DOI Heft:
No. 291 (June 1917)
DOI Artikel:Image, Selwyn: Remark on Mr. Nelson Dawson's commemorative panels and etchings
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21263#0040
My. Nelson Dawson s Commemorative Panels and Etchings
lent form these assumed very inade-
quately solved.
It was certainly a happy moment in
which Mr. Dawson thus bethought him
of these Windsor stall-plates. In the
kind of memorials he was now set upon
trying, if possible, to introduce to us four
requirements would be essential. They
must be comparatively of small size,
not too costly in production, quite per-
manent, and effectively beautiful in
design and colour. With the discrimi-
nating eye of a practical craftsman Mr.
Dawson saw at once that these Windsor
plates furnished him with the most ad-
mirable exemplar possible in his new
venture. For here were memorials in
champleve enamel which had stood in
situ for some six centuries, and many of
which, except where they had been
ruthlessly handled by later reckless
arms of viscount hambleden in bronze and champleve; workmen, were as perfect and as fresh
enamel (enrichment to electric light sconces at the -f , , , , , , vpstpr.
manor house, north BOVEYj. designed and executed &s 11 ^ SCt UP DUt J^Ster
by nelson dawson, r.e.] day. A mere antiquarian imitation of
these plates was, of course, the last
on Memorial Plates, Honoris Causa, and other- thing that suggested itself to Mr. Dawson's
wise," in which he modestly but firmly set forth mind. But in many ways, in their workman-
his views on this matter, which had indeed spe- ship, and especially in the character of their
daily been borne in on him by a recent
visit to our Universities. He had found
there upon the venerable walls many
memorials in brass, which were neither
beautiful in themselves, nor congruously
helpful to the architecture of the build-
ings they should obviously have adorned.
Well, we all of us know these memorial
brasses—they meet us everywhere up
and down the country—and for the
most part the best that one can say
about them is that they are inoffensive.
But assuredly they should be much
more than that : and at once Mr. Daw-
son's thought went back to the famous
Garter Stall-Plates in St. George's Chapel
at Windsor—those fourteenth-century
memorials which both in design and
colour are in themselves so fine, and are
such an embellishment to the walls on
which they are set. Here, then, was
a fresh inspiration for him, suggesting
some practical treatment of the problem,
which the need for memorials un- tablet in bronze, parcel-gilt, and champleve) enamel for
doubtedly raised, but which the preva- st. john's college, Cambridge, by nelson dawson, r.e.
24
lent form these assumed very inade-
quately solved.
It was certainly a happy moment in
which Mr. Dawson thus bethought him
of these Windsor stall-plates. In the
kind of memorials he was now set upon
trying, if possible, to introduce to us four
requirements would be essential. They
must be comparatively of small size,
not too costly in production, quite per-
manent, and effectively beautiful in
design and colour. With the discrimi-
nating eye of a practical craftsman Mr.
Dawson saw at once that these Windsor
plates furnished him with the most ad-
mirable exemplar possible in his new
venture. For here were memorials in
champleve enamel which had stood in
situ for some six centuries, and many of
which, except where they had been
ruthlessly handled by later reckless
arms of viscount hambleden in bronze and champleve; workmen, were as perfect and as fresh
enamel (enrichment to electric light sconces at the -f , , , , , , vpstpr.
manor house, north BOVEYj. designed and executed &s 11 ^ SCt UP DUt J^Ster
by nelson dawson, r.e.] day. A mere antiquarian imitation of
these plates was, of course, the last
on Memorial Plates, Honoris Causa, and other- thing that suggested itself to Mr. Dawson's
wise," in which he modestly but firmly set forth mind. But in many ways, in their workman-
his views on this matter, which had indeed spe- ship, and especially in the character of their
daily been borne in on him by a recent
visit to our Universities. He had found
there upon the venerable walls many
memorials in brass, which were neither
beautiful in themselves, nor congruously
helpful to the architecture of the build-
ings they should obviously have adorned.
Well, we all of us know these memorial
brasses—they meet us everywhere up
and down the country—and for the
most part the best that one can say
about them is that they are inoffensive.
But assuredly they should be much
more than that : and at once Mr. Daw-
son's thought went back to the famous
Garter Stall-Plates in St. George's Chapel
at Windsor—those fourteenth-century
memorials which both in design and
colour are in themselves so fine, and are
such an embellishment to the walls on
which they are set. Here, then, was
a fresh inspiration for him, suggesting
some practical treatment of the problem,
which the need for memorials un- tablet in bronze, parcel-gilt, and champleve) enamel for
doubtedly raised, but which the preva- st. john's college, Cambridge, by nelson dawson, r.e.
24