DOI Heft:
No. 172 (July, 1907)
DOI Artikel:Sheldon-Williams, Inglis: Bits of old China
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20775#0141
Bits of Old China
BITS OF OLD CHINA. BY The wise painter will look on such a thing as
INGLIS SHELDON-WILLIAMS. this with that side of his mind in the ascendant
that absorbs the mystic poetry and philosophy of
There was once a Chinese Mandarin unpaintable things, his hands will be idle ; his mind
who built himself a house in the old walled city of registering with an almost painful speed and vivid-
Shanghai, hundreds of years ago, and laid out the ness, impressions that have no relationship with the
cramped space about it with many artfully designed technical problems of his craft. Long ago, in the
paths and terraces, grottoes and subways, where, in first half-second, the wholly satisfying effect of
the space of fifty square yards, one may walk for weathered ivory and ancient parchment in a world
half-an-hour without retracing one's footsteps. of turquoise blue has enthralled his colour sense ;
Perhaps this called for more art and ingenuity in the midst of a scheme of subtlest blue and gold
than even Kubla Khan might boast, with all the he begins to think, but not along lines of tone and
wide valley at his disposal to deck and beautify for values, intricacies of perspective design and what
a setting to his stately pleasure dome. From in- not—there is no room here for these elementary
numerable terraced standpoints, from above, from problems or the common-places of imitative execu-
below, through doorways carved with an amazing tion, at best a meretricious sacrilege. Rather he
richness and intricacy of design and detail the eye ponders over the marvellous brotherhood of great
may gaze in turn on every elaborated angle and designers ; separated by thousands of miles, almost
perspective of the dainty dwelling poised on its by thousands of years, the work of the ancient
conventional rock-clouds that seem to float with architect of the east would stand in complete
their airy burden on the surface of a little lake, harmony beside the most precious example of
reflecting the complex and bewildering succession Gothic art; with every sentiment, every tradition,
of curve on curve of heavily
corniced roofing, each tiled
and sweeping line crowned
from eave to rooftree with
its interlaced network of
carved foliage and symbols,
each pinnacle and apex
poising little sitting, danc-
ing, or standing figures,
dragons and emblems,
wrought with as lavish a
care and completion as the
carved and gilded woodwork
above the round doorway
that gives upon the inner
court, or the sinuous folds
of the serpent that crowns
the coping of the outer wall.
Here, in the heart of
squalor, this perfect bit of
brie - a - brae endures un-
changed, the whole no
bigger than a Surrey cot-
tage; so small a gem set in
the midst of the crammed
and uncouth city, neglected
by the myriads without its
walls, but seemingly im-
mune from decay, it appears
to brood in a rapt and self-
absorbed silence on past
pageants and pomp. <<a shanghai pedlar stocktaking
by inglis sheldon-williams
iii
BITS OF OLD CHINA. BY The wise painter will look on such a thing as
INGLIS SHELDON-WILLIAMS. this with that side of his mind in the ascendant
that absorbs the mystic poetry and philosophy of
There was once a Chinese Mandarin unpaintable things, his hands will be idle ; his mind
who built himself a house in the old walled city of registering with an almost painful speed and vivid-
Shanghai, hundreds of years ago, and laid out the ness, impressions that have no relationship with the
cramped space about it with many artfully designed technical problems of his craft. Long ago, in the
paths and terraces, grottoes and subways, where, in first half-second, the wholly satisfying effect of
the space of fifty square yards, one may walk for weathered ivory and ancient parchment in a world
half-an-hour without retracing one's footsteps. of turquoise blue has enthralled his colour sense ;
Perhaps this called for more art and ingenuity in the midst of a scheme of subtlest blue and gold
than even Kubla Khan might boast, with all the he begins to think, but not along lines of tone and
wide valley at his disposal to deck and beautify for values, intricacies of perspective design and what
a setting to his stately pleasure dome. From in- not—there is no room here for these elementary
numerable terraced standpoints, from above, from problems or the common-places of imitative execu-
below, through doorways carved with an amazing tion, at best a meretricious sacrilege. Rather he
richness and intricacy of design and detail the eye ponders over the marvellous brotherhood of great
may gaze in turn on every elaborated angle and designers ; separated by thousands of miles, almost
perspective of the dainty dwelling poised on its by thousands of years, the work of the ancient
conventional rock-clouds that seem to float with architect of the east would stand in complete
their airy burden on the surface of a little lake, harmony beside the most precious example of
reflecting the complex and bewildering succession Gothic art; with every sentiment, every tradition,
of curve on curve of heavily
corniced roofing, each tiled
and sweeping line crowned
from eave to rooftree with
its interlaced network of
carved foliage and symbols,
each pinnacle and apex
poising little sitting, danc-
ing, or standing figures,
dragons and emblems,
wrought with as lavish a
care and completion as the
carved and gilded woodwork
above the round doorway
that gives upon the inner
court, or the sinuous folds
of the serpent that crowns
the coping of the outer wall.
Here, in the heart of
squalor, this perfect bit of
brie - a - brae endures un-
changed, the whole no
bigger than a Surrey cot-
tage; so small a gem set in
the midst of the crammed
and uncouth city, neglected
by the myriads without its
walls, but seemingly im-
mune from decay, it appears
to brood in a rapt and self-
absorbed silence on past
pageants and pomp. <<a shanghai pedlar stocktaking
by inglis sheldon-williams
iii