Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-08-05
ss EHuIll', Furniture.

Indian first and nature afterward.
----->e~--
ssBuhl'' Furniture.
From tie Builder.
Much interest has been excited by the very
large sums that have been recently realized at
the sale of the Hamilton Palace collection by
several specimens of the cabinet-makers art.
and among them number Of pieces Of the work
commonly known as I" Bull" At time when
our most respected authorities have been striv-
ing their utmost TO call the attention and ad-
miration of the public to the work of artists of
earlier days and their purer and more refined
creations such an event as the sale for thousands
Of pounds of pieces Of furniture belonging to
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuresis some
what calculated to disturb the minds of the less
thoughtful public. OF the less thoughtful, we
say. because there exists reasons why such sums
should be paid for the choice cabinets, the secre-
taires. the cOnimodes and the tables, which have
recentlyrealized at the Hamilton sale such incred
ible prices. Putting aside all rigorous standards
above all the artist should in his admiration
be as eclectic as he is the very opposite In his
creatlOns-putting aside. we repeat. all esthetic
standards. how is it possible to deny that these
works were produced in the true spirit, however
degraded. as we shall be told the designs and
traditions may have been On which artists such
as Boulle and Riesener worked? To what mon
strOsities of socalled industrial art has not the
name OF the former of these two artists been
given ? "Buhl" work as it is enormously termed
by Us. has long since, in England at least, re-
ceived at the hands of our leaders in taste an
amount of quiet abuse which, with all but those
who do not merely allow themselves to be led
by the opinions of others, has banShed forever
from the homes of those who respect themselves
any creations of the reign of the fourteenth
Louis. In France, however, such prejudices are
not allowed to influence people OF taste, and the
memory OF BOulle as an artist good workman,
one of the glOries of the grand steele. and as a
collector of the works Of art, is not entirely for
gotten. though there. almost as much as with
ourselves. his memory has been SO associated
with the work which is known Familiarity by his
name, that its connection with it's creator has
been overlooked, and me,tbleS de bOule are
spoken OF by our neighbors in much the same
manner as we on our side speak of "Buhl
work.
1t is only when one has had the opportunity
OF seeing and studying fine specimen Of genu-
Inc BOulle work, that the superiority of the
original to the limitations which bear his name
can be thoroughly appreciated. There is
sobriety of tone and treatment, of line and pro-
portion. grandeur of style, balance of light
and shade. of dark and light, of bright and dull,
of brass and white metal (pewter), of tortoise
shell and lacquer, which will be found to be alb
sent from the work of his successors and imita-
tors, and utterly wanting in the coarse. crude
abortions which have been at all times forced on
the public attention under the deceptive title of
'Buh work. When we add to his merit as a
designer and a delicate appreciation of the work
Of others. his merit as good workman whose
productions without need Ofrepar, are as stout
in the present Gay. after geo years of USE as they
were the day they were made, it may be fairly
conceded, even by the sternest rgOrist, that An
Dire Boule worked in what is understood as the
true spirit. Not only in its construction, but in
every feature, in the choice of the materials, in
the chasing and gliding and the marquetry, his
work will be found to be of the honestest. very
different to the modern rubbish that passes
under his name, where false tortoise shell. made
of horn or eelatine; false mother-Of-pearl box
or horn instead of ivory; brass or even zinc lac
qucred ornament tackled on to ill-made ioinery
usurp the place of true work, whose only fault
was that it was produced in period when the
traditions of art were on the decline When
BOulle used wood it was ebony, which the cab
ipet-makers, his successors, on the plea of it's
difficulty in working, in taking the glue or the
varnish-BOule never used varnist-and other
reasons replaced with stained pear-wOOd. In
the choice Of his woods BOulle showed the eX-
tremest care, and one of his severest blows was
his loss by the fire that destroyed his collection
OF prints, OF quantity OF rare woods which he
had, we learn from the inventory he made at
the time, long stored by to season. The bronze
he used was honestly chiselled and chased and
gilt, not lacquered, and each ornament was
design not stamped out.
1t is somewhat sad and calculated to rouse re-
Election. the difference between the spirit in
which Boulle produced his work and that in
which his successors now produce theirs-the
relative position of the sO-called Industrial arts
in the present day compared with those even of
his time. two hundred years ago. The work.
man In the past was an artist BOulle not to
mention many others of an earlier period, was
an artist; he conceived his own designs; he drew
them out (his patent is given him in his name
not only as a cabinet-maker, but as an architect
and sculptor); he executed everything with his
own hand,-he was a chaser. engraver and
glider; he was, as we see, a man of cultivated
tastes into the bargain.
The division of labor. with its inevitable result
OF work without intelligence, without good
faith, has made the modern workman what he
Is generally called mere machine; he is in
reality only wheel off machine. Talent can
not be said to be wanting, nor the inducements
which capital and reward are supposed to afford.
II Boulle himself were to return, we strongly
suspect he would have no opportunity to show
his power. In the first place he would find it
impossible to devote the time to his work that
he required two centuries ago to elaborate his
creations. Hasty production, with view to the
hasty acquiring of fOrtunes-tO rival, apparently,
other competitors who in their branches have
acquired equally hastily gotten gains-would
thwart the best endeavOrs of the artist who
would try to work in the traditions which regu-
lated the industrial productions of the past. Are
we calmly to state that what may be called the
secondary arts are doomed? Let US hope not:
but they are in danger
Grays0n MacArthur's Ride.
From the Denver Tribune.
Lieutenant MacArthur's tent was pitched