International studio (27.1905/1906(1906))

Book Reviews

sentecl another study of American childhood in the
Portrait o/ Master Hyatt Mayer. Mr. Colin Camp-
bell Cooper won a medal with a view of the arches
of St. PauVs Bridge, Parthenay, France.
Mr. John LaFarge has been selected to paint
six mural clecorations for the St. Paul Street lobby
of the court house of Baltimore, Md., for which
the City Board of Estimate has recently appro-
priated $3,500.
A Collection of one hundred photographic
prints by members of the Photo Secession have
been on view at 291 Fifth Avenue, New York.
Among the exhibitors in this interesting collection
are Edward J. Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz, Airs.
Gertrude Kasebier, Clarence F. White and Joseph
T. Keiley.
A RECENT EXHIBITION in the Art Gallery of
Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, was devoted to the wood
engravings of Eldridge Kingsley. Mr. Ivingsley
was a pioneer in the style of wood engraving in the
early seventies, which found its widest opportunity
in the old “Scribner’s Alagazine.” He was espe-
cially fond of engraving direct upon the block from
nature, a feat so unusual at the time that it aroused
incredulity. Beautiful prints from this engraver’s
blocks were at the time a thorough innovation in
style and worked a radical change in the art.
Eben Comins has held in his Studios in Boston
an exhibition of his work in water colours, oils and
pencil. Interesting among the exhibits was a col-
lection of what the artist calls “sketch copies,”
being free copies in water colours of works by the
old masters, done with a view to catching the spirit
and action of the paintings rather than making
exact reprocluctions. A large canvas was also on
view called The Three Forces, which has been seen
at the Paris salon and in various cities in this
country.

Book reviews.
Old Pewter, Brass, Copper and
Sheeeield Plate. By N. Hudson
Moore, author of “The Old China
Book,” “The Old Furniture Book,” “The
Lace Book,” etc. With one hundred and five
illustrations. 8vo, pp. xv, 229. New York:
Frederick A. Stokes Company.
Mr. Aloore has followed his formen books on the
charm in the china, furniture and lace of earlier
days, by an entertaining and informing study of old

pewter, with which he joins similar expositions of
early work in brass, copper and Sheffield plate.
The volume is illustrated abundantly from photo-
graphs.
There is a smack of the good old colony days in
our pewter relics. When England itself was a
colony, the chief value set upon the land by Rome
was its wealth of tin. Air. Aloore traces the history
of foreign pewter in an introductory chapter,
reviewing the interesting regulations of the pew-
terers’ guilds and the aclaptations to which the alloy
was put. He recalls many quaint details, such as
the tempest that followed the tax laid by the French
King, Charles VI, on the pewter pilgrims’ badges,
long exempt and speedily re-exempted. Images of
saints were worn, as were these badges, in the cap.
Like other guilds, the Worshipful Company of
Pewterers in London took good care to guard the
rights of its members and to maintain the Standard
of its wares. It was natural from the character of
the craft that the pewterers should form such an
association, for the primary reason that most of the
work depended 011 Casting, and that the moulds,
usually of gun metal, were expensive. It was ruled
that moulds should be loanecl without Charge to
members. The guild began to grow too indepen-
dent, too autonomous in the freedom with which it
made new regulations without Consulting mayor
and aldermen, until in 1438 the latter body annulled
all previous unauthorized ordinances. But the
guild flourished, and though fourteenth in order of
precedence, was of great importance. A curious
measure was the prohibition of advertising. I11
1590 it appears that one Richard Staple was ffned
for “boastyng his wares to be better than the other
men’s,” and in 1690 one Robert Locke was charged
with distributing “tickets” about the city with his
name and address upon them.
About 1750 a protest came from Philadelphia
that the “Guinea Basons” sent from the City of
Bristol to America were of inferior quality. The
pewter in America generally was at first all im-
ported. A curious vessel that is now found in
various parts of the country is the hot water dish
for keeping food warm. These were like bowls
having a fixed dish at the top, with a stopper in the
hole by which the hot water was poured in or out.
One of these curious and convenient dishes be-
longecl to William Emerson, the grandfather of the
essayist, the patriot and preacher who built the
“Old Manse” at Concord in an upper chamber of
which Hawthorne ivrote some of his romances.
Canclle moulds were important implements for the
housekeeper and were in demand until the use of

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