704
ARU—ASBJORNSEN
and that of Burne-Jones were well known to the public, and in high favour long before the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society was formed, and though largely helped and inspired by the work of these two artists, the aims and objects of the society rather represented those of a younger generation, and were in some measure a fresh development both of the social and the artistic ideas which were represented by Buskin, Kossetti, and Morris, though the society includes men of different schools. Other sources of influence might be named, such as the work of Norman Shaw and Philip Webb in architecture and decoration, of Lewis Day in surface pattern, and William de Morgan in pottery. The demand for the acknowledgment of the personality of each responsible craftsman in a co-operative work was new, and it had direct bearing upon the social and economic conditions of artistic production. The principle, too, of regarding the material, object, method, and purpose of a work as essential conditions of its artistic expression, the form and character of which must always be controlled by such conditions, had never before been so emphatically stated, though it practically endorsed the somewhat vague aspirations current for the unity of beauty with utility. Again, a very notable return to extreme simplicity of design in furniture and surface decoration may be remarked; and certain reserve in the use of colour and ornament, and a love of abstract forms in decoration generally, which are characteristic of later taste. Not less remarkable has been the new development in the design and workmanship of jewellery, goldand silver-smiths’ work, and enamels, with which the names of Alexander Fisher, Henry Wilson, Nelson Dawson, and C. B. Ashbee are associated. Among the arts and crafts of design which have blossomed into new life in recent years—and there is hardly one which has not been touched by the new spirit — book-binding must be named as having attained a fresh and tasteful development through the work of Mr Cobden-Sanderson and his pupils. The art and craft of the needle also must not be forgotten, and its progress is a good criterion of taste in design, choice of colour, and treatment. The work of Mrs Morris, of Miss Burden (sometime instructress at the Boyal School of Art Needlework, which has carried on its work from 1875), of Miss May Morris, of Miss Una Taylor, of Miss Buckle, of Mrs Walter Crane, of Mrs Newbery, besides many other skilled needlewomen, has been frequently exhibited. Good work is often seen in the national competition works of the students of the English art schools, shown at South Kensington in July. The increase of late years in these exhibitions of designs worked out in the actual material for which they were intended is very remarkable, and is an evidence of the spread of the arts and crafts movement (fostered no doubt by the increase of technical schools, especially of the type of the Central School of Arts and Crafts under the Technical Education Board of the London County Council), of which it may be said that if it has not turned all British craftsmen into artists or all British artists into craftsmen, it has done not a little to expand and socialize the idea of art, and (perhaps it is not too much to say) has made the tasteful English house with its furniture and decorations a model for the civilized world. (w. Cr.) Am (Dutch Aroe) Islands, a group in the Dutch residency of Amboyna, S. of New Guinea, in 5° 18' to 7 5 S. and 134 8' to 134° 56' E. The larger islands (Wokan, Kobrur, Maikor, and Trangan), and certain of the lesser ones are regarded by the Malays as one land mass which they call tana besar (“great land”). Their area is 2442 square miles, not densely populated by about 13,000 inhabitants, of whom 581 are Christians
and 409 Mahommedans. The chief town, Dobbo, is visited by steamers of the Boyal Steam Packet Company. The natives are governed by rajas (orang kajas), the Dutch Government being represented by a posthouder. Aruwimi, R. See Congo. Arzamas, a district town of Bussia, government and 81 miles S.W. of Nijni Novgorod, on the Tesha river. It is an important centre of trade, and has fifteen tanneries, twenty oil-works, flour-mills, and tallow-melting houses, and knitting is an important domestic industry. Population, 10,591. Asbjbrnsen, Peter Christen (1812-1885), and Moe, Jbrgen Engebretsen (1813-1882), the eminent collectors of Norwegian folklore, were so closely united in their life’s work that it is unusual to name them apart. Asbjbrnsen was born in Christiania on the 15th January 1812; he belonged to an ancient family of the Gudbrandsdal, which is believed to have died with him. He became a student at the university in 1833, but as early as 1832, in his twentieth year, he had begun to collect and write down all the fairy stories and legends which he could meet with. Later he began to wander on foot through the length and breadth of Norway, adding to his stores. Moe, who was born at Mo i Hole parsonage, in Bingerike, on the 22nd April 1813, met Asbjbrnsen first when he was fourteen years of age. A close friendship began between them, and lasted to the end of their lives. In 1834 Asbjbrnsen discovered that Moe had started independently on a search for the relics of national folklore; the friends eagerly compared results, and determined for the future to work in concert. By this time, Asbjbrnsen had become by profession a zoologist, and with the aid of the university made a series of investigating voyages along the coasts of Norway, particularly in the Hardanger fjord. Moe, meanwhile, had devoted himself to the study of theology, and was making a living as a tutor in Christiania. In his holidays he wandered through the mountains, in the most remote districts, collecting stories. In 1842-43 appeared the first instalment of the great work of the two friends, under the title of Norwegian Popular Stories, which was received at once all over Europe as a most valuable contribution to science as well as literature. A second volume was published in 1844, and a new collection in 1871. In 1845 Asbjbrnsen published, without help from Moe, a collection of Norwegian fairy tales (huldreeventyr og folkesagn). In 1856 the attention of Asbjbrnsen was called to the deforestation of Norway, and he induced the Government to take up this important question. He was appointed forest-master, and was sent by Norway to examine in various countries of the north of Europe the methods observed for the preservation of timber. From these duties, in 1876, he withdrew with a pension; he died in Christiania on the 6th January 1885. From 1841 to 1852 Moe travelled almost every summer through the southern parts of Norway, collecting traditions in the mountains. He had, however, long intended to take holy orders, and in 1853 he did so, becoming for ten years a chaplain in Sigdal, and then (1863) parish priest of Bragernes. He was moved in 1870 to the parish of Vestre Aker, near Christiania, and in 1875 he was appointed bishop of Christianssand. In January 1882 he resigned his diocese on account of failing health, and died on the following 27 th March. Moe has a special claim on Critical attention in regard to his lyrical poems, of which a small collection appeared in 1850. He wrote little original verse, but in his slender volume are to be found many pieces of exquisite delicacy and freshness. Asbjbrnsen and Moe had the advantage of an admirable style in narrative prose. It was usually said that the
