Studio: international art (1.1893)

New Publications

" The salient features of the English work were
strength, independence of architectural style, and
designs dictated by necessity or derived from sym-

FIG. 5.__IRONWORK AT EASTWOOD CHURCH,

ROCHFORD, ESSEX

bols, embellished with ornament taken almost ex-
clusively from the animal world. It is a significant
fact, that although Norman craftsmen supplanted
ours in every other industry, so that the English
names for mason, painter, carpenter, joiner, plumber,
tailor, &c, disappeared, this was not the case with
either the smith, his tools, or the metals he used.
The merely mechanical branch of his craft, the
farrier's, is alone associated with his Norman rival."

It was in the later developments of the grille that
architectural ornament first asserted itself, and for
a time nearly ousted that based on natural forms;
concurrently with this came the change in work-
manship from smithing pure and simple, in which
the only tools were the hammer, tongs, anvil,

stamps, &c, and in which the iron was only handled
hot, to the use of others, such as files and saws, for
working the metal cold.

'I'his tended to the employment of bigger masses,
often sculptured out of the solid, and covered with
quite unsuitably small detail; and to the reproduc-
tion in iron of forms by no means characteristic of
the material, but more suggestive of wood and
stone, and of the methods of the joiner and mason.

This finally developed into the association of the
blacksmith and locksmith, and all the beautiful and
fanciful door furniture and lock plates which resulted
therefrom, and of which Figs. 2 and 3 are good
examples.

Mr. Gardner's illustrations, which are drawn from
various sources, are very uneven in quality, but do
not on the whole reach a particularly high level.
Some of them are quite inadequate, and are con-
fused by meaningless shading and hatching, and in
the illustrations of pierced work the careful drawing
is much discounted by the want of discrimination
in the values of tone. It is also a pity that Mr.
Gardner's descriptions of the plates do not savour
a little more of the workman and less of the
archpeologist. It is, after all, a more useful thing to
know exactly how a thing was made than precisely
where and when. R. LI. B. Rathbone.

Le Morte D'Arthur. (Part I.) By Sir Thomas
Mallory. (London: J. M. Dent & Co.)—With
no disrespect either to the fascinating Chronicle
itself, or to Professor Rhys' Introduction, which is
to be given with Part VI., it is safe to infer that in
this edition Mr. Aubrey Beardsley's designs to the
text will form the chief attraction to readers of
The Studio. Part I., just issued, contains two
full-page plates (one of which was reproduced in
our May number) and over sixty decorative
initials, borders, and chapter headings. It would
be a pleasant task to consider these in detail, but
here it must suffice to call attention to the excel-
lent typography and general appearance of the
work, which at 2s. 6d. each for ten Parts is certainly
good value even in these days of popular prices.
That a youth should have essayed the task of
illustrating so large a work is in itself uncommon.
The promise it gives of Mr. Beardsley's future
as a decorative artist is well sustained in this first
portion.

Bon-Mots of Sydney Smith and R. B. Sheri
dan, with Grotesques by Aubrey Beardsley.
(London : J. M. Dent & Co.)—This dainty little
volume is crammed with good things ; the clever
grotesques are considerably reduced from the
original drawing, to their detriment in a few cases,
but as an attempt to symbolise the jokes rather
than as pictorial illustrations they will repay study.
The volume is packed with good things which
deserve recalling, and with wit that is as fresh as
when it flashed out a century ago.

The Butterfly. No. 2 is an excellent number.
The illustrations are of very high merit, and the
decorations by Mr. Edgar Wilson, one of which we
are permitted to reproduce on page 164, are as good
in their own way.

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