File:The masterpieces of the Centennial international exhibition of 1876 (1876) (14595671779).jpg

Identifier: masterpiecesofce02shin (find matches)
Title: The masterpieces of the Centennial international exhibition of 1876 ..
Year: 1876 (1870s)
Authors: Shinn, Earl, 1838-1886 Smith, Walter Wilson, Joseph M. (Joseph Miller), 1838-1902
Subjects: Centennial Exhibition (1876 : Philadelphia, Pa.)
Publisher: Philadelphia, Gebbie & Barrie
Contributing Library: Philadelphia Museum of Art, Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation

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s is in an art point of view than the multiplication of one given style, weneed not here consider. It is sufficient to point out that while an objectaccepted as a model or standard of excellence in form, ornamentation anddecoration is always beautiful and loses nothing by duplication, this servilecopying is fatal to all artistic activity and progress. The study of the beautifulis always to be commended, but it should be pursued with a view to directingoriginal ability in the proper directions and subject to the acknowledged canonsof art. Here and there in the group before us we recognize examples of thepottery known as Doulton-ware, which in its way is quite as beautiful as theLambeth faience. In wandering through the several European courts at the Centennial, theAmerican visitor, whose experience of civilization had been confined to thiscountry, gained for the first time a realizing sense of the luxury of the oldworld. It is true that the homes of our wealthy classes are crowded with
Text Appearing After Image:
Ebony Inlaid Caliint: S. Coco. It.ilian Lou 322 THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, 1S76. — — ^ ■ ^ objels de luxe and master works of great artists brought from abroad, butnever before had the furniture for palaces, the magnificent carved pieces, theexquisite textiles, the costly porcelains such as we all had read about, been opento the general view. Every nation contributed of her best and choicest objectsin honor of our Centennial Exhibition, and many of the chefs dceuvre theredisplayed now adorn the palaces of Europe as well as our own palatialhomes. One of these pieces, an Ebony Ixlaid Cabinet, manufactured by S. Coco,OF Florence, and exhibited in the Italian Court, is seen in the engraving onpage 321. We can readily imagine the magnificence of the apartmtnt in which sucha piece of furniture as this should be placed. The mere cost of the mechanicallabor in constructing this cabinet, without considering the price paid for theartistic work, must have been very great. Its details ca

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