Studio: international art (80.1920)

STUDIO-TALK

DESIGN AWARDED FIRST PRIZE
IN "DAILY MAIL" VILLAGE
SIGNS COMPETITION. BY
PERCY G. MATTHEWS

while there is little of a novel character to
be recorded in their respective displays it
is gratifying to find the standards associated
with these bodies well maintained—and in
the case of the British Artists even exceeded.
The newly formed Society of Wood En-
gravers to which we briefly referred last
month has just been holding its first ex-
hibition at the Chenil Gallery, Chelsea,
and we hope to say more about this group
on another occasion. The members of the
group follow exclusively the traditional
European technique, whether they cut with
a knife on the plank, or engrave with a
burin on the end of the boxwood block,
and their methods, distinguished from
those of the Far East, which also have a
considerable vogue in this country, by the
fact that prints are obtained by means of
the printing press, admit of greater scope
from the point of view of book production
as well as for decorative purposes. a
The first exhibition of the Society of
Graphic Art, likewise a new formation but
embracing all the various forms of black-
and-white art, is to take place at the
R.B.A. Galleries in Suffolk Street, Pall

Mall, in January. Mr. Frank Brangwyn,
R.A., is the president of this Society. ^
We illustrate on this page two of the
designs which won prizes in the Daily
Mail Village Signs Competition. The
first prize was no less than one thousand
pounds, a huge sum certainly for a design
of this kind and one which might well
make many a Royal Academician envious
of the winner. The competition was the
outcome of an observation made by
H.R.H. the Duke of York in the course
of his speech at the annual banquet of
the Royal Academy in May last, when
he suggested a revival of " that neglected
branch of art which in olden times pro-
vided signs and emblems for the decora-
tion of our villages," and to judge by
the large number of good designs which
figured in the exhibition at Messrs.
Selfridge's, organised by the promoters,
it was a great success. Sir Aston Webb,
P.R.A., and Mr. Brangwyn, R.A., in their
award, spoke with admiration of the

i BATTLE ■

* hi:re was fought the ft

I BATTLE of HASTINGS 1066 *

DESIGN AWARDED THIRD PRIZE
IN "DAILY MAIL" VILLAGE
SIGNS COMPETITION
BY DOROTHY HUTTON
187