the chandeliers and other works by Potts * and by Messenger t of
Birmingham (which town shows altogether with surprising force in
the general quality and in the variety of its contributions), are
perhaps the chief exceptions to the comparative inferiority of this
department of manufacture.

In other respects, in works of a more purely ornamental
character, in metal work, MM. Falloise of Liege, Andre' of Paris,
Jacquet of Brabant, Barbedienne, Matifat, Vittoz, Villemsens,
Mene, Elkington, Winfield, Hatfield, and the Coalbrookdale Com-
pany, exhibit much beautiful work.

In carpets, there is a decided superiority on the side of home
productions; notwithstanding much that is staring and inconsistent.
The carpet is, however, an article of comfort that is scarcely yet in
general use on the continent of Europe. Hence the French specimens
are of that impracticable costliness which betrays at once that they
are made for show rather than use ; although the mere pattern
carpets are anything but successful in this respect even : the French
designer's skill in a paper-hanging seems to forsake him when he
transfers his labour to a carpet pattern. Impracticable costliness
appears to hang also over Sevres porcelain, for in the adaptation of
the beautiful to the useful in this department, as well as in that of
glass, the English manufacturers are pre-eminent. The English
ornamental works in pottery or porcelain do not yield to the
French either in elegance of shape or in decoration, while at the
same time they are far less costly. The specimens exhibited by
Messrs. Copeland, Minton, and Wedgwood, place England in the
highest rank in this manufacture, in spite of the fostering patronage
of royal factories abroad. In glass, England appears to be almost
unrivalled, not only in the purity of its crystal, but in the manu-
facture and application of this invaluable material; to instance
only the matchless specimens of Messrs. Osier J and Apsley Pellatt,§
and the magnificent slabs of coloured glass of Swinburne & Co.,
of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, or the ornamental panes of Chance
Brothers, of Birmingham.

We will now proceed to review seriatim the principal classes of
ornamental manufacture in detail, always limiting our remarks in
accordance with the prescribed object of this essay, to the develop-
ment of Taste, in order, by this analysis of designs, to endeavour
to draw the attention of our manufacturers and designers to the
source of all beauty of effect—the elements of design itself.

IV.—The precious Metals.

We commence with gold and silver-work,—not as the most
important branch ot manufacture, but, as being purely orna-
mental, it is the most prominent object for ornamental criticism,
and that to which perhaps the greatest skill has been devoted
from the earliest times. Though the Exhibition affords a vast
display in amount, there is no great variety or choice of taste ; the
Louis Quinze, prevailing, and in every phase of its development,
from the symmetrical variety proceeding immediately from the
Louis Quatorze, to the most bizarre vagaries of the Eococo ; which
last very much predominate.

Though the English silver-work exceeds in quantity, by several
times, all that is exhibited by other nations, it displays far less
variety of taste ; it is clearly under the absolute control of trade
conventionalities, which, from the character of the prevailing style,
appear to have been imported with it, in the latter part of the last
century. Besides, the interminable coquillage of the Eococo, the
constant contrast of dead and burnished silver, making up the chief
feature of so many works, is absolutely fatiguing to the mind that
seeks, or can receive, any impression of delight from an ornamental
composition.

The system of boiling out, to produce the whitest possible appear-
ance of the silver, seems to be one essentially opposed to the display
of excellence of design ; and when the dead white thus produced is
combined only with burnished portions, the sole effect of a work is
a mere play of light without even the contrast of shadow. The
result is a dazzling whiteness ; pure flashiness, in fact, such as pre-
cludes the very idea of modelling-for this can only be displayed
by a contrast of light and shade, which, in so uniform a dazzling

* See Cat., pp. 23-5.

t Engraved in Cat., p. 206.

t See Cat., pp. 184,185.

i Engraved in Cat., p. 174-5.

mass as an ordinary piece of dead and burnished silver plate, is
impossible.

Flashiness may be a natural refuge for vague undefined forms,
to the deformities of which it is an effective cloak ; and so long as
our silversmiths adhere to their Eococo scrolls, and other inanities
of the Louis Quinze, its aid will be indispensable. Immediately the
details of design, however, are substantially reformed, frosting and
burnishing, except as occasional incidental aids, must go together
with the preposterous forms to which alone they owe their present
popular development. If we turn from the English to the foreign
silver-work, the contrast in this respect is surprising ; frosting and
burnishing seem to be unanimously banished from all high class
design, whether French or German, and oxidising substituted in
their places ; and the consequence is, that in many foreign examples
we have specimens of the most elaborate modelling, most effectively
displayed as works of Art; the minutest detail fully asserting
its own merits, and at the same time, contributing its portion to
the general expression of the whole, in all the oxidised specimens.
The process of oxidation, as it is termed, not only protects the
silver from further tarnishing, but can convey every variety of
tint from white to black, so that it is particularly well calculated
to display fine modelling or chasing, which would be utterly
thrown away in a dazzling white material. The merits, therefore,
of the two methods depend on the object of the silversmith, whether
it be his desire to display silver as a mere noble metal, or to
exhibit a work of Art in a noble metal; whether the metal be
paramount in his estimation, or only a noble tribute to a noble
Art—doubtless, many can only look at a silver ornament as a work
in precious metal, just as they value precious stones for their sterling
worth, not for their beauty. But there is an extreme distinction
between the sentiments with which we.ought to. view a diamond
and a piece of plate ; the first we admire for its refractive power,
and as a rare mineral, that is, as a natural curiosity ; the second,
on the other hand, is to be looked at purely as a piece of human
ingenuity ; their only common field is that both delight us through
the sense of vision.

If we exhibit silver-work for the reflective power of the material,
we should treat it exactly as we do glass, display it for its physical
properties only, and shape it accordingly; but even the most
inveterate froster and burnisher would hardly admit that his
labours had no other end in view than a display of catacaustics, in
a friendly, though hopeless, rivalry, with the diacaustics of the
lapidary—for such effects every material must yield to the silvered
glass of Messrs. Yarnish, of Berners Street.

We hold it to be proved by the Exhibition, that all frosting and
burnishing, except for occasional relief or variety among the
minor details of a design, are fatal to silver-work as Art, however
they may enhance its effects as specimens of a noble metal.

The most striking piece of silver-work in the Exhibition is the
large Vase or table ornament, by Albert Wagner, exhibited by
Wagner & Son, of Berlin * ; it is in oxidised silver, and is about
four feet six inches high. The design is an allegory of the gradual
civilisation of man ; the allegory, however, be it ever so good would
be quite out of place, were not the whole composition admirable as
a work of formative Art, both in design and execution ; in the
disposition of the whole, in the treatment of the figures, and in the
elaboration of the ornamental details. As regards ornament, the
style is a mixture of natural and conventional forms in the spirit
of the Quattrocento, as represented in the gates of Ghiberti. In
the lowest position, we have the Lion and the Serpent, indicating
man's victory over the animal world, ingeniously combined into an
elegant and masterly tripod support of the circular base, which is
decorated with a rich moulding of fruit arranged in a running
vortical around it; above this we have at the lower portion of the
stem, man in the nomadic state, represented by the huntsman, the
fisher, and the shepherd, with their attributes, both means and
results ; and immediately above these, decorating the upper part
of the stem are, Pomona, Ceres, and Flora, in reference to the
second stage of civilisation; over their heads are hanging rich
clusters of grapes : the Vase itself is ornamented on the underside
with a conventional treatment of the acanthus, and a chased frieze
in bold relief, representing the cultivation of the liberal arts and

* Engraved in Cat., p. 149.;

VIII***