MATERIAL REVIEW.
BOOK STOPS.
Tim proper way to keep books is on shelves ; but there Is always a small number which it is inconvenient to put there— reference books, which must be within reach of the writing table—new books, that may soon go to the second-hand dealer rather than to the shelves—temporary possessions, for whose benefit we do not wish to disturb our already crowded " regulars." Such vagrant books are usually scattered about untidily or horribly arranged criss-cross on the table. In more orderly and less antimacassarian houses a book rest may be used ; but a book rest is tmelastic, and the number of vagrant books disconcertingly elastic. The book stop, or book block, is a solution, at least for light books. We have received from the Merchant Adventurers, 25 Sloane Street, a pair of book stops designed by Miss Clare Sheridan, and known as The Pushing Boys (12 10s. 6d.). The stops are modelled in plaster and consist of an upright book ostensibly supported by plump Cupids. The general effect is pleasing, but unnecessarily strenuous. We could not contemplate without irritation dictionaries, the Post Office Directory, and an Address book so frivolously crushed together. The set, which is made in white or in colours, is more suitable, therefore, to the drawing-room than the study. The same is true of the book stops, which can be seen at Messrs. Heals, in Tottenham Court Road. A charming pair—the Harlequin set (£2 2s.)— is composed of a Pierrot who bows back against a red and blue striped curtain on one side, and Harlequin gracefully kissing Columbine against a red one on the other. There are designs at the same shop of a gold bowl full of fruit, wisely subdued in colour (14 15s.), and a cluster of grapes in a gold angle piece (12 2s.). Laruche, at 26 Burlington Arcade, have a variation on the Cupid theme. There Cupid sits quietly on steps. They have also floral and fruit designs, similar to those of Messrs. Heals.
All the sets to which we have referred are pleasing as ornaments, but their designs are peculiarly unrelated to their purposes. They would serve admirably for those houses where sulde bound editions of Omar Khayyam and Gems from Rossetti are customarily exposed, presumably for the punctual guest who must wait for his hostess,- or They would serve for the hostess's boudoir 'Where the latest novels also wait. But surely it is possible that something more restrained, more worthy of serious books and serious houses can be produced. Messrs. Heals have an altogether successful book rest, a pleasant shape in black wood, decorated with a coloured line.
ANTHONY BERTRAM.
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