Said's Garden Chair. 



541 



Art. VI. Notice of Saul's Garden Chair, •with Remarhs on the 

 Principles of Design with reference to Chairs of this Kind. By 

 Mr. M. Saul and the Conductor. 



Sir, 

 You will receive with this a chair [fig. 121.), for which I 

 hope you will be able to find a spare corner in your garden. 

 The seat is of wood, and the back and feet are of iron, cast 

 in the form of leaves, of the acanthus, thistle, or artichoke 

 kind. The whole chair is painted of a deep green. These 

 chairs are sold at 165. each. They may be made with a 

 more ornamented back, when they will cost a little more ; or 

 with one foot less, when they will cost not quite so much. 



I am, Sir, yours, &c. 

 Lancaster, June 29. 1833. M. Saul. 



"We have placed this chair under a tree in our garden ; 

 and we have figured it, both for the sake of obliging our inge- 

 nious and indefatigable correspondent, Mr. Saul, and because 



we think we can make some observ- 

 ations on it which may be useful to 

 our readers. We enter our protest 

 against this chair, in point of taste, 

 for the following reasons : — The 

 seat appears to be supported by 

 leaves, not springing from a root, as 

 leaves generally do, but standing 

 separately on the ground ; or coming 

 out of the ground separately, with- 

 out any appearance of stems, roots, 

 or buds, which is never the case 

 in nature. The back is formed of 

 three leaves of the same description, 

 which, comparatively speaking, seem 

 to arise naturally enough out of the seat, as the leaves of a 

 calyx do from the base of a flower. Our principal objection, 

 therefore, is to the manner in which the seat is supported by 

 single and unconnected leaves. When nature is imitated by 

 art, there ought always to be, in the object produced, at least a 

 semblance of truth ; for, though no leaves of the kind shown, 

 however placed, could actually support a seat of this kind ; 

 yet, if they had been made to spring from a root or stem un- 

 derneath the seat, and spread out under it on every side, like 

 the leaves of the capital of a column, they would have had 

 much more the appearance of communicating support. Still, 

 as a garden chair, we should not have approved of the design ; 

 because, in a garden or pleasure ground, where all around is 



