Studio: international art (40.1907)

Reviews and Notices

displaying no little imagination ; others, such as the
two views of Dimsdale Hall, long the home of the
Elerses; Caverswall Castle, the residence of the
late Godfrey Wedgwood, and the Old Flint Mill,
Bottleslow, being excellent renderings of interesting
survivals of days gone by. Especially fascinating
is the chapter on the passing of the Elerses—the
predecessors of Wedgwood—whose memory was
held in high honour by that prince amongst potters ;
and even in relating once more the oft-told story
of Wedgwood himself, the able collaborators have
managed to write with freshness and to throw some
little new light on certain disputed points.

Houses and Gardens. By M. H. Baillie
Scott. (London: George Newnes, Ltd ) ^xs.bd.
net.—Mr. Baillie Scott’s achievements in the sphere
of domestic architecture are so well known to
readers of The Studio from his numerous con-
tributions to its pages during the past ten years
that it is unnecessary for us to deal at length with
the principles and ideas set forth and copiously
illustrated in this handsome quarto volume. We
have here the fruits of an exceptionally wide and
varied experience in the planning, decoration
and equipment of houses of all dimensions, from
small week-end cottages to large country houses
both in England and abroad. This volume testifies
eloquently to the fact that, besides being an archi-
tect equipped with an ample fund of scientific
knowledge, Mr. Scott is also an artist possessing
a mature understanding of the proper relations of
use and beauty ; and the aim of this work is to
show what possibilities of beauty are present in
the construction of a house. There is urgent need
of architects with a perception of these possibilities,
if domestic architecture is to be raised to a higher
plane than that which the rampant commercialism
of the age assigns to it, and it is to be hoped that
a valuable treatise such as this will meet with that
wide recognition which it deserves.

Crome’s Etchings. By Henry S. Theobald.
(London and New York : Macmillan.) ioj\ 6d.
net.—In the title of this attractive little volume the
author has done it less than justice, for it contains
not only a scholarly essay on Crome’s etchings,
and an exhaustive catalogue raisonne of the various
states of a considerable number of examples of his
work in that medium, but also an account of his
life and a criticism of his paintings. It will appeal
therefore to all who are interested in the career
of the famous founder of the Norwich School,
as well as to collectors of his etchings.

Olives : The Reminiscences of a President. By
Sir Wyke Bayliss, P.R.B.A. (London: George

Allen.) 15Y. net.—Revealing as it does the deep
religious feeling and warm sympathy with the aims
of others that were amongst the most marked
characteristics of the late President of the Royal
Society of British Artists, this volume of memories
will receive a very cordial welcome from his
many friends, and will also appeal forcibly to the
wider circle who knew him only as a public man.
It was not his talent as a painter, not his skill as a
writer, though both were considerable, that won
for him his high position amongst his contempo-
raries, but his remarkable adaptability, his power
of saying the right thing at the right moment.
Even his lightest and most impromptu utterances
were marked by an undercurrent of earnestness, and
throughout a long career of varied activity he con-
sistently carried out the principles he was so eager
to enforce. As President of the R.B.A., his tact
and determination to avoid unseemly quarrels saved
the situation again and again, and in his accounts
of the difficulties with which he had to contend
there is not a word that could wound the most
sensitive. His memory will long be cherished not
only by his friends, but many who were personally
unknown to him to whom he held out a helping hand.

The aim of the Arundel Club is to place in the
hands of art students and others good permanent
reproductions of pictures by old masters in private
collections inaccessible to the general public. Thus
the third portfolio they are issuing to their sub-
scribers contains reproductions of interesting works
by celebrated masters in the private collections of
King Edward, the King of Portugal, and others.
The annual subscription to the club is one guinea,
but members must join for at least two years.

We have received from Messrs. Frost & Reed
of Bristol an impression of a mezzotint engraving
by Stanley C. Pratt after the picture by Miss E.
Collyer, entitled Scotty and Khaki, which was
exhibited at the Royal Academy the year before
last. Lovers of art who are at the same time lovers
of dogs will find a double source of interest in this
admirable engraving.

The plate which the Art Union of London are
distributing to members for the current year has
been engraved in pure mezzotint by E. M. Hester,
after Mr. W. R. Symonds’ painting Day Di'eams,
exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1904. It is an
attractive picture representing a little girl fondling
a pet terrier, and the size of the engraved part is
2if inches by 18 inches.

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