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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



September, 



relief, we had better try what we can do with other styles ; and we accord- 

 ingly now import from Italy, Switzerland, K.gypt ; and we shall no doubt 

 very soon have specimens after the Chinese fashion. But, as we cannot im- 

 port with them the peculiar climates to which they belong, nor the peculiar 

 manners which created them, we detach them from that which gives them 

 character and meaning. 



Even when the true national style is chosen, the application of it fre- 

 quently betrays an utter ignorance of the rules of propriety. The many 

 fine remains of castles and abbeys which adorn our land are no doubt worthy 

 of admiration, but there is just as much propriety in imitating them in our 

 modern dwelling houses, as there would be in a man going about in a monk's 

 habit and cowl, or adopting the manners and defence of the twelfth century. 

 A great deal might be said on this point, but 1 shall reserve further remark 

 to a future occasion, when I hope to speak of architectural principles as ap- 

 plied to particular classes of buildings. 



As regards enrichment, my limited space will not allow me to say so much 

 as 1 could wish. The grand rule for its regulation, as laid down by Pugin, 

 is, (hat " we should decorate our construction, instead of constructing our 

 decoration." All the parts or features of a design should be useful first, and 

 then ornamental or plain, as determined by propriety and consistency. No 

 part should be constructed for the sole sake of ornament or effect, or which 

 has not some significance. The essential parts of a fabric should be the only 

 medium for rendering it beautiful. This rule exists, irrespective of any par- 

 ticular style: but in passing, I may mention that it is an additional argu- 

 ment in favour of our own national style. We too often loose sight of pro- 

 priety and consistency in decoration, which is apt lo be regulated more by 

 consideration of expense than any thing else. The almost universal desire 

 is " to have as ornamental a structure as the means will allow." This mania 

 tor indiscriminate ornament is chiefly owing to the facility enjoyed at the 

 present day of obtaining it without limit by casting. In ninety-nine build- 

 ings out of a hundred, where there is any quantity of ornament) it is sure to 

 consist of casts, eilher in metal, plaster, cement, artificial stone, compo, 

 papier mache, &c. 



In speculation houses, the ceilings and cornices are covered with ornament, 

 (especially if the builder happen to be a plasterer, who has thus a fine op- 

 portunity of displaying his taste and his patterns. ) and the same character 

 of ornament, if not the same degree, is carried into halls, drawing-rooms, 

 and bed-rooms, and thrust into all sorts of positions where it can be most 

 seen. We see in cottages, and workhouses, grates and lenders literally co- 

 v?rcd with ornament, and rich enough for a gentleman's drawing-room. 

 But, as it would not do for the same patterns to be used Indiscriminately, in 

 the houses of the rich and poor, numerals grotesque and meaningless forms 

 have been devised to increase expense, and thus render the patterns fit for 

 genteel residences. The same principles are acted upon in other materials, 

 as cement capitals to stone columns, composition trusses supporting wooden 

 frie7.es, all painted in imitation of stone. I do not mean to censun 

 the use of cast ornament; but what I insist on is, that it should be used con- 

 sistently with propriety; and the tendency is, without great caution, to apply 

 without discrimination, ornaments which in this manner can be obtained 

 w ithout a corresponding cost. 



I think very fa'se and pernicious notions regarding the value of ornament 

 are commonly entertained. A great part of the charm of ornament consists 

 in the importance it gives to the parts where it is used, and in the evidence 

 it conveys of the high estimation in which such parts were held — of the 

 taste, imagination, and love of beauty in the mind which produced it; and 

 of similar qualities together with masterly execution, in the artificer. Now, 

 when ornament is produced mechanically, and consists merely of plaster or 

 cast iron, all the interest derived from this latter source is utterly lost. It 

 ceases to he any criterion either of the liberality of the owner, or ot the 

 taste and talent of the artist. Besides, cast ornaments have never that 

 freedom and boldness of relief which belongs to genuine carving. 



In conclusion, while I urge the curtailment of the excessive use of decora- 

 tion into which we are so apt to run, I would remark that if judiciously and 

 consistently emplcyed, its loss in quantity would be much more than coun- 

 terbalanced by its gain in value and interest. 



Henry Bowman. 



Manchester, May 1843. 



THE DECORATIONS AT THE TRAVELLERS' CLUB. 

 (From the Jtheneeum.J 



Extensive decorations, costing, it is said, some thousands of pounds, 

 have recently been completed at this very happy adaptation of the Bufalini 

 Palace. It is a satisfactory sign for the progress of art to find a growing 

 attention paid to architectural decorations, and, in so far as those lately exe- 

 cuted at the Travellers' Club are likely to promote that desirable result, we 

 are disposed to welcome them ; hut, in proportion to their probable influ- 

 ence, it is the more necessary to protest against that absence of all princi- 

 ples, which is manifest throughout — on floors, on walls, on ceilings, in pas- 

 sages, and in rooms. Tasteless and chilling as may be the universal white 

 paint of Queen Anne's days — of which the library at Blenheim affords a cool 

 specimen — monotonous and depressing as are the drab and slate colours 

 patronized by George IV., which abound in Windsor Castle, and are, unhap- 

 pily, conspicuous in Buckingham House, (the pictures in the long gallery 

 are hung against a drab-coloured wall,) it may be a question whether they 

 are not preferable — exciting, as they do, no interest whatever — to bright 

 colouring so misemployed that the eye cannot turn without detecting some 

 false principle of taste. 



The greatest offences in the decorations of the Travellers' Club arise from 

 the employment of affectations and unrealities, which abound everywhere — 

 sham granite walls, sham marbled columns and dados, sham bronze doors, 

 sham bas-reliefs. As soon as you have passed the hall of entrance into the 

 corridor, the fictions begin, and you traverse a passage of universal granites 

 — pink, grey, green, &c. Besides being an affectation itself, this is the af- 

 fectation of an unfit thing. Suppose the thing for an instant to be all real — 

 would a granite passage be right in such a place ? We are not entering an 

 Egyptian temple, or the basement of a castle, but the light, cheerful passage 

 of a sort of democratic modern palace, free from all fear of outward vio- 

 lence, and with a portal no more capable of resisting attack than polished 

 mahogany and plate glass. Granite surely is not a material to be used here. 

 But if you will use the hardest of stones for such a purpose, then ought not 

 the forms in which yon employ it to be somewhat analogous to the material 

 itself? Here you have mock granite adapting itself to Italian mouldings — 

 so light and elegant that you would select the softest oolite out of which to 

 chisel them. The ceiling, too, is painted to affect granite. Do not all ana- 

 logies drawn from nature, as well as all good architectural precedents, tell 

 us that the upper part of a building should be in all respects of material, 

 form, and colour, lighter than the lower part ? Let us forget this affectation 

 of a thing out of place, and look at this passage simply for its colouring, 

 which indeed begets the first general impression. Banish from recollection 

 that the colouring is grained, and look at it as a surface of pink and grey — 

 which is its aspect to most eyes. It may be a right principle to keep the 

 passages and halls duly subordinate to the rooms, in respect of their deco- 

 rative characteristics, but surely a passage that faces the north needs to he a 

 little warmer and more cheerful in colouring than one which looks south. 

 Yet here, in a due north aspect, we have shades of cool colours. The mate- 

 rials employed in the building of this hall, and its ornamental parts, are 

 chiefly wood and plaster, made to be coloured. Would not correct taste, 

 then,' simply colour them, producing the best effects out of the unlimited 

 range of colours ? 



The wainscot staircase of the club remains substantially as it was before 

 these recent decorations. Being chiefly of oak, its very reality protected it 

 from change. The ceiling here has been richly painted in various bright 

 colours, displayed in arabesque forms and panels, generally resembling those 

 we also find in the drawing-room — for which very reason we think that these 

 decorations cannot be altogether consistent — certainly they do not accord 

 with the oak stairs and banisters. The walls here, as in the upper corridor, 

 have been divided into panels by arabesque borders and lines. The effect is 

 light and tasteful; but the carpet, which is a mass of unbroken crimson, is 

 much too full-toned ami positive to accord well with the delicate pale hues 

 of the walls. The figures in the arabesque painting do not rise beyond 

 second-rate decorative art, and the human figures which are sometimes intro- 

 duced, are by no means well drawn or well proportioned. The highest 

 academical excellence in drawing ought not perhaps to be demanded under 

 such circumstances, but in this case, as it was thought necessary to send out 

 of England for a decorative painter, we might fairly have anticipated some- 

 thing better than what we could have produced ourselves. In the present 

 case, the work — both in design and execution — is certainly not beyond the 

 mark of many of the London decorative painters. If our school of design 

 has produced any fruits at all, it must by this time have educated a score of 

 pupils quite up to the standard of these decorations. 



Through a mock bronze door — of which a few words presently — wc enter 

 the drawing-rooms. What is the first general impression, without examining 

 the details ? The tone of the colouring is neither warm nor cold — though 

 parts are of both characters, and there is no lack of many varieties of colour. 

 The aspect of the room is a north one, and being such, the prevailing ar- 

 rangement of colour should be warm. Modify it as you please to suit the 

 particular character of the apartment— but do not forget that the room re- 

 ceives hardly a ray of direct sunshine throughout the year. In these drawing 

 rooms the greater part of the surface of the walls is of a pale, cool-looking 

 colour, something between a lemon and a cream colour, arranged in panels, 

 which are bordered by strong and rather dark contrasts. The lower part of 

 walls, the dado, and its mouldings, are coloured imitations of marbles, in 



