Studio: international art (45.1909)

Reviews and Notices

previous writers, the greatest interest of the volume
lies in its survey of the last fifty years of Scottish
art from i860 to 1908, to which nearly 300 of the
500 pages of letterpress are devoted. It is in this
survey that Mr. Caw has been confronted with his
greatest difficulties, the maintaining of a true per-
spective and correct judgment in estimating the
value of contemporary or comparatively recent art,
and measuring and apportioning the influences
which have directed and moulded it. If the
informed reader may not at all times be inclined to
accept Mr. Caw’s conclusions, he cannot but be
impressed by their general accuracy, and above all
by the fearlessness with which they are stated.
One cannot read the book without, admiring the
keen perception, accurate information, critical
acumen, ripe judgment, and well reasoned conclu-
sions of the author. E-pecially valuable and
interesting are the chapters on Orchardson and
Pe tie, whom he brackets together though their
styles were so dissimilar, Paul Chalmers, McTag-
gart, and Guthrie, Walton, Roche, and Lavery,
the leaders of the Glasgow school, and the closing
chapter in which a rhume is given of the subjective,’
emotional and technical characteristics of Scottish
painting. Seeing that Mr. Caw has gone b. yond
his title in including a chapter on etchers and
illustrators, it might have been advisable had he
added another on sculpture, and displayed a little
less of the pre-Raphaelite by excising reference to
a number of contemporary painters whose work is
not of sufficient importance to be included in such
a volume. He would then have covered the whole
field of Scottish art. As it is, however, his book is
truly national and monumental. It is well illustrated.

The Shores of the Adriatic. Second Part. The
Austrian Side. By F. Hamilton Jackson, R. B.A.
(London : John Murray.) £1 is. net.—-Remote
from the beaten track and comparatively little
known to English travellers, the Austrian side of
the Adriatic retains a mysterious charm, greater
even than that of its opposite rival, which has been
so thoroughly exploited that there remains little
fresh to be said of it. For this reason Mr. Jackson’s
new volume, following much the same lines as its
predecessor dealing w-th the Italian shores of the
famous sea, will be welcomed with enthusiasm, not
only by the ordinary tourist, to whom the exterior
aspect of a country chiefly appeals, but by all who
are interested in the still unsolved ethnological
and archaeological problems connected with the
Küstenlande, Istria and Dalmatia, as well as by
students of architecture and the pictorial arts, folk-
lore and costume, all of which, though they betray

marked affinities with those of Italy and the East, are
stamped with a distinctive character of their own
which in future developments seems likely, in
certain directions, to become more marked than
it is now. Beginning with an eloquent general
description of the physical characteristics of the
Austrian sea-board and of its inhabitants, Mr.
Jackson, who has supplemented his own observa-
tions by close study of the work of his predecessors
in the same field, tells in succession-the chequered
story of the various districts, noting the traditions
and superstitions, customs and costumes of each,
deftly weaving his personal experiences into a narra-
tive of unflagging interest, every section of his text
being copiously illu-trated wiih excellent reproduc-
tions of good photographs of streets and churches,
art treasures, groups of natives, etc., and original
drawings of architectural details, the latter from his
own hand. It is, perhaps, in the descriptions of
notable bui dings that the writer’s expert knowledge
is most clearly revealed, so well is the significance
of every peculiarity of structure brought out.

Sh'ffi^ld Plate : Its History, Manufacture, and
Art. By Harry Newton Veitch. (London :
Geo. Bell & Sons.) 25T. net.—To the scanty litera-
ture already in exi-tence dealing with Sheffield
plate, Mr. Veitch’s book forms an important and
very valuable addition. Apart from his own
wide knowledge of the subject the author has
spared no pains to make his work an exhaustive
and comprehensive treatise on this lost craft.
After tracing the historical and economic condi-
tions which led up to a demand for metal ware
which should be cheaper than solid silver and
superior to the “ treene ” and pewter vessels and
table ware then in common use, he tells us how
the art of Sheffield plating was discovered by
Thomas Bolsover in 1742 and successfully deve-
loped by his apprentice, Joseph Hancock. The
essential difference between Sheffield plating and
all other methods of plating is that in the
former method the rare metal is fused on to
the base before makmg up and not after, as
is the case in other kinds of plated ware. Very
interesting chapters are devoted to a survey
of the numerous processes of manufacture, first of
the plate, and then of the article fashioned there-
from. The making of Sheffield plate can be divided
into two periods, the first during which copper was
invariably used as the base metal, and the second
period in which German silver was sometimes used
as the foundation upon which the sterlings lver was
plated. Illustrative of the ware produced during
the first period, there are thirty-two excellent repro-

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