DOI issue:
Division I. Great Britain
DOI article:Halton, Ernest G.: Decorative and applied art in Great Britain
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.37423#0024
DECORATIVE AND APPLIED ART IN GREAT BRITAIN
nevertheless entirely suitable for their purpose. When the window
is intended to supply a note of colour to the decorative scheme a
more elaborate design is necessary, though the pictorial window is
not always satisfactory for domestic purposes, and if overdone will
easily suggest ostentation. It should always be borne in mind that
the real beauty of coloured glass can only be seen with full daylight
behind it, so that to place a window of this nature where the light
is obstructed by a neighbouring wall or building is not only unfair
to the artist, but is invariably unsatisfactory to the occupant of the
house, for he is never able to see the window under proper con-
ditions. Amongst British stained-glass artists who have been doing
good domestic work during the last few years are Mr. Oscar
Paterson, Mr. Alexander Gascoyne, Mr. J. C. Hall, Mr. E. A.
Taylor, Mr. Harold Fenton, and Mr. Arthur Orr.
To take a branch of applied art which is confined almost entirely
to women artists, much excellent embroidery is being produced,
more especially in Scotland, where the influence of Miss Ann
Macbeth is extending in every direction. As teacher of the craft
at the well-known Glasgow School of Art, she has under her charge
a large number of pupils whom she is training on sound and practical
lines. She fully realises the fact that in embroidery for articles of
everyday use it is well to keep to the simple designs. To spend a
year carrying out an elaborate design for a sofa or chair cushion, for
instance, is a lamentable waste of time and energy, for the work must
with ordinary use become quickly soiled. Consequently her designs
for such domestic articles are usually of the simpler and more severe
order, but eminently practical and always artistic in effect. In
ecclesiastical work, which offers more scope for her gifts as a designer
and her unerring judgment in the selection and blending of colours,
she has been very successful, and we reproduce in colours a fine
example of her work of this nature (page 113). It is an altar frontal
for the church of S. Bartholomew at Haslemere, in Surrey, and has
been well carried out by some ladies of that locality. We also
illustrate several embroideries designed and sewn by her pupils (pages
112, 116, and 119). As a designer of embroidery Miss Jessie King
has achieved much success, and her panel reproduced here in colours
(page 117) is typical of her work in this direction. She is fortunate
to have in Madame Prioleau a skilful and sympathetic translator of
her designs. On page 125 is shown in colours a chair seat designed
by Mr. Frederick Vigers and executed in tent-stitch by Miss Palmer-
Kerrison. It is a particularly fine design, admirably conceived in
the spirit of the old work and pleasing in its refined and harmonious
colouring.
10
nevertheless entirely suitable for their purpose. When the window
is intended to supply a note of colour to the decorative scheme a
more elaborate design is necessary, though the pictorial window is
not always satisfactory for domestic purposes, and if overdone will
easily suggest ostentation. It should always be borne in mind that
the real beauty of coloured glass can only be seen with full daylight
behind it, so that to place a window of this nature where the light
is obstructed by a neighbouring wall or building is not only unfair
to the artist, but is invariably unsatisfactory to the occupant of the
house, for he is never able to see the window under proper con-
ditions. Amongst British stained-glass artists who have been doing
good domestic work during the last few years are Mr. Oscar
Paterson, Mr. Alexander Gascoyne, Mr. J. C. Hall, Mr. E. A.
Taylor, Mr. Harold Fenton, and Mr. Arthur Orr.
To take a branch of applied art which is confined almost entirely
to women artists, much excellent embroidery is being produced,
more especially in Scotland, where the influence of Miss Ann
Macbeth is extending in every direction. As teacher of the craft
at the well-known Glasgow School of Art, she has under her charge
a large number of pupils whom she is training on sound and practical
lines. She fully realises the fact that in embroidery for articles of
everyday use it is well to keep to the simple designs. To spend a
year carrying out an elaborate design for a sofa or chair cushion, for
instance, is a lamentable waste of time and energy, for the work must
with ordinary use become quickly soiled. Consequently her designs
for such domestic articles are usually of the simpler and more severe
order, but eminently practical and always artistic in effect. In
ecclesiastical work, which offers more scope for her gifts as a designer
and her unerring judgment in the selection and blending of colours,
she has been very successful, and we reproduce in colours a fine
example of her work of this nature (page 113). It is an altar frontal
for the church of S. Bartholomew at Haslemere, in Surrey, and has
been well carried out by some ladies of that locality. We also
illustrate several embroideries designed and sewn by her pupils (pages
112, 116, and 119). As a designer of embroidery Miss Jessie King
has achieved much success, and her panel reproduced here in colours
(page 117) is typical of her work in this direction. She is fortunate
to have in Madame Prioleau a skilful and sympathetic translator of
her designs. On page 125 is shown in colours a chair seat designed
by Mr. Frederick Vigers and executed in tent-stitch by Miss Palmer-
Kerrison. It is a particularly fine design, admirably conceived in
the spirit of the old work and pleasing in its refined and harmonious
colouring.
10