Past and Present Craftsmanship

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 59, 2 December 1933, Page 20

Past and Present Craftsmanship

« TIE HF still remain men who understand that silver is a noble r I 1 metal, even if it is only eighteen pence per ounce—a metal which R can be used imposingly without the feeling that it needs a lot | of trimmings,” said Mr. W. Augustus Steward, late Head of the L.C.C. Central School of Silversmithing and Allied Crafts, in bis Cantor Lecture reported in the Royal Society of Arts Journal. “Ours is a craft with a splendid past. We must recapture the enthusiasm of our forefathers, and whether it be a ceremonial or presentation piece, or domestic plate, let us give it all the consideration it deserves. “I am afraid that because domestic plate is for everyday use, sufficient thought is not put into the design. But domestic design should be the basis from which ceremonial or presentation objects should spring, and I hold that those who thoughtfully consider the question of design in ordinary plate for table use will the more quickly rise to a successful understanding of the requirements of those handsome pieces which enable the goldsmith to ‘let himself go.’ Yet he must always remember that beauty should grow out oi usefulness.

“We have to live in the present. But we must not ignore the past; u j, for reflection and inspiration. The present is for active expression; expression of a reasoned spirit: a time when we should interpret ourselves and balance the present and the future with the past. “We cannot ignore what six thousand years ol goldsmithing has demonstrated, since from it we glean the proofs that the men of those days did not generally permit their imagination to be cramped by what a previous m-neration had done. And that is the spirit in which we must carry on our craft, in the hope that the public will appreciate and do more than ' iPPl ' lU( ’..j£ T i liive stressed the importance of the distant past, it. is to uincti-ite the fact that meticulous craftsmanship was the basis upon which the old craftsmen raised their superstructure of aesthetic feeling. But lam ■i modern, and agree with Robert Browning that: “ ‘Man must pass from old to new. From vain to real, from mistake to fact, From what seemed good to what seems best.’ ”