[Rarebooks] FS: 1835- Wood Carving & Sculpture in Art and Architecture

[Joslin Hall Rare Books]

TITLE: "An Historical Sketch of the Art of Sculpture in Wood, from the
Earliest Period to the Present Time; with notices of the most remarkable
sculptural works in the same material now remaining in Europe, and some
Account of the Designers"

By Robert Folkstone Williams.
Published in London by the Library of the Fine Arts: 1835.

DISCUSSION: Williams begins his essay in the dim ages of antiquity before
exploring the woodcarver's art in Europe and England from the early times
through the 17th and 18th centuries. He spends most of his time in England
and Italy, although France and Germany are certainly not neglected. He
then returns to the Far East and ancient times in an appendix. The author
came from an architectural background and approached his subject with the
eye of the architectural historian, treating not only sculpture but also
all other types of decorative carving to be found in churches, cathedrals
and the great houses. Mantelpieces, railings, even furniture fascinated
him, and he treated all as more or less equal products of the chisel.

Williams has an eye for the odd- "There are many bas-reliefs, particularly
those carved underneath the seats of the choirs of different religious
structures, that represent grotesque, and even obscene subjects,
altogether at variance with the sacred character of the buildings in which
they are placed. What may be thought most singular, is, that these
sculptures sometimes represent priests and other religious persons,
engaged in actions of a very profane description. The sculptors who
executed those carvings were the caricaturists of the time; and, as
different religious communities were frequently at variance with each
other, they employed these artists to satirize their mutual follies and
vices. Under their seats they concealed from the public eye, but exposed
for their own private gratification, a series of pictorial libels. In one
place, the monks of a certain order are represented as licentious,
ridiculous, and depraved: -in the building belonging to these holy
fathers, will, probably, be found a similar series of bas-reliefs,
exposing the secret debaucheries of the sacred brotherhood by whom they
have been libelled- but never, in any church, will a priest of that order
be represented in an unholy character".

Williams has great sympathy for these carvers, a sympathy which seems to
echo the first stirrings of interest in indigenous folk crafts as arts-
"The savage who tattoos his flesh,” he declares, “is a painter -the
barbarian who ornaments his club with carvings, is a sculptor -the Indian
who constructs his wigwam in the forest, is an architect -the cannibal who
sings in triumph while his enemy is burning at the stake, is a musician
-and all are artists."

Uncommon in the marketplace.

DESCRIPTION: Hardcover. 5.5"x8", 96 pages.

CONDITION NOTES: Original "satined" cloth covers recased with a new spine
and new endpapers; contents with some moderate foxing (see photo of the
title page).

PRICE: $350.00

SOME PICTURES =>

<http://www.joslinhall.com/images30/th-31398-cover.jpg>
<http://www.joslinhall.com/images30/th-31398-page.jpg>

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JOSLIN HALL RARE BOOKS, ABAA
Fine books of the 16th-20th centuries
on the decorative and fine arts & design

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