The Story of the House of Cassell
Art Department, equipped with every new appliance for illustration as it came forward. In the beginnings of art work at Cassell's the editor of each periodical or serial made his own arrangements for illustrations. The multiplication of the work as time went on made this method cumbrous. There was a transition stage when one of the editors was appointed to be the medium of communication between the artists and the editorial rooms. Finally, an Art Director was chosen and a separate department constituted under his control.
Though he was not the first Art Director, the man under whom the department began to assume its modern proportions and importance was Mr. Edwin Bale, R.I. When the demand for illustrations had become so great that the existing arrangements broke down, Galpin asked Mr. Sparkes, the Principal of the School of Art at South Kensington, to give some of his time to the firm and inaugurate an adequate art control. This he was unable to do, but he advised Galpin to see Mr. Bale. His pictures were then filling Mr. Bale's thoughts and his time, and no idea of joining a business house had entered his head. At the moment v/hen Galpin called, at the end of March, 1883, he was showing to a party of friends his work for the Royal Academy and the Royal Institute, almost ready to be sent off to the exhibitions. Galpin joined in the inspection of the pictures, and afterwards, in the studio, made his proposal. In a week or two Mr. Bale called at La Belle Sauvage, and was formally asked to give the firm the benefit of his "art, taste, and judgment" as superintendent of the Art Department. Being then unprepared to give up his private work as a painter, he offered to attend at the Yard two days a week for three months as an experiment. Before the first month was up he was in practical control, and at the end of six months was so satisfied with his pleasant work that he entered into an agreement for a term of years, which ultimately extended to a quarter of a century. Mr. Bale was, indeed, an ideal Art Director, and he himself was perfectly suited with a
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