The mirror., 1919-03-20
OBJECTS OF ART
Made by Prisoners of War, Opens a New Collect
By-path for the Rider of Hobbies
Gardner Teall, in House and Garden

travels around" also commands
ones respect for his ability to be
so independent. That is why l
listened instead of bargained, and
in that morning I learned many
interesting things about my hosts
unusual collection. Perhaps there
we're few kindred collecting souls
in the neighborhood who deigned
to listen as sympathetically as /
did or who made no effort to con-
ceal an enthusiasm which these
things awakened within me. At
any rate the amiable inn-keeper
who would not part with his things
for the world proved finally willing
to part with a few of them for con-
siderable less than a hemisphere,
which gave me a chance to weave
tales of my own in the years that
were to follow.
I remember telling the late John
Eliot Hodgkin, F. S. A., that re-
nowned antiquarian whom l met
in London, of my adventure.
"Ah," said he. do you know that
happens to be one of my chief
hobbies, and that 1 am collecting
those very same sorts of straw
marqueterie things9 I am plan
ming to write a monograph about
it," Unfortunately the good gen.
tlemen did notrlive to carry out his
intention. Later / conceived the
notion of writing an article about
straw marqueterie and l thought
it would lend interest to it to in
clude illustrations of pieces in the
Hodgkin collection. However, my
intention was, for the time, blight
ed on receiving reply to my re-
quest which expressed hope that
l would leave the field COM
pletely clear for his projected mono
graph, appending the suggestion
that he would be much troubled if
l did not. To be amiable is not
always a collectors privilege. but
in this instance I embraced mine
and fastened to assure the dean of
autiqnrians that I withdrew from
competition with his inexhaustible
plans for writing about everything
on the face of the earth.
Now that he is no more, what is
said of straw marqueterie and OBJ.
jects of art made by prisoners of
war cannot challenge hostility in
spirit whose eagerness was often
misjudged. whereas it ought to
have been measured. as l measured
it, by its extraordinary capacity as
a genius among collectors who
ought to have been given the fret
chance TO tell all he knew before
others took a hand at telling it.
His interesting volumes under the
title of ''Rariora" are. unfortu-
nately, out of print. ! In one of
these be did reproduce some of the
specimens of straw marqueterie in
his own extensive collection, and
as am not privileged to reproduce
these here, will refer the reader
who wishes further to interest him
self in the subject, to the pages of
those erudite tones which he may
be fortunate enough to find on the
shelves of some of the more impor-
tant art libraries in America.
From times immemorial, / sup.
pose, war prisoners who have not
been enslaved by their captors but
have been treated without barbara
ty have sought to enlighten
their tedium by various sorts of
handicraft. exerting to the utmost
their ingenuity in the matter of
tools and materials. Today the
subject is of immediate interest to
US. Already have art objects
made by prisoners of war interned
in Holland and in Switzerland
reached us. In time they will
come to be as treasured as the an
tiques made by the prisoners of
war of the Napoleonic period and
Continued on psge {. column 3.