DOI issue:
American section
DOI article:Recent books on wood-carving
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28251#0436
Recent Books on IVood-Carving
ILLUSTRATION (REDUCED)
PROM “WOOD-CARVING DESIGNS”
but wood-carving classes are an excellent means of
training both eye and hand, if the instruction is
carefully graduated.
“While I was wishing to collect a number
of patterns at once simple and yet good and
complete of their kind, it occurred to me that we
have a store ready to hand in the old oak furniture
of the Jacobean period. The craftsmen of that
time confined themselves almost entirely to a flat
form of decoration, and depended for effect upon
good curves and proportions, intricate arrange-
ments of intersecting lines and, above all, upon a
most ingenious variety of gouge cuts and orna-
mental punch marks. These simple designs afford
admirable material for training the eye and gaining
facility in handling the tools. In most cases the
carving is grounded out to any depth varying from
one-sixteenth to a quarter of an inch, leaving the
design in relief, though some instances will be found
in the adjoining plates in which the design is merely
incised. All the patterns given in this portfolio
have been collected from genuine pieces of old
oak furniture from various parts of the country,
through the courtesy of the owners, who have given
me every help and encour-
agement in taking the rub-
bings.”
Another publication
along similar lines is issued
by the same house under
the title “Wood-Carving
Designs.” This quarto
portfolio comprises thirty-
one working drawings, on
six sheets, measuring each
22x31 inches, by Muriel
Moller. A foreword is con-
tributed by Walter Crane.
The drawings show panels,
frames, portions for book-
cases, oak chests, spinning
chairs, medicine cupboards,
fuel boxes, hall-seats, stick
racks, etc. A sheet of draw-
ings is added showing plans
and photographs of furni-
ture suitable to treatment
with these designs. The
drawing reproduced in re-
duced size, part of sheet
number three, shows one of
five small panels for an oak
chest or hall-seat. Mr.Crane
says in his foreword:
“Miss Muriel Moller is an accomplished carver
in wood who has also had extensive experience in
teaching the craft; but, as she is relinquishing the
latter side of her work, it occurred to her that an
endeavour to impart to others some of the results of
her practice might not be unwelcome, and that a
selection of working designs of her own, which have
been actually carried out, would be acceptable to
amateurs as well as those engaged in class teaching.
“Miss Moller is doubtless more accomplished
with her chisel than with the pen, but, in drawing
the sheets of patterns which fill the accompanying
folio, she has had in view the need of a clearly
defined outline of design for the purpose of tracing
onto the wood for the carver and, beyond the main
features, has not attempted sections, leaving the
amount of relief to be illustrated by the photo-
graphs from the finished work attached to the
designs.
“A useful feature is the sheet of the elevations
to scale of executed furniture designs which accom-
pany the patterns and indicate the position and
relation of the carved work in use. It has been
rather the bane of modern wood-carving to have
LXXXVI
ILLUSTRATION (REDUCED)
PROM “WOOD-CARVING DESIGNS”
but wood-carving classes are an excellent means of
training both eye and hand, if the instruction is
carefully graduated.
“While I was wishing to collect a number
of patterns at once simple and yet good and
complete of their kind, it occurred to me that we
have a store ready to hand in the old oak furniture
of the Jacobean period. The craftsmen of that
time confined themselves almost entirely to a flat
form of decoration, and depended for effect upon
good curves and proportions, intricate arrange-
ments of intersecting lines and, above all, upon a
most ingenious variety of gouge cuts and orna-
mental punch marks. These simple designs afford
admirable material for training the eye and gaining
facility in handling the tools. In most cases the
carving is grounded out to any depth varying from
one-sixteenth to a quarter of an inch, leaving the
design in relief, though some instances will be found
in the adjoining plates in which the design is merely
incised. All the patterns given in this portfolio
have been collected from genuine pieces of old
oak furniture from various parts of the country,
through the courtesy of the owners, who have given
me every help and encour-
agement in taking the rub-
bings.”
Another publication
along similar lines is issued
by the same house under
the title “Wood-Carving
Designs.” This quarto
portfolio comprises thirty-
one working drawings, on
six sheets, measuring each
22x31 inches, by Muriel
Moller. A foreword is con-
tributed by Walter Crane.
The drawings show panels,
frames, portions for book-
cases, oak chests, spinning
chairs, medicine cupboards,
fuel boxes, hall-seats, stick
racks, etc. A sheet of draw-
ings is added showing plans
and photographs of furni-
ture suitable to treatment
with these designs. The
drawing reproduced in re-
duced size, part of sheet
number three, shows one of
five small panels for an oak
chest or hall-seat. Mr.Crane
says in his foreword:
“Miss Muriel Moller is an accomplished carver
in wood who has also had extensive experience in
teaching the craft; but, as she is relinquishing the
latter side of her work, it occurred to her that an
endeavour to impart to others some of the results of
her practice might not be unwelcome, and that a
selection of working designs of her own, which have
been actually carried out, would be acceptable to
amateurs as well as those engaged in class teaching.
“Miss Moller is doubtless more accomplished
with her chisel than with the pen, but, in drawing
the sheets of patterns which fill the accompanying
folio, she has had in view the need of a clearly
defined outline of design for the purpose of tracing
onto the wood for the carver and, beyond the main
features, has not attempted sections, leaving the
amount of relief to be illustrated by the photo-
graphs from the finished work attached to the
designs.
“A useful feature is the sheet of the elevations
to scale of executed furniture designs which accom-
pany the patterns and indicate the position and
relation of the carved work in use. It has been
rather the bane of modern wood-carving to have
LXXXVI