DOI Heft:
No. 42 (September, 1896)
DOI Artikel:White, Gleeson: The national competition, South Kensington 1896
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17297#0253
National Competition
design for metal-work
by herbert c. oakley, South Kensington
personal taste or prejudice against certain ten-
dencies in decoration weeded out a number of
examples.
This is not altogether an unsupported opinion,
but one that is capable of proof. It is also a
grievance which could easily be altered by a stroke
of the pen, if every master of branch schools were
given the right to indicate a certain percentage
of the works he considers best—half a dozen, a
dozen, twenty, according to the size of the school
—should be able to claim, as a right, to appeal
direct to Cresar. By a gold star, or some other
device, works so distinguished should be beyond
the jurisdiction of the first committee, irre-
sponsible and permanent, whose members' names
: South Kensington
never reach the public. Thus each work on which
a master of a school has set his hopes for a gold
medal would be brought under the notice of the
judges, and formally condemned or approved, with
a record of the " gold star " objects kept, so that
each head-master might feel sure that his favourite
pupil's work had not been strangled by red-tape—
design for door-knocker
by h. c. oakley, South Kensington
officially, or surreptitiously—before the judgment
day. Such a course would be obviously fair to
head-masters and pupils alike. As it is, if the art
master sends a lot of work which he believes is first-
design for
234
wrought-iron
gates
by a. harold smith, Wolverhampton
design for metal-work
by herbert c. oakley, South Kensington
personal taste or prejudice against certain ten-
dencies in decoration weeded out a number of
examples.
This is not altogether an unsupported opinion,
but one that is capable of proof. It is also a
grievance which could easily be altered by a stroke
of the pen, if every master of branch schools were
given the right to indicate a certain percentage
of the works he considers best—half a dozen, a
dozen, twenty, according to the size of the school
—should be able to claim, as a right, to appeal
direct to Cresar. By a gold star, or some other
device, works so distinguished should be beyond
the jurisdiction of the first committee, irre-
sponsible and permanent, whose members' names
: South Kensington
never reach the public. Thus each work on which
a master of a school has set his hopes for a gold
medal would be brought under the notice of the
judges, and formally condemned or approved, with
a record of the " gold star " objects kept, so that
each head-master might feel sure that his favourite
pupil's work had not been strangled by red-tape—
design for door-knocker
by h. c. oakley, South Kensington
officially, or surreptitiously—before the judgment
day. Such a course would be obviously fair to
head-masters and pupils alike. As it is, if the art
master sends a lot of work which he believes is first-
design for
234
wrought-iron
gates
by a. harold smith, Wolverhampton