Studio: international art (12.1898)

The Art of Wood-Carving

was necessarily discouraged to such an extent tli.it whose- own original work is of such a high quality
it became practically non-existent. One man's as to have led me to suppose that lu- would be the
work was exactly the same as another's. To use a last man in the world to attach supreme value to
homely, but I think expressive mere perfection of finish. To

simile, they were all sausages . my surprise and to that of my

turned out of one machine, save j-jji^^r^^A other companion, our friend was

that one sausage perhaps was a ^^^^1^^ ^Swf* attracted chiefly by ;u< h of the

little better packed than another. ^m**3!tiS a&j^rBlf °^ work as betrayed consummate

This was the condition of affairs iSSfii ^SSCCl) technical skill. Design to him

when that little band of allied ^W^^w*$S If evidently played but a subsidiary

workers, the result of whose en- ^^^^^^S^j^^ part, and 1 remember one piece of

deavours to further the real inte- Italian carving in particular which

rests of the arts to which they Mfc simply took our breath away by

are devoted is to be seen every § jf* the beauty of its lines and its

now and then at the Arts and Jwj ML satisfying adaptability to its sur-

Crafts Exhibitions, began their co- ^P^Oalw roundings, and yet earned from

operative labours. Their gospel ^m an exPress^on °f con"

may be summed up in one word )f&^M? temptuous disapproval at the

as being that of individuality. Mfff fir roughness and want of finish dis-

" Let us," they said, "be able to MH^ritt played in its cutting. "Ah!"

tell one another's work when we m^^ntM said my other companion, who

see it, just as wre are able to affBSaftg was an enthusiastic architect, " if

distinguish each other's hand ~iqggs|r we could only do such work as

writing. Let us be able to say at that nowadays ! " "Do such work

a glance: 'This is a Walter as that ?" replied the carver. " Why,

Crane ; this a Voysey ; this a ($53 n one °^ m^ apprentices turned out

Harrison Townsend ; this a Henry a bit of work as poor as that I

Wilson; and this a Reynolds.'" ff should feel inclined to cancel his

It was not long before they came § indentures." It was the old story

to the conclusion that individu- / of the two sides of the shield ; one

ality, which, I venture to say in pastoral staff man saw only the individuality and

parenthesis, includes originality as 1!y george frampton, a.r.a. fae vigorous fidelity of the design;
the greater includes the less, was the other could not see beyond

dependent not so much, if indeed at all, upon the roughness and comparative ineptness of the
mere technique as upon design. And here it was mechanical execution thereof.

that they at once joined issue with the older school Another instance of the same obliquity of vision
of craftsmen, and in no instance was this issue on the part of those who it might be expected
more clearly defined than in the case of the wTood- would see quite clearly and directly is still fresher
carver. In this art perhaps more than any other in my memory. I was asked not long ago to judge
perfection of mechanical technique had been placed the efforts of the wood-carving class in one of our
upon so high a pedestal of slavish admiration that Technical Institutes. I found associated with my-
its dislodgment seemed, and to a certain extent self two practical wood-carvers, who were so well
still seems, to place itself among the impossibilities. esteemed in their profession that they had been
For my part, I feel that I cannot dwell too insist- appointed teachers at this very school. As I went
ently upon the danger of this time-worn heresy to round the room and looked at the competitive
the student and the younger craftsmen. It is a carvings hung up upon the walls, I saw at my first
heresy which is devoutly believed in by the great glance that the question of original design as one
mass of the outside, and necessarily ignorant, of the factors which would help me in arriving at a
public, as well as by many of those followers and decision must be altogether eliminated. It simply
professors of the arts whose position is of apparent did not exist, for all the works were the same
importance enough to invest their opinions almost stylistic copies, speaking of any century but the
w ith the authority of dogma. I was travelling on the nineteenth. I determined, therefore, that for an
(Continent only a few years ago with one of our best excellence more nearly approaching that of design, I
known and most highly esteemed wood-carvers, one must look for what I may call the drawing and the
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