MATERIAL REVIEW.
" DRYAD " WICKER FURNITURE.
TuE makers of " Dryad " wicker furniture (St. Nicholas Street, Leicester) have asked us to express an opinion on their work. The first thing which strikes one about Dryad chairs is their weight and strength, the beautiful finish of the edges, and the fact that no nails seem to be used in the construction at all : certainly none are used where they could come out and catch in clothes—a very annoying feature of some cane chairs. Besides technical proficiency, these makers pride themselves very much on design ; but here their work seems to me to be extraordinarily haphazard. There are a few chairs and baskets as well designed as they are beautifully made, but the makers seem to have too little prejudice against ugliness. For example, they are apt to use very ugly material for the upholstery of such of their chairs as have attached cushions. They produce an atrocious fiowerstand in which we fully expect to see the aspidistra and maidenhair fern which it is pictured in their catalogue as containing. Their ideas of colour are often absurd. A set of chairs and tables specially designed for restaurant work were shown me with great pride in which " red malacca " was said to play a very beautiful part. " Red malacca " is not red at all, but chestnut-brown, and the total effect of the set was snuffy. Nor was the one coloured chair which I saw an improvement upon this. It was a reproduction of the worst machine-made basketwork, woven of yellow and blue strands, highly varnished, the colours used in single alternate strands, so that the net effect was to mix the yellow and blue and produce a kind of grey-green. The shape of the chair was also entirely undistinguished.
It would surely pay the Dryad works to send some of their designers to Paris. A mere drive from the Gare du Nord to the Gare de Lyons would give them fresh and amusing ideas as to the possibilities of café chairs.
Some of their chairs, however, are beautiful to look at and
all are comfortable. I liked a large armchair called " Abund- ance," in unvarnished osier, price £9 5s. It is well shaped, with curved sides which form arms, is fitted with a glass- holder and a convenient pocket for newspaper or work and is, I should think, almost indestructible. A smaller chair, called " Miss Matty," which has an accompanying stool, is attractive, the chair costing £4 5s. and the table stool £2. A good, plain, upright chair and table—" Pan," chair No. 2; table No. 1—are priced at £2 2s. and £3. Tea-wagon No. 3, with four good-sized swivel wheels, three trays and a con- venient handle, is an excellently-designed piece of furniture so far as use is concerned, though some of the ornamentation seemed to me a little meaningless—price £6 6s. A way to improve this table would be to make the trays removable.
The nursery furniture is charming and extraordinarily strong. I saw a grown-up person sitting on the tiny chairs without the wicker appearing in the least distressed. They are in several styles. " Peter Pan " is the prettiest chair, and I liked the " Jack Homer " table. Their prices are from £1 ls. to £1 16s.
There is a cradle, but it did not seem to me well designed.
The problem of the collapsible hood has not been successfully dealt with, nor does the shape seem to me as attractive as that turned out by the ordinary factory, nor do, the Dryad Co. apparently make a stand (that most essential feature where there are other children, who inevitably fall on the top of the baby whose cradle is on the ground).
But there are two humble, almost absurd domestic objects
which, when made by the Dryad Company, take on satisfying beauty. One is a wastepaper basket and the other a dirty clothes basket. Nos. 269 (a and b), the wastepaper basket (about 14s. or 17s., according to size), is a lovely curved shape in which the capabilities of the material have been fully exploited, as they have in linen basket No. 7 (No. 284), price about £2 12s.
My general criticism is that, though the Dryad Company
have nothing to learn in the way of technical excellence, their prices seem a little high, and that they need rather more variety in design and a more intelligent use of colour. Their technicians have done their part to perfection : it is now time for Messrs. Dryad to concentrate their attention and energy once more upon the designing department and not rest upon their laurels as the pioneers of beautiful cane furniture.
A.W.-E.
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