International studio (24.1904/1905(1905))

Notes on the Crafts


METAL LANTERN BY MISS LAV ARON

who has examined the work of the Misses Ripley
will miss the evidence of justification. They found
both an attraction and an opportunity in the art of
carving leather, which had suffered, along with
many other crafts of our later day, through the
easily satisfied artistic demands of a too commer-
cial spirit. Coming from California, where leather
work was introduced early by the Spaniards, they
chose for development the style of work that rests
on a process analogous to wood carving.
Because of the reproach into which Mexican
leather work, by its tawdry deterioration, has of late
years fallen, they would not thank me for referring
to the land to the south of us as the place of origin
of their art. The Mexican manner, however,
depending, as it does, upon modelling with the
knife or tool, leaving the design in relief, is plainly
to be distinguished from other types of leather work,
such as the Spanish—(from which it differs utterly,
in spite of its introduction from the South by the
old Spaniards of the west coast)—the Spanish or
Cordovan manner of illuminating the surface after
an Oriental fashion with applications of metal leaf
and colour; and the Venetian gold tooling, which has
found its best scope in the binding of books, and,
as a highly advanced technical process, reached its
perfection in France some centuries ago. When it
is said, then, that the Misses Ripley in adopting
leather working as a craft have chosen the Mexican
method, it is to be understood simply that they have
preferred to adopt carving rather than illuminating
or embossing or tooling in the strict French sense,
feeling as they do that carving is the most legitimate
way of treating leather in design, because the char-
acteristics of the medium are frankly acknowledged

therein, and appropriately used for the purposes of
the craft.
On this basis of choice of method the Misses
Ripley have developed their art with entire free-
dom of self-expression, seeking to keep their work
original and independent. They have made their
own choice of instruments, and in several cases have
invented new ones for their particular purposes.
They use a modelling tool, not altogether similar to
the knives usually known by the name, for the
greater part of their work; and in laying out their
design gain a freshness and zest of line by omitting
any preliminary sketch upon the leather surface,
and cutting at once with the steel. In choice of
work, they have come to incline more and more to
the binding of books and the embellishment of
smaller surfaces of leather, such as table covers, for
instance, in preference to work that demands a
certain amount of repetition, such as panelling and
ceiling, as the duplication of a design in repeats
detracts, in their estimate, from the personal note
of their work. It must not, of course, be supposed,
that their devotion to the hall mark of individuality
leads them aside from the conservative ideals of an
art they thoroughly understand. So far from
attempting to produce the new and bizarre in
design, they are anxious to reanimate the old per-
fection of earlier days.
In their bookbinding this intention finds most
attractive scope. The cover of a book, they hold,
should not merely interpret the text, but should also
bespeak the spirit of the time and country in which
the book was written. This leads them into much
careful study and research, and produces many
happy results, as in a binding for Mr. Huntington


LAMP WITH SHADE BY MISS LAVARON

XI