Identifier: examplesofhouseh00smit (find matches)
Title: Examples of household taste
Year: 1875 (1870s)
Authors: Smith, Walter, 1836-1886 Smith, Walter, 1836-1886. Industrial art of the International Exhibition
Subjects: Centennial Exhibition (1876 : Philadelphia, Pa.) Decorative arts
Publisher: New York, R. Worthington
Contributing Library: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Library

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Ebony Piano : R. Ibach &> Sjn, Barmen, Germany. this portion of the case. The upper portion, which is less concealed fromview, is much more highly finished. The pilasters and cornice have finelywrought designs of a Pompeian pattern covering all their surface, andthe central panel contains, beside, fine scroll-work, groups of loves and swansexecuted in relief. The side or end panels have frames of the same style 228 THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, 1876. as those in the base, but they have, in addition, as ornaments, vigorouslycarved masks with rings. It is satisfactory to note here the prevalence of hand-work over machine-carving. The latter method has been the means of multiplying much that isgood in wood ornamentation, but it has also been the fertile source of muchmore that is meretricious and entirely bad. The multitude desire quantitywithout regard to quality, and a manufacturer with the aid of his machine saws
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Portion of Bed-Cover: Japanese Court. and lathes panders to this taste by turning out vast quantities of articles loadeddown with florid and cheap ornament. There is no reason why a good modelshould not be selected in the first place, but as a matter of fact this is rarelydone; or if it is, the manufacturer, putting his taste above that of the trainedartist, makes some change that he thinks will make the article more salableand popular. Certain it is that the best workmanship and the best taste areinvariably to be found in those manufactures and fabrics wherein handicraft isentirely or partially the means of producing the ornament. INDUSTRIAL ART. 229 This it is that makes the work of oriental nations of such high excellence.The hand and the mind of the Eastern artificer always work together, and theone portrays the changing fancy of the other. Take, for example, the fabricof Japanese workmanship illustrated on page 228. Although the pattern here

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