554 Mr. F. T. Piggott [March 11, 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, March 11, 1892. 



Sir James Crichton-Browne, M.D. LL.D. F.R.S. Treasurer and 

 Vice-President, in the Chair. 



F. T. Piggott, Esq. 



Japanesque. 



I HAVE been very severely and very properly called to order by the 

 learned Secretary of this Institution for coining a new word " Japan- 

 esque," to meet the exigencies of the occasion of my appearing before 

 you. But the word " Japanese " has already three uses. It is both 

 singular and plural, applying to one and to all the inhabitants of 

 Japan ; and as an adjective it is applied to the products of the 

 islands, connoting probably some slight idea of artistic excellence. I 

 could not very well append to these a fourth use, applying it to 

 things in the Japanese style, to things ' Japanesy ' in fact, because, 

 as I shall endeavour to show you this evening, it could not in such 

 use connote any idea of art at all ; it would, on the contrary, connote 

 a great deal that is terribly inartistic. Therefore, again craving 

 your pardon for having coined it, I will use the word Japanesque 

 to signify, not the European facsimiles of Japanese work, which 

 are indeed fairly well executed, but a certain bastard form of 

 ornament which has seized on our art wares, and which has derived 

 some sort of inspiration from Japan. The history of the rise 

 and progress of Japanesque is well-known in the potters' trade : 

 I believe that the precise date of its first appearance has been 

 chronicled on the sherds which form the archives of that trade. For 

 this reason my examples of Japanesque will be drawn from plates, 

 the decoration of which indeed, holding as they do no unimportant 

 place among our household gods, is a matter of considerable interest. 

 But it will probably not be necessary for me to point out that the 

 potters having once set the example, as indeed they have done in 

 decorative art through many centuries, Japanesque has been adopted 

 by the carvers, the weavers, the broiderers, and the candlestick makers. 

 I shall endeavour to point out to you the chief points in which Japan- 

 esque misses the mark, commits unpardonable sins against the art of 

 Japan. If I should conclude with a panegyric on that art itself, I 

 trust you will find me sufficient excuse. 



Here are some Japanesque plates, the designs upon them are as 

 far removed from Japanese as this Island of Fogs which has produced 

 them is from the Islands of the Sun. And yet, no one who is familiar, 

 as who amonsst us is not, with the crude formalities of true Victorian 

 decoration, with the parodies of the Eenaissance grotesques with 

 which so much of our street architecture is plastered, no one but 



