Studio: international art (26.1902)

Studio-Talk

Mr. George W. Eve's Royal bookplates have a
twofold interest at the present time. As the book-
plates of H.M. King Edward the Seventh, they
have this month a topical interest of a national
kind; and they are also valuable and attractive as
examples of good art in heraldic workmanship. In
heraldic ex-libris it is so easy to make the component
parts of the design unduly emphatic, so that the
eye has no pleasure in looking at them. Mr. Eve
has been on his guard against this defect, with the
result that the craftsmanship throughout is admir-
ably pleasing and decorative in a bold heraldic
way. Sets of the Royal bookplates are now being
sold in aid of King Edward's Hospital Fund
for London, and we have no doubt that many
persons will be glad to have this fact brought to
their notice.

The exhibition of statuettes at the Fine Art
Society, to which reference was made in an
article on the show, was not devoted exclusively to
statuettes. Other forms of contemporary art for

BOOKPLATE BY G. W. EVE

" the home " were represented, and some admirable
new productions by Mr. Alexander Fisher attracted
wide attention. It comprised seven pieces of
enamelled jewellery, all ably designed, bright and
charming in colour, and thoroughly well made;
a bracket for electric light, carried out in
bronze, silver, enamel, and pearls; a silver
casket enriched with enamels representing
the story of Cupid and Psyche; and a
triptych of enamels framed in silver, called

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Truth Travestied. Illustrations of all these works
are given this month, and they show that the
development of Mr. Fisher's gifts goes on steadily
in the direction of lightness and gracefulness.
Without the slightest loss of vigour, of masculinity
of design, there is here a departure from the heavy
look of bulk that was once a characteristic of Mr.
Fisher's metal settings for his exquisite enamels.

BOOKPLATE BY G. W. EVE

MANCHESTER.— The Manchester
Spring Exhibition of Water-Colours
at the City Art Gallery contains much
that is interesting and worthy of praise,
as well as some distinctly amateurish work. On
the screen in gallery No. 3 are some clever little
Venetian studies by Mr. G. H. Lenfesty, and Mr.
Dodd's At Ponda, Spain, is both pleasing and
unconventional. Mr. Walter West's Rubies and
Diamonds—a study of a red-haired girl sitting by a
window with crimson curtains—is well composed,
while Mr. J. D. Ferguson's studies of Tangiers are
admirable pieces of work. Mr. Clarence Whaite is
represented by A Sheep Pen and A Buttress oj
Snowdon. The latter, the blue hills of which recall
Turner, has been purchased by the Art Gallery
Committee, subject to the approval of the City
Council. Mr. Aumonier has sent at least one
excellent landscape—An Old Chalk Pit—a broken
cliff bathed in rosy light.

In the same room are Mr. Alex. Macbride's In
State—a foaming river rushing between banks