The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1868-01-17

His catalogue now embraces large num-
Der of Album Cards, about seventy sets
of twelve in each set beautiful series
of Illuminated "Beatitudes" and "Scrip-
tural Notices )" an endless list of our
great r1en, and of men not 80 great after
all ofjdvcniles, notably, prpfusely IL
Illustrated edition of "Old Mother Hub
bard ) and of half chromos aud clro,n6s
proper. TAit's "Chickeu's," "Duek-
ings,' aud "Qua,ls," were the first chro
mos that met an instant aud wide recog.
nition. Niue'een thousand copies of the
"Chickens" alone were sold Bricher's
Early Autumn On Esopus Creek" is on
OF the best chromos ever ma e on small
scale The "BllGnch' and the Lin
net" CATER Cruikshank) are admirable,
There are other chromos' which are less
successful, and one or two that are not
successful at all !; but they are nearly all
excellent copies of the original, with which
the defects must be charged.
The chromos of Bricher's paintings are
really wonderfully accurate. -
Mr.. Prang's masterpiece, however, is
not yet published, although it is nearly
ready for the market. 1t entirely sur
passes all his previous efforts. 1t is Cor
reggio's "MAaDALENA," and can hardly
fail, We think, to command q1ick sale
and hearty recognition. -f1-.. 3,
Like every m pdern discovery, chrome.
lithography has its partisans and detract-
ors-those who claim for it perhaps i'm
possible capabilities, and those who re-.
gard it as a mere handicraft, which no
skill can elevate into the dignity of an
art. We do not care to enter into these
disputes. Whether an art or handicraft,
chromo'llthography certainly re- produces
charming little pictures vastly superior
to any colored plates that we have had
before and it is, at least. clearly en-.
titled to be regarded as means of ed
ucating the popular taste, and thereby
raising the national Zeal of art.
A correspondent, looking at chromos
from this point of view, thus indicates Git
may be somewhat enthusiastically their
possible influence on The culture of the
people 1920 :@M'2 ~ 'tig' @
"What the discovery of the art of
printing did for the mental growth of the
people, the art of chrome ithography
seems destined to accomplish for their
aesthetic culture. Before types were first
made, scholars and the weather. classes
had ample opportunities for study for
even when Bibles were chaoad in the
churches, and copies of the Scriptures
(then aptly SO styled were worth herd
of cattle, there were large ibraries ac-
cesslble to the aristocracy of rank aud
mind. But they were guarded against
the masses by the double doors of priv
ilege and ignorance. A book possessed
no attractions for the man who could not
read the alphabet and, because they
were rare and haid to get at, he had no
Indictment to master their mysteries.-
Made cheap and common, the meanest
peasant in the course of few genera.
tons, found solace for his grefs 10 the
pages of the greatest authors of his times
and of all time. Mental culture became
possible for whole nations and democra-
cy, with its illimitable blessings, gradual
ly grew up under the little shadow Of tue
first "prlnter's proof
"Uutl WITHIN quite recent period. art
has been ieu1al in its associations. Gal
leries of priceless paintings, indeed, there
have always been 10 certain favored cities
and countries but to the people, as
whole, they have been equally inaccessi.
BILE and uuappreciated, because no previous
training had taught the community how
to prize them 1t was like Harvard Col
lege without the district SCHOOL, planet
without. satellites, and too far removed
from the world of the people for its light
to shine in the cottage and 10 the homes
of the masses.
Snow, chromo,lithography, although
still in it's infancy, promises to diffuse not
a love of art merely among the people at
large, but to disseminate the choicest
masterpieces of art itself. 1t is art re-
publicanized and naturalize1' in America.
Its attempts hitherto have been compare.
| lively unambitious but it was not Ho
| mer and Plato that were first honored by
the printing press. 1t was dreary cate
! chisms of dreary creeds So will it be
with this new art. AS the popular taste
improves, the subjects will be wortbier of
an art which seeks to give back to man
kind what has hitherto been confined to
tha fawv ~