International studio (82.1925)

inceRHACionAL

GLARK JONES, Gab inetmakev

rhe career of Clark
Jones, painter, musi-
cian (under the name
of Harry J. Clarke), me-
chanic anci cabinetmaker
persists in suggesting, even
after we have discounted
any superficial similarity, something of the versa-
tility, the many-faceted genius of the masters of
the Italian Renaissance. It is, of course, a com-
monplace to refer to the present era of vigorous
artistic activity as the Modern Renaissance. But
never have we gone so far as to concede to any
contemporary artist even a little of the manifold
talent which was centered so uncharily in the
great ones of the sixteenth century. To us versa-
tility implies fluttering all ways and flying in
none, and we look askance at it as incompatible
with our twentieth-century god, success. There-
fore, Clark Jones, whose many achievements we
cannot legitimately ignore, will doubtless come
somewhat in the nature of a disconcerting chal-
lenge. It is his achievements as designer and
maker of superfine furniture which here interest us.

Some little acquaintance with Mr. Jones'
rather picturesque career is necessary to make
his attainments plausible. He is an American,
born in Georgia, and, not to the entire satisfaction
of his parents, was exhibiting portraits at the age

of fourteen. He was finally
sent to a theological college
where, financial reverses
throwing him on his own
resources, he taught music
"on almost anything that
had strings." A turn of
chance landed him in mechanical work in Kansas
City, where, as an apprentice, he acquired a
working knowledge of mechanics. The curtain
rises on him again as a musician in Chicago during
the World's Fair, conducting orchestras and still
playing on almost anything with strings. There
followed a residence in New York where he once
more taught music. He bobs up again, this time
in Europe, a member of a group of musicians,
playing the better sort of banjo music in the
principal cities and before the crowned heads
which somehow always seem to sit so graciously
in attendance on musicians. It was during this
sojourn abroad, while he was living in London,
that his early mechanical training first came to
the foreground. Unable to find musical instru-
ments to satisfy him, Mr. Jones set about making
them himself. Some extraordinary banjos were
the result, instruments possessing the sweetness
of tone and the carrying quality of harps rather
than the usual harsh twang of the commercial
banjo. The war stopped this phase of his career;

Musician by profession and
craftsman by avocation, Mr.
Jones creates symphonies
in intricate marquetry

Horace "Lesley Ott

one hundred eight

NOVEMBER I 92 j