Kärpäset karttavat sinistä väriä.

Eläinten ystävä 10, 1916

Erään ulkomaalaisen eläinsuojeluslehden mukaan kärpäset eivät mielellään siedä sinistä väriä. Jos niin todellakin on laita, on syytä kesäisin sivellä navetan seinät kalkkiliuoksella, johon on sekotettu jotakin vedessä liukenevaa sinistä väriä. Jos jonkun karjahuoneet vielä olisivat puhdistamatta ja maalaamatta, niin käykää työhön käsiksi jo tänään.

Madder.

Scientific American 20, 3.2.1849

The most of out madder used in the country is procured from Belgium. Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, and perhaps the whole southwestern country would produce it well. A madder plantation requires a good deal of preparation and some 3 or 4 years before a large and regular yield can be expected. Deep ploughing and bedding and thorough manuring are requisite; but when once prepared, the expenditure of labor is not so heavy, and where properly arranged the crop is annual, that is to say, one third or one fourth of the land is digged each year, producing several hundred dollard per acre.

Kauppalupia.

Aamulehti 135, 15.6.1920

Läänin maaherra on antanut Someron pitäjässä olevan Someron maanviljelijäin kauppaosakeyhtiö nimiselle toiminimelle oikeuden myydä vähemmän myrkyllisiä maali- ja väriaineita omistamassaan kauppaliikkeessä sanotun pitäjän Joensuun kylässä. Samalle yhtiölle on annettu lupa myydä kaupanhoitaja Viktor Holopaisen vastuulla ja hoidolla ruutia ja dynamiittia kauppaliikkeestään. - Jämsän pitäjästä olevalle Jämsän Jokivarren Osuuskauppa r.l. nimiselle toiminimelle on myönnetty oikeus vähemmän myrkyllisten maali- ja väriaineiden myyntiin.

Art Applied to Industry.-VIII. External Architectural decorations.

The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Review
by Sylvanus Urban, Gent.
July-December 1864
London John Henry and James Parker. 1864.

October 1864.

It is not now so many years ago since a distinguished statesman and novelist created a very considerable sensation among the Art world by the enunciation of two propositions. These were, firstly, that in the present day we mistake comfort for civilization; and secondly, that as our houses and public buildings all resemble one another, and are all equally wretched, the best way to remedy the evil would be to hang an architect — instancing the very excellent effect the execution of Admiral Byng had upon the naval service. Whether the remedy proposed would have the desired effect, is a very open question — perhaps it might; but that we are too apt to mistake comfort for civilization, and that our modern houses are lamentably poor and remarkably like one another, is unfortunately but too true, for there is probably not another capital in Europe which can come up to us as regards the uniformity and ugliness of our dwelling-houses, to say nothing of our public buildings. In fact, it would almost appear that the great object of the richest city in the world is to spend as little money as possible on its edifices, and when to this is added the fact that in some twenty-five years, or even less, everything is covered with a thick coating of smoke, one is apt to despair of any improvement. Still the state of things, although unfavourable, is not to be despaired of. Could the law of leasehold be abolished, and could the builder be made to build only on land owned by himself, people would spend a great deal more money on houses which they knew would descend to their children. On the other hand, could some material be found capable of being periodically washed without injury, the smoke nuisance would be comparatively harmless. But before going into this latter question, it may be as well to see with what materials buildings have been constructed or faced in former times, and how such facing or construction has been ornamented.


Marble.

To begin with the richest material, viz. marble. This can be applied in three ways, i. e. the building may be entirely constructed of it, as the Parthenon at Athens, or it may be faced with it, as the Duomo at Florence, or it may be applied in a thin veneer, as in the various edifices at Venice. It is needless to say that the application of these systems was greatly influenced by the distance of the work from the marble quarries. If, then, we take the first method, i.e. that of the Parthenon, we shall find that the architect had by no means finished his work when he had put the marble blocks together, and had inserted the sculpture; on the contrary, the painfully bright colour of the white marble under a powerful sun necessitated some method by which it might be toned down. This was effected by painting. By this I do not for one moment suppose that large surfaces were covered with coatings of opaque colour; on the contrary, what few remains have come down to our own times tend to shew that the gold and colour was applied in thin lines, but at the same time in strong tints; in fact very much as we see it applied to Parian statuettes. Now the effect of marble thus treated, when viewed from a distance, is that of being suffused with a very delicate tint of the prevailing colour of the painted lines; and in this manner the glare of the white marble was to a great degree counteracted. There is also some reason to believe that the excessive whiteness was occasionally toned down by means of a stain, such as a solution of saffron — more especially as Pausanias mentions the walls of a temple which when wetted gave out the smell of that herb. But the Greek architect did not restrict himself entirelv to lines and ornaments; on the contrary, some portions of the building, although not very large ones, were covered with paint, such as the triglyphs and the backgrounds of the sculpture. Again, there is good reason to suppose, from a passage in Pliny, that the walls behind the columns received colour, and even paintings, and as the columns were comparatively close together, this would have the effect of making them stand out well from the wall without sacrificing the general white tone of the whole building. Again, gilt bronze was largely employed for the accessories of the sculpture, as we see in the Elgin Marbles; and one building is mentioned where the joints of the stones were filled in by thin fillets of gilt metal. In the capitals of the columns of Minerva Polias we find glass beads employed as an architectural decoration: and were it possible for us to go back to the Athens of ancient times, I have no doubt but that we should find a great many things for which we are by no means in the habit of giving the Greeks credit.

Such was the way in which a marble temple was anciently treated. I believe it is a disputed point whether the Greeks, like the Romans, were in the habit of employing coloured marble columns, but that they did not confine themselves to white alone is proved by the string of black marble which may be traced more or less all round the Acropolis, and which probably served as the support of the Gigantomachia.

The second way of treating marble is by building the walls of the edifice with brick or rubble, and then facing it with a coating of marble, say from six inches to a foot thick, according to the necessity. The brick or rubble should be so constructed as to allow of the marble being well toothed in, and hence the very rough appearance such wails present when the marble has never been applied, as is so often the case in Italy. Of course it was always right to give time for the wall to settle well before applying the facing, but somehow or other, in nine cases out of ten^ the said facing has been put off indefinitely. The cathedrals of Florence, Sienna, Prato, and Orvieto are instances where it is more or less perfect. In this case the architect generally divided his wall either in horizontal lines or square panels, using for the purpose black, white, and red marble; the red not appearing in any great quantity. The windows, doors, &c., were richly carved and inlaid, while an elaborate tarsia of these marbles, which may be described as a coarse mosaic, (not unlike the Tonbridge-ware patterns enlarged,) ran round the building with the strings, round the arches aud jambs of the windows, round the panels, and in fact almost everywhere. Glass mosaic was also occasionally introduced instead of sculpture. The best example of this sort of work is Giotto's campanile at Florence; and although a great deal of valuable material is expended, and a great deal of human labour, still to my mind the effect is hardly worth the trouble and cost. The contrast of the marbles is violent, and the panel system is but too apt to remind one, as it did Pugin, of a Brighton workbox. This facing system is also to be found in Eastern buildings, but there the ornaments and inlays are far more beautiful and delicate than in the Italian edifices. It has not been my lot to see the larger specimens of marble buildings in the East, and I am unable therefore to speak of their effect. M. Fossati told me that he imagined that St. Sophia at Constantinople was anciently faced with marbles, the spoils of antique temples; all, however, have disappeared, and the buildiug is now plastered over and coloured with red longitudinal bands.

Some of the better fountains in the same city are exceedingly beautiful; they are large square edifices with towers at the angles, faced with marble cut into the most delicate patterns and foliage in low relief, parts of which were doubtless gilt; the grilles, which occupy a considerable portion of the surface and the tops, are in bronze; the overhanging eaves of the high lead-covered roof are boarded underneath, and painted and gilded in various patterns; and the finials on the top of the roof are also gilt. As regards inlaying marble, the Easterns are unrivalled. Some years ago a very considerable quantity of marble was brought into this country from Delhi, and it is even now occasionally to be met with in curiosity shops; the ground is a coarseish white inlaid with black, like slate, green like our Irish green; there is also a yellow marble, and the flowers are formed of cornelian and most beautiful rose-coloured agates.

The examples of the third way of using marble are principally to be found in Venice. Here the columns are solid marble, the walls are brick, and the facing is applied in very thin slabs, secured to the wall by mortar and by metal holdfasts which appear on the outside; the strings, of course, are solid marble, so also is the tracery and moulded work, although the latter is generally avoided, and the arch turned in brick, so that the thin soffit-slabs of marble, when applied, project outward, and thus afford support to the outer casing above. Sometimes the Venetian architect contented himself with making what we should call the dressings only in marble, the walls proper being plastered and painted, sometimes with figures, but generally according to Mr. Ruskin with a diaper, which in the ducal palace has been translated into marble of different colours. In the earlier buildings of a better character, such as St. Mark and the Fondaco del Turchi, the whole facade was covered with thin slabs of marble interspersed with panels containing sculptures, which often had a gold mosaic ground, or with panels inclosing more valuable marbles, such as porphyry or serpentine, as in St. Mark's, where we find marble carving, serpentine, porphyry, and glass mosaic in juxtaposition. As also a piece of architectural colour the west front of St. Mark's at Venice certainly stands unrivalled at the present day, whatever the group of buildings on the rock of Athens may have been. The picture of Capacchio certainly shews us that we have lost something; but after all it has not been very much, being principally confined to the gilding in the upper portions of the buildings, such as the crockets, pinnacles, &c.| some of the ornaments of the latter having been cast in lead.


Stone.

Stone is a more difficult material to treat than marble for external decoration, people being generally content to carve it and there to leave it. This was not the case formerly. The temples at Psestum and that of Vesta at Tivoli are worked in a very coarse hard stone, full of holes — a stone that in the present day would probably be rejected for external facing. The Greeks and Romans did not think so: everything is worked in it, and then covered with two thin coatings of plaster; the first stops up the holes and brings it to a fair surface, the latter, which is about one-eighth of an inch thick, is largely mixed with marble dust, so that it can receive a polish. The building had then very nearly the white glaring effect of new marble, and was treated in a similar manner. In the museum at Palermo are some bas-reliefs found at Selinuntum, made of this stone and plastered in the usual manner: some are, it is true, very archaic, but others are postPhidian, and very beautiful works. Stone, again, in the Middle Ages was used in strips, like marble, alternating with stone of other colours, or with brick, as at Verona; in this case the mass of wall is brick, the stone forming a sort of chain, or rather a series of coffers at certain intervals. A very favourite way of using stone, especially during the fifteenth century, was to make it alternate with bricks or flints, so that the wall looks like a chess-board. In Norfolk the surfaces of stone walls, or rather of parts of them, are cut into elaborate tracery or other ornaments, such as letters, &c., and the interstices filled with flints; and if the flints are cleanly broken and nicely squared the effect is very good indeed. Occasionally ornaments are incised in the stone and then filled up with black cement, as in the porches of Notre Dame at Paris, and at St. Etienne at Beauvais; but this process does not often oceur^ and would appear to have been reserved almost exclusively for floors. At other times an effect is got by the jointing of the stone, such as a thin course and a thick one alternately, or by making certain portions of the facing reticulated, as in Notre Dame at Poitiers: of course in this latter case the joints should be kept very wide.

In the Middle Ages we find positive colour and gilding applied directly to stone buildings, but then it was confined to sheltered situations, and was executed in oil or in distemper, covered with oleaginous varnishes; thus there are traces of painting on the statues and architecture of many of the French portaih, such as Amiens, but then they were protected by the great depth of the arch. Coats of arms were generally coloured; the tympana of dormer windows, when protected by the bargeboards, were coloured; and crockets and finials were often gilt. At the Chateau of Blois the windows being deeply recessed from the front, the jambs of the arches which contain them are coloured and gilt. At Florence the projecting machicolations of the Palazzo Publico have emblazoned coats of arms. In fact, our ancestors coloured those parts which could be protected, but, like sensible men, abstained from putting paint where it would be destroyed by the climate.


Brick.

It must be confessed that brick is not a particularly agreeable material to work with; if used alone it is exceedingly monotonous, and if different colours be introduced a piebald effect is very likely to be the result: used with stone dressings of a warm colour is perhaps as good a way as any to employ it, and if the building is to have any architectural features it will probably be found the cheapest, for bricks become rather expensive articles when they have to be cut, rubbed, and gauged. However, effects can be produced by bricks of different colours, although many attempts of late days in this direction can hardly be pronounced successes. Our own ancestors, for the most part, contented themselves with very sparing reticulations of black glazed bricks. At Verona, Padua, and elsewhere in Italy, a very curious mode of decorating brick-work is adopted. Patterns are formed in the voussoirs of arches by cutting away the surface of sundry of the voussoirs, and then filling up the space so obtained with plaster. At St. Antonio at Padua^ the spaces within the terra cotta arches^ which form the cornice of the cloisters, are thas filled in with plaster, and have had painted ornaments.

In the north of Italy we find a very great employment of terra cotta, one of the finest examples being the Ospidale at Milan; somehow or other the effect is not pleasing, being too apt to conjure up suggestions of the burning city described by Dante. Much of our modern terra cotta is of a very harsh aud bright colour, so much so that it would hardly be an acquisition to any building. A fountain in this Museum, of Austrian manufacture, is an excellent example of what carefully to avoid as regards colour in terra cotta. In our own time a whole medieval church has been constructed of this material, but as the experiment has never been repeated we may presume that it has hardly been a success.

Far better than terra cotta is majolica — here we obtain beautiful form and imperishable colour. Majolica may be either in relief, or painted on a flat surface; the former is more commonly applied as an external ornament, and is by no means uncommon in Tuscany and the circumjacent parts of Italy. It occurs in the form of friezes, medallions, coats of arms, figures, &c.; but I never, as far as I remember, ever saw a fagade entirely covered with it. There are some most excellent examples in the South Kensington Museum, foremost among which may be cited the coat of arms with its surrounding wreaths, ten feet in diameter; this, like all large examples, is made in several pieces, all of which had to be properly imbedded in the wall. Similar coats of arms occur in the Or San Michele at Florence, and the Palazzo del Podesta at Certaldo is literally covered with them. The inventor of this majolica was Luca della Robbia, a Florentine sculptor, who set himself to invent, or rather re-invent, a stanniferous enamel to cover his terra cotta figures; I say re-invent, for the secret had been known to the Spanish Moors long before. The works of Luca della Robbia now command liigh prices, not only on account of their rarity, but for their own intrinsic value, for Luca was a real artist, and got beautiful feeling and expression in his work. Several of his figures are simply in white, with a lightblue background. Afterwards other colours were added, and sometimes the flesh is left unglazed. But with all this the general effect of the colour of his figures is never thoroughly pleasing, and I am barbarous enough to think that Miuton colours his figures much better.

Glazed earthenware for architectural purposes appears to have been used in Germany at the beginning of the sixteenth century, for Erasmus, in his Colloquies, mentions columns of earthenware glazed to represent marble supporting a portico. The medallions in Holbein's gateway at Whitehall were also of terra cotta, but I do not know whether they were glazed. The angels, however, which surmounted the high altar of Henry the Eighth's Chapel, were glazed to represent marble; and as they were executed under the direction of Torregiano, were most probably of Italian workmanship. Luca della Bobbia did not content himself with reliefs; on the contrary, he appears to have painted on majolica as well, if we may trust the series of discs attributed to him, which are preserved in the South Kensington Museum. They represent the labours of the year, and are in three different blues, with black outlines, and white high-lights: they probably formed a decoration for some small building, such as the study of Cosmo the Elder, described by Vasari.

If we want to know what can be done with enamelled majolica, we have only to go to the East. One of the mosques, I think that of Suleyman, has one of its courts covered with large inscriptions and ornaments, painted in blue on white tiles, and I must say that the colour was exceedingly rich, and the result very good indeed. Pieces of plain pottery are found in the campaniles at Rome, and are far more bright than marble would be at that height. Again, several of the churches at Pisa have dishes inserted in their gables; the story being that it was the custom of the Crusaders to bring them home and deposit them in the front of the church as trophies.

In the South Kensington Museum is a figure painted on majolica, manufactured by M. Rousseau of Paris; it was purchased at the Great Exhibition, and it is said that the colours and glazing' have been affixed in one firing — a most important discovery, should this sort of decoration ever come into extensive use. Tlie division lines of the various tiles composing the figure follow the outlines, and thus avoid the confusion which would arise had they been made square; as it is, the joints serve to accentuate the outlines like the leading in stained glass.


Plaster.

Few people would suppose that plaster could be rendered ornamental unless it be cast into moulds, or, as in the last century, worked by hand. If, however, we go to Florence, we shall find that with an artistic people even this material is susceptible of high art. To begin with the simplest decoration. In the vicinity of Florence, the rough walls which divide one vineyard from another are covered with plaster: this plaster when wet is covered with very deep scratches; the principal lines run vertically, and the spaces are then filled up with various patterns. This is without the town: within, we find the graffito. After a building had received the first coat of plaster, a second was appUed, very much thinner and mixed with colour, very often soot, when this was set, a finishing coat was applied over it, and while it was wet the artist scraped it away in various patterns and figures, so as to shew the black ground: the whole, when completed, forms a decoration or picture in black and white. Several houses of apparently the sixteenth century retain this decoration, which in that climate appears to be tolerably durable. It is practised at the present day, and specimens were to be seen at the Florentine Exhibition of 1861. The earliest example I have seen was at Assisi; from the costumd the date might be from 1460 — 1470: it is also noticeable from the fact of the ground being in various colours instead of black. Plaster is also cast in patterns and applied to external surfaces of walls, as in the Alhambra; but then it was probably protected by overhanging eaves. It can be stamped in patterns while wet, as we occasionally see in old half-timber houses in our own country, and even when not stamped it has a very good eflfect if the wood be only painted a dark colour. At Galata the old Genoese houses ai'e made of indifferent brick, and then plastered and painted; there is no moulded work of any kind; all the decoration is obtained by what we call tuck-joints, i.e. projecting ones, which are made of much finer plaster than the ground. These tuck-joints are left white, while the general surface of the wall is a dull grey; the ornamental bands, which do duty for strings, on the contrary, have their grounds coloured red; the window jambs and lintel are simply great stones on the Stonehenge principle, and the cornice is composed of tiles on edge. Sometimes the wall is made to represent alternate courses of stone and tiles; in this case the surface of the sham tiles is coloured red. In some of the plaster I detected little pieces of chopped linen which did duty for hair.


Painting.

In a country where the material was not a good one, and where the climate was favourable, a very common way of obtaining decoration was to cover the whole surface of the walls with plaster and then paint it. This, according to Mr. Layard, was the case with regard to Babylon, where sunburnt bricks were used, and distinguished it from Nineveh, where the basement was of stone and the superstructure of wood. At Pompdi we see the same thing. In one of the streets a good part of an external wall remains tolerably perfect; it is plastered all over in the usual manner, i.e. marble dust is mixed with the last coating. For six or eight feet high the wall is coloured red, but divided into vertical divisions by white lines. Above, the plaster is jointed like regular stonework, the joints being represented by broad and deep incised lines, which if I remember rightly were filled up also with red.

In our own country during the Middle Ages, paintings were reserved for the insides of dwellings, and we must, therefore, go to Italy for information as regards external paintings. The custom anciently must have been very common, for in spite of the perishable nature of the decoration, nearly every city can shew some one specimen, if not more. Thus in Florence there is the hospital on the north side of the Baptistery of St, John, besides several other houses which are painted in black and white, and therefore difficult to distinguish from graffito. There are one or two houses at Brescia painted in colours, several at Venice, and portions of others at Vercelli. If we read the lives of Maturino and Polidoro in Vasari, we must believe that these artists nlone must have painted the fronts of a vast number of houses in Rome. Our author almost appears to intimate that the fashion went out after the sack of Rome by the army of the Constable Bourbon, when all the artists, including the two in question, had to flee. Vasari distinctly states that Maturino and Polidoro worked only in two colours — in fact, did not make regularly coloured facades like those in Venice and Brescia. He praises them for their introduction of antique ornaments, and for the invention they displayed in their figure subjects. They appear to have enjoyed great popularity, if we may judge of the number of their subjects which were engraved, and their works were executed in imitation of marble and bronze; the colours employed were principally terra verte and terretta.


Roofs.

Having thus described the various ways of ornamenting a fa9ade, it may perhaps be as well to add a few words about the roof. The roof can be covered with lead, slates, or tiles. If with lead, the lead can be partially tinned either before it is put up or after; it is needless to say that the former makes the best job. Remains of historiated lead-work are to be found in various parts of France, e.g. at Chalons-sur-Marne. Sometimes the tinned parts were covered, if in a sheltered place, with a thin coat of transparent oil paint, the lead being left for the outline: this occurs in the lead fliche at Amiens. Gilding is also often applied to lead, but it is not lasting, as the rain washes off the metal in course of time, leaving nothing but the coloured mordant to tell what has been there. Crestings and figures can also be made in lead, and add greatly to the beauty of the roof. They can be equally well applied to slates; which, by the way, were anciently about three times as thick as they are made in the present day. Slates can be procured of various colours, and arranged in patterns on the roofs; they can have their edges rounded, or made into an angle, or otherwise ornamented; but it may be questioned whether anything is preferable to a roof of good green slate, and if there is a good cresting there will be but little occasion either to cut the edges or to mix them with any other colour.

Tiles, also, can be made into any form, and can be coloured and glazed like any other pottery. The cathedral at Mantes possesses a roof of glazed and coloured tiles disposed in an elaborate species of Greek fret, and many of the houses at Dijon have roofs with the different coloured tiles disposed in patterns. At St. Andrea, Yercelli, the pinnacles and spires are covered with tiles in the form of truncated cones, coloured and glazed; and while upon this subject we must not forget the bronze tiles of the Pantheon, so barbarously taken away to make the hideous baldachino at St. Peter's, or the gilded tiles over the bow-window at Innspruck.

Such, then, are some of the ways by means of which our ancestors made their houses pleasant objects to themselves when living, and studies hereafter to their descendants. Now let any one go into Harley-street, Baker-street, or any other respectable thoroughfare, and look at the houses, and then ask himself whether they are either beautiful objects or things to study. Carefully looked into, they resolve themselves into very dirty brick walls, pierced with a certain number of square holes, one house exactly resembling its next neighbour. I protest, in spite of modern opinion, I like the painted stucco of Belgravia better than what is called the honest brick of Bakerstreet; the stucco can be re-painted and made clean, but hardly the brick. Although thus much may be said for the plaster, if it be once neglected it rapidly goes to the bad, for instance, the exterior wall of the Colosseum, in Albany-street, has not been painted for some time, and looks anything but what it should.

We must always bear one thing in mind, and that is the London smoke and its attendant acids and gases: it is said that its influence extends to no less a radius than forty miles, and if we wish to counteract it, we must face our dwellings with some imperishable material which will afford no lodgement for the smoke to penetrate, and which will sustain without injury a periodical cleansing by means of a fireengine.

Now marble will hardly fulfil these conditions, seeing that it has a great faculty of losing its polish and getting its surface disintegrated in this climate; thus, the celebrated Marble Arch has been twice scraped and cleaned within the last fifteen years: so that marble will not do. Granite does appear to keep its polish, but then it is very expensive, and very hard to work, and not of a very pleasant colour. Stone is not very successful: if soft, it soon decays; if hard, like Portland, it gets very white in some parts and very black in others; this parti-colour I have heard poetically compared to ebony and ivory, but I am afraid that there is more ebony than ivory, and indeed we should only be too glad to dispense with it altogether. Stone cannot be cleaned except by scraping, which involves a scaffold, and cannot be often repeated; the same objection holds good with regard to. brick or terra cotta, except that when dirty it is of a much more disagreeable colour than stone. Graffito-plaster and paintings are all open to the same objection, viz. that of getting intensely dirty, without much power of being cleaned. We have, therefore, as far as I can see, but three courses open to us: the first is, to build the window-dressings, doors, &c. in majolica, plaster the walls between, paint them with subjects, and then cover them with large sheets of plate glass: this is the first. The second would be to supply the place of the paintings covered with glass, by means of mosaics. Now these mosaics might be made in various ways: 1. they might be of glass chopped up in the regular manner, as Signer Salvieto does it; 2. or made of sticks of glass broken off short, in Mr. Fisher's manner, (see the stained glass exhibition); or they might be manufactured in earthenware and glazed. I do not think unglazed tesserae would do, as the smoke would stain them like bricks. It is by no means necessary that these mosaics should represent subjects, although it would be a gain for them to do so, on the contrary, they might be diapers, and the tesserae might be made like some discovered near Babylon, viz. in the shape of cones, with the bottom part glazed. Some system might also be found for making figures in pieces of stained glass, foiling them from behind, and then embedding them in mortar or lead. Messrs. Powell, of Whitefriars, have invented something of this kind, but I am afraid that their material would be too porous for external use. We now come to majolica, which with mosaic would, I think, solve the problem before us. It should be remembered that, thanks to Messrs. Minton and other manufacturers, we can now obtain majolica both in relief and painted; it is true that at present it is rather dear, but should an increased demand arise, it would doubtless go down in price. M. RoussePs system would give us great advantages in the pictorial part of the work, while it would rest with the manufacturers generally to give us a glaze that would not shine too much in a side light, and at the same time would stand the frost. With these advantages I really see no reason why we should not have buildings in smoky London glowing with imperishable colour, while the other processes would still be applicable in country places beyond the reach of the fumes of London. At present we are building in stone, and brick, and plaster, which we well know in a few years will be so black that no ornaments can be distinguished. With painted majolica and mosaics all this would be changed; but people can hardly be expected to spend much money on their houses as long as they know that they are building for the benefit of the landlord and not of their descendants; hence a change in the law of leasehold is the very first thing required. In the meantime, the study of the numerous beautiful objects in the South Kensington Museum and elsewhere will do a vast deal, as it has already done, for the diffusion of a correct taste both in drawing and colour; and were the study of the figure more general with ornamentistSy we might possibly arrive at good results rather sooner than we generally believe.

London Painted Street Signposts.

The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Review
by Sylvanus Urban, Gent.
July-December 1864
London John Henry and James Parker. 1864.


August 1864.

Can any of your correspondents say when the last of such existed, that is, in any prominent instance or locality? I well remember such a one standing at the kerb-stone in front of that respectable old hostelry the "George and Blue Boar," Holbom; to the best of my belief in 1807, else 1808, I being then only as old as the century, but acquainted with London by early visits; also that it had been removed in 1812 — precisely — and I never saw a similar instance.

P

The Highland Dress.

The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Review
by Sylvanus Urban, Gent.
July-December 1864
London John Henry and James Parker. 1864.


August 1864.

SIR, — The subject of the antiquity of the kilt in the Highland dress seems to be a subject worthy of elucidation in the pages of the Gentleman's Magazibe, and I therefore send you a few observations, in the hope that they may lead some of your Scotch correspondents to give us further light upon the matter.

It appears to me that the kilt, as a part of the Highland dress, has been adopted from the Romans. There is a very curious bas-relief described in the Archæologia, vol. xxi. p. 455, of the Emperor Severus and his two sons Caracalla and Geta; the Emperor Severus and his son Geta being evidently dressed in what would now be called a kilt, with the lines of the tartan shewn on it. The second instance are the figures depicted on the famous Forres stone, near the town of Forres, Scotland; on this are several representations of warriors, evidently in kilts. Antiquaries are not agreed regarding the period and the occasion of the erection of this monument; the general opinion is that it was erected in the reign of Malcolm II., to commemorate the expulsion of the Danes.

The next example that may be cited is the figure dressed in the belted from the St. Andrew's sarcophagus; it was found in the vicinity of St. Andrew's Cathedral, and is described in Wilson's "Prehistoric Annals of Scotland."
In the " Art Journal" for 1861, p. 231, fig. 2, in "Costumes of Various Epochs," is given "A Scottish Costume of the Eighth or Ninth Century," after a drawing on parchment extracted from an old book, which, according to the characters on the back, appears to have been written in Gaelic or Erse. According to the assertion of the possessor, this Caledonian document was brought to Germany in the year 1596, during the devastating Reformation in Scotland, when all cloisters and religious endowments were destroyed, so that many persons took refuge with their treasures on the Continent, where the Scottish monks possessed many religious houses, some being in Nuremburg. The figure represents a Highland chief, whose dress is picturesque and extremely beautiful. The Scottish tunic, or blouse, checkered or striped in light and dark green, with violet intermixed, and bordered with violet stripes, is covered with a steel breast-plate, accompanied by a back-piece, judging from the iron brassarts, positively a bequest of the Romans; this, indeed, is also attested by the offensive weapon the javelin; the sword, however, must be excepted, for it is basket-hilted. The strong shield may have descended from the Romans as well as the helmet, which is decorated with the eagle's wing; these, together with the hunting-horn, give the figure a very imposing appearance. We are involuntarily reminded of the heroes Fingal and Ossian, and we might almost think that the figure belonged to the time of the Scottish King Kenneth II., grandson of King Achaius.

Many good examples of Highland weapons and equipments have come down to our time. Thus, a Highland target studded with silver nails was in the Manchester Exhibition of 1859, and in the Armoury of the Castle of Edinburgh are various weapons brought from the field of Culloden, particularly steel pistols of beautiful workmanship, which had been worn by Highland gentlemen. It may also be remarked that the Highlanders sometimes wear the vest of the father's tartan and the kilt of the mother's thus forming a sort of heraldry.

I am, &c. W. H. Clarke. York.

Tyrian Purple.

The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Review
by Sylvanus Urban, Gent.
July-December 1864
London John Henry and James Parker. 1864.


That this colour was extracted by the ancients from a mollusk is well known, but of what species has not been fully ascertained. De Lamarck, in his magnificent work on Invertebrata, adopts the opinion that the species known among naturalists under the name of Murex brandaris was that which yielded the purple of the first quality. M. Boblaye proved the soundness of this opinion during his travels as a member of the scientific expedition to the Peloponnesus. Following the sea-coast, he was surprised to find at short distances certain considerable deposits of the Murex brandaris. At first he was inclined to attribute them to some geological cause; but on examining the neighbourhood, he ascertained that those deposits were in every instance close to some ruin, generally bearing traces of having once been dyeing establishments. Several other species of Murex seem to have been used for a purple of an inferior quality. Subsequently M. Fr. Lenormant found similar and much more numerous deposits on the coasts of Cerigo and Gythium. It was therefore on those islands chiefly that purple used to be manufactured from the Murex brandaris. M. de Saulcy, nevertheless, does not consider the question as definitively set at rest, and is of opinion that the best colour was derived from another mollusk. He states that in going from Tyre to Sidon, and entering the latter by a staircase built near the coast, and adjoining the rope-yards, an enormous mass of shells is perceived, all belonging to the single species called Murex trunculus. The deposit is upwards of a hundred metres in length, and between six and eight metres in height, with a considerable breadth which cannot be ascertained because the deposit is on one side covered with the soil. All the shells without exception are broken in exactly the same manner, evidently with a view to get at the animal itself. This is certainly not the effect of mere accident, and it can only be explained by supposing that the Sidonian dyers extracted their purple from this species, while in Greece the other was employed.

Crayons or Drawing Chalks.

Scientific American 19, 11.5.1861

The civilizing influence of art is constantly improving the taste of the people. Color, pattern and design must now pervade all our manufactures to keep pace with the improved judgment of purchasers as to true beauty. Nothing tends to advance art more than making draqing one of the common branches of education, and few materials will render draqing more popular than the colored chalks or crayons as made by Messrs. Joel, of Paris, which are prepared thus. Take three-quarters of a pound of blue clay, three-quarters of a pound of the coloring required, such as vermilion, chrome, Prussian blue, orpiment, &c., two ounces of turpentine, four ounces of spirits of wine, and six ounces of the shellac. The clay must be well mixed with water, passed through a fine lawn sieve, and allowed to subside; the water is then poured off and the clay dried. The shellac must be dissolved in the mixed turpentine and spirit with a little warmth. The dried clay and the coloring must be now well blended in a mortar, and the nthe shellac mixture added and well incorporated till the whole is a doughy mass; it is then to be rolled out into a pencil form and dried with stove heat. To make the crayons of uniform substance, the paste may be placed into a cylinder, with a hole at one end and a piston at the other (like a boy's pop-gun), the "wormy" pieces that pass through are then cut into proper lengths and dried.

- Septimus Piesze.

Nähtyä ja kuultua. Suomen lippu.

Aamulehti 17, 20.1.1918

Suomen lippukysymys on nyt, kun maamme on astumassa itsenäisten kansain riviin, kehittynyt ratkaisuasteelleen. Ilman omaa lippua ei nimittäin riippumaton kansakunta tule toimeen. Se on välttämätön niin aatteellisesti kuin käytännöllisesti.

Oma lippu on kansan kansallisuuden ja valtiollisuuden tunnusmerkki. Siitä se kunnioitus, voipa sanoa pyhyys, jota kansa lippuaan kohtaan tuntee. Sen puolesta toimitaan rauhan askareissa ja sen puolesta tarvittaessa kuollaan. Kaikki se paras, mikä sisältyy isänmaanrakkauden käsitteeseen, keskittyy omaan
lippuun. Siitä huomaamme, kuinka paljon Suomen kansalta on puuttunut, kun sillä ei ole ollut omaa lippua.

Lipun väreiksi sopivat ainoastaan ne värit, joiden merkeissä kansakunta on herännyt itsetietoisuuteen ja luonut omintakeista sivistystä. Ne värit meidän maassamme ovat sininen ja valkoinen. Ne ovat meidän kansallisvärit, sillä yli puolivuosisatainen kulttuuritaistelumme on ne siihen arvoon kohottanut. Sitä vastoin nuo unhosta kaivetut värit, punainen ja keltainen, ovat suomalaiselle kansalle kansallisessa hengessä vieraita ja vastenmielisiä. Ne ovatkin tulleet vain epäkansallisuuden tunnuskuvaksi. Heraldiikan nojalla ja muilla keksityillä loruilla koetetaannyt vihkiä punakeltaisuus Suomen kansallisuuden symbooliksi ja sillä häikäilemättömyydellä, joka aina on ollut ominaista vieraskieliselle harrastuksellemme ja heitä pokuroivalle osalle suomalaista sivistynyttä säätyä, on jo ruvettu käyttäytymään ikäänkuin punakeltainen väriyhtymä vain voisi tulla kyseeseen Suomen lippua valittaessa. Sinivalkoinen on painettu syrjään. Mutta ei se sittenkään käy, niinkuin kansan sydämen sykintää tuntematon "helsinkiläisyys" suvaitsee tahtoa. Kyllä Suomen kansa itse tahtoo määrätä kansallisvärinsä.

Jos kävisi niin onnettomasti, että eduskunta antaisi agitatsionin tunteensa sokaista ja hyväksyisi epäkansallisuuden mielihalut tässä suhteessa, niin asia ei olisi pysyvää laatua. Korjaus olisi tapahtuva ennemmin tai myöhemmin, sillä pelkkä punakeltainen väriyhtymä olisi meidän kansallislipussamme meidän kansalle alennukseksi eikä ylennykseksi.

Lippukysymyksemme.

Aamulehti 17, 20.1.1918

Mikä Aamulehden kanta lippukysymyksessä on, se on äskeisen artikkelimme johdosta lukijakunnallemme tunnettu ja siinä suhteessa varmaan kansallisesti valveutunein osa Suomen kansaa on meidän kanssamme yhtä mieltä. Seuraavassa julkaisemme pari lähetettyä kirjoitusta.


Vieläkin Suomen lipusta.
Me rakastamme kaikki Suomen vaakunaa jonka Valter Runeberg on ruumistuttanut Aleksaterin patsaassa. Kaikki rakastammne Koskenniemen laulamaa Leijonalippua. Rakastakaamme myöskin niiden värejä!

On sanottu, että meidän vaakunamme ja sen värit ovat liian ylpeitä meidän pienelle kansallemme. Ja tosiasia lienee, että Juhana III, kun hän aikanaan muodosti nykyisen vaakunamme, tahallisella itsetietoisuudella valitsi vaakunan, joka olisi yhtä muhkea kuin Norjan. Mutta se ei estä, että tämä vaakuna on käynyt meille kaikille kalliiksi ja rakkaaksi ja että emme tahtoisi sitä toiseen vaihtaa. Ja jos se mahdollisesti aikaisemmin on ollut liian ylpeä, niin aika on nyt toinen. Suomen riippuvaisesta suurruhtinaskunnasta on tullut itsenäinen, suurvaltojen tunnustama vapaavalta. Ja jos Norjan valtakunta, jonka väestö on kuitenkin lukumäärältään Suomen kansaa pienempi, voi vaakunanaan käyttää leijonaa ja päävärinä lipuissa punaista, niin kai voi sitä Suomenkin kansa.

Mutta sanotaan: meillä on jo vuosikymmeniä ollut käytännössä toiset värit, sinivalkoiset värit, jotka ovat käyneet meille rakkaaksi. Se on totta. Tämänkin kirjoittajalle nämä värit ovat olleet ja ovat edelleenkin, rakkaita, eritoten ainuenauhoina, jommoisina ne tekevät erittäin hienon vaikutuksen.

Olenkin aikanaan yrittänyt sommitella omintakeisen sinivalkoisen lipun - kahtia jaetun sinisen ristin valkoiselta pohjalla, keskellä Suomen vaakuna. Tämä lippu, joka sen markkinoille saattajan nmen mukaisesti yleisön keskuudessa m. m. on kulkenut "Tirkkosen lipun" nimellä on ensimmäisen suurlakon aikana ja myöskin sen jälkeen saavuttanut jonkinmoista kannatusta. Mutta uuden ajan tultua olen valmis ensimmäisenä siitä luopumaan vaakunaväriemme hyväksi.

Lippuna on sinivalkoisia värejä meillä käytetty enimmin kaihtena vakasuorana raitana, valkoinen ylinnä. Mutta lukuunottamatta sitä, että tämä jo ennestään on Baierin lippu, ovat nämät värit merilippuna laimeat ja eritoten pilvisellä ilmalla epäselvät ja siis epäkäytännölliset.

On myöskin ehdotettu valkoista ristiä sinisellä pohjalla. Mutta tämä on Islannin ennen meitä valitsema lippu ja sitäpaitsi Kreikan kuninkaallinen lippu, joihon vielä - kuten meilläkin on ehdotettu - on liitetty maan vaakunaan.

Aivan viime aikoina on Suomen lipuksi ehdotettu jos jonkunmoisia väriyhdistelmiä. Mutta jos kerran luovutaan viime vuosikymmenien traditsiosta - ja kansan elämässä muutama vuosikymmen on lyhyt aika, niin luonnollista on vain se. että valitsemme Suomen vaakunan vanhat historialliset värit. Ja jos kerran meidän kaikkien rakastama leijonalippu hyväksyt. n.k. valtiolipuksi, niin muitten värien käyttäminen sen ohella on omiansa hajoittamaan ja heikontamaan rakkauttamme isänmaan ja sen vapauden symbooliin.

Vaakunamme väreistä muodostettu ristilippu on yksinkertainen ja luonnollinen. Se on kaunis ja vaikuttava. Se on omintakeinen ja sytyttävä. Yhtykäämme sitä kannattamaan!

E. B.






Meidän viirimme!
"Mik' onkaan meidän viirimme?" Tätä kysyy moni suomalainen itseltään nykyisin, kun lippuasiamme odottaa virallista ratkaisuaan. Sanomaleht. selostuksista olemme huomanneet sen monikirjavan värivilinän, joka etenkin on kysymystä pohdittaissa kuohahtanut esille ja tuntuu kuin kaikki olisi sitä myöten selvää. Ei muuta kuin eduskunnan vahvistus vain ja niin on Suomen tasavallan lippu valamis, kautta aikojen todistamaan maailmalle, mitä maata me olemme ja minkälainen on meidän viirimme.

Helsingissä toimivat suomenkieliset arkkitehdit, niiden joukossa suuri osa ruotsalais-nimisiä, ovat lausuneet painavan sanansa punakeltaisen väriyhtymän puolesta. Taiteilijat ovat asiasta puhuneet ristiin rastiin ja punakeltainen väri on heilläkin valmiina paletillaan siveltäväksi Suomen lippukankaaseen. Heleätä ja koreata siitä tulla pitää. Herra. Heikki Tandefelt, taiteilijaseuran asettaman lippukomitean ppuheenjohtaja, on lisäksi havainnut kalliit sinivalkoiset värimme perin köyhiksi ja halvoiksi rikkaan, mahtavan Suomen arvoa kannattamaan. Prof. Kustavi Grotenfelt taas on "Työmiehessäkin" valmistanut maaperää punakeltaisen hyväksi.

Kun tällaiset ja monet muut auktoriteetit ovat asian "valmiiksi" päättäneet, niin eihän meillä vähäväkisillä pitäisi olla muuta tekemistä kuin kauniisti kiittää kunniasta ja tyytyä siihen mitä saamme. - Niin ennen, mutta ei nyt enään. Vapaina kansalaisina vapaassa maassa mekin tahdomme hiukan määritellä kuinka täällä ollaan ja eletään.

Oli mieluista lukea ne lämpimät sanat, jotka rouva Maija Mikkola lausui itsenäisyysjuhlassa maamme kansallisteatterissa äskettäin (niin dekoratiivisesti epäonnistunut liputus kun siellä muuten tuntui olleenkin). Ne sanat ainakin viittasivat vakuuttavasti juuri siihen, johon meidän olisi kaikin voimin pyrittävä, nimittäin yhteen heimolaisuuteen suomalais-ugrilaisten heimojen kanssa. Suomenlahden rannoilta aina Jäämerelle saakka ja Aasian arolta ihanan Unkarin tasangoille.

Lyökäämme rauhan kämmentä hyville naapureillemme ja vanhoille aseveikoillemme lännessä, joiden rinnalla olemme kamppailleet ja vertamme vuodattaneet suuren, asian puolesta, ristinmerkin alla. Muistakaamme kiitoilisuudella Ranskan kansan ylevää osanottoa kohtaloihimme ja antakaamme täysi tunnustus kaikelle sille hyvälle, mitä Saksa auliisti meille tarjoaa. Mutta älkäämme milloinkaan unohtako
sitä, mihinkä heimoon me kuulumme, niin porvarit kuin sosialistitkin. Heimolaisuusside yhdistää meitä lujemmin kuin mikään muu ja ainoastaan sille pohjalle voimme rakentaa valtiollista tulevaisuuttamme pysyväiseksi ja ehjäksi. Mitä sanoisikaan Viro, mitä uljas Unkarin kansa, jos me heti itsenäisyytemme ensi aamunkoitteessa kääriintyisimme vieraaseen verhoon ja siinä asussa ryömisimme suurempaimme hohteessa unohtaen sekä itsemme ett äne, jotka maailmassa ovat meitä kaikkein lähinnä, omat heimolaisemme.

Työtaistelussa kansan kaikkien kerrosten kohottamiseksi aineellisesti sekä henkisesti hyvinvointiin ja riippumattomuuteen, me näemme parhaan tuen valtiollisen itsenäisyytemme suurille tehtäville siinä määrässä kuin se taistelu tapahtuu lain mukaisesti ja koko kansan yhteistä parasta. Työmiehen kaikilla aloilla tässä maassa täytyy käsittää olevansa elämismahdollisuuksineen tämän maan turpeeseen sidottu, sen päällä elää ja sen alle kuolla.

Korpi on raadettu viljapelloiksi esivanhempaimme yhteisellä työllä, josta kukin olemme osalliset sekä velvolliset sitä perintöä hoitamaan jokainen paikaltamme, suomalaisina, sovussa ja rauhassa.

Työtaistelulla sellasenaan ei näyttäisi olevan mitään suoranaista yhteyttä lippukysymyksen kanssa, mutta siinä vaiheessa, jossa viimemainittu nykyään on, liittyvät ne varsin, läheisesti toisiinsa. Asian jouduttua nimittäin eduskunnan ratkaistavaksi riippuu epäilemättä sosialistisen puolueen äänistä tahi äänettömyydestä mitkä värit Suomen tasavallan lipussa tulevat liehumaan sekä kotona että kaukana vierailla mailla ja merillä. Onko kansanvälinen, punainen työtaistelun merkki, joka on ikäänkuin yleismaailmalliseksi vaakunaksi muodostunut, niin suuressa määrässä kiehtonut suomalaisten sosialistiamme kansalliset käsitteet pauloihinsa, että sen nojalla saamme meille vieraat punakeltaiset värit kansallislippuumme? Se nähdään sitte, ja myöskin, se ivan hymy, minkä sellainen päätös täytyy nostattaa maissa, joissa ollaan omasta kansallisuudesta täysin selvillä ja ymmärretään pitää siitä arvossa. Luulisi kuitenkin työväenluokan meillä myös, jos sille kansalliset ihanteet ehkä ovat toisarvoisesta merkityksestä oman työtaisteilunsa rinnalla, kumminkin yhteenkuuluvaisuudesta oman heimonsa harrastuksia kohtaan, antavan kannatuksensa omille kansallisille väreille, sillä ilman suomalaisten yhteenkuuluvaisuutta työssä ja toimessa itsenäisyytemme ja omintakeisuutemme painuu unhoon ja häpeään. "Veri on vettä sakeampaa", kootkaamme Suomen suku yhteen, kaikki saman lipun ympärille, suuret ja pienemmät, pirstaleetkin mukaan luettuina, valvomaan heimomme yhteistä parasta.

Pystyttäkäämme vapaan Suomen tasavallan lippu tässä mielessä, heimolaisuuden merkeissä, viittomaan hajaantuneille sukulaisillemme tietä vapauteen ja yhteenkuuluvaisuuteen.

Pääsevätkö viirissämme kauniit kansalliset sinivalkoiset värit niille kuuluvaan arvoon ja kunniaan, siitä määräävät pian ne, joille yleisten asiamme päätösvalta on tällä kertaa uskottu. Toivoa sopii, että eduskunnassa ja sen ulkopuolella "viel' elää isäin henki", ja että suomalainen, niin köyhä kuin rikas, tietää olevansa samaa sukua suurta, Kalevalaista kasvatusta.

Karkussa 17. 1. 18.
K. J. Muukkonen

Art Applied to Industry. — V. Gold and Silver.

The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Review
by Sylvanus Urban, Gent.
July-December 1864
London John Henry and James Parker. 1864.

July, 1864.

With all its faults the present century can hardly be charged with ingratitude to its benefactors, or at least to those it considers to come under that title. In truth, the fault if any is quite the other way, for we can scarcely take up a newspaper without seeing that a testimonial has been presented to somebody or other. These testimonials take the most varied shapes, from gold medals which are utterly useless down to tea services which are just as much the reverse. More generally, however, the token of esteem will turn out to be a vase, or a candelabrum, or an epergne; but whatever form it may take, the design, and frequently the execution, but too often leaves a very great deal to be desired. To any one acquainted with what was done in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance there is really no sight more saddening than the interior of a silversmith's window; what little art is there to be found is generally of the latest and most debased rococo, with occasionally a soi'disant medieval chalice with proportions and engraving such as no mediaeval chalice ever had. If, on the contrary, we look over any collection of old plate, however late, say such as we see in Mr. Lambert's shop, we are at once struck with the amount of hand-work displayed; and if we go further and handle it, we are surprised at its exceeding lightness — it was hardly made to be sold at so much au ounce.

At the same time thus much must be said in favour of the modem silversmiths, viz. that the fault does not rest entirely with them; they only buy or cause to be manufactured things which they think will command a quick sale, and a great part of the blame must be attributed to their customers, who have the bad taste and want of education which leads them to buy such objects. A more general spread of art education will it is hoped, remedy this evil: in the meantime it may be as well to examine what was the state of things with regard to the silversmith's craft in the Middle Ages. I say the Middle Ages, because we possess a great mass of evidence, both documentary and real, of what was then done, which unfortunately is not the case with regard to the classic era; for although a considerable amount of documentary evidence might be obtained by an industrious rummaging of the old authors, still the value of the metal has so completely caused the destruction of the articles themselves that there would be very little to point to in the way of illustration. We even learn very little from Pliny (who is usually so full of details of all the arts), beyond certain facts of the poverty of the early Romans in respect to plate, of the gradual increase of the precious metals after the victories of Paulus Æmilius, and of the extravagances of later times; the most notable being the instance of Drusillanus, the slave of Claudius, who possessed a silver charger weighing 500 pounds, for the manufacture of which a workshop had to be expressly built: this charger being accompanied by eight other dishes each 250 pounds in weight. Our author finishes by sarcastically wanting to know how many of his fcltow slaves would it have taken to introduce these chargers, and whether giants were the guests for whom such large dishes were wanted. The most interesting information we obtain from the "Natural History" is in chapters liii. and Iv. of the 33rd Book. The former tells us of the enormous sums given for silver plate, and the latter mentions the names of the most celebrated artists. The Benvenuto Cellini of antiquity appears to have been one Mentor, whose works were so much esteemed that Lucius Crassus the orator paid 100,000 sesterces for two goblets chased by his hand. His most valued works, however, appear to have been dedicated in the temples, but in Pliny's time the conflagrations at Epliesus and in the Capitol had caused their destruction.

Other artists are also mentioned as well as the subjects on which they worked; these appear to have consisted of embossed figures of Sileni, Cupids, Centaurs and Bacchantes, hunting and battle scenes, the court of the Areopagus, and trial of Orestes, &c. Thus much for antiquity; but if wc want to form a just idea of wbat plate really ought to be we must go to the Middle Ages and to the early Renaissance.

In those times when there were no bankers, when usury was forbidden, and when the acquisition of land or houses was tpt to bring the possessor into suspicion with the ruling powers if he belonged to the middle classes, or to form an inconvenientenieat security for his good behaviour if his station of life were higher, it was often exceedingly desirable to possess property in the form of plate, which in peaceful times was useful and occasionally afforded a means of display, while, on the contrary, should disturbances arise, it could easily be hidden away or sent to the coiner, who made it into money. In those days it was also the custom to give and receive presents pretty much as it is at the present time in the East, and in the royal accounts will be found numberless instances of this custom. Froissart, the mediaeval Herodotus, in his quaint gossippiug manner always winds up his account of any embassy or visit of one distinguished person to another with the fact that rich presents in jewels or plate were given and received. It is obvious that all this must have made good trade for the goldsmiths, who were then artists working in their own shops and producing their own work, not tradesmen who buy things out of manufactories or have them made to order. Out of such goldsmiths' shops great artists used to proceed: thus Pliny tells us that Mentor made statues in bronze; William Torel, who executed the effigies of Queen Eleanor and Henry III., was a goldsmith; so was Francia the painter, and so was Benvenuto Cellini, who has become the representative man of the craft, although almost the only authentic works of his now remaining are in bronze. How is it that we never hear of goldsmiths turning artists in the present day? I do not mean that artists do not occasionally work for goldsmiths, for they do, as in the case of the late Mr. Cotterell, and of Mr. Armstead and Yechte. But somehow or other we never hear of men who keep a shop, as Francia and Cellini did, turning sculptors or painters; the fact being that Torel, Cellini, and Francia were both tradesmen and artists, whereas our present silversmiths are simply tradesmen whose utmost accomplishments are to know the value of precious stones and of good workmanship. As the precious metals were rarer in the Middle Ages than at the present day, it was by no means uncommon to execute vessels in copper or latten gilt; and from a passage in Sacclietti it is by no means improbable that their manufacture constituted a separate trade, as he speaks of an orafo d'ottone. At the present day this industry is represented by what is called or-molu, but a glance at any of the shops where fashionable nicknacks are sold will be sufficient to prove that the orafo d'ottone has taken leace of art quite as surely as his confrère who uses the more precious metals.

Before entering into a short description of the rarious articles required for ecclesiastical and secular use in the Middle Ages, it may be as well to take a glance at the Tarious processes by which they were enriched. The simplest of these was engraving. Here the lines were not of varying thicknesses, but the same throughout; they also terminated in a blunt end, like the engraving on the monumental brasses. The lines were filled up either with a black composition somewhat like our heel-ball, or by enamelling, or by niello, an art almost lost at the present time; the platina vessels made in Russia being the best modern specimens of it. I need scarcely say how common was its use in Italy, or tell the well-known story how Maso Finiguerra discovered the art of taking impressions on paper while trying the effect of his niellos.

A great deal of engraving is done now-a-days, but it is almost inconceivable how difficult it is to get small figures engraved in good strong lines like the old work. The engravers do not want skill, but unfortunately they cannot draw the figure, and even the most skilful copyist must fail if he does not exactly know what he is about. Here, again, is a case for the schools of design. I must say, however, that I have never had to complain of the engraving done by Hardman and Co.; and why? simply because not only has the engraver been well trained, but one of the firm, Mr. J. Powell, is an excellent artist, and the work being submitted to his inspection, it is not allowed to go out if incorrect.

Bossing up. — This process is described by Theophilus and Cellini; the former would appear to refer to reliefs, but the latter directs his attention more particularly to statuettes. First of all the intended figure was modelled, then cast in bronze, and a thin plate of silver hammered over it, and when completed this silver was cut off in pieces, soldered together, filled with pitch, and afterwards finished with various tools the pitch being finally melted out. Work of this description is exceedingly light, and some ten years ago in Rome I saw a crucifix by Caradosso, who is particularly mentioned by Cellini for his skill in bossing up, the weight of metal being almost inconceivably small for the size of the figure. The shrine of St. Romain at Rouen has some excellent statuettes done by this process, which is also employed in the great altar dossals and frontals at Florence, Pistoia, St. Ambrogio at Milan, St. Mark at Venice, and elsewhere.

Chasing from the Solid. — This was not a very usual process, as it required the greatest care and accuracy, but it was almost always more or less necessitated in the preparation of enamels, more especially those called the translucid on relief. The celebrated bell attributed to Cellini, formerly in the Strawberry-hill collection, is said to have been executed in this manner.

Stamping. — Also described by Theophilus, who gives long directions about it, especially for the preparation of the stamping irons: from his account it would appear to have been principally used for the ornamenting of horse furniture and books, and even for pulpits. The shrine of St. Taurin at Evreux presents some charming specimens of it executed during the best period of Christian art.

Punching is used for the grounds of engraving instead of cross-batching. The ornaments on the garments of the effigies of Richard II. and his Queen have been done by punching with a point.

Filagree. — This art is still practised. In parts where modern civilization has hardly reached, and in the more remote villages of Europe, we still see elegant ornaments of filagree in far better taste than the modern French jewellery which is gradually supplanting them.

Filagree is of two kinds: in one flat ribbons of metal are soldered together, the upper edges being often ornamented. This filagree, which is generally applied on a ground, is to be seen in the celebrated Hamilton fibula in the British Museum. The Roach Smith fibula at the same place is an example of the other variety, Which consists of little round wires soldered together in various patterns, with the addition of little metal balls, in fact, very like the modem Maltese work. In later times, f.,., in the thirteenth century, this filagree took a new form, and little leaves are soldered to the ends of the wires producing a most charming effect. This is the best development of the process; it occurs in the shrines of St. Taurin, St. Bomain, and in many others; the founder's plate at New College, Oxford, also presents traces of it.

In early jewellery we often find a very curious kind of work, consisting of a number of little cells formed by means of gold ribbons, like in cloissonne enamels. These cells are filled up with pieces of garnet cut into thin slices, or even with thin red glass.

This is hardly the place to enter into the subject of enamelling which played so great a part in mediaeval plate, but I can only remark that transparent enamels accord very much better with the precious metals than the opaque ones, and that the approved way of using both enamels and jewels in the early part of the Middle Ages was, as we are told by Theophilus, to set them alternately, often with filagree in the interstices.

Of course the gold and silver smiths frequently availed themselves of casting the smaller parts and finistiing them up with the burin, but, as far as I have been able to ascertain, figures of any size were either bossed up or plated upon wood. The latter plan was seldom used, and is not very satisfactory; see the shrine of St. Taurin at Evreux.

Now let us see a few of the uses to which the Church applied the labours of the goldsmith. First of all there was the chalice, of which it was de rigueur that the bowl should be of silver, whatever the rest might be. It is for this reason in ancient examples that we so often see the bowl of a later date. The mediaeval chalice can be deduced in clear gradation from the antique vase. Thus the little chalice found at Gourdon is nearly a copy in miniature of the celebrated vase at Naples. Then we get the chalice of Theophilus, where the gilded and nielloed bosses, like spoons, play so important a part — the handles having become a matter of indifference. Then we have the one at Augsburg, where we still see the spoons. In the Chichester example they occur only at the foot and end in trefoils; afterwards they disappear altogether, the only trace being in the cup into which the bowl drops. Still later we arrive at the fifteenth century chalice, where the knob is enormously large and the pipe enormously long.

The next most necessary vessel is the paten, which in the modern Roman communion is simply a round plate with no engraving on the upper surface, and which fits into the top of the chalice. Anciently the practice was different, and we find patens with engraving, enamels, and even with jewels, as that of St.Goshn in the cathedral of Nancy. The burettes for the wine and water, the cross or crucifix, for both were used, and the candlesticks, completed the absolute furniture of the altar. In early times the Holy Sacrament was enclosed in a vessel, often in the form of a dove, and suspended over the altar; it was shewn to the people in an ostensoir, which generally took the form of a little chapel on a foot and pipe like a chalice, or else a round sun with rays similarly mounted; it was also kept in a ciborium, a little circular vase with a conical top, but in after times it changed into a globular vessel placed on the stem and foot of a chalice. Book-covers, alms-basins, sacringbells, chrismatories, processional crosses, holy-water stoups, paxes, and portable altars were only a few of the articles demanded for the worship of the unreformed Church, and if the priest's cope required only a morse, there was hardly any end to the valuable adornments of the vestments of the higher clergy. Thus the bishop had his precious mitre, such as we see the remains of at Oxford; his crozier, such as is shewn at Winchester; his pastoral ring, his jewelled gloves, and jewelled orphreys to his chasuble, amice, stole, or cope. But the great anabition of the authorities of nearly every cathedral or large church was to possess a feretrum, or shriae, for the patron saint, to say nothing of numerous reliquaries, to describe the Tarious forms of which would be to give a long description of a great portion of mediaeval orfevrejHe, for nearly every vessel could be turned into a reliquary.

As to the great shrine, it consisted of a basement of marble or coloured stone, upon which was placed a wooden structure covered with plates of gold and silver. In latter times this upper part assumed the form of a small church with buttresses, pinnacles, windows, statues, &c.; but in the early part of the Middle Ages it was simply an oblong structure with a coped top. Of course all the processes above described were employed in its decoration, and although a long time was necessarily cmployed in the construction, when finished these feretra must have been marvels of the art of the time, to say nothing of subsequent votive oflTerings which were placed around or otherwise attached. The whole of this precious work was covered with a wooden cooperculumy which was raised or let down by means of pulleys and counterpoises attached to the roof of the church: and although no one of these great shrines remains in its former position, the very excellent description of the shrine of St. Thomas , Bccket by Erasmus enables us fully to realize the whole affair; such as the wooden chest which covered the golden one, and "being lifted up disclosed inestimable riches" — the jewels given by the French king, and the votive rings attached in bunches. Sometimes these shrines were comparatively small and could really be carried about, hence the term 'feretory;' but the more important ones were certainly fixtures, and appear to have been nothing more than the covering of the body, which was placed in the upper part of the stone basement, as at Westminster.

A few, very few, of the treasures attached to mediaeval churches have escaped the hand of the destroyer. But at Aixla-Chapelle the traveller, by paying a small fee, can even at the present day see what Erasmus would call "inestimable riches." Still more curious is the trcsor of the little church at Conques, in the middle of France: here the work is much earlier than that at Aix-la-Chapelle, being the work of Abbot Bego in the eleventh century. There is every reason to believe that he brought artists from a distance to work on the spot, much in the same manner as Sugcr describes the way he went to work at St. Denis. The revolution of 1789 dispersed the latter collection, but many of the objects are still to be seen at the Louvre and in the Cabinet de Medailles.

We now come to the Domestic Plate of the Middle Ages — a subject which has hitherto by no means received the attention it deserves, most people imagining that the church was the end-all and be-all of our ancestors, as the temples were of the ancient Greeks. Unfortunatelv, we know so little of the domestic life of the latter people, that it is difficult to bring forward proofs either way; but we do know sufficient to shew that our forefathers were just as fond, of beautiful things in their domestic life as they were in their ecclesiastical life. The best insight into the real state of things will be found in the Glossary attached by M. de Laborde to his Catalogue of the enamels in the Louvre; which work, moreover, contains the inventory of the gold, silver, and jewels belonging to the Duke of Anjou, made somewhere about 1360, before his proceeiing to England to take the place of his father King Johny &en the priftoner of Edward III.

In this inventory we find an immense amount of works in ike precious metals described with great minuteness; so much 10, that it would be perfectly easy for any one acquainted with ancient orfevrerie to make perfectly satisfactory reproductions of them. Thus we meet with, besides the chapel fomiturey gobelets, hanaps, pots d*argent, cups, flagons, dishes and plates for meat, saltcellars, basins, ,preuves, fountains, nefs, and ewers. The four last demand a word of explanation. Everybody in the Middle Ages was haunted by a fear of being poisoned, and if any one died in a sudden manner his death was very often put down to that cause, more especially if he were a person of high rank. It was believed, however, that certain substances, such as serpents' tongues, unicorn's horn (walrus' tooth), &c., would change colour if brought into contact with poisoned food; and accordingly, the carver had not only to taste the food, but to try it by means of touching it with the piece of assay. The piece of assay was often highly ornamented, and kept in the great n,irith the knife and fork and spoon of the proprietor; bu, occasionally it had a vessel to itself, and these are the e'preuves mentioned in the inventory.

As to the nef, it was, as its name imports, generally in the form of a ship. It must have been a large piece of plate, for fe read that immense sums were spent upon it, and that it was generally named like a real ship: thus one was called "the Tyger." The use of the fountain is a little more difficult to discover. As far as one can make out by a careful reading of the text, it appears to have been a vessel for containing water, that it had a tap or taps, and that it also generally possessed a goblet. The shape is also most fanciful: at one time it is a winged dragon on the top of a tree, at another a castle supported by figures; it had a stand, also of silver, the sides of which were generally enamelled with subjects, and the top, upon which the figures, or tree, or castle was placed, was enamelled green. From the occurrence of the tap and the goblet, we may surmise that it was placed on the table for the same purposes as we use water-jugs and glass goblets at the present day at our desserts.

The number of ewers in the collection was also very large: they generally occur in connection with a cup, and in all probability were used as much for wine as for water. They were made of the most extraordinary shapes, and enriched with a good deal of enamel, and sometimes precious stones. Their descendants may be seen in the little owls which perform the office of pepper-boxes, and which are even now to be seen in most of the goldsmiths* shops. The following will give some idea of what these ewers were like: —

"78. A lady, half of whose body is that of a woman, the other half that of a savage heast with two legs; upon a terrace enamelled with blue, with little trees, and stags and greyhounds, and mouldings helow; and from the lap of the said lady issues a head of an ox, of which she holds the horns in her hands, and in the said head is a spout, and from the ears of the aforesaid head, and from the sides of the said lady, and from the ends of her dress, hang by chains the scutcheons of the arms of the Archbishop of Rouen and Marigny. And the said lady is clothed with a little mantle slit at the sides, and has a long hat on her head, enamelled, the hat and dress being the same colour. And behind the said lady, on the back of the beast, is a place for a goblet made in tracery work, and the goblet is of crystal with a foot of silver enamelled with moulding and traceries, and about the crystal are four bats; and the cover is of crystal edged with silver, with mouldings and traceries; and the knob is made of vine-leaves, and from it comes a button of three sides enamelled with silver and green."

One great peculiarity of our ancestors was their fondness for precious materials, such as crystal, agate, onyx; and many was the antique vessel of these stones and many the antique intaglio and cameo which was worked up in connection with new forms by the mediæval goldsmith. Indeed, so strong was the fashion, that we find costly mountings lavished upon things of but little intrinsic value, such as ostrich-eggs, which generally turn up in inventories as oeuf de griffon, — such as glass vessels from the East, known as verre de Damas, probably of the same sort of manufacture as Mr. Slade,s glass lamp, or the wellknown Luck of Edenhall, which I am assured, Mr. Longfellow notwithstanding, is not broken. China vessels were also occasionally used, and only the other day I met in Hewett's shop, in Fenchurch-strcet, a piece of ware of the identical manufacture as that which figures among the founder's plate at New College, Oxford.

The artists of the Renaissance were just as fond of rare materials as their predecessors; and probably the most beautiful piece of jewellery in the world is the onyx vase belonging to Mr. Hope, the mounting of which is one mass of jewels, enamels, and figures. The traditions of the Middle Ages were also kept up in Germany to a late period, and the vessels manufactured in Bucli large quantities in Augsburg and Nuremborg were executed by the same processes as those of the Duke of Anjou, the only difference being that enamelling was gradually disused. Of late years our plate has got worse and worse in design and execution — so much so, that work of the last century is eagerly bought up whenever attainable. The reason is not that good work cannot be done; on the contrary, the best of work can be obtained if a price is only paid for it. I am not speaking of artists like Yechte and Armstead, but nmply of good workmen, who are certainly to be found, but in small numbers. What, however, shall we say to the ordinary man who has done nothing all his life but chase and model Louis XV. scrolls, or engrave rococo foliage? I once gave an ordinary piece of engraving to one of these workmen to execute, and the result was perfectly ludicrous. The late Mr. Pugin and the Ecclesiological Society set themselves to work some fifteen years ago to introduce the old way of working, which to say the truth had hardly ever been abandoned in the best articles. Unfortunately, in plate as in architecture, the later part of the Middle Ages was copied instead of the earlier, and we have still to deplore the absence of a really artistic feeling for the better and earlier work. Hardman, Hart, Skidmore, &c. execute certain things capitally — in fact, quite as well as the old; bat it ia exceedingly difficult to get a figure well bossed up or a piece of engraving well done, even if a drawing be given, while great inattention is paid to the setting of stones. I have had articles sent me where hardly a single stone was set truly; and on another occasion the work came home with two stones broken, and one turned upside down, while a crystal foiled andemeath had been substituted for the fourth.

Our enamels are also open to great improvement, the colours being far too bright and glaring: put any of them by the side of Chinese work, or even by the productions of M. Barbedienne, and the result is most disheartening. I am afraid the schoolmaster — I mean the master in the school of design — is sadly wanted among the workmen employed by the modern silversmith; who on his part would not be the worse if he were to attend the schools himself in his younger days, and thus become a little more of an artist without ceasing to be the tradesman. We all remember the beautiful works of Morel in the Exhibition of 1851; why should they not be substituted for the Mazeppas, Richard Coeur-de-Lions, and Charles the Firsts, which but too often are only bronze subjects cast in silver.

It now remains to say a few words on jewellery. If of late years our plate has been bad and tasteless, how much worse has been our jewellery. Until the late revival of Etruscan work it was positively dangerous to one's artistic feelings to look in at a jeweller's window. The revival of the Etruscan work, as everybody knows, is due to the energy of Signer Castellan!, who by dint of time and industry succeeded in gradually reviving nearly all the ancient processes. During the present century, and part of the last, the sepulchres in the southern half of Italy and the Greek islands have undergone a systematic search for the various antiquities contained in them. The most valuable of them are the painted vases and the jewellery. The jewellery is totally unlike anything of the present day, depending for its beauty not on precious stones, but on the fineness and skill with which the metal itself is worked up. Some of the articles are so slight that they must evidently have been used only for funeral purposes, but even that designed for everyday wear is so light that it exhibits the greatest possible contrast from that of our own day, when, as a jeweller once observed to me, people will have a lot of gold for their money. If we look carefully at the Etruscan work, and it is often so finely executed that it requires the aid of the microscope, we shall find the following processes: — 1. It is beaten up sometimes by hand, sometimes by a die; it is pierced; a thick wire was cast or worked into an ornamental pattern; two small wires are worked into a cable; a thin sheet of gold is cut into strips, and applied in various patterns edgewise, on a surface of metal; or the article is entirely made up of it, like our filagree; thin wire is twisted round in coils and soldered to a plain surface; wires are also placed in juxtaposition on a chalk or earthen core, and then soldered together, the core being afterwards removed; small flat chains are soldered together at their edges; and lastly, the Etruscans had the art of producing what we call frosting, by soldering most minute grains of gold, like dust, on to a gold surface, the difference being that our frosting, which is done by hand, soon becomes tarnished, while that under consideration remains always the same. Unfortunately, it is a process that we moderns have not as yet succeeded in imitating, and although Signer Castellani asserts in his pamphlet of last year that he has lately succeeded, I do not remember seeing any specimens of it in his stall at the Great Exhibition. At tlie same time great credit must be given to him, if not quite as the originator of the movement, at least for hanng mastered the details and brought the revival almost to perfection.

The finer jewels of the Middle Ages were constructed on a different principle. Very few have come down to us, but when we look at the representations of them in the pictures, and, above all, the MSS., we easily find the reason. They appear to have consisted almost entirely of precious stones, set with the smallest possible quantity of metal, and so fragile that one is apt to wonder how they could possibly have lasted any time at all. Of course they were not all of this description, which belongs principally to the fifteenth century. On the contrary, the Anglo-Saxon jewellery, such as the Hamilton fibula, the Roach Smith fibula, and the Alfred jewels, although displaying great delicacy of workmanship, are so arranged that they could be worn without much actual damage.

So, too, with the jewellery of the Renaissance, where enamelled objects in relief play a most important part. At that time every gentleman wore a piece of jewellery in his hat, called an ensign, and every lady a brooclt; the consequence was that a high order of art was in demand, and people vied with each other in employing the best goldsmiths. Any one who reads Cellini's Life, or the Lives of the Painters by Vasari, cannot fail to be struck with the great demand for first-rate jewellery; but then, as I said before, the jeweller made his own designs and worked at them with his own hands; and to do this he was not only apprenticed, but taught to draw: and Cellini describes how he obtained his first commission by the admiration of his drawing by a lady, who finally entrusted him with the resetting of a set of diamonds, which he effected in the form of a fleur-de-lys, filling up the spaces between the stones with little figures, foliage, masks, and other devices. In the British Museum will be found a sketch-book of Holbein, containing a great many designs for jewellery; these have been successfully copied by Messrs. Hancock, Widdowson and Veale, and other jewellers, and are among the most satisfactory specimens of modern work. The French imitations of the cinquecento jewellery are wonderfully executed, more especially the enamels on relief. As to the Etruscan work after Castellani, perhaps the best specimens are those of Mr. Green; but we are sadly apt to make it too heavy. Jewellery is far more important an affair than it appears at first sight, for either the real thing or its imitation is used by most people. The trade in the imitation assumes large proportions in France and Birmingham, and I really do not think the patterns produced in it are at all worse than those we see in the windows of fashionable jewellers, but rather better.

The last part of the present subject is that of the coinage. Now no one is obliged to buy plate and jewellery, in fact, there are very many of us who never can expect to do so; but everybody, even the poorest, has coins passing through his hands, and it consequently becomes a very serious consideration that these coins should display such art as shall render them agreeable objects and be the means of fostering good taste and a love of the fine arts; in fact, they are examples of art applied to industry in its fullest sense.

Like all other arts, that of making dies for the coinage has had its phases of good and bad. For the good, we must go to our old masters, the Greeks. The curious parallelism between the progress of Greek art and that of the Middle Ages is now well known: thus we have the pre-Phidian work and that of the twelfth and beginning of the thirteenth century, as at Chartres; then we have the perfect work of Phidias and the porches of Notre Dame at Rheims, and the works of Torel at Westminster; and, lastly, come Praxiteles, Lysippus, and the late fourteenth century. The Greek coinage displays all these phases. The early coins are coarse heads, but are very energetic — see the coins of Athens; then they become gradually modified; and there is one of Athens which is almost perfect, having all the serenity of the first period with all the beauty of the second. The Attic coinage never got further than this, and, indeed, shortly afterwards went back to rude imitations of the earlier types. But if we wish to see the perfection of what the Greeks could do we must go to the coins of Syracuse: such as the great head, said to be Arethusa; that of Philistis, a most medieval composition; and, above all, to the lovely head on the coins of Panormus. Now the difference between these and the heads on other Greek coins, and indeed the classic female' head generally, is this: if both could be turned into actual life, the lady with the regulation classic features, although beautiful, would not have much to say for herself, and one would finish, as one generally does finish with tach people, viz. by getting heartily tired of her; but if the features of the Panormus coin could be called into life, we ihould find them to belong not only to a beautiful woman, but to what is even better, viz. one gifted with esprit.

The Greek portrait coins are also very fine; witness that of Alexander on the coins of Lysimachus, and those of the kings of Pergamus. The Roman coinage, although presenting good portraits, and to a certain degree good art, is very far behind that of the Greeks in the higher qualities. The great inconTcnience of the Greek money was the excessive relief of the subjects, which prevented its being arranged in piles, and which caused a great deal of wear in the most prominent parts. In the ooiaage of the Middle Ages this was remedied, and there are some beautiful works of the fourteenth century which leave very little to be desired; they are well designed, and well executed, and perfectly adapted for piling. As to the Italian series, it is almost impossible to speak too highly of it: witness the Milan coinage of Louis XII., said to have been designed by no less a person than Leonardo da Vinci; see also the coins and medals executed by Cellini, to say nothing of our own countryman, Simon.

Now in the present day our coinage is so very bad as regards art that probably the less said about it the better: I allude more particularly to the design. The old five-shilling piece was a noble coin, for the St. George and Dragon, although most ludicrously classical, was still well executed and well composed: so was the sovereign, with a sinular subject. The last Bepublican coinage of France was also excellently composed as regards the head; though why all our medallists should run mad after a wreath, with the designation of the coin within it, is more than I can imagine. It is certainly a most unnecessary piece of knowledge, for almost the first thing a child learns ia the value of money. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in England, the name of the moneyer and that of the town in which he lived formed the reverse; but still, by means of beautiful letters, and by intersecting the two concentric inacriptions by a cross, a very capital composition was obtained. With regard to our coinage it is clear that we cannot go to the Greeks, as their raised figures will not suit modern requirements (they must be reserved for medals); we should therefore take our lesson from the purest French and Italian types of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and doubtless, in the hands of a man of genius, the rose of England could be made as beautiful a reverse as the giglio of Florence.

Calico-Printing in China.

Scientific American 19, 27.1.1849

There are print-works in the city of Canton, some of which employ as many as fifty work people. THe inhabitants of the suburbs who wish to have their calicoes printed in their houses engage itinerant workmen who carry about with them the necessary implements and perform the operations when required. The impression is made with blocks of considenrable dimensions made of a scarce wood called "Tasp-mon," which is brought from Onom. The engraving of the block is very carefully executed and is expensive.

Fashion is so little liable to change in China, that the same blocks generally serve for about ten years; and the Chinese are so very jealous of foreigners that it is with difficulty and only with hight prices that they will dispose of them fearing they might be imitated by European manufacturers. The habit of the Chinese to do most things the reverse manner to that in which they are in Europe, is in no instance more remarkable than in the manufacture of printed goods. Instead of applying the block to the piece, the block is a fixture, and the piece is applied to the block. The operations are performed with slight variations the same at all places in China w[h]ere printed goods are manufactured and those of Ningpå may serve as on illustration. The block being first adjusted two men stretch tightly and ajust the cloth over the engraved part of it; the form or relief is consequently made to protrude those parts of the cloth in contact with it beyond the general surface.

The cloth is then made to adherre to the block by beating it with a wooden mallet first prerared by making numerous puctures in it with pointed instruments. The workman then dips a duitable brush into water, and dexterously passes ut over the surface of the cloth, in such a manner that the parts protruded by the figures of the block, only vecome moistened, which serves as a preparation for the reception of the colouring matter, and which is applied in precisely a similar manner, using color instead of water. The dry parts which have escaped the damping and coloring operations do not easily absorb, though sometimes stains occur, - which, however, are genrally on the back part of the piece as the front is that which adheres to the block. It requires great precision a steady hand, and a quick eye on the part of the workmen, to touch with the brush only the forms and designs which are projected - imperfectly visible - by the block and which are intended only to receive the colour.

The workshops of Ningpo are very small. In rooms looking on to the street, workmen may be seen operating and on the same chamber finished prints suspeded. In another room there may be probably, another table at work, a stove to dry the pieces and an apparatus for the color; and at the other end may be observed a species of laboratory - a miserable affair - and a ktchen. A Chinese printer can earn about two shillings a day.

The colous used are always of a definite character; they never produce any modified tints, being in perfect ignorance relative to the properties of mordants.

At Canton are manufactured very small hankerchiefs with borders, white ground and fillings of blue, at about two shillings per dozen. They also print larger hankerchiefs, with coloured grounds the pattern of large flowers, birds, &c., about one whilling each. They are shocking productions, and covered with stains. The only passable goods of Chinese manufacture are brought from "Liou-Tchou," which is the Manchester of China. The designs have quite an European character from their neatnessa and brilliancy of colour. Those of Changhai are very inferior. The patterns consists of very grotesque figures, and the cloth is thick and inferior.

Sometimes however fine English long cloths are employed. It is remarkable, that at the present day Chinese industry should have occasion to make such numerous calls upon that of other nations. Their yarns are often made from Indian cotton; calicoes from English yarn; and cloth which is printed or finished in China is frequently English long cloth.

It has been a question whether the cloth of Chinese manufacture, known as "Nankin" in Europe, owed its peculiar shade of color to the chemical process of dyeing. It is ascertained that the article is made from cotton, which has naturally the yellow tint of Nankin, and which remains unchanged after the processes of spinning and weacing. It is found on the banks of the Yag-tze-Liang, in the neighborhood of Nankin, and on the bansk of the grand canal. Its color is attributed by many to the presence of oxide of iron in the soil where it grows; this will explain, if true, why, when these cotton plants are transplanted to another locality, they degenerate and produce white cotton. There are also cotton plants in the province of the Philippines which produce cotton of a red shade of color, and which also bear white cotton if transplanted to another soil. These plants, it is said, if retransplanted to their originl soil, will again yield red cotton.

Making colors.

Scientific American 16, 6.1.1849

We have tested these receipts and found them to be correct and good. They will only answer on wool and silk, or both combined. For cashmere delaines they are the grand desiratum. A French color makers have recently arrived in this country to execute these colors in some of our print works. THey are given to our readers as peculiarly valuable for that branch of business. The stuffs will be all the better to made a little stronger than is defined in the specification - so we have found in testing them. $2000 was paid for the receipts about two month ago y an eminent Calico Printing Establishment near this city.

The coloring matters hitherto employed in printing textile fabrics composed of wool, of silk, and of wool and silk combined, are usually in the state of extracts which are obtained by aqueous solutions from various kinds of dyewoods, and from other substances, such as orchil, cochineal &c., and by evaporating more or less, these extracts. But it often occurs that using boiling water to extract these coloring matters, several other soluble substances are extracted alog with them, so that when an aqueous solution of any coloring matter is evaporated, the residum retains a great deal of these extraneous substances, and therefore produces colors, less brilliant than if it were isolated and pure. All aqueous solutions, particularly highly concentrated ones, deposit in the course of time the whole of the coloring matter which is in the state of suspension, and likewise, in the majority of cases, a resinous substance, which has probably mixed up with it a portion of the coloring matter. And as the concentration or strength of the extract diminishes in proportion as the deposit increases, it follows that the liquor in any two vats must always vary more or less in strength, according as one may have stood longer than the other. Now such differeces of intensity cause irregularity in the printing of goods; and there are still greater differences caused by these extracts not having equal affinities for water, and consequently some have a greater tendency than others to absorb steam, from which causes combined steam printing (le vaporisage), is rendered an operation extremely uncertain in its effects and very liable to accidents. This process has been known by the name of dry dyeing (teinture seche) which wrongfully implies that water is not necessary, which however is not the case, for all manufacturers are careful to keep their goods moist which they wish to fix with the colors, either by placing them in a humid atmosphere or by damping them during the process of steaming, by opening the steam cosk a little at the commencement of the operation, so that the steam which escapes may be condensed upon the goods and thereby impart to them the proper degree of humidity. Without these precautions the colors would be feeble and spotty in appearance, unless, indeed the colors can be previously rendered equally lygrometric, which it is an extremely difficult thing to effect. If two pieces of the same printing fabric are subitted to the process of steaming, one very dry and the other very damp, the color of the first will be spotted and feeble, while the second will be bright and full bodied. All printed woolen oods, with the exception of those which are printed with colors, which like the French Blue, have a great afinity for water, require in order to fix firmly the color, to have condensed upon them the largest possible quantity of steam, wither before or during the process of steaming but without the quantity being so large as to allow of running (coulage) and if should happen that in the same piece, and by one and the same operation, the color runs in one part, is weak in another, or is clear and decided in a third, it must arise from the piece not having in all parts an equal affinity for water.

To remedy the various inconveniences arising from the use of extract in steam dyeing, (vaporisage) it is necessary to replace those extracts by preparations in which the coloring matters are in a purer and more unalterable state and which are suck that they may be fixed in the goods in an uniform manner, and at a desgree of humidity as analagous as possible to that of the dyeing bath; and this is what has been effected by the following processes.

These improvements are founded on the general fact, that if to a decoction of any coloring matter, there be added a salt, such as the chloride of tin, the base of which has a great affinity for the coloring matter, an insoluble precipitate is the result, which holds very little, if an extraneous soluble matter, and contains the coloring principle in a state of much greater purity than the ordinary extracts.

Although such an extract is insoluble yet it is capable of combining perfectly with the textile fabrics aforsaid provided that the drying be performed while the goods are well damped. In consequence of the insolubility of this precipitate, the color obtained by means of it, may be fixed by a steam without previous dissication, and goods which may have been dried after printing may be again wetted without the danger of the colors running. The precipitates which may be thus obtained and applied, are numerous, but as they are all very similar in effect, it may suffice to specify only those whuch appear to be most susceptible of general use.

(To be concluded)