Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/310

 298 F L A F L Dundee Market Report on Flax, May 14, 1878. ! Quotations per Ton. FLAX ARCHANGEL 1st Crown G3 00 2d Crown CO fil 3d Crown 57 5S 4th Crown 53 54 1st ZaUi-ack 48 4!) 2il, 43 44 PETERSBURG Pscow 12 Heads 45 o 46 Louga and Staro Buss 12 Hcada 30 40 Salctsky 12 Heads 29 30 ,, ,, 9 Heads 2(&amp;gt; 28 6 Heads 23 24 ., Pijcff 3 Crown 40 41 Zabrack 36 10 37 ARVA No. V 00 00 ,. No. VI 00 00 I j I:XAU Livonian OD 30 37 D 42 43 HD 47 48 KK:A K 40 41 PK 43 44 ,. SPK 47 48 HSPK 48 49 HD 37 38 PHD 40 41 Fl HD 43 44 W 35 35 PW 38 39 1) 30 32 PD ! 32 34 LD ! 30 32 PLD ; 32 34 SD 31 33 PSD ; 33 35 DW I 25 27 LIBAU Crown o 00 4 Brand 00 00 MEMKI, 4 Brand : 35 36 N.B 00 00 TOW ARCHANGEL No. 1 40 41 No. 2 ! 36 37 PETERSBURG No. 1 i 37 40 No. 2 i 28 32 CODILLA ARCHANGEL No. 2 | 37 38 No. 3 I 27 30 PETERSBURG I 00 00 RIGA 00 00 Of the lower qualities of Riga flax the following may be named : W, Wrack flax. PW, Picked wrack flax. WPW, White picked wrack, GPW, Grey picked wrack flax. D, Dreiband (Threeband). PD, Picked Dreiband flax. LD, Livonian Dreiband. PLD, Picked Livonian Dreiband. SD, Slanitz Dreiband. PSD, Picked Slanitz Dreiband. The last-named (SD and PSD) are dew-retted qualities shipped from Riga either as Lithuanian Slanitz, Wellish Slanitz, or Wiasnia Slanitz, showing from what district they come, as there are differences in the quality of the produce of each district. The lowest quality of Riga flax is marked DW, meaning Dreiband Wrack. Another Russian port from which a large quantity of flax is imported is Pernau, where tbe marks in use are com paratively few. The leading marks are- LCD, indicating Low Ordinary Dreiband (Threeband). OD, ,, Ordinary Dreiband. D, ,, Dreiband. HD, ,, Light Dreiband. II, ,, Risten. G, Cut. II, ,, Marienburg. Pernau flax is shipped as Livonian and Fellin sorts, the latter being the best. The lowest mark of Pernau flax is the LOD. In addition to the exports from Riga and Pernau, shipments of flax are made from Narva, Libau, Mem el, and Revel; but, as compared with the two first-mentioned ports, the flax trade of the others is inconsiderable. The only remaining localities from which flax is extensivety exported to Scotland are Archangel and St Petersburg. From St Petersburg both white and brown flax is sent, the former variety being water-retted, the latter dew-retted. All the flax of Arch angel is dew-retted. The Pscow, Louga, Staro Russ, and Saletsky flaxes are steeped or white flax, whereas the Rjeff flax is dew-retted. There are many other kinds which come into the Dundee market from St Petersburg, such as Melinki, Bejetsky, Ouglitch, Kostroma, Jaroslav, Vologda, &quot;Wiasma, c., taking their names from the various districts, and all dew- retted flax. These Petersburg brown flaxes are bracked mostly in 1st, 2d, 3d, and 4th crown, also Zabrack, the lowest mark. Some Petersburg sorts leave out the 1st crown and 4th crown, but in the Archangel flaxes all these marks appear, and the Zabrack is divided into two sorts, 1st and 2d Zabrack. The distinction between codilla and tow is that the former is the tow or broken and ravelled fibres produced in the scutching process, therefore often called scutching tow, while tow proper is the similar product separated in the subsequent operation of heckling the flax preparatory to spinning. See AGRICULTURE (vol i. p. 380, 381), BLEACH ING, LINEN, and LINSEED OIL. (j. PA.) FLAXMAN, JOHN (1755-1 82G), was the greatest sculptor, or, if that title may be disputed on account of certain technical shortcomings in his work, at any rate the greatest designer of sculpture, that England has produced ; and as a representative of the Greek spirit in modern art his name stands among the foremost, not of England merely, but of the world. He was born on the 6th of July 1755. His name, John, was hereditary in the family, having been borne by his father after a forefather who, according to the family tradi tion, had fought on the side of parliament at Naseby, and afterwards settled as a carrier or farmer, or both, in Buckinghamshire. John Flaxman the elder carried on with repute the trade of a moulder and seller of plaster casts in New Street, Covent Garden, London. Our sculp tor was the second son of his parents, and was born while they were temporarily living at York. Within six months of his birth they returned to London, and in his father s back shop he spent an ailing childhood, in the course of which his life was once at least despaired of. His figure was high-shouldered and weakly, with the head very large for the body. His father by and by removed to a more commodious house in the Strand, and, his first wife dying, married a second, who proved a thrifty housekeeper and gentle stepmother. Of regular schooling the boy must have had some, since he is reputed as having remembered in after life the tyranny of some pedagogue of his youth; but his principal education he picked up for himself at home. He early took delight in drawing and modelling from his father s stock-in-trade, and early endeavoured to understand those counterfeits of classic art by the light of translations from classic literature. Customers of his father took a fancy to the child, and helped him with books, advice, and presently with commissions. The two special encouragers of his youth were the painter Romney, and a cultivated clergy man, Mr Mathew, in whose house in Rathbone Place the 3 oung Flaxman used to meet the lettered society of those days, and, among associates of his own age, the artists Blake and Stothard. Before this he had begun to work with success in clay as well as in pencil. At eleven years old, and again at thirteen, lie won prizes from the Society of Arts. At twelve he became a public exhibitor in the gallery of the Free Society of Artists, and at fifteen in that of the Royal Academy, then in the second year of its ex istence. In the same year, 1770, he entered as an Academy student, and won the silver medal. But all these successes were followed by a discomfiture. In the competition for the gold medal of the Academy, Flaxman, who had made quite sure of victory, was defeated, the prize being adjudged by the president, Sir Joshua Reynolds, to another competitor named Engleheart. But this reverse proved no discourage ment, and the young Flaxman continued to ply his art diligently, both as a student in the schools and as an ex hibitor in the galleries of the Academy, occasionally also attempting diversions into the sister art of painting. Before long he received a commission, from a friend of the Mathew family, for a statue of Alexander. But by heroic and ideal