Studio: international art (7.1896)

Some Recent Designs by Mr. Voysey

CABINET DESIGNED BY C. F. A. VOYSEY

initial step to the practical working out of the idea, be adduced than Messrs. Essex's pattern-book. We

It is just because in these papers Mr. Voysey has meet every day with designers who complain that

followed his design to the factory—has mixed their work has been ruined by its translation to the

certain groups of colours for the printers to match, intended material, and again we hear often manu-

and in close co-operation with the maker himself facturers declare that, but for the alterations

has modified again and again, not merely the first they had introduced, the design would have been

scheme of colour, but a dozen alternative har- impossible—or at least impracticable and unsale-

monies, that the final product keeps no little of able. Face to face with the exigencies of the

the charm of the first design, although it may method itself; hearing at first hand the reports

depart from it widely in many details. The letter of the craftsmen employed; seeing by actual

is altered possibly, but the spirit is retained. In experiments the need for strengthening this detail,

theory, the quietly evolved drawing should be toning down another ; and above all facing directly

finer than the printed fabric—be it paper, or a the problem of the applied colour—in dye, pigment,

woven texture; but in practice it is just this un- yarn, or whatever form it is used. The academic

sparing revision and readjustment of the design precedent of water-colour or oils is set aside—and

which makes the resulting product, not a with the real pigments (be they actual dyes or

mechanical facsimile of the water-colour, but fibres already coloured), the artist can re-build his

something far better—a product that is exactly pattern—not this time as a scheme, but as an

suited for its intended purpose and one in many accomplished fact.

cases which is infinitely more artistic than would To show that in laying stress first upon the

be a literal, and absolutely accurate facsimile of the necessity of the designer going straight to Nature

autograph design, with all its charm of handling for his themes, and next the practical importance

and the unequal density of its broken colour. of his working as a close ally of the manufacturer,

To prove how absolutely necessary it is for the one is not merely approving Mr. Voysey's method

maker of the design to be in close relation to but echoing his own views, it will be as well to

the maker of the product, no better instance could quote a few paragraphs from an admirable lecture
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