This year the B. I. F, has more to tempt the buyers than I ever remember. It is quite the best show I have seen and the best displayed. And to save the visitor from getting lost there are automatic machines at the different cross-roads: you press a button for the section you want, and precise directions spring up on the dial, One thing the Fair proclaims 1s that cubism, at least in household things, is dead. The grotesque shaped silver, glass, furniture and carpet-designs which were held up for our unquestioning adoration a few years ago are gone, "unwept,, unhonoured and unsung," as one was always sure they must go.
'The plate and jewellery section is particularly lovely. One does not ordinarily associate Birmingham with fine jewellery. Yet the Birmingham Jewellers' Association can turn out as delicate graceful designs as any in the world. Still, however, the solid Midland taste will not be denied. In one case I saw a real gold Albert curtchain pattern, half an inch thick such as might have graced a Victorian cotton-spinner's portly waistcoat. England is still England when she can produce, the sort of magnate who alone could carry off such an ornament.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.