Society open their jubilee show at Burlington House next Thursday. The Society, founded in 1888, was chiefly due to William—Morris's crusade against the crowded stufllhess of Vielorian house decoration. Jand particularly against the tyranny the machine, "'The ery then Was "hand versus machine." Today, acceiling the inevitable, the Society preaches "hand with the machine." Like all reformers, William Morris went too far. His tapestries and wall Papers were exquisite, and we owe him a great debt for' the simplicity which he. brought back to domestic arrangements. On the other hand. tone does rather feel that to be in keeping with his furniture one would have to dress in high necked smocks. at sacking und sandals, Nowadays. the search for new patterns has produced a terrible lot of rubbish, yet there was never atime when' the machine, properly guided by the hand. was putting so many really beautiful things at the disposal of so many people of only modest incomes. Also the "artiness," which was so horribly evident atthe "Art Industry" exhibition four years ago, is tending to disappear. What} the Society specially aims at Is to restore that sturdiness and breadth fof proportion which has always been characteristic of the best English feraftemanship. I remember being] particularly struck, at the Liverpool Museum, by the collection of early English chinaware (a much younger craft in this country than 1 had realized), of which the neighbour hood of Liverpool was the birthplace, The shapes were primitive, the paint-Jed designs on them crude and irregular. Yet one and. all possessed a wonderful vitality and strength. and Jone could feel that the craftsman had taken as much joy in his work jas Robinson Crusoe when he put the first clumsy "pot he succeeded in making where it would be the frst thing he saw when he woke.
It is a pity that the many societies now striving to bring art and beauty {into dally life cannot do something for the shaping of our cities. The mew Adelphi building, the vast white mountain of offices overlooking the Thames Embankment, is finished and to be opened next week. Of its kind it is less ugly than some and the internal arrangements are of course the last word in convenience. But! quite apart from the destruction of, the unique and lovely terrace built by the Adam brothers, the new Dbullding "has completely' destroyed the beauty of the Embankment skyline as seen from Westminster Bridge, Instead of the former pleasing irre-Jgularity of roofs and trees there is now a long monotonous wall of white barracks for most of the way to Waterloo Bridge. Incidentally, office building in London is being much over-done, None of the new Dlocks is fully Let, so they seem equally misplaced both from public and private points of view.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.