will well bear examination. They are among the very few articles of furniture intended for middle-class purchasers.

Messrs. Filmer and Son, of Berners Street, have some excellent furniture in Class XXX. Among other articles is a circular extending dining-table, of fine English pollard oak, the framework of Italian design, with scroll supports, ornamented with festoons of fruit, &c. It is manufactured on a novel plan, to open to an increased diameter by an extension of the framework, the top being preserved entire, and quarter-circle leaves introduced in several series round the circumference, thus preserving at all sizes the perfect circle. The movement of this table combines extreme simplicity with the utmost certainty of action; it is fitted with a screw and cog mechanism (by Hawkins), by the operation of which the whole framework is expanded simul

forming two easy chairs and two settees, which are constructed to fit together, and can be formed into a complete and elegant centre seat.

We have already referred to the fine buffet shown by Messrs. Jackson and Graham, and the furniture shown by Messrs. Jallow and Messrs. Holland. We have only, therefore, to draw attention to the furniture of a few other exhibitors. Messrs. Litchfield and Radclyffe, of Hanway Street, Oxford Street, show, among many other noticeable objects, a carved ebony and ivory upright cabinet on stand, inclosed by doors, inlaid with cornelians, marble in columns, plinths, &c., the inside lined with silvered glass, and decorated with groups, and fine specimens of Sèvres, Dresden, Berlin, Vienna, &c., from their large collections of most of the European porcelains.

Mr. Walter McFarlane, of Glasgow, shows a fine OAK BOOK-CASE

taneously; the leaves being placed, are all fastened by the same means at once, thus enabling one person, without assistance, and in a few minutes, to arrange a table sufficiently large to dine thirty or forty people.

Two pollard oak dining-room chairs, of Italian design, with stuffed panelled backs, covered with morocco leather to accord with the table, and an easy chair to match, are also shown by this firm.

An easy chair, the frame carved in walnut wood; the back arranged with an oscillating spring, combining the comfort of an ordinary lounge with the pleasant motion of a rocking-chair, will attract attention. Notice also the movable convertible ottoman for the centre of rooms, richly carved in the style of Louis XVI., the ground-work finished in white enamel, with mat and burnished gold relief; covered with rich figured silk. This ottoman is made in four separate parts,

with brass mountings. This piece of furniture is designed with a boldly projecting base, above which it is divided into five compartments by moulded haffets, enriched with a band of holly berries. Over each division shields of varied designs support semi-circular panelled tablets in line with and breaking upon the cornice. These are to be surmounted with bronze busts of celebrated men; the tablets contain the name, whilst the date of birth and death are inscribed on the shields below; the two centre shields bear family monograms. All the letters are of bronze, and in design characteristic of the different periods in which they lived. A curved pediment crowns the centre compartment, the tympanum of which is occupied by the exhibitor's crest in bronze. A bust of the Queen is to be placed on the pediment; and above the cornice is a light bronze cresting. The doors are filled in with glass, and have crank handles of an elaborate

pretty child, and the "Venus a very lovely woman. Much has been heard of the statue which Mr. Gibson has coloured very, very slightly, and has gifted with a pair of gold ear-rings. It is a sweet figure, and (says a public writer) we are not so bold as to express timidity on the delicate point which must be raised as soon as absolute and pure form is invaded by painting. Submit Mr. Gibson's Venus to the crucial test of comparison with the untinted marble statues in the same court, and it is hard to say that his is the least pure. The attitude is exquisitely graceful, and the significance of the Venus de Medici is carried out by the position in which this modern goddess gathers up the folds of her white drapery with one hand, while with the other she holds the golden apple. A peculiarity is noticeable about her throat, which is crossed by slight wrinkles, or, as one might say, ripples, by way of rendering the uglier word in a very subdued sense. This is considered by Italian judges to be a beauty; and perhaps when Mr. Gibson is at Rome, he not only does as they do there, but thinks as they think. The position of the various noticeable pieces of statuary and other works of art in the Roman Court, will be best shown by a diagram.

she grew up, their feelings of enmity against the white man, and conducted herself in all respects as became an Indian maiden. With bow and arrow, and scalping-knife, she was a terror wherever she went. At last she was taken and brought a captive in the very house of her parents, of whom she knew nothing but as enemies. But her mother happening to sing a song that had hushed her babe to sleep, the old air came like a revelation upon the startled ear of the maiden, and woke up the slumbering memories of forgotten childhood. In the sculpture she is represented listening to the song of her mothermemory and old affection struggling in her countenance.

"Love Captive," by Engell; "Zephyr and Flora," by Ives; and the "Fortune Teller," by Guglielmo, are all fine examples of modern sculpture. Near the entrance of the Court from the Central Avenue is a bust of Cardinal Wiseman; and towards the centre a mosaic gothic table, carved out of a single block of Carrara white marble, and inlaid with mosaics. The top is inlaid with rose antique, malachite, and lapis lazuli, and upon it, in small medallions, are represented objects of the chase, the centre being left for the arms of the purchaser.

Mosaic Table.

Trajan's Column.

Shepherd and Dog.

Cardinal Wiseman.

Wish-ton-Wish.

Love Captive.

Next in attractive interest amongst sculptures, are the "Cleopatra" and "Sibyl" of Mr. Storey, an American artist. There is none of the conventional and voluptuous beauty about the "Cleopatra." The form and features, though handsome, are of purely Egyptian type, and the expression of the face is one of thought and intellectual power. Both the face and figure of the "Sibyl" are grandly suggestive of the moody abstraction of one really possessed of the powers of divination, looking gloomily forward in the long chapter of human woes.

As, in the Hyde Park Exhibition of 1851, the "Broken Drum became one's favourite, so the "Shepherd and his Dog" achieves great popularity. A boy offers a piece of bread to his dog, and suddenly draws his hand away; the dog bounds and barks, and it is this moment which the sculptor has fixed. The group tells its own tale-the laughing boy, the eager dog, and the accessories. Every one will understand it, and so marvellous and expressive is the execution that every one will admire. It is the work of a young sculptor, Malpieri, but he will not be for long an unknown one.

Four statues by Mozier, another American artist studying at Rome, attract great attention-"Esther," the "Wept of Wish-ton-Wish," Jephthah's Daughter," and "Ruth"-all works of great merit. The Wish-ton-Wish is the name of a valley in which the Puritan Fathers settled; and the "Wept One" was a child stolen from her parents by the Indians. Dwelling among the savages, she shared, as

The foot, also of Carrara marble, has groups of soldiers, in the costume of the Middle Ages, clustered about it. Signor Monachesi is said to have been eleven years engaged in producing this magnificent specimen of modern mosaic. Other tables, of like character, will also be looked upon with interest, especially one intended as a present to her Majesty the Queen, from his Holiness the Pope. The pieta by Giaccometti, -the Madonna, Magdalen, and St. John, bending over the body of the Saviour-holds the place of honour in this Court; while at the front and at the side are other pietas-that in the front by Schubert, and that on the other side by Achtermann, an artist so famous for this class of work, that he is known in Rome as the Christaro (the "Christ Maker"). Gatley's wonderful bas-relief of the "Destruction of Pharaoh and his Host" is one of those works on which a volume might be written, and still something be left unsaid; it is so full of suggestion, so admirable in conception, and so perfect in execution.

In the Picture Gallery Rome shows well, and the artists cannot but gain largely in the world's estimation from the works there exhibited. In the paintings of the foreign schools we notice the absence of the very qualities which we in England consider indispensable to success, namely, lightness of treatment and purity of atmospheric effect; but in subjects of genre character-interiors with figures, &c.-many of the Italian pictures will bear comparison with the best of those by our own artists.

THE WESTERN ANNEXE is a place of great attraction for all those visitors to the Exhibition who go to learn rather than to lounge-for the Shillings, in fact,

rather than the Season

Tickets.

ma

chinery; pressure gauges; grocers' and confectioners' machines; beerengines and fountains; double-action refrigerators,

for brewing and

MAN

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distilling; boilers and cowl; copper and brass work; quartz-crushing machines; silk and flour-dressing machines; steam and vacuum gauges and salomiters telegraphs; indicators; brick-making machines; rotary engines; needlemaking apparatus; Jacquard looms; fire-engines, and steam-engines for making iced waters. Nor do we get a much clearer idea of the vastness, the importance, the value, and the interest of the Western Annexe and its varied contents, when we say that the inquiring visitor may examine for himself the curious processes in manufactures belonging to many interesting trades-steel-pen makers, pin and needle-makers, button makers, medalstrikers, gold-chain manu facturers, engine-turners for watches, type-casters, type-printers, lithographic and copper-plate printers, earthenware and porcelain-printers, potters, brick and drain-tile makers, glass blowers, turners in metal, ivory, and wood; glove-makers, pillow-lace makers, and wood-carvers. We have said but so many words, conveying so many separate ideas, it is true, but not distinctly or vividly. The writer can but assist the mind of the reader

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to realise a wordpicture; and, in respect of description, is much less favoured than the draughtsman, whose art allows him to present the picture itself. When, however, picture and written description are combined, there is less difficulty in producing a satisfactory train of thought. This great advantage belongs especially to illustrated literature. However