DOI Heft:
Nr. 78 (Septembre 1899)
DOI Artikel:Wood, Esther: The national competition at South Kensington, 1899
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19232#0286
The National Competition
In Mary G. Houston, Royal College student and
gold medallist, we find one of the most distinguished
exhibitors of the year, Her modelled design fora
hand mirror, brush and comb, to be executed in
beaten silver, is an admirable example of the per-
fection to which a working model may be brought.
It is not a mere plaster sketch or suggestion, such
as is often offered under this head; but a careful
and effective statement of what the designer intends
in the finished work. This praise, however, only
applies to the way in which the design is set forth;
its intrinsic merit is no less high. It consists of
three faintly outlined figures of a girl at her toilet,
which for delicacy of feeling and poetic suggestion
might have been inspired by Mr. W. B. Yeats’s beau-
tiful legend, “The Binding of the Hair.”
The silk portiere by the same student, with a
design of St. George and the Dragon in a panel of
applique embroidery, forms the most striking of the
needlework exhibits. The ground is of an agree-
able blue-green, and the disposal of a few well-
chosen colours within the strong and simple out-
lines of the figure produces a decoration harmonious
in itself and with the nature of the subject por-
trayed. The careful composition is more fully seen
in the working drawing beside it. The plan of ex-
hibiting such drawings side by side with the com-
pleted object is a good one, though somewhat
exacting to the student. It provides for a fair
judgment of the execution and the design per se,
and at the same time betrays discrepancies in work-
manship, and any lack of suitability in the design
for the material in which it is carried out. A hand-
some panel, also in applique embroidery, by Mabel
B. Keighley, of Plymouth, illustrates a couplet
from William Morris :
“ Under the may she stooped to the crown ;
All was gold, there was nothing of brown.”
Broad in conception and draughtsmanship, rich
BACK AND FRONT OF HAND-MIRROR
252
designed BY MARY G. HOUSTON [South Kensington)
In Mary G. Houston, Royal College student and
gold medallist, we find one of the most distinguished
exhibitors of the year, Her modelled design fora
hand mirror, brush and comb, to be executed in
beaten silver, is an admirable example of the per-
fection to which a working model may be brought.
It is not a mere plaster sketch or suggestion, such
as is often offered under this head; but a careful
and effective statement of what the designer intends
in the finished work. This praise, however, only
applies to the way in which the design is set forth;
its intrinsic merit is no less high. It consists of
three faintly outlined figures of a girl at her toilet,
which for delicacy of feeling and poetic suggestion
might have been inspired by Mr. W. B. Yeats’s beau-
tiful legend, “The Binding of the Hair.”
The silk portiere by the same student, with a
design of St. George and the Dragon in a panel of
applique embroidery, forms the most striking of the
needlework exhibits. The ground is of an agree-
able blue-green, and the disposal of a few well-
chosen colours within the strong and simple out-
lines of the figure produces a decoration harmonious
in itself and with the nature of the subject por-
trayed. The careful composition is more fully seen
in the working drawing beside it. The plan of ex-
hibiting such drawings side by side with the com-
pleted object is a good one, though somewhat
exacting to the student. It provides for a fair
judgment of the execution and the design per se,
and at the same time betrays discrepancies in work-
manship, and any lack of suitability in the design
for the material in which it is carried out. A hand-
some panel, also in applique embroidery, by Mabel
B. Keighley, of Plymouth, illustrates a couplet
from William Morris :
“ Under the may she stooped to the crown ;
All was gold, there was nothing of brown.”
Broad in conception and draughtsmanship, rich
BACK AND FRONT OF HAND-MIRROR
252
designed BY MARY G. HOUSTON [South Kensington)