ART-MANUFACT URE—EDINBIIRGH.
While decorative art, in the guise of the Soulages Collection, courts the regards and suffrages of Londoners, the Scottish metropolis is en- gaged in getting together a kindred exhibition, but of wider scope, and more direct influence upon the art of our own day. An "Art Manufac- ture Association for Encouraging the Application of High Art to the Manufacture of Articles of Utility and Ornament" has been formed in Edinburgh under warrant of a Committee of Privy Council. The Duke of Hamilton is President, and the list of Vice-Presidents numbers the Lord-Advocate, Lord Elcho, Sir William Gibson-Craig, and others of distinction. The Society's plan of operation is to be, the holding of pe- riodical exhibitions of decorative and manufacturing art, both ancient and modern. Direct sales, it appears, are to be promoted ; but the main feature is the application of the art-union system to art of this descrip- tion. The funds are to accrue from the " guinea each " of the sub- scribers, a large body of whom is hoped for; and these funds, after pay- ment of the working expenses, are to be applied, under the superintend- ence of a Committee annually appointed, to the purchase of such works as they may see fit to select out of the exhibition,—to be afterwards reified for and distributed as prizes to the subscribers in the ordinary Art-Union method. "The subjects to be acquired for distribution . . . . will em- brace works in metal, stone, wood, or marble, in enamel, papier mache, porcelain, glass, or stone ware, tapestry, and generally all articles to the production of which artistic talent has been applied." Leading men in these several departments of art and industry have promised contribu- tions ; while works of an allied order, the production of past time, will be sent by the President of the Society, the Emperor of the French, the East India Company, &c. The first exhibition is announced to open on or about the 16th of this month, in the rooms of the Edinburgh National Gallery, to last till the end of January; and the first distribution of prizes is to take place early in the ensuing spring. We wish success to the scheme, and see no reason why it should not obtain it, and be the pioneer of many a similar enterprise. The Art- Union Union principle is of very questionable value in its bearing upon fine art proper ; but it may more naturally, and we trust more advantageously, be applied to decorative art. Works of that branch of art are more various in kind, more generally susceptible of multiplication ; the selecting col- mittee is in better case for being, up to its work ; the system is leas likely to tempt producers to work down to public taste : all important advan- tages.
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