DOI Heft:
No. 11 (February, 1894)
DOI Artikel:The Birmingham Municipal School of Art, with illustrations of its students' work, II.
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17189#0186
The Birmingham Municipal School of Art
tion of mere money value of the materials, or a selection which is genius is beyond transmission,
rendering in precious substance of feeble con- If the Birmingham School, which is yet in
ceits. The examples illustrated show an effort to its infancy, has not so far produced a genius
work metal in metallic ways, to infuse a really we need not be querulous: one may be there
artistic interest in the metal artificer's work, and to as yet unrecognised, one may not emerge there-
DESIGN FOR A ROSE-WATER DISH, BY FLORENCE M. RUDLAND
produce individual articles for personal adornment,
in place of stock-patterns turned out by the gross.
So in repousse metal work, in designs for pottery,
in enamels (a branch just emerging from its
experimental stage), no less than in lithography,
mezzotint and etching, there is the effort to bring
the student to be master of his craft—to feel un-
restrained by the demands of his material. So
much a teacher may do, the rest is incommunica-
ble—the touch that shows talent, as an advance
on mere craft, can hardly be implanted—the final
174
from for years, and yet Mr. Taylor will have
accomplished work of national value. The prin-
ciples he has implanted will pass from his domain
into other fields. The harvest to be reaped may
not be in his day, but generations ahead, when
many have lost the legend of its first planting :
yet the seed he has sown will have been- the
germ, and to the gardener who cultivated the first
crop so ardently and so, untiringly, what matters if
it be ultimately recorded to his credit or not:
God buries the worker, but carries on his work.
tion of mere money value of the materials, or a selection which is genius is beyond transmission,
rendering in precious substance of feeble con- If the Birmingham School, which is yet in
ceits. The examples illustrated show an effort to its infancy, has not so far produced a genius
work metal in metallic ways, to infuse a really we need not be querulous: one may be there
artistic interest in the metal artificer's work, and to as yet unrecognised, one may not emerge there-
DESIGN FOR A ROSE-WATER DISH, BY FLORENCE M. RUDLAND
produce individual articles for personal adornment,
in place of stock-patterns turned out by the gross.
So in repousse metal work, in designs for pottery,
in enamels (a branch just emerging from its
experimental stage), no less than in lithography,
mezzotint and etching, there is the effort to bring
the student to be master of his craft—to feel un-
restrained by the demands of his material. So
much a teacher may do, the rest is incommunica-
ble—the touch that shows talent, as an advance
on mere craft, can hardly be implanted—the final
174
from for years, and yet Mr. Taylor will have
accomplished work of national value. The prin-
ciples he has implanted will pass from his domain
into other fields. The harvest to be reaped may
not be in his day, but generations ahead, when
many have lost the legend of its first planting :
yet the seed he has sown will have been- the
germ, and to the gardener who cultivated the first
crop so ardently and so, untiringly, what matters if
it be ultimately recorded to his credit or not:
God buries the worker, but carries on his work.