File:Examples of household taste (1875) (14779887974).jpg

Identifier: examplesofhouseh00smit (find matches)
Title: Examples of household taste
Year: 1875 (1870s)
Authors: Smith, Walter, 1836-1886 Smith, Walter, 1836-1886. Industrial art of the International Exhibition
Subjects: Centennial Exhibition (1876 : Philadelphia, Pa.) Decorative arts
Publisher: New York, R. Worthington
Contributing Library: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Library

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n blue, and the leaves in thedifferent shades of brown and green. Work of this kind is so truly feminineand can be made so thoroughly artistic, that we trust the example of ourEnglish sisters will be followed by the women in this country. Japan, with its civilization so different from ours that it might be that ofanother planet, is represented at the Centennial by a display so novel andattractive as to be an unfailing source of interest to all visitors of whateverother nationality. We engrave on page 128 a group of Bronze Vases fromthis section which illustrate in an excellent manner the beauties and odditiesof the peculiar artistic methods of the Japanese. As metal-workers, thesewonderful people surpass in certain respects their European brethren, and someof their processes are to this day inimitable. 130 THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, 1876. The central piece of this group stands some four feet high. It is com-posed entirely of bronze, save the panels between the dragon handles, which
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Majolica Clock Case: Daniells 6° Sons, London. are damascened with silver and gold. The panel on this side represents aknight doing penance by standing under a cataract, and on the obverse he isseen, his sins washed away, having a quiet cup of tea with a couple of friends INDUSTRIAL ART 131 So far the European can trace a meaning in the design; but when it comesto explaining the half human monsters, the dragons, sea-serpents, and otheranimals, it is only possible to suppose that they may be the representations oftraditional creatures such as figure in the Arabian Nights, and the like ofwhich learned scientists assure us once walked or crawled upon the face of theearth and swam across the seas. The decoration of the smaller vases, savingthe winged beasts that serve as handles, is more easily understood. The panelsin these have birds and butterflies copied with wonderful fidelity and spiritafter nature, and are really beautiful; and in these pieces, as in all the articlesof Japanese ma

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