DOI Heft:
Nr. 75 (June 1899)
DOI Artikel:Bibb, Burnley: Fritz Erler, [1]: decorations for a music-room
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19232#0044
Fritz Erler
MUSIC STAND BY FRITZ ERLER
the moor-oak, held by narrow uprights above a
plinth of good form. The floor is laid in squares
of pear-wood.
The ceiling, sheathed in the pear-wood, is
divided into panels by bands of moor-oak in shal-
low projection. The edges have been rounded
off, and flowing lines everywhere sought, with a
generous disregard of the amount of hand-work
involved.
The beauties of grain and colour in the wood
are well brought out. Touches of heightened
colour are added here and there in the ceiling by
small castings of a dainty ornamentation, set at the
crossings of members, and sometimes serving to
attach the electric lamps, but otherwise having no
constructive purpose. The entire ceiling, in fact,
must be regarded purely from the point of view of
decoration. It is designed with a freedom of
fancy which here and there frankly oversteps the
limitations of material.
The cornice swells out in a deep cove, project-
ing well upon the plane of the ceiling, and, in an
assemblage of the same woods, bringing down the
3°
ceiling colour-scheme to the upper line of the
frieze. Along its upper member are set grim
carved heads of animals, whose indeterminate
form, in the shadow of the ceiling angle, suggests
grotesque beam-ends, or a barbaric rendering of
the rams and bucrania of a Roman frieze, or the
ranged horse-skulls of a Hunic lodge. Charmingly
in accord with these monsters is the ornament of
the consoles which descend from them upon the
chimney-breast, and also the painted decoration of
the cornice.
The end of the room where stands the organ is,
from the point of view of architectural as well as of
decorative treatment, very satisfying. The tall
panels of the grey moor oak, unbroken except by
some irregularly placed squares of carved orna-
ment, present a fine surface for the play of grain.
The doors are of a quiet and pleasing design.
The organ-case is also well thought out, and there
is a very graceful art in its swelling lines, in the
involute leafage, in the arrangement of the pipes,
with the mother and child framed amid them in a
mandorla as of interlaced branchings spreading
into a tangled node at the cornice line. It is as
though brain and hand had lingered over the
wood, lovingly seeking to restore some of the poetic
beauty of its natural forms. The opposite end of
the room, in bay-form with three great trilobate
windows, is not so happy. The sweeping down of
the transom at the sides avoids that continuity of
MUSIC STAND BY FRITZ ERLER
the moor-oak, held by narrow uprights above a
plinth of good form. The floor is laid in squares
of pear-wood.
The ceiling, sheathed in the pear-wood, is
divided into panels by bands of moor-oak in shal-
low projection. The edges have been rounded
off, and flowing lines everywhere sought, with a
generous disregard of the amount of hand-work
involved.
The beauties of grain and colour in the wood
are well brought out. Touches of heightened
colour are added here and there in the ceiling by
small castings of a dainty ornamentation, set at the
crossings of members, and sometimes serving to
attach the electric lamps, but otherwise having no
constructive purpose. The entire ceiling, in fact,
must be regarded purely from the point of view of
decoration. It is designed with a freedom of
fancy which here and there frankly oversteps the
limitations of material.
The cornice swells out in a deep cove, project-
ing well upon the plane of the ceiling, and, in an
assemblage of the same woods, bringing down the
3°
ceiling colour-scheme to the upper line of the
frieze. Along its upper member are set grim
carved heads of animals, whose indeterminate
form, in the shadow of the ceiling angle, suggests
grotesque beam-ends, or a barbaric rendering of
the rams and bucrania of a Roman frieze, or the
ranged horse-skulls of a Hunic lodge. Charmingly
in accord with these monsters is the ornament of
the consoles which descend from them upon the
chimney-breast, and also the painted decoration of
the cornice.
The end of the room where stands the organ is,
from the point of view of architectural as well as of
decorative treatment, very satisfying. The tall
panels of the grey moor oak, unbroken except by
some irregularly placed squares of carved orna-
ment, present a fine surface for the play of grain.
The doors are of a quiet and pleasing design.
The organ-case is also well thought out, and there
is a very graceful art in its swelling lines, in the
involute leafage, in the arrangement of the pipes,
with the mother and child framed amid them in a
mandorla as of interlaced branchings spreading
into a tangled node at the cornice line. It is as
though brain and hand had lingered over the
wood, lovingly seeking to restore some of the poetic
beauty of its natural forms. The opposite end of
the room, in bay-form with three great trilobate
windows, is not so happy. The sweeping down of
the transom at the sides avoids that continuity of