sometliing which is made of a costly material, in order to show that the wearer can afford it.” We cannot say that we quite agree with him here. Probably nine-tenths of the jewelry worn is made of brass thinly gilded, and “jewelled,” if at all, with glass, but the taste displayed in the inexpensive objects is no better than that which rules the fashioning of solid gold. To continue with the editor of the Builder: personal ornaments “ are nearly all imitative of something, in many cases of the most common and unmeaning objects; where they are not imitative they usually consist of mere lumps of gold representing so much bullion value, with a precious stone inserted, not with any regard to design, but merely to enhance the pecuniary value of the articles.” “Although,” he says “ imitative design in this kind of work, even of flowers, is bad, yet in the modern jeweller’s advertisements, imitative flowers and sprays are really among the least objectionable things we can find. They show no thought, no design, it is true, but some of them have at least the quite exceptional merit that their forms are not ugly in themselves.” In England, however, as here, the “ sprays ” and other inoffensive objects are by no means so popular as the positively ugly, vulgar, or, as the editor of the Builder says, “contemptible” ones. For example, a very fashionable motif just now is derived from combinations in which an imitation of a “ merrythought,” or, as we should call it, a “ wish-bone,” holds a prominent part. A favorite variety consists of a wish-bone, in gold, with a soi disant chicken, either in gold or pearls, according to taste, perched upon it, the whole, to complete the delightful conceit, being enclosed for sale in “ an egg case.” Another form represents a nursery safety-pin with a wish-bone astride of it, and a third has the wish-bone again, with a “sprig of holly,” with “real coral berries,” laid upon it. One of the bar-pins, or “lace-pins,” as we suppose we should call them, advertised by a London house, exhibiis a jeweller’s chicken standing on two sticks, and contemplating a broken egg-shell, which clings in some mj’sterious manner to the sticks before him. Another uncomfortablelooking object of the same kind is known as the “bar of music brooch,” and consists of five longitudinal wires, with some quarter-notes stuck on them, apparently at random, and an ungainly treble clef. Every few months, when a new game, or something of the kind, becomes rapidly popular, a flood of horrors, clumsily suggesting the popular subject, is poured out by the jewellers, and eagerly absorbed by the public. Just now the “ Game of Golf ” is undergoing revival in England, and the jewellers vie with each other in producing “new golf jewelry,” consisting of gold hockeys combined at various angles, with pearl or gold balls balanced on them. We need not add to our quotations from the long list of silly, ugly and vulgar things which fill the jeweller’s cases. Any one can supply from his own observation an ample number of examples, and architects and artists have long ago become tired of wondering why it should never have occurred to any jeweller to have something made which should be pretty to look at.
THE Builder thinks that the reason is to be found in the ignorance of art and design prevalent among the dealers.
“They know the difference between pure and impure gold,” but “ know and care for nothing more.” So far as American jewellers are concerned, this description certainly does not apply, our great dealers being mostly men of very cultivated taste, notwithstanding the character of the objects which they purvey for their customers, and the true explanation must probably be sought in the vulgarity and folly of their customers. The Builder remarks, mournfully, that “artistic taste seems to be, to a certain extent, worse in proportion to the possession of wealth”; and “the people who can afford much jewelry are those w ho have the worst taste ”; and it might well have gone much further, and have said that of all the people in the world, those who set the fashions in Europe are the most brutally devoid of all conception of beauty, delicacy and refinement in regard to any subject. Those wdio follow them, in Europe and in this country, are nearly as bad, but it is possible, occasionally, to hear from one of the humbler followers in the wake of the procession of the “mode ” a word of regret at the outrageous ugliness of the fashion to which he, or more particularly she, is preparing to conform. The Builder thinks that the way to reform jewelry is to get artists to design it, and there will always be people who like to see and wear pretty things, but such people are hopelessly out of the “swim,” and their influence, at best, could go no further than to originate, perhaps, a six-months’ “ fad,” which would be succeeded
by an avalanche of monstrous “novelties.” We have no wish to make invidious distinctions between the male and the female followers of the mode, but, taking the sex which buys the most jewelry, it is impossible to believe that the wearers of “bustles,” “shoulder-capes,” and scarlet hats could ever be able to distinguish between a beautiful piece of jewelry and an ugly one, further than to prefer the ugly one. Every few years, some one like Ruskin, Eastlake, or Morris, raises his voice in lamentation over the prevailing love of the hideous, and, if he is vigorous enough in his language, and points out clearly how to get or make more beautiful things, he becomes the hero of the hour. “ Eastlake furniture,” “ Morris ” carpets and draperies, “ Eesthetic ” clothes, and so on, are advertised and sold everywhere, and people of educated perceptions imagine that there is really going to be an artistic reform in the modern world. A year later, Morris, Eastlake and all his tribe are forgotten ; Louis Quinze reigns in the upholsterers’ shops, the bustle begins to protrude from the female rear, and every sort of beautiful draping, harmonious color and artistic design is “ out of style,” “ old fashioned ” and “ gone by.” Most architects, and possibly a few ladies, will remember the lovely “antique lace” which was so much used for curtains and borders ten years ago. It has always seemed to us that this was by far the most beautiful fabric for its purposes ever invented. Nothing produced since, at least, has ever approached it for simplicity and richness; yet it is doubtful whether ten yards of it of any pattern could be bought in any store in New York, and he would be a bold architect who would now venture to suggest to a female client the use of a material so completely “out of style,” when India silks, with large patterns stamped in red on a yellow ground are not much dearer, and so much more fashionable. In the same way with jewelry ; if Benvenuto Cellini, with a staff of Etruscan workmen and Greek diesinkers, were to open a factory in London, their productions would sell well for about a year to people in “ society,” and for a year longer to people not so fortunate. The next season the Greek and Etruscan jewelry would be sent to the meltingpot, and turned out again in the form of gold cockroaches, with ruby eyes, for the ladies, and little shaved poodles, with automatically wagging tails, to be worn as scarf-pins by the gentlemen.
THERE seems to be something unpatriotic in pointing out that the growth of population in foreign countries may be as great as in our own ; but it is generally best in the end to accept the truth, without regard to consequences. To say nothing of some of the smaller German cities, which have gained in population with a rapidity which would surprise a Westerner, Berlin has grown, within the last sixty years, far more rapidly than New York. The population of the latter city, in 1830, w’as 202,589, and in 1890 was about 1,400,000; while Berlin, in 1830, had only 147,000 inhabitants, which had increased in 1890 to 1,574,485; the rate of growth during this long period being thus about one-half more rapid in Berlin than in New York. Within the last thirty years, the difference is still greater, Berlin, from 528,000 inhabitants in 1861, having almost exactly trebled its population in twenty-nine years, while New York had 814,287 inhabitants in 1860, and in thirty years has added less than eighty per cent. London, by the census of 1891, has approximately 4,500,000 inhabitants; Paris has 2,450,000, and Vienna .809,400. St. Petersburg is more populous than Vienna, having very nearly a million inhabitants, and Naples is not very far behind.
THE manufacture of mucilage is quite an important industry in most architects’ offices, the commercial mucilage being worthless for stretching paper. The usual way, according to our experience, is simply to put gum arabic in water, in a large bottle, and let it slowly dissolve to saturation, pouring out in small quantities, as required, and filling up with fresh water, sometimes adding a little oil of cloves to prevent moulding. According to the Journal fur Buchdruckerei, the ordinary gum arabic mucilage can be improved by the addition of wheat starch and sugar, in the proportion of sixty parts pure gum arabic, forty-five parts fine -wheat starch, and fifteen parts white sugar. The gum is first dissolved in water, and the starch and sugar then added to the solution, which is to be placed in a tin pail, or similar receptacle, and the pail kept immersed in boiling water until the starch is dissolved, and the whole mixture becomes clear. A few drops of tincture of camphor, or oil of cloves, will prevent moulding. This mucilage will glue wood or parchment, as well as paper.
THE Builder thinks that the reason is to be found in the ignorance of art and design prevalent among the dealers.
“They know the difference between pure and impure gold,” but “ know and care for nothing more.” So far as American jewellers are concerned, this description certainly does not apply, our great dealers being mostly men of very cultivated taste, notwithstanding the character of the objects which they purvey for their customers, and the true explanation must probably be sought in the vulgarity and folly of their customers. The Builder remarks, mournfully, that “artistic taste seems to be, to a certain extent, worse in proportion to the possession of wealth”; and “the people who can afford much jewelry are those w ho have the worst taste ”; and it might well have gone much further, and have said that of all the people in the world, those who set the fashions in Europe are the most brutally devoid of all conception of beauty, delicacy and refinement in regard to any subject. Those wdio follow them, in Europe and in this country, are nearly as bad, but it is possible, occasionally, to hear from one of the humbler followers in the wake of the procession of the “mode ” a word of regret at the outrageous ugliness of the fashion to which he, or more particularly she, is preparing to conform. The Builder thinks that the way to reform jewelry is to get artists to design it, and there will always be people who like to see and wear pretty things, but such people are hopelessly out of the “swim,” and their influence, at best, could go no further than to originate, perhaps, a six-months’ “ fad,” which would be succeeded
by an avalanche of monstrous “novelties.” We have no wish to make invidious distinctions between the male and the female followers of the mode, but, taking the sex which buys the most jewelry, it is impossible to believe that the wearers of “bustles,” “shoulder-capes,” and scarlet hats could ever be able to distinguish between a beautiful piece of jewelry and an ugly one, further than to prefer the ugly one. Every few years, some one like Ruskin, Eastlake, or Morris, raises his voice in lamentation over the prevailing love of the hideous, and, if he is vigorous enough in his language, and points out clearly how to get or make more beautiful things, he becomes the hero of the hour. “ Eastlake furniture,” “ Morris ” carpets and draperies, “ Eesthetic ” clothes, and so on, are advertised and sold everywhere, and people of educated perceptions imagine that there is really going to be an artistic reform in the modern world. A year later, Morris, Eastlake and all his tribe are forgotten ; Louis Quinze reigns in the upholsterers’ shops, the bustle begins to protrude from the female rear, and every sort of beautiful draping, harmonious color and artistic design is “ out of style,” “ old fashioned ” and “ gone by.” Most architects, and possibly a few ladies, will remember the lovely “antique lace” which was so much used for curtains and borders ten years ago. It has always seemed to us that this was by far the most beautiful fabric for its purposes ever invented. Nothing produced since, at least, has ever approached it for simplicity and richness; yet it is doubtful whether ten yards of it of any pattern could be bought in any store in New York, and he would be a bold architect who would now venture to suggest to a female client the use of a material so completely “out of style,” when India silks, with large patterns stamped in red on a yellow ground are not much dearer, and so much more fashionable. In the same way with jewelry ; if Benvenuto Cellini, with a staff of Etruscan workmen and Greek diesinkers, were to open a factory in London, their productions would sell well for about a year to people in “ society,” and for a year longer to people not so fortunate. The next season the Greek and Etruscan jewelry would be sent to the meltingpot, and turned out again in the form of gold cockroaches, with ruby eyes, for the ladies, and little shaved poodles, with automatically wagging tails, to be worn as scarf-pins by the gentlemen.
THERE seems to be something unpatriotic in pointing out that the growth of population in foreign countries may be as great as in our own ; but it is generally best in the end to accept the truth, without regard to consequences. To say nothing of some of the smaller German cities, which have gained in population with a rapidity which would surprise a Westerner, Berlin has grown, within the last sixty years, far more rapidly than New York. The population of the latter city, in 1830, w’as 202,589, and in 1890 was about 1,400,000; while Berlin, in 1830, had only 147,000 inhabitants, which had increased in 1890 to 1,574,485; the rate of growth during this long period being thus about one-half more rapid in Berlin than in New York. Within the last thirty years, the difference is still greater, Berlin, from 528,000 inhabitants in 1861, having almost exactly trebled its population in twenty-nine years, while New York had 814,287 inhabitants in 1860, and in thirty years has added less than eighty per cent. London, by the census of 1891, has approximately 4,500,000 inhabitants; Paris has 2,450,000, and Vienna .809,400. St. Petersburg is more populous than Vienna, having very nearly a million inhabitants, and Naples is not very far behind.
THE manufacture of mucilage is quite an important industry in most architects’ offices, the commercial mucilage being worthless for stretching paper. The usual way, according to our experience, is simply to put gum arabic in water, in a large bottle, and let it slowly dissolve to saturation, pouring out in small quantities, as required, and filling up with fresh water, sometimes adding a little oil of cloves to prevent moulding. According to the Journal fur Buchdruckerei, the ordinary gum arabic mucilage can be improved by the addition of wheat starch and sugar, in the proportion of sixty parts pure gum arabic, forty-five parts fine -wheat starch, and fifteen parts white sugar. The gum is first dissolved in water, and the starch and sugar then added to the solution, which is to be placed in a tin pail, or similar receptacle, and the pail kept immersed in boiling water until the starch is dissolved, and the whole mixture becomes clear. A few drops of tincture of camphor, or oil of cloves, will prevent moulding. This mucilage will glue wood or parchment, as well as paper.