DOI Heft:
No. 82 (January, 1900)
DOI Artikel:British decorative art in 1899, and the Arts And Crafts Exhibition, [4]
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19783#0302
Arts and Crafts
gifts Mr. Paterson desires to record his tribute of
sincerest admiration. Their intimate association
necessarily causes the one to influence the work of the
other; notwithstanding either has his own particular
individuality. It so happens that all the glass illus-
trated in the present number is from Mr. Paterson's
design, and for domestic purposes only. He
•describes himself as having spent six years in learn-
ing the glass " trade " and ten in trying to unlearn
it. Whether, then, it be the result of extraordinary
application on his part during the last decade, or
whether one must conclude that the first six years
of routine training were not wholly unprofitable
waste of time after all, at any rate Mr. Paterson
has succeeded in infusing fresh currents of life and
energy into an art that had subsided, for the most
part, in respect of domestic decoration, into a state
not far removed from utter stagnation. How other-
wise could he rightly have become qualified to be
lecturer, or to be, as he is still, a teacher of the
STAINED GLASS DESIGNED BY OSCAR PATERSON
274
STAINED GLASS DESIGNED BY OSCAR PATERSON
technology of glass in the City and Guilds' Insti-
tute ? His acquaintance with practical chemistry
indeed is such that he can manufacture the pot-
metal itself. But the expenditure of time and
labour involved in this initial process was too great
to continue when his business grew to any substan-
tial dimensions. He now no longer makes his
glass for his own use. The subsequent operations,
however, from the selection of the metal, to the
drawing, painting, and leading of it are performed
on the firm's own premises. As regards the
standard of his aims, Mr. Paterson has no favourite
among historic styles of the past. Rather he
strives to avoid the beaten tracks of archaeology and
to make his work live in the present. His wont
is to surround old-world stories with a fresh
garb; not, by clothing his figures in modern
dress, a plan which has been very successfully
adopted recently both in England and on the
Continent, but by imparting to them, in accord
with his own individual inventiveness, some
strange, humorous, or histrionic flavour of
novelty. It is thus that he proposes to
appeal to all and sundry tastes. His own tem-
perament inclines to quaintness, mystery and
romanticism. Proverb and epigram ; verse and
fairy legend; knights in armour, pilgrims and
gifts Mr. Paterson desires to record his tribute of
sincerest admiration. Their intimate association
necessarily causes the one to influence the work of the
other; notwithstanding either has his own particular
individuality. It so happens that all the glass illus-
trated in the present number is from Mr. Paterson's
design, and for domestic purposes only. He
•describes himself as having spent six years in learn-
ing the glass " trade " and ten in trying to unlearn
it. Whether, then, it be the result of extraordinary
application on his part during the last decade, or
whether one must conclude that the first six years
of routine training were not wholly unprofitable
waste of time after all, at any rate Mr. Paterson
has succeeded in infusing fresh currents of life and
energy into an art that had subsided, for the most
part, in respect of domestic decoration, into a state
not far removed from utter stagnation. How other-
wise could he rightly have become qualified to be
lecturer, or to be, as he is still, a teacher of the
STAINED GLASS DESIGNED BY OSCAR PATERSON
274
STAINED GLASS DESIGNED BY OSCAR PATERSON
technology of glass in the City and Guilds' Insti-
tute ? His acquaintance with practical chemistry
indeed is such that he can manufacture the pot-
metal itself. But the expenditure of time and
labour involved in this initial process was too great
to continue when his business grew to any substan-
tial dimensions. He now no longer makes his
glass for his own use. The subsequent operations,
however, from the selection of the metal, to the
drawing, painting, and leading of it are performed
on the firm's own premises. As regards the
standard of his aims, Mr. Paterson has no favourite
among historic styles of the past. Rather he
strives to avoid the beaten tracks of archaeology and
to make his work live in the present. His wont
is to surround old-world stories with a fresh
garb; not, by clothing his figures in modern
dress, a plan which has been very successfully
adopted recently both in England and on the
Continent, but by imparting to them, in accord
with his own individual inventiveness, some
strange, humorous, or histrionic flavour of
novelty. It is thus that he proposes to
appeal to all and sundry tastes. His own tem-
perament inclines to quaintness, mystery and
romanticism. Proverb and epigram ; verse and
fairy legend; knights in armour, pilgrims and