DESIGN FOR A STENCILLED FAN
BY
REGINALD T. DICK.
MODERN BRITISH JEWELLERY & FANS. By AYMER VALLANCE.
NONE but the most superficial observers can have failed to note the immense advance that has been attained in British jewellery; though how or at what precise point of time the improvement originated may not be determined with too rash precision. It began not more than fifteen or twenty, nor perhaps later than ten years ago. Somewhere between these two limits is about the approximate date. At any rate, it is certain that, thirty years since, it was quite impossible to procure jewellery in the design and composition of which there entered any artistic taste whatever. Such simply did not exist. Whereas now there is a widespread, though unhappily not a universal, movement amongst us for the design and production of jewellery on true æsthetic principles. The movement may even be described as in a measure concerted, that is, in so far as it presents certain main characteristics common to the work of the various individual artists or schools of artists who are concerned with this branch of decoration.
And, firstly, must be noted the development of the goldsmith's and silversmith's craft as an important artistic factor entirely distinct and apart from the subsidiary task of stone-setting. The recognition of the art of the metal-worker, as worthy and capable in itself of providing beautiful ornaments, without their serving any such ulterior purpose as sporting trophies or eccentric badges of buffoonery; and also without the adventitious attraction of costly gems, is a decided point gained.