Page:Some examples of the work of American designers.djvu/9

 INTRODUCTION

NE thing which should be made clear at the outset of this volume is that this collection of decorative designs by American artists does not pretend to be complete. We feel that in our title we have rather cleverly protected ourselves against the criticism of even the most indignant relative for not having included this man or that woman, for it is carefully prefixed,"Some Examples of the Work of American Designers."

The chief reason why it does not exhaust its subject is, we regret to admit, purely a commercial one. The book is limited to thirty artists because Messrs. Dill & Collins make only thirty different papers, quite disregarding the fact that there are more than thirty good American designers. The selection of the present thirty whom we have immortalized was not a selection; like many another volume, the book just grew. Roughly speaking, we asked forty artists and thirty responded. We came out just right. The reasons why we were spared the embarrassment of having to exclude anywhere from one to ten contributors are interesting. One man refused to come into our little book, while another could not find anything among his collection of excellent designs quite good enough to adequately represent him in "so elaborate a volume." Another had not made anything large enough for our page, which was our misfortune, and another who does occasional commercial designs for one client, desires to remain incognito. He spurned a suggestion that he might occupy a little section of his own headed "Artist