George C. M. Birdwood Industrial Arts of India

Annotation

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Part II, on The Master Handicrafts of India, is a reprint, with added text, of a portion of my Handbook to tlze Indian Court at the Paris International Exhibition of 1878. It was so well received, both on the Continent and in this country by people interested in the minor arts of India, thati resolved to publish a carefully rewritten edition of it for general sale. I began by adding to it copious notes from the annual Administration Reports of the local governments of India; and I had examined all these reports, and all the provincial Gazetteers as yet published, when I was asked in the early part of this year to write a popular handbook on the industrial arts of India, in connexion with the reopening of the India Museum under its new administration by, the Science and Art Depart ment at South Kensington. In undertaking this task my intention was to write such a short sketch as I have given of the Hindu Pantheon, without some knowledge of which half the interest of the manual arts of India is lost and to add a few general observations on the artis tic character of Indian manufactures. But on examining the india'museum collections in detail, and finding how incomplete they were for a systematic representation of the manufacturing resources of India, I saw that what was~most wanted was not a handbook to the contents of theeiuseum, but an index to its deficiencies; and I therefore resolved to virtually republish a portion of my Handbook, with new information, as the second part of the present work. Although its preparation has been hurried - (the Science and Art Department received charge ofthe Museum'only on the Ist of January lastj - I hope that it IS a fairly trustworthy index of every district and town 111 British India where manufactures of any specialartistic quality are produced; and I believe it will prove of some assistance to the oofficials of the Science and Art Department in completing the India Museum collections, and to the general public as a guide t