Studio: international art (55.1912)

Reviews and Notices

Besides dealing with the furniture of various periods
and countries, including colonial furniture in
America, the work contains instructive chapters
on collecting and the perils besetting it; modes of
ornament in decorative furniture; the bed, the
cradle, and the cot; and a tabulated statement of
the woods used for furniture; the work closing
with a classified bibliography, a glossary of terms,
and a copious index.

Wild Flowers as they grow. Photographed in
colour direct from nature by H. Essenhigh Corke,
F.R.P.S., with descriptive text by G. Clarke
Nuttall, B.Sc. First and Second Series. (Lon-
don : Cassell and Co.) 55. net per vol.—These
two volumes are well worth the attention of
naturalists on account of the excellent photographs
of more or less familiar wild flowers which they
contain, and the novice in botany will find much
instruction and entertaining reading in the notes
by Mr. Nuttall.

Chushingura. Translated by Juicichi Inotjye.
(Tokyo: Nakanishi-Ya.) Some seventeen years
ago a translation appeared by Mr. Inouye of this
well-known Japanese historical play, and the editions
having been exhausted, a new and fuller translation
has now been made by him, to which he has added
a lengthy and informing introduction which will be
found to be of great value to the Western reader.
The reproductions in the original colours of
Hokusai’s well-known prints in illustration of the
principal scenes of the play add greatly to the
interest and value of the book. The volume is in
all respects satisfactory, and an evidence of the care
and skill exercised by the publishers in the various
details of its presentment.

We have on a past occasion referred to the re-
issue in a cheaper form of the volumes composing
Duckworth and Co.’s “ Library of Art,” a series
which has for its aim to put readers in possession
of really authoritative accounts of the achievements
of the Great Masters and Schools of Painting and
Sculpture through the pens of writers whose com-
petence is unquestionable. Among the volumes
recently reissued are L. Dimier’s French Painting
in the XVI Century, and Sir Charles Holroyd’s
Michael Angelo Buo7ia?-roti, the latter a revised
edition embodying some corrections made neces-
sary by the publication of Condivi’s Life of Michael
Angelo in English, as well as others. Two quite
new volumes have also been added to the series—
a brief but illuminating study of The Painters of
the School of Ferrara, by Prof. E. G. Gardner, and
another of The Painters of the School of Seville,
written by N. Sentenach and translated by Mrs.

Steuart Erskine. In the account of Murillo’s St.
Anthony in the latter the omission of a decimal
point has been responsible for an amusing blunder,
the dimensions of this picture being given as 560
metres in height and 375 metres in width ! These
volumes, which are issued at 5J. net, are illustrated
with reproductions and are neatly bound.

The fourth annual volume of Art Prices Current,
covering the season of 1910-11, embodies several
improvements which greatly enhance the utility of
this valuable record of sales. Besides containing a
complete list of the pictures, drawings, engravings,
and etchings sold at Christie’s during the season,
the volume, which now consists of nearly 900 pages
of close print, gives a careful selection of works sold
in the auction-rooms of Messrs. Sotheby and Messrs.
Puttick and Simpson ; but the special feature of the
new volume is the amplification of the Index, which
occupies over 150 pages and gives after the names
of the artists the full titles of their works that have
been sold. This improvement will be greatly appre-
ciated by those who have to refer constantly to sale
records. The volume is edited by Mr. G. Ingram
Smyth and published at the offices of “ The Fine
Art Trade Journal ” at the price of 21J.

The new volume of The Year’s Art (Hutchinson
and Co. 5s. net), though a little late, makes a
welcome appearance with its encyclopaedic store of
information. The matter has been carefully re-
vised to the end of 1911.

The German analogue of The Year’s Art, though
minus illustrations, Dressier’s Kunstjahrbuch, which
with its issue for 1911-12 enters on the sixth year
of its existence, contains something like 900 pages of
closely but clearly printed matter bearing on art in
Germany and in German Austria and Switzerland,
conveniently grouped into five sections. It is
published at 16 marks by the Stillersche Hof-
und Universitats - Buchhandlung at Rostock in
Mecklenburg.

Of late there has been a growing disposition on
the part of business firms to pay attention to the
artistic appearance of the circulars and booklets
they issue in connection with their business. We
are reminded of this tendency by a little brochure
which Messrs. Heal and Son of Tottenham Court
Road are distributing under the title of “The
Evolution of ‘ Fouracres,’” a country house
furnished by them. In its coloured illustrations
of interiors, its attractive cover and other details,
this brochure affords a good example of the
tendency referred to. Messrs. Heal were awarded
a silver medal at the recent Turin Exhibition.

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