Memorials and Monuments, Old and New: Two Hundred Subjects Chosen From Seven Centuries (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Excerpt from Memorials and Monuments, Old and New: Two Hundred Subjects Chosen From Seven Centuries

The purpose Of this book is not SO much to provide a historical account of the development of those types of memorials which are the most suitable for present use, as to focus attention on good examples, old and new. That is not to say that old forms Should be copied exactly we are not so bankrupt of invention that we need be driven that way - but they give valuable guidance as to proportion, use of materials, spacing of lettering and the like. The new works are illustrated to Show that their designers have paid homage to sound traditions and have brought new thought to the solution of difficult problems.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Memorials and Monuments, Old and New: Two Hundred Subjects Chosen From Seven Centuries

After the war in South Africa hundreds of monuments of all kinds were set up, in thankful remembrance of those who there gave up their lives. Nine years later Sir James Gildea under took the pious task Of illustrating in For Remembrance: South A fried 1899 - 1902 a con siderable number of them, some set up to regiments and others to individual officers. He succeeded in his chief purpose, which was one of grateful record, but the result revealed the exceeding poverty of memorial design in Great Britain. It is clear that the artistic ability of the men Who build and adorn our churches and public buildings is not employed as it should be on the memorials which they so often contain. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there was a sound tradition which gave pleasant shape to divers sorts of memorials, Whether brasses, incised slabs, wall tablets, tombs or headstones. To-day many of the persons who are curiously called. Monu mental masons bring to their task neithereducated taste nor the knowledge of good historical examples they are often, moreover, incompetent in their craftsmanship. The more important shops which purvey marble monu ments are, if anything, rather worse, for they stereotype bad designs, which are the more offensive because more ambitious and costly. The clerical tailors who sell most of the engraved brasses have mainly succeeded in making that form of memorial the most dreary. All three sources of supply have added a new terror to death. In earlier days, when monuments were not only honourable memorials of the dead, but works of art which gave joy to the living, the finest skill of architects and sculptors, working together, went to their making.

The purpose of this book is not so much to provide a historical account of the development of those types of memorials which are the most suitable for present use, as to focus attention on good examples, old and new. That is not to say that old forms Should be Copied exactly we are not so bankrupt of invention that we need be driven that way - but they give valuable guidance as to proportion, use of materials, spacing of lettering and the like. The new works are illustrated to Show that their designers have paid homage to sound traditions and have brought new thought to the solution of difficult problems.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.