Studio: international art (6.1896)

The Photographic Salon

punching ; a certain amount of plain spaces denotes ago, has certainly not failed to accomplish as much
the decorative value of the ornament. as the most sanguine of its supporters could have

A last word on making up the decorated leather. desired that it should do. The standard of work
This is not a task within the reach of the novice; shown has improved in quality; new and unex-
hardly any craft, so purely mechanical in its details pected methods of treatment have come to the
as is this, needs such exquisite dexterity and accu- front, and the ground opened up by the pioneers
racy. Mere craft itself becomes almost an art in of a year or two ago has been worked with success
bookbinding and its kindred branches. Not merely by those who have followed in their footsteps,
have the joints and edges to be finished to the last There is, of course, at present, in photography
degree of perfection, but the material must be kept nothing which can be called an established school,
spotless the while. When, as in this case, it is im- There are no masters, and no pupils who can sit
possible to put the work under heavy pressure, the at their feet in their studios. Everything is tenta-
manipulation becomes still more difficult. Indeed, tive, and the only way in which progress can be
it is as well for leather-workers, who have not time watched, and lessons learned, is by the study of
to master the entirely distinct craft of leather binding,
to send their finished sheets to a capable binder.
For the whole work comes, rightly, into a book-
binder's province, whether it be intended for printed
volumes, for reading-cases, blotting-books, jewel-
boxes, or the hundred other trifles suitable for
leather. Even an indifferent piece of decoration
gains by good mounting; but no piece, however
exquisite, does not suffer fatally if it be clumsily
applied to the article it is intended to adorn. Nor
need any leather-worker feel it derogatory to resort
to a binder ; the poet does not print his poems, nor
the painter frame his pictures. Each is willing to
allow other experts to present his work to the
public; but in each case he exercises caution over
their exuberant fancy, which hint, to superintend
the bookbinder, is the final word on the subject
here. A word more should be added in reference
to our illustrations. Fig. 5 is an excellent example
of a quite recent design by Mr. Jacobsen. Fig. 6
is a design which has been executed under the
direction of Miss Bassett in the Leighton Buzzard
branch of the Home Arts and Industries Associa-
tion. Figs. 7 and 8 are from designs by Mr.
Gleeson White, and are given as suggestions for a
modern treatment of leather work.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC SALON.
The Photographic Salon closed its
third annual exhibition early in this
month. Doubtless it would be un-
reasonable to assert that the special application of
photography to pictorial representation has, as yet,
reached anything like perfection, that the possi-
bilities it may contain have been exhausted, or
that it has left the stage of dilettanteism to assume
the position of a serious profession. At the same
time the mission which the promoters of this
exhibition set themselves to carry on, three years portrait study

BY J. CRAIG ANNAN
113