The Press. — London, England, 1857-04-18 00:00:00

394 CRYS TAL PALACE. SEASON 1857-R. PROGRAMME. rThe Directors beg to announce that they have made the fol lowing arrangements for the ensuing season:— ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA CONCERTS. ......_ _ _ The SEASON will commence on FRIDAY, the let of May, 1857, with a GRAND MORNING CONCERT, by the artistes of the Royal Italian Opera. These concerts having been honoured last year by such general approbation, the Directors have entered Into arrangements with Mr. Gye to give a similar series of Twelve Concerts during the present season. These concerts will be supported by the following celebrated artistes:—Madame Grisi, Mademoiselle Rosa Devries. Made moiselle Mani, Mademoiselle Didiee, Mademoiselle Parepa, and Madame Bosio; Signor Mario, Signor Ronconi, Signor Neri•Baraldi, Signor Gardoni, Signor Graziani, Herr Formes, Signor Tagliaftco, Monsieur Zelger, Signor Polonini, and Sig nor Lablache. The grand orchestra of the Royal Italian Opera, with addi tional performers, and also the celebrated chorus, are engaged for the whole series. The musical direction of the whole is in the hands of ➢lr. Costa, who will himself conduct a portion of the concerts. With the above assemblage of artistes, it. is hardly necessary for the Directors to state that the performances will be of the highest class, and capable of very great variety. The concerts will take place on the following Fridays, viz. : May Ist, Bth, 13th, 22nd, 29th; Juue sth, 26th ; July 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th, 31st. The space allotted to the concert•rooin last year (extensive as it was) having been found quite inadequate to accommodate the audiences, the Directors have this season determined to give the concerts in the Great Transept. The two-guinea season tickets will be available for these con certs. Transferable tickets will also be issued for each concert at 7s. Gd. each, which tickets can be obtained at the Company's offices, or of any of the agents. In compliance with a desire which was universally expressed last season, a limited number of reserved stalls will be set apart, which may be taken for the series of Twelve Concerts at One Guinea each stall, or at half-a-crown each for a single concert. IL CONCERT of the COLOGNE CHORAL UNION. The Directors have made arrangements with Mr. Mitchell for the services of the Cologne Choral Union (Coiner M inner Ge• sangverein), whose performances on their former visit have attracted enthusiastic aJmiration, fur a Concert in the Centre Transept of the Palace, on Saturday, tho 6th of June. N.B. Both classes of tumult tickets will be available for this concert. Iff. GRAND WATERWORKS. The displays of the vast system of fountains, cascades, and jets d'eaux will be resumed, and continued during the whole season. The upper system will play daily as heretofore; and the entire display, embracing the fountains of the grand basins, the water•temples, the cascades, and the whole of the upper fountains, on occasions to be from time to lime announced. IV. FLOWER SHOWS. There will be two grand horticultural and floricultural fetes during the present season:— The first on Saturday, the 30th of May; and The second on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, the 9th, 10th, and 11th of September. The prize list for the latter occasion includes special prizes to amateurs. V. POULTRY SHOWS. There will be Two Showa in the course of the coming season. The Summer Show will take place on the 7th, Bth, 10th, 11th, and 12th of August. The Winter Show on the 9th, 11th, 12th, and 19th of January, I8;x4. The schedules of the prizes, and copies of the regulations at both the Flower and Poultry Shows, are now ready, and may be had ou application. VI. GENERAL ARRANGF.SIENTS of the BUILDING. EXHIBITIONS OF PICTUREB.—The picture gallery, formed during the past year in the north wing of the Palace, has proved so successful in its capabilities for the effective display of paint ings, that it is the intention of the Directors to hold therein during the present season two exhibitions of the works of living painters of all schools. Particular attention has been given to the foreign schools of painting, and arrangements have been made which the Direc tors believe will insure an exhibition of these works at once of great extent and of first-class quality. The first of these exhibitions will open in May, and continue open during the summer. The second will be a winter exhibition. Exhibitions of photogrephs will also be held in the upper portion of the picture gallery from time to time during the season. _ CERAMIC COURT.—The Directors are desirous to take the present opportunity of expressing their acknowledgments for the kind and ready manner in which their requests for loans for the Ceramic Court were responded to by the owners of collec tions of porcelain and pottery of the most rare, fragile, and valuable descriptions. But for the confidence thus placed in them it would have been impossible for the Directors to have formed the collection now displayed in the Ceramic Court; a collection admitted by all to be unrivalled, and on which the highest encomiums have been universally bestowed. It is very gratifying to the Directors to be able to say that the further aid offereu them is such as will enable them to continue the Ceramic Court, for the present season, with a number of additional specimens, exemplifying the capabilities of the art in its most elaborate branches. The collection will be, as before, under the superintendence of Mr. Thomas Battam, F.S.A. INDIAN COURT AND GALLERY OF ENGINEERING MODELS.— In each of these departments the Directors have to acknow ledge assistance of the same gratifying nature ■s that in the Ceramic Court. By public companies and institutions, as well as by private individuals, the Directors have been intrusted with the moat valuable and beautiful models, with costly carvings and works In ivory and bronze, fabrics, and works of art, granted with a liberality and readiness for which they cannot sufficiently express their obligations. They have thus been enabled mate ;tally to improve the Indian Court, and also to form a collection of Models of Engineering Works, illustrating iii a very com plete manner that great branch of British skill and enterprise, surpassing any other now accessible to the public. It will give the Directors great pleasure to receive any further contribu. tons with which they may be favoured. THE NAVAL 1111:81:USI.—Ttie exhibition under this denomina tion in the first and second galleries of the north transept, fronting the garden, now contains about three hundred models of Ships, Boats, and Vessels, of all descriptions, affording an illustration of the progressive improvement in British Naval Architecture and Navigation during a period of three hundred and forty years. It also contains specimens of new inventions connected with the improvement of navigation. The Directors beg here also to acknowledge the ready and extensive assistance which they have received from ship•ownere, ship-builders, engineers, and shipping companies, in forming this very interesting and national collection, and at the same time solicit the further aid of all parties who may have the limas of extending it. THE PRESS. WATER TOWERS. —The Great Towers are now completed, and arrangements have been made by which, for a small charge, visitors to the Palace can ascend them and enjoy the extensive view from the balconies, where powerful telescopes are about to be placed. MAMMOTH TREE.—An object of great interest has lately been added to the contents of the Palace, which will remain on exhi bition during the whole of the coming season. The object alluded to is a portion of the trunk of the Wellingtonia Gigantee, or Mammoth Tree, being the largest of the group of those trees discovered in California. The portion erected in the Tropical Transept, opposite the Abet Simbel figures, is no less than 103 feet in height, and 82 feet in diameter at the base. EXHIBITING DEPARTMENT.—AIIIOIIgSI the branches of industry which now find important illustration in this department, may be mentioned the manufacture of Gold and Silver work and Electroplate, both domestio and artistic; Vulcanite and India Rubber generally; Colour Printing and Typography; Papier Mache, Ornamental Iron, Fancy Goods, and other productions of Birmingham; Domestic Furniture, Church Furniture, In atone, wood, metal, and fabric; Hardware generally, and espe cially the productions of Sheffield, iu the court tilled by the manufacturers of that important centre of industry. CANADIAN COURT.—The arrangements announced on a former occasion with the Government of Canada are now, the Directors are happy to report, complete. The Government of Canada have undertaken to form and maintain iu the Palace a collection which shall completely set forth the condition of the manufac tures and other intinatry and resources of that important colony. At a time when so much public attention is being directed to Canada, such a collection cannot but be both interesting and useful to those who may be intending to make that country their residence, as well as to those who have commercial relations therewith. In the circumstance that the collection has been originated and undertaken by the Canadian Government itself, and that a large sum of money has been voted for the purpose of its creation and maintenance, a guarantee is afforded to the British public that it will be thoroughly welt carried out, and be a real representation of the commerce of the colony. The collection will be placed in the large court lying between the News-room and the Stationary Court, immediately aijoining both the Nave and Centre Transept, and at present occupied by the sculpture of the German school. RAW PRODUCE COLLECTION, AND TRADE MUSEUM.—Ihe Technological portion of this department is rapidly approaching completion. It will comprise illustrations of all the chief manufactures of the United Kingdom; and specimens of the products, animal, vegetable, and mineral, of Great Britain and the colonies, as well as dottier countries. It is believed that it will be open to the public in the course of the present summer. _ The Department is situated in the second gallery on the garden side of the Great Transept. MACHINERY IN MOTION.—The Machinery will be In action during the season at such times as will be announced in the detailed advertisements. The Machinery now in the Depart ment comprises a complete set of machinery for Spinning, Carding, Warping, Sizing, Weaving, and all the other processes fur the manufacture of Cotton goods from the bale to the thread, and from the thread to the finished piece, by Walker and Hack ing, and Harrison and Co. ; Lathes, Shaping-machines, self acting Planing, Drilling, and other machinery, by Whitworth, Muir, Harrison and Co., Else, and others; Condiea Steam Hammer; Woods' Carpet Loom; Winding Machinery, by Clark, of Leicester ; Centrifugal Pumps. by Appold, and Gwynne and Sons; Centrifugal Sugar and Drying Machines, by Man love and Alliott; Steam Engines, by Goodfellow, Dunn Hattersley and Co., and others; Marine Engines with Screw Propeller, by Tod anu M'Gregor ; and a great variety of other machines. AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY.—The Department of Agricul tural Machinery and Implements has been considerably im proved dunng the past year. Specimens will be found there of the Portable Steam Engines and all the other new machines of the chief manufacturers, and purchases can be made at the same prices as at the warehouses of the makers. The stock is con tinually receiving additions, and every means are taken to make it a perfect representation of the state of one of the most im portant branches of modern industry. Its:AntNo-itoost.—The Company's Reading and News Room is situated close to the Centre Transept, between it and the Ger man Sculpture Court. It contains all the Morning Journals; the Weekly Papers, Metropolitan and Provincial ; and all the Periodicals and Magazines. In addition to this, advertisements and copies of new work s, both British and foreign, are displayed immediately after pub lication. FANCY FAIRS.—The Directors are prepared to afford accom modation to benevolent and other societies, for holding fancy fairs in the Palace during the season. CRICKET, ARCHERY, AND THE GROUNDS GENERALT,Y.—It gives the Directors great pleasure to announce that the Cricket ground is now complete, and that it will be thoroughly in order for the approaching summer. Great care has been taken in the formation 4* the ground, and they believe that it will be found fully equal in extent and excellence to any other iu the neigh. bourhood of London. The will be continued, as before, in the northern portion of the grounds, behind the Picture Gallery Wing. Considerable progress has been made towards the completion of the ornamental grounds in the lower portion of the Perk, in the vicinity of the Cricket-ground and the Lower Lake : waste parts have been cultivated, snrubberies planted, and new walks made, and the whole rendered much more agreeable and con venient of access than it was last season. VII. SEASON TICKETS. The Directors have determined upon continuing the price of Season Tickets of admission at the following rates, viz.:- I. SEASON TICKETS NOT TRANSFERABLE), AVAILABLE FROM IST MAY, 1837, TO 30TH ♦PRIL, 1858, TWO GUINEAS EACH. These tickets will admit the holder— To the whole of the Twelve Opera Concerts. To the Concert of the Cologne Choral Union on the 6th June. To the Flower Shows on May 90 and Sept. 9, 10, and 11. To all the displays of the Grand Fountains. To the Poultry Shows on August 7,8, 9, 10, and 11, and On all ordinary days—in fact, on every occasion between May 1. 1857, and April 30, 1858, on which the Palace is open—the four days of the Handel Festival, viz., the 13th, 15th, 17th, and 19th June, only excepted. 11. REASON TICKETS (NOT TRANSFERABLE), AVAILABLE FROM IST MAT, 1857 , TO 30SII APRIL, 1658, ONE GUINEA EACH. . - These tickets admit the holder on all the occas ions named above, excepting the Opera Concerts, and the other Fridays throughout the year, and the 13th, 15th, 17th, and 19th June, being the four days of the Handel Festival. The tickets will be issued on and after the 20th instant, and may be obtained at the Crystal Palace; at the offices of the Company, 70, Lombard-street; at the offices of the London and Brighton Railway Company, London bridge, and Regent-circus, Piccadilly ; Central Handel Festival Ticket Office, Exeter-hall ; and at the following agents to the Company : H. A. Bebbington, 42C, Strand; George A. Calder, 1, Bathurst street Hyde-park-gardens; Cramer, Beale, and Co., 201, Regent.street ; Duff and Hodgson, 6S, Oxford-street; M. Ham mond and Nephew, 27, Lombard-street; W. H. Henniugham and Co., 5, Mount-street, Grosvenor•square ; Keith, Promo, and SATURDAY, Co., 4R, Cheapside ; Letts, Son, and Co., 8, Royal Exchange; Mead and Powell, Railway Arcade, London-bridge ; .1. Mitchell, 33, Old Bond-street; W. R. Sams, T. St. Jamea's-street ; John Henry Smith, !2, Gresham-street, Bank ; W. R. Stephens, 33, Throgmorton•street; Charles Westerton, 20, SL George's -place, Knightsbridge. Remittances for Season Tickets to be by post-office orders, payable to George Grove. VEIL GREAT HANDEL FESTIVAL. It gives the Directors great gratilleation to be able to an. nounce that they have entered into arrangements with tha Sacred Harmonic Society for a Grand Series of Three Per formances of Handel's Oratorios, to take place in the Centre Transept of the Palace in the month of June. Her Majesty and H.R.H. Prince Albert have been graciously pleased to extend their especial patronage to the Festival, and have expressed their intention of honourin; it with their presence. The performances on this great occasion will be on the most gigantic scale, far exceeding anything of a similar nature hither. to proposed or carried out in this or any other country. The Orchestra will number upwards of 2,500 executants, including all the principal performers, vocal and instrumental, and an immense reinforcement of amateurs from the musical societies of the metropolis, the provincial towns and districts, and other sources. An organ of great power has just been constructed by the well•known builders, Gray and Davison, expressly for the festival, and its erection in the Palace is now rapidly pro ceeding. The Directors have much pleasure in stating that Mr. Costa has accepted the office of Conductor. . The Oratorios performed will be the three most celebrated masterpieces of Handel : " The Messiah," on Monday, June 15. "Judas Maccabeus," on Wednesday, June 17. " Israel in Egypt," on Friday, June 19. The Festival will form the subject of an entirely separate Pub. act iption. and the Annual Season Tickets of the Crystal Palace will not be available for any of the performances. The price of stalls on the floor of the Palace, reserved and numbered, is fixed at One Guinea each, for each Oratorio. If taken as a set, for the whole three at one time, Two Guineas and a Half. A :invited number of reserved stalls will be set apart in the Galleries, which will be disposed of in sets, i.e. for the whole three Oratorios, at Five Guineas per set. By a " set" is meant a ticket securing one stall for the whole of the three performances. These tickets will be transferable. Tickets may now be secured at the Handel Festival Ticket Office, N 0.2, in Exeter-hall ; at the Crystal Palace ; and at the Temporary Offices of the Company, 79, Lombard-street. Further particulars will be announced from time to time. IX.—RATES OF ADMISSION, RAILWAY ARRANGE. MENTS, dm. ORDINARY BATES 01 , ADMISSION.---These remain as before, viz:__ _ _ _ On Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursday; and Fridays On Saturdays Children under le • of --- Half ' years of age - The Palace will be opened on Mondays at 9 a.m.; on Tuesdays, Wednesdays. Thursdays, and Fridays at 1U : excepting on the days of the Concerts by the Opera Company, on which days it will be opened at 1 o'clock, and on Saturdays at 12 ; closing daily about sunset. BRIGHTON RAILWAY.—During the season, the trains of the Loudon and Brighton Railway Company will leave London bridge F tido!' every half hour, and during busy days every quarter of an hour, from 9 o'clock a.m. till dusk, returning (rota the Palace at the same intervals throughout the day. (For exact times of starting, see the Railway Company's time tables.) Return fares, including admission to the Palace -Ist Class. 2nd Class. 3rd Class. On Shilling Days .... 2s. 6d. 2s. ud. Is. Ad. Ou Half-Crown Days . 4s. Od. 3s. 6d. Ss. 9d. Children under 11 years of age Half-price. WESr•END RAtt.waY.—The opening of this line to the Wands- worth Station has already been attended with great convenience to visitors to the Palace, and it is with much pleasure that the Directors anticipate the completion of the whole line to the Sloane-street, Station, as well as the junction with the main line of the South-Western Railway at the Clapham-common Station, in the course of the coining season. An access will thus be opened for the residents iu Hyde-park, Belgravia, and Bromp ton, and the other West-end districts, as well as for the neigh bourhoods of Richmond, Windsor, and Hamptnn•court, by which great economy of time will be effected, and still further convenience afforded to the public, MID•SENT litatvity.—The portion of this line from the station of the South Eastern Railway at London-bridge to Beckenham has been opened, and the extension to the Crystal Palace Station will be shortly completed, whereby an easy ac cess will be afforded to the residents in the Lewisham and Blackheath districts. _._-- EXCURSlONS.—Arrangements have been made by which be. nevoleut societies, schools, and other large bodies may visit the Palace at the following reduced rates :—applying only to shilling days and third•clasa carriages. For a number of excursionists s. d. a. d. over 210 and under 54 1 3 per head instead of 1 8 Exceeding 600 and under 730 1 2 „ 1 6 Exceeding 710 and under 1,000 1 1 „ 1 6 Exceeding 1,000 Children, half-price. (Signed) ARTHUR ANDERSON, Chairman. JAMES FERGUSSON, General Manager. GREAT HANDEL FESTIVAL.-CRYSTAL PA LAC E.—Vouchers exchanged and Tickets on sale on and after Monday, April 20. The Tickets, lettered in blocks re served, and numbered as Stalls, price One Guinea each, or for the TI lasi Oratorios, Two Guineas and a Half, with block plans, may be obtained, on and after Monday, April 20, at the Crystal Palace ; the Temporary Offices of the Company, 79, Lombard street; or at the Central Handel Festival Ticket Office, Lower Hall, E:xeter.hall, from ten till four o'clock daily. The NewiSeason Prospectus and Season Tickets, as well as Single Tickets fur the First Royal Italian Opera Concert on the let of May, are also ready for issue at the same places. Posteoffiee orders to be made payable to George Grove. Vouchers may be exchanged either personally or by letter. HORT icuuru RAL IMPLEMENTS and GARDEN TOOLS of every description for the amateur or practical gardener, and of warranted quality. Deane, Dray and Co., have prepared for the present season a new lxims- TRATED PRICED LIST of the above (to be obtained gratis OR application, or post free), including Lawn Mowing Machines, Garden Engines, Boyd's Patent Self-acting and Vulcan Scythes, Garden Rollers (from 30r.), Flower Stands, Garden Seats, kc. Galvanised Game Nett•ng from td. per yard. Ornamental Wire Work made to order, Garden Arches, Flower Baskets, ttc. London agents fur Lingham's Permanent Labels. price from Is. per box, containing 1(ig; also Sayuor's celebrated Pruning Knives. Deane, Dray and Co., (opening to the Monument), London Bridge, E.C. Established, A.P. 1700.