Some Art Books
MESSRS. BENN'S Decorative Sculpture (12 2s.) consists of a series of illustrations collected by Georg Kowalczyk. It is a beautifully produced volume and will save the student many a long pilgrimage and many a crick in the neck. There is no doubt that the Accademia ceiling, for instance, can be more satisfactorily studied in reproduction than in situ, with flexed vertebra and upcast eyes. * * * Mr. Bernard Rackbam writes a short preface to the same firm's European Glass (14 4s.), which is an outline of the history of glass-making by Mr. Wilfred Buckley and illustrated by examples from the collection of the author. To do it justice this volume would require at least a column ; here we must confine ourselves to recommending in particular the beautiful reproductions of Italian glass. * * * As makers of beautiful books we have almost exhausted our adjectives with regard to Messrs. Benn, but their Picturesque Great Britain (25s.) deserves a special mention as a masterpiece of the modern art of photo- gravure. We can see all Britain in an hour by turning over these three hundred charming illustrations. * * * Decorative Plastenvork in Great Britain (Country Life, 13 3s.), by Mr. Laurence Turner, with an introduction by Mr. A. T. Bolton, the curator of the Sir John Soane Museum, is another of those large and beautifully produced volumes that we regret can be men- tioned only in these brief notes. The Old Crown House at Newport, Essex, is a beautiful example of the plasterer's art and another very different example is that of Levens Hall, whose elaborate ceiling and plaques and shields of the Belling- ham family make one of the most perfect specimens of interior decoration in this country. * * * The Report of the International Exhibition in Paris in- 1925, issued by the Department for Overseas Trade, is a most remarkable volume for 7s. 6d. and ranges over such a wide field of industrial art that we can only recommend it here to everyone interested in building, architecture, books, printing, glass, metalwork, theatrical scenery or even electric lighting schemes and modern advertising. * * * Mr. H. C. Marillier's History of the Merton Abbey Tapestry Works (Constable, 7s. 6d.) contains six colour plates, 23 half-tones and an historical essay on the William Morris foundation. * * * Volume III of Mr. H. P. Shapland's The Practical Decoration of Furniture (Benn, 12s. 6d.) hardly needs praise from us, for he is known as the first authority in the land on ftuniture.
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