A club, a select number of persons in the habit of meeting for the promotion of some common object, as social intercourse, literature, politics, etc. It is a peculiarly English institution, which can scarcely be said to have taken root in any other country except America. The coffee-houses of the 17th and 18th centuries are the best representatives of what is meant by a modern club, while the clubs of that time were commonly nothing but a kind of restaurants or taverns whero people resorted to take their meals. But while anybody was free to enter a coffeehouse, it wao absolutely necessary that a person should have been formally received as a member of a club, according to its regulations, before he was at liberty to enter it.
Among the earliest of the London clubs was the Kit-cat Club, formed in the reign of Queen Anne, among whoso forty members were dukes, earls, and the leading authors of tho day. Another club formed about the same time was the Beefsteak Club. Originally these two cluba had no pronounced political views, but in the end they began to occupy themselves with politics, the Kit-cat Club being Whig, and the Beefsteak Club Tory. Perhaps the most celebrated club of the 18th century was that which was first called The Club par excellence, and numbered among its members Dr. Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Edmund Burke, Oliver Goldsmith, Edward Gibbon, and others.
Clubs are often provided with reading-room and library, and formerly a smoking-room, billiard-room, coffee-room, dining-room, drawing-room, etc, and also may have a certain number of bed-rooms. Besides being convenient for social intercourse, members may obtain their meals in them, served in the best style and at moderate cost. New members are admitted by ballot, and pay a certain entrance fee as well as an annual subscription. Research Club
Albert Durer was a German painter, designer, sculptor, and engraver on wood and metal. He was born in 1471 at Nurnberg and died in 1528. His father was a skilful goldsmith of Hungary. In 1486 he left his father's trade and became an apprentice of Michael Wohlgemuth, then the best painter in Nurnberg. Having finished his studies he entered upon his 'wanderjahre,' the usual course of travels of a German youth. On his return to Nurnberg he married the daughter of Hans Frey, a mechanic, who has been falsely accused for centuries of embittering his life and bringing him to his grave. In 1505 he went to Venice to improve himself in his art.
His abilities excited envy and admiration. He painted the Martyrdom of Bartholomew for St. Mark's church, which painting was purchased by the Emperor Rudolph and removed to Prague. He also travelled to Bologna, to improve bisknowledge of perspective. On his return to Nurnberg his fame spread far and wide. Maximilian I appointed him his court-painter, and Charles V confirmed him in this office.
All the artists and learned men of his time honoured and loved him, and for many years he was one of the chief burghers of his native town. Profound application and great facility in the mechanical part of his art were the characteristics of Albert Durer, and enabled him to exert a great influence on German art. He was the first in Germany who taught the rules of perspective, and of the proportions of the human figure. He not only made use of the burin, like his predecessors, but was also among the first to practice etching and invented the method of printing woodcuts with two colours.
Among his masterpieces in painting are a Crucifixion, Adam and Eve, an Adoration of the Magi, and portraits of Raphael, Erasmus, and Melanchthon, who were his friends. Among his best engravings on copper are his Fortune, Melancholy, Adam and Eve in Paradise, St. Hubert, St. Jerome, and the Smaller Passion (so called), in sixteen plates. Among his best engravings on wood are the Greater Passion (so called), in thirteen plates; the Smaller Passion, with the frontispiece, thirty-seven pieces; the Revelation of St. John, with the frontispiece, fifteen plates; the Life of Mary, two prints, with the frontispiece. Albert Durer has also much merit as a writer, and published works on Human Proportion, Fortification, and the Use of the Compass and Square. Research Albert Durer
Benvenuto Cellini was a Florentine goldsmith and sculptor. He was born in 1500 at Florence and died in 1571. The son of a maker of musical instruments, he was intended for the same profession as his father but from an early age showed artistic talent, especially in design and was apprenticed to a goldsmith. Although always a musician and eventually one of the Papal Band, his life was given to work as a sculptor and goldsmith. Research Benvenuto Cellini
Birket Foster was an English artist. He was born in 1825 at North Shields and died in 1899. He learned wood-engraving under Landells, and at a young age became a draughtsman. He soon achieved a high reputation as a book illustrator, and illustrated the works of Goldsmith, Scott, Longfellow, Beattie, etc. His landscape drawings on wood are excellent. He afterwards devoted himself to water-colour painting, in which his reproductions of rustic life were very successful. Research Birket Foster
George Heriot was a jeweller and philanthropist. He was born in 1563 and died in 1624. He followed his father's profession, and was admitted a member of the Incorporation of Goldsmiths in 1588. In 1597 he was appointed goldsmith to the queen by James VI, and on the accession of the latter to the English crown followed the court to England. From his settlement in London little is known of his history. He left nearly the whole of his fortune to found an hospital in Edinburgh for the maintenance and education of poor fatherless boys, freemen's sons, of the town. Research George Heriot
Ghirlandaio or Corradi Domenico was one of the older Florentine painters. He was born in 1450 at Florence and died in 1495. He was the son of a goldsmith known as Il Ghirlandaio (the garland-maker), from his skill in malting garlands. He was distinguished by his fertility of invention, a more natural rendering of life, and a more accurate perspective than his predecessors. Amongst his best works are the frescoes in the Sassetti Chapel of the TrinityChurch and in the choir of Santa Maria Novella at Florence, and the pictures in the Uffizi and the academy at Florence. Research Ghirlandaio
Henry Austin Dobson was an English poet. He was born in 1840 at Plymouth in 1840 and died in 1921. He was educated at Beaumaris, Coventry, and Strasburg, and in 1856 obtained a clerkship under the Board of Trade, where he rose to be one of the officials known as principals. His earliest verses first appeared in book form under the title Vignettes in Rhyme and Vers de Sociote published in 1873. His other volumes of verse include Proverbs in Porcelain (1877), Old World Idylls (1883), and At the Sign of the Lyre (1885), which the Athenaeum pronounced to be 'of its kind as nearly as possible perfect', Among his prose works may be mentioned his Lives of Hogarth, Fielding, Stede, Goldsmith, Horace Walpole, and Richardson; Thomas Bewick and his Pupils; Four Frenchwomen, a study on Charlotte Corday, the Princesse de Lamballe, and Mesdames Roland and de Genlis; three series of Eighteenth Century Vignettes; A Paladin of Philanthropy, and several editions of standard works. His collected poema were published in one volume in 1897. Many of Henry Dobson's poems are written in various French forms, such as the rondeau and ballade, and all are marked by gracefulness, ease, and careful finish. Research Henry Dobson
Jane Shore was a mistress of Edward IV. She left her husband, William Shore a goldsmith by trade, for the English court in 1470. She was popular at court and amongst the people and gained considerable influence over the King and, after his death, the Marquess of Dorset and William Hastings. The Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III) had her accused of sorcery and publicly punished. She died in poverty in 1527. Research Jane Shore
Abbreviations
Research Club
