Class XXX. ]
SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT ON DESIGN.
749
into the means at the manufacturer’s command, than fromany technical education in those means.
This, however, is not the case with the art-workman;to give him proper instruction in carving , chasing, emboss-ing, painting . &c., it should go on consecutively with hislearning the technical elements of art, and his perfectionas a workman will be measured by his power of embody-ing his art-knowledge in his trade labours. The process,moreover, is a tedious one, requiring the hand to be edu-cated as well as the eye and mind, to enable him success-fully to combine art with handicraft; and it would seem,therefore, that such labours are essential parts of trueschools of ornamental art.
Yet the several requirements enumerated are partialand local, and not to be made a part of general so muchas of local education. Thus, since Loudon and its vicinityare the seat, more or less, of all manufactures, and of thehighest efforts of those manufactures, for this reason,and as a central normal school, it would be advantageousto embody in the course of the London head school in-struction in all such matters; but they could only bepartially useful in the provinces; as die-sinking andchasing, for instance, at Birmingham , chasing and em-bossing at Sheffield, modelling and painting in the Pot-teries, See .; and it being ascertained which are the properlocalities for central provincial schools, their peculiar art-handicraft should be taught therein, and the instructionobtained in the surrounding districts be of such a cha-racter as to prepare best for the higher instruction of thecentral provincial school. The truth is, that our schoolshave all been accidentally founded, rather than on anygeneral, comprehensive, and well-defined principle: andbefore proceeding further, it is very desirable to havesome well-arranged distribution of the means of instruc-tion for the whole kingdom, laid down in accordancewith local wants and local seats of manufacture, to controland regulate the whole, so that schools, when founded,should fall in with a pre-arranged and predeterminedsvstem. These remarks are made with no intention todogmatise on the subject, which should rather be viewedpractically than theoretically, and the solution be basedon known results, rather than inferred from any supposi-titious points of view. The great public establishmentsof France, both of the Gobelins and Sevres , would onthis account demand especial attention and consideration,since the fabrics produced therein have attained a greaterexcellence, both of design and manufacture, than is seenelsewhere; and it would be desirable to gain full informa-
tion as to the knowledge of art obtained by the workmen,as well as of the processes of manufacture by the de-signers in those celebrated manufactories. In the sameview, the schools founded for the instruction of thebronzists of Paris , and in which they mostly obtain theirart-education, should have a full share of attention, bothon account of the reputation gained by these works forartistical completion, as well as the great fancy and in-vention displayed in the Parisian bronzes. While ourown Mediaeval Court and the clever revivals it containswill show the influence on manufacture of an educateddesigner acquainted with the various processes of themanufactures for which he designs, and apparently con-trolling both the manufacturer and his workmen in theirproduction, we have to learn, in the former instance,whether the workmen have any, and what amount of,education in design , and whether their inventive powershave been stimulated, or ouly the most perfect technicalacquirements obtained; on the other, we pretty wellknow that the workmen have obtained but little even ofthe technical language of art, and that in invention theyare entirely led by the designer.
The condition of the schools at Lyons also, and theirroutine of instruction, would furnish much valuable in-formation on this subject, since, in the manufacture ofsilk, the relations between the art and the means of exe-cution are most intimate and complicated. They wouldshow whether the education of the workman in art, andin many cases the exalting him into the place of the de-signer, has resulted in a pure and just ornamentation ofthe fabric, or whether it has led to the skilful applianceof manufacturing means to the production of difficultiesof execution in these fabrics, rather than to the simpleand the beautiful in their ornamental decoration.
In conclusion, the Reporter may be permitted to expresshis sincere regret at his own shortcomings. It will beevident, on the perusal of the Report, that there aremany omissions, and that important subjects have beentreated with great brevity. Almost entirely deprived ofcounsel or assistance from his fellow Jurors, this taskbeing nearly altogether out of their jurisdiction, and onlyundertaken by him after the Jury labours were con-cluded, he has to ask for a large share of indulgence.He trusts, however, that a proper spirit of inquiry intothe sources of true excellence in ornamental art may beelicited from his brief labours, and lead to the rejectionof what is meretricious and false, and to a more simple,grave, and earnest style in modern ornament.