Studio: international art (53.1911)

Reviews and Notices

very interesting selection of drawings by Indian
artists of the Rajput and Mughal schools. These
schools, which flourished chiefly in the seven-
teenth century, were, Dr. Coomaraswamy points
out, purely Indian, their drawings and paintings
showing very little outside influence, and although
there is an apparent kinship to Persian work in
some of the productions of the Mughal artists,
the analysis he gives of the characteristics of
Persian and Indian drawings, elucidated by two
outline reproductions typical of both, conclu-
sively rebuts the allegation of Persian influence.
These paintings and drawings of the Indian schools,
he observes, "are not at all to be dismissed as
' decorative art,' though they possess to the full
those qualities of rhythm and design which are
essential to all the greatest art. For the most part
they are not even book illustrations, but inde-
pendent works. They reflect with extraordinary
intimacy both the life and the ideals of serious
men. To know them is to understand the period
in which they were produced more perfectly than
is possible in any other way."

The Common-sense Collector. By Frank Frank-
fort Moore. (London: Hodderand Stoughton.)
\os. 6d. net. British Fire-Marks from 1680. By
George A. Fothergill, M.B., CM. (Edinburgh:
W. Green and Sons.) 7s. 6d. net.—The first of these
two works with its fifty odd illustrations of articles
in the author's possession is one that every collector
should read, for although written especially for the
collector of antique furniture—and the collector
moreover with little money to spend and none to
waste on his hobby—the account of his own ex-
periences will interest those whose fancies turn to
other fields. Mr. Moore defends collecting as
being the outcome of a deeply rooted instinct, and
asserts that it is only the thoughtless and unimagina-
tive who speak of it as a " craze." We readily agree
that such "common-sense" collecting as he had in
mind in writing his book is perfectly legitimate, on
aesthetic as well as utilitarian grounds, but then all
collecting is very far from deserving the ascription of
" common-sense." What is to be said, for instance, of
the collecting of fire-marks—those leaden tablets
which the early insurance companies were ac-
customed to fix on buildings insured with them ?
Intrinsically there seems to be little in these
symbols of a commercial transaction to warrant
the enthusiasm displayed by Mr. Fothergill in his
book about them—the first ever devoted exclusively
to the subject. In a case of this sort curiosity will,
we think, be amply satisfied by the drawings he has
made of a large number of them.

Messrs. Otto Schulze and Co. of Edinburgh have
recently published a tastefully arranged Portfolio
of Book-plates by Harold Nelson, an artist who
has achieved marked success in this line. The
portfolio contains twenty-five reproductions, each
mounted on grey paper, and among them are
several of an armorial character, this being a
speciality with Mr. Nelson. The portfolio is issued
in a limited edition, at £1 is. net.

Print Restoration and Picture Cleaning, by Mr.
M. J. Gtjnn (London: Upcott Gill), 6s. 6d. net,
contains many useful wrinkles as to the repair and
restoration of prints of all kinds, the cleaning of
water-colours, the detection of print " fakes," and
other matters which commend it to collectors.

The fifth volume of the " Meister der Graphik "
series of monographs which Messrs. Klinkhardt and
Biermann of Leipzig are issuing, is devoted to Die
Niirnberger Kleinmeister—a group of sixteenth-
century engravers comprising the Brothers Hans
Sebald and Barthel Beham Georg Pencz, and the
"Master J.B.," a monogrammist of whose identity
and personal career practically nothing is known
though the initials have been supposed to be those
of Jorg Bencz, a variation of Georg Pencz. Herr
Emil Waldmann contributes a series of essays to the
volume, of especial interest being one on the social
conditions of Nuremberg at the time these artists
flourished, while in another he examines very
critically the hypothesis of the identity of " Master
J.B." and Georg Pencz, which he holds to be un-
proved. Like other volumes of the series, this
one is well illustrated, there being fifty-five plates
containing in all 223 reproductions, besides a
number of text illustrations. The price is 16
marks in wrappers and 18 marks cloth.

The Xenien Verlag of Leipzig have brought out
in a limited edition a transcript of the Hymnen an
die Nacht, by Novalis, a writer who flourished a
century ago, and as the " prophet of the Romantic
school" of that period is still much read. This
transcript has been made by Wilhelm Jaecker in
an old Italian script hand, and the reproduction
has been tastefully printed on Japanese paper by
the Aldus Press. The price is 20, 25, and 30 marks
according to the style of the cover.

We have received from Messrs. L. and C. Hardt-
muth, the makers of the popular " Koh-i-Noor"
pencils and the equally popular Waterman fountain
pens, an assortment of propelling pencils especially
designed for carrying in the pocket, which are at
once neat in finish and durable in construction.

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