PEACHEY'S
ROYAL GUIDE
TO
WAX FLOWER MODELLING.

ADVERTISEMENT.

Mrs. Peachey being, for the reasons stated in this work, compelled to circumscribe the giving of lessons, if not to discontinue instructions altogether in a few months, the book will, therefore, under any circumstances, be indispensable.

J. Gardner & C^o. Zinc. 86 Hatton Garden.

THE
ROYAL GUIDE
TO

BY

MRS. PEACHEY,

LONDON:

PUBLISHED AND SOLD BY MRS. PEACHEY,
ARTISTE TO HER MAJESTY,
AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.
MDCCCLI.

TO
THE PRINCESS ROYAL
OF
ENGLAND,

AS A TOKEN OF LOYAL AND GRATEFUL
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
FOR THE SPONTANEOUS AND FOSTERING PATRONAGE OF
HER ROYAL HIGHNESS'S AUGUST PARENT

THE QUEEN;

THE ROYAL GUIDE TO WAX FLOWER MODELLING
IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
BY HER ROYAL HIGHNESS'S
MOST OBLIGED
AND OBEDIENT HUMBLE SERVANT,

EMMA PEACHEY,
ARTISTE TO HER MAJESTY.

PREFACE.

The Editor of this work, by Her Majesty's Artiste, Mrs. Peachey, fairly entitled the Royal Guide to Wax Flower Modelling, would fain leave the introduction, written by the same hand which rivals nature in her varying adornments, to unfold its historic, its poetic, its moral, and its suggestive graces—for it combines these; but having accepted the part, without which, since the days of Plato, no book is deemed complete, he essays a few prefatory observations and remarks.

Brevity, it has been said, is the soul of wit; but we may be brief when we know what is to follow, and for whom the following pages are designed.

Our fair readers will intuitively perceive that the scope of the instructive portion of this self-commending little volume is to facilitate their acquisition of an accomplishment at once royal and feminine in its origin and progress, and therefore worthy of their attention.

This elegant art requires but the fairy touch of a delicate hand to fill each available space in the chamber or drawing-room with the most perfect and beautiful imitations of the flower-garden.

Unaffected by change or climate, wax flower modelling perpetuates the transient glories of the floral seasons; places all the tender varieties under the immediate glance of the ever gratified eye of the artist, who can thus in the depth of winter exhibit to an admiring foreign guest the exotics of the far hemisphere, or the indigenous plants of her own loved land.

Who that has watched by the side of an invalid mother, would not feel an exalted pleasure in creating around her the magical representations of those flowerets and rosebuds her maternal hand was wont to rear? Who, in such a moment of ministering affection, would not feel how sweet the reward of a father's love, as his approving gaze spoke more than many words his thanks to the duteous child returning the early care of the fond partner of his griefs and joys? Contemplating such a scene as this, one cannot refrain from citing the language of the poet:—

The copious table of contents possesses great attraction for persons of refined taste, embracing every variety of flower usually modelled in wax: its arrangement is calculated to lead the learner, by easy steps, from the most simple to the most elaborate accomplishment of a very delightful task.

The sketch of her artistic life, with which the talented though unpretending authoress has favoured the public, cannot fail to prove useful and encouraging to the beginner, as it fully justifies the good old proverb, that "where there is a will, there is a way;" and that way is clearly and forcibly pointed out in the Royal Guide, so as to direct with perfect ease the willing fingers of the modeller to the attainment of her object, to excel in giving form and substance to her innate perceptions of the beautiful. Nor is this a selfish pleasure. These productions of skilled labour—if we may apply the word labour to an amusement—please the beholder, as they do the mind which calls forth the exquisite fancy which pencils these flowers.

The unanimous verdict of the Press will be found recorded at the end of the instructions. It is a remarkable fact, that so many