Studio: international art (28.1903)

The Arts and Crafts Exhibition

designer. Another exhibitor of metal-work is Mr. Caskets. of all sizes, both in wood and metal,
Gilbert Bayes, whose bronze door-fittings are strik- cover a great variety of designs and a wide range
ingly imaginative and poetic in treatment, while duly of merit. Among the inlaid work, nothing else
observing the sobriety and utility required of them, approaches Mr. Clement Heaton's brilliant little
The slender decorative figures which form the loop- tour-de-force which he calls The Forest — one
handles, and those in the plates themselves, are of those happy cases in which the ready vehicle
beautifully modelled; beneath them, and har- seems to run half-way to meet the artist; for the
monious in treatment, is a letter-box, while at effect of dawn through the trees, produced by
the upper end the design is finished by two fine marquetry in walnut-wood, achieves a wonderful
enamels in dark blue with hints of gold, by Miss fascination by quite legitimate means. In another
Gertrude Smith. method, Mr. Joseph E. Southall's painted cabinet

The work of Mr. Richard Garbe, who has is a sound and careful piece of workmanship; and
matured notably in the last three years, also the charming little modelled and painted panels for
possesses high qualities of imagination and feeling, the ends of a workbox, by Robert A. Dawson, are
which are well exemplified in the bronze panel, worthy of note. Among the caskets and jewel-cases
The Lady of Shalott. Executed in very low relief, in metal, those by Mr. Alexander Fisher, Miss
the modelling reticent and delicate, the sober Mary G. Houston, Miss Constance E. F. Lawrence,
beauty of the work is enhanced by its well-chosen Miss Esther Catlow, and the Birmingham Guild of
ebony setting. Another interesting piece of deco- Handicraft are conspicuous. Mr. Fisher's forms
ration in bronze is the dainty little toilet set by part of an important group of his enamels and
F. Lessore, consisting of brush, comb, and mirror- silver-work in the west room. The body of it is
frame, chased in designs representing Beauty, Love hammered in one piece like a cup, and the top and
and Fame. This also shows the good taste of the four sides are decorated in the successive keys of
designer in the way it is mounted and set out, no opal, sapphire, ruby, emerald, and pearl. Within
less than its plan and execution. the panels are enamels of kings and queens.

In the same hall are some of the best and at the Handsome as this is in its bold contours and rich
same time the simplest of
the lamp designs; notably
two brass electric light
pendants by the Birming-
ham Guild of Handicraft,
another by W. B. Map-
dougall, and another by the
Faulkner Bronze Company,
in which a wise economy
and right combination of
materials are made to
produce the happiest de-
corative results. Instances
of the wrong combination
of materials are unfor-
tunately only too close at
hand ; as, for example, the
use of rough bright-iron
fittings upon furniture of
polished mahogany,
ebony, and other highly
refined and finished sur-
faces wholly incongruous
with the more rugged
metals—a solecism into
which a well-known Lon-
don Guild is very prone

tO fall. DESIGN FOR STAINED GLASS WINDOW BY IIEYW00D SUMNER

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