DOI Heft:
No. 166 (May 1915)
DOI Artikel:Reviews and notices
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21212#0304
Reviews and Notices
( Central School of Art, Birmingham)
individuality, qualities which would never be lost
if a nice balance were kept between the acquiring
of knowledge and the habit of inventive expression.
Three designs shown on the preceding pages were
made by boys in their third and fourth year in the
Central Art School. They were first imaged in the
mind’s eye and drawn with the eyes closed, the com-
plete drawings being afterwards made with the eyes
o pen. With these illustrations are produced a neck-
lace and piece of needlework executed by students in
the Central School. The latter was schemed as it
proceeded, no preliminary drawing being made.
It is urged that this method trains the student in
the drawing peculiar to the needle, and gives the
fancy more freedom than where a prescribed
design is carried out. As shown by the exhibits
generally the work of the Birmingham Art Schools
reaches a high level, and although metal work,
jewellery and kindred crafts naturally claim a
large share of attention, it is gratifying to see
other crafts cultivated with avidity and commend-
able results.
298
REVIEWS AND
NOTICES.
Chinese Pottery and
Porcelain. By R. L.
Hobson. (London: Cas-
sell and Co. Ltd.) Two
volumes. 84^. net.—It is
only within recent times
that reliable information
has been obtainable re-
specting the pottery and
porcelain of China. The
work of M. Jacquemart,
published in r875, was for
some years the chief guide
for the amateur collector.
But, in later days, the
researches of Dr. G. E.
Bushell, Captain F.
Brinkley, Mr. Burton, and
others have done much to
rectify the mistakes of
previous writers and
materially to enlarge our
knowledge of this fascinat-
ing subject. The transla-
tion of various Chinese
treatises has been of inesti-
mable aid to the student,
and Mr. R. L. Hobson, in
the preparation of his im-
portant work on “ Chinese Pottery and Porcelain,”
has been fortunate in being able to avail himself of
much direct information from Chinese sources as
well as from the works of previous European
writers on the subject. The sifting of the oft-
times confusing details of the native historian or
connoisseur and the co-ordination of essential facts
is a task of no mean order, and Mr. Hobson has
approached his subject with much acumen, and
accomplished a work which cannot fail to be
appreciated by all those who may be genuinely
interested in this great art. Of the rough pottery
of the Primitive Periods, of the mortuary and other
pottery, of which examples have only lately been
seen in the West, dating from the Han Dynasty
(206 b.c. to a.d. 220) and the Tang Dynasty
(a.d. 618-906), some account is given in the text,
with typical illustrations. Many excellent examples
of wares, which date from the Sung Dynasty
(a.d. 960-1279), notable for their beautiful glazes,
celadon, ivory white, blues, purples, lavender, and
ilair de lune, are figured in colours and “half-
( Central School of Art, Birmingham)
individuality, qualities which would never be lost
if a nice balance were kept between the acquiring
of knowledge and the habit of inventive expression.
Three designs shown on the preceding pages were
made by boys in their third and fourth year in the
Central Art School. They were first imaged in the
mind’s eye and drawn with the eyes closed, the com-
plete drawings being afterwards made with the eyes
o pen. With these illustrations are produced a neck-
lace and piece of needlework executed by students in
the Central School. The latter was schemed as it
proceeded, no preliminary drawing being made.
It is urged that this method trains the student in
the drawing peculiar to the needle, and gives the
fancy more freedom than where a prescribed
design is carried out. As shown by the exhibits
generally the work of the Birmingham Art Schools
reaches a high level, and although metal work,
jewellery and kindred crafts naturally claim a
large share of attention, it is gratifying to see
other crafts cultivated with avidity and commend-
able results.
298
REVIEWS AND
NOTICES.
Chinese Pottery and
Porcelain. By R. L.
Hobson. (London: Cas-
sell and Co. Ltd.) Two
volumes. 84^. net.—It is
only within recent times
that reliable information
has been obtainable re-
specting the pottery and
porcelain of China. The
work of M. Jacquemart,
published in r875, was for
some years the chief guide
for the amateur collector.
But, in later days, the
researches of Dr. G. E.
Bushell, Captain F.
Brinkley, Mr. Burton, and
others have done much to
rectify the mistakes of
previous writers and
materially to enlarge our
knowledge of this fascinat-
ing subject. The transla-
tion of various Chinese
treatises has been of inesti-
mable aid to the student,
and Mr. R. L. Hobson, in
the preparation of his im-
portant work on “ Chinese Pottery and Porcelain,”
has been fortunate in being able to avail himself of
much direct information from Chinese sources as
well as from the works of previous European
writers on the subject. The sifting of the oft-
times confusing details of the native historian or
connoisseur and the co-ordination of essential facts
is a task of no mean order, and Mr. Hobson has
approached his subject with much acumen, and
accomplished a work which cannot fail to be
appreciated by all those who may be genuinely
interested in this great art. Of the rough pottery
of the Primitive Periods, of the mortuary and other
pottery, of which examples have only lately been
seen in the West, dating from the Han Dynasty
(206 b.c. to a.d. 220) and the Tang Dynasty
(a.d. 618-906), some account is given in the text,
with typical illustrations. Many excellent examples
of wares, which date from the Sung Dynasty
(a.d. 960-1279), notable for their beautiful glazes,
celadon, ivory white, blues, purples, lavender, and
ilair de lune, are figured in colours and “half-