Books Received

by M.A.D. Staff

These are brief reviews of books recently sent to us. We have included ordering information for publishers that accept mail, phone, or on-line orders. For other publishers, your local bookstore or mail-order house is the place to look.

Apostles of Beauty: Arts and Crafts from Britain to Chicago, edited by Judith A. Barter (The Art Institute of Chicago, distributed by Yale University Press, 2009, 208 pp., hardbound, $45 from The Art Institute of Chicago, [www.artinstituteshop.org] or [888] 301-9612).

One enduring aspect of the Arts and Crafts movement was its attempt to reinject our society with spirit through handwork and design. The prominent artifacts and architecture associated with the movement reveal its idealist spirit, and that is a prime reason why collectors continue to respond to them. This book records the collaborative effort of curators/scholars at the Art Institute of Chicago for their major exhibition called Apostles of Beauty.

The book's thoroughness serves as an enjoyable brushup or as a strong introduction to Arts and Crafts. It is cogent and written with salient details, well edited to provide seamless segues. There is a full exhibition checklist of the 187 objects exhibited with color photos of objects that are not illustrated with the essays. Each of the five essays provides a wealth of information but does not drag the reader down with minutiae. The chapters trace the movement in an arc from Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin, and William Morris to Chicago's flowering of the Prairie school and ultimately modern design.

Judith Barter, who edited the book, contributed the first chapter and presents the growth of Arts and Crafts in England. Because of the depth of her knowledge, Barter packs a lot into single sentences and paragraphs. She links the men and women and the generations and their styles using clear examples, often objects in the exhibition. In summary she states, "As we have seen, the early proponents…felt the need to look back in order to achieve their goals of democratizing society, redefining the nature of work, and erasing the boundaries between fine and decorative arts. Basing their designs on medieval and rustic models, they romanticized the past…By the early twentieth century, the succeeding generation—Ashbee, Knox, Mackintosh, and Voysey—had consciously created a sleeker, more modern style…." The key is her apt phrase "as we have seen." She shows.

Likewise, in chapter two Ellen E. Roberts shows how Japanism significantly influenced the movement. Underlying Japanese design principles became integrated with Gothic and Celtic designs and swung design characteristics toward graceful abstraction. She shows how in her well-presented format. The contributions of Christopher Dresser, for example, were more extensive than I had realized. He visited Japan in 1876, hired by the government to modernize Japan's industrial art production, and his 1882 book, Japan: Its Architecture, Art, and Art Manufactures, "helped to reverse the prevailing Western idea that Japanese buildings—with their simplified decoration, low height, and wood construction—were not architecture." I particularly enjoyed seeing examples of Dresser's tableware, which look very modern, considering they were produced in the 1880's.

Roberts's presentation on American art pottery is another good example. She succinctly traces the potteries' histories and reminds us that Rookwood hired Kitaro Shirayamadani in 1887 and that "Boston art potters were especially engaged with Japanism." She segues to Arthur Wesley Dow and his influence on Grueby and, not as overt, with Newcomb Pottery in New Orleans. Her paragraphs about Dow, though not long, pack a lot of relevant information about his life and work—another of the many examples of the good scholarship in this book.

Brandon K. Ruud, in chapter three, shows the "seemingly contradictory pull of art and commerce—or social reform and profit…" as the movement grew in the U.S. We have to face the fact that our society grew masterfully consumerist a long time ago. The upside of it is that wide marketing provides more democratization of art trends. Ruud gives the historic overviews about Elbert Hubbard and the Roycrofters and then of Gustav Stickley as prime movers. Ruud mentions others' contributions, such as Dard Hunter and Karl Kipp, and how certain individuals kept the flame of high-quality handwork alive.

In Ruud's section about Gustav Stickley and The Craftsman magazine, he explains how Stickley's empire rose from a genuine passion for development of a new style of living. Though individualist artist/craftsmen such as Charles Rohlfs eschewed Stickley's brand of mass marketing, they also benefited tangentially. Both ways are needed to balance spirit with production. Stickley embraced interior decoration and architecture as aspects of Arts and Crafts as well as the furniture, plugging potteries, textiles, and designers through the magazine and in exhibitions.

Ruud discusses how Amerindian artifacts were blended into the movement and points out how "Arts and Crafts ideologues reminded consumers that Native American art was the product of love…," and that Stickley advocated a "return to the spirit which animated the workers of a more primitive age, and not merely to an imitation of their working method." Two beautiful baskets (Pomo and Yokuts) are illustrated; they are from the Art Institute of Chicago collection.

Ruud concludes with a description of the "reciprocal relationship" between the architects Greene and Greene and Stickley.

Sarah E. Kelly wrote chapter four, "'A New and Living Spirit': Pictorialist Principles and the Arts and Crafts Movement." She shows the melding of craft and photography. Carefully manipulated art photographs extended to a widening audience appreciation of many things, including the West and idealized rural living. She explains the contributions of women and of the blend of Japanism and western aesthetic in pictorialist works. This chapter is a valuable addition to the overview.

The fifth chapter brings the arc to home ground. Judith A. Barter and Monica Obniski begin "Chicago: A Bridge to the Future" with "On June 27, 1893, while the World's Columbian Exhibition was in full swing, the New York stock market crashed, beginning a major recession." Social reform was afoot. The Hull House history (Jane Addams, its founder) and links to England are explained, as are the large contributions of numerous women artisans. Naturally, Clara Pauline Barck, founder of the Kalo Shop, is featured. The rise of the Prairie school through architects is shown, and Frank Lloyd Wright is given his due.

One detail I appreciated learning was that Wright's two-year trip to Europe "seems to have been a watershed in his career. While in Germany, he oversaw the publication of his Wasmuth Portfolio, a two-volume folio of over one hundred lithographs of his architectural work. The publication became extremely influential for European architects and designers, including Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Walter Gropius." The arc becomes a circle.

Publications are a key at all stages of this story, as artifacts (beautifully handbound books with hand-printed pages) and as portable extensions of trends and explanations to the general public and consumers of the Arts and Crafts movement.

A.C.V.

Berks County Longrifles & Gunmakers: 1750-1900 by Patrick Hornberger (Eastwind Publishing & Tapestry Press for The Historical Society of Berks County, 2009, 114 pp., hardbound, $59.95 plus S/H from the Historical Society of Berks County, [www.berkshistory.org] or [610] 375-4375).

Patrick Hornberger asserts that the craftsmanship of Berks County, Pennsylvania, gunsmiths is "very little removed from that of the cabinet or clock maker," whose "products [are] equally revered by today's collectors." Although he admits that this book "only scratches the surface of the 170 or so gunsmiths" who worked in Berks County between 1750 and 1900, he hopes to give readers an introduction to the subject and to encourage further study.

Hornberger groups the gunmakers into five regional centers, each with its own style of gunmaking: Reading, Blue Mountain, Tulpehocken, Oley Valley, and below the Schuylkill River. The styles and makers are profiled in five short chapters. These chapters are followed by an illustrated catalog of the 54 items in the Berks County Historical Society exhibit of the same name, which has been extended through February 27. Among the highlights of the exhibit are 14 rifles from the collection of Joe Kindig, the first signed and dated American rifle (signed "John Shreit 1761"), and a rare circa 1800 rifle by Anthony Fricker that has never been publicly displayed. The 32 gunsmiths (30 named and two unknown) whose works are featured are indexed at the back of the book.

The Classic Period of American Toolmaking: 1827-1930 by H.G. Brack (Davistown Museum, 2009, 374 pp., softbound, $28 from Davistown Museum, [www.davistownmuseum.org] or [207] 288-5126).

This is volume eight in the publication series by the Davistown Museum, and the third in the series on hand tools. It explores the toolmaking industry that developed in the U.S. after the colonial period. The discussion in the beginning addresses the links between English and Continental "toolmaking techniques with the later floresence of American toolmakers." The history, writes Brack, is a "series of labyrinths" for which a "straightforward historical narration of events" is an inadequate vehicle.

Brack refers to many sources in setting up the back story and maintains that although the colonists brought tools with them, they also made many from the natural ore found in small bogs around New England. Some sources he cites claim that most or all tools from that period are from England, but Brack claims that the tools speak for themselves as having been made by early settlers. Brack concludes that "by the time of the American Revolution, or just after, America was making at least a small majority of its hand tools."

Reading the two previous volumes he has written on hand tools will help in understanding the historical overview, as he refers often to these texts. Much study has been done, and Brack packs in a great deal of information, including chapters on toolmaking families from 1652 to 1930, the Smith and Timmons pattern books, metallurgy, the roots of the American factory, steelmaking, the end of the wooden age, and more. This is all within the context of looking back at English and European influences while making the distinction of toolmaking on American soil evident.

We like the less labyrinthine nature of the appendix, "18th and 19th Century American Toolmaker Company Files," which fills over 100 pages. If you want to know more about a New England maker, check here. This information has been gathered from many outside sources, and Brack gives credit to these sources. The list includes information on makers associated with the shipbuilding trade in Maine and New England and others that Brack has learned about by studying the tools that pass through his Liberty Tool Company.

The museum also maintains an index of toolmakers. Another appendix lists tools with unidentified makers that are in the museum collection. Brack hopes that readers may have some information to share. A bibliography runs from pages 226 to 368, which proves the research has been extensive, and Brack encourages its use for further study.

L.M.

India on Transferware: A Compendium of Indian Scenes on Transferware Together with Their Source Prints by Michael Sack (Transferware Collectors Club, 2009, 234 pp., softbound, $45 plus S/H from Michael Sack, [www.transferwarecollectorsclub.org]; [415] 752-3830; <msack@michaelsack.com>).

Michael Sack explains in this book's introduction that the "British public's romantic notion of exotic places was stimulated by the publication between 1795 and around 1833 of several books illustrated by artists who created images of far-away places to which they had traveled." Because there were no effective copyright laws in England until 1842, "potters freely copied from books and occasionally from other works of art."

This small book pictures in color every known scene of India on transferware, alongside the source print of each image. All of the ceramics were produced between 1810 and 1842, and most date from 1820 to 1835. Information about the source books is discussed at the start of each chapter. Titles of the prints, artists, and makers (when known) are included in the captions. The book is arranged by sources or similarities in patterns. A bibliography is included at the end for further information on the geographical and historical significance of the scenes.

From the Pen of Paul: The Fantastic Images of Frank R. Paul, edited by Stephen D. Korshak (Shasta-Phoenix Publishers, 2009, 128 pp., softbound, $24.95, or $39.95 hardbound, plus S/H from Shasta-Phoenix Publishers, [www.shasta-phoenix.com]).

We'll admit that the artwork of Frank R. Paul (1884-1963) isn't the type usually featured in the pages of M.A.D. Anyone who's a fan of pulp magazines or science fiction, though, will get a kick out of flipping through the pages of this book and seeing Paul's covers and story illustrations for Amazing Stories, Science Fiction, Science Wonder, and other magazines from the 1920's through the early 1960's.

Arthur C. Clarke contributed the preface to this book before he died in 2008. In it he calls Paul's work "colorful, imaginative, and intelligent" and writes that the very first science-fiction magazine he ever saw had a cover by Frank Paul. An illustration by Paul was what caused Isaac Asimov in 1926 to pick up the first science-fiction magazine he'd ever seen.

This book is a fine tribute to the life and work of the unpretentious, hardworking artist known as the father of science-fiction illustrators.

Artistic Leather of the Arts and Crafts Era by Daniel Lees (Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 2009, 272 pp., hardbound, $69.99 from Schiffer Publishing, [www.schifferbooks.com] or [610] 593-1777).

In the foreword, Boice Lydell states that artistic leather from the Arts and Crafts era is "the last frontier in recognition and collectability from the period." This book seeks to open the door to discovery into the artisans and companies that produced four styles of hand-tooled leather: illuminated or Cordovan; gold-tooled, as used on book bindings; German embossed; and carved or Mexican work.

The book includes much information on artisans and companies, including Roycroft, the Kalo Shop, Cordova Shops of Buffalo, and many more. Purses, wallets, frames, boxes, clocks, desk items, wastebaskets, table mats, book covers, chairs, and more are illustrated in photos that show off the detail. There is no index, nor are there any price ranges, but there is a bibliography and a brief sidebar about references.

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