Prizes awarded for the year 1857

Abstract

One of the means by which the Committee of the Malta Society of Arts has for some time past endeavoured to promote and encourage the advancement of the fine as well as the inferior arts among us, (as many of our readers are doubtless aware), is the yearly appropriation of a considerable portion of their funds to be expended in a series of prizes to be awarded for the best specimens of certain annually specified branches of industry, - branches of the arts in which, in fact, it must be confessed, there is not only much room for improvement, but likewise a great deal yet to originate. That these competitions for prizes, if properly understood and taken advantage of by those for whose benefit they are intended, might be made the means of working vast ammeliorations in many of our productions, no one we think will deny ; but unfortunately the measures adopted by the Society cannot as yet be said to be sufficiently appreciated to produce the wished for progress. The result of last year's competitions at least is not such as to give much encouragement to the Society. Of the seven competitions thrown open, viz : for specimens of wood-engraving, sculpture, pottery, wood-carving, gilding, book-binding, and architectural designs ; only three have been responded to, and these by only about as many individuals, viz : those for word-engraving, pottery, and architectural designs... [Excerpt]