SUPERIORITY OF BRITISH ART MANUFACTURES AT VIENNA.

Evening Star, Issue 3283, 28 August 1873, Page 3

SUPERIORITY OF BRITISH ART MANUFACTURES AT VIENNA.

The London correspondent of the Cologne Gazette, Dr Schlesinger, who is now at Vienna, writes to that paper that some of the best glass, porcelain, and machinery in the Exhibition comes from England. “ Both Germans and Frenchmen,” he says, “ recognise the gigantic advance which England has made in the last few years in those very branches of art-industry which before 1851 were almost exclusively the property of France. In goods of a middling sort Germany and France surpass England; but in all cases where common articles are to be produced at the lowest prices, or the finest without regarding the cost of production, it is seldom that English goods are equalled by those of another country. Among the examples of the latter, their smooth cut glass, their heavy chased silver plate, their jewellery, and above all their china, deserve special study. . . . It should be observed that the china is all produced in private establishments; for England does not possess Government manufactories of china, like those of Berlin, St Petersburg, Dresden, and Paris, which are maintained at the expense of the State, and consequently need not look to making much profit. Yet English china is now equal to the best which is made in other countries. This shows how much can be done without State help, and how salutary is the effect produced by such art schools as the Kensington Museum.”