himself to such a patriotic purpose, as to that Book and Periodical Ellustrators. of the legislator, the soldier, or the sailor, who 66 (Continued from page 83.) have striven for their country's good either in the senate, on the tented field, or the quarterdeck. Ever since its commencement, John Leech, in connection with Richard Doyle (son of John Doyle, the "H.B."), has been the principal artist of the "London Charivari." vice of literature by his admirable illustrations. There is a quaintness about the productions of this artist which nearly approaches the style of Cruikshank, indeed some portions of "Phiz's" style seems to be borrowed both from Cruikshank and the late George Seymour. All his plates are highly finished, and although this racy style precludes much elaboration, correctness and delicacy of outline, with a peculiar neatness of finish, form the agreeable peculiarity of his works. WHO that has scanned over the pages of "Punch," dipped into his "Almanack," or surveyed the no less inviting contents of his "Pocket Book," has not bestowed, at least, a The name of Hablot K. Browne is that of tributary laugh to the comic humour of the one who, under the fanciful cognomen of inimitable Leech? We say inimitable, because" Phiz," has contributed not a little to the serhe is not equalled, let alone surpassed, in his peculiar style by any artist of the day. His designs are all broad, dashing, and vigorously satirical-sketches of life taken with a free hand, a well-pointed pencil, and a heart ever alive to the promptings of Momus. Leech does not exhibit so much sarcasm as Cruikshank; but his designs are not on that account less true to their purpose: Cruikshank aims at shaming folly-Leech gives it its portrait to laugh at; both are successful, although each pursues a different road in order to arrive at the same end; yet Leech, when he likes, can be as pathetic as Cruikshank; and although he does not impart such a horrible aspect to misery, he possesses the like power of loosening our sympathies and of softening our hearts to the "still small voice" that resides within. There is no artist of the present day who has obtained a well-grounded popularity in such a comparatively short space of time as John Leech; pleased with even the first displays of his talent, the public soon learned to appreciate and set a true value on the works of an original genius, and his celebrity, although it shines as bright as seven suns, has not yet arrived at its meridian. As a political caricaturist, John Leech has no rival, and the many volumes of "Punch" which have been published will be as much prized by after generations as are the works of Hogarth by us. In his designs, Leech depends not merely upon the ephemeral attraction of distorted countenances and bodies of distin Browne was first brought directly before the public in a remarkable manner. The original edition of the "Pickwick Papers," published by Messrs. Chapman and Hall, had their illustrations executed by the late George Seymour; and at the time of that artist's committing suicide he had in hand a plate which was required for the forthcoming number of that work; it was in an unfinished state, and in order not to delay the publication, it was entrusted to Browne, at that time comparatively unknown as an artist, to finish; and he executed his task with so much ability that he became a greater favourite even than his predecessor. Phiz" is now one of our most popular and prolific artists. 66 (To be continued.) THE NEW ANTI-LAMINATING RAIL, on trial at the Paddington terminus, has, it is said, been found to answer. It has been down five months, and exhibits no marked sign of wearing or abrasion on the surface, though the ordinary rails, in much less time, have gone to the iron master, and will probably be adopted pieces. It was invented by Mr. Thorneycroft, on the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverampton, and be usefully applied to both broad and nar row guage. guished public characters; but holding constantly in view the distinction between the keen razor of satire and the blunt oyster-knife of vulgar malice, he endeavours as much as possible to make natural expression and action the symbols of the meaning his pictures have to convey. When Hogarth quarrelled with Churchill, he drew a caricature which represented that individual in the form of a bear, RAILWAY PATENTS IN FRANCE.-The followwith a quart pot in his paw; and although this, ing is a statement of the number of patents at the time it was executed, might have been (original and improvements) for inventions readily decyphered, and its signification made connected with railway construction, which out, yet in a time like our own, when the have been obtained in France :-In 1843, 19; public taste has become refined, such a picture in 1844, 22; in 1845, 88; in 1846, 131-total, would create no other feeling than one of dis-260. Of these not above three or four have gust for the artist on our part. We are no enemies to the artist who employs his genius for the purpose of correcting either public or private abuse; but, on the contrary, we are most decidedly of opinion that even the fact of our artists having the power to do so, evidences a great stride in the onward march of intellectual improvement; and we would as much contribute to the honour and glorification of the artist who should apply been carried out so as to realize any advantages to the inventors, and those are of English origin-one of which is that of Mr. Stephenson, who receives a premium of £50 for each machine adopting his patent improvement, TO REMOVE RUST FROM IRON.-The easiest method of removing rust from iron is rubbing it with a rag dipped in oil of tartar. The rust will disappear immediately. Tessellated Tiles. TESSELLATED tiles are formed of two differently coloured clays, and imbedded in the other, and disposed so as to form an ornamental device. The tile is first made in clay of one colour, with a depression afterwards to be filled with clay of the other colour, and this depression is formed by the aid of a mould. In the first place, the modeller models in stiff clay an exact representative of one of the tiles, about an inch thick, cutting out to the depth of about a quarter of an inch the depression which constitutes the device. When this is properly dried, a mould is made from it in plaster of Paris, and from this mould all the tiles are produced one by one. The ground colour of the tile is frequently a brownish clay, with a yellow device; but this may be varied at pleasure. Let the colour be what it may, however, the first clay is mixed up very thick, and pressed into the mould by the aid of a peculiarly-shaped press. On leaving the press it presents the form of a damp, heavy, unicoloured square tile of clay, with an ornamental device formed by a depression below the common level of the surface. Notices to Correspondents. NOTICE.-All communications relating to the literary department of this publication, must be addressed (post paid) as follows:-"To the Editor of the Decorator's ASSISTANT, 17, Holywell-street, Strand, London." No. attention will be paid to any addressed otherwise. In answer to several subscribers who have addressed as on the subject, we beg to state that the two first pages. of the weekly numbers of this work are intended to be cut off previous to binding. This will not make the least difference with regard to the appearance of the volume. Part VIII. of the DECORATOR'S ASSISTANT, în a beautifully embellished Wrapper, is now ready, price Sevenpence. Parts I., II., III., IV., V., VI., and VII. still continue on sale. As the demand for the Back Numbers of this Work is very great, and as there is every probability of their soon becoming exceedingly scarce, new Subscribers are respectfully requested to complete their Sets without delay. Vol. I. is now ready, beautifully bound in scarlet cloth, gilt and lettered, price 5s. Embossed Cases may be had for binding in, price 18. 3d. each. QUERIES. [In order to collect as much useful information as possible, we have determined on devoting a portion of our space to the insertion of Queries which may be interesting to many of our Readers; at the same time we must intimate that the replies should be as brief as possible, without incroaching on their completeness.-EDITOR DECORATOR'S ASSISTANT.] The second coloured clay, so far from being made stiff like the first, has a consistence somewhat resembling that of honey; and herein lies one of the niceities of manufacture, for it is necessary to choose clays which will contract equally in baking, although of different consistence when used. The tile being laid on a bench, the workman plasters the honey-like SIR,I should feel obliged if any of your correspondents would clay on it, until he has completely filled the depressed device, using a kind of knife or trowel in this process. The tile, in this state, is then allowed to dry very gradually for the inform me of the manner in which Venetian blinds are repainted. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, J. P. TRING. Hulme, Manchester, Jan. 4, 1848. ANSWERS TO QUERIES. CIES.-Sir,-In answer to "C. S.," page 176, vol. i., I beg to state the glass requires no preparation beyond that of being well cleaned. The colours are prepared in the ordinary manner, and are laid on rather thick.-Yours, &c., ARTISTICUS, Walworth. BRONZING GAS-FITTINGS, &c.-Sir,-The appearance for which "A. G. F." requires an explanation (see p. 184, vol. i.) is produced by applying bronze to those parts of the fittings standing out in relief, and painting the crevices with a green colour.-I am, Sir, your humble servant, C. E. Jan. 1, 1848. long period of eight weeks, to accommodate PREPARATION OF GLASS FOR PAINTING TRANSPAREN the shrinking of the clays to their peculiar natures. After this, each tile is scraped on the surface with an edge tool, till the superfluous portion of the second clay is removed, and the two clays become properly visible, one forming the ground and the other the device. In this state the tiles are put into a "biscuit kiln," where they are baked in a manner nearly resembling the baking of porcelain, but with especial reference, as to time and temperature, to the quality of the clays. From J. the "biscuit kiln" they are transferred to the 'dipping room," where they are coated on the upper surface with liquid glaze by means of a brush. Lastly, an exposure to the heat of the glaze kiln" for a period of twenty-four or thirty hours causes the glaze to combine with the clay, and the tiles are then finished.Dodd's "British Manufactures." 66 To CAST FIGURES IN IMITATION OF IVORY. -Make isinglass and strong brandy into a paste with powder of egg-shells finely ground; you may make it whatever colour you please; but cast warm water into your mould which should be previously oiled over. Leave the figure in the mould to dry; and on taking it out you will find that it bears a strong resemblance to ivory. A C. (Newcastle-upon-Tyne). In all cases it is much more economical to purchase glass in crates than in squares. Before we can tell you the superficial contents in feet of the crate, you must inform us, first, what description of glass you require; and secondly, its particular quality. PAINTER'S APPRENTICE (Glasgow).-Soft soap is prepared in quite a different manner from hard soap, more oil being employed in order to render it liquid; potash, too, is used instead of soda as the alkaline ingredient. Dodd gives the following as the analysis of soft soap of good quality:-alkali, 9 parts; oil and tallow, 42 parts; water, 49 parts: total, 100 parts. L. A.-Mix the colours more than moderately thick, and add as much driers as possible. With regard to the distemper colours, of course the first rule must suffice. AN ODD FELLOW (Caerphilly). It is very strange that we cannot teach our correspondents the difference between the editor and publisher of a work; surely it is as easy to address a letter to the one as the other. If you address a note to Mr. Weale, the architectural publisher, Holborn, he will forward you his catalogue, which contains the names and prices of several works treating on the subject you inquire about. The plates would cost from about halfa-crown upwards. the wooden frame. In order to get over this An Ellustrated Glossary of Technical dilty in the way of their removal, the base Terms used in Architectural and of each line of timbers rests on a series of wedges, so that every blow of the hammer applied to the point of the wedge, tends to facilitate the removal of the centre, and in this way the enormous masses of stone, forming the arches of New London Bridge, were brought into a state of equilibrium in mid-air, and afterwards left to support their own leviathan framework. CHECKY (in heraldry), a border or ordinary having no more than two chequers. COGNIZANCE (in heraldry), the crest. (See Coat-of-Arms.) CONCAMERATE (in architecture), to vault or 36. Pelican CENTERING (in bridge building), the preliminary operation to forming the arch of a bridge. It is effected by placing on the piers lines of partition, as in the figure; he beareth, party per pale argent and gules a bend counterchanged. COUNTER-COMPONED (in heraldry), a border or any ordinary having only two rows of chequers of two different colours. (To be continued.) a framework of wood constructed as in the fol- fashioned like a boat. A BEAUTIFUL ORNAMENT FOR GLASS OR SLATE.-Spread on a plate of glass a few drops of nitrate of silver previously diluted with double its quantity of rain water; place at the bottom of it, and in contact with the fluid, a zinc or copper wire, bent in any form you please, and let the whole remain undisturbed in a horizontal position; in a few hours a beautiful crystallisation of metallic silver will arrange itself around the wire, and continue to increase until the whole of the fluid has completed, it presses with enormous force on been acted on by the wire. No. 37. Vol. II. The Theory of Painting; DEDUCED FROM THE “DISCOURSES" OF SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. (Continued from page 93.) without any determinate object; as it requires no effort of the mind, he sleeps over his work; and those powers of invention and composition which ought particularly to be called out and put in action, lie torpid, and lose their energy for want of exercise. How incapable those are of producing anything of their own, who have spent much of their time in making finished copies, is well known to all who are conversant with the art of painting. To suppose that the complication of powers, and variety of ideas necessary to that mind which aspires to the first honours in the art of painting, can be obtained by the frigid contemplation of a few single models, is no less absurd than it would be in him who wishes to be a poet, to imagine that by translating a tragedy he can acquire to himself sufficient knowledge of the appearances of nature, the operations of the passions, and the incidents of life. THE productions of such minds are seldom distinguished by an air of originality; they are anticipated in their happiest efforts; and if they are found to differ in anything from their predecessors, it is only in irregular sallies and trifling conceits. The more extensive, therefore, the young artist's acquaintance is with the works of those who have excelled the more extensive will be his powers of invention; and what may appear still more like a paradox, the more original will be his conceptions. But the difficulty now is to determine what ought to be proposed as models of excellence, and who ought to be considered as the properest guides. To a young man just arrived in Italy, many of the present painters of that country are ready enough to obtrude their precepts, and The great use in copying, if it be at all useto offer their own performances as examples of ful, should seem to be in learning to colour; that perfection which they affect to recom- yet even colouring will never be perfectly atmend. The modern, however, who recom-tained by servilely coping the model before mends himself as a standard, may justly be suspected as ignorant of the true end, and unacquainted with the proper object, of the art which he professes. To follow such a guide, will not only retard the student, but mislead him. On whom, then, can he rely, or who shall show him the path that leads to excellence? The answer is obvious: those great masters who have travelled the same road with success, are the most likely to conduct others. The works of those who have stood the test of ages have a claim to that respect and veneration to which no modern can pretend. The duration and stability of their fame is sufficient to evince that it has not been suspended upon the slender thread of fashion and caprice, but bound to the human heart by every tie of sympathetic approbation. There is no danger of studying too much the works of those great men; but how they may be studied to advantage, is an inquiry of great importance. you. An eye critically nice can only be formed by observing well-coloured pictures with attention; and by close inspection and minute examination, the student will discover, at last, the manner of handling, the artifices of contrast, glazing, and other expedients, by which good colourists have raised the value of their tints, and by which nature has been so happily imitated. An It must be noted, however, that old pictures, deservedly celebrated for their colouring, are ofton so changed by dirt and varnish, that we ought not to wonder if they do not appear equal to their reputation in the eyes of inexperienced painters or young students artist whose judgment is matured by long observation, considers rather what the picture once was, than what it is at present. He has by habit acquired a power of seeing the brilliancy of tints through the cloud by which it is obscured. An exact imitation, therefore, of those pictures, is likely to fill the student's mind with false opinions, and to send him back a colourist of his own formation, with ideas equally remote from nature and from art, from the genuine practice of the masters, and the Following these rules, and using these precautions, when the student has clearly and distinctly learned in what good colouring consists, he cannot do better than have recourse to nature herself, who is always at hand, and in comparison of whose true splendour the best coloured pictures are but faint and feeble. Some who have never raised their minds to the consideration of the real dignity of the art, and who rate the works of an artist in proportion as they excel or are defective in the me-real appearances of things. chanical parts, look on theory as something that may enable them to talk but not to paint better; and confining themselves entirely to mechanical practice, very assiduously toil! on in the drudgery of copying, and think they make a rapid progress while they faithfully exhibit the minutest part of a favourite picture. This is a very tedious and erroneous However, as the practice of copying is not method of proceeding. Of every large com- entirely to be excluded, since the mechanical position, even of those which are most ad-practice of painting is learned in some meamired, a great part may truly said to be com- sure by it, let those choice parts only be selecmonplace. This, though it takes up much time ted which have recommended the work to in copying, conduces little to improvement. notice. If its excellence consists in its general General copying can only be considered as a effect, it would be proper to make slight delusive kind of industry; the student satisfies sketches of the machinery and general manhimself with the appearance of doing some-agement of the picture. Those sketches should thing; he falls into the dangerous habit of always be kept at hand for the regulation of imitating without selecting, and of labouring the student's style. Instead of copying the Chinese Canals, &c. touches of those great masters, copy only their conceptions; instead of treading in their footsteps, let him endeavour only to keep the same road; let him labour to invent on their Or the external civilisation of China, we have general principles and way of thinking; let him possess himself with their spirit; and consider with himself how a Michael Angelo or a Raphael would have treated the subject; and work himself into a belief that his picture is to be seen and criticised by them when completed. Even an attempt of this kind will rouse his powers. But as mere enthusiasm will carry him but a little way, we will recommend a practice that may be equivalent to, and will perhaps more efficaciously contribute to his advancement, than even the verbal corrections of those masters themselves, could they be obtained. What we would propose is, that he should enter into a kind of competition, by painting a similar subject, and making a companion to any picture that he considers as a model. After he has finished his work, let him place it near the model, and compare them carefully together. He will then not only see but feel his own deficiencies more sensibly than by precepts or any other means of instruction. The true principles of painting will mingle with his thoughts. Ideas thus fixed by sensible objects, will be certain and definite; and sinking deep into the mind, will not only be more just but more lasting than those presented to him by precepts only; which will always be fleeting, variable, and undetermined. the construction of so many canals that intera striking proof and a standing monument in sect the whole country, and in everything connected therewith. As the extraordinary fertility of the soil is produced by the many rivers of greater or less magnitude that intersect the country, but which, at the same time, threaten the flat plains with inundation, it is the first object and most important care of government to avert the danger of such inun-| dations, to distribute the fertilising waters in equal abundance over the whole country, and thus, by means of canals, to maintain in all parts the communication by water, which is, at the same time, of equal benefit and importance to industry and internal commerce. In no civilised state are establishments of this kind so extensively diffused and brought to so high a state of perfection as in China. The great Imperial Canal, which extends to the length of 120 geographical leagues, has, it is said, no parallel on the earth. Although the construction of canals, and all the regulations on water carriage could have attained by degrees only to their present state of perfection, still this alone would prove the very early attention which this people had bestowed on the arts of civilised life. Mention is often made of them in the old Chinese histories and imperial annals; and the canals of China, like the Nile in Egypt, were ever the objects of most anxious solicitude to the government. These annals, whenever they have occasion to speak of those great inundations and destructive floods which are of such frequent occurrence in Chinese history, invariably represent the attention bestowed on water-courses and water regulations as the most certain mark of a wise, benevolent, and provident administration. On the other hand, the neglect of this most important of administrative concerns is ever regarded as the proof of a wicked, reckless, and unfortunate reign; and in these histories some great calamity, or even violent catastrophe, is sure to follow, like a stroke of divine vengeance, on this unpardonable neglect of duty. Together with the Imperial Canal, the great Chinese wall, which extends on the northern frontier of China Proper, to the length of 150 geographical leagues, is another no less important and still standing monument of the comparatively high civilisation which this country had very early attained. Such is the height and thickness of this wall, that it Most students must have experienced how has been calculated that its cubic contents lazily, and consequently how ineffectually, in- exceed all the mass of stone employed in all struction is received when forced upon the the buildings in England and Scotland; or, mind by others. Few have been taught to any again, that the same materials would serve to purpose, who have not been their own construct a wall of ordinary height and teachers. We prefer those instructions which moderate thickness round the whole earth!we have given ourselves, from our affection to Frederick Von Schlegel's "Philosophy of the instructor; and they are more effectual, History." from being received into the mind at the very time when it is most open and eager to receive them. This method of comparing his own efforts with those of some great master, is indeed a severe and mortifying task, to which none will submit but such as have great views, with fortitude sufficient to forego the gratifications of present vanity for future honour. When the student has succeeded in some measure to his own satisfaction, and has felicitated himself on his success, to go voluntarily to a tribunal where he knows his vanity must be humbled, and all self-approbation must vanish, he requires not only great resolution but great humility. To him, however, who has the ambition to be a real master, the solid satisfaction which proceeds from a consciousness of his advancement (of which seeing his own faults is the first step), will very abundantly compensate for the mortification of present disappointment. There is, besides, this alleviating circumstance. Every discovery he makes, every acquisition of knowledge he attains, seems to proceed from his own sagacity; and thus he acquires a confidence in himself sufficient to keep up the resolution of perseverance. (To be continued.) UTRECHT CHURCH.-This curious old structure has been burnt down, through defects in the stoves it is thought. |