A NOTABLE GIFT TO THE LIBRARY

"Some Works of Art Belonging to Edward Tuck in Paris" is the title of a beautiful volume which was presented to the library of Dartmouth College last year by Mr. Tuck. It is really a catalogue de luxe of his Paris collection and deserves notice in these pages and examination by all lovers of art in Hanover, not merely because of Mr. Tuck's continued interest in the College, but also because of the great beauty of the book and of its illustrations.

It is a sumptuous folio bound in full levant of a deep violet color and elaborately tooled inside and out. It is one of an edition of fifty copies privately printed by J. M. Dent and Sons of London, in large type with wide margins on heavy paper. But to the lover of the graphic arts the greatest source of pleasure will be found in the illustrations in photogravure and in color which not only give an admirable idea of some of the most important works of the collection, and are also the last word in modern reproductive processes.

In the 186 pages there are nearly one hundred illustrations. There is a list of nineteen tapestries of which seven are after designs by Boucher and of which the most entertaining is represented in a double page of color. This is a Beauvais tapestry entitled "Psyche Conducted by Zephyrs through the Palace of Love," and "Psyche Showing her Riches to her Sisters." Here the delicate colors of the original are very well reproduced and even the texture of the textile is distinctly suggested. These seven pieces designed by Boucher and one painting by the same master together with two pictures and a number of minor examples from the brush of Fragonard well express the unreal but always charming art of these delightful masters.

Mr. Tuck must indeed be enamored of the light and airy, yet very human art of the 18th century, since designs of this period are reproduced not only in his tapestries and furniture, but also in the cases of many of his watches, in the Battersea enamels, and in scores of his porcelains. Instinct with the spirit of this century are most of the seventy-one examples of Sevres porcelain.

But of all the treasures in his large collection of porcelains, those most exquisitely appealing to the layman are the figurines in Meissen ware. Over half a hundred gaily dressed and lightly posed little figures are characteristic of the century. Countesses and princesses, charming lasses and their gallants, milk-maids and traveling musicians strut and bow, or dance and act in the Italian comedy which was then so popular, and although made in Germany they reflect the very spirit of French art of their period. This catalogue must surely be of interest alike to students and amateurs of the history, of the art, and of the literature of the eighteenth century.

This lightest and most charming period of French art does not by any means exhaust the range of the collection for there are twenty-one examples of oriental pottery, of which perhaps the most nearly familiar and therefore attractive to the layman is No. 14, a Haw- thorne ginger jar. "The color of this jar, one of the few ranking as the 'true blue of heaven' is produced from pure cobalt. Generally known as ginger-jars, they were used as New Year's gifts and were filled with priceless teas or the rarest sweetmeats."

Another of Mr. Tuck's interests lies in Flemish art, as is evidenced by plates 10 and 11, photogravures from tapestries after David Teniers, and by the dozen oil paintings in the collection. Of these latter the most important are represented by plates 2 and 3 under the heading "Primitif Paintings." These color plates reproduce the work of two first rate masters of the Flemish School. Jacques Daret, who is represented by a masterpiece in "The Presentation in the Temple," is a very rare artist of the highest rank, and is to be compared only with the greatest men of his period; that is with the Van Eycks Or with Van der Weyden.

Thus while the very flower of Flemish art of the 15th century is represented by this master, so also is that of the 16th century seen at its best in Jan Moestart's portrait of Joost Van Bronckhorst.

Also America and America's great men find a place in this Paris collection. Under the subdivision of Bibelots, plates 65 to 78 reproduce a dozen portraits of Benjamin Franklin executed by various artists and in various mediums. Of these portraits the most precious is Houdon's bust of Franklin, plate 68, a replica of the one exhibited in the Salon of 1779 and modelled towards the end of Franklin's residence in Paris. It is hardly more important, however, than plate 67, in which Franklin is represented at full length in a statuette sixteen inches high. This was modelled by Caffieri and is supposed to be one of the small models made by order of the king to be copied in Sevres porcelain. This example is, however, an original, as are the medallions of Franklin which interpret other sides of his character.

Although the Franklin bust by Houdon is a beautiful example of this great sculptor's work, Mr. Tuck is most fortunate in possessing an unapproachable masterpiece of the French school in Houdon's Bust of Voltaire, plate 77. Z.