a reference to the Municipal Buildings in George Square, just as the same writer in his essay on Stained Glass could have told his readers to visit the Cathedral at Glasgow in order to learn how not to decorate a church with that material. Altogether^ this part of the catalogue is an excellent idea well carried out. The public obtaining their art wares through the medium of the manufacturer, who more than often believes that that design is the best which sells the best, are here admitted, as it were, behind the scenes, and made sharers of those principles which, animating as they do the best work of past ages, are as much to be desired now as they were realised by the Greek, and followed by the mediajvalist. A casual inspection of the exhibits leaves an im- pression of the existence somewhere of a particular line of thought in the conception, and of action in the execution, which mark them as being the work of a school. This impression disappears when the objects are examined in detail, but the fact is that, whilst rigid adherence to first principles is insisted upon, each craftsman has been left free to give his individual fancy full play. Be a man ' Goth,' or be he ' Classicist,' provided he gives in his adherence to the aims and objects of the Society, his work is accepted, though a far healthier feeling is evinced in the desire of some of the members to work outside the Historic styles of ornament, and to endeavour, by a return to natural forms, to realise similar results. The out- come of all this is a collection of work which is neither common to our houses, nor usually seen in the windows of the tradesman, but is of that character which, stigmatised as ' sesthetic ' and ' artistic,' has nevertheless dui-ing the past twenty years completely revolutionised our whole system of interior decoration. That some of the efforts are not successful goes in the saying, but there is nothing really bad ; all are re- deemed so far by a recurrence to the salvation of first principles. The woven and printed textiles are completely under the dominant influence of Mr. William Mon-is, and are carried out largely on the system of the use of usually not more than three tints either on a white or a self ground. The designs are naturalistic, with a fair sprinkling of adaptations from early Sicilian and North Italian textiles. This same designer, in his short paper, as above, lays down how carpets should be designed and coloured, and here is seen the practice of the theory in the hand-made ' Hammersmith carpets ' coming from his looms. Persian in feeling and design, they yet have a character all their own, and a com- parison with pin-e Persian can be made in a repro- duction of an example coming from the fii-m of James Templeton & Co., of Glasgow. Similarly, the class of wall-papers exhibited is an almost English creation, and is the result of the long- labours of Mr. Walter Crane and Mr. William Moms in that direction. They are surpassed by the work of no country, and though the former designer gives the credit of this to William Morris, there is little doubt of the strong influence of his own work, an example of which, 'Wild Woodnotes,' is a pastoral in paper. Furthermore, the use of the ornament of the various styles seems to have entirely disappeared, but has happily left us no cause to regret its absence. The works in decoration are shadowed by the personality of Mr. Burne Jones with its peculiar mannerisms. Mr. Heywood Sumner has, however, escaped far enough to give us an unique treatment of wall decoration in polychromatic 'scraffito,' and Mr. Walter Crane evinces quite as strong a personal feeling in his designs for mosaics and friezes, and in his effort to revive the art of ' gesso ' painting. A good example of this latter class of work is seen in the piano case designed by Burne Jones and decorated in gesso gilt on a green ground by Miss K. Faulkner. This piano is the property of, and lent by Mr. Alexander lonides. In no branch of art-work are the efforts of a strong school of young men more evident than in this department, though Mr. Lewis F. Day might give us something less slight than anything here shown, and Mr. Henry Holiday might execute an example of work which might look less like a study from the nude. Mr. Stephen Webb's remarks on furniture require exemplification by exhibits which are somewhat want- ing, and the 'cassone' of Mr. Burne Jones and' the hanging cupboard of Mr. Spencer Stanhope will have but a very indirect influence upon popular taste in such matters. The fictiles are largely imitative of the wares of past periods ; and present producers are troubling less about forms and ornamentation than about the imita- tion of the peculiar glazes which old ware pos- sesses. So far, success seems to have crowned the effort of Mr. W. de Morgan, and a splendid example of what a large firm of manufacturers can accomplish in the education of public taste is seen in the exhibits of Maw & Co., just as in wall-papers Jeffi'ey & Co. and Woollams & Co. have done similar praiseworthy work. Messrs Minton are tersely stated to have ' three cases of pottery,' and the absence of the efforts of Doulton & Co. in art wares would imply a fault either on the side of that firm or on that of the Executive of the Exhibition.
Many of the examples of metal-work look as if they had been taken in hand in the spare moments at the craftsman's disposal, or as a relief from more exacting strains. Noteworthy exceptions are the productions of Messrs. Longden & Co., but who might possibly do more to carry on the traditions of the moulder's box, first taught the world by the late Alfred Stevens. The pair of wrought-iron carriage gates by Robinson & Robson keep alive the spirit of the Georgian iron-work, and a brass and copper fountain by W. A. S. Benson, though suspiciously like a binnacle lamp, aflferds an example of the combination of different metals to obtain a pleasing effect. In a silver loving-cup by George Simmonds, the sculptor is slightly weak in its figure
