21 JUNE 1930, Page 31

Professor Borenius and his students at University College are producing

a notable series of monographs on English mediaeval art. Following Mr. Whaite's study of paintings of St. Christopher we now have English Mediaeval Enamels by M. Chamot, and The Inter-relation of the Fine Arts in England in the Early Middle Ages, by M. Dickens Whinney (Berm, 7s. 6d. each). The volumes have each sixteen pages of good and well-chosen illustrations. It is surprising to find so many early enamels that can be plausibly assigned to English craftsmen. The Alfred jewel at the Ashmolean is, of course, a native work, but there is less certainty about the Hamilton brooch at the British Museum and several others among the examples here carefully described. The old controversy is meanwhile illuminated by Mr. Whinney's essay usefully comparing miniatures, architecture and metal-work in an attempt to define the special characteristics of our native art before and after the Conquest.