Studio: international art (79.1920)

STUDIO-TALK

"IN UYENO PARK, TOKYO”
BY TAK6 SATO

(Inpossession of G. Murrell, Esq.)

being, save for a little fading of colour,
practically as perfect as when fabricated.
The favourite subjects of most of these
essays in pictorial needlework—executed
no doubt by ladies of gentle birth, for in
those days women of all ranks gloried in
achievements of the needle—were biblical
incidents, and in the case of royalist
partisans, King Charles I, his queen and
family ; of these Stuart pictures there was
more than one example in the Grafton
Street collection. Quaint incidents, such
as that portrayed in the panel illustrated,
must have been comparatively rare, for
the custom of the period did not allow a
maiden much latitude in the choice of a
husband. Evidently this one had a mind
of her own, for the two suitors on the
right have failed to find favour in her
eyes, and have retired discomfited. u Alase
I canot," says the one in Scotch attire ;
** Not love but dolor/' laments the other
wooer, with his head resting on his hand.
Of the two who are approaching the judg-
ment seat the first appears to be confident

of success, for the legend relative to him
says, “ I hope well," while the other
equally confident but more cautious, says,
“ He wait the time," and if this very de-
lightful example of needlecraft represents
a real love-story, as possibly it does,
we may hazard the conjecture that this last
of the four competitors was the winner.

With Mr. R. Anning Bell, A.R.A, as its
President, the English Book-plate Society
has been formed to promote the art of
the book-plate by various means, such
as publication of examples, exhibitions,
co-operation with foreign societies, issue
of exchange lists, etc. Membership is
open to designers, engravers, collectors,
and all interested in the subject, and
the annual subscription is ios. 6d. which
includes all the publications of the Society.
Messrs. Granville Fell, James Guthrie,
Harold Nelson, Percy J. Smith, and
H. J. Stock constitute the advisory com-
mittee, and Mr. Stuart Guthrie is the
honorary secretary, to whom applications
for membership should be sent, addressed