Studio: international art (77.1919)

REVIEWS

“ THE LITTLE SASKATCHEWAN* *
FROM A COLOUR-PRINT BY
W. J. PHILLIPS

Bone; (3) Legros, Forain; (4) McBey,
Cameron; (5) Bauer, Gagnon, Lalanne,
Lep'ere, Robins, Short; the names being
arranged in the order of their relative
importance, according to the author, so
far as the first four classes are concerned.
Even with regard to these, however, he
makes large reservations, and with the
sole exception of Whistler he considers that
only a very small percentage of their output
reaches “ high-water mark,” while in the
brief notices of each which follow he
expresses opinions concerning some of
them which seem hardly congruous with
his view as to their “ probable final impor-
tance,” as implied by the prominence he
here gives to them. Though in this respect
it will, as we have said, provoke controversy,
the book with its fine photogravure repro-
ductions of some two dozen etchings by the
artists selected for special consideration is
sure to be much sought after by collectors.

Educational Metalcraft. By P. Wylie
Davidson. (London : Longmans, Green
and Co.) 5s. net.—Woodwork in Principle
and Practice.—By A. Romney Green.
Vol. I. (Ditchling, Sussex: Douglas

Pepler.) 8s. net.—Of these two books
the first is remarkable for the wide field
it covers in the compass of two or three

42

hundred pages, embracing as it does al-
most every species of artistic metal-work,
with the materials, implements, and pro-
cesses incidental thereto, special attention
being given to the various kinds of en-
amelling. Mr. Davidson, who has for
years been engaged in teaching his craft
at the Glasgow School of Art, has done his
work well, and in this treatise, which he is
fully justified in terming a “ practical
treatise,” he has not left much to be said
by any one else. He has been very liberal
in his supply of diagrams, which number
nearly four hundred. Mr. Romney
Green's book is planned on different lines.
Here theory and practice keep pace to-
gether, and the practical instruction con-
cerns mainly the elementary operations
common to all kinds of woodwork—sawing,
planing, and so forth; but as he very truly
observes, the thorough mastery of these
operations involves the cultivation of
faculties in virtue of which all subsequent
operations will seem comparatively easy.
Beyond this he specializes in one direction
only—in domestic furniture, and that of a
simple character. But while the practical
scope of his book is thus restricted, the
elucidation of general principles gives to
the treatise a high educational value.