International studio (31.1907)

Reviews and Notices

addition to the narrative, and give further proof of
the author’s thoroughness.
Porcelain. A Sketch of its Nature and Ma7iu-
facture. By William Burton, F.C.S. (Cassell
& Co.) js. 6d. net.—There is a class of china
collectors which is very large. It is doubtful
whether its components would be admitted as
collectors by the real collector, but they probably
number amongst themselves many of our readers—
certainly the class includes many artists. They buy
to satisfy a whim for certain pieces of china as
decoration, and are ruled by a fancy for certain
shapes and certain kinds of colour. These
collectors often have quite a large collection about
which they know next to nothing, though a very
delicate instinct has perhaps made it a good one.
Such people turn to every fresh book on the
subject for something which will throw light on
their possessions. Unfortunately for them, few
books on the subject are written in such a manner
as to afford them any help. Mr. Burton’s book,
however, by its thorough exploration of every
process of porcelain making in Asia and Europe,
will help them to detect those qualities of glaze
and body which have hitherto appealed to them
only in a mutely pleasant way. For the real
collector the work will prove invaluable, for there
has been the sifting, weighing, selecting and
arranging of the author’s knowledge which was
promised in the preface of this interesting and
scholarly work. The book is well and attractively
illustrated throughout.
Sketches from Normandy. By Louis Becke.
(London: T. Werner Laurie.) 6s. — Some of
these delightfully humorous sketches have already
appeared in the “Westminster” and “Pall Mall”
Gazettes, but they have been deftly dovetailed
into a consecutive narrative of a series of truly
remarkable adventures in northern France. For-
tunately Mr. Becke’s love of fun is tempered by
discretion; for though he does not object to hold-
ing himself up to ridicule for the sake of adding
zest to a good story, there is nothing in his carica-
tures of his French friends likely to compromise
the entente cordiale he took such strange means to
promote.
A Cruise Across Europe. By Donald Maxwell.
With illustrations by the author and Cottingham
Taylor. (London : John Lane.) 105. 6d. net.—
Although, with some few exceptions, such as the
Willemstad, Corner of Frankfort-on-Main, and
Hungarian Village Festival, the drawings in this
chatty record of the adventurous voyage of the
“ Walrus ” from the Rhine to the Black Sea are

somewhat tame and matter-of-fact, the book is a
notable one, proving, for the first time, the possi-
bility of sailing from the west to the east of Europe
by a fresh water route. The two friends who
figure as captain and mate in the interesting
narrative may be said to have practically discovered
the little-known and rarely used Ludwig’s Canal
that connects Bamburg and Kelheim, both in
Bavaria, and, to quote the words of the author,
“enables barges and small craft to climb to a
height of over fifteen hundred feet from the sea
and cross a mountain range by means of tortuous
windings and bold leaps over the wild and yawning
chasms uniting the basins of the Rhine and Danube
and bringing Holland within rowing distance of
the Black Sea.” In making some of her bold
leaps the plucky little “ Walrus ” was more than
once in peril of her life, and no little credit is due
to her captain and crew of one for bringing her
safely through her many adventures. Even more
to be congratulated are they on the ready wit with
which they met every emergency on land as well
as on water, whether as suspected spies or as guests
in a Hungarian ball-room, where they had to
depend on interpreters who, it is to be feared,
wilfully gave an offensive turn to the most innocent
remarks.
Thomas Stothard. By A. C. Coxhead. (London :
A. H. Bullen.) i6r. net.—In these days of the
multiplication of art monographs it seems strange
that there should not hitherto have appeared a
really authoritative work on the gifted and prolific
pioneer of modern book illustration, Thomas
Stothard, who, though his uninterrupted struggle
with adverse circumstances prevented him from
taking as high a position as he might otherwise
have done, yet belonged to the brilliant group of
men who in the eighteenth century aided in the
remarkable revival of pictorial art in England.
The issue of the present volume will do much to
remedy this injustice; but, unfortunately, the bio-
graphy, founded mainly on that written by the
widow of the artist’s second son, is somewhat
meagre, occupying but a few pages and touching
but lightly on many important questions, such as
the relations between Stothard and two men of
characters and aims so diverse as Blake and Flax-
man, with both of whom he collaborated at different
times. This inadequacy is, however, in a very
great measure atoned for by the completeness of
the catalogue raisonne of Stothard’s work forming
the bulk of the volume, the preparation of which
must have involved an immense amount of arduous
toil. It is richly illustrated with examples of the

334