EXTERNAL FICTILE DECORATIONS. 407 



but of the nation at large. It is much to be hoped that the 

 new museum will be one which shall be a credit to the 

 nation, an honour to the district whose manufactures and 

 arts it is intended to illustrate, and worthy of the name 

 of Wedgwood which it bears. The project of the museum is 

 one which commends itself to people of every class, and it is 

 to be hoped that donations of specimens of fictile art of every 

 kind may so abundantly be received as to enable the 

 executive to arrange the contents chronologically and edu- 

 cationally. The Institute is intended, it appears, not only 

 to be a memorial to a potter, but a monument in pottery. 

 The competition suggested by Mr. Beresford-Hope for 

 external fictile decorations, resulted in the selection of 

 Messrs. Robert Edgar and John Kipling as the best artists, 

 and they have since elaborated an architectural composition 

 of effective appearance, in which terra-cottas, majolicas, 

 jaspers, and mosaics, are exquisitely introduced. Of this 

 peculiar feature of the building, the following extract from 

 the description by the artists themselves, gives a pleasing 

 idea : 



11 The designers propose to introduce into the blank space of the 

 first-floor wall a series of terra-cotta panels, representing the twelve 

 months of the year, by half-length female figures, all variously 

 designed and modelled in relief. These will be contained in a 

 moulded framework of architectural character, and surmounted by a 

 triangular pediment, the space enclosed by which will contain the 

 sign of the zodiac corresponding to each month, and will be sur- 

 rounded by brilliant- coloured mosaic. The whole of this part of 

 the design will be executed in red terra-cotta, of a colour and 

 texture which will show out against the red-coloured brickwork 

 with which the exterior of the building is to be faced. 



" A cornice in buff-coloured terra-cotta will surmount the story 

 in which these panels are placed, and will be crowned by a rich 

 ornamental cresting in the same coloured material, the roof above 

 being covered with a deep rusty green coloured tile, such as we 

 have ascertained can be secured in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 the building. 



" Between the two stories a coloured frieze is to be introduced, 

 two feet six inches in depth, divided into eight compartments, 



