International studio (27.1905/1906(1906))

Reviews

last found a sympathetic German critic, who has
supplemented a really able essay by a number of
good reproductions of typical paintings.
Denmarft's Malerkunst. By Ch. A. Been.
(Copenbagen : Ernst Bojesen.) — It would have
added greatly to the value of these two volumes on
the painters of Denmark if their arrangement had
been alphabetical instead of chronological, for they
are practically little more than a dictionary, each
artist being treated as an isolated unit, and no
attempt having been made to write a history of
Danish art. The numerous illustrations include
examples of the work of every painter of note, and
form a valuable Supplement to the text.
Picturesque Umbna. By Katherine S. Mac-
quoid. (London: T. Werner Laurie.) 6s. net.—
Written in a bright and picturesque style, and full
of interesting anecdotes, this new work by Mrs.
Macquoid will no doubt find many readers ; but it
can scarcely be claimed that the illustrations by Mr.
Thomas R. Macquoid do justice either to himself
or to the beautiful old cities described in the text.
Mrs. Macquoid is thoroughly in touch with her
subjects ; she is an accomplished traveller, accus-
tomed to put herseif en rapport with the people of
the country wherever she may be ; and she is also
well acquainted with the past history of the hill
towns of Umbria. Her chapters on Perugia are,
perhaps, the best in the book.
Bristol and Plymouth Porcelain. With Preface
by the Rev. A. W. Oxford, M.A., M.D. (Bristol:
William George’s Sons.)—All who are interested in
the subject of Bristol and Plymouth ceramic art
will owe a debt of gratitude to the Compilers of
this catalogue raisonne of a truly representative
Collection of examples, which it has taken the
owner more than twenty years to accumulate,
and still remains unrivalled, in spite of his many
gifts to public galleries. Mr. Trapneil is evidently
an ideal collector, who loves to share his joy in his
possessions with all the worid; and in the author
of the Preface to his catalogue he has found an
able collaborator and Interpreter, for Mr. Oxford
not only dwells minutely on the most noteworthy
features of the actual Collection, but teils the whole
story of the development of the various branches
of production, defining their several characteristics
and supplying facsimiles of the marks of the different
makers. A number of specially fine pieces, includ-
ing beautiful miniatures of Lady Jane Grey, Mr. H.
Bone, and Sir F. Collington, are also reproduced,
and an interesting portrait is given of Mr. Trapneil
surrounded by some of his chief treasures.
English Gold'smiths and their Marks. By C. J.

Jackson, F.S.A. (London: Macmillan.) £2 2s.
net.—The author of this monumental publication
—the outcome of seventeen years of industrial
research—whose enthusiasm for his subject enables
him to give interest to the driest details, explains
that the original nucleus of the work was an
Essay on the Spoon, read before the Society of
Antiquaries, which he proposed to incorporate in
an Illustrated History of English Plate, to be
supplemented by Tables of Marks. In the course,
however, of his examination of the many collec-
tions to which he had access, he became con-
vinced that it was impossible to do anything like
justice to the subject of Marks in an appendix,
and he decided to devote a separate volume to it.
Resolutely laying aside his history, though it was
already considerably advanced, he devoted all his
energies to his new task, collecting and identifying
many thousands of marks, tracing their origin, and
in every case getting to the very root of their
meaning. Wisely taking it for granted that all
who will use his book will not be experts, he pre-
faces his actual descriptions and Tables of Marks
with a history of the goldsmith’s craft, which, as was
long the custom, he takes to include that of the
silversmith, describing the various processes of
assay, explaining the technical terms in use in
connection with them, and teiling the chequered
story of the London Goldsmiths’ Guild. The
ground thus cleared for action, as it were, he pro-
ceeds to examine the marks on London plate,
giving a detailed account of how he had them and
others reproduced for the tables he gives. Each
set of marks, he says, “ has been taken from an
authentic piece of plate. . . . First an impression
has been secured in very fine sealing-wax, then
fiom it has been obtained a cast in the finest
plaster-of-paris.” A laborious and costly process,
indeed, but he declares “ that although the sale of
the entire edition may not .recoup his expenditure,
he will not be disappointed, because the work was
undertaken for pleasure and not for profit.” The
elaborate Tables of Marks, which occupy several
hundred pages, include not only those of London
and the chief provincial towns of England, but
also those of Edinburgh, Dublin, Cork, and other
cities of Scotland and Ireland; so that the book
might well have been called British, instead of
“ English Goldsmiths and their Marks.” These
most valuable tables, the drawing up of which
must have involved an extraordinary amount of
labour, are chronologically arranged, the first dating
from the early part of the fourteenth, the last from
the beginning of the twentieth Century. The
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