A Guide to Collectors 3,000 Illustrations English Furniture, Decoration, Woodwork and Allied Arts

One of the most noticeable features of Eighteenth Century Cabinet-work, etc., is the way the Master-men W seemed to have combined a scholarly knowledge of design, etc., with a thorough knowledge of their craft, entering into the minutest details. Ruskin, in bis " STONES OF VENICE," suggests a "consummation devoutly to be wished," and which must have been to a large extent practised by these old cabinet-makers, etc. Ruskin says, speaking of the great variety in the designs of Venetian Glass, with the absence of modern finish : " Now you cannot have the finish and the varied form too. If the workman is thinking about his edges, be cannot be thinking of his design; if of his design, he cannot think of bis edges. Choose whether you will pay for the lovely form or the perfect finish, and choose at the same moment whether you will make the worker a man or a grindstone.

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Table of Contents:

COVER

PREFACE

SYNOPSIS