DOI Heft:
No. 38 (May, 1896)
DOI Artikel:S., E. B.: Some recent designs by Mr. C. F. A. Voysey
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17296#0226
Some Recent Designs by Mr. Voysey
read, or I who write, it is
not incumbent on us to
turn immediately to fungi
for inspiration, but rather
to pick and choose those
objects which attract our
sympathy on their own
merits, not because some
one else has chosen them.
Dozens of typical flowers
and plants have been over-
looked hitherto, and others,
notably the fuschia, the
dielytra, the foxglove, and
a host too numerous to
mention, have not become
hackneyed by use like the
sunflower, the rose, and the
apple blossom. This advice,
threadbare though it be,
needs reiterating, especially
when an artist with so
strong an individual manner
as Mr. Voysey is being
discussed. For not only
do a large army of de-
signers feed entirely upon
the fruits of a few, but
manufacturers as a rule
prefer a modified form of
something which has caught
the public taste, in prefer-
ence to entirely new and
untried schemes. There is
danger lest a school should
arise to imitate Mr.Voysey's
patterns instead of his
method of working, and
copy his mannerism directly design for wall-paper Bird and Tulip
in place of Striking out a (By permission of Messrs. Essex &■ Co.)
style for themselves.
Nothing is easier than to vary a motive in even granting that another person takes the vertical
decoration so that it escapes the reproach of being lines of the foliage as a background for a diaper of
a pirated design, in the sense that a British jury flower-forms whose rich curves tell out all the
would understand the phrase. Yet all the same more superbly by contrast with the stiff, almost
every maker of patterns would recognise in a moment angular lines of the leaves; granted even that
the source of its origin, and identify the original such a one is as happily planned and as carefully
that inspired its author. The very beautiful wall- schemed—yet it must needs be but an echo of a
paper (the Bird and Tulip) here reproduced, one very simple and beautiful idea. The really wonder-
of Messrs. Essex's new patterns for this season, ful printing of this design in a varied series of
is probably destined to be the progenitor of a long colour-schemes for which Mr. Voysey (in co-opera-
series of illegitimate descendants. And of these tion with Mr. Essex) is responsible, cannot be
we may predict with safety that not one will sur- suggested even by the reproduction. One variety
pass, and probably few equal, the original. But especially, in rich purples and greens, is more
a. voysey
read, or I who write, it is
not incumbent on us to
turn immediately to fungi
for inspiration, but rather
to pick and choose those
objects which attract our
sympathy on their own
merits, not because some
one else has chosen them.
Dozens of typical flowers
and plants have been over-
looked hitherto, and others,
notably the fuschia, the
dielytra, the foxglove, and
a host too numerous to
mention, have not become
hackneyed by use like the
sunflower, the rose, and the
apple blossom. This advice,
threadbare though it be,
needs reiterating, especially
when an artist with so
strong an individual manner
as Mr. Voysey is being
discussed. For not only
do a large army of de-
signers feed entirely upon
the fruits of a few, but
manufacturers as a rule
prefer a modified form of
something which has caught
the public taste, in prefer-
ence to entirely new and
untried schemes. There is
danger lest a school should
arise to imitate Mr.Voysey's
patterns instead of his
method of working, and
copy his mannerism directly design for wall-paper Bird and Tulip
in place of Striking out a (By permission of Messrs. Essex &■ Co.)
style for themselves.
Nothing is easier than to vary a motive in even granting that another person takes the vertical
decoration so that it escapes the reproach of being lines of the foliage as a background for a diaper of
a pirated design, in the sense that a British jury flower-forms whose rich curves tell out all the
would understand the phrase. Yet all the same more superbly by contrast with the stiff, almost
every maker of patterns would recognise in a moment angular lines of the leaves; granted even that
the source of its origin, and identify the original such a one is as happily planned and as carefully
that inspired its author. The very beautiful wall- schemed—yet it must needs be but an echo of a
paper (the Bird and Tulip) here reproduced, one very simple and beautiful idea. The really wonder-
of Messrs. Essex's new patterns for this season, ful printing of this design in a varied series of
is probably destined to be the progenitor of a long colour-schemes for which Mr. Voysey (in co-opera-
series of illegitimate descendants. And of these tion with Mr. Essex) is responsible, cannot be
we may predict with safety that not one will sur- suggested even by the reproduction. One variety
pass, and probably few equal, the original. But especially, in rich purples and greens, is more
a. voysey