New-York tribune., 1908-12-19
PICTURES AND PLATE.
Il Gallery of Masterpieces Repro
duced in Color.

THE @ MsE 5sn fGo FgndFsa EHPdpean ass
and Reproduced in Color with Notes ,,, on the n;
81. E P. button & Co,
SHEFFIELD PLATE Its History. Manufacture
fq Fo7een T sheed MfH Pas WIFE asratos HS BY
Henry Newton Veitoh. 4to. PIP. xiv, $50. The
Macmillan Company.
JOHN PETITE, r. A. H. R s A. BY Martin
Hardie. B. A Illustrated Svo pp. xiv, 21S,
The Macmillan Company.
A reproduction in colors of some old master
requires for its proper appreciation a certain
measure of common sense in the beholder. II is
foolish for him 10 dismiss il with brief scorn and
the remark that Il is impossible for mecha nical
process TO do justice 70 the original Everybody
knows that In the preface to The Old Mas
ters" kind Of gallery in little, filed with re-
productions of famous paintings, the statement
is made that whilst it remains impossible TO re-
produce exact replica of any picture, il may
safely be said that, far human ingenuity at
present goes. the reproductions OF the Old Mas
, ters here shown will be found to be as near the
originals as it is possible to bring them This
is a reasonable statement Of the matter No one
would expect this book to give exact equivalents
for the pictures dealt with. But those who are
prepared to meet the color process halfway viii
be grateful FOR this publication.
To possess il is like possessing number Of
selected from the galleries Of Europe. These
plates do. after al. what the best photograph
cannot do they give YOU some suggestion Of the
artists color and especially Of the values thereof.
The records vary in interest Some masters
submit far more gracefully than others TO the
limitations of ;he process Roughly speaking,
the pictures most successfully reproduced would
appear TO be those painted either in broad and
simple masses Of tone or those which at the
other extreme of style. are executed with fairly
minute precision The sub:Ier. more atmos-
pheric qualities OF painting completely battle the
process Thus the reproductions here of works
by Watteau. Corot and kindred painters are in
no wise pleasing. The picture that is bathed in
light comes off from the ordeal in sorry shape.
The reproduction of The Surrender Of Breda 80
for example is fatty bad But out of a hundred
shots in this book the lucky hits surprising
in number. The early Italians charming in
these plates. Those after Melozzo's Rhetoric
and Music" arc very good indeed, and there is
considerable merit in the reproductions of Fra
Angelica. the Lippis and BotticeIli The Venetian
plates uneven, but several OF those after
Titan well done. The German masters re-
produce admirably Durers Portrait Of His
Father and HoIbein's Portrait of Man" at
Frankfort are particularly persuasive. Van
Evck's Man with the Pink" Van Dyck's Chill
dren Of Charles T. and Rembrandts picture at
Cassel, Jacobs Blessing" also TO be men
toned among the more satisfactory repro&uc-
tions These plates all set on gray mounts,
with the text opposite On white pages The text
consists OF brief historical and descriptive notes
For the returned traveller and the student at
home this makes an excellent gift book.
In letter TO his friend Mon.agu written in
17G0. Horace Walpole says: las went to Lord
strafford's. passed through Sheffield, which is
one OF the foulest towns In England in the most
charming situation. There are - 900 inha b.
itants making knives and scissors; they remit
Ill 900 week to London. One man there has
discovered the art of plating copper with silver.
/ bought pair of candlesticks for two guineas:
they quite pretty In his book on Sheffield
Plate" Mr.. Veitch shows how very pretty those
candiesticks must have been and how very in
teresting were the developments in eighteenth
century England Of the art of plating copper
with silver" II is If course. an ancient art
Classical civilization know it vel and il was
old then. Rut II vas not until modern times
lAat the English revived it and made it the