Mr. Basil S. Long set himself a laborious task in
A History of British Miniaturists (Geoffrey Bles, IS 5s.), and is to be congratulated on its competent completion. Prefaced by Notes on the art, which adequately cover the ground, the body of the volume is a dictionary of its practitioners between 1520 and 1860 that extends to 475 pages. In the case of some of the entries (which must number between• two and three thousand) a single line of print suffices for the available information ; others, e.g., Samuel Cooper, run to many pages. Some of the biographical matter is curious. Refer- ences are given to reproductions of miniatures, in addition to the 150 reproductions in the volume itself, and mention is made under each artist of examples of his work in public galleries, and, on occasion, in -private collections. The author, while sparing in artistic estimates and avoiding sweeping generalizations, duly observes peculiarities of technique. His is, in a word, a remarkably complete record, and we note from a list he has compiled of provincial towns where miniaturists worked that they were widely distributed, and that Dublin owned well over, and Bath close upon, a hundred practitioners.
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