Evening star., 1922-11-05
. REAT interest attaches to the
exhibition of American handi-
crafts which opened on We'd

| - REAT interest attaches to the
exhibition of American handi-
" crafts which opened on Wed
nesday in the National Gal
leTy of Art, National Museum, because
Of the variety of the collection and
the number of crafts represented
therein. This department Of art,
Furthermore. is essentially social; it
is directly related to everyday life.
and 1t is. therefore. something which
| makes poignant appeal.
The articles included in this eX-
! hibition were all produced by in
dividual craftsmen, the product OF
hand and brains, or technical skill
| and artistic instinct trained toward
perfection. Inherent in all people is
desire to create, and there is no JOY
equal to tina. for the moment of one
who has created lovely thing. I'm
luckily. for a long time there was
cessation in this field of production,
and as result taste deteriorated.
| The revival Of interest in the handi.
crafts came through the efforts OF
| low enthusiasts in England, and was
probably inspired by Ruskin: The
| first exhibition of handicrafts in
America was held in Boston twenty
| nve years ago. and was organized by
Charles Eliot Norton. the closest
| friend of Ruskin in this country. AS
| is often the case. however. the cause
was taken up by many who mistook
J the spirit for the letter and were
! carried away by misconception that
| what was wanted was work which
proclaimed at glance the fact Of
| having been wrought by hand rather
than by machine. and which displayed
| oddity rather than originality in de-
sign. Further retarding the develop
! ment OF the arts and crafts was the
| adoption by certain manufacturers of
! the phase. and the imitation by ma
chlnery of the crudities of the anna
| teur's production.
! But that these phases have passed is
| evidenced by the collection now on
view in the National Museum. In this
| collection every object possesses the
| element of beauty in design and wit
| nesses to expert skill in craftsman
| ship. AS the leaders of the present
| day movement declare, haudwork is
| only superior to machine work when
| 1t is better. when it accomplishes re-
suits not obtainable by machinery
| TO turn to the several crafts repre-
Sented: Jewelry Is one of the most
ancient of the arts springing from a
desire Tor personal adornment. but as
Il well known writer has truly said.
no art has suffered more from modern
commercialism. Yet it is in reality a
highly developed art. worthy of salts
| Tying Cellini as means of artistic
| expression. And some of the pieces
now on exhibition in this city are in
deed worthy of that master crafts
man of all time-eXQuisitely design
ed, hawlessly rendered. The work of
Frank Gardner Hale of Boston is
probably foremost, but there is. after
in h..f W
it and that of Herbert Kelly of Gro
ton on the Hudson. Grace Hazen of
New York and Gloucester. Mass. :;
Margaret Rogers. Malcomb f. John
son, Milicent Strange Edison and
others.
| Puritan Boston has been not only Il
| great center for craft jewelers., but
also for the silversmiths, and in the
! latter field has made a remarkable
showing since revolutionary days.
when Paul Revere was turning out
household silver for which collectors
are today willing to pay kings ran
som. The early American silver was
adapted from the middle Georgian of
| England. which, in turn. was based
on the classic lines of Greece and
| Rome. The best and-wrought sill
YER is still fashioned somewhat after
! these patterns and shows. as will be
seen from the exhibit now open. a
chaste simplicity in design.
I
Society of Arts and Crafts. Boston.
and chairman of the American Fed
! Grafton of Arts special committee on
| handicrafts. has remarked. it is rather
an amusing recognition of the pres
ent demand for hand wrought silver
that factories are found putting in
| hammer marks by machine. in other
words initiating the work of the hand
craftsmen. Indeed. it is we'll worth
! knowing that the hand-wrought sill
fN,
tory-made silver in this country in
the last ten years. Obviously it is
| the abuse rather than the use of the
machine which has been responsible
| for such of the bad silver today, and
+; in the past But it should not be for
gotten that to be truly work of art
| a piece of silver must have something
of the personality of the worker evil
denced in it.
| In the department of metal work.
but of entirely different character is
| iron. yet iron wrought in design has
played a large part in the past and
! is destined to do SO again today in
architectural monuments. No travel
er abroad but has been genuinely
| impressed by the beautiful wrought
! iron gates, balconies. lamps and the
like to be found in the old cities of
| Europe. Nuremberg. Sienna. Toledo.
Antwerp are all famous for their eX-
amples of wrought iron, the work of
medieval craftsmen. There are to-
day in this country. as is testified by
| two or three notable exhibits in the
present collection at the National
Museum, craftsmen in this medium
comparable in skill to those of the
early times of this great area of art
development.
Mr.. Yellin. who shows an iron
chest, which is French gothic in
style and represents forged work.
carved work, pierced work and in
cised work, and is intended as
museum exhibit. was the maker of
the great gates and screen in the
King Chapel at the Cathedral of st.
John the Divine, New York, and of
iron work in the West Point build
residence of the late Henry c. Frick
of New York. not to mention his
ecclesiastical work in the Valley
Forge Memorial Chapel. In this
work, as in others, however. it is Mr..
Yellin's design, as well is the quail
ity of his work. that gives it rank
and place in the field Of art pro-
duction.
A potter who visited the exhibition
on the opening day and who is him
self represented in the collection. said
that as a whole the work shown was
discouragingly good. some OF the
pieces seeming to his trained eye to
be of standard almost unobtainabie
by the average potter. And yet this
excellence is also stimulating.
The potters of America have. to
great extent. taken as their examples
the best work produced by the pot
ters of the east, and in few in
stances the glazes are comparable to
those produced by these oriental mas
ters 1t is a fascinating craft. For
thousand years there has been no
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