AN ARTISTIC PEOPLE

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 336, 10 July 1875, Page 3

AN ARTISTIC PEOPLE

Some interesting facts about the woodcarving industry of the Bernese Oberland are given in a recent official report from Mr Jenner. This industry, which does not date further back than 1815, now furnishes employment for upwards of 2000 workmen, and within the last few years the sales have risen to an average of nearly £BO,OOO. These sums have sufficed to spread ease over districts the inhabitants of which were formerly much pinched by want ; the work, too, is of such a nature that it does not interfere with many other avocatious. The cowherd and shepherd tending their flocks in the Alpine pasturage, the charcoal burner watching his fires, and the peasant families sitting round their stoves, during the long -winter evenings can, at the expense of but little physical exertion, add greatly to their store of comforts by means of some little skill in carving. Avery large proportion of cheaper articlesare actually produced in this manner. The wages of regular workmen range from one to eight francs a day. Almost every variety of timber may be utilised; fir, lime, walnut, oak, pear, and apple trees have all their special applications, and of late years the most renowned makers have taken to carve “palissandre ” or rosewood, mahogany, cedar, &c. Side by side with the woodcarving industry, but greatly surpassing it in pecuniary results, is the manufacture of parquets, which is of still more recent introduction. This trade ?is carried on in eighteen out of twenty-two cantons of Switzerland, and is now in the most flourishing condition. As nearly as can be ascertained, the annual production of the twenty odd establishments which carry it on reaches the value of 8,000,000 francs (£320,000). Scarcely a Swiss house with any pretension to comfort is now built without a parquet iu at least one of its rooms.