Vol. V, No. 7 
SYRACUSE NEW YORK 
November 1903 
ITH great interest and curiosity we 
look forward to the coming exhi- 
bition of the New York Societj' 
vhich will be held at the Hotel Ma- 
jestic, December T, 2, and 3. So 
much study has been given by most 
of the members this past 5'ear to 
decorative design that we are con- 
fident of some remarkable results. 
But more than anything else the col- 
lective exhibit of the National League at St. Louis should 
show the exact status of decorative ceramic art. The Keramic 
Studio will do its best to give a full and carefully considered 
and illustrated resLimd of this work soon after the exhibit opens 
at St. Louis. 
The Gate Beautiful by Prof. John Ward Stimson, formerly 
Director of Art Education at the New York Metropolitan 
Museum of Art and at the Artist Artisan Institute of New York 
is an elaborate treatise on the principles and methods of what 
Mr. Stimson calls "Vital Art Education". It is profusely 
illustrated and contains much valuable design material. But 
the chief interest lies in the curious and mystical intermingling 
of philosoph}'^ and science with art. Certainly "The Gate 
Beautiful" is unique and well worth the reading. 
Students in pottery, especiallj^ beginners, will find in- 
valuable help and information in the articles we publish by 
Prof. C. F. Binns and by Taxile Doat. It will be our policy to 
keep in the columns of Keramic Studio a regular space for 
contributions on the subject of pottery making. Unfortunate- 
Iv very few books have been published which may be a practical 
help to the artist potter. However we recommend to beginners 
a recent publication which will be found listed on our Publishers 
page, the "Handbook of Practical Potter^^, "bj^ Richard Lunn. 
Then there is a book, which is more for the advanced student, 
but will also be invaluable to beginners, it is "The Collected 
Writings of Hermann A. Seger, " lately translated and published 
in English. These writings form a masterly treatise on the 
subject of pottery making and cover the whole field of the most 
recent discoveries in the composition of bodies and glazes, 
colored glazes, reducing and oxidising fires, etc. 
article to those who confound the movement itself with the 
exaggerated and fantastic expressions which alwaj's accom- 
pany am- new^ movement. L'Art Nouveau and "Arts and 
Crafts " are not so widety separated as many think : 
" I have waited until the end to acknowledge that America 
has already furnished a contribution to the universal efforts of 
our times, which is now sufficiently noteworthy and valuable 
to merit for her the esteem of all friends of art. To limit my- 
self to my personal knowledge, I shall mention men like the 
deceased archeologist Moore, like John La Farge and Louis 
Tiffanj', whom the old continent would have been proud to 
possess, and I shall point to industries like the American man- 
ufactures of colored glass, the Rookwood and Gruebj^ potteries, 
which have taken equal rank with the Eviropean establish- 
ments of similar character. But the branch in which the 
Americans have passed to immediate mastership is in the con- 
ception and execution of objects destined for practical tise in 
household interiors. No designers have more clearlj- under- 
stood that the first impression of beauty, of the most essential 
beauty, emanates from eveiy object which assumes the exact 
character of its use and purpose. 
"I express the con\dction that America, more than any 
other countrj^ of the world, is the soil predestined to the most 
brilliant bloom of a future art which shall be vigorous and pro- 
lific. When she shall have acqviired, in the province of ideal 
aims, a conscioiisness of her own possibilities, as precise and 
clear as the confidence already gained in other domains of 
intellectual force, she wiU quickh'^ cast off the tutelage of the 
Old World, under which she put forth her first steps upon the 
sunlit path of art. America, as I have already said elsewhere, 
has a marked advantage over us, in that her brain is not 
haruited by the phantoms of memory; her j^oung imagination 
can allow itseff a free career, and, in fashioning objects, it does 
not restrict the hand to a limited number of similar and con- 
ventional movements. America, taken all in all, is indeed only 
a ramification of our ancient sources, and consequently the 
heir of our traditions. But again, she has a special destiny, 
occasioned bj' the fact that she does not possess, like us, the 
cult, the religion of these same traditions. Her rare privilege 
is to profit by our old maturity and, mingling therein the im- 
pulse of her vigorous youth, to gain advantage from all teclinical 
secrets, all devices and processes taught by the experience of 
centuries, and to place all this practical and proven knowledge 
at the service of a fresh mind which knows no other guide than 
the intuitions of taste and the natural laws of logic. " 
The Fall Competition is closed but the decision cannot be 
announced before the December number of Keramic Studio, 
as the magazine goes to press before the decision is made. 
The work sent in shows a steady development and awakening 
interest all over the country. At the date of going to press 
designs had been submitted from England, France, Australia, 
British Columbia and Canada as well as from all parts of 
the U. S. 
if 
We quote from the "Craftsman" the concluding lines of 
a fine article on L'Art Nouveau by S. Bing, who gave the name 
to the new movement in decorative art and is one of its most 
remarkable supporters. We recommend the reading of this 
ART NOTES 
A little exliibition of recent work in silver and copper by 
Arthur J. Stone of Gardner; hand woven textiles from Berea, 
K^^, and examples of new glazes from the Merrimack pottery, 
are to be seen at the Society of Arts and Crafts in Somerset 
street, Boston. 
The lace industry, which for more than two years has 
been conducted by the Society of Arts and Crafts and the 
South End House, is to be carried on in future by the lace- 
makers themselves who have formed a co-operative society. — ■ 
Boston Morning Herald. 
