The Royal Guide to Wax Flower Modelling Part 9

A visit to Mrs. Peachey's Studio, in Rathbone-place, is like stepping into some garden of Fairy Land, where flowers of all seasons, and fruits of every clime present themselves at once to the eye in perennial bloom. The rose is there in all its varieties, the lily, the drooping fuchsia, the accasia, the gorgeous tulip, the dahlia, the Victoria Regia in all its stages of development, bud, blossom, flower. Grapes, too, that would have moved the jolly G.o.d to press them within his ruddy lips, peaches, nectarines, currants, strawberries, and crowning pine apples, in one rare trophy, worthy the study of a Lance. Our feelings at the moment recalled vividly an amusing anecdote of Swift. The facetious Dean with several friends was invited to walk the rounds and admire the fruit in the garden of an old acquaintance, who pointed out all the beauties of his orchard, without, however, asking the company to partake of any of the tempting display. This was too much for Swift, who having a happy art of inventing rhymes to suit his purposes, applied it in the following manner on the occasion; "I remember," said he, stopping under a very heavy laden bough, "that my dear old grandmother had a saying which ran thus--

"Always pluck a peach When within your reach."

Suiting the action to the word, he quickly put forth his hand and took and ate--an example which was not lost on those who accompanied him. Now we candidly confess that we were in an unguarded moment tempted to essay a similar onslaught on Mrs. Peachey's fruits, but, fortunately for all future visitors, were withheld by the magnificent gla.s.s shades which protect these triumphs of art. And are these the works that have been--that are refused a fitting place in that great field of universal rivalry, the Crystal Palace! What!

can it be possible? Here are works of our own nation not there--excluded! Surely, for the credit of the artiste, and for its own honorable name, the Executive Committee should enquire into the matter, and if there be any unworthy motive for this, to us, incomprehensible exclusion of native art, let such be at once and for ever dissipated by the breath of public opinion. There is still ample s.p.a.ce for them in the great building; and we hope yet to see them there in their proper place. Mrs. Peachey has spared neither labor nor expense to render her works worthy of her reputation, and the continuance of that exalted patronage which she has long enjoyed in Her Gracious Majesty the Queen, and the highest among the aristocracy, and of the honor of her country. We were glad to perceive, on our visit, that although excluded from their place among the nations, these exquisite works are eagerly sought after and admired by crowds of the _elite_ of fashion and taste.--_Globe._

This highly talented lady (artiste to Her Majesty) has now on private view, at her residence, 35, Rathbone-place, Oxford-street, two splendid works of art, which were intended to have been placed in the Crystal Palace, but the s.p.a.ce allotted to her in one of the galleries, being not at all adapted to such delicate productions, Mrs. Peachey was compelled to refrain from carrying out her intention. These beautiful productions, the sole work of Mrs.

Peachey, (who is self-taught,) comprise a monster bouquet of flowers, and a large vase of fruit. The former comprehends specimens of almost every flower known in this country, from the simple violet to the full-blown magnolia; whilst in the latter we have specimens of the princ.i.p.al English fruits, including the luscious pine apples and the unpretending currant. Both groups are most tastefully arranged, and an enormous expense has been incurred in the getting up of the stands and gla.s.s shades. We advise our readers not to omit seeing Mrs. Peachey's novel and truly beautiful works, and we predict they will be abundantly gratified by their visit to her Exhibition.--_Reading Mercury._

Mrs. Peachey's group of wax flowers, modelled for the Gla.s.s Palace, is now on view at her house in Rathbone-place. Mrs. Peachey, it seems, refused the s.p.a.ce a.s.signed her by the Committee, on the ground that heat and darkness would, the one have destroyed, and the other shrouded the marvels of her skill. The bouquet (which is in a gla.s.s case, unsurpa.s.sed for chasteness and beauty of design) is on a gigantic scale, and contains among the rarest exotics the pride of the conservatory and the garden. We were as much surprised as delighted, on paying a visit during the past week at the skill which can imitate, and even rival, nature in her most attractive aspects.

Conspicuous among the lilies, and other water flowers lining the base, is the Victoria Regia in its several states. The botanist and the florist will dwell delightedly on the _cricae_, _orchids_, _cacti_, the night-flowering cereus, etc., besides numberless others more familiar to us.--_Dispatch._

An exhibition of wax flowers, at the residence (in Rathbone-place) of Mrs. Peachey the artiste, is a perfect curiosity of its kind.

Almost every variety of English flower, exquisitely coloured, is ma.s.sed into an enormous bouquet, surprising alike from the largeness of the conception and the minuteness of the execution. This beautiful piece of art was prepared for the Great Exhibition, but withdrawn by Mrs. Peachey in consequence of her dissatisfaction with the place reserved for her.--_Examiner._

We have inspected, at the private residence of Mrs. Peachey (in Rathbone-place, Oxford-street), artiste in wax work to Her Majesty, one of the most remarkable specimens of ingenuity and industry which London at present contains. This is an immense bouquet of wax flowers which that lady had prepared for the Crystal Palace, but were not within its walls, for a reason to which we will presently advert. Let us first describe this really magnificent work. On four st.u.r.dy stone columns, tastefully designed, and edged with gold, is a looking-gla.s.s platform upwards of four feet square, and representing water. From the centre of this fairy lake rises a gla.s.s column supporting a golden basket. In this is placed a bouquet some two feet high, and of proportionate girth, in which are cl.u.s.tered all the flowers we ever saw, and a great many which we never saw--from the humble favorites of our _Rigolettes_ and _Fleur de Maries_, up to the floral aristocracy of the conservatory. There they are exquisitely reproduced in all their graces of form and colour, and arranged with the attention to contrast and general effect which bespeaks the superintending eye of a real artiste. We are afraid to say how many hundred wax flowers compose this splendid bouquet; but we can safely say that, after having walked round and round it, and, as we thought, having completely examined it, the eye continually insisted on detecting some new variety, and we finally abandoned the hope of ever becoming acquainted with the whole. From the corners of the imitative waters rise various superb specimens of water plants, fresh, cool, opaque-looking productions; and at the foot of the gla.s.s column, as if planted by accident, spring a few of our more common and very beautiful garden flowers. The whole is covered by an enormous bent gla.s.s shade, from the centre of which rises a pretty copy of Her Majesty's crown. Nothing can be more beautiful or in better taste than the object we have described. Near it is another vase, not so large, and filled with wax fruit of every kind--the bloom of the grape, the blush of the apple, the rich brown of the nut, the velvet of the apricot, the glow of the orange, and the characteristics of a hundred other fruits being represented with a tantalizing fidelity. We would have flogged the fellow who broke the Portland Vase, but we did not feel so sure, while gazing upon these admirable imitations of the most delicious fruits, that we should have been so severe upon some earnest gourmand who might dash down the vase of which we speak, in wrath that his eye and his palate had been so n.o.bly cheated. The two vases, one of flowers, the other of fruits, are certainly the most sumptuous specimens of wax composition we ever saw.

As we have said, these works were intended by Her Majesty's artiste for the Great Exhibition. On her applying for a site, that lady states, that a very admirable one was a.s.signed her upon the ground-floor of the building, near the fountains. Upon her work being complete, she was directed to place it in the gallery. This Mrs. Peachey considered would be to jeopardise it, from the danger so fragile a production would probably sustain in being taken up stairs, and still more from the heat of the sun, to which the wax would in that situation be exposed, and which would speedily produce Icarian results destructive to the work. We are not disposed to enter into the question in any spirit of censure. We know too well the _innumerable difficulties_ with which the Executive Committee have had to contend in arranging the contents of the enormous building, to cavil at any decision they may have arrived at; but we have now had the opportunity of seeing two very beautiful works of English industry which would have been a credit to the Exhibition.--_Morning Chronicle._

Those forms which our continental neighbours take such wondrous care in imitating in the perishable material of muslin, Mrs. Peachey, Her Majesty's artiste, of 35, Rathbone-place, endeavours to perpetuate in the more endurable materials of wax. Naturally afraid of jeopardising the work on which so much time and labour has been bestowed, Mrs. Peachey has withheld her contribution from the Great Exhibition; whether wisely or not, we are not here called upon to p.r.o.nounce.

We can only bear witness to the evidently botanical fidelity of execution with which the forms and colours so lavishly spread throughout nature have been mimicked. In wax work generally, one is made painfully aware of the all-powerful presence of the forceps, but here we notice little or nothing of the kind, this is especially the case with the small blossoms, which expand their petals throughout a monster bouquet in wax.

In thus perfecting the imitative arts, however, no sense should be left unsatisfied; to the pleasure of seeing, might be super-added that of smelling. But in this further aim might be lost sight of that great object, viz., utility, which at present is one of the aims successfully attained by Mrs. Peachey.--_Daily News._

FINISH.