DOI Heft:
Nr. 353 (August 1922)
DOI Artikel:Reviews
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21396#0136
REVIEWS
The Early Ceramic Wares of China. By
A. L. Hetherington. (London : Benn
Bros., Ltd.) £3 3s. This work deals with
the ceramic wares of China prior to the
advent of the Ming dynasty in 1368 and
contains a large number of monochrome
illustrations in addition to twelve colour
plates. In selecting these illustrations the
author has, wisely, we think, preferred to
exclude the rarest and costliest examples
and to show typical specimens belonging
to private collections. There is a great
fascination in these early wares, and though,
as he points out, their age naturally enhances
their interest the real secret of this fascina-
tion lies in the beauty of colour and
simplicity of form which distinguish these
thousand-year old products of the potter's
craft. In looking at them one cannot help
wondering whether the Chinese themselves
in those long past days were fascinated in
the same degree as the Western connoisseur
of to-day, who is so eager to possess these
precious relics and handle them so lovingly.
Native writers on the subject appear to
have given little clue to this as to many
other things connected with the production
of these wares, about which, no doubt,
much remains to be revealed by future
researches, though our knowledge has
grown considerably in recent years, as is
evident from Mr. Hetherington's treatise.
His exposition of a difficult subject is
admirably clear, and though some of his
chapters deal specifically with the technical
side, there is no difficulty in following it.
The Headless Horseman. Pierre Lombards
Engraving—Charles or Cromwell. By G.
Somes Layard. (London : Philip Allan
and Co.) £2 2s. net. " It is my pleasant
task," Mr. Layard says, " to prove that
what has been conspicuous to the senses of
all, even to men of the highest expert know-
ledge can, in the light of careful investiga-
tion, be proved to be wholly false." In this
volume of considerably more than a
hundred pages he brings forward an array
of evidence, which appears to be conclusive,
to show that Lombart's much-debated
equestrian portrait, though obviously
" lifted," so far as the general design is
concerned,fromVandyck's painting of King
Charles I on horseback, under an archway,
116
was, in its original state, a portrait of
Cromwell, engraved at the close of the
Protector's life ; that when the Restoration
ensued the artist deemed it expedient to
obliterate the head (to save his own!)
whence the state of which the British
Museum possesses an impression and which
has hitherto been commonly regarded as
the first state; and that later he endeavoured
to fit in the head of Louis XIV. The
subsequent states of this plate were
evidently the work of other hands. Though
as a work of art the engraving can scarcely
count as an achievement of supreme
importance, the mystery surrounding its
origin and vicissitudes has given it a unique
interest in the annals of print collecting.
Excellent reproductions of the various
states accompany the text, including Lord
Bathurst's impression of the first state
which led to a solution of the mystery. a
Suburbia. Caricatured by H. M. Bateman.
(London: Methuen.) 6s. net. These
drawings of Mr. Bateman are very amusing
—it is scarcely necessary to say that—but
they obviously relate to a " Suburbia " of
other days when the top-hat, which is so
conspicuous in the crowd waiting on the
railway platform for The 8.45, one of the
best of the drawings, was more or less
de rigueur among city-goers, while now it is,
like the starched shirt, a rare phenomenon
save on Sundays. As everyone knows,
Suburbia—a term which is, of course, not
topographical but social, denoting those
vaguely-defined strata of society commonly
spoken of as " the middle classes "—has
been badly hit by the war's economic
sequels, and if Mr. Bateman were to probe
beneath its surface he would, perhaps, not
find much difficulty in providing a tragic
counterpart to the feast of fun he gives in
this collection of caricatures. a 0
From Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co.
comes a revised edition of Professor
Hamlin's Text-Book of the History of
Architecture (10s. 6d. net), one of the
volumes in the " College Histories of
Art," edited by Professor John C. Van
Dyke, of Rutgers College. First published
in 1896, this text-book has undergone
successive revisions, and now appears in
completely re-set type, with a large
number of illustrations, a glossary and
other features of value to the student. a
The Early Ceramic Wares of China. By
A. L. Hetherington. (London : Benn
Bros., Ltd.) £3 3s. This work deals with
the ceramic wares of China prior to the
advent of the Ming dynasty in 1368 and
contains a large number of monochrome
illustrations in addition to twelve colour
plates. In selecting these illustrations the
author has, wisely, we think, preferred to
exclude the rarest and costliest examples
and to show typical specimens belonging
to private collections. There is a great
fascination in these early wares, and though,
as he points out, their age naturally enhances
their interest the real secret of this fascina-
tion lies in the beauty of colour and
simplicity of form which distinguish these
thousand-year old products of the potter's
craft. In looking at them one cannot help
wondering whether the Chinese themselves
in those long past days were fascinated in
the same degree as the Western connoisseur
of to-day, who is so eager to possess these
precious relics and handle them so lovingly.
Native writers on the subject appear to
have given little clue to this as to many
other things connected with the production
of these wares, about which, no doubt,
much remains to be revealed by future
researches, though our knowledge has
grown considerably in recent years, as is
evident from Mr. Hetherington's treatise.
His exposition of a difficult subject is
admirably clear, and though some of his
chapters deal specifically with the technical
side, there is no difficulty in following it.
The Headless Horseman. Pierre Lombards
Engraving—Charles or Cromwell. By G.
Somes Layard. (London : Philip Allan
and Co.) £2 2s. net. " It is my pleasant
task," Mr. Layard says, " to prove that
what has been conspicuous to the senses of
all, even to men of the highest expert know-
ledge can, in the light of careful investiga-
tion, be proved to be wholly false." In this
volume of considerably more than a
hundred pages he brings forward an array
of evidence, which appears to be conclusive,
to show that Lombart's much-debated
equestrian portrait, though obviously
" lifted," so far as the general design is
concerned,fromVandyck's painting of King
Charles I on horseback, under an archway,
116
was, in its original state, a portrait of
Cromwell, engraved at the close of the
Protector's life ; that when the Restoration
ensued the artist deemed it expedient to
obliterate the head (to save his own!)
whence the state of which the British
Museum possesses an impression and which
has hitherto been commonly regarded as
the first state; and that later he endeavoured
to fit in the head of Louis XIV. The
subsequent states of this plate were
evidently the work of other hands. Though
as a work of art the engraving can scarcely
count as an achievement of supreme
importance, the mystery surrounding its
origin and vicissitudes has given it a unique
interest in the annals of print collecting.
Excellent reproductions of the various
states accompany the text, including Lord
Bathurst's impression of the first state
which led to a solution of the mystery. a
Suburbia. Caricatured by H. M. Bateman.
(London: Methuen.) 6s. net. These
drawings of Mr. Bateman are very amusing
—it is scarcely necessary to say that—but
they obviously relate to a " Suburbia " of
other days when the top-hat, which is so
conspicuous in the crowd waiting on the
railway platform for The 8.45, one of the
best of the drawings, was more or less
de rigueur among city-goers, while now it is,
like the starched shirt, a rare phenomenon
save on Sundays. As everyone knows,
Suburbia—a term which is, of course, not
topographical but social, denoting those
vaguely-defined strata of society commonly
spoken of as " the middle classes "—has
been badly hit by the war's economic
sequels, and if Mr. Bateman were to probe
beneath its surface he would, perhaps, not
find much difficulty in providing a tragic
counterpart to the feast of fun he gives in
this collection of caricatures. a 0
From Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co.
comes a revised edition of Professor
Hamlin's Text-Book of the History of
Architecture (10s. 6d. net), one of the
volumes in the " College Histories of
Art," edited by Professor John C. Van
Dyke, of Rutgers College. First published
in 1896, this text-book has undergone
successive revisions, and now appears in
completely re-set type, with a large
number of illustrations, a glossary and
other features of value to the student. a