DOI issue:
No. 79 (October, 1899)
DOI article:Vallance, Aymer: British decorative art in 1899 and the Arts And Crafts Exhibition, [1]
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19783#0060
Arts and Crafts
valuable an opportunity,
indeed, was the occasion
deemed by the Art
Workers' Guild—many of
whom belong also to the
Arts and Crafts Society—
that they devoted their
energies, heart and soul,
to the undertaking, at the
expense, maybe, in not a few cases, of
their ordinary work. Thus it is not im-
probable that the present exhibition at
the New Gallery will, as compared with
preceding exhibitions, have to be ad-
judged deficient in many remarkably
large or striking show-pieces, notwith-
standing that the standard of accept-
ance of the work in general is every
whit as exigeant as heretofore.
Moreover, the space for general ex-
hibits at the New Gallery has been
curtailed by the setting apart, as was
but due, of one entire room for a repre-
sentative collection of the work of the
: v \jf late President of the Arts and Crafts
Society. And so, not to make accept-
n i ance a matter ot over-difficult compe-
tition, the show being an open one in
which members and non-members have
to submit equally to the approval of a
door hinges by c. f. a. vovsiiY selection committee, it was thought
[Messrs. T. Elsley &> Co., Manufacturers) advisable, out of regard to the reduced
Royal School of Art Needlework—what are
they, in their respective ways, but public tri-
butes to the importance of various branches
of industrial art ? And once more, does it not
mark an epoch in the history of the arts that
there should have been presented, last June at
the Guildhall, before the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs
and Aldermen of London, formally attending,
the masque of Beauty's Aivakening ? For
therein, beneath the thinly-disguised figure of
Allegory, were uttered and listened to by the
officers of the city some very plain truths con-
cerning the artistic degradation of modern
commercial London. That such a perform-
ance should have obtained a respectful and
authoritative hearing with the highest civic
functionaries of the capital is a distinct point
gained, and evidence, if such were wanted,
that the claims of art have acquired a position door handle by c. f. a. voysey
where they can no longer be ignored. So (Messrs. T. Elsley &* Co., Manufacturers)
44
A r ■ \
valuable an opportunity,
indeed, was the occasion
deemed by the Art
Workers' Guild—many of
whom belong also to the
Arts and Crafts Society—
that they devoted their
energies, heart and soul,
to the undertaking, at the
expense, maybe, in not a few cases, of
their ordinary work. Thus it is not im-
probable that the present exhibition at
the New Gallery will, as compared with
preceding exhibitions, have to be ad-
judged deficient in many remarkably
large or striking show-pieces, notwith-
standing that the standard of accept-
ance of the work in general is every
whit as exigeant as heretofore.
Moreover, the space for general ex-
hibits at the New Gallery has been
curtailed by the setting apart, as was
but due, of one entire room for a repre-
sentative collection of the work of the
: v \jf late President of the Arts and Crafts
Society. And so, not to make accept-
n i ance a matter ot over-difficult compe-
tition, the show being an open one in
which members and non-members have
to submit equally to the approval of a
door hinges by c. f. a. vovsiiY selection committee, it was thought
[Messrs. T. Elsley &> Co., Manufacturers) advisable, out of regard to the reduced
Royal School of Art Needlework—what are
they, in their respective ways, but public tri-
butes to the importance of various branches
of industrial art ? And once more, does it not
mark an epoch in the history of the arts that
there should have been presented, last June at
the Guildhall, before the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs
and Aldermen of London, formally attending,
the masque of Beauty's Aivakening ? For
therein, beneath the thinly-disguised figure of
Allegory, were uttered and listened to by the
officers of the city some very plain truths con-
cerning the artistic degradation of modern
commercial London. That such a perform-
ance should have obtained a respectful and
authoritative hearing with the highest civic
functionaries of the capital is a distinct point
gained, and evidence, if such were wanted,
that the claims of art have acquired a position door handle by c. f. a. voysey
where they can no longer be ignored. So (Messrs. T. Elsley &* Co., Manufacturers)
44
A r ■ \