Font

figures help to enrich the general effect. Examples of Gothic sound-| ing boards are very rare; that, together with the pulpit, in the choir of Winchester is of the time of Prior Silkstede (1520), and is carved with his rebus, a skein-of twisted silk. The usual form of font cover during the hundred years before the Reformation was pyramidal, the ribs of the salient angles being straight and cusped (Frindsbury, Kent)or of curved outline and cusped (St Mildred, Canterbury). There is a very covers. charming one of this form at Colebrook, Devon. It is quite plain but for a little angel kneeling on the top, with its hands clasped in prayer. But the most beautiful form is the massed collection of pinnacles and canopy work, of which there is such a fine example at Sudbury, Suffolk. It was not uncommon to carve a dove on the topmost pinnacle (Castleacre, Norfolk), in allusion to the descent of the Holy Spirit. The finest font in England is undoubtedly that of Ufford, Suffolk. It rises some 20 ft. in height, and when the panels were painted with saints and the exquisite tabernacle work coloured and gilded, must have been a masterpiece of Gothic craftsmanship. A cord connecting the tops of these covers with the roof or with a carved beam standing out from the wall, something like a crane (Salle, Norfolk), was used to remove the cover on the occasion of baptism. Many lecterns of the Gothic period do not exist to-day. They usually had a double sloping desk which revolved round a central moulded post. The lectern at Swanscombe, Kent, has a Lecterns. circle of good foliage ornamenting each face of the book rest, and some tracery work at either end. The box form is more common in France than in England, the pedestal of such a lectern being surrounded by a casing of three or more sides. A good example with six sides is in the church of Vance (France), and one of triangular form in the Musée of Bourges, while a four-sided box lectern is still in use in the church of Lenham, Kent. The Gothic prayer desk, used for private devotional purposes, is hardly known in England, but is not uncommon on the Continent. There is a beautiful specimen in the Musée, Bourges; the front and sides of the part for kneeling are carved with that small tracery of flowing character so common in France and Belgium during the latter part of the 15th century, and the back, which rises to a height of 6 ft., contains a little crucifix with traceried decoration above and below.

A word should be said about the ciboria, so often found on the continent of Europe. In tapering arrangement of taberCiboria. nacle work they rival the English font covers in delicacy of outline (Musée, Rouen).

Numbers of doors are to be met with not only in churches but also in private houses. Lavenham, Suffolk, is rich in work of this latter class. In England the general custom was to carve the Doors. head of the door only with tracery (East Brent, Somerset), but in the Tudor period doors were sometimes covered entirely with "linenfold" panelling (St Albans Abbey). This form of decoration was exceedingly common on the Continent as well as in England. In France the doors towards the latter part of the 15th century were often square-headed, or perhaps had the corners rounded. These doors were usually divided into some six or eight oblong panels of more or less equal size. One of the doors of Bourges Cathedral is treated thus, the panels being filled in with very good tracery enriched with crockets and coats of arms. But a more restrained form of treatment is constantly employed, as at the church of St Godard, Rouen, where the upper panels only are carved with tracery and coats of arms and the lower adorned with simple linenfold design.

Allar

To Spain and the Teutonic countries of Europe we look for the most important object of church decoration, the retable; the Reformation accounting for the absence in England of any work of this kind. The magnificent altar-piece in Schleswig cathedral pieces. was carved by Hans Bruggerman, and consists, like many others, of a number of panels filled with figures standing some four or five deep. The figures in the foremost rows are carved entirely separate, and stand out by themselves, while the background is composed of figure work and architecture, &c., in diminishing perspective. The panels are grouped together under canopy work forming one harmonious whole. The genius of this great carver shows itself in the large variety of the facial expression of those wonderful figures all instinct with life and movement. In France few retables exist outside the museums. In the little church of Marissel, not far from Beauvais, there is a retable consisting of eleven panels, the crucifixion being, of course, the principal subject. And there is a beautiful example from Antwerp in the Musée Cluny, Paris; the pierced tracery work which decorates the upper part being a good example of the style composed of interlacing segments of circles so common on the Continent during late Gothic times and but seldom practised in England. In Spain the cathedral of Valladolid was famous for its retable, and Alonso Cano and other sculptors frequently used wood for large statuary, which was painted in a very realistic way with the most startlingly lifelike effect. Denmark also possessed a school of able wood-carvers who imitated the great altar-pieces of Germany. A very large and well-carved example still exists in the cathedral of Roskilde. But besides these great altarpieces tiny little models were carved on a scale the minuteness of which staggers the beholder. Triptychs and shrines, &c., measuring but a few inches were filled in with tracery and figures that excite the utmost wonder. In the British Museum there is such a triptych

(Flemish, 1511); the centre panel, measuring an inch or two square, is crowded with figures in full relief and in diminishing perspective, after the custom of this period. This rests on a semicircular base which is carved with the Lord's Supper, and is further ornamented with figures and animals. The whole thing inclusive measures about 9 in. high, and, with the triptych wings open, 5 in. wide. The extraordinary delicacy and minuteness of detail of this microscopic work baffle description. There is another such a piece, also Flemish, in the Wallace collection, which rivals that just referred to in misapplied talent. For, marvellous as these works of art are, they fail to satisfy They make one's eyes ache, they worry one as to how the result could ever have been obtained, and after the first astonishment one must ever feel that the same work of art on a scale large enough for a cathedral could have been carved with half the labour. With regard to panelling generally, there were, during the last fifty years of the period now under review, three styles of design followed by most European carvers, each of which attained great notoriety Firstly, a developed form of small Panelling. tracery which was very common in France and the Netherlands. A square-headed panel would be filled in with small detail of flamboyant character, the perpendicular line or mullion being always subordinate, as in the German chasse (Musée Cluny), and in some cases absent, as the screen work of Evreux cathedral shows us. Secondly, the "linenfold "design. The great majority of examples are of a very conventional form, but at Bere Regis, Dorsetshire, the designs with tassels, and at St Sauveur, Caen, those with fringe work, readily justify the universal title applied to this very decorative treatment of large surfaces. At the beginning of the 16th century yet another pattern became the fashion. The main lines of the design consisted of flat hollow mouldings sometimes in the form of interlacing circles (Gatton, Surrey), at other times chiefly straight (Rochester cathedral), and the intervening spaces would be filled in with cusps or sprigs of foliage. It marks the last struggle of this great school of design to withstand the oncoming flood of the new art-the great Renaissance. From this time onward Gothic work, in spite of various attempts, has never again taken a place in domestic decoration. The lines of the tracery style, the pinnacle, and the crocket-unequalled as they have always been in devotional expression are universally considered unsuited for decoration in the ordinary dwelling-house.

Domestic

But little reference can be made to the domestic side of the period which ended with the dawn of the 16th century, because so few remains exist. On the Continent we have a certain proportion of timbered houses, the feature of which is the work. sculpture. At Bayeux, Bourges, Reims and pre-eminently Rouen, we see by the figures of saints, bishops or virgins, how much the religious feeling of the middle ages entered into the domestic life. In England the carved corner post (which generally carried a bracket at the top to support the overhanging storey) calls for comment. In Ipswich there are several such posts. On one house near the river, that celebrated subject, the fox preaching to geese, is carved in graphic allusion to the dissemination of false doctrine.

Of mantelpieces there is a good example in the Rouen Museum. The overhanging corners are supported by dragons and the plain mouldings have little bunches of foliage carved at either end, a custom as common in France during the 15th century as it was in England a century earlier; the screen beam at Eastbourne parish church, for example.

As a rule, cabinets of the 15th century were rectangular in plan. In Germany and Austria the lower part was often enclosed, as well as the upper; the top, middle and lower rails being carved with geometrical design or with bands of foliage (Museum, Vienna). But it was also the custom to make these cupboards with the corners cut off, thus giving five sides to the piece of furniture. A very pretty instance, which is greatly enhanced by the metal work of the lock plates and hinges, is in the Musée Cluny, and there are other good specimens with the lower part open in the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington.

The chest was a very important piece of furniture, and is often to be met with covered with the most elaborate carving (Orleans Museum). There is a splendid chest (14th century) in the Cluny Museum; the front is carved with twelve knights in armour standing under as many arches, and the spandrels are filled in with faces, dragons and so on. But it is to the 15th century that we look for the best work of this class; there is no finer example than that in the Kunstgewerbe Museum, Berlin (Plate III. fig. 6). The front is a very animated hunting scene most decoratively arranged in a scheme of foliage, and the top bears two coats of arms with helms, crests and mantling. But the more general custom in chest decoration was to employ tracery with or without figure work; Avignon Museum contains some typical examples of the latter class.

A certain number of seats used for domestic purposes are of great interest. A good example of the long bench placed against the wall, with lofty panelled back and canopy over, is in the Musée Cluny, Paris. In the Museum at Rouen is a long seat of a movable kind with a low panelled back of pierced tracery, and in the Dijon Museum there is a good example of the typical chair of the period, with arms and high panelled and traceried back. There was a style of design admirably suited to the decoration of furniture when made of softwood such as pine. It somewhat resembled the excellent Scandinavian

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treatment of the 10th-12th centuries already referred to. pattern of Gothic foliage, often of beautiful outline, would be simply grounded out to a shallow depth. The shadows, curves and twists only being emphasized by a few well-disposed cuts with a "V" tool; and of course the whole effect greatly improved by colour. A Swiss door of the 15th century in the Berlin Museum, and some German, Swiss and Tirolese work in the Victoria and Albert Museum, offer patterns that might well be imitated to-day by those who require simple decoration while avoiding the hackneyed Elizabethan forms. It is hard to compare the figure work of England with that on the Continent owing to the disastrous effect of the Reformation. But when we examine the roofs of the Eastern counties, the Figure bench ends of Somerset, or the misereres in many parts of work. the country, we can appreciate how largely wood sculpture was used for purposes of decoration. If as a rule the figure work was not of a very high order, we have conspicuous exceptions in the stall elbows of Sherborne, and the pulpit of Trull, Somerset. Perhaps the oldest instance is the much-mutilated and much-restored effigy of Robert, duke of Normandy, in Gloucester Cathedral (12th century), and carved, as was generally the case in England, in oak. At Clifton Reynes, Buckingham, there are two figures of the 13th century. They are both hollowed out from the back in order to facilitate seasoning the wood and to prevent cracking. During the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries there are numberless instances of figure carving of the most graphic description afforded in the misereres in many of our churches and cathedrals. But of figures carved in the round apart from their surroundings hardly an instance remains. At the little chapel of Cartmel Fell, in the wilds of Westmorland, there is a figure of Our Lord from a crucifix, some 2 ft. 6 in. in length. The cross is gone, the arms are broken away, and the feet have been burned off. A second figure of Our Lord (originally in the church of Keynes Inferior) is in the museum of Caerleon, and a third, from a church in Lincolnshire, is now in a private collection. On the continent some of the finest figure work is to be found in the retables, some of which are in the Victoria and Albert Museum. A Tirolese panel of the 15th century carved in high relief, representing St John scated with his back to the onlooker, is a masterpiece of perspective and foreshortening, and the drapery folds are perfect. The same may be said of a small statue of the Virigin, carved in lime by a Swiss hand, and some work of the great Tylman Reimenschneider of Wurzburg (1468-1531) shows that stone sculptors of medieval times were not ashamed of wood.

Renaissance Period (16th-17th Centuries).—With the beginning of the 16th century the great Renaissance began to elbow its way in to the exclusion of Gothic design. But the process was not sudden, and much transition work has great merit. The rood screen at Hurst, Berkshire, the stall work of Cartmel Priory, Westmorland, and the bench ends of many of the churches in Somerset, give good illustrations. But the new style was unequal to the old in devotional feeling, except in classic buildings like St Paul's cathedral, where the stalls of Grinling Gibbons better suit their own surroundings. The rest of this article will therefore be devoted in the main to domestic work, and the exact location of examples can only be given when not the property of private owners or where the public have access. During the 16th century the best work is undoubtedly to be found on the Continent, France, Germany and the Netherlands producing numberless examples not only of house decoration but of furniture as well. The wealth of the newly discovered American continent was only one factor which assisted in the civilizing influence of this time, and hand in hand with the spread of commerce came the desire for refinement. The custom of building houses chiefly in wood wherever timber was plentiful continued. Pilasters took the place of pinnacles, and vases or dolphins assisted the acanthus leaf to oust the older forms of design. House fronts of wood gave ample scope to the carver. That of Sir Paul Pinder (1600), formerly in Bishopsgate, but now preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum, is a good example of decorative treatment without overloading. The brackets carved in the shape of monsters which support the projecting upper storey are typical of hundreds of dwellings, as for instance St Peter's Hospital, Bristol. The panels, too, of Sir Paul Pinder's house should be noted as good examples of that Jacobean form of medallion surrounded by scroll work which is at once as decorative as it is simple. In England that familiar style known as Elizabethan and Jacobean prevailed throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. At the present time hardly a home in the land has not its old oak chest carved with the familiar half circle or scroll border along the top rail, or the arch pattern on the panels. The court cupboards, with their solid or open under parts and upper cornice supported by turned balusters of extravagant thickness, are to be seen wherever one goes. And chairs, real as well as spurious, with solid backs carved in the usual flat relief, are bought up with an avidity inseparable from fashion. Four-post bedsteads are harder to come by. The back is usually broken up into small panels and carved, the best effect being seen in those examples where the panelling or the framework only is decorated. The dining-hall tables often had six legs of great substance, which were turned somewhat after the shape of a covered cup, and were carved with foliage bearing a distant resemblance to the acanthus. Rooms were generally panelled with oak, sometimes divided at intervals by flat pilasters and the upper fricze carved with scroll

work or dolphins. But the feature which distinguished the period was the fire mantel. It always must be the principal object in a room, and the Elizabethan carver fully appreciated this lact. By carving the chimney breast as a rule to the ceiling and covering the surrounding walls with more or less plain panelling, the designer, by thus concentrating the attention on one point, often produced results of a high order. Caryatid figures, pilasters and friezes were among the customary details employed to produce good effects. No finer example exists than that lately removed from the old palace at Bromley-by-Bow to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The mantelshelf is 6 ft. from the ground and consists of a deep quadrant mould decorated with flat scroll work of good design. The supporting pilasters on either side are shaped and moulded in the customary Jacobean manner and are crowned by busts with Ionic capitals on the heads. Above the shelf the large centre panel is deeply carved with the royal coat of arms with supporters and mantling, and on either side a semicircular arched niche contains a figure in classic dress. The Elizabethan carver often produced splendid staircases, sometimes carving the newel posts with heraldic figures bearing coats of arms, &c. The newels of a staircase at Highgate support different types of Cromwellian soldiers, carved with great vivacity and life. But in spite of excellent work, as for example the beautiful gallery at Hatfield, the carving of this period did not, so far as England was concerned, compare with other epochs, or with contemporary work in other parts of Europe. Much of the work is badly drawn and badly executed. It is true that good decorative effects were constantly obtained at the very minimum of cost, but it is difficult to discover much merit in work which really looks best when badly cut. In France this flat and simple treatment was to a certain extent used. Doors were most suitably adorned in this way, and the split baluster so characteristic of Jacobean work is often to be met with. There are some very good cabinets in the museum at Lyngby, Denmark, illustrating these two methods of treatment in combination. But the Swiss and Austrians elaborated this style, greatly improving the effect by the addition of colour. However, the best Continental designs adopted the typical acanthus foliage of Italy, while still retaining a certain amount of Gothic feeling in the strength of the lines and the "cut" of the detail (Plate IV. fig. 9). Panelling often long and narrow-was commonly used for all sorts of domestic purposes, a feature being a medallion in the centre with a simple arrangement of vase, dolphins, dragons, or birds and foliage filling in the spaces above and below.

The cabinets of Holland and Belgium are excellent models of design. These pieces of furniture were usually arranged in two storeys with a fine moulded and carved cornice, mid division and plinth. The pilasters at the sides, and small raised panels carved only on the projecting part, would compose a very harmonious whole. A proportion of the French cabinets are decorated with caryatids not carved in the best taste, and, like other French woodwork of this period, are sometimes overloaded with sculpture. The doors of St Maclou, Rouen, fine as they are, would hardly to-day be held up as models for imitation. A noteworthy set of doors belong to the Hôtel de Ville, Oudenarde. The central door contains twelve and that on either side eight panels, each of which is carved with Renaissance foliage surrounding an unobtrusive figure. In the Palais de Justice we see that great scheme of decoration which takes up the whole of the fireplace end of the hall. Five large figures carved in the round are surrounded by small ones and with foliage and coats of arms.

In Italy, the birthplace of the Renaissance, there is much fine work of the 16th century. A very important school of design was promoted by Raphael, whose patterns were used or adapted by a large number of craftsmen. The shutters of " Raphael's Stanze in the Vatican, and the choir stalls in the church of St Pietro de' Cassinesi at Perugia, are among the most beautiful examples of this style of carving. The work is in slight relief, and carved in walnut with those graceful patterns which Raphael developed out of the newly discovered remains of ancient Roman wall painting from the palace of Nero and other places. In the Victoria and Albert Museum are many examples of Italian work (Plate IV. fig. 11): the door from a convent near Parma, with its three prominent masks and heavy gadroon moulds; a picture frame with a charming acanthus border and egg and tongue moulds on either side; and various marriage chests in walnut covered with very elaborate schemes of carving. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish Spanish, or for that matter South of France work, from Italian, so much alike is the character. The Spaniards yield to none in good workmanship. Some Spanish panels of typical Italian design are in the Victoria and Albert Museum as well as cabinets of the purest Renaissance order. There is a wonderful Portuguese coffer (17th century) in this section. The top is deeply carved in little compartments with scenes from the life of Our Lord.

17th-18th Centuries.-In England the great school of Grinling Gibbons arose. Although he carved many beautiful mouldings of conventional form (Hampton Court Palace, Chatsworth, &c.), his name is usually associated with a very heavy form of decoration which was copied direct from nature. Great swags of drapery and foliage with fruit and dead birds, &c., would be carved in lime a foot thick. For technical skill these examples are unsurpassed; each grape would be undercut, the finer stalks and birds' legs stand out quite

separate, and as a consequence soon succumb to the energy of the housemaid's broom. Good work of this class is to be found at Petworth; Trinity College, Oxford; Trinity College, Cambridge; St Paul's cathedral; St James', Piccadilly; and many other London churches. During the reigns of Louis XIV and XV. the principal merit of carved design, i.c. its appropriateness and suitability, gradually disappeared. Furniture was often carved in a way hardly legitimate. The legs, the rails of tables and chairs, the frames of cabinets, of looking-glasses, instead of being first made for construction and strength, and then decorated, were first designed to carry cherubs' heads and "rococo" (i.e. rock and shell ornament), quite regardless of utility or convenience. A wealth of such mistaken design was also applied to state carriages, to say nothing of bedsteads and other furniture. However, the wall panelling of the mansions of the rich, and sometimes the panelling of furniture, was decorated with rococo design in its least illegitimate form. The main part of the wood surface would be left plain, while the centre would be carved with a medallion surrounded by foliage, vases or trophies of torches and musical instruments, &c., or perhaps the upper part of the panel would be thus treated. France led the fashion, which was more or less followed all over Europe. In England gilt chairs in the style of Louis XV. were made in some quantities. But Thomas Chippendale, Ince and Mayhew, Sheraton, Johnson, Heppelwhite and other cabinet-makers did not as a rule use much carving in their designs. Scrolls, shells, ribbon, ears of corn, &c., in very fine relief, were, however, used in the embellishment of chairs, &c., and the claw and ball foot was employed as a termination to the cabriole legs of cabinets The mantelpieces of the 18th century were as a rule carved in pine and painted white. Usually the shelves were narrow and supported by pilasters often of flat elliptic plan, sometimes by caryatids, and the frieze would consist of a raised centre panel carved with a classic scene in relief, or with a mask alone, and on either side a swag of flowers, fruit and foliage.

and other furniture.

Interior doorways were often decorated with a broken pediment more or less ornate, and a swag of foliage commonly depended from either side over a background of scroll work. The outside porches so often seen in Queen Anne houses were of a character peculiar to the 18th century. A small platform or curved roof was supported by two large and heavy brackets carved with acanthus scroll work. The staircases were as a rule exceedingly good. Carved and pierced brackets were fixed to the " open strings "(i.e. the sides of the steps), giving a very pretty effect to the graceful balustrade of turned and twisted columns.

Renaissance figure work calls for little comment. During the 16th century many good examples were produced-those priestly statues in the museum of Sens for example. But the figure work used in the decoration of cabinets, &c., seldom rose above the ordinary level. In the 18th century cherubs' heads were fashionable and statuettes were sometimes carved in boxwood as ornaments, but as a means of decorating houses wood sculpture ceased to be. The Swiss, however, have kept up their reputation for animal sculpture to the present day, and still turn out cleverly carved chamois and bears, &c.; as a rule the more sketchily cut the better the merit. Their more ambitious works, their groups of cows, &c., sometimes reach a high level of excellence.

Of the work of the 19th century little can be said in praise. Outside and beyond the present-day fashion for collecting old oak there seems to be no demand for carved decoration. In church work a certain number of carvers find occupation, as also for repairs or the production of imitations. But the carving one is accustomed to see in hotels or on board the modern ocean palace is in the main the work of the machine. There is no objection to the machine in itself, as it only grounds out and roughly models the design which is finished by hand. Its fatal drawback is that it is of commercial value only when a large number of panels of the same pattern are turned out at the same time. It is this repetition which takes away the life of good work, which places that gulf between the contract job and the individual effort of the artist. The price of all labour has so greatly increased, to build a house is so much more expensive than it was before the days of the trades union that none but the very rich can afford to beautify their home in the way to which our forefathers were accustomed.

Coptic. In the early medieval period, screens and other fittings were produced for the Coptic churches of Egypt by native Christian workmen. In the British Museum there is a set of ten small cedar panels from the church door of Sitt Miriam, Cairo (13th century). The six sculptured figure panels are carved in very low relief and the four foliage panels are quite Oriental in character, intricate and fine both in detail and finish. In the Cairo Museum there is much work treated after the familiar Arab style, while other designs are quite Byzantine in character. The figure work is not of a very high order. Mohammedan Work.-Nothing can exceed the skill with which the Moslem wood-carvers of Persia, Syria, Egypt and Spain designed and executed the richest panelling and other decorations for wall linings, ceilings, pulpits and all kinds of fittings and furniture. The mosques and private houses of Cairo, Damascus and other Oriental cities are full of the most elaborate and minutely delicate woodwork. A favourite style of ornament was to cover the surface with

very intricate interlacing patterns, formed by finely moulded ribs, the various geometrical spaces between the ribs were then filled in with small pieces of wood carved with foliage in slight relief. The use of different woods such as ebony or box, inlaid so as to emphasize the design, combined with the ingenious richness of the patterns, give this class of woodwork an almost unrivalled splendour of effect. Carved ivory is also often used for the filling in of the spaces. The Arabs are past masters in the art of carving flat surfaces in this way. A gate in the mosque of the sultan Bargoug (Cairo, 14th century) well illustrates this appreciation of lines and surfaces. The pulpit or mimbar (15th century) from a Cairo mosque, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, is also a good example in the same style, the small spaces in this case being filled in with ivory carved in flat relief. Screens made up of labyrinths of complicated joinery, consisting of multitudes of tiny balusters connecting hexagons, squares or other forms, with the flat surfaces constantly enriched with small carvings, are familiar to every one. In Cairo we also have examples in the mosque of Qous (12th century) of that finely arranged geometrical interlacing of curves with foliage terminations which distinguishes the Saracenic designer. Six panels in the Victoria and Albert Museum (13th century; Plate II. fig. 5), and work on the tomb of the sultan El Ghoury (16th century), show how deeply this form of decoration was ingrained in the Arab nature. Figure work and animals were sometimes introduced, in medieval fashion, as in the six panels just referred to, and at the hôpital du Moristan (13th century) and the mosque of El Nesfy Qeyçoun (14th century). There is a magnificent panel on the door of Beyt-el-Emyr. This exquisite design is composed of vine leaves and grapes of conventional treatment in low relief. The Arab designer was fond of breaking up his panelling in a way reminding one of a similar Jacobcan custom. The main panel would be divided into a number of hexagonal, triangular or other shapes, and each small space filled in with conventional scroll work. Much of this simple flat design reminds one of that Byzantine method from which the Elizabethan carvers were inspired.

Persia. The Persian carvers closely followed Arab design. A pair of doors of the 14th century from Samarkand (Victoria and Albert Museum) are typical. Boxes, spoons and other small articles were often fretted with interlacing lines of Saracenic character, the delicacy and minuteness of the work requiring the utmost patience and skill. Many of the patterns remind one of the sandalwood work of Madras, with the difference that the Persians were satisfied with a much lower relief. Sometimes a very beautiful result was obtained by the sparing use of fretted lattice pattern among foliage. A fine panel of the 14th century in the Victoria and Albert Museum shows how active was Arab influence even as far as Bokhara. India and Burma.-Throughout the great Indian peninsula woodcarving of the most luxurious kind has been continuously produced for many centuries. The ancient Hindu temples were decorated with doors, ceilings and various fittings carved in teak and other woods with patterns of extreme richness and minute claboration. We have architectural remains from Kashmir Smats (Punjab) dating from the 3rd or 4th century, the patterns employed being of a bold and decorative character strongly resembling the best Elizabethan design. The doors of the temple of Somnath, on the north-west coast, were famed for their magnificence and were highly valued as sacred relics. In 1024 they were carried off to Ghazni by the Moslem conqueror, Sultan Mahmud, and are now lying at the fort at Agra. The gates which now exist are very fine specimens of ancient woodcarving, but are probably only copies of the original very early doors. The Asiatic carver, like certain of his European brethren, is apt to be carried away by his own enthusiasm and to overcrowd his surfaces. Many a door, column, gallery or even a whole house-front is covered with the most intricate design bewildering to behold (Bhera, Shahpur). But this is not always the case, and the Oriental is at times more restrained in his methods. Architectural detail is to be seen with only a simple enrichment carved round the framing. producing the happiest result. The Hindu treatment of the circle is often exceedingly good, and might perhaps less rarely inspire western design. Sometimes native work strongly resembles Scandinavian of the 12th century. The scrolls are designed on the same lines, and foliage and flowers (beyond elementary buds) are not employed (Burma, 17th century, Victoria and Albert Museum). The pierced work of Bombay calls for note. Foliage, fruit and flowers are constantly adapted to a scheme of fret-cut decoration for doors or windows as well as the frames of chairs and the edges of tables. A reference should also be made to those wonderful sandalwood tables, cabinets and boxes to be seen in Southern India, always covered with design, often with scores of figures and monsters with every space filled in with the minutest decoration. Many of the gong stands of Burma show the highest skill; the arrangement of two figures bearing a pole from which a gong hangs is familiar. The Burmese are sculptors of proved merit

China and Japan. In these countries the carver is unrivalled for deftness of hand. Grotesque and imitative work of the utmost perfection is produced, and many of the carvings of these countries, Japan in particular, are beautiful works of art, especially when the carver copies the lotus, lily or other aquatic plant. A favourite form of decoration consists of breaking up the architectural surfaces, such as ceilings, friezes, &c., into framed squares and filling up cach