Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1879-12-20
How to Fill the Home Portfolio.

How TO Fill the Home Portfolio.
Among the large number OF people who have
sufficient feeling for art to wish to I'LL their
homes with pictures, but not sufficient money
to buy good paintings, a portfolio OF wood en-
cravings is becoming the thing. This is well
For the human face, and for pictures of statues,
steel will continue to give much pleasure, but
for general engraving its days OF usefulness are
drawing to close. The general chrome, also,
has done its work, and may be dismissed with
out pang. We would say without Prang II
the pun were not low kind Of wit. People
who once put the perennial 'svillage Black
smith" and the ubiquitous "Falstaf mastering
his Recruits" on their walls are now filling port
folios from the disemboweled pages OF Illus
trated magazines. The growing popularity OF
wood engravings is healthful sign. There is
better art In them, at their best, than In any
other cheap pictures.
Against the intrinsic merit Of the Village
Blacksmith, the Falstaff, and all the class OF
standard engravings to which they belong, we
have not word to say. We would simply re
mind those looking for engravingS that fire.
Quently the more one costs the less it is worth.
The market price no more indicates their value
to the collector than the price of ones pew il
dlcateS the value of his religion. An engraving,
however good, which sells so we'll that it Is in
the windows of dealers, and on the walls of
nine OF your friends, creates ennui rather than
interest when you find it on the wall of tenth
friend-or In his portfolio Its intrinsic value is
the same in the last case as in the first. 1t
ceases to be interesting to most people as soon
as 1t becomes common. Yet we have known
some good Christian women, OF both sexes, who
have been educated up to the purchase of a
nv
everybody else. Assuming that no one will
preserve a poor picture simply because 1t is
novel, the first consideration should be to get
that which nobody else has Your friend will be
entertained by your collection If he never saw
one OF the engravings before, when he would
yawn over collection of better ones If he had
seen them everywhere.
Those publications having a sufficiently high
standard of work which are dead should be the
mines to seek-the Aldi,ae, and Eoe,y SATURDAY,
for instance. The latter, when it started in Bos-
ton. reproduced the best work of the London
Graphic. Old numbers of the AldHle are fire.
quently met with in the second-h hand shops.
Sc1fbne1', for two or three years past, has had
now and then gem, and occasionally 81. Nic1to-
las has one. Harper within year has had
some engravings equally good. Those who now
for the first time mount this hobby, preparatory
to mounting their pictures, will find their first
difficulty in knowing a thing when they see 1t.
For those who don't know thing when they
see it there is no help. They must learn, and
there is no royal road. A trained eye will
seize what novice would not think OF.
printed page is not a sufficient guide. Not
how it looks there, but how it will look when
transplanted and subjected to a certain treat
ment for which the artist never intended it, Is
the question. The collector who knows his
business viii pass over, with sigh, what he
sees Is the most exquisite work. simply because
he also sees at a glance that he cannot adapt it
to his purpose. He knows by experience, and
can know in no other way, what pictures will
be shorn of their beauty II he touches them and
what ones will yield the best effect when pre-
pared for the portfolio. If any one SuppoSeS
that he can select the engravings, and so mount
them that his portfolio will give delight to a
good judge, unless he has educated himself by
years of intelligent and loving observation, and
by some practice in actually handling engrav-
ings, he is mistaken. Still portfolio may do
much good without being very good. Many q
one will look like field of slaughter, filled with
the mangled remains of many beautiful form
now destroyed forever, and yet the author of it
will have learned much that he needed to know
Notwithstanding this melancholy result.
To those who have smashed their old china,
and are now ready for wood-engraying craze,
we would impart a few words of instruction. beg
gtng the pardon of those who know more about
1t than we do and assuming that there will be
but too many who know less. Before you slash
into page to get out the picture, try to think
just how you rant 1t to look in the middle of an
ample sheet OF dull gray. AS rule it should
not be cut absolutely down to the engraving.
white line, varying from the twentieth to the
eighth of an inch in width should generally be
preserved around the whole. Many choice en-
cravings will have to be thrown away because
they cannot be properly cut-those that have
Irregular edges. In Harper and iSctibne,'
there is often gray rim, like frame.
his is good, but even here perceptible line OF
white should generally be preserved outside the
gray rim. Don't attempt to do anything with
briStolboard. The drying of the paste will
cause it to shrivel somewhere. What is known
to every paper-dealer as photographers board
is the proper thing. 1t should be of the usual
gray tint. White board is not to be thought Of
Gum tragacantn, found at any drug store for
ten cents an ounce, is the proper paste. II pro-
perry applied, with fiat brush in good light,
It Vii not exude at the edges Of the picture; and
If 1t does, Instantly remove the emulation with
the point Of a knife and delicate touch. Don't
be sttngy Of your board-the pictures want wide
margins. If the pictures are properly selected
properly trimmed, and perfectly mounted, they
do not often want line drawn around them
but If you do this, use India-ink and ruling
pen. Don't undertake it in the presence of your
family, and don't forget how they do things in
Danbury