DOI issue:
No. 82 (January, 1900)
DOI article:British decorative art in 1899, and the Arts And Crafts Exhibition, [4]
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19783#0288
Arts and Crafts
BRONZE DOOR KNOCKER BY ADELE HAY
the way in which a necessary condition of the
structure may become the means of suggesting to
the ready wit of the artist an ornamental device,
it may be mentioned that the roof of one of
Mr. Pepper's lanterns for artificial lighting being
opened to provide an inlet for a current of air, the
metal so cut was not removed, but turned back
and shaped in such a way as to form a series of
handsome ornamental projections crowning the
roof of the lantern.
Miss Adele Hay's door-knocker in bronze,
slightly tinged in parts with green, is not only a
vigorous piece of modelling as such, but also a
very clever design. It represents the time-honoured
theme of St. George vanquishing the dragon, but
the artist has treated it with no little ingenuity,
constituting her ornament solely out of the neces-
sary elements of the subject without recourse to
extraneous features. The curve of the dragon's
body is skilfully contrived to form the outline of
the knocker-ring, while the folded wings on the
left are balanced by a corresponding mass on the
right in the shape of the steed and its rider. The
general impression conveyed is that of boldness
and strength, at the same time that careful atten-
tion has been bestowed upon the minutia? of the
saint's armour and of the caparisoning of his horse.
Notwithstanding it might be enough to occupy
the energy of any one artist to produce the delicate
miniatures in wax, modelled and coloured, which
have become the special feature of Miss Nelia
Casella's work, she practises several other crafts,
such as leather-work and glass enamelling. The
embossed leather boxes shown are fair samples of
her art in this particular branch. The hunting
scene in the larger box was adapted from an old
French print, but the border as well as the
EMBOSSED LEATHER BOXES
260
DESIGNED AND EXECUTED BY MISS NELIA CASELLA
BRONZE DOOR KNOCKER BY ADELE HAY
the way in which a necessary condition of the
structure may become the means of suggesting to
the ready wit of the artist an ornamental device,
it may be mentioned that the roof of one of
Mr. Pepper's lanterns for artificial lighting being
opened to provide an inlet for a current of air, the
metal so cut was not removed, but turned back
and shaped in such a way as to form a series of
handsome ornamental projections crowning the
roof of the lantern.
Miss Adele Hay's door-knocker in bronze,
slightly tinged in parts with green, is not only a
vigorous piece of modelling as such, but also a
very clever design. It represents the time-honoured
theme of St. George vanquishing the dragon, but
the artist has treated it with no little ingenuity,
constituting her ornament solely out of the neces-
sary elements of the subject without recourse to
extraneous features. The curve of the dragon's
body is skilfully contrived to form the outline of
the knocker-ring, while the folded wings on the
left are balanced by a corresponding mass on the
right in the shape of the steed and its rider. The
general impression conveyed is that of boldness
and strength, at the same time that careful atten-
tion has been bestowed upon the minutia? of the
saint's armour and of the caparisoning of his horse.
Notwithstanding it might be enough to occupy
the energy of any one artist to produce the delicate
miniatures in wax, modelled and coloured, which
have become the special feature of Miss Nelia
Casella's work, she practises several other crafts,
such as leather-work and glass enamelling. The
embossed leather boxes shown are fair samples of
her art in this particular branch. The hunting
scene in the larger box was adapted from an old
French print, but the border as well as the
EMBOSSED LEATHER BOXES
260
DESIGNED AND EXECUTED BY MISS NELIA CASELLA