the chase of the
will-o'-the-wisp of fancied novelty and individuality. Much of what
appears to the uneducated and ill-informed talent as new is really but
the re-discovery of _motifs_ which have been tried and abandoned by
bygone masters as unsuitable, and a greater acquaintance with their
triumphs is likely, one would hope, to lead students, whether designers
or craftsmen, to view with disgust undigested designs indifferently
executed which have little but a fancied novelty to recommend them.

It is intended that each volume shall contain an historical sketch of
the phase of design and craft treated of, with examples of the
successful overcoming of the difficulties to be encountered in its
practice, workshop recipes, and the modes of producing the effects
required, with a chapter upon the limitations imposed by the material
and the various modes of evading those limitations adopted by those who
have not frankly accepted them.

PREFACE

The subject treated of in this handbook has, until lately, received
scant attention in England; and except for short notices of a general
nature contained in such books as Waring's "Arts Connected with
Architecture," technical descriptions, such as those in Holtzapffel's
"Turning and Mechanical Manipulation," and a few fugitive papers, has
not been treated in the English language. On the Continent it has,
however, been the subject of considerable research, and in Italy,
Germany, and France books have been published which either include it as
part of the larger subject of furniture, or treat in considerable detail
instances of specially-important undertakings. From these various
sources I have endeavoured to gather as much information as possible
without too wearying an insistence upon unimportant details, and now
present the results of my selection for the consideration of that part
of the public which is interested in the handicrafts which merge into
art, and especially for the designer and craftsman, whose business it
is or may be to produce such works in harmonious co-operation in the
present day, as they often did in days gone by, and, it may be hoped,
with a success akin to that attained in those periods to which we look
back as the golden age of art.

The books from which I have drawn my information are principally the
following:--

In Italian--Borghese and Banchi's "Nuovi documenti per la storia dell'
Arte Senese"; Brandolese's "Pitture, sculture, &c., di Padova"; C