Studio: international art (38.1906)

Modern Viennese Toys

sun at the top of a path. Though only a study,
it is alike very sincere and very actual.

All this forms an achievement of the first order.
Arrived, as he now has, at a complete mastery of
his process, Osterlind owes it to himself to per-
severe in colour-etching—an art in which he is
already one of the undisputed masters.

Henri Frantz.

M

ODERN VIENNESE TOYS.
BY A. S. LEVETUS.

In Austria the making of toys has been
confined from times immemorial to certain parts
of the Crown lands—Tyrol, Bohemia, Croatia and
other countries—and has not been one of the
specialities of the capital of the Empire; neither
is it so now, although many attempts have been
made in the direction of a reform in this branch of
applied art during the last four years. That

“rouge et or1’ by a. osterlind

(By permission of M. Pierrefort)

“ PRES DU PUITS I BY A. OSTERLIND

(By Permission of M. Pierrefort)

modern toys have not found a firm foothold is
certainly from no lack of enterprise on the part of
the designers, neither can it be said that the public
have failed to do their share in buying what has
been offered to them. The fault lies in the fact
that to permeate the market these toys must be
cheap, and that is an impossibility so long as the
designers are obliged not only to design and invent
new toys and methods of making them, but have
themselves to do the actual work of manufacture.
That the toys could be made cheaply is the opinion
of the designers themselves, who see here a con-
genial outlet for their fantasy and a new and impor-
tant field of art opened out to them. The actual
expense of manufacture is very little, but time is
valuable; if Austria wants to compete in this
direction with Germany she must send teachers
to the districts where toys are made to instruct the
villagers in new methods. They are quick to learn
and their fingers are, as the result of heredity, apt
and deft, for finger manipulation may be inherited

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