Studio: international art (38.1906)

Reviews and Notices

and sometimes even coarse. • The vase and cover
encrusted with flowers, forming the frontispiece
of Mr. Bemrose’s new volume, from the Victoria
and Albert Museum, and that with the parrots
in the writer’s collection, are notable cases in
point; but, on the other hand, some of the
statuettes, especially those of singers playing the
harp and tambourine, with those of an actor, sup-
posed to be Garrick, and a boy with flowers, are
true works of art, delightful in pose and full of
character. Mr. Bemrose, who is the author of an
important work on Bow, Chelsea and Derby porce-
lain, is not exactly an enthusiast on Longton Hall
ware, for he recognises its defects, but he is an expert
in the knowledge necessary to deal with it success-
fully, and he has spared no pains to make his
history of it complete. The numerous illustrations,
many of them in colour, include a great variety of
typical examples of the work produced under
Littler and his successors : reproductions are given
of all the marks employed, and several pages are
devoted to an excellent Catalogue raisonne of the
plates, specifying the peculiarities of the paste and
glazes employed, criticising the designs, ornamenta-
tion and colouring, and in some cases quoting the
opinions of other skilled critics. The book is, in
fact, a useful contribution to the history of English
porcelain, and will no doubt find a place on the
shelves of many collectors and connoisseurs.

The Silvery Thames. Described by Walter
Jerrold. Illustrated by Ernest W. Haslehurst.
(Leeds : A. Cooke, Ltd.) Ordinary Edition, 21s-.
net; Edition de Luxe, 425-. net.—Although the
author of this new contribution to the already
copious literature of the Thames can scarcely be
said to have added anything new to what is already
known of its history and associations, he has
managed to relate the old, old story in a fresh and
original manner. His narrative supplements well
the series of water-colours by his collaborator, which
include a great variety of typical scenes, beginning
with Thames Head and ending with a beautiful
view looking southward to the Nore from a point
of view not far from the mouth of the river. The
JVuneham Woods, Bells of Ouseley, Greenwich
and the Shrimping Fleet, Gravesend, are also
satisfactory, but unfortunately several of the
drawings, notably Ashton Keyes, Godstow, Ijfley,
Sandford and Abmgdon suffer greatly from the
crudeness of the reds, which may possibly, how-
ever, be the fault of the reproductions.

Le Bois. By Louis Metman and Gaston
BriIire. Second Part. (Paris: A Longuet.)—
This second part of a most useful and admirably

illustrated publication dealing with French wood
carving takes up the story at the beginning of the
seventeenth century, and brings it down to the
end of the eighteenth. As is pointed out by
M. Briere, of the Musee Nationale of Versailles,
a new departure took place at the outset of the
period of which it treats, in the evolution of
furniture in France, the result chiefly of the im-
portation of different-coloured woods from abroad,
and the introduction of marqueterie, inlaid metal,
and veneering. “The carpenter,” he says, “was
now replaced by the ebeniste”; and later on the
addition of brass and bronze gave to the chaser
a position of no little importance. The use of
furniture made of woods indigenous to France
was discontinued by the wealthy classes, and in
the second half of the century a fresh field was
provided for the enterprise of the carver in wood
by the fashion for decorating walls, ceilings, and
doors with designs in bas-relief. Illustrations are
given of several hundred typical examples of
carving, chiefly, fragments of schemes of decora-
tion, the approximate dates of which are given in
a useful Catalogue raisonne, preceded by an
exhaustive bibliography. The work is indeed a
perfect storehouse of beautiful design and valuable
information, and the modern decorator of every
nationality might find in it many motives thoroughly
suitable for adaptation at the present day.

Granada. By Leonard Williams. (London :
Heinemann.) js. 6d. net.—Long residence in
Spain has given to the author of this brightly written
record of travel, thorough acquaintance with the
language and great familiarity with the ways of the
people, with whom he seems to be in cordial
sympathy, in spite of the fact that he does not
hesitate to speak his mind plainly on the subject
of their weaknesses. To the systematic frauds
connected with the famous sacred mountain, he
devotes several chapters, in which he tells the
whole story of the exploitation of the caves—
“a longish story,” he says, “full of interest, social,
national and psychological, the story of the most
astounding, amazing and protracted swindle the
world has ever heard of.” It is somewhat of a
relief to pass from this exposure to the eloquent
and veracious accounts of the ascent of Mount
Zolair and the terrible snow-storm the writer
and his guide encountered on their way down,
in which the former nearly lost his life. Even
more interesting, however, is the description of
the Ave Maria Colony, where children are edu-
cated in the open air and Roman Catholicism is
seen at its best, so that it presents indeed a

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