International studio (30.1906/1907(1907))

Reviews and Notices

well as London, such as Birmingham, Sheffield,
Edinburgh, Dublin, Newcastle-on-Tyne, York and
Norwich, had the privilege of assay and possessed
mints before the Conquest. These valuable lists
are supplemented by numerous excellent repro-
ductions of rare pieces bearing the various marks,
their history and dimensions, along with the prices
realised at different times, which are given in every
case, and they are in their turn succeeded by a long
series of copiously illustrated sale records, ranging
in date from 1562 to 1904, of an immense variety
of specimens of plate, including salt-cellars, cruets,
epergnes, wine funnels, loving-cups, beakers, tank-
ards, etc., with others of the miniature articles
which have recently been so much in vogue.
These sale records, the collection of which must
have involved a vast amount of labour, are true
catalogues raisonnes of the objects sold, many of
which realised thousands of pounds and are still
estimated at the same high figure.
Turner’s Liber Studiorum. By W. G. Rawlinson.
(London: Macmillan.) ioi-. 6d. net. The value
of this well-known catalogue and description of the
famous Liber Studiorum has been very greatly
increased in the new edition, which has been prac-
tically re-written, the most noteworthy addition
being the exhaustive description of the engraver’s
proofs of each plate, which the author frankly
admits he had not had many opportunities of
studying when he published the book thirty years
ago. Since then, however, a careful examination
of them has brought out their transcendent import-
ance, so that Mr. Rawlinson has now no hesitation
in saying that, as displaying the plates in their
superlatively finest and freshest conditions, they
stand supreme. In his introduction the author
tells anew the whole story of the Liber, proving in
his criticism of it the independence of his judg-
ment ; and in his catalogue, one of the best that
has hitherto appeared, he also shows the full
courage of his convictions, for he has departed
from more than one old-established custom, notably
that of applying the term “states” to the various
proofs taken by engravers during the progress of
their work. Interesting letters from Turner and
his engravers, Sir Seymour Haden and Ruskin, an
excellent essay on the various styles of the etchings,
and a list of the copies made of the Liber after its
author’s death are added in appendices, giving
remarkable completeness to a work that should
find a place in every art library.
The Portraits and Jewels of Mary Stuart. By
Andrew Lang. (Glasgow : James MacLehose.)
8s. 6d. net.—So long as human nature remains

what it is a deep interest will be taken in the
personality of the unfortunate Mary, Queen of
Scots, whose tragic story appeals with equal force
to women and men even as in her lifetime her
fascination was exercised over both. Eagerly are
the various so-called portraits of the murdered
queen studied by each succeeding generation, and
again and again are the questions asked, What was
she really like? and In what lay the secret of her
extraordinary charm? To these enquiries the new
work of Mr. Lang, with its numerous excellent
illustrations, gives a final and sufficient answer, for
with infinite care and rare critical acumen he has
summed up the arguments for and against the
authenticity of the various accepted likenesses,
laying special stress, as valuable indications of
trustworthiness or the reverse, on the jewels repre-
sented as worn at the various sittings. The result
of this fresh sifting of evidence is that, although
the writer accepts but few portraits as genuine, he
has found it possible to piece together a pictorial
history of Mary from her tenth year to that preced-
ing her death. He considers that the famous
1598 Sheffield portrait, owned by the Duke of Devon-
shire, is nothing more than a good copy only of an
authentic likeness painted by an unknown hand in
15 7 7 ; while, on the other hand, he is now inclined
to reverse his previous judgment on the well-known
Leven and Melville portrait, the history of which
is obscure, and to accept it, if not as an actual
original, as a wonderful copy of a true likeness of
Mary in her youth and witchery, exclaiming, “ I
ask for no more ; I understand Mary ! ” The gap
between the portraits of the Sheffield type of 1598
and the Memorial portraits, produced after the
execution of the Queen, is not, in Mr. Lang’s
opinion, so complete as is generally supposed, and
he quotes, amongst other proofs of this, a re-
liquary, with a miniature of Mary inscribed
“M.A.R.,” in the possession of Lady Mitford,
accepting it, as does Dr. Williamson, who found a
similar miniature in the Ryks Museum, as the
best portrait of Mary in her last years.
La Peinture Francaise au debut du dix-huitieme
Siecle. By Pierre Marcel. (Paris: Librairies-
Imprimeries reunies.) 25 frs. — The work of an
accomplished critic and eloquent writer, this new
study of French painting during the last decade of
the 17 th and the first twenty years of the 18th
century, deals in an exhaustive manner with the
complex causes that made it what it was, and the
interaction between it and contemporary politics.
He divides his work into three distinct sections,
dealing in the first with the influences brought to