STATUARY, TREILLAGE AND GARDEN FURNITURE. 



Applied 

 sculpture. 



Acroliths. 



fill our pleasaunces with representations of Ceres or our woodland glades with Dianas. 

 Quaint shepherds and shepherdesses, such as those shown in illustrations Nos. 196 and 197, 

 will strike a rural note more acceptable to modern minds, while, if a more classical 

 subject is desired, Cupids, dryads, satyrs and fauns allow of almost endless scope for 

 taste and discrimination in their posing, placing and application. Illustration No. 199 

 shows a little lead statue of Cupid which was modelled for me some years ago, and 

 which I have reproduced several times without in the least tiring of it. In fact it 

 has that special quality of the best work in that, instead of palling through familiarity, 

 it seems to grow upon one the more one sees it. 



But there is another way in 

 which this form of garden ornament 

 may be used. This is in what one 

 may call "applied sculpture," a 

 good instance of which is the boy 

 and dolphin fountain shown in 

 illustration No. 237. Fountains 

 invite this type of decoration pro- 

 bably more than any other form 

 of garden equipment, but observa- 

 tion of existing examples shows the 

 necessity for great caution in its 

 choice and arrangement, and for 

 care that none but the best obtain- 

 able is used. 



This strong insistence on the 

 assertion that no statuary but that 

 which is really good should be given 

 a place in the garden does not 

 mean that it must be excluded 

 from the domain of the man of 

 only moderate means. Old lead 

 figures of real merit may occasion- 

 ally be picked up for quite moderate 

 prices, and, where the choice has 

 to be made, I would strongly advise 

 the acquisition of a good copy of 

 a well-known subject, even though 

 it lack the quality of uniqueness, 

 in preference to an original con- 

 ception of second-rate artistic merit. 

 The boy and dolphin from the Uffizi, 



Mercier's David and Goliath, the well-known Greek Slave, and the half-dozen specially good 

 Cupids which it is possible to obtain can never pall and, though often repeated, are to 

 be preferred to the generally commonplace original creations of the monumental mason. 

 Subjects from Greek and Roman mythology will need some adaptation to their use 

 and surroundings if they are to be successful, but there is one feature of classical orna- 

 ment which seems to adapt itself perfectly without the slightest rearrangement. This is 

 the acrolith, which from its nature is only suitable for use in gardens laid out on formal 

 lines and usually in conjunction with clipped hedges, where it can be used to divide the 

 hedge into bays or mark the position of an opening, as in illustration No. 203. It may 

 also be used, however, to emphasize the termination of an avenue or glade, as in the 



FIG. 196. 



FIG. 197. 



156 



