The Book of Delightful and Strange Designs, being one hundred
fac-simile illustrations of the art of the Japanese stencil-cutter to which the gentle reader is introduced by one Andrew W. Tuer, F.S.A,, who knows nothing at all about it. (The Leadenhall Press.)—A collection of the brown-paper stencil-plates used in Japan for transferring a design to cotton fabrics, fell into the halide of Mr. Tuer, and he has reproduced them here,—one as a frontispiece in pierced fac-simile, the rest as plates. Mr. Tuer does injustice to his knowledge in the facetious title quoted above, for he gives a very complete account of the nature and use of the plates, and prints it, moreover, in three languages. Of the designs, most are rubbishy ;—one or two are excellent. Such are No. 3 and No. 17 (patterns of fish and waves), and No. 1 (an arrangement of tortoises).
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