On Picture Varnishes and Their Solvents by R. L. Feller, N. Stolow and E. H. Jones (review)

372 Books thought of as a substitute for the skill and labour of creative thinking. Here are two books on this subject. David Pye is professor of Furniture Design at the Royal College of Art. Gillian Naylor is with Design magazine and lectures on modern design history. Pye gives some carefully revamped language definitions of ‘craftsmanship’, ‘handmade’, as an historical rather than a technical one, and ‘quality’ in workmanship. He restates in the language of craft technology the antique Marxian adage that ‘labour is the basis of all value’. More than about workmanship, Pye speaks from the heart about morality, philosophy and life style. A good thing has come in a small package. ‘Design proposes. Workmanship disposes.’ There is great current interest in design but there is no corresponding interest in workmanship. The qualities and attractions our environment gets from workmanship is usually attributed to design. ‘Design is what, for practical purposes, can be conveyed in words and by drawing. Workmanship is what, for practical purposes, cannot. In practice, the designer hopes the workmanship will be good, but the workman decides whether it shall be good or not. On the workman’s decision depends a great part of the quality of our environment .’ Individual initiative on the part of the skilled worker is here termed ‘workmanship of risk’. Work done by the semi-skilled under the highly regulated conditions of mass production is termed ‘workmanship of certainty’. Since the highly regulated workmanship of certainty is capable of high performance and visual standards at a minimum cost, why consider ‘handmade’ or ‘workmanship of risk’ products? Pye says: ‘It should continue simply because the workmanship of risk in its highly regulated forms can produce a range of specific aesthetic qualities which the workmanship of certainty, always ruled by price, will never achieve.’ Naylor’s book is an academic historical study of the movement’s sources, ideals and influences. Since she is an exacting scholar, with sources and notes and index, I would have appreciated in the table of contents a listing of the 1 11 excellent illustrations: as well as measurements of all fabrics, furniture, ceramics, lighting fixtures, floor coverings and cutlery. Does this reliance upon formal scholarship, in contrast to Pye’s free-wheeling style, reflect the lingering insecurity of woman in our age of Women’s Liberation ? A first run through the illustrations seems to give a tacky blend of Medieval, Victorian and Episcopalian but, after mental adjustment, their good workmanship and sound design make them as tolerable as eccentric old neighbors in the country. John Ruskin said: ‘We cannot teach Art as an abstract skill or power. It is a result of a certain ethical state of the nation.’ The Guild of Handicraft founded in 1888, floundered in 1908 with Charles Ashbee’s admission that ‘modern civilization rests on machinery. . . .’ Naylor concludes with the statement: ‘By the 1950s, the Scandinavians had accomplished all that the [English] Arts and Crafts Movement had planned to accomplish some seventy years earlier. They had used their rich natural resources to realize Morris’ ideal of a “decorative, noble, popular art”, and because their concern went beyond appearance and finish, their pioneering work in anthropometric research provided a vital service for architects, designers, and industry.’ For an artist-craftsman with a hunger for roots and ancestors, this book makes pertinent reading. Hopefully, one’s tools do not get too rusty in the process. On Picture Varnishes and Their Solvents. Revised and Enlarged Edition. R. L. Feller, N. Stolow and E. H. Jones. Case Western Reserve, Cleveland and London, 1971. 251 pp., illus. $6.50. Reviewed by: George A. Agoston“ This book was first published by the lntermuseum Conservation Association in 1959 and is based on three papers presented at its 1957seminar at Oberlin, Ohio. The present edition contains, in addition, new research information reported by each of the authors and supplementary references to other recent work. Artists and art teachers should take note of this book because it contains a wealth of authoritative technical information of more general application than the title suggests. The first part by Feller is devoted principally to solvents. Of certain interest to some artists and teachers is the chapter giving...