International studio (32.1907)

The National Competition, igoy

LEATHER BOOK COVER

BY JOHN CHAPPLE (CAMBERWELL)

vailing poverty of ideas
There is little originality,
and in design the students
seem to be following too
closely upon the lines of
works that gained awards
in preceding exhibitions
—a natural tendency, but
one that should be dis-
couraged by the teaching
staffs of the schools.

However, there are in
one department welcome
evidences of advancement
both in invention and in
technical accomplish-
ment. The enamels, good
in design and execution
last year, are far better
this, and beyond all com-
parison better than those

than it is to-day, when the examiners can find only of a few years ago. In 1895 William Morris and
one study from the nude worthy of a higher award his fellow judges deplored the fact that the

than a bronze medal. The relative weakness of designs for enamels seemed so poor that there was

the modern student in this important respect can nothing to notice in them except perhaps that

be sufficiently estimated by looking at the majority there were indications here and there of some

of the designs in the
present exhibition in
which the human figure is
prominent.

In the encouragement
of the student to execute
the work that he has him-
self designed, the exami-
ners are working on the
right lines, but a higher
technical standard than
that shown in most of the
examples at South Ken-
sington should not be im-
possible of attainment.

The executed work from
Birmingham is more com-
petent generally than that
sent from any other school
represented in the exhibi-
tion, from which poor and
slovenly workmanship is
not entirely absent. But
this is not the disappointing
feature of the National Art
Competition of 1907, the
real weakness of which lies
in the evidence of a pre-

EMBROIDERED TABLE CENTRE

BY CONSTANCE E. NORFOLK (LEEDS)

297