Original Art Deco Designs by William Rowe (review)

Books among designers, mathematicians and crystallographers and teachers interested in stimulating patterns as exericses in symmetry analysis. Original Art Deco Designs. William Rowe. Dover, New York, 1973. 72 pp., illus. Paper, 53.50. Reviewed by Arthur L. Lmb* This is a volume in Dover's Pictorial Archives. It is a new book, nor a reprint. Rowe is a young artist who has immersed himself sufficiently in the style of Art Deco that he has made it an idiom of his own. Up to 10 illustrations from this book may be reproduced without special permission. The economic depression of the 1930s in the U.S.A. was swept away by World War 11 without the basic problems being resolved and, therefore, many of them have reappeared. It is not surprising that those not yet born in the 1930's should find a fascination in the life of that time. A word list, such as Empire State Building, George Gershwin, Astrid Queen of the Belgians, Carole Lombard, Stavisky, the London-Melbourne air race, Haile Selassie the Negus of Abyssinia, the disaster of the airship Hindenburg recalls a world with a very definite character of its own At least, this is how I, who reached my teens in the mid1930 's, reacted when confronted with this book. Art Deco is a style that is very difficult to define. It is to Rowe's credit that he has captured its undefinable quality. Its lack of subtlety is a help to those artists who wish to use it. It is a very mechanistic style, combining the decorative aspects of Art Nouveau and Jugendstil with Bauhaus and De Stilj functionalism. It is brassy, commercial and highly geometrical. It aimed to give an individuality to advertising copy, household objects, buildings and building ornaments at a time when the new functionalism threatened the world with anonymity. And, like the horseshoe-nail jewelry of the late 1960's and early 1970's, even ladies' jewelry reflected this functional style. Rowe's design book is devoted in part to alphabets and numerals; these are incorporated into title pages for popular songs and other page designs. The eight colored pages are fascinating studies in hatching techniques for suggesting textures. Such devices as gasoline pumps, washbowls with fixtures, an ice-cream cone, a television set (!) and a water fountain find themselves part of geometrical abstract design. Rowe has provided designers with a very fascinating and potentially useful sampler of a style that has passed into oblivion and reappeared, faddish and mannered, but very evocative of its era. Metalwork and Enamelling. 5th revised ed. Herbert Maryon. Dover, New York, 1971. 335 pp., illus. Paper, 53.50. Reviewed by Edward Winter** This book was first published in 1912. Maryon, a dedicated historian and lover of metal crafts, was generous in giving his technical knowledge to others interested in the various phases of jewellery and metalworking. The book is mainly for craftsmen working in precious metals, such as gold, silver and platinum, however other traditional metalworking techniques are also adequately treated. There was little art work done with enamelled metals in the early part of this century, but since 1931 it has become quite widespread. Several fine books by enamelists have been published since the early 1950's. which have added to this popularity. As a practising enamelist, I value this book, but 1 wonder how many young people today in search of a livelihood in crafts who read it would be won over to metal enamelling for their life's work. It has many line drawings on the complicated techniques *Dept. of Visual and Environmental Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A. **I 1020 Magnolia Dr., Cleveland, OH 44106, U.S.A. of the art, but it does not show them in a simple 'how-to' manner. The traditional techniques described 'champlevt, cloisonk, plique-8-jour) are practiced by few craftsmen today, for they are highly time-consuming. Techniques that can be carried out more quickly and that permit more spontaneousexecution are now preferred, especially from a commercial viewpoint. 1 did not find a reference in the book to the sieveapplication of powdered enamel (through an 80 or a 100 mesh hand...