FEMININE REFLECTIONS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 416, 26 July 1928, Page 5

FEMININE REFLECTIONS

Women the World Over

IN VIENNA A recent portrait of Steffi Kissing, one of Vienna’s most beautiful

women, whose loveliness rivals the beauty of her jewels.

SOAPS AND PERFUMES The Grand Duchess Marie of Russia, daughter of Grand Duke Paul, and cousin of the late Tsar, has recently become one of the directors of a company in London which manufactures soaps and perfumes. During the revolution, she fled from Russia to England. For a time she conducted a dress-making business in London, and later a studio in Paris, where Russian refugees made embroidery.

STILL KEEN Dame Mary Scbarlieb, M.D., M.S., one of the consulting surgeons at the Royal Free Hospital, has had an honorary LL.D. degree conferred on her by the Edinburgh University. Dame Mary is believed to be the oldest woman on the register. She has been practising for 50 years and although 83 is still keen. It was through her efforts that Queen Victoria started the movement to provide female doctors for India, where, owing to caste, it was impossible for men practitioners to attend women. A FINE ART An unusual medium for artistic expression is employed by Miss Madeleine Kent, ■whose charming little pictures embrodered in silk and wool are the outcome of special studies of the 17th and 18th century embroideries at the British museums. Miss Kent’s novel productions follow two widely different schools, for from the methods followed by the old masters, she has created her own individual style in her treatment of modern gardens and landscapes. Miss Kent iinds difficulty in getting suitable materials for her work among the modern textiles, and much of her work so far has been done on beautiful old Watteau silk, a legacy over 200 years old. IN TURKEY Conservative authorities of the Constantinople School of Art suffered a rude shock, as the result of a competition held to elect a Turkish assistant for Signor Canonica, the Italian sculptor who is executing a monument of Kemal Pasha, president of the Turkish Republic. The competition was won by Sahiba Zia Hanum, a girl 20 years of age, and there was some talk of passing her over in favour of the second prize-winner, a man. Turkish women’s organisations combated the proposal so successfully, however, that the young sculptress gained the position.