184S,] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



227 



which were displayed in the habitation of that once fashionable 

 and now forgotten painter : — to wit, " ancient chairs, couches, and 

 conversation stools, elaborately carved and gilt, and covered with 

 the most costly Genoa velvets ; escritoires of ebony inlaid with 

 mother-of-peari ; rich caskets for antique gems exquisitely en- 

 amelled, and adorned with onyxes, opals, rubies, and emeralds (!). 

 There were also cabinets of ivory, curiously wrought ; mosaic 

 tables set with jasper, blood-stone, and lapis-lazuli." Suffice it to 

 say, that there were besides, among a variety of other things, 

 "massive musical clocks, ottomans superbly damasked, Persian 

 carpets, chimney-pieces carved by Banks, bronzes, models in wax 

 and terracotta, crystal cups adorned with the York and Lancaster 

 roses, &c. ike." To meet with such prodigal sumptuousness in the 

 house of a painter must have been astonishing enough — almost 

 incredihle when contrasted with the scrubby, though never scrubbed, 

 dog-hole rooms in which old " Nolly " and his amiable spouse 

 thrilled so well ; or the wretched, but richly cobwebbed, garret in 

 which Barry entertained Burke with a beef-steak and a pot of 

 porter. — Still, I am quite at a loss to make out, from all that Smith 

 says of Cosway's house, aught that warrants the expression of the 

 rooms being so many scenes of enchantment, there being not a 

 syllable even with regard to any of their decorations, or to indicate 

 any particular fancy, or recherche taste, or well-studied eftects in 

 the rooms themselves. Sumptuous furniture and almost priceless 

 works of art may be put into a very common-place room ; but in 

 such case, the latter is merely the receptacle of the other objects, — 

 stripped of which, it would not be worth looking at ; whereas — in 

 a first-rate mansion, at least — every part of it, except the entirely 

 private and domestic rooms, should be laid out with studied regard 

 to effect, and to variety of effects — without, however, departing from 

 consistency as to general character. Each apartment should be 

 itself a picture, — strikingly beautiful in itself, charming, captivat- 

 ing, before it receives its finishing touches in the way of furniture 

 and other accessories. At present, as they are left by architects, 

 rooms (even those in the best houses) are little better than blanks, 

 — large four-sided boxes for the cabinet-maker and upholsterer to 

 fill ; in doing which, thev may chance to empty your purse before 

 you are aware of it, — or if they do not actually do that, they are 

 likely to disgrace your taste by cramming your rooms with a medley 

 of ill-assorted articles, agreeing only in being all alike very ex- 

 pensive ones. 



IV. In anecdotizing some of the former residents in St. 

 Martin's-lane, Smith notices No. 60, as the house once occupied 

 by Chippendale, " the most famous upliolsterer and cabinet-maker 

 of his day, to whose folio work on household furniture the trade 

 formerly made constant reference. It contains, in many instances, 

 specimens of the style of furniture so much in vogue in France in 

 the reign of Louis XIV, but which, for many years past, has been 

 discontinued in England. However,"— I entreat my reader to 

 mark this — " as most fashions come round again, I should not 

 wonder, notwithstanding the beautifully classic change brought in 

 by Tliomas Hope, P^sq., if we were to see the unmeaning sci-oll 

 and shell-work with which the furniture of Louis' reign was so 

 profusely encumbered, revive ; wlien Chippendale's book will 

 again be sought after with redoubled avidity, and as many of the 

 coi)ies must liave been sold as u-aate-jxiper, the few remaining will 

 probably bear a higli price." Smith's apprehension is already to a 

 considerable extent verified : and that same Louis Quatorze taste, 

 which, although dignified by such title, is essentially both puerile 

 and barbarous, corrupt and unprincipled — quite contrary to every 

 sound principle of sound art, seems to be now spreading tln-ough 

 all branches of decorative design and ornamental manufactures ; 

 some recent specimens of which, though cried up by those who 

 professing to guide public taste ought to know better, are chiefly 

 remarkable not for elegance or beaut)' of form and combination 

 in any respect, but rather for quite the reverse, and for what has 

 been quaintly termed '■'• the depravity of eleynnce ;" which singular 

 perversitv of taste is the more unaccountahle, as well as lament- 

 able, now that we have Government Schools of Design. Really, 

 if such institutions produce no better fruits than the specimens 

 alluded to, the sooner tliey are broken up altogether, the better. 

 The instruction there given, no more qualifies for producing ar- 

 tistic design, than learning to read and write qualify for a literary 

 career. M'ere things left to take their natural and healthy 

 course, very few except those who really possessed talent — or 

 what is next to it, a decided relish for art — would think of applying 

 to it. Where talent really exists, such institutions are no doubt 

 highly beneficial, by enabling it to develope itself; but then, on 

 the other hand, they are mischievous, inasmuch as they turn out 

 upon the world a great many more who are quite talentless, though 

 furnished with a certain degree of manual proficiency ; and as 



such talentless creatures "must live," and cannot possibly be in- 

 terdicted from exercising pro malo publico what tliey are pleased to 

 call their " talent, " the ultimate injury to art and to public taste is 

 greater than tlie benefit. I remember a priggisli young Oxford 

 student boasting in company of the many eminent men who had been 

 educated in his college, when he was cut short by some one calling 

 out to him — " But you don't say a word of the thousands and tens 

 of thousands of blockheads which it has also turned out," adding, 

 sotto voce, " and I take you to be one of them." 



V. In a letter on the subject of the the Architectural Publica- 

 tion Society, a correspondent of the AthencBum says, after quoting 

 what is stated in that Society's prospectus, as to the paucity of 

 architectural works in this country : '• Surely the thumb-screw 

 must have been applied to extort this confession !" When a 

 remark to the same effect — that is, animadverting upon the 

 paucity of English architectural publications, was made some short 

 time ago in the Westminster Review, a gentleman wlio now figures 

 among the " Promoters" of the above-mentioned Society, thought 

 proper to contradict it publicly at one of the meetings of the 

 Institute; nevertheless, what was then deemed an injurious 

 calumny, is now proclaimed to be the fact. Indeed, it is wonder- 

 ful that any one should have had sufficient hardihood to dispute 

 it. For a certain class of architectural books, there has been a 

 considerable demand and corresponding degree of supply, of late 

 years ; but they are merely elementary ones, and besides, almost 

 exclusively confined to the Gothic style and to ecclesiastical ar- 

 chitecture. Even graphic publications, such as those by Haghe, 

 J. Nash, Richardson, and others, have been entirely mediaeval — at 

 least, of the " olden times" in subjects, and some of them altoge- 

 ther continental in their subjects also. We possess no satisfactory 

 illustrations of contemporary English buildings, either in collec- 

 tions containing examples by difl^erent architects, or in works 

 brought out by the respective architects themselves. Sir Jeffrey 

 Wyatville's " \V'indsor Castle," is the last and almost the only 

 English publication of the kind that has appeared in the present 

 century ; and that was by no means so satisfactory and interesting 

 as it might have been, it doing only half its work, owing to the 

 entire omission of sections, notwithstanding that tliey were indis- 

 pensably requisite for much important information that is not to 

 be obtained at all, except by means of such drawings. To what- 

 ever it may be ascribed, this falling-off in architectural publica- 

 tions is all the more surprising, when we consider how very much 

 has been done in architecture during the last thirty years. Some 

 few years ago, Mr. \Veale, as will very well be recollected, made an 

 offer to the Institute to bring out annually a volume of designs of 

 the best buildings executed by living architects ; but instead of 

 such liberal offer being thankfully accepted, it was rejected not only 

 once, but twice — -for some time after the first rejection, it was re- 

 peated, and rejected moreover in the most sulky and ungracious 

 manner. Yet now, these same people — for many, if not most of 

 the ''Promoters" belong to the Institute — come forward and whine 

 out, that in architectural publications we are far behind all our 

 continental neighbours, and " our deficiencies are very great, as 

 a comparison of catalogues will show" ! It would seem, then, that 

 something like shame is at length felt. Let it be disguised as it 

 may, the fact is, architectural works of a higher class (conse- 

 quently expensive ones), similar to those which have appeared ou 

 the continent during the last thirty or forty years, are not 

 saleable — that is, do not obtain a remunerating sale. There is 

 no encouragement for bringing them out ; wherefore, all enter- 

 prise of the kind is checked by certainty of loss. There are no 

 publishers of them, for a plain and unanswerable reason — viz., 

 there are no purchasers of them. It is not indeed to be supposed, 

 that every copy would remain unsold, but the purchasers are 

 so exceedingly ' few, that works of the kind could not be pro- 

 vided for them, except by putting an enormous price upon the 

 books. Why aU this should be the case, it is more easy to 

 guess than it would be flattering to say. According to all ap- 

 pearances, the demand for them ought to be far greater than ever. 

 The architectural profession has surprisingly increased in numbers; 

 then we have a Royal and chartered Institute, which of course 

 exerts itself most laudably in promoting and diffusing on all sides 

 a taste for architectural studies ; then, agjin, we have a Fine Art 

 Commission, under whose cognizance architecture comes very pro- 

 minently forward pity, let me observe, par parenthise, that said 



Commission did not take under their cognizance also Mr. Blore's 



additions to Buckingham Palace ! and as the CJommissioners 



are selected from the aristocratic classes, the very natural presump- 

 tion is, that Architectuie, as well as the other Fine Arts, is studied 

 among our aristocracy and the higher ranks of society. We have 

 blue-books on matters of art, architecture included ; item, architec- 



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