite up to his level of last
year. Those of Edward Lutz (Hanley) are pleasing
and workmanlike ; and he essays a more ambitious
figure-decoration for a large vase with considerable
success.
The modelled designs in plaster for decorative
panels and friezes are somewhat above
the average this year. One of the most
striking, in its vigorous and spirited
treatment of a well-worn decorative
theme, is the Spanish Amada frieze
for a yachting club, by Kathleen Ric-
keard (Plymouth). The award of the
gold medal to C. L. J. Doman (Notting-
ham) must be recorded to the credit of
the examiners in this case as an excep-
tion to their rule of encouraging too
elaborate work. Another Nottingham
student, Ernest Copestick, is similarly
rewarded for his beautiful little model
for a fire-dog, one of the most striking
of the designs in plaster, metal, and
pottery which occupy the centre of the
room. The ornament raised above
the bar for the fire-irons is a seated
figure of singular grace, the pose un--
conventional, and one that might easily
have yielded an unrestful effect, but in
the hands of this student it becomes
dignified and full of sober charm.
Designs for furniture are seldom a
324

strong point in the National
Competition, perhaps be-
cause they require, for suc-
cess, more experience in
the handling of the larger
materials than is usually
possible to the student at
school. None of the com-
peting schools of art have
yet established a reputa-
tion for furniture, as some
schools have done in other
decorative fields. The best
exhibit of the kind this year
is a sheet of drawings for
five oak sideboards by
Ralph Henderson (Liver-
pool, Mount Street), which
show considerable fertility
of invention combined
with genuine taste in the
choice and disposition of materials. The two
best of the series are, perhaps, the one with copper
panels and fittings, and the one in fumed oak
ornamented with ebony and pewter. The example
of inlay is not so happily inspired, and in the first
of the group there seems no object in putting an
open, lattice-like back to a dresser, unless intended
to serve as a frame for drapery. Several good arts

BY A. E. RAMPLING (SALFORD)

CARVED OAK MIRROR FRAME