International studio (34.1908)

Art School Notes

the bronze-casting class by the tire-perdue process.
There is a strong jewellery class in which the
instruction is entirely at the bench. All neces-
sary tools and materials are provided for the use
of the students; and on two nights a week there
are demonstrations and practice in enamelling,
in the champleve, cloisonne, Limoges and plique-
a-jour methods. Drawing from the cast and from
natural objects of the kind most useful to the
designer is sedulously practised. There is no class
for drawing from the human model, but other living
models in the shape of dogs and birds are fre-
quently available and good work from them is
done by the students in clay and with brush or
pencil.

These excellent classes and the Institute generally
owe their existence to the bequests of a City
alderman who died nearly two hundred years ago.
Sir John Cass, whose statue by Roubiliac adorns
the front of the Institute, was in turn the Master of
the Carpenters’ and of the Skinners’ Company.
He was a man of wealth who in his life devoted
much money to education, and died in the very act
of signing the will in which his bequests were made.


POTTERY CORBEL BY FRANCIS VAN HALEN PHILLIPS
(Burslem School of Art)

The arts and crafts students at the Sir John Cass
Institute are fortunate in having at their disposal a
capital and ever - increasing art-library which is
provided for by a special fund, and books from
which may be borrowed for study at home. There
is no lack of casts and photographs of specimens
of famous craftsmanship, and even a collection of
good examples of the metal work and enamelling
of past periods. With all these facilities at its
command, added to sound instruction, it is no
wonder that Jewry Street is attracting to its
technical art classes students from places as far off
as Australia. W. T. Whitley.
BURSLEM. — The education authorities
at Burslem, one of the centres of the
pottery industry, are recognising, as few
are doing, that sound instruction in all
branches of art is necessary for the progress of the
industry of the district, as well as for the much-


TILES BY FRANK ALLEN
(Burslem School of Art)

needed elevation of public taste. For a number of
years now the educationists of Burslem have en-
deavoured to perfect all branches of art training,
from the elementary school to the art school, and
to so co-ordinate the instruction given in each
department as to make the one preparatory to
the other, and to thereby obtain the best results.
The latest phase of the town’s educational advance
is the erection and opening of a new school of
art, such as will meet all requirements of modern
art instruction. The old school buildings at the
Wedgwood Memorial Institute had become entirely
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