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#0308
Arts and Crafts
lustre ware of Hispano-Moresque
, manufacture, is deservedly so well
known that there is no need in
these pages to labour to demon-
strate its many beautiful qualities.
The resemblance of the newer
ware to its historic prototype,
however, consists less in the
design than in the colour; for
Mr. de Morgan's treatment of
animals, birds, reptiles and fishes,
of which he makes abundant use
in decoration, and still more
markedly his treatment of floral
forms, assimilates to the style of
Persian art rather than to that of
Spain or Italy. It is, of course,
from Persia that Mr. de Morgan
derives his favourite colour
scheme of torquoise, deep blue
and purplish brown with a
moderate admixture of green and
black. The tiles exhibited by
him at the New Gallery are
executed almost exclusively in
the above colours. Beside several
handsome borders (one of which
has for its principal motif, the
familiar Eastern device of the
pine pattern) with birds, carna-
tions, vines and abstract floral
conventions in the Persian man-
ner, there was shown a large and
WARDRonii designed ire Ambrose heal important composition of square
executed by messrs. heal and son. tiles representing "Justice" under
the form of an allegoric female
figure holding an open book
Gallery. In both very similar elements, though inscribed with Latin hexameters in black letter,
diversely treated, appear. Both are diapers of plain She stands under a round-headed arch, opening
repeats—plain, that is, as distinct from patterns con- in a wall, the base of which is covered by a
structed on the "drop" principle. One, designed for dense hedge of flowering rose bushes. The
wall-paper, is founded upon the marsh-marigold and pose of the body and the folds of the draperies
buttercup, with an unobtrusive ring of fairy figures, bear evidence of having been studied with the
The latter, indeed, are so small by comparison with utmost care. The head is seen against a back-
the scale of the other units, that they would scarcely ground of bright blue sky, the intensity of which is
be discernible but for the band of pale-blue ground relieved by a flight of black swallows. Another
which serves them for setting. The other design panel represents a fountain in the middle of a
is intended for a machine-woven fabric. It consists square, with a group of domes and towers, pedi-
mainly of yellow nenuphars with other water plants ments and columns of Renaissance buildings in the
encircling a nymph-guarded pool, in the midst of background. The fountain itself is an elaborate
which, cradled in the heart of a lily, a little water- work of the same style, with water playing in the
baby is displayed. upper basin, and jets thrown up from the mouths
Mr. William de Morgan's pottery, in which he of dolphins that surround the lower rim of the water,
has revived the methods of the exquisite metallic The panel reproduced on page 279 shows the
lustre ware of Hispano-Moresque
, manufacture, is deservedly so well
known that there is no need in
these pages to labour to demon-
strate its many beautiful qualities.
The resemblance of the newer
ware to its historic prototype,
however, consists less in the
design than in the colour; for
Mr. de Morgan's treatment of
animals, birds, reptiles and fishes,
of which he makes abundant use
in decoration, and still more
markedly his treatment of floral
forms, assimilates to the style of
Persian art rather than to that of
Spain or Italy. It is, of course,
from Persia that Mr. de Morgan
derives his favourite colour
scheme of torquoise, deep blue
and purplish brown with a
moderate admixture of green and
black. The tiles exhibited by
him at the New Gallery are
executed almost exclusively in
the above colours. Beside several
handsome borders (one of which
has for its principal motif, the
familiar Eastern device of the
pine pattern) with birds, carna-
tions, vines and abstract floral
conventions in the Persian man-
ner, there was shown a large and
WARDRonii designed ire Ambrose heal important composition of square
executed by messrs. heal and son. tiles representing "Justice" under
the form of an allegoric female
figure holding an open book
Gallery. In both very similar elements, though inscribed with Latin hexameters in black letter,
diversely treated, appear. Both are diapers of plain She stands under a round-headed arch, opening
repeats—plain, that is, as distinct from patterns con- in a wall, the base of which is covered by a
structed on the "drop" principle. One, designed for dense hedge of flowering rose bushes. The
wall-paper, is founded upon the marsh-marigold and pose of the body and the folds of the draperies
buttercup, with an unobtrusive ring of fairy figures, bear evidence of having been studied with the
The latter, indeed, are so small by comparison with utmost care. The head is seen against a back-
the scale of the other units, that they would scarcely ground of bright blue sky, the intensity of which is
be discernible but for the band of pale-blue ground relieved by a flight of black swallows. Another
which serves them for setting. The other design panel represents a fountain in the middle of a
is intended for a machine-woven fabric. It consists square, with a group of domes and towers, pedi-
mainly of yellow nenuphars with other water plants ments and columns of Renaissance buildings in the
encircling a nymph-guarded pool, in the midst of background. The fountain itself is an elaborate
which, cradled in the heart of a lily, a little water- work of the same style, with water playing in the
baby is displayed. upper basin, and jets thrown up from the mouths
Mr. William de Morgan's pottery, in which he of dolphins that surround the lower rim of the water,
has revived the methods of the exquisite metallic The panel reproduced on page 279 shows the