LITMIR.BIZ

      Published by Good Press, 2019

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      EAN 4057664651945

Table of Contents

       PREFACE

       OF THE REVIVAL OF DESIGN AND HANDICRAFT: WITH NOTES ON THE WORK OF THE ARTS AND CRAFTS EXHIBITION SOCIETY

       TEXTILES

       OF DECORATIVE PAINTING AND DESIGN

       OF WALL PAPERS

       FICTILES

       METAL WORK

       STONE AND WOOD CARVING

       FURNITURE

       STAINED GLASS

       TABLE GLASS

       PRINTING

       BOOKBINDING

       OF MURAL PAINTING

       OF SGRAFFITO WORK

       OF STUCCO AND GESSO

       OF CAST IRON

       OF DYEING AS AN ART

       OF EMBROIDERY

       OF LACE

       OF BOOK ILLUSTRATION AND BOOK DECORATION

       OF DESIGNS AND WORKING DRAWINGS

       FURNITURE AND THE ROOM

       OF THE ROOM AND FURNITURE

       THE ENGLISH TRADITION

       CARPENTERS' FURNITURE

       OF DECORATED FURNITURE

       OF CARVING

       INTARSIA AND INLAID WOOD-WORK

       WOODS AND OTHER MATERIALS

       OF MODERN EMBROIDERY

       OF MATERIALS

       COLOUR

       STITCHES AND MECHANISM

       DESIGN

       ON DESIGNING FOR THE ART OF EMBROIDERY

PREFACE

       Table of Contents

      The papers that follow this need no explanation, since they are directed towards special sides of the Arts and Crafts. Mr. Crane has put forward the aims of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society as an Exhibition Society, therefore I need not enlarge upon that phase of this book. But I will write a few words on the way in which it seems to me we ought to face the present position of that revival in decorative art of which our Society is one of the tokens.

      And, in the first place, the very fact that there is a "revival" shows that the arts aforesaid have been sick unto death. In all such changes the first of the new does not appear till there is little or no life left in the old, and yet the old, even when it is all but dead, goes on living in corruption, and refuses to get itself put quietly out of the way and decently buried. So that while the revival advances and does some good work, the period of corruption goes on from worse to worse, till it arrives at the point when it can no longer be borne, and disappears. To give a concrete example: in these last days there are many buildings erected which (in spite of our eclecticism, our lack of a traditional style) are at least well designed and give pleasure to the eye; nevertheless, so hopelessly hideous and vulgar is general building that persons of taste find themselves regretting the brown brick box with its feeble and trumpery attempts at ornament, which characterises the style of building current at the end of the last and beginning of this century, because there is some style about it, and even some merit of design, if only negative.

      The position which we have to face then is this: the lack of beauty in modern life (of decoration in the best sense of the word), which in the earlier part of the century was unnoticed, is now recognised by a part of the public as an evil to be remedied if possible; but by far the larger part of civilised mankind does not feel that lack in the least, so that no general sense of beauty is extant which would force us into the creation of a feeling for art which in its turn would force us into taking up the dropped links of tradition, and once more producing genuine organic art. Such art as we have is not the work of the mass of craftsmen unconscious of any definite style, but producing beauty instinctively; conscious rather of the desire to turn out a creditable piece of work than of any aim towards positive beauty. That is the essential motive power towards art in past ages; but our art is the work of a small minority composed of

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