Studio: international art (14.1898)

Selwyn Image

head held by Apollo in a design by Bandinelli. To
the criticism and help of Mr. Ruskin, which date
from that time, Mr.

Image attributes what-
ever may be worthy in
his own work.

Later on he was intro-
duced by Mr. Campbell
to Mr. A. H. Mackmur-
do, the project of the
“ Hobby Horse ” took
shape, and to Mr. Image
fell the task of supplying
a design for its cover.

The central part of the
design, as we knew it,
was executed first, and
the landscape border
which surrounded it, to-
gether with the lettering,
was added after. This
cover, used throughout
the six volumes of the
first series of “ The
Century Guild Hobby
Horse,” appears first in
No. i (there are two
distinct issues of No. i),
a quarto nine inches by
eleven, slightly smaller
than the regular issue,
which was published by
George Allen, Sunnyside,

Orpington, April 1884.

Its typography then is
wholly unlike the closely
built page which, since it
appeared in the first part
of Vol. III., 1888, has
been imitated in so
many quarters, and, as
Morris himself owned,
gave him the impulse
to start printing. This
No. 1 (1884) is totally
distinct from the No. 1
of January 1886. It
contains a Blake-like
frontispiece, not signed, stained glass

“ Love, I cannot hold
thee longer ”; a lec-
ture on art by Selwyn Image; two signed articles
by A. H. Mackmurdo, and others initialled M.
C. G. (Member of Century Guild). The tail-

pieces are by Mr. Image, and the device on the
back wrapper by Mr. Mackmurdo. Here we may
leave the Guild’s maga-
zine for a while and turn
to the first products of its
work.

At the Inventions Ex-
hibition, London 1885,
one of the series held in
the Horticultural Gardens
and Galleries between
the Albert Hall and the
present Natural History
Museum, were several
music-rooms furnished in
various historic styles.
The one decorated and
fitted entirely by mem-
bers of the Century
Guild, as we see it now
from the standpoint of
fifteen years later, seems
to be merely the ordinary
expression of the good
taste of 1898. This fact
alone will serve to show
how the ideas of the
Century Guild, then
daringly novel, have
found acceptance on all
hands. The share of
Messrs. Mackmurdo and
Horne—the lion’s share
so far as regards actual
handiwork—must be left
for future consideration.
Mr. Selwyn Image was
only directly responsible
for the stained glass in
its windows, and for some
landscapes in water-
colour. Yet in so appor-
tioning the work of each
of the contributors we
must never forget that
each was influenced by
the criticism and advice
of the two others, and

BY selwyn image thus the third personality,

the non-member, was no
less a working partner in
projecting the schemes carried out. The stained
glass, even at that date, is wholly typical of his
manner, and the landscapes no less so. Yet while