Studio: international art (11.1897)

Sonic Glasgow Designers

evident at first glance, relieved by simply designed in their treatment. It is rarely one finds so much
metal work that supplies the only decoration. An- actual novelty with so little applied decoration,
other cabinet with its wide projecting shelves is so For if you except the metal panels, the effect of
clearly explained in the reproduction here, that it the rest of the structure relies solely on the
would be mere waste of words to describe its ob- shaping of its essential parts. These panels are
vious features, or to express approval of its evidently decorated with applique wire and repousse work, a
admirable proportions. A delightful jewel casket novel combination which is far more striking in the
owes no little of its beauty to the metal work, original than the reproduction here given would
executed by the artist himself, who is a skilful lead us to suppose. A very delightful folding-
worker of jewellery and fine pieces of bric-a-brac screen (page 225), with panels of owls in lead above
in costly metals, as a vinaigrette and two brooches and glass sparingly introduced below, is quite new
(shown in the illustration of an enlarged detail of and extremely good, the lurid touch, when light
one of the panels of the smoker's cabinet) may be causes the green eyes of the owls to glitter, is (of
left to prove. course) not even suggested by the photographer.

This same smoking cabinet is distinctly novel, A tea-caddy, tea-shovel, and table are other
and peculiarly characteristic of its author. The pieces of Mr. McNair's design, all distinguished by
pleasant curves of its design owe nothing to pre- admirable simplicity, and a certain dignity rare in
cedent in furniture, and are yet distinctly "wooden " such things. The medicine chest, as its artist calls

the gracefully shaped cup-
board which supplies the
subject of another pic-
ture, is in stained wood
without any applied deco-

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^-^ ration. Severe in its

K^lfc^ simplicity, it is admirably

■ ik effective, and a most

lk covetable piece of furni-

I^Hblb-b^^ ture, which arrests your

\ mmmm***, attention the moment you

•'W^^^^^HI^^MM"- enter his studio.

%r' • JfF HHb His bookplates will con-

"—Ig-; • vey a hint of the symbolic

manner Mr. McNair adopts
wjfl § in his paintings. Not a

■iffl f .HHUl line in them is without

Hp I intention, and the poetry

K^fcWj I' ^J@e|££PfllH|< of the idea (as their author

explains it in a singularly
modest way, which betrays
how very really he feels
this method of expressing

BF^S^B himself) it were best, per-

PP I NrnflN ■ haps. not to vulgarise

fl^. Jfl '"^lyi m any attempt to sup-

j& ply an explanation which,

K in the cold daylight of the

I printed page, might read

too like the fantastic ex-

l^j^PBHHH^I k planations tlx- music-

l^^MBip^^^., ^U£^<S^^^ programme, wherein the

.^^■■■B^^^. ^^^Wfcfc&ta^^V" '•• analytical critic discovers

■ ^B^^^ifc^l^S^: such marvellous intentions

on the part of the com

JEWELLERY AND DETAIL OF SMOKER'S CABINET BY J. HERBERT MCNAIR pOSCr. Yet a VLT) brief

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