3-008-808 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The International Exhibition: umbrella-stand in the Court of the Coalbrookdale Company, 1862. 'This little work is admirably suited to its purpose, and is a good example of a simple conventional treatment of natural foliage, fern-leaves being so arranged as to be truly ornamental, while they yet are sufficiently imitative to awaken in the mind reminiscences of the shady haunts in which arogenous plants of this character love to abide. Braided with the foliage, and forming the structural members of the stand, are stems plaited in the manner of the German gothic tracery, branch uniting with branch in order to form beautiful shapes and welcome combinations of lines; yet utility is not lost sight of, nor the mode of its production concealed. The due consideration of utility, the frankness with which the mode of production is manifested, and the general beauty of the object at once stamp it a meritorious work'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.