VISITS TO THE GREAT EXHIBITION OF INDUSTRY.
Tim peculiar, magnificent, and attractive character of the Russian dis- play, this week opened fully to the spectator's view, are reasons for an immediate description of that portion of the Great Exhibition. The display made by Russia is such a one as you might expect her to place before foreign eyes : it is evidently the enunciation of a leading idea ; not a "representation" on a condensed scale of the industry and art of the divers races and many lands of that Northern world, but the "expo- sition" which the Emperor sanctions, and which the aristocratic manu- facturers choose to make.
The general disposition of the Russian compartment is in a single ex- tensive room, formed by throwing into one three of the bays lying North of the Foreign nave. This arrangement affords such abundance of room, that at present, when shipwreck still further delays the arrival of the con- tributions which were originally weather-bound by ice, the space looks scantily occupied. This, however, without reminding you of the origi- nal meagreness of the American compartments, has some of the same effect which there struck you, suggesting the vast extent of the country and the colossal scale of all its main features.
As you approach the entrance, you have seen from afar four gigantic candelabra, posted symmetrically, two of them at the marginal corners of the compartment, and two of them at the intermediate points marked by the two counters which divide the broad entrance into three avenues. The distant impression made by these works of art is favourable ; they look so grand in scale, and their great mass of golden colour has so rich an effect : but your satisfaction diminishes on closer criticism. The first three, beginning from the left, are not at all beautiful in gene- ral design; the eye is even hurt by the want of proportion between the mass above and the basis on which the supporting columns rest ; and where this discrepancy is less obvious, you do not receive any higher order of pleasure from the grace or beautiful composition of the whole piece. The fourth candelabrum is in a different mode, and in general artistic effect has far greater success. The stalk which supports the cluster of lamps is formed of porcelain ; seemingly a vase of antique shape, tall, and gently swelling in its profile, and of rich purple, or kindred colour, that gives distinctness to the tracery of gold over it, and forms a pleasant resting-point for the eye in the midst of the golden blaze. Then the basis of the composition embraces a contrivance for introducing a thick border of flowers in pots. The border of geraniums, dm., has been introduced. When the eye of the spectator is far enough re- moved to take in the whole effect, the composition appears highly beautiful and harmonious: a basis of green, which many surround- ing objects might suggest to be malachite, set in gold; an adequate column of support, revealing its proportioned strength by the con- trast of exceptional dark purple colour ; then a tier of lamps ; then the column again prolonged, diminished in size, and tempered in tone by covering more of its colour with gold ; and above the whole a thick clus- ter of lamps, whose general form is in tasteful relation to the other pro- portions. Though this lamp, however, is distinguished from the others by merit of design, it is undistinguished from them in inferiority of work- manship. A scrutinizing eye discovers that the dead surfaces have not the bloomy richness of the highest art in this department ; that the re- flecting surfaces are wavy, and tawdry in tone, like Brummagem lacquer surfaces ; that the unexposed parts are slurred ; and, in particular, that the fastenings are done with imperfect mechanical contrivance and defec- tive materials. We saw cracks already opening, which seemed due to the pull of shrinking wood ; and saw screws which had so little hold that the strain which their size showed they were made to resist would pull them clean out of their matrix.
Entering the Eastward avenue, you have on your left some products of the jeweller's art. The design shown in these works is very unequal : the most prominent object on the whole counter is so absurd that it would please us never to see it again. The effect of wintry cold and Arctic se-
verity is admirably represented in a fir-tree-made of frosted silver : you are pleased with the idea, and with the skill which has been shown in the
work, but you are shocked by the absurdity of crowning this emblem of the frigid zone with a sort of scattered nest—not beautiful itself in any point of view—of green and blossoming flowers ! Your first notion is that it has no business there—has been put there by some " extraneous person," and will be removed by the artist or exhibitor as soon as it catch- es his eye : but no, it is meant to be there, and you have no escape from the sight but by taking yourself away. Further North on the same bench is a small candelabrum, which is in striking contrast with the preceding composition for its 'harmonious propriety. It is formed of a gnarled tree, with leafless limbs, round which three young bears are playing. One bear has thrust his head through an opening, and overthrown a brother, while he himself is attacked in the rear by the third. The pursuing energy of the third—the mingled satisfaction and perplexity of the second at having knocked one brother over and at being taken at a disadvantage by the other from behind—and the sprawling discomfiture of the fellow who has been laid on his back at the foot of the tree—are given with the most graphic humour. At the end of this bench there are two specimens of embossed work, done with silver on a golden surface. The subject of one of them is the Crucifixion, after one of the Dutch masters : the rigidity and dis- tortion of the limbs of the crucified Saviour are given with great skill. Advancing now to the interior of the Russian compartment, you see all around specimens of what is the characteristic feature of the Russian dis- play—the works in malachite and gold, contributed by Prince Demidoff. The room is filled with gigantic vases and magnificent tables ; but the chef d'oeuvre in this special branch of art is the pair of gates, or the single colossal door, which has been placed in the centre of the Northern wall of the compartment. The gates appear to be upwards of twenty feet high ; and whether you view their general effect from a distance, or come close and scrutinize their more delicate features, you feel equal admira- tion. Malachite is generally described as a green veined marble : but this is a very loose description of malachite ; for that mineral is neither a marble nor is it veined. It is a copper ore, seeming to have been formed by what geologists call the plutonic action of the subterranean heat, in actually melting, at some period of the world's history, the leek which contained the elements of the copper in chemical combination with some other element. In the native mass, it has the blistered bubbled appear- ance of iron or glass clinker ; and on cutting it into thin slices, it is found to be marked, as cornelians or agates are marked, by symme- trical striae of light and dark bands of all the shades of green, from the darkest olive, through the most brilliant emerald, to the delicate yelloW green of the youngly-sprouted leaves on the trees. We have it ourselves in Cornwall and Wales, but in such a friable form that it will not work under the tool of the lapidary : it is found also in the Burra Burra mines of Australia, and there it assumes a texture that is said to promise well for art ; but only in the Siberian mines is it yet found in those hard and brilliantly coloured masses which have been turned to such beautiful account in the Russian display at the Great Exhibition. On your right hand as you go from the Nave by the East avenue into the Russian com- partment, you see masses of malachite as they are removed from the mine: the largest and finest mass is less in size than a boy's cap. The cus- todian delights to assure you that the malachite is "more valuable than gold" : of course he means the thin plates of the ore after they have been cut out by the skilful and patient lapidary, in the particular mode which best displays the beauties of the stone. The great gates, from which we have wandered, are of beautiful design : in the distance, their grand alti- tude, and the palatial effect of their green mass, are well brought out by strictly subsidiary gold tracings, in graceful pattern. Closer inspection shows you that the gold tracery is of a very beautifully minute device ; and reveals the wonderful manipulative skill which has fastened so many thousand pieces of the veneered mineral on to the copper skeleton of the gates in such a manner that you suppose the whole to be one gigantic slab, beautified only by Nature's coloured pencil. As you leave the Russian collection, you pass by an Imperial contribu- tion : a box of rare woods ornamented by fruit formed solely of precious stones,—jasper for the leaves; emeralds, amethysts, carbuncles, and other gems, for the various fruits—cherries, currants, grapes, and plums. The work seemed to us more " remarkable" and sumptuous, than perfect in its imitative success.
Casting your eye generally round this artistic department, before you go to the industrial show made by Russia, you observe some beautiful
specimens of medalling—all large in actual size and design ; a great quan- tity of parquet flooring, in which the design is superior to the execution; and sonic peculiar carpeting, in which the fur on the skins of some Sibe- rian animals is ingeniously placed in the squares formed by the general pattern of worsted work.
Traversing the nave, you come to the industrial display, and to the ex- position of raw materials. Among the former, are some new and curious manufactures from felt, not hitherto seen in this country : the felt is made
to subserve the purposes of even solid material, like papier mache' —as in the making of ewers! The Queen has examined this new ware with in-
terest ; and it is said to be in contemplation to establish the manu- facture in England. The extensive show of iron in all its stages is most important and interesting. In the manufacture of thin sheet iron the fame of the Russian ironmasters is exceedingly well maintained. The collection of industrial products and raw materials is extensive and well arranged, and the things exhibited are of the best class: so that the impression of great resources, of a great idea, and of a concentrative supreme power in the conception and management of the foreign exposi- tion made by Russia, is as strikingly exemplified in the industrial depart- ment as in that devoted to artistic and luxurious manufacture.
Among the recent additions to British departments arc fine specimens of jewellery sent by the Duke of Devonshire, including the figure of a hawk studded with precious stones. The Royal presents from the Newab Nazim of Bengal have been added to the Indian collection.
The stream of visitors continues very equal. The admissions seem to bear a strict relation to the price paid ; the shilling fee seems regularly to admit from forty to fifty thousand, the half-crown fee about half that number, and the five-shilling fee about a fourth of the full tide. On Friday last 25,500 paid the half-crown rate; on Saturday 12,878 paid the five-shilling rate ; on Monday the shilling admissions were 54,194, on Tuesday they were 49,697, Wednesday 45,000, on Thursday 48,313: yesterday the half-crown admissions fell to 17,650. The Queen resorts to the Exhibition with the most steady perseve- rance, every morning spending two hours in close inspection, under the guidance of those members of the Executive Committee who are best able to give the fullest information on the particular department arrived at in her progressive study of the Exposition as a classified whole. Yesterday, Queen Amalie, the Duchess of Orleans, and several other members of Louis Philippe's family, were among the visitors, and spent some time in the French department. They were received with marked respect by all the French whom they encountered.
In the middle of the week, there was the notable spectacle of a troop of some eight hundred parishioners of three parishes on the borders of Kent and Sussex, brought up by the Rector of Lingfield in a special train the rustics, under the good advice of their pastor, had saved a considerable part of the cost, and the rest had been given by the gentry, the Railway Company aiding by very cheap charges. The party was wholly of the smock-frock class : it was organized under leaders carrying wands ; came by the train to London Bridge, then by steam-boat to Westminster Bridge, and thence by a merry march on foot to the Park. The men and women seemed quite awed by the first sight of the interior, and cowered about the centre in a curious way. Their leaders, however, soon blended them with the general mass. At four they reassembled, with great punctuality, and returned to their homes by the way they came.
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