Studio: international art (39.1907)

Reviews and Notices

York: Macmillan.) 6s. net.—Written in a sorr.e-
what different style to the "Wessex" of Mr. Clive
Holland, who, though his book is thoroughly up
to date from an historical and archteologieal point
of view, treats the ancient Saxon kingdom chiefly
as the scenes of Thomas Hardy's famous romances,
the "Dorset" of Sir Frederick Treves will appeal
to an equally wide public. Sir Frederick, who
is himself a native of the county he describes,
writes with the tempered enthusiasm of a true
expert, who recognises the combined results of
heredity and environment and knows how 1o
trace to their original causes the peculiarities which
even at this late day make his native county a
district apart, where the quaint speech of the
Dorset dialect falls on the ear like an echo from
ancient England. The description of the deserted
church of the lost village of Winterbourne Tomson
is a case in point, so vivid is the picture called up
of "the poor little sanctuary, with its broken
windows, its taint of mould and dank odour of
decay that, since its diminished congregation walked
out of it for the last time .... has been left as
reverently alone as if it were the chamber of the
recently dead." Mr. Pennell's sketches serve as
an admirable supplement to the great surgeon's
interesting narrative.

English Coloicred Books. By Martin Hardie.
(London: Methuen & Co.) 25s. net.— Books
with coloured illustrations have always had a greater
fascination for the majority of people, old and
young, than books with "plain" illustrations, yet,
as Mr. Hardie says, there is very general ignorance,
even among collectors, of the various processes
employed in the production of the illustrations
which are so much prized. Ignorance of this kind
may readily be pardoned on the part of the general
reader, but the collector who is ready to spend a
large amount of money in the acquisition of
coloured books ought to be equipped with a certain
amount of knowledge on this head. It is for the
purpose of imparting such knowledge that Mr.
Hardie has undertaken this addition to the
Connoisseur's Library, which, it cannot be doubted,
will prove a valuable addition to the library
of the collector and bibliophile. Premising that,
like Gaul of old, the subject is divisible into
three parts, the author gives an account first of
coloured illustrations printed from wood blocks,
secondly of those printed from metal plates, and
thirdly of those printed from stone, devoting special
chapters to men who have played a leading role in
evolution of colour printing in this country. In
connection with the first method, which came into
90

use soon after the invention of printing and has
remained substantially the same down to the present
day, though it is now much less used than it was a
generation or two back, the author supports the
view, now gaining pretty general acceptance, that
it was not borrowed from the Far East, but
originated independently, if not solely, in Germany
long before it was used in Japan. Books with illus-
trations printed by various methods from metal
plates are dealt with at greater length; and to this
class belong the bulk of the books so much
esteemed by collectors. These pictures, however,
like many of the older woodcuts and also litho-
graphs for some time after the invention of that
process, were almost invariably coloured by hand,
and it was not until the process of printing in
colours from wood-blocks had been revived and
perfected by Edmund Evans, and from stone by
Hullmandel and his successors, both within our
own times, that book illustrations came to be
mechanically printed in colours to any large
extent. All these processes, however, are being
more and more superseded by what is known as
the "three-colour" process, which forms the
subject of a chapter at the close. This process
is more purely mechanical than any of the others,
and mainly for that reason is not viewed favourably
by the author; but some excellent examples of it
are furnished by the numerous plates which accom-
pany his text. Mr. Hardie's exposition throughout
is clear and concise, and he writes with the
authority of one whose knowledge of the subject is
probably unequalled.

Studies in Architecture. By Reginald Blom-
field, A.R.A. (London : Macmillan.) \os. net.
—To Mr. Blomfield is due the credit of having
rendered the study of architecture popular with
the general public in England, by pointing out that
it has its personal human interest, as well as its
great importance in the history of art. It is on
this point that he dwells chiefly in his new volume
of essays ; and the only regret his readers will feel
is that he has chosen to illustrate his delightful
text chiefly with photographs, giving few reproduc-
tions of his own drawings, such as gave so great a
charm to his " Handbook of Renaissance Archi-
tecture in England."

Engraving and Etching. By Dr. Fr. Lippmann.
Third Edition. Revised by Dr. Max Lehrs.
Translated by Martin Hardie. (London: H.
Grevel & Co.) ioj-. 6d. net.—The editor of the
new edition of this well-known handbook, who
succeeded its author in 1903 as Keeper of the
Print Room in the Berlin Museum, explains that