Hausinschriften im Schweizerland, by Gilgian Maurer. 272 pages, with 350 illustrations, two in full color. Spiez: G. Maurer, 1951. Price, $4.20.

In 1899 Walter Larden, a member of the Alpine Club, began to collect house inscriptions, chiefly of the Lotschenthal. Later he published them in a modest book, now almost forgotten. This new volume, already in a second edition, continues the project and covers many districts of Switzerland, forming an anthology of homely precepts recorded in carving and painting through the centuries. The words reveal the thoughtfulness and the humor of bygone days; the manner of the inscriptions shows the innate peasant skill through which artistic craving found expression.

J.M.T.