each design furnishes an excellent commentary upon its accompanying text. In spite of the general excellence of Mr. Vedder's designs, they vary much in individual merit. Very admirable is the design of Death offering his cup, although perhaps it reminds us a trifle too much of Mr. Watts. In the appendix we find an account of Omar Khayyam's life and work reprinted from the original edition of Mr. Fitzgerald's translation. We have also a brief discussion concerning the proposition advanced by a French translator, M: Nicolas, to the effect that Omar's wine-cup is symbolic and his wine an emblem of the Deity. The publication of this fine edition is a fitting tribute to the memory of Mr. Edward Fitz gerald."-Saturday Review, Jan. 10, 1885. "Mr. Elihu Vedder has hitherto been little known to Englishmen. Now, thanks to Mr. Quaritch, who has published sumptuously the Rubaiyat of Omarkhayyam, the astronomer poet of Persia, as rendered into English verse by the late Mr. Fitzgerald, they have an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the fine qualities of the latest follower of Michael Angelo, an admirable and energetic, if not too refined draughtsman, whose inventions' are allied to Blake's though they are not, like his, inchoate or indefinite and have something of the muscular vigour and mental fibrousness of Ghirlandajo, Mr. Vedder, a native of the United States, has been long resident in Rome, and has so saturated his mind with the antique and the Quattrocento masters that he has not only that ambition to delineate ideas which in these days is of rare occurrence, but, what is rarer, the precious power of expressing them with adequate spontaneity and thoroughness. There could hardly be a more difficult problem set before a modern student than how fitly to combine abstract ideas and naturalistic types so as to satisfy those who look devoutly to Blake on the one hand, and believe in the great Florentines on the other. We could often and fairly take exception to the contours, and more frequently to the foreshortening, of the limbs of some of the figures before us; but it would not be possible to turn from any of them without admiration for the high poetic qualities it embodies, and delight in the broad technical style employed on it. Mr. Vedder not only draws like a master, but he is incapable of the ostentation and bluster which are not unknown in the works of Michael Angelo himself. We are not, of course, comparing these designers, except so far as the the defects of the great genius are concerned. On every page before us the impress of knowledge is manifest in the expression of bold and original ideas. Of the latter, a good illustration will be found in the cometary head of the seraph-like presence attached to the verse Heav'n but the Vision of fulfill'd Desire, We have said that these are illustrations of ideas which it is the function of high art to express if it can. If it cannot do this it is valueless; but success in this matter places it among the greatest achievements of human intelligence. In dramatic wealth the grouped heads of the 'Phantom Caravan' are wonderful. They are full of thought, without exaggeration or bluster on the part of the author. The figure of the nymph, The Cypress-slender Minister of Wine, within whose tresses the satyr is invited to move his fingers luxuriously, is a fine piece of realism suited to the subject. Style, the quality of qualities most honoured by artists and most puzzling to dilettanti, is present in all these illustrations. Mr. Vedder may claim a high place among the masters on the strength of this grand series of designs." The Athenæum, January 3rd, 1885. "In the front rank of Art books of the season will certainly be found the handsome volume which contains Fitzgerald's English version of The Rubaiyàt,' or quatrains of Omar Khayyám, illustrated by Elihu Vedder. Omar's song has had a facsination beyond its deserts for this artist. Even he is bound to admit that its burden is, 'Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die;' and that the only god who figures therein is Sensuality. When to this is added a constant reminder that there is no compensation after death for self-denial in this world, no prospect for aught save annihilation, is it a wonder that the artist's pencil lags and is infected thereby? It is only thus that we can explain a sensation which has been experienced by others besides ourselves, who, taking up the work with a delighted surprise at the strength of draughtmanship and novelty of treatment, have laid it down with a feeling of weariness and disappointment. Mr. Vedder is hardly to blame for this. His illustrations are dignified in treatment, finely conceived, and well composed; note as examples those illustrating the quatrains Nos. 18 and 49. It is true that he seldom makes sufficient of the surroundings which the imagination conjures up of the beauties of the Orient; he has hardly attempted the delineation of a lovely face, and his drawing of the figure is occasionally open to question, especially when foreshortening comes into play. But, on the other hand, he has reaped the very material advantage of having his drawings, which are in grey and white chalks, reproduced in a manner which reflects the highest credit on the firm engaged, the Riverside Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts; their lithographic work alone will make the volume of value to those who collect the finest specimens of the art; we can therefore well understand Mr. Quaritch, the English publisher's assertion, that nearly all the two editions of the work have been taken up, spite of their price, which is thirty and five guineas respectively." —The Art Journal, January, 1885. Instructions to buy Books in Auction, "AT THEIR VALUE," or IF REASONABLE," or IF CHEAP," cannot be treated in the same way as real commissions, which bind the agent to their performance. I cannot engage my responsibility to execute commissions unless I receive a positive indication of the limit of price for each lot desired. It often happens that I hold two distinct commissions for the same lot, and it is only by means of such a precise declaration on the part of each competitor that I am enabled to perform satisfactorily the duty of a responsible agent. My charge for purchases at English sales is sometimes 10% on the cost, and occasionally 10%, on the full amount of the commission given; my charge for purchases abroad is 10°。 upon the full commissionprice plus the incidental expenses. When commissions are entrusted to me I waive my own competition, up to the specified limit of price. The following extract from the ACADEMY, April 29th, 1882, is to the point: "But there were also several competitors in the background who had entrusted their commissions to uninterested and inexperienced agents. This practice may sometimes result in a bargain; but, to judge from this and other sales, it is an ill-advised one. The knowledge of the value of old books and of especial copies is confined to a very few heads; and these cognoscenti seek to punish the givers of unlimited commissions by running the prices to an extravagant pitch, the nominal opponent being in most cases unable, from want of knowledge and experience, to form a true notion on the subject." BERNARD QUARITCH. ΤΟ VENDORS OF BOOKS. Every post brings me letters with lists of books, for which I am asked "KINDLY TO MAKE AN OFFER." This request, if granted, would be equivalent to my valuing free of charge the correspondent's property. Once for all I beg to state that I do not undertake to value books. Vendors of Books or of Libraries must specify the price they would accept, and I am ready at my expense and risk-free of charge to the vendor-to come and view the Library which is to be sold. Minor collections of books, even when valuable, should be sent to me, and I forward by return a cheque for their value to me; which cheque can be refused if my offer should not be accepted. If need be I can send a packer to pack the books for the vendor. BERNARD QUARITCH. Sanders' Examples of Carved Oak Woodwork in the HOUSES and FURNITURE of the 16th and 17th Centuries, by William Bliss Sanders, Architect, folio, 25 large plates, and descriptive text, cloth, £1. 11s 6d "We have here a work which, it may be safely said, no artistic library will be complete without, while the facts of its author and illustrator being, a local architect, and many of the specimens of oak carving reproduced being of local origin, should make the handsome volume specially run after by the antiquaries and artists of Notts. and Derbyshire. Mr. Sanders was led to publish these sketches owing to his having himself experienced great difficulty in obtaining for business purposes accurate informat on regarding the woodwork of the 16th and 17th cen uries. His case was not an uncommon one, having been that of the restorer, who, having no books to go to, or even reliable models, had to tramp the country, visiting at houses where examples of old woodwork were still extant, but as it was the necessity of doing this that first suggested to Mr. Sanders the idea of producing such a volume as that at present before us and made him fit to undertake the task the fact is the less to be regretted. The author does not take up any enthusiastic advocacy of the style of woodwork common in the 16th and 17th centuries, though admiring the specimens he reproduces for their solidity and genuine workmanship; indeed he writes entirely without prejudice, or he might have hesitated before printing a letter to him on the subject from Professor Ruskin, which is, on the whole, somewhat severely critical. My respect for your earnestness and admiration of your skill,' writes Professor Ruskin, who had obtained a sight of the original drawings, have hitherto prevented my undertaking the difficult task of qualifiedly praising what, excellent for your immediate purpose, is yet not in harmony with the precepts of the best masters in wood carving.' What the great art critic here says is not denied by Mr. Sanders. Every one acquainted with the woodwork of the period illustrated knows that foreign artists produced far more beautiful and airy-looking work than anything fashioned by contemporary English artists; but, on the other hand, the latter excelled in the manner in which they combined solidi'y with elegance, and for men who were for the most part self-taught their productions are interesting and beautiful. The wonder is, not that they invented so little so much as that, untrained and with little knowledge of contemporary art, they should have managed to do so much. English artists of the period may have been conventional to a degree and have possessed no great creative faculty. ... We have said that among the illustrations, which have been produced by photographs from the author's pen-and-ink sketches and then transferred to stone, are several of local interest. One represents an old oak cabinet that could be seen until recently in Nottingham, but watch passed the other day into the possession of the owner of Balderton Hall, near Newark. This piece of work, which is of considerable beauty, was probably the production of one of the foreign artists, who, about the beginning of the 17th century, came over to England in numbers to escape persecution at home. The workmanship is perceptibly more artistic than that in cabinets of the period of English make. Much less beautiful are the old oak cabinet and chest preserved at the Friary, Newark, the ornamentation, which is comparatively slight, being directly in opposition to the best architectural rules. Mr. Sanders also reproduces three old oak chairs still to be seen at the same place, two remarkable bedsteads preserved at Buxton, and many other curious specimens of old English woodwork."-Nottingham Journal, November 26, 1883. "EXAMPLES OF CARVED OAK WOODWORK." W. B Sanders (Quaritch).-"A collector of furniture recently dined with the writer of these notes. On seeing the dining-room furnished with old oak, he remarked, "Are you still at the oak stage? I passed through that long ago; it was too heavy; so I tried Chippen 1883 For dale. So was that. Now I'm buying Louis Seize, but I fancy I shall revert to oak in my old days.' No doubt his objection to oak, especially in small houses, was well founded. But there is a greater drawback to its intelligent collection, namely, the apparent inability of any one to give even approximate dates to the various pieces, notwithstanding that in no class of furniture has the practice of affixing the date been more in vogue. A shrewd Yorkshireman who collects furniture in out-of-the-way places, recently informed us that he didn't think any of it was more than seventy years old. And yet a piece almost identical to some of his, which we found used as an oat-bin in the outbuildings to a castle had, so the farmer informed ns, been lately styled by the Archæological Society as 'Tudor,' it apparently being late Jacobean. And over this difficulty Mr. Sanders does not help us; he certainly generalizes the fine examples of chests which he illustrates in his work as 16th and 17th century, but he attempts no classification of them. Nor does he notice what to us is a most interesting feature as regards oak furnitnre, namely, the localization of style. instance, an Eastern Counties chest has a distinct Flemish type, and differs not only in carving but in construction from one from Yorkshire: again, the westcountry ones are much smaller, and are raised by legs. Chairs, respecting which Mr. Sanders has but little to say, are also distinguished in the same way. We trust that in the more extensive work which the author promises, he may see his way to thoroughly treating this interesting subject."-Art Journal, February, 1881. "It is a long time since Englishmen took the interest which they take at present in the construction and decoration of old English furniture, and Mr. William Bliss Sanders has chosen his time well for publishing his practical and comprehensive Examples of Carved Oak in the Woodwork and Furniture of Ancient Houses chiefly of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries The work is published with a double purpose, first, with the view of drawing the attention of builders, cabinet. makers and others to the honesty and soundness of the construction then in use, many of the principles observed in early work being at the present time almost entirely lost sight of, and next, to supply a few hints to collectors of old oak as to the method of discriminating between original pieces of furniture and those wholly or in part made up with the view of supplying the present great demand for old English oak-work. The book is profusely illustrated with photo-lithographic drawings of furniture, which are executed in most cases with so much precision that they can be exactly reproduced; but of course the chief use of the book will be in preserving with careful fidelity the architecture and furniture of the earlier English Renaissance and in deepening the love for old English work which is such a marked characteristic of the period. Old oak, of course, has always had its votaries, and good specimens have never ceased to be eagerly sought for and to command very high prices. But till now no book has been specially devoted to this interesting class of work, because in England we are far behind the French in the literature of connoisseurship, and our collectors have been content to go on picking up their windfalls here and there, without any methodical guide. A nation's furniture, as The Times recently said, Is part of its life, and in these days, when social history, the theory of development, and fine art are equally believed in, it seems strange that no competent person should have been found to handle so fascinating a subject till Mr. Bliss Sanders took up the matter in this volume, and we hope the success of the publication will lead Mr. Sanders to extend his researches, and to do on a larger and more comprehensive scale what he has done so well, on a small scale, for a single period."-The Yorkshire Post, March 26, 1884. 1880 The New General Catalogue of Bernard Quaritch's Stock of Old Books, 8vo. upwards of 2400 pp. with a complete Index of books and subjects, half bound morocco. £4. 4s Complete Alphabetical Index (The) to above, separately, 1 vol. 8vo. pp. x and 223, boards, 1s The following Parts of my NEW GENERAL CATALOGUE are now ready:Part I. Catalogue of Manuscripts, Miniatures, and Books relating to Palæography, 8vo. pp. 84, cloth, 21s Part II. Catalogue of Works on Natural History and Science, with Complete Index, 8vo. pp. 380, cloth, 58 Part III. Catalogue of Periodical Literature, Transactions, and Works of Learned Societies, with Complete Index, 8vo. pp. 350, cloth, 2s 6d Part IV. Catalogue of Romances of Chivalry, 8vo. pp. 170, cloth, 48 Part V. Catalogue of Works on Music, Games, Sports, Military and Naval Science, Bibliography, and Books on Vellum, pp. 150, cloth, 2s 6d Part VI. Catalogue of Works on the Fine Arts, Books of Prints, Historical and Remarkable Bindings, with Complete Index, pp. 520, cloth, 7s 6d Part VII. Catalogue of Works on Foreign History, Antiquities and Numismata, pp. 124, with a Complete Index, cloth, 28 6d Part VIII. Catalogue of Bibles, Theology, Liturgies, Greek and Roman Classics, etc, 420 pp. and 20 pp. of Index, cloth, 5s Part IX. Catalogue of Works on European Philology: Dictionaries and Grammars of the minor languages of Europe; Works on the Science of Linguistics and Comparative Philology; Anthropology and Ethnography, 104 pp. cloth, 1s 6d Part X. Catalogue of English Literature, Poetic, Dramatic, Historic, Miscellaneous; with works on the Topographical and Genealogical History of Great Britain and Ireland; and a collection of volumes produced by the earliest English printers; Caxton and others Part I:-1. English Language.-2. Books printed by the Earliest English Topographers. -3. Poetic and Dramatic Literature. Part II:-4. Prose and Miscellaneous Literature, an 1 Books omitted in Section 3. Each part separately 1s; or, the 4 parts bound in 1 vol. 8vo. with Index, cloth, 58. Part XI. Catalogue of French Literature, comprising books in French, or by French Writers, as well as works upon France, and productions of French Art; also valuable French Manuscripts, 108 pp. 28 Part XII. Catalogue of German and Italian Literature, 80 pp. sewed, 1s. Part XIII. Catalogue of Spanish Literature and of Works in the Limosin, Catalan, Valencian and Portuguese Languages; Books on the Peninsula, 112 pp. sewed, 1s. A Packet of Miscellaneous Catalogues is sent on receipt of Sixpence in Stamps. PROSPECTUSES of The following New Publications may be had GRATIS:Fischbach's Ornament of Textile Fabrics, folio, 160 coloured plates (pub. at £10. 10s), in portfolio, £7. 10s. Silvestre's Universal Palæography, 2 vols. impl. folio, and 2 vols. royal 8vo. hf. bd. morocco, £31. 10s Palæographical Album, a selection of 77 plates, impl. folio, and 2 vols. royal 8vo. cloth, £2. 10s Owen Jones' Grammar of Ornament, impl. 4to. cloth, £4. 48 Sclater's Monographs of the Jacamars and Puff Birds, 7 parts, royal 4to. (subscription price, £7. 78), now £5. 5s 1881 Shelley's (Col.) Monograph of the Nectarinidæ or Sun Birds, 12 parts, royal Owen Jones, Plans, Elevations, Sections, and Details of the Alhambra, 2 vols. impl. folio, half morocco extra, gilt edges, £13. 138 Desiderata; or, a list of Books wanted to purchase Gratis. My Monthly Catalogues are sent post-free regularly to gentlemen, private or in the trade, on prepayment of 6s per annum. LONDON, February, 1885. BERNARD QUARITCH. |