Page:The museum, (Jackson, Marget Talbot, 1917).djvu/179

Rh the exhibit, it is simply a means of housing safely the objects to be shown. A case designed in a period may or may not be successful. If it is, it may add materially to the effectiveness of the room. But that particular case will be useless anywhere else, and if it is not successful it is offensive. Thus in the National Museum in Munich the Byzantine cases and one Rococo case are excellent—the Renaissance cases in the Italian room are very poor. In the Musée des Arts Decoratifs in Paris in the rooms devoted to modern art it was decided to give the furniture designer an opportunity to try his skill at designing a case which would harmonize in spirit with the modern furniture shown in the room. The result was one of the worst types of cases imaginable which even the authorities of that museum regard as a mistake. The worst feature of it is that it is in no way dust-proof and it is very easy to break into. Both of these matters might be remedied without influencing the design were that good enough to be worth the trouble.

One of the most difficult matters that confronts the director of a museum situated in an old building, crowded for room, is the utilization of the space under the windows. An example of an excellent solution of this problem is to be found in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. Here the