CURRENT LITERATURE.
ART BOOKS.
The Arts and Crafts of Our Teutonic Forefathers. Ry G. Baldwin Brown. (T. N. Foulis. 5s. net.)—The author of the lectures here collected investigates the question of the artistic qualities of the early Teutons, with a view to determining how far these people possessed an original art before they came into contact with the Roman world. Briefly, the conclusion arrived at is that the Teutonic races had an indigenous art, but when they began their migrations it became affected not only by Roman but sometimes even by Oriental influences. Critics taking the opposite view have sought to prove that the ornaments found in tombs in Germanic countries were really made in factories in Italy and exported across the Alps. An ingenious contradiction of this theory has been made. It can be shown that certain similar objects, fibulae among others, have distinctive character- istics occurring only in particular districts. If these were made in Italy, we must assume that each factory supplied one district with a given article and no other, a specialisation of trade improbable in those times. The book before us is divided into sections which treat of the historical side of the subject, illus- trated by maps. Another part is devoted to a detailed description of existing specimens of handicrafts, chiefly dress adornments and arms. We could have wished that fewer objects had been reproduced in the illustrations, in order that their size might have been larger. Only a vague notion can be formed of the jewellery and other things on account of the small size and crowded nature of the reproductions.
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