Studio: international art (20.1900)

design for a salt-cellar

by phillip w. holyoake

The National Competition, 1900

imaginative way. The more ambitious student
will probably take the latter and more crucial
alternative. Both methods have been intelli-
gently essayed by many competitors, of whom
we may mention Jeanie Tobin and Ethel M. A.
Campbell (South Kensington), Lydia C. Hammett
and Eva Brown (Taunton), and students at Cork,
Dublin, Birmingham, Battersea, Dover, Notting-
ham, and Leeds. The lace mat by Margaret L.
Baker calls for criticism in being an unsuitable
object for so fine a decoration. Handkerchiefs
and dessert d'oyleys seem to mark the proper
limits of lace on the side of utility, and to carry it
further is to risk the blunting of that sense ot
seemliness in the use of choice and fragile things
which is the essence of good taste.

There is very little novelty or variety in carpet
decorated with some figure borrowed from the design, which seems to be somewhat out of favour,
border itself. There seems a perennial difficulty in owing partly, no doubt, to a growing dislike of the
relating the border satisfactorily to a strong centre- old-fashioned heavy and unwieldy article, and a
design. The number of examples sent
up from the Belfast classes speak well for

the local spirit which thus preserves the . WKEtKttjB

good traditions of Irish linen industry. i^. ^-*s;-*^ " v.;v.^-.

Among other exhibitors deserving special S^i^^^tSjjMs '"'" ■'■ ' ■' _ "

mention are Mary D. Baxter (Clapham), 9k
whose earlier damasks will be favourably
recalled from last year, Helena Appleyard,

already commended, and Lydia C. Ham- . T|MHB|^v
mett (Taunton), who will be remembered
by her designs for lace. The same pro-
lific group of Belfast students also show /I
designs for printed and embroidered coun- *SB,
terpanes, and another of last year's -JL
prize-winners, James Hogben, is again \^fej^ap«fcL ' -j<

conspicuous. The printed bedspread by <
Janet Robertson is tasteful and ingenious,
but nothing in this group is of really
original merit, and there should certainly 9
be room for invention in such a distinct H 1- fV'J^^

branch of textile design. I i ^

Lace is another favourite subject with H9 -9 ~

the students, both men and women. d*^y\ - *v1 \ ' L

Here, again, there is a lack of distinction J J' f / '

and originality, but the work shows a mm"4*^Jll

decided improvement in quality upon last JKfca '/- \-

year. One of the most original of several > - .....iiiim—nr^ •

designs for lace fans is by Ernest Aris, of S^CT jK^5^^W^^?^-!?^5»*^Keffi~ \

Bradford—a school remarkable for the By/^k, ^^fcoc1' 3"* \-

versatility of its work. It seems obvious Hfi HK; cv" > -«*

that the subjects used for lace design HanH IKI __^£^§M SkHr

should either be of themselves ethereal S^^BBI^M^M^MBMMilMMI^^^^J^
and filmy in character, or should be

^ ' _ modelled design for a wall-fountain

suggested in the most delicate and „.

66 by hubert miller

259