DOI issue:
Nr. 170 (April, 1911)
DOI article:Reviews and Notices
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43446#0237
Reviews and N otices
ductions add to, rather than detract from,
the artistic value of the original prints. Mr.
Liberty’s informing notes accompanying the
illustrations add greatly to the interest and
value of the book.
Stories from Dante. By SUSAN CUNNING-
ton. Illustrations in colour by Evelyn Paul.
Stories from Shakespeare. Retold by Thomas
Carter. Illustrations in colour by G. D.
Hammond, R.I. (London: G. C. Harrap
& Co.) 5s. net each.—These stories serve
perhaps the useful purpose of an introduction
to what must be read afterwards in the original,
though in the case of Shakespeare one had
imagined that Charles Lamb had entirely
satisfied any such want. The illustrations,
though good in the main, seem in both cases
to miss somewhat the spirit of the stories, as
though the artists had found themselves not
in complete sympathy with their subject. Miss
Gertrude Hammond’s drawing is excellent, and
the colour pleasing, but the composition of the
pictures, and the choice of subjects for illustra-
tion, leave much to be desired. Miss Paul’s
illustrations are better chosen in point of subject,
but seem to lack imaginativeness.
Designing from Plant Forms. By JOHN
Wadsworth. (London: Chapman & Hall.)
6s. net.—We can commend the author for his
drawings of plants and flowers, which indeed
have often more true decorative quality than
his application of those forms in design. His
letterpress contains many useful hints to those
who are at the commencement of the subject, and
in particular he would “ urge upon the student
the necessity of making a thorough study of
lettering” — excellent advice which we wish
were more often followed.
From Messrs. F. Wolfrum & Co., of Vienna
and Leipzig, we have received the first in-
stalment of an important large folio work,
Architektonische Handzeichnungen alter Mei-
ster, the object of which is to place within the
reach of students of architecture and others, an
extensive series of reproductions of representative
sketches and drawings made by master archi-
tects at various periods from the 13 th century
till the beginning of the 19th. The programme
of the work fulfils essentially the same idea
as the late Baron Geymiiller had in view when
some 18 years ago he projected a “ Photographic
Thesaurus of Architecture and its subsidiary
Arts ”—a scheme which he returned to ten
years later at the International Congress of
Historical Sciences in Rome, but which he
never lived to see carried out. The work,
of which the first part of the first volume has
now appeared, is issued under the editorship
of Dr. Hermann Egger, who is a Professor
at the Technical High School and Lecturer
on Architectural History at the University,
Vienna, and when complete, promises to be a
valuable acquisition to the architect’s library,
for the majority of the drawings have never
before been reproduced. Among the masters
represented in the initial instalment are Giovanni
Bernini, Girolamo Rainaldi, Giuseppe Galli,
Alexandre Le Blond, Francois Le Moyne,
Hubert Robert, J. F. Chaigrin and Hohenberg
von Hetzendorff. The reproductions, which
are mounted on grey cards, are excellent, and
there will be 60 to each volume, the price
of which has been fixed at 100 mks.
In Colour Printing and Colour Printers,
recently issued by Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons,
Ltd. (12s. tod. net), Mr. R. M. Burch reviews
the numerous processes employed in the pro-
duction of coloured engravings and illustrations
from the 15 th century down to the present
time, but the narrative deals more fully with
the processes which originated from the early
part of the 18th century onwards, beginning
with Le Bion’s two-colour mezzotints. Con-
siderable space is devoted to the history of
chromo-xylography and chromo-lithography,
and the volume concludes with a special chapter
on “ Modern Colour Processes,” by Mr. W.
Gamble, editor of the “ Process Year Book.”
Numerous coloured plates illustrate the text,
and there are also some portraits of inventors
of the processes which the book deals with.
Although Mr. Carter in his new issue of The
Year's Art (Hutchinson & Co., 5s. net) has
again had to resort to compression in order that
the volume should not become unwieldy, we
note that it is as replete as ever with useful
information touching the multitudinous art insti-
tutions of this and other countries.
The study of the markings and colourings of
natural objects is one which all interested in
decorative design will find to be of considerable
value to them. In no objects can more beauti-
ful schemes of colouring be seen than in the
tropical lepidoptera. Mr. A. Ford of Bourne-
mouth has lately shown us a series of fine
specimens mounted in glass boxes so that both
back and front of the insects may be seen and
the objects handled without fear of injury.
These should be especially valuable to those to
whom the matter is of interest.
165
ductions add to, rather than detract from,
the artistic value of the original prints. Mr.
Liberty’s informing notes accompanying the
illustrations add greatly to the interest and
value of the book.
Stories from Dante. By SUSAN CUNNING-
ton. Illustrations in colour by Evelyn Paul.
Stories from Shakespeare. Retold by Thomas
Carter. Illustrations in colour by G. D.
Hammond, R.I. (London: G. C. Harrap
& Co.) 5s. net each.—These stories serve
perhaps the useful purpose of an introduction
to what must be read afterwards in the original,
though in the case of Shakespeare one had
imagined that Charles Lamb had entirely
satisfied any such want. The illustrations,
though good in the main, seem in both cases
to miss somewhat the spirit of the stories, as
though the artists had found themselves not
in complete sympathy with their subject. Miss
Gertrude Hammond’s drawing is excellent, and
the colour pleasing, but the composition of the
pictures, and the choice of subjects for illustra-
tion, leave much to be desired. Miss Paul’s
illustrations are better chosen in point of subject,
but seem to lack imaginativeness.
Designing from Plant Forms. By JOHN
Wadsworth. (London: Chapman & Hall.)
6s. net.—We can commend the author for his
drawings of plants and flowers, which indeed
have often more true decorative quality than
his application of those forms in design. His
letterpress contains many useful hints to those
who are at the commencement of the subject, and
in particular he would “ urge upon the student
the necessity of making a thorough study of
lettering” — excellent advice which we wish
were more often followed.
From Messrs. F. Wolfrum & Co., of Vienna
and Leipzig, we have received the first in-
stalment of an important large folio work,
Architektonische Handzeichnungen alter Mei-
ster, the object of which is to place within the
reach of students of architecture and others, an
extensive series of reproductions of representative
sketches and drawings made by master archi-
tects at various periods from the 13 th century
till the beginning of the 19th. The programme
of the work fulfils essentially the same idea
as the late Baron Geymiiller had in view when
some 18 years ago he projected a “ Photographic
Thesaurus of Architecture and its subsidiary
Arts ”—a scheme which he returned to ten
years later at the International Congress of
Historical Sciences in Rome, but which he
never lived to see carried out. The work,
of which the first part of the first volume has
now appeared, is issued under the editorship
of Dr. Hermann Egger, who is a Professor
at the Technical High School and Lecturer
on Architectural History at the University,
Vienna, and when complete, promises to be a
valuable acquisition to the architect’s library,
for the majority of the drawings have never
before been reproduced. Among the masters
represented in the initial instalment are Giovanni
Bernini, Girolamo Rainaldi, Giuseppe Galli,
Alexandre Le Blond, Francois Le Moyne,
Hubert Robert, J. F. Chaigrin and Hohenberg
von Hetzendorff. The reproductions, which
are mounted on grey cards, are excellent, and
there will be 60 to each volume, the price
of which has been fixed at 100 mks.
In Colour Printing and Colour Printers,
recently issued by Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons,
Ltd. (12s. tod. net), Mr. R. M. Burch reviews
the numerous processes employed in the pro-
duction of coloured engravings and illustrations
from the 15 th century down to the present
time, but the narrative deals more fully with
the processes which originated from the early
part of the 18th century onwards, beginning
with Le Bion’s two-colour mezzotints. Con-
siderable space is devoted to the history of
chromo-xylography and chromo-lithography,
and the volume concludes with a special chapter
on “ Modern Colour Processes,” by Mr. W.
Gamble, editor of the “ Process Year Book.”
Numerous coloured plates illustrate the text,
and there are also some portraits of inventors
of the processes which the book deals with.
Although Mr. Carter in his new issue of The
Year's Art (Hutchinson & Co., 5s. net) has
again had to resort to compression in order that
the volume should not become unwieldy, we
note that it is as replete as ever with useful
information touching the multitudinous art insti-
tutions of this and other countries.
The study of the markings and colourings of
natural objects is one which all interested in
decorative design will find to be of considerable
value to them. In no objects can more beauti-
ful schemes of colouring be seen than in the
tropical lepidoptera. Mr. A. Ford of Bourne-
mouth has lately shown us a series of fine
specimens mounted in glass boxes so that both
back and front of the insects may be seen and
the objects handled without fear of injury.
These should be especially valuable to those to
whom the matter is of interest.
165