Studio: international art (19.1900)

A Master Draughtsman

like stone. How lucky we all should be if riches
akin to these were to appear in our sporting
trophies ! Of course, this is far too much to
expect at present, but some improvement ought
certainly to be brought about if those who care for
good metal-work make a determined effort to bring
into vogue a better type of cup and trophy.

The worthiness of this aim has for some years
been recognised here and there, and on several
occasions this recognition has shown itself in a
practical manner, as when Mr. Frampton made a
beautiful medal for Winchester. Some years ago,
again, the London Schools Swimming Association
received from the Fabian Society a fine shield
designed by Mr. Walter Crane; and to the same
Association Mr. C. R. Ashbee gave a challenge
cup designed by himself. Since then, in co-opera-
tion with his Guild of Handicrafts, Mr. Ashbee
has turned out some attractive cups for several
tournaments, schools, and tennis clubs, so that a
beginning has been made. But what we need
now is a more general and systematic attempt to
familiarise the public with good sporting cups in
various styles. With this end in view we invited
some well-known metal-workers and designers to
make special illustrations for this set of little
skirmishing articles. Up till now several artists
have finished designs, and we shall be glad to
hear from others who can help in any way.

Of course it is unfortunate that designs in black
and white cannot represent those qualities of
surface and colour with which most buyers of
sporting cups need to be familiarised. This draw-
back is serious, but it may perhaps be rendered
less so by descriptions

Reproduced in this article are two sketch de-
signs of yachting cups by Mr. Reynolds-Stephens.
In the larger one Triton supports a boat-shaped
vessel of silver, at the stern of which stands a female
figure, a figure of Victory, whose mantle is of gold,
whose robe is of blue mother-of-pearl, and whose
face arms, and hands are in ivory. She holds in
her left hand a gilded laurel wreath, and in her
right, as a symbol of swiftness, a caduceus like
Mercury's. The boat, too, has its symbols. It is
decorated with ivory Cupids' heads, and on each
one, wrought in blue mother-of-pearl, is a winged
cap, and the meaning of this symbolism is, that in
sport there must be love, good-fellowship, as well
as speed. For the rest, the cutwater ends in a
fish-head of gold, while along the bow the mother-
of-pearl is again repeated, greatly to the advantage
of a very fortunate colour scheme.

In the smaller sketch-design Mr. Reynolds-

Stephens takes a simpler motij, and gives us a
charmingly-shaped cup supported by two fish.
The fish are represented as in the act of starting
off to swim. At the corners of the cup's base speed
is symbolised once more, this time by swallows'
heads, and the beauty of the whole work is greatly
enhanced by the pieces of ruby-coloured crystal
with which the knop is ornamented. Something
reminiscent of that wayward orderliness which is
common to the beautiful forms of shells is observ-
able in the growth of this design.

The other illustrations represent some of the
athletic cups, so well suited for clubs and schools,
that are being produced by the Guild of Handi-
craft. In the workshops of this Guild only the
subsidiary parts of cups are made by sand-casting
from patterns originally modelled in wax. The
principal parts are worked up from sheets of metal,
then filled with pitch and hammered over till the
repousse comes right. The hammer-marks on the
plain metal surfaces are retained throughout, for
Mr. Ashbee has justly a strong objection to the
abrasive process of treating silver with the
polishing wheel, or buffers. The inscriptions are
pricked into the metal, not chased or graved (as
in the usual commercial manner), and great care
is taken in the choice of well-formed letters
Briefly, Mr. Ashbee and the Guild of Handicraft
are doing serious work. It is true that it would
not be difficult to find some defects in their
sporting cups, but at present we think it more
profitable to recognise the sincerity of their efforts
and the value of their practical example.

( To be continued.)

AMASTER DRAUGHTSMAN:
PAUL R E N O U A R D. BY
GABRIEL MOUREY.

I regard M. Paul Renouard as being the very
highest type of the modern draughtsman. He
draws as naturally as he breathes ; he can neither
look nor listen without drawing, for his art has
come to be with him a sort of sixth sense, working
in unison with the others, registering and fixing, for
the delight of his contemporaries, all his sensa-
tions, all his impressions.

A curious personality this, indeed, both as man
and as artist, witty and sympathique, and very
French, with great power of assimilation, wonder-
ful quickness of vision, and inexhaustible fertility.
Physically this diable de petit homme, with his thick
beard and long hair, reminds one of a Moor. His
features are strong and his colour high; his ebony

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