PEWTER AND THE REVIVAL OF ITS USE. 7ll 



its "motifs," the primitive art of all savage races, to which the highest mechani 

 cal perfection is found given, in the art of ancient Egypt and in much of the ritual 

 art of modern Japan, which Celtic art all but touched with spiritual perfection, 

 and which in our time has been brought into vogue by the marvelous black and 

 white drawings of Aul>rey Beardsley. a man of undoubted genius, but who, it 

 should always be remembered, received his artistic training as an architectural 

 draftsman, and again by the seductive jewelry of Lalique and cameo cut glass 

 of Galle. But at its best it is not of true artistic inspiration, but an intel- 

 lectually conceived and calculated mannerism, foredoomed in the hands of 

 mediocrities to the fate of all mechanical imitations. Truly artistic decoration 

 in its whole scheme and in every detail is ever as siuintaneous and free as the 

 beauty and gi*ace and sweetness of the " all a-blowin', all a-growiu" "' flowers of 

 the Thames side meadows of a moruiag in May. 



