SHELL PICTURES

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 140, 14 June 1924, Page 15

SHELL PICTURES

A FASHIONABLE CULT.

•In a recent1 exhibition of present-day embroideries, hand-weaving, and other artistic productions .by. amateur craStsAvomen, no section attracted more general interest than tljat of the shell pictures, says the London "Daily .Telegraph." One of the. chief contributors to it was the Countess of Ei-roll, whose delineation of a garden corner, with larkspars and foxgloves, was a charming study in difficult colour shading, and whose china figures of lambs 'under branches of gaiTy-hued blossoms, suggested the much-sought-after survivals of the Bow pottery. Others who, showed fascinating examples were "Lady Susan Birch, Mrs; Pope Hennessey, and Miss Gertrude Jekyll. Some.French examples offered' for sale included the most realistic bunches of anemones and tulips, as well as large branches of lifac and wisteria, the leaves being cut from-flakes of mother-of-pearl, painted to resemble Nature, and giving a beautiful effect of translucency. Many were the . inquiries as. to the origin of this dainty decorative work, and how it might be learned. As a fact, it is a revival of one of those pretty ; arts that belonged to the earliest Vie- j torian days, when young Jadies had time to devote to hobbies, involving both taste and manual skill, and collectors are now on the alert for, any of these earlier ex- | amples. It is a craft far removed from the "shell boxes" that a past generation ' regarded as fitting souvenirs to bririgl home df their holidays—much rarer then thai^ now—at the seaside. The "shell hox" has indeed fallen upon parlous times, and in place of providing a flourishing little Anglo-French industry has1 now nearly died out. • . • ' • , But the shell picture is developing into quite an appreciable little branch of commerce. The chief centre is an important warehouse1 in the city where, j ,under expert ■ guidance, you' .may see the ''angels' wings," the efcherial nautilus m its diversities, the many forms of cockles and even winkles, the tiny riceshell, the Venetians, cowries and cones among many more from which the accomplished artist in this medium can select exactly what will express some' particular idea., she may have in view And th e r e are the cut flakes of mother! ot-pearl in many sizes and thicknesses, that will take colour in beautiful shades either by staining or painting. It i, moreover an extending cult that is being more and more widely followed The equipment is simple, the necessary dek! . tenty , 8 not difficult to acquire and the : fimshed results M n be.hilhly'faLinat 9 nf artists are recognisng that a touch of real pearl or fhell m an ornament is not wholly in imm Propnate addition: to their pltings P'

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