HERALDRY AND FLORAL FORMS.* THAT the English love heraldry, even
of the impersonal sort, is sufficiently proved by the popularity of the peculiarly unlovely " Heraldic Pottery," which has now largely sup- planted the more homely " Present from Margate " ware that so faithfully held the hairpins of the British servant girl of the later nineteenth century.
That we all urgently need enlightenment in the matter of heraldic art is proved, too, by our toleration of such mournful objects as we have in mind. Mr. Herbert Cole's well-illus- trated book should certainly make our taste in " Armorial Bearings " more nice and our demands on all painters, potters and carvers more exacting. The author is quite right from a purist point of view in dismissing much of the eighteenth century heraldry as decadent, but we wish he had given us some examples of the naive achievements of the late Georgian and Early Victorian periods, which, whilst no doubt heretical and debased, have none the less a certain definite charm of their own in their conscientious if wrong-headed attempts to be naturalistic and " lifelike." We even confess to a (perhaps discreditable) affection for the Royal Arms as presented on the lid of our anchovy-paste pot and over the door of our Royally-patronized grocer. Such amiable de- generates are, however, being rapidly replaced by the more vigorous and legitimate descendants of the mediaeval tra- dition which are championed by all modern authorities and are recommended and illustrated in the recently-published
• Heraldry and Flora! Forms as lined in Decoration. By Herbert Cole. London Dent and Bons. [10a. ed. net.] Government Blue Book on Royal and official printing. The well-chosen examples that Mr. Cole illustrates will be useful and suggestive to all craftsmen concerned with decorative heraldry, as will also the second half of the book devoted to floral forms as used in decoration, exemplifying a variety of motifs ranging from the sacred tree of Assyria down to the prim botanical transcripts of eighteenth century calico printing.
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