THE SYDNEY EXHIBITION.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1762, 13 October 1879, Page 3

THE SYDNEY EXHIBITION.

Foueth Notice. [from the peess coeeespondent.] Perhaps it was just as well, after all, that I left off before completing mention of the Italian Court, Saturday last, the 27th September, was the first popular day at the Exhition, with charge for admission reduced to one shilling, and children half piice. Up to that time the Exhibition had been, in point of attendance, a miserable failure. For instance, on Thursday the 25th, the number of general public who paid for admission was just 1309, of children 135, while 687 season ticket holders also passed in, and 1993 exhibitors and other free-pass gentry were present The money value of the lot would be something like £2OO. It has been currently stated that the laboring and artisan classes are indignant at the exclusivism of the arrangements at and subsequent to the opening, and that an intention is prevalent among them of steadily ignoring the exhibition altogether. I do not know what truth there may be in the rumour, but Saturday’s events have not contradicted it, although the local papers are like to sing pecans over them. In truth, the shilling opening on Saturday was a complete success. By comparison with the previous loneliness which anyone suffered on visiting the Exhibition, it was a sensational success. I estimated the attendance at over thirty thousand persons, and that, I find, is the number mentioned by the “ Herald.” But the working classes were not well represented. There was a proportion of them, but in a marked minority. The crowd was a middle class —not an artisan crowd. It had been anticipated that the first day of popular prices would secure a large attendance, and great efforts had been made on all sides to have the various courts and the nave and transept really fit for inspection. Considerable success had attended the se endeavors, and anyone who had seen the Exhibition on the opening day and not again until Saturday last would scarcely have recognised it. * In the nave and transept the number of trophies and special exhibits has been about doubled since I described them, and the same applies to the British and American courts. Austria at last condescended to lower the screens surrounding part of her court, and both France and Belgium had many additions to their display. The Italian Court was quite a differentlooking place from what it was when I last visted it on the preceding Thursday, as great additional quantities of statuary had been opened and arranged, besides other objects of art. These additional sculptures are not, however, originals, like the three by Calvi, mentioned in my last. By-the-bye, I must correct an error I fell into when describing Ariadne (Arrianna Abbandonata). I wrote that it is about half-size. This was an error due to some curious effect upon the imagination, through the eye, which the slender form and perfect proportion of the figure creates. Looking at it again, it appears to me to be of the average height of a young girl, or perhaps a little under. The additional works of art now shown in this court are principally statuettes copied from charming compositions. Some are from antiques, others from modern masterpieces, and all for sale. Marble and alabaster are indifferently employed. In the latter material the statuettes appear to have been first cast and then finished off by hand. It would be tedious to give a list of all the subjects represented. A Cupid and Psyche, which I have not seen before, was especially attractive, and it says something for the power of the beautiful that the statuary in this court appeared to exorcise a more powerful attraction than any other exhibits in the building. In fact, the Ariadne is by common consent, so far as I have had opportunities for ascertaining the drift of opinions, considered the most remarkable and charming exhibit among the whole collection in the building. A brisk trade is being carried on in this court in articles of jewellery, principally mosaic and filigree work, some articles of which are very charmingly wrought. Indeed there is nothing whatever of a matter-of-fact tendency in the whole court, which on that account offers a strong contrast to every other. Any one forming a judgment from inspection of what is here shown as characteristic of Italy, would be apt to imagine that that nation possessed no natural products, engaged in no manufacturing or agricultural industry, and confined its whole effort to cultivation of the arts. This of course would be an absurd misapprehension. The reason for the peculiar aspect of the Italian court is that it is entirely an affair of personal enterprise, the Italian Government having declined to give official recognition or assistance to representation at the Sydney Exhibition, Consequently, al-

though the absence of the manufacturing and trade element in the court invert* it with the most graceful and least sordid appearance of any in the Garden Palace, it is really the most absolutely a trading court of any. Although now much forward the Italian court is not yet complete, and as it will scarcely* be feasible to treat of it again, I may as will describe what the public has not yet seen, but what will shortly be displayed, and I happen to have seen temporarily arranged before the opening compelled the space to be devoted to other objects. I was visiting this court when my eye feel upon some, as I thought wax fruits, laid out upon a shelf. I am not an admirer of wax fruits. Prom boyhood’s earliest hours I have regarded them as unsatisfactory frauds, created for the purpose of tantalization. I would have passed these by rather scornfully had not a second glance when X had approached closer induced me to doubt the correctness of my first impressions. The fruit looked real! I inspected closely now. The things wore marvellous works of art. 1 was permitted to handle them. They proved to be of marble, colored. The circumstances which had caused me to take them for artificial fruit at all were exceptional. They could scarcely be natural fruits, in such a situation, end besides mostly they represented kinds that are at present out of season in Sydney. But had any of these marble fictions been arranged on an 6pergne and placed on a table after dinner for dessert, either alone or mixed with real fruit, I am quite certain that no one in the world would hove detected that they were other than real by their appearance. Indeed, were they mixed with real fruits of the same kind, one would only distinguish them as especially fine. Yet not perfect. It is just in that respect that the perfection of the art came in. There was not a single fruit in the collection which was entirely free from flaw. If anything could be more wonderful than the imitation of the shape and natural bloom of a ripe peach, it was the little dint here where a finger nail seemed to have casually dinted it in handling, and the dark purpling suffusion apparently under the skin, where a chance touch or pressure had bruised the fruit. So with the applee, the figs—bursting ripe, the plums smooth, bloomy and seemingly translucent. The flaws and imperfections were the climax of the cunning with which the imitation had been effected, and the eye deceived.

Everything it shows is beautiful, but everyting is also for sale, whereas in other courts there are a majority of things which are not at all pretty or graceful, but which are not for sale, being merely specially arranged, and in many instances specially made, samples or indications of what the exhibitors are prepared to sell in the ordinary course of business. For this reason the colonial courts are really the most interesting of all. They contain solarge a proportion of specimens illustrative simply of the natural wealth of soil, timbers, and minerals —so many indications of future possibility —so many things _ which offer inducements to enterprise and industry.

Passing on to the Belgian Court, the most notable exhibit is one which I have alreadydevoted a few words to, but respecting which I think it worth while to say more, as, since I first wrote, further information has become available. I refer to the exhibit prominently placed in the nave, opposite the Belgian court, and made up of specimens of iron and steel work by the Oompagnie Oockerill, of Leraing. These exhibits are very varied. In two upright groups or pillars are_ arranged samples of every sort of rod, bar, girder, and rail of steel. Elevated high in air is a monster coil of Bessemer steel rail, lift in diameter, the rail being 200 ft in length. Then there are wheels and tyres for locomotive engines and railway carriages, sheets of steel crushed up like paper, yet showing no indication of fracture at the edges, a polished axle is bent nearly double, and similarly displays excellence of quality by not showing a single flaw or crack at the bend, and other samples are twisted and wreathed with the same object. Such a group of exhibits brings home to the observer all that one has read and heard about the competition to which B ritjsh iron masters are being subjected by Belgian firms. At the same time, it is somewhat unfair to British makers that so remarkable prominence of position should have been allotted to the Belgian exhibits of this kind, while all other heavy iron and steel exhibits have been relegated to the basement, which is slowly being got into order, and whereßritish steel and iron work is on view. The impression at present is that Britain shows nothing equal to the Belgian iron and steel manufactures. for few visitors penetrate to the basement yet. The tiny locomotive engine which stands beside the Cookerill exhibits is made by the Sociote Anonyme de Marcinelle et Couillet, and is intended to do haulage work for quarries, mines, collieries, earthremoving, &c. The exhibit is constructed to a two foot gauge, but similar engines are made for gauges varying from seventeen to forty inches, and weighing from two and a half to seven tons when empty. They consume from 4cwt. to 6cwt, of coals per ten hours’ work. It is claimed for these little engines that they are a cheap and handy substitute for performing work that requires three or four horses. The foreboxes are of copper, the tubes of brass, the tyros of steel. A three-ton engine such as the one on view will haul, according to the statement of the makers, twenty four tons, including weight of trucks, on a level. Up a gradient of one in 200 it will haul seventeen tons ; up one in sixty-six it will take ten tons; up one in thirty-three, six tons; and up one in twenty-eight, five tons. It represents seven horse-power, can be constructed for a 17in. to a 28in. guage, will work round curves of 30ft. radius, requires a rail of 201bs. to 241bs. to the yard, is 9ft. 6in. in length over all, and 6ft. to 7ft. high from the rail; and, finally, will cost £340, packed and delivered free on board at Antwerp. Another exhibit of the same class as that of Oockerill is the phospor - bronze from the Auderlicht foundry at Brussels. This exhibits'’oonsißtß of a quantity of castings, and it is claimed for the bronze thus prepared that it will resist a much greater strain than any other metal, besides which it is free from corrosion or rust. It is used in Belgium for buckles for the cavalry, and also for riflebarrels used by some of the troops. For the most part the exhibits of pianofortes are placed in the galleries, but the Belgian and German instruments are exceptions, and are displayed in the courts of those countries. In the Belgian court, the pianofortes of three makers have prominent place. The names of the firms are Campo Brothers, successors to Berdan and Co., of Brussels, whose establishment dates as far back as 1827; T. Gunther, also of Brussels, and Berren, of Antwerp. The two first mentioned received medals at the Paris Exhibition. The last claims this special right to consideration that his pianofortes have been subjected to a most unusual test of suitableness for resisting extremity of change and climate, having been shipped in ordinary packing-cases without zinc lining. I have not been able to take more than an extremely cursory look at any of the pianofortes. To do more will involve setting apart a day or two expressly to that investigation, and as yet the general survey of the exhibits has fully occupied all the time I have been able to spend in the building. I will therefore say little about the instruments. _ As yet I have noticed no remarkable novelties in model or construction. Except in the cheaper and pianette makes the comparatively new system of over-stringing on the double-oblique system appears to be adopted by most continental makers. Bbonised cases with gilt mouldings are common. The firm Mahillon, also of Brussels, has a handsome exhibit of wind instruments in wood and brass, which appear very good. These comprise all the different varieties of reed instruments clarionottes, bass-clarionettes, oboes, bassoons, flutes, piccolos, besides cornets and a number of other brass instruments which my lack of special knowledge disables me from identifying. Respecting the wood instruments however, I know sufficient to be able to say that they are excellent, and surprisingly cheap. A capital silver-keyed Boehm flute is £ls, a piccolo heavily keyed on the same principle £9, while a first-class oboe fully keyed on the modern principle is priced at £6 only. The Belgians appear to have gone in for the plate glass and mirror business. Right in front of the case of musical instruments just mentioned stands a sheet of plate glass about 9ft. square, nicely finished off at the edges. When I first saw this it was positively dangerous, standing in a couple of low brackets. It was almost invisible, and persons moving about at all quickly or carelessly were apt to try to walk through it. Latterly, however, it has been festooned and bound with thick crimson velvet cords. Besides this the grandest mirror in the Exhibition stands in this court, a magnificent sheet quite 12ft. in height, and about Bft. in width, heavily edged with crimson plush. It is one of the established jokes of the Exhibition to take an acquaintance to see a noble portrait, and lead him in front of this mirror to admire his own image. In the furniture way also the Belgians

come well to the front. The models they follow are antique, and the straight backed chairs, for drawing-room use, are both ugly and uncomfortable ; but the cabinets, sideboards, and book-cases are magnificent, and richly ornamented with carvings. Considered altogether, the characteristics of the Belgian display are chiefly utility and solidity. They do not appear to lay themselves out for elegancies so much, although there are some hangings of imitation tapestry and some medallions in stamped copper (i euivre repousse), which are artistic in their way, and a modelled petite mere, in cloy or terracotta, I am not sure which, being a statuette of a girl nursing her doll, is a very pretty thing. Germany is still somewhat backward, but must be treated according to her present deserts. As already intimated, there are a great number of pianofortes in this court, cottage make chiefly, but also some grands and semi-grands. The remarks referring to these instruments when treating of the Belgian court will be again applicable here. In addition to the pianofortes, there is a big orchestrion, a sort of glorified giant of a barrel-organ which has swallowed a brass band. The upper part of the front of this affair—which is about ten or twelve feet high—-is open to view, and shows a handsomely arranged lot of brass pipes, shaped in the form of the big ends of trumpets and so forth. There ore visible besides a big drum and cymbals and other percussive instruments. The whole affair is played with a barrel, or barrels, and performed a long composition on the one occasion when I heard it played. Respecting the beauty or otherwise of the effect, I scarcely like to speak, because there was at the time such a din of hammers as accompaniments—the process of opening cases and fixing up stands being still in full blast —that I could not have enjoyed a choir of angels had they condescended to exhibit. A glance at my notes reminds me that before passing from the subject of musical instruments I must mention a very interesting exhibit by a piano-forte-maker named Westermayer, showing the " action,” that is the striking mechanism, of the grand pianofortes of his make. It may not be known to many readers that almost all the great pianoforte manufacturing'houses have some speciality in the way of “ actions ” for “grands ” and “uprights,” upon which they set great store. Broadwood has, I know 5 and Brinsmead, a recent firm which advertise* freely, has also a patent. This of Westermayer’s is an excellent “check” action, and should give to pianofortes fitted with it great delicacy of touch and rapidity of repetition.

One show ease in this court, sent by Baeth, Suebor and Son, of Numberg—a town associated in my mind with toys and nutcrackerfigures, owing, I fancy, to some Q-erman fairy tales I read when a child—is a curiosity in its way. Its contents entirely consist of spangles, gold and silver laces, and stage gewgaws of a similar description. Being prettily arranged, these things look very captivating. The methods of manufacture are exemplified to some extent in the case. The rods of silver or gold with a thick core of copper, or else rods of copper with a substantial plating of gold or silver, are shown in various stages, from an inch thick until drawn fine enough for weaving lace. There are mock “ orders ” or stars of spangles which in a reflected light would far out-dazzle the genuine things, and, indeed, the whole world of tinsel and glitter is exemplified in this case. I have said in a previous description, and I do not even now withdraw it, that in variety and beauty of ceramic and glass ware the exhibits from Great Britain are not approached on the whole by those of any of the Continental nations. Ido not withdraw that expression of opinion even now that the Continental displays are more fully shown. But it will admit of some modification. The British exhibitors show at this Exhibition at least twenty times as much of pottery and glass wares as all the Continental nations combined, and among their immense display are some dozen or two of supremo works of art which have no counterpart or equal among the smaller displays of the Continental makers. But when one shakes off the impression made by the magnificent ensemble, the great collection of beautiful things in this department of art which the British court presents, and comes down to details, it is necessary to acknowledge that the average merit of the Continental goods is equal to the British, although the general effect is strongly in favor of the latter. Thus, in the German court there is a stand of what is known as opalised or iridescent glass ware by a maker named Eritz Heokert, of Betorsdorf, Prussia, which are most exquisitely embellished with threads and sprays of enamel, and which are wrought in forms of extreme elegance and grace. The gentleman in charge of this exhibit particularly directed my attention to some glasses modelled in antique fashions. Save from associations the particular model has no particular fascination or recommendation, but I recognised having before seen it presented in one of those exquisite “genre” paintings of Gabriel Max, which have conferred celebrity upon that wonderfully realistic artist. When I mentioned this fact to the gentleman who was explaining the merits of ths exhibit ha regarded me immediately with astonishment and interest, and as a man to whom it was a pleasure to explain things—a connoisseur, “Ah then you know Gabriel Max,” he cried with pleased surprise. After all there was nothing surprising in the circumstance. I had chanced to see a picture somewhat in the Max style in the house of a friend, and when recently an artist or dealer from Vienna brought to Sydney for exhibition and sale a number of fine paintings by German and Austrian artists there wore among them two or three little gems by Gabriel Max himself, which seized my attention and won my reluctant admiration reluctant because I do not wish to admit that elaborately minute and realistic representations of damask tablecloths and silver spoons or chased flagons, of crystal goblets and glasses, and little French rolls, and broken-into pates, is true artistic work.

Another exhibit is entirely of girthings for saddlery purposes; and there is a case, by Tild and Kruger, devoted to Berlin wools, very effectively displayed in rows, each hue commencing at top with hanks of the lightest possible tint, and descending by consecutive hanks through every gradation of shade to the deepest and intensest. To the French court a case of exhibits has just been added, which has specially attracted all the little girls who chanced to come within sight of it. It contains just dolls, and nothing else. Dolls en grande toilette, dolls en dishabille, dolls ready for the nuptial ceremony, dolls blonde and dolls brunette ; negro dolls, and even an apparently Hindoo doll with snaky locks of hair. The wonderful features of most of these dolls is their eyes and heads of hair. They have wonderful eyes, twice as large as their mouths, and not mere beady things such as old fashioned dolls used to be content with, but artificial "eyes of first-rate make, with pupil and cornea, and all the rest of it. Then as to their heads of hair, they are superb, but a good deal of the romance of this embellishment is taken out of it, owing to some dolls being in a scalped condition, with a view doubtless to show the ingenuity of their structure, and how conveniently their coiffure can be arranged or altered. No little girl with a properly regulated mind could feel any affection or respect for a doll which has the back part of its head made of uncompromising cork.