1845.] 



THt: CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL 



13=' 



prohabilily llic fust wlicuil <if ilesign cf wliidi »i' coiil<l lioasl. Il csis'ivl 

 before the o|iciiing of llir Diikc uf Kichinomrs small colli-cliiin to arlisls, in 

 1770, alllii'Ugli it com;iinc(l nt lliat lime a very indilliri'iit collection of 

 moilcls. It coni|)fisfs :ibi)Ul 70U piiccs. reekdning the portions of the PanH- 

 theuiic frir/.p in ihe separate pircis. Many of ihc easts arc uniqi.e, as the 

 J Ion. Commissioners readily emhniec suggestions made by comi*tent jiulijes 

 of art for the purchase of casts, and al dill'erent times sincimens have been 

 obtained direct from the Vatican and other great galleries. The collection 

 contains specimens i,f the an of every important period dou-n to the time of 

 Thornal Iscn and Canovd. At first Ihc collection was entirely composed (or 

 very nearly so) of slatnes and busts and other portions of the figure, and 

 alihuijli avowedly establi.sliod for the instruction of designers for nianufae- 

 lures, as Ihe system uf teaching ihedr-minK of the figiiie only was Uillowed, 

 it became a school of fine art rather than of design as applied to niaiiufac- 

 tiirc. 



As the purchase of casts in Italy w.as at all times attdidcJ with consider- 

 able ex |/en.se, Mr. Andrew Wilson, who was generally applied to to proeiiro 

 thtm, sllg^ested that. .IS the expense would not be much greater, the lion. 

 Commissioners should buy the moulds at once, and this suggestion led to the 

 production of the pajt-r then read before the lloyal Society of Arts, and the 

 pr.ipos il to governineiit to form a casting establishment. 



It is well known that such an eslalilishmcnt, (fieo such in fact), exist in 

 Paris, one in the Louvre, and one in the Kcole des Beaux Arts, — a plentiful 

 stock of moulds has been accumulated, and the whole of Kiance has been for 

 years supplied with casts at a cheap rate. The advantages to artists are evi- 

 dent ; schools are rapidly supplied, — private dwellings are decorated with 

 casts,— Ihc shops of artizans arc made into museums from the same source. 

 It may be mentioned, to show the active s]iirit of our neighbours, tliat in 

 IgoC ilipy spent in Florence alone the sum ot l'l-,000 dollars, eijiial toi'3,111 or 

 thereabouts. Il may, however, be staled that notwithstanding their acuteness 

 and care they have been enormously cheated by the Italians, many of the 

 moulds being worihless. No one is allowed to cast at Florence but the go- 

 vernment caster, who therefore charges a very high price, and, when em- 

 ployed to make moulds for the French, he took casts from them and then 

 sent the moulds in a bad and injured stale to Paris. He sold three of these 

 casts, VIZ. one of the celebrated dour by Ghiberti, one of the St. Cjeorge of 

 Donatcllo, and one of an-Adonis ascribed to Michael Angelo, to the Commis- 

 sioners in Scotland for ihe large S' m of £200, a sum wliich proves their libe- 

 rality, whilst the moulder's proceeding is a warning to us should any analo- 

 gous plan be adopted. The French were able to lake one cast only from the 

 mould of Ihe door, upon which they have formed another cscellent monld, a 

 first cast from which has munificently been presented to the Government 

 School of Design. 



It need hardly be stated that the Italians make two kinds of moulds, one, 

 the cheapest, is chiefly of clay, and it yields one good cast, or at most two : 

 — it is therefore quite evident that in the event of any transactions with 

 such slippery individuals, casts of this description should be obtained and 

 preserved in stock to make moulds from. 



To return to the gallery at Edinburgh — of late years a fair collection of 

 architectural and ornamental casts has been added, but the most remarkable 

 and Interesting purchase has unquestionably been that of the unique and 

 noblecollection of antique busts. Theanlhorof this paper suggested the forma- 

 tion of a collection of classic porlraits, and in the course of his enquiries was 

 informed that a very c; mpltle collection of casts, about 250 in number, existed 

 In Rome. It liad been formed during along course of years by two sculptors. 

 father and son ; it contained casts from busts now scattered over Europe in 

 various museums, but w Inch had been cast previously to iheir sale in Rome 

 and of w hich no such collection ci uld again he made except at a great cost. 

 This collection was of great service to Viseonii in the compilation of his cele- 

 brated " Iconographic CJrecque et Roniaine," and the drawings for many of 

 the engravings were made from these casts. The purchase was suggested to 

 Government, — an arlist, njw deceased, was consulted ; he however did not 

 approve of it, anil the Hon. Commissioners purchased the collection lor their 

 school in Edinburgh at a cost of i'500, whilst the c.xpenees of transit, com- 

 mission, tic., amounted to considerably more. 



FVuni ihe opening of the Museum in ihc Hotel Cluny we derive an useful 

 lesson ; it contains, as is well knowii, a collection of ancient furniture, painied 

 glass, manufactures in metals, and in tine a great variety of specimens of the 

 arts of the middle ages. AVe all know the ellect produced upon the minds of 

 manufacturers and designers by the sight of these objects of vertu ; — an up- 

 holsterer may have lived all his life amidst casts of Iragments of fine sculp- 

 ture without improving the form of a table or chair, but set before liim a 

 piece of fine old luniilure, and he will at once start off in a course of improve- 

 ment. This familiar fact points out the iniijortance of forming such museums, 

 but unless the designer be accustomed at the same time to beautiful model.-, 

 and be taught to draw from them, he will copy ihe imperfections of his uld 

 piece of furiiilure and misi its lieaulies;— m many fine specimens of French 

 manufacture we have striking illustrations of the iidvantage of education in 

 ^rt, anil the formation of such collecticns as that alluded to, 



Il is likewise of the last imporlance in lonning galleries of casis, that the 

 specimens, instead of consisting of mere fragments, of the use of which in thiir 

 detached stale wc can have but a very imperfect idea, sliould, whenever prac- 

 ticable, be casts of entire monuments. 



As an example, let us imagine the immense advantages of a gallery of casts 

 fur the instruction of students of aichitcclure, wherein, instead of a hetero- 

 genous collection of Iragments and pieces of mouldings, the entire entabla- 

 luivs of the finest specimens of Ihe ancient orders, with their respective 

 capitals and bases, and portions ;of the shafts of the columns, are ananged 

 in their proper positions and heights from the ground, together with num- 

 bers of importani monuments, of which entire casts could be m.'ide and put up, 

 — as one side of the peileslal of the column of Trajan, together with a section 

 of the base; the enlire of one side of the arch of Tilus even, (meaning of 

 course the antique part only,) and other monuments that might be mentioned. 

 A series illustrating the whole history of art might be formed at no great 

 cost; the doorways, shrines, Baldrechini, i.iv.l monuments of the middle ages 

 might be cast. Such is the colleeticn of the Kcole <les Beaux Arts, and there 

 can be no iloubt of the powerful impression « hich such a collection would 

 make on the mind of the public here. It would also be invaluable to students 

 of architecture, as they would have every opportunity of seeing the effect 

 produced by c(riain combinations which they are now only acquainted with 

 by means of prinls or drawings. 



It has been objected that the formation of a government or some other 

 great i.ublic c;isting eslablislimcnt would be the ruin of all the casters 

 established in lyondon ; is it so in Paris? it may be asserted sa/eli/ that 

 there are two moulders and sellers of casts in that city to every one in 

 London, and of the immense superiority of theircasis there can be no doubt. 

 There is no great city in Europe, peihaps, where worse casts ate sold than in 

 London, and as for architectural casts they are hardly procurable at all ; we 

 arc compelled to go to Paris, where to our surprise we may | urchase casts 

 from our own monuments which we probably could not procure in London. 



The best way of furnishing our towns with casts is by the fonnalion cf a 

 great central easting, as by this means only proper moulds can be procured : 

 no private individual could aflbrd to procure them, and no proper choice of 

 the objects to be cast could be otherwise secured, whilst it is also obvious 

 that cas s coul I not be procured at all of many precious monuments of art, 

 except by the aid and through the all-powerlul influence of the British Go- 

 vernment. Operations in England would lead to this desirable result,— lliat 

 the French would willingly provide fine casts for our moulding establishment 

 in exchange for casts fiom our moulds, and an immense saving would be 

 ellccled by these means. 



THE EARL OF ROSSE'S GRIOAT TELF.SCOPE. 



Wc offer our readers an account of the performance of the Rosse Telescope, 

 which we have as far as possible condensed from a valuable and interesting 

 memoir published in the Times newspaper of April 15, by Sir James South. 

 We make no apology for the reprint, as we are anxious to have a systematic 

 record of all that aflects the advance of science, and feel also that though 

 mcst of our readers may have seen the original account, this condensed form 

 of it will perhaps invite a repcrusal. 



" In the rimes of September last I had the gratification of announcing to 

 the public that the construction of the large telescope by the Earl of Rosse 

 was so far advanced that the instrument had actually been directed to the 

 heavens, and that, too, with satisfactory results. 



The great speculum, however, as then used, had been only approximately 

 polished, and was inserted in the tube merely to ascertain if its focal length 

 coincided with that which it was designed to give it. 



The diameter of the large speculum is six feet, its thickness five inches and 

 a half, its weight three tons and three-quarters, and its composition 121) parls 

 of copper to 571 parts of tin ; its focal length is 54 feet — the tube is of deal ; 

 its lower part, that in which the speculum is placed, is a cube of ciglil feet ; 

 the circular part of the tube is at its centre, seven feet and a half in diameter, 

 and at its extremities six feet and a half. The telescope lies between two 

 stone walls, about 71 feet from north to south, about 50 feet high, and about 

 23 feet asunder. These walls are as nearly as possible parallel with the 

 meridian. 



In the interior face of the eastern wall a very strong iron arc, of about IS 

 feet radius, is firmly fixed, provided, however, with adjustments, whereby its 

 surface feeing the telescope may be set very accurately in the plane of the 

 meridian — a matter of the greatest importance, seeing that by the contac 

 with it of rollers attached to one extremity of a quadranjiular bar, which 

 slides through a metal b(iX fised to the under part of the telescope tube, a lew 

 fiet Irom the object end of the latter, whilst its other extremity remains free, 

 the position of the telescope in the meridian is secured, or any deviation from 

 it easily determined, for on this bar lines are drawn, the interval between an/ 



