DOI Heft:
No. 7 (October, 1893)
DOI Artikel:Vallance, Aymer: The Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society at the New Gallery, 1893
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17189#0027
The Arts and Crafts Exhibition, 1893
those corpse-like " elevations and perspectives"
with which the R.A. is wont to fill one of its
PRINT CABINET, OAK, WALNUT AND EBON V. DES1GNE
BY REGINALD BLOMFIELD, EXECUTED BY A. C. MASON
mortuary chambers full, and by eschewing which
the Arts and Crafts Committee have earned
the thanks of all honest men. Tucked away,
however, in a corner of the Gallery where not
one in ten of the Exhibition's visitors is like
to ever espy it—for it is in that corner remotest
from the " cold collation "—hangs a frame of photo-
graphs of a little Surrey church which owes its
creation to Mr. Sidney H. Barnsley, a name with
which I grieve to say I am not familiar. Here is
a new variant on a Byzantine motive, gained I dare
swear from the Mosque of St. Sophia and Con-
stantinople, but handled with a reticent feeling and
sense of proportion beyond praise. From the
chancel with its simple slabs of marble, the probable
richness of whose hues one perforce misses in the
photograph, to the huge' ringed chandelier, quaint
in its very severity, nothing jars on one's sense of
well-ordered harmony. It is emphatically the
work of an artist rather than of a "professional
man."
Something of the same unpretentious sobriety
characterises the sketch design by Mr. C. F. A.
Voysey for a Cottage, which hangs near by and
which pleases rather by what it is not than by
what it actually is or may be.
Turning to such objects as are more architectural
than strictly decorative in their nature, I feel that
my interest centres chiefly in the Chimney-piece in
carved alabaster designed by Mr. H. Wilson, and
executed by Mr. F W. Pomeroy. Here the
designer has wisely concentrated himself and his
invention on the deep frieze which comes at about
eye-level of the observer, and which offers in well-
ordered riot a mass of exquisite carving whose
luxurious opulence is emphasised deftly enough by
the plain surfaces of the jambs to which the carving
is pleasantly tied as it were by the enrichment of
the inner angles. Personally I hesitate at the rather
ARM-CHAIR. DESIGNED BY REGINALD BLOM FIELD,
EXECUTED BY A. G. MASON, WITH NEEDLEWORK, DESIGNED
BY HEYWOOD SUMNER, EXECUTED BY UNA TAYLOR
spotty disks of inlaid nacre, but it may be but an
artistic playfulness after all. The distinguishing
those corpse-like " elevations and perspectives"
with which the R.A. is wont to fill one of its
PRINT CABINET, OAK, WALNUT AND EBON V. DES1GNE
BY REGINALD BLOMFIELD, EXECUTED BY A. C. MASON
mortuary chambers full, and by eschewing which
the Arts and Crafts Committee have earned
the thanks of all honest men. Tucked away,
however, in a corner of the Gallery where not
one in ten of the Exhibition's visitors is like
to ever espy it—for it is in that corner remotest
from the " cold collation "—hangs a frame of photo-
graphs of a little Surrey church which owes its
creation to Mr. Sidney H. Barnsley, a name with
which I grieve to say I am not familiar. Here is
a new variant on a Byzantine motive, gained I dare
swear from the Mosque of St. Sophia and Con-
stantinople, but handled with a reticent feeling and
sense of proportion beyond praise. From the
chancel with its simple slabs of marble, the probable
richness of whose hues one perforce misses in the
photograph, to the huge' ringed chandelier, quaint
in its very severity, nothing jars on one's sense of
well-ordered harmony. It is emphatically the
work of an artist rather than of a "professional
man."
Something of the same unpretentious sobriety
characterises the sketch design by Mr. C. F. A.
Voysey for a Cottage, which hangs near by and
which pleases rather by what it is not than by
what it actually is or may be.
Turning to such objects as are more architectural
than strictly decorative in their nature, I feel that
my interest centres chiefly in the Chimney-piece in
carved alabaster designed by Mr. H. Wilson, and
executed by Mr. F W. Pomeroy. Here the
designer has wisely concentrated himself and his
invention on the deep frieze which comes at about
eye-level of the observer, and which offers in well-
ordered riot a mass of exquisite carving whose
luxurious opulence is emphasised deftly enough by
the plain surfaces of the jambs to which the carving
is pleasantly tied as it were by the enrichment of
the inner angles. Personally I hesitate at the rather
ARM-CHAIR. DESIGNED BY REGINALD BLOM FIELD,
EXECUTED BY A. G. MASON, WITH NEEDLEWORK, DESIGNED
BY HEYWOOD SUMNER, EXECUTED BY UNA TAYLOR
spotty disks of inlaid nacre, but it may be but an
artistic playfulness after all. The distinguishing