Page:The Building News and Engineering Journal, Volume 22, 1872.djvu/113

 Fes. 2, 1872. THE BUILDING NEWS. 97 buil’s-eyes, may be effectively used in plain glazing; but I am “modern” enough to prefer, for general domestic use, the manufactured rounds. The roughness of the genuine bulls’-eyes, though pro- ductive of very rich effects at a distance, is out of harmony with the fittings of a modern house. There are interesting examples of old plain glazing in very elaborate patterns. These are frequently of an interlacing character, something similar to the Keltic ornament. There are examples (though not very elaborate ones) at Salisbury. Viollet-le-Duc gives instances of this kind of work dating from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries. It was par- ticularly patronised, he says, by the Cistercians, who did not permit the representation of the human figure in their churches. He gives a curious example of a case where, in order to get the effect of an elaborate design without the trouble of cutting (which was of course the great difliculty when they had no dies), certain of the leads are only applied on one side of the glass. But this is cer- tainly a very rare occurrence, and, indeed, we can afford to dispense with old examples of such pre- tentious shuffling. There is plenty of it about (in other forms) of a more recent date. If we had only to think of what is good, glassy, and effective, a great deal might be done in this elaborate work. But it would be comparatively costly, and when the modern householder spends his money he wants, as a rule, something to show for it, some bright colour (though he won’t afford rich glass) and a . figure or two (though he will not go to the expense of even fairly-good drawing). Of course we cannot tell him to his face that all stained-glass beyond the simplest quarry-work is luxury, and that cheap ostentation is the cloyen foot of vulgarity; and so I suppose that, as we must live, we must do our best to produce for him something more showy than mere grace of outline and harmony of tint, and good glass and glazing, and must think ourselves fortu- nate if we can please without pandering altogether to popular bad taste. While I am on the subject of glazing, and before I go on to painted quarry-work, which comes naturally next in order, I must allude to another foible of the public, which is its inartis- tic, ignorant, and senseless antipathy to glass that looks like glass, and its shoppy preference for large unbroken sheets of glass—if possible of British plate. The foolishness of this fear of a few leads is too palpable to need more than a passing allusion to it. The design of your window must have leading lines (backbone), and there can at least be no reason why the leads should not be made use of to emphasise these inevitable lines. You thereby, too, avoid the risk of breakage, which in firing large sheets of glass is considerable ; and further, if, in firing, or by any other after accident, a breakage should occur, it is only a small fraction of your work that has to be re-done instead of the whole. Above all, you gain the grand advantage of being able to introduce a change of tint into your window, which gives it at once a beauty and a character peculiar to its material. Still, if people wil/ have plate-glass, in Jarge unleaded sheets, and nothing will do for them, I suppose, in cases where we cannot persuade our patrons to do what is right in owr eyes instead of in theirs, we must give them what they want. And even within the limits of their requirements some- thing fairly good (if not quite glassy) might be done—something, at least, that might worthily be dignified with the title of decoration. There is only one thing, however, that it ought te be, and that is brushwork, and not to look as if it had been scratched on with a very bad quill, or badly graphotyped, like the ragged-lined productions of that class in the galleries at South Kensington. I must admit, more- over, that there are exceptional cases in which, even in Gothic houses, leaded work is slightly out of place, as, for instance, in glazed doors which are liable to constant slamming, and where, in con- Sequence, the leading would be so severely tried that practically plate-glass would be preferable. In such cases, and in others where we are compelled by our patrons to use plate-glass, it might be boldly and architecturesquely treated as a parel in monochrome. Even where we cannot get our own way so far as to introduce painted ornament—even in embossing— something less distressing might be done than what is usually inserted in our hall and staircase windows. It is only charitable towards the profession, as a body, to conclude that architects have seldom turned their attention to this matter. But even such a small matter should not be beneath the study of a man who pretends to thoroughness in his work. A good plan is to emboss plate-glass with scroll-work or foliage, freer or more rigid as may suit the character of the architecture. Or there is no objec- tion, of course, to a set diaper, only it should be adapted to the space it fills, and at least be finished by a bordering line. Indeed, the offensiveness of every plate-glass window would be mitigated by embossing a simple line round it. At any rate, it would make it patent that it was a sheet of glass and not an open space that you had before you; and it need not offend those persons who are so anxious that nothing should interfere with the view. The only argument that occurs to me against this kind of work in our houses is that it has been already adopted, and in some cases fairly well done, for public-houses, and there is just a danger that it would at first be suggestive of a public-house, and that would damn it at once; but I think a designer ought to be able to get over the difliculty. (To be continued.) —_+._ _@—____ THE WORK OF THE LONDON FIRE BRIGADE FOR 1871. ROM Captain Shaw’s Report on the London Fires of 1871 we learn that the total number of calls for fires or supposed fires received during the year has been 2,046; of these 124 were false alarms, 80 only chimney alarms, and 1,842 calls for fires, of which 207 resulted in serious damage and 1,635 in slight damage. The fires of 1871, compared with those of 1870, show adecrease of 104, but com- pared with the average of the last ten years, there is an increase of 362. The proportion of serious to slight losses—207 to 1,635—is more favourable than during several previous years. The quantity of water used for extinguishing fires in the metropolis during the year has been, 16,204,547 gallons; or about 72,342 tons. Of this quantity about half was taken from the river, canals, and docks, and the remainder from the street pipes. The number of journeys made by the fire engines of the 50 stations has been 7,362; and the total distance run has been 20,242 miles. Captain Shaw bitterly complains of the complication of mains, services, and sluice cocks at present existing in the London water supply, and trusts that the provision for constant service which comes into force on the 21st of April this year, under the Metropolis Water Act of last session, will have the effect of making every fire plug represent an immediate supply of water. The various building trades occupy an unenviable position in the list of fires and their causes, builders, carpenters, and , cabinet makers being jointly responsible for 99 fires, or nearly a twentieth part of the whole number. ee MEXICAN ART. SOCIETY FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF THE FINE ARTS. HE first lecture of the present session was delivered by Dr. G. G. Zerffi, on Thursday evening, the 25th ult., at the society’s rooms, 9, Conduit-street, the subject being Mexican Art. Mr. R. Burchett, head master of the National Art Training School, South Kensington, occupied the chair. In commencing, the lecturer said that of all the sciences that were necessary to the study of history, none was more important than archeology, or the knowledge of the monuments of antiquity. This science tried to link together the events of re- mote periods, and to supply the scarcity or total absence of chronicle and tradition. Throughout the whole Western hemisphere numerous works of art remained, like so many indelible pages, testifyiug to the genius of the inhabitants of ancient America, and to the splendour of their constructions, with far more truth and eloquence than could a collection of worm-eaten MSS. which had slumbered for ages in the archives. Like brilliant torches, they served to illuminate the researches of the philosophical histo- rian of art, enabling him to penetrate the darkness which involved the remote period in which the first human associations had been developed in the New World. This New World was to be divided into three parts—North, Central, and South America, The inhabitants of the continent were similarly to be divided into three groups: the black aborigines of America, whose ornamentation had been almost ex- clusively confined to geometrical figures; the Caraibs, Carmias, or Callimagos, who had been yellow-skinned, and who had produced an art pre- cisely similar to that of the Mongols of the Eastern hemisphere ; and, lastly, the so-called American Indians, the red-skinned men. These were pos- sessed of very regular features, and of the same facial angle as the Aryans. With regard to their colour, conclusive testimony existed that the children of these people were born white, and there could be no doubt that for some reason they discoloured their bodies, and su gave themselves that red tint which had falsely been presumed to be natural. Passing to the art productions of these three races, the lecturer proceeded to illustrate, by means of a number of diagrams, the great analogies that existed (1) between the art of the American aborigine and the savage of the old world; (2) between the art of the Callimagos and that of the Chinese and Japanese; and, lastly, between the arts of the whites of America and that of Egypt and early Greece. He did not think that these resemblances were accidental, but was of opinion that they went far to prove that there must at some period of time have been some connection between the two worlds. The principal monuments which existed in Mexico and Peru were:—1. The ruins of a town and temple in the valley of Copan. 2. The rock-hewn temple of Tibulco, in the state of Honduras (it was worthy of note that the sculptured figures on this building were dressed in garments of Indian fashion). 3. The ruins of the valley Xilotepeque, or Mixco, in the province Chimaltenago of the state of Guatemala, in which stalactite caves, containing the bones of antediluvian animals, existed. 4. The ruins of Guiché., Here had been situated the ancient town of Utatlan, in which the palace of the king had stood. 5. The ruins on the islandin the lagoon of Itza. 6. The monuments of Palcaque, which were the most important. This town had, in fact, been the Thebes of Mexico, The style of architecture of the constructions found here most nearly approached Egyptian forms. The buildings had been provided with alcoves, and had been in many instances con- stracted of stones 6 feet in length and 5 feet in breadth, clearly showing that some mechanical con- trivance for the moving of these large masses must have been known to theancient inhabitants. Amongst the most interesting and valuable remains were the mounds on the banks of the Mississippi. These might be divided into—1, sepulchral mounds ; 2, sacrificial mounds; 8, temple mounds; and 4, animal mounds. The first were very numerous in the northern dis— tricts of the United States. They were generally round, but sometimes elliptical or pear-shaped. They usually covered but a single skeleton, which in most cases had been burnt. Occasionally there was: a stone cist. Implements both of stone and bronze occurred; but whilst personal ornaments, such as bracelets, perforated plates of copper, beads of bone, shell, or metal, and similar objects were very nume- rous, weapons were but rarely found, indicating a condition of society entirely different from our own. The most noticeable characteristics of the sacrificial mounds were their almost invariable occurrence within enclosures, their regular construction in uni- form layers of gravel, earth, and sand, and their being used to cover a symmetrical altar of burnt clay or stone, on which numerous relics were deposited which all exhibited traces of having been exposed to the action of fire. The contents of these mounds varied considerably. Generally pot tery and implements of stone and copper, which had all been subjected to great heat, were found. Stone arrows and pipes were also abundant. The temple mounds were pyramidal structures, truncated, and with graded avenues leading to the summits. In some instances they were terraced. But whatever their form might be, they invariably had flat or level tops of greater or less area, One of the most re- markable was at Cahokia, in Illinois. This gigantic mound was 700 feet long, 500 feet wide at the base, and 90 feet high. Its solid content had been roughly estimated at 20,000,000 cubic feet. These mounds had not only been used as temples, but also: as dwellings, especially for the chiefs. The animal mounds were principally, though not ex- clusively, found in Wisconsin. They generally re- presented men and animals, such as_ buffaloes, elks, bears, otters, wolves, racoons, serpents, turtles, and frogs, but sometimes were in the form of crosses and tobacco-pipes. Many of these representations were spirited, others hazy and doubtful. These mounds were not sepulchral. They contained. no implements or ornaments; in some of them fragments of ancient pottery of a very rude kind were found. In conclusion the lecturer described in detail a number of diagrams of Mexican works of art, and drew particular attention to the great skill shown in the construction of fortresses. Referring to some copies of Mexican stucco de- coration, he said that though the execution was faulty, a certain charm existed in the compositions on account of their ideality. He regretted that modern artists had shown themselves in many instances far readier to imitate the primitive than the developed Mexican art. He remarked that it was impossible to do justice to such a subject in the short compass. of a single lecture, but if he had encouraged any of his hearers to pursue their studies in this direction he should have attained his object. After some remarks from Mr. Tidey, the chairman proposed the usual vote of thanks to Dr. Zerfi. He said that he fully concurred in the lecturer's remarks with reference to modern art, which contained, he