Studio: international art (20.1900)

The National Competition, 1900

11

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design for an by arthur e. payne

oaken church door

especially in the woven silks and hangings of
Wilfred Wetherell; Newcastle also exhibits largely
in weaving designs, and Blackburn ranks well
with the sincere and careful work of William
Stoddart in silk and cotton furniture coverings.

Designs for damask table-linen raise the
problem of making a flat decoration, without
colour, show equally well from all points of the
compass. Considering the severe limitations of
this exercise—a difficulty which exceeds (by lack
of colour) the difficulty of carpets, ceiling-papers
and counterpanes—it is surprising that so many
students are attracted to damask design. A
fairly high average ot merit is sustained in this
class, but no great originality is noticeable. The
serviette and tablecloth by Alice B. Loch (South
Kensington) are perhaps the best among a large
number of designs from this school. Com-
paratively few have taken refuge in the geometric
method, and, indeed, table-linen seems rather to
invite decoration by natural forms, especially of
fruit and flowers. The task is to select sub-
jects that lend themselves to circular convention,
and yield, if not a centre figure, at least some
pleasing and unobtrusive repeat in stars, knots or
trellis-pattern, and a border not hopelessly intract-
able at the corners—as many promising borders
for metal design by an equally good name in are apt to be. - In several of the best of this year's
textiles. Their exhibits include printed muslin, designs the body of the cloth is but lightly
velvet, and cretonne designs
by Edith A. Leworthy
and Herbert Rankin, and
there is a strong and
original design for woven
tapestry by Hilda Pember-
ton, which, however, does
not excel her admirable
work in the same material
last year. Another im-
portant group of textile
designs is from Manchester,
whose several schools are
well represented in printed
cottons and silks, woven
tapestry, and interweavings
of silk and wool. The
exhibits of John E. Birks,
C. A. Bauer, Allan W.
Rains, Chas. E. Mason,
S. G. Ashley, and Alfred
Alexander are especially jf^^^^fj
commendable. The Burn- WK^S^^Mt '->..••

ley students show no ^^■■^HBM^H^MIMHHMMHlKMi^M^MM^^HH^^M

less promising quality, designs for door-latch, door-plate and hinges by Gwendoline watts

258

DE31Q/TS tor MAGES .i*d LATCH.
to be WORKED iA BRIGHT IRO/S