The Application of Ornament

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î^PPLICATION
Of
ORNA/ALM
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TEXT BOOKS OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN.

By lewis
F.
day.
III.
THE APPLICATION OF ORNAMENT.

By lewis
F.
day.
bound
in Cloth.
Price Three-and-Sixpence each,
I.
THE ANATOMY OF PATTERN.

With
Thirty-five
full
page
Illustrations.
II.
THE PLANNING OF ORNAMENT.

With
Thirty-eight
full
page
Illustrations.
III.
THE APPLICATION OF ORNAMENT.

With Forty-two
full
page
Illustrations.
Tlaiel
THE
APPLICATION OF ORNAMENT.
LEWIS
AUTHOR OF 'EVERY-DAY
ART,'
F.
DAY,
ETC.
'THE ANATOMY OF PATTERN,'
ILLUSTRATED.
B.
T.
LONDON: BATSFORD, 52, HIGH HOLBORN.
PREFACE.
The former
text-books of this series con-
cerned themselves with the rudimentary lines
on which ornament
distributed.
It is
may
be designed and
only
in
theory, however, that ornadiscussed.
ment can be independently

tically
tion.
it
Prac-
exists only relatively to its applicaits
Apart from
its
place and purpose and

is
the process of
doing, there
no such
thing as ornament.
The
position
lute.
necessity of adapting
design to
it is
its
and use
is
as obvious as
abso-
The need
of conforming to the
technical conditions imposed
by
material,
more and
the means of working
it,
is
not so generally
a craftsman
understood.
It
takes, perhaps,
its
thoroughly to appreciate
urgency.
These few chapters go essential to ornament is
to demonstrate
its
how
strict
subordina-
vi
Preface.
tion to practical conditions
how
in all times
good workmen have cheerfully accepted them and how the very forms of historic detail handed down to us grew
and
in all crafts
;
out of obedience to them.
In the genesis
of ornament will be found the strongest argu-
ment
for the
study of technique.
its
The
consideration of natural form and

is
adaptation to ornamental design

for a separate
resei-ved
volume.
Lewis
13,
F.
Day.
Mecklenburg Square, London, W.C.

October îh, i8S8.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
I.
The Rationale of the Conventional
..
II.
What
is
Implied by Repetition
.. ..
III.
Where
to Stop in Ornament
17
IV.
Style and Handicraft
37
51
v.
VI.
The Teaching of the Tool

Some Superstitions
..
65
DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF PLATES.

1.
STENCIL
colour.
The
ties
breaking up the broad masses of
2.
ORNAMENTAL FIGURE COMPOSITION Identical

reversed.
figures
3.
ANIMALS AND ARABESQUE

metrically disposed.
Varied
creatures
sym-
4.
A TREE OF JESSE among the foliage.
Figures
ornamentally
valuable
5.
NURSERY WALL PAPER
Fun in design.
creatures enliven-
6.
ANIMALS AND ARABESQUE^ Various

ing the ornament.
7.
PATTERN* WITH GROTESQUES

selves reduced to ornament.
The
Creatures
them-
8.
VARIOUS VESSELS
making.
Characteristic
of the
way
of their
9.
WOOD CARVING Shovifing

AFRICAN BASKET
the marks of the chisel.

typical
10.
WORK A
example of
quality
plaiting.
1 1.
CARVED LEATHER
material.
Preserving
the
of
the
12.
PERSIAN FAIENCE
Direct potter's work.

its
13.
LETTERING
Showing
relation to the pen, &c.
List of Plates.
14.
EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE
Basalt.
15.
16.
17.
18.
Marble. RENAISSANCE SCULPTURE Marble. RENAISSANCE SCULPTURE Sandstone. WOOL DAMASK ^Broad surfaces calculated
GREEK SCULPTURE
the quality of the material.
to
exhibit
19.
LYONS
Sli-K
Trivial
design, disguised
by the sheen
and colour of the material.

20.
BYZANTINE SILK
^Coloured according to the weft.
21.
ARABIAN PATTERNS
Incised in
soft plaster.
22.
IRONWORK
Characteristic
similarity of motif in
work
of quite different periods.

23.
IRONWORK
iron.
Characteristically
different types of wrought
24.
NEEDLEWORK Characteristic
EMBOSSED PANEL
FILAGREE
quality of line.
25'.
Design suggested by the process.

design
26.
Characteristic
common
to
work of
different periods.
27.
28.
29.
30.
Analogous to filagree on straight JAVANESE ORNAMENT Inspired by the Way of working. FRETWORK In wood and metal. SAWN WORK Ingenious patterns produced by very
GREEK LACE
lines.
simple means.
31.
STENCIL PATTERN
And the Way of producing
it.
List of Plates.
32.
xi
bookbinder's tooling
MOSAIC
33.
And the tools used. "Workmanlike PAVEMENT

thrift.
34.
RIGID DESIGN
In
need of the softening influence of
accidental colour.
35.
NIELLO
Severity of pattern calculated
to be mitigated
by the brilliancy of the metal.

36.
MARBLE INLAY Practically
a fret pattern.
37.
ARAB LATTICES Characteristic wood-turning.
38.
ENAMEL
Showing the and champlevl.
difference of outline in cloisonni
39.
STAINED GLASS
outlines.
The glazing
lines for the
most part the
40.
APPLIQUE EMBROIDERYThe
corded outline.
joints
masked by a
41.
OUTLINE Defining
OUTLINE
the forms.
42.
Softening the forms.
THE
APPLICATION OF ORNAMENT.
I.
The Rationale of the Conventional.

Concerning
all
questions of
art,
the
diffi-
culty of coming to any clear understanding

is
greatly increased
by the
totally different
meanings attached
to the terms,
more or
less
technical, one cannot avoid using.
To
help
begin with definitions does not greatly
us.
We
find
no sooner commence to define

ourselves
than
we
stumbling against
other words
tion.
equally in
need of explana-
What
a flood of light would be
let in
upon
the question of decorative design, could
we
is
but agree amongst ourselves as to what
meant by the term
"
conventional
"
!
An
English ornamentist
understands
by
conventional treatment, such a rendering of

natural forms as
may
be consistent with the

B
The Application of Ornament.

work
in
decorative character of the

implies to
hand.
It
him
that self-restraint, that intelir-
gent selection, that recognition of material
and
its
characteristics, that strict
regard for
the purpose and position of design, without
which ornament does not so much as deserve

the
name
of ornament.
it
To
in
a Frenchman, on the other hand,

all
stands for
art.
''
that
is
helpless
and hopeless
is
C'est de
la
convention, ga,"
the
expression of his supremest contempt.
Of
course
it
is
not merely a matter of

Britons are agreed as to
country.
Not
all
what they mean by the word conventional, but there is in the nor all Frenchmen
;
national interpretation of the term an expla-
nation of the respect, as of the contempt, in
which conventionality
is
held.
The
continental use of the
word
is
perhaps
the more exact.

that which has
a matter of
The conventional is literally come to be accepted and, as experience, we find that, even in a
;
world of progress,
ably
little
or nothing
it
is
ever
universally accepted until

stale.
is
already toler-
The accepted
identified
thing
all
becomes,
is
therefore,
with
that
most
art.
deadly
dull
and tedious
in
modern

There seems to be no hope or promise
it
3
it
in
stands for stagnation.
Yet there
is
another side to the question.
We
work of nearly all periods, and of nearly all nations, certain principles which appear to have been generally obeyed
find in the best
so universally obeyed, indeed, as to warrant
us in calling them the principles of decorative

art.
In endeavouring to explain those principles,
concerning which
we have come
in
to
some
sort
of general understanding or agreement, the
advocates of due restraint

in
ornament adopted
an
evil
hour the term conventional, to ex-
press that kind of treatment which, whatever

it
might
be,
was adapted
But
it
to the purposes of
less
decoration.
proved
easy to grasp
the elusive spirit of design than to take possession of the forms in which
it
was embodied.
illustra-
And
the cut-and-dried character of the ex-
amples of design adduced by way of

tion, led to the supposition that
the conven-
tional
trite
;
was
the
neither'
more nor
less
than the
literal
meaning of the word lending

that the artistic verdict on
itself to
the confusion.
One may
take
it
convention will be mainly according to the
B 2

interpretation
artist's
of the word.
If
by
conventional
variations
ornament we mean perpetual

old,
on the
;
old tunes, long since
played out
if if
worn types
tion,
we mean adherence to wellwe mean affectation, imitain
mimicry, a bigoted belief

it
the letter
of the law as
was
in
the days that are

in-
happily past
no one of any originality or
vention of his
own
no
artist,
that
is
to say
can consistently belong to the party of convention.

If,
however, what
is
we understand by
in
the
term
the spirit in which the past masters of
ornament accepted nature, finding

her most deeply
truly
her a
never-failing source of inspiration, reverencing
aye, and following her most

to copy,
in that they were not content

that
without further thought, the forms nearest at

hand, because they did not imagine for a
moment
what she had made
fit
for her
ends must, without modification, perforce be

fittest for their
it
very different purposes
then
it,
seems hard to understand how ornament
can properly be anything but conventional.
fitter
;
term might be found
for
no
doubt
I prefer
myself the more expressive

in discussing the thing
word "apt"; but
we
cannot conveniently ignore the word by which

it
is
currently known, and
we
find the
word
" conventional " in possession.
One can
which
fied
is
scarcely
conceive
of
ornament
less
not, in a
manner, more or
modibeen
is
by
considerations altogether apart from

it
the natural forms on which
may have
founded.
Even the human
form, which
our highest type, and with which liberty

less safely
may
not
be taken than with any other of
nature's works
even the
human form
sculptor.
is
ready-made
the
title
to the
hand of the
The
works of the great masters, to which we accord

of " monumental," are so in virtue of
a something which was not in the model of

the sculptor, but in his
art.
Call this subtle quality

ventional, traditional,
what you will
conis
monumental,
is
ideal, indi-
vidual
something
art),
there
in all applied art
(in all art for that matter,
but our concern
just
now more
especially with decorative
and
us
in-
ornamental
herently to
something which
it
is,
let
not say contrary to nature, for
belongs
human
it is
nature, but non-natural, in
the seijse that

natural forms.
not directly borrowed from
Conventionality in ornament
is
another
6
term

for reticence or self-restraint.
The
artist
who
exercises
no
restraint
hardly
command
the
full
upon himself will sympathy or admiranatural,
tion of Englishmen.
Apart from the
or national, desire for
some
reserve in art, as
in everything else, restraint is forced
upon the
ornamentist by
all
the conditions of his work,
by
no
its
purpose, place, and
means of execution,
is
less
than by that necessity for repetition

a con-
which, in these days more than ever,

dition of its very existence.
What
is
Implied by Repetition.
II.
What
is
position of ornament,
its
The very purpose and

the method of
its
execution, and even
construction, insist
upon some treatment of
natural
forms which, for want of a better

call " conventional."
word,
we
First,
in
reference to the construction

Its
of
a
')
ornament.
mere
('
repetition,
which
in
former text-book
The Anatomy
inevitable,
of Pattern
was shown to be
would of
;
itself
render such treatment necessary
and even
without the inducement of economy, which

calls for the use of a
resort to repetition,
we should still if only because the human

machine,
brain cannot go on inventing without intermission,
but needs the comparative rest of

itself,
repeating
even in hand work.

of himself (unless
In the
artist's repetition
the fatal pressure of the times have
made
him
also a machine), there will always be a
certain degree of variety, which there could

But
;
not be in mere mechanical reproduction.
he cannot afford to dispense with repetition

nor need he wish to dispense with
in itself
is
it.
It is
;
an element
in decorative design
it
a preventive against loose and rambling

;
ornament
scale.
it
exhibits
order,
and
gives
extent
The only question is, where and to what we should avail ourselves of it.
In proportion to the naturalism of a design,
to
and the point of realism

it
which
it is
carried,
becomes unsuited to
it
multiplication.
it
To
is
put
the other
way
about, the oftener
proposed to repeat a form, the more imperative

it is
that
it
should be removed from the
imitation of nature,
and the further
it
should
be removed.
It needs, in short,
adaptation to
the purpose of repetition.
Such adaptation
what one may
elaborate and
certainly, that
will not
is
strictly in proportion to
call its reticence.
highly
attractive
is
feature
anything,
;
in the least self-assertive
bear so
much
as reduplication
where-
as an insignificant device
may
be multiplied
ad
infinitum.
In anything of the nature of a
background (and so many manufactures are

intended to serve only as backgrounds) repe-
Tlate ^
What
is
utmost
service,
tition is of the
and
repetition
implies modification.
It follows
from what has already been said
as to the danger of tampering with the

figure,
human
and the prominence

is
it
naturally as-
sumes, that there

ing
it
great difficulty in repeat-
without offence.
is
The
interest of a
pattern
enhanced, no
doubt,
by the
re-
currence at stated intervals of appropriate

figures.
But
it is
desirable that there shall be

;
always some difference in them

every repetition of the same figure
is
for
its
with
charm
discounted.
There
is
something exasperaso simple a
ting in the reversing of identical figures in
a pattern (Plate
2),
when
it
is
thing by the careful disposition of various

creatures
to
retain the
3).
symmetry of
for
is
effect
desired (Plate
Presumably
of
the
reason
introducing
for the
figures into ornamental design,
sake
some added interest there may be in them. But you cannot get up any absorbing interest
in
a series of figures
all
identically of one
pattern.
They
in
suggest only the mechanism
employed
interest,
producing them.
The
multipliits
cation of the figure, far from multiplying
diminishes
it
in proportion to
the
lo
number of times it is repeated. And though it be a very good thing that is repeated, the case is not greatly mended it is so easy
to have too
much
of a good thing.
is
The only
safety
in
toning
down
the re-
peated form until
its
recurrence ceases to be
very obvious. This
may
be effected
in various
ways.
In certain embossed leather, and such

it is
like designs,
brought about partly by the
low
relief of
the stamping, partly
ness of the colouring, and partly

less
by the softby a more or
cunning complication of the figures with
the rest of the design, so that they do not

thrust themselves into notice.
in the creatures,
were
it
possible,
That variety would be
desirable no one can doubt.
The
consideration which occurs in the case

it is
of figure design which
so necessary to reis,
duce to comparative insignificance

it
whether
was then worth doing. Perhaps not. Except that ornament has a way of being a trifle too ornamental, or, more strictly speaking, too monotonously ornamental and the introduc;
tion of
any bold mass, such as the

is
figure very
readily gives,
one obvious
way
out of the
besetting danger.
Apart from the symbolic intention of the
Plate 3.
K*Ll, PHOIO-llTHO.O.FOnmVAt S' HOLiOBH,
^late
4.
'Phto-Tiiit' bj J.Ak*Tiiiaii,G,(}ni*ii 2ûu,W.C.
What
figures
is
(it is
on Plate 4
is
part of a genealogical
tree of Jesse), the ornamental use of
them
in
it
the design
conspicuous.
We may take
that symbolism does not flourish where the
symbols are ugly or unamenable to ornamental

It
is
effect.
not suggested that we
should be
straightlaced to the extent of denying ourselves the
amusement
that
may be
in
got out of
designs such as Mr. Crane has

in his nursery wall-papers,
made popular
which he has
contrived to give us grace of line and charm

of colour, as well as the
rhyme
figure
(Plate
5).
humour of the nursery Once in a while the human

artist
may
be degraded to do the merest
pattern work.
The
must be allowed,
and
in-
now and
again, to put off his dignity

artistic
dulge in an
gambol.
Even a bad joke
may, on occasion, be more to the purpose

than an everlasting seriousness.
Still it is
as well to bear in
to the
mind the firimd

only
facie objection
repetition, not
of the
human
form, but of the forms even of
birds, beasts,
and
all
living,
and especially
boar,
hare,
moving, creatures.
The
occurrence
of the
stag,
fox, hounds,
and birds
in the
border of which
The Application of OrnamenL

6,
portions are given on Plate
clearly gives
point to the ornament
and they are rendered

reconcile
with a certain conventionality which makes
them one with

indeed.
it.
To
us to the
feat
repetition of these creatures
would be a
The
grotesques introduced into the
cretonne design on Plate 7 nature in the
may
perhaps be
excused on the plea of their remoteness from

first
place,
and further on ac-
count of the minuteness of the scale on which
they are drawn

first sight.
they are scarcely apparent at

their real justification is that
But
they are a joke.
Alas,
it is
not often that the

relief.
conditions of manufacture allow us that
The
advisability
of
introducing
animal
forms into mechanically repeated

ture depends entirely
manufac-
upon the
possibility of
keeping them
in
appropriate subjection
in
their place, in fact
which,
in
in turn,
depends
upon the
art of the artist.
for us in the artful
way
There is a lesson which the designers
of the Renaissance contrived to keep

creatures, graceful or fantastic, with
down the
which they
peopled their
scrolls,
subduing them to the

the forms which
first
decorative key.
Where
take the eye are the bold lines of the leafage,
among which
the live things are more or less
-Plate
fHOTO-UTHo.e.ruRMiv*!.
s'
What
is
it is
13
hidden, so that
only by degrees that one
becomes
sort of
ful.
fully conscious of
them
is is
all,
scarcely
the purist can find cause of complaint.
Some
mysteiy
in design
always delightreached when,

it
The
perfection of art
however
to
attractive at first sight,
continues
plate
grow upon you, and the more you contemit, the more you see in it.
in
Natural forms, to be admissible
ornament,
must be decoratively
mental.
fit
treated.
Natural though
they be, they must be at the same time orna-
A lion, as Landseer modelled

An
it, is
not
for
any decorative purpose.
Egyptian
or Assyrian lion, on the other hand,

tello's lion at
Dona-
Florence, or Stevens's outside

are admirably decorative.
it
the British
Museum,
The
objection to naturalism, or perhaps

literalism, in
would be more exact to say

to floral
forms
repeated, applies not only to animal but even
forms.
as
It exists in
a less degree,
less
inasmuch
interest
;
they
for
are
all
of
prominent
but
that
it
exists.
is
charm of the simplest flower
lost
The when
it
we
see, side
by
side, so
many
copies of
not
The
varieties, as
they would be
in nature,
but stereotyped repetitions of the same thing.

designer
is
exposed, by his very
artistic

the temptation of aiming at natural
all
ability, to
effects,
a temptation
the stronger because,
few persons having
knowledge enough to
all
appreciate design, whilst
are
more or
is
less
familiar with natural forms, there
nothing in
the shape of public opinion to keep check.
him
in
Every artist
But that
is
likes,
of course, to
it
make
a good
drawing, aqd to carry
as far as he can.
not at
:
all
the vital point in de-
corative design
the all-important
in
thing
is
the effect of the

place.
work
execution and in
its
it
Any
one who thinks twice about
must realise that in very self-defence he is bound to consider the repetition of his design, and all else that concerns its use. If he is
really a designer,
,
he
will
know how
to
make
capital out of the very poverty of the condi-
tions to
which he submits.
it,
Submit he must
good grace.
forms,
better do
Some
fit
then, with a
adaptation of natural
is
some
simplification in fact,
demanded, not only to

further,
them
for repetition, but,
by the
itself
it
position and purpose of the, work;

in order that the detail
sometimes
the
may
not assert
too much, sometimes in order to give
emphasis that
is
needed.
Plate 6
Comliinatioi? of Scroll (-Hut)tincl scene- incited on Stoiê
What
is
it
is
For example,
to see
quite a
common
thing
an
infinity of elaborate
and laborious
work misspent upon

ture,
details of domestic furni-
which not only pass unnoticed, but which

It often
ought never to attract notice.

as
if
seems
the \yorkman had set himself to

far
it
show
how
to
was possible to go
and
at the
in the direction
of minuteness of detail.
It is quite possible
show
that,
same time
illustrate
far.
the futility of going anything like so
In proposing to carry execution to a point
beyond what has hitherto been attempted,

is
it
as well to ask oneself, whether there
may
all
not be good reason
why the
attempt has never

not
of
been made.
them
force,
fools,
Our forerunners were we may be sure. As
a tour de
once and again, most things
may
be ad"
missible; but a wise
workman
rarely indulges
of his
(there
own
is
accord in that kind of " brag

for it)
no better word
which exhibihave done so
tions, international
and
other,
much
to encourage.
is
A
does
master
loth to waste labour,
and he
its
knows how
less
to
make
his
work hold
own
without shouting at you.
He
deliberately
than an Lnexperienced person would
have thought necessary, with a view to making

In wall decoration,
his design tell in its place.
for
example, to be seen from some distance,
merely natural representation of natural

little.
forms would often go for very

omission of multitudinous
to emphasise
By
the
detail,
he manages
what he
is
anxious to preserve.
Or
(since decorative treatment

in
by no means
exaggerates,
consists
omission only) he
perhaps, features in his design which, in the

position assigned to
lost.
it,
According to
he enforces
his purpose,
would otherwise be he makes no

natural forms and
scruple about modifying

colours
:
his effect, indeed,

is
conventional
like
that
to say, every
by every workman-
expedient at his command.
Hale. 7
HOTO-LITHO.e.FURNIVAL
S''
H0UOHI
Where
to
Stop in Ornament.
III.
Where to Stop
for
in
Ornament.
Assuming, on the one hand, the urgency
some modification of natural forms accordreference to nature in design,
ing to the work in hand, and on the other, of
some continual
and of the
go in the what extent
of the
quite
tool
the question arises as to the limits of the one

other.
How
of
far
direction
is
? it
may one safely nature? And to
well to admit the dictation
In order to settle that point
definitely,
each separate craft would
have to be discussed.
scription
An
excellent
pre-
would
be, just so
much
of natural
;
food as the
artistic
stomach can digest

assimilation
but
then
we have
to take into account each man's
powers of
artistic
always
man
will
an
unknown
which
far too
is
quantity.
The degree
of ornament
barely enough for one

for another.
be
much
Any
attempt to define the limits within
which decoration should reasonably be conC
fined
may seem
at first sight rash at

all
enough.
But with regard
events to things of
there
clearly
is
common everyday
drawn.
object
use,
point at which the line of decoration
must be
as
And, more than

itself,
this,
just
the
its
use,
its
material,
and the
the
manner of its making, indicate plainly enough fit method of its decoration, so also they
It
give the hint as to the measure thereof.
would seem,
in short, as
though the point at

failed
which a material or a process

point at which
stop, rather
were the
we might most conveniently than bring in some supplementary

under pretence of helping
it.
process, which,
out,
it
ends more likely in supplanting
This will be
let
made
clearer
by ani example,
us say pottery, in aid of which so

in,
many
we
of
the applied arts are called
that
shall
necessarily have to branch out
by the way
is
into discussion of the wider subject of applied
ornament, with which this text-book

cerned.
con-
The
what
as
is
primitive
way
of
making a pot
is
is
by
known as shaping the lump

it
" throwing," that
to say,
of wet clay with the hands
revolves on the wheel before the potter.

it
This,
should be observed,
is
at the
same
91 ate
'Photo-Tiht', bjJ,Alc..n,G,Qu..nS(iiur.,WC
Where
time the
to
Stop in Ornament.
directly conducive
19
to
way most
artistic results (Plate 8).
Bigotry alone would seek to narrow the

scope of a
making.
workman to any single process of One is fain to own that in the

artist
hands of an
use (Plate
the lathe too
may
have
its
8).
The
so-called Etruscan vases
(Plate 8) were turned on the lathe, the artist
probably caring more about the painting of

his vessel
than
its
shape.
at
his
But whilst you watch the potter

wheel,
it
appears to you that no supple-
mentary process can be necessary.

his
Almost
plastic
from the moment he begins to hollow with
hands
the
revolving
it
lump of
clay before him,

beautiful
begins to take suave and

gliding the
shapes,
one into the
other, as the
wheel goes round, with an ease

It all
which
it is
delightful to see.
seems to
go so easily that your fingers itch to try a

turn at
it.
Seeing the potter at his work,

typical pottery forms
;
you see how the

out of his fingers
grew
that
you
realise
how
it
is
ugly forms are so rare in primitive pottery
and you are inclined

pot ever
in
to think that the ugliest
made on
the wheel must have passed

several
the
making through
stages
of
C 2
20

which the
potter, sitting over
beautiful form,
his work, did not perceive perhaps, or did not
see to be beautiful.
It is
taken for granted by our makers-by-
deputy, that the soft shapes of the wheel need

to
be effaced by the more mechanical action
of the lathe
in other words, that a
second
and supplementary process should be called in to do the work over again. It is true
that only certain shapes
can
conveniently
be thrown
on the wheel.
But these are

There
is
obviously the most beautiful.
may be
in
monotony
in
them, but so there
the
shapes of turnery.
Moreover,
if
the potter were in the habit of
depending more upon the wheel, he would

surely find in
it still
further facilities.
If the
blunt forms produced
by
his finger-tips are
wanting
an
somewhat
in
precision,
he might
even use the

artist
modelling-tool
(reticently, as
would) to make indentations smaller

fingers
than with his

that
is
only he could.
thing
But
suband,
a very
different
from
j
mitting his work to an after-process

in fact, effacing in
with a mere revolving plane,

all that was was amenably moist to
the half-dry state of the clay,

it
done to
whilst
it
'Photo-Timt' ty J-Atterm.n,6.ljDBn Squr.W
C.
Where
the hand.
place there
If
is,
to
Stop in Ornament.
final
ai
to take
any such
shaving
is
artistically,
small reason for the
preparatory process of throwing.
The
thing
might just as well be

nically
cast, or
otherwise mecha-
made from
result.
the commencement, since
there
in
is
to be nothing but
what
this
is
mechanical
the
There
is
against after-
processes generally.
They
are apt to
undo
a great deal of what has been done.

fatally
How
the
all
;
final
process
of
glass-papering
wipes
character out of our
modern wood-
carving
whereas one great charm about old

is
work
which
(Plate 9)
tells
in
that crispness of touch
of the carver's chisel.

in
The excuse
for
the
is
particular instance
of
earthenware (there
always an excuse ready

is
unworkmanlikeness)
in
some supposed
is
advantages of lightness and so-called elegance.
The answer
desirable
to this
is
that lightness
of,
it
not the
quality most characteristic

in,
or especially
pottery.
If
is
elegance
we
8),
want we had better employ glass (Plate

which
ness.
is all
the convenient and conventional treatment of

in the direction of grace
and
airi-
bubble, whether blown in molten
glass or soap
and water,
best
is
a bubble.
In
earthenware
we had
be content with
22

if
the subtle and beautiful,
heavier, forms the
wet clay gives
us.
The various
teristic of
vessels
on
JPlate 8 are all
charac-
the process of their making.
The
of
Chinese vase and the ruder earthen pot have

that
softness
of
contour
which comes
throwing on
shows,
that
it
the wheel.
The Greek vase
by its harder and more precise outline, was finished on the lathe. The coarse
stamped stoneware.
but rich ornament of the

is
appropriate to
German tankard The
savagery of the cut crystal cup, and the fantastic
grace of the Venetian wine-glass, are no
less characteristic
and workmanlike.
Apart from the commercial incentive to
make
his craft
fulfil all
manner of impossible
unfortunately (and
purposes,
the
workman
all,
this is true
art)
of us
whatever our walk in
always wants to do more than his means

let
will
him.
It is
the rarest thing in the
world to know where to stay your hand, or to
have the
self-restraint to stay
it.
It is
the
can-
more necessaiy
all
therefore to insist
one
not insist too strongly
that
in
ornament, at
events in ornament applied to any useful

it is
purpose,
itself
best to stop
hint.
when the
"
material
"
gives
you the
In the
convention
T-1a,tpJ0,
Where
to
Stop in Ornament.
23
of work in which that hint has been taken,

there
is
always a
fitness or tightness
which
is
inestimable in art applied.
Would any more
pretentious form of art be so entirely satisfac-
tory for the purpose of basketwork as the
ingeniously plaited pattern on Plate 10

If
you once go beyond the resources of your material there is no knowing where to pull up and few indeed are they who manage to halt in time. You may go on until you reach a
sort of lower stage of " high art
";
but
in
doing
you inevitably lose those qualities of usefulness and fitness which are the only justificathat
tion of art, excepting only such as
may
is
be of
the supreme beauty to justify
its
claims to
independence.
of king
great
work of
art
a kind
all
among
created things, deserving of

this
homage.
world
But we don't want
work-a-day
all
peopled with kings, least of
with
petty princes and pretenders.
To
return to the instance in point,
when
it
comes to the after-decoration of earthenware, the rule of convention holds equally good
" If it
were done, when
'tis
done, then 'twere
well
it
were done quickly."
Elaborate and
difficult processes, involving something in the
nature of a tour de force, are a snare to the
24
artist

and a delusion
to the buyer.
The
sales-
man
in
is
has a
way
it.
of excusing the high price of
a thing on the score of the difficulty there
making
But was
not
it
worth while
its
was That
the question.
is
Apart from
superiority in
design, there
much
to choose
between
the Portland vase and the marvellously cut

glass or crystal of
modern Bohemia.
They
are the very extravagance of workmanship,
and as such merit the praise due to all patient The simplicity and labour, and no more.
appropriate breadth of treatment of the crystal
cup on Plate 8
than
either.
is
vastly
more workmanlike
With;
Patience does not rank, outside
the copybook, as the virtue of virtues.
out some share of

theless the
it
genius
falls
short
never-
power of taking pains does not

it
constitute genius, nor will
even enable one
to design so
much
But
which
this
is,
is
good pattern. straying rather from the

as a
point,
that
material
and process may

which
it
be trusted to suggest the character of decoration
and the point
at
should be
restrained.
The
lavish
of ornament about
us
and unintelligent use is enough to reduce

to
one to despair.
able ornament
In our longing for palat-
we seem sometimes
see
Where
to
Stop in Ornament.
and not a
25
line in
pattern, pattern everywhere,

place.
Suppose an earthen vessel

the most dip
it
is
somehow to be
is
enriched with colour, the simplest and about
obvious means to employ

a coloured
glaze,
is
to
into
just
to dip
as
it
the
into
simplest
the vat.
way to dye The glaze
a textile
will naturally follow the

it is
law of gravitation, so that

to get an even colour
rather difficult
by that means.
But
there
is
no
artistic
reason whatever why colour
should be even.
On
the contrary, beautiful
effects of quasi-accidental colour result
from
the running of the glaze.
say quasi-acci-
dental, because the accidents in art are, or
ought to
be,
foreseen
and reckoned upon.

tells
Though
cise
the potter cannot be sure of any pre-
shade of colour, experience

little
him
within a
the kind of " fluke " he

fires,
may
anticipate.
He
so to speak, with his
eyes shut, but not quite so wildly as might

seem.
He
takes a good
look
first
at the
object of his aim,
or
he would not be so
habitually near the mark.
In actual flaws and failures there
is
nearly
always a lesson which

turned
to
artists
have promptly
intentionally
account
not
by
26
producing faulty work, but by noting

workmanlike,
how
by
a
a new and beautiful, and at the same time

effect
may be
material.
obtained
working
glaze,
with
the
A
may
is
coloured
no doubt,
or
may
be
too unequal;
careless
lazy
workman
stop too
soon.
In the glazes
of the
Chinese and
Japanese the change of colour

far too
sometimes
a hundred
sudden.
But even
so, it is
times to be preferred to the insipid evenness

of tint which
is
the aim of so
It
many
a modern
manufacturer.
celebrated
was the aim too of the

potters,
French
who
laboriously
tints
produced some of the most excruciating
whether
many
with
due to their own want of taste or
to the vulgarity of the
Du
Barry and other

In
such patrons, one hardly knows.

of the arts
infinite
is
how
insipid evenness reached,
pains,
and
at
the sacrifice of
beauties peculiar to the material
Greater variety
of colour than
is
to
be
obtained by simple glaze

arrived at
may
naturally be
by
in
any way roughening the surit is
face of the ware before
dipped.
And
the
judicious contrast of smoother

parts
artist.
is
and rougher
only what would naturally occur to the
This roughness
may
consist in the
Where
to
Stop in Ornament.
or
in
27
merest scratching,
raised
modelling,
which
last is
capable of being carried to the

In
point even of competing with sculpture.

that case
it
enters a class of
If
work not now

perfection
under consideration.
figure modelling
is
the
is
of
what
wanted (and
art
this,
again,
figure
applies to a great deal of misplaced
work
in
decorative
generally),
it
would be so much more properly put to so
many
apply
other purposes, that

it
it
is
a mistake to
homely pot. The genius of Flaxman was, relatively speaking, wasted on those finikin and crudelycoloured medallions with which the most
to the useful but
familiar form of
Wedgwood ware
is
encrusted.
is
A much more workmanlike process

a coloured ground.
that of
painting in clay on clay, usually in white upon
M.
Solon, with whose

is
name it is associated in England, Flaxman but his paintings in pate

;
not a
sur pate,
as
it
is
termed, are infinitely superior as pot-
decoration to
lions.
Wedgwood's moulded medalis
You
get here the utmost delicacy of

capable.
which the material

utmost delicacy
sought.
It is a
is
Not
that this
a thing universally to be
kind of luxury in which one
may be
occasionally allowed to indulge, or
28
in which here and there one competent may be permitted to indulge, growing as it does
naturally out of a natural process of work.

It
is
a sort of "fine-gentleman cousin of the

is
process that
easy and obvious enough for
the decoration of ware for
common
called,
use
that
own
more rough and

clay or "
slip,"
ready painting, namely, in

as
it
is
where the
touches of the brush are

tale.
left to tell their
It is strange that
the public should have
to
learn
that
the tale of the tool
hammer, or whatever it may be is never discreditable, and always interesting. There is a something very direct and workmanlike in the way " slip " is used in modern
chisel,
brush,
Indian pottery.
first
The dark-coloured
slip,
clay
is
patterned over in whitish

is
and then
glaze.
the whole
It results
dipped
in
transparent
from the very method of execution

is
that the relief

to
so slight as not in
any way
it
interfere with
the form
of the thing
to hinder
enriches, nor yet in
any way
its
usefulness.
The
;
necessarily restricted relief

is
of repousse
similar
metal
accounted
for
in
manner
whereas ornament
in relief
applied to a vase usually presents the appear-
ance of so much excrescence upon
it.
The
9late
11.
'PMaTO-TlItT, by J.Alrnin.6.IJun Squn.ff.C,
Where
to
Stop in Ornament.
is
29
modelling you get with a brush

ever to be in too bold
relief,
not likely
nor that which
you get by punching too

flatness of relief resulting
sharp.
A very suggestive illustration of appropriate

from a workmanlike
11,
proceeding,
is
given in Plate
representing
an old German book-cover
in carved leather.
The
its
flatness is
such that
it is
not unsuited for

is
purpose, and the quality of the material

It looks like leather.
retained.
Sgraffitto, or the art of scratching, is
another
of those direct methods plainly appropriate to
the decoration of earthenware.
Just as the
plaster
it
Italian decorator covered his tinted
with a layer of white plaster, and while
was
yet soft scratched out his design (which thus
appeared
in the
dark colour of the under-
ground), so the potter dips his vessel of dark-
toned clay into a paste of white, and on this

outer coating proceeds to scratch his design.
Or, of course, he
may
scratch on the moist
body of the
vessel
itself,
and rub colour into

in a
the incised lines.
These simple processes
themselves by their very easiness
manner suggest and the

;
blunt line produced by the point on the

clay, has
an ornamental character of
its
damp own
30
well
lines,

worth
keeping.
The
out
delicate
diaper
simply
picked
12),
of
the
painted
ground (Plate
of their own.
have a different character

to obtaining relief
The by the
less
objection there
is
application of cast ornament applies

less
only in a
degree to rude and rough and
assuming work, such as German stone8).
ware or gris de Flandres (Plate
Stamps
Within
ornament,
or punches for impressing coarse patternwork,
need to be used with judgment.

certain limits
one
may employ
in
in
especially of the ruder kind, devices
which
would not be endurable

lofty
work of more
is
pretensions
still
there
always a
danger
nical
of hardness
resulting
from mecha-
and perfunctory ways of working, even
though, as in stoneware, the glaze

to soften
is
may
help
the
forms.
The important
without
greater
is
thing
that the end of beauty be gained without of use,
sacrifice
and
in
ex-
penditure of time and labour than
justified
by the purpose
venti'onal
view.
The
truly con-
way
is
the workmanlike way.
One would not by any means exclude human or animal figures from the sphere of
ornamental design; but
it
should be of the
?late
12.
'PHOTa-TlMT*
hvJ Akirmnn
e.Quian Square
.W.C.
Where
to
Stop in Ornament.
simplest and most spontaneous kind, such as
can be done without
effort
special disadvantage, such as in
and under no no way pre-
tends to the accuracy,

unapplied.
finish,
or dignity of art
The
figures
on the Etruscan vases
(Plate 8) were, ordinarily, painted right off
without any great care for accuracy.

times they are wild enough in drawing.
SomeIf
it
comes
easier to a
man, or
is
more amusing
let
to
him, to devise
human
all
or animal forms rather
than any other, by
but, in so doing, let

best
at wjiat he can do under the circumstances, and not ignore
means him aim
him do that
them, nor yet attempt to oppose them.
How
futility
desirable
it is
to let the
is
mode
of work-
manship suggest the design,
shown by the
This
of searching for qualities difficult of

is
attainment in the material used.
nowhere more apparent than

of pottery.
in the painting
Think of
all
the miniatures in
china turned out from the factories of Sevres,
Dresden, and Stoke

skill
marvels
of misapplied
and
is all
compare
their absolute ineffective-
ness as decorations with a bit of Italian or
Persian faience (Plate 12), and see
how
the
glory
"with the direct
and untrammelled
"conventional" art of the potter
who made
32
the most of the beautiful capacities for colour
and
iridescent
beauty
which
lay
efforts
in
his
crucible,
and how vain were the
of the
If
would-be miniature or landscape painter.

(which
he ever succeeded in getting what he sought

is
very doubtful), he certainly failed to

;
produce decoration
so often
is,
that
was
sacrificed, as
it
to a misplaced pictorial ambition.
This applies, mutatis mutandis, with equal

force
to
decorative
a.
treatment
painter
in
general.
Whatever medium
is
may
adopt, he
bound
he
is
in
reason to consider that medium,

to consider the
it
as
bound
work before
fresco,
oil,
him
in
adopting
distemper,
it
encaustic, or
whatever
may
be.
lies
In ceramit painting the choice
between
painting on the glaze and on the "biscuit," as

it is
called before
it
is
glazed.
For ordinary
earthenware the more limited resources of the

'
underglaze
"
method
offer all that the orna-
mentist need desire.
One
reason for our
modern
facilities
is
failures lies in the

;
multitude of our
the secret of the ancient triumphs
often in the simplicity of the
workman's
resources.
The
artist's
regulated to
choice of manner will be some extent by what he wants
Where
to do.
to
Stop in Ornament.
if
33
he
will
In any case,
he
is
discreet,
limit his ambition to the
range of his appliis
ances.
The
china painter, that
to say, will
if
think out a scheme of colour which,
not
suggested by the oxides employed in ceramic

painting,
is
not in any
way opposed
him
to
to them.
This
will,
indeed, deprive
of
some posbut
in
sible indulgence in naturalistic effect,
the main
it
will lead
him
more
perfect
achievement than would the pursuit of mere

difficulties,
without regard to the nature of
vitreous colours
upon them.
and the action of the kiln One appreciates more fully the
colour of the Persian or Damascus pottery when one realises that the painter's palette It is only was set by the circumstances. when we respect our materials that we get so much out of them. The uncertainty of all colour which has to
fire renders it most unwise scheme which (whether founded upon nature or not) depends upon absolute
pass through the

to entertain a
accuracy of
tint.
is
The
their
certain
thing about
vitreous colours
kiln.
uncertainty in the
The
potter
is
working always more or
less
in the dark, since the value of his
work
is
not
34

it
perceived until
It
comes out of the furnace.
may be
within the bounds of possibility to
get actual flesh tones in china coloiirs; but

at
what a cost of
risk,
and
at
what a
sacrifice
of qualities (rich colour qualities, for example) so easily obtainable,
and decoratively so much

if
more valuable
It is
only reasonable that,

his
an
artist elect
flesh-painting as
metier,
he should
forfire,
swear whatever has to pass through the
and adopt a medium
in
which he can express

all
himself with ease, or at
events without for

it.
ever breaking his heart over
Better be
an underwriter during perpetual high gales,

or a large holder of doubtful stock in a time
of general panic, than live the

painter whose ambitions are to his craft.
life
of a pot-
all in
opposition
So
in other crafts.
The
it
glass-painters of
the best periods were content with white glass

for their flesh tone.
And
was
for
no lack of
ability to get
something more
like flesh-colour
that the great decorators of the i6th century
adopted
flesh tints,
which certainly must be
called conventional.
However limited the

up.
re-
sources of an
art,
man knows them,
or should
know them, when he takes it
Besides, every
Where
medium has
as
its
to
Stop in Ornament.
35
its
inherent advantages as well

it is
limits
and
these which should be
turned to account.
There
is
a liquid
and
transparent quality in water colour,
which
every water-colour painter wishes he could

only retain beyond the wet
picture.
stage
'
of
his
This
is
just
what the china painter

with a
full
can
get,
without the least trouble, by simply
floating
on
his
colour
is
brush.
Surely, then, that

at,
the kind of thing to aim

;
when
it
it,
is
within easy reach

it,
instead of
it
fidgetting
or stippling
or dabbing
with
cotton wool, to the dull evenness so dear to
the commercial mind, or otherwise laboriously
seeking effects more easily and
much
in
better
produced by other means.

pot-like
That
loose, juicy,
look
is
more valuable
ceramic
painting than any degree of mere
finish,
and
So also the scheme of colour should have reference to what can best be done with the palette available.
should be valued accordingly.
In pottery painting, or whatever
in all
it
may
be,
kinds of carving, in mosaic, in embroiit
dery, in jewellery, everywhere
holds good,
that the selection both of the forms
and the
to
colour should have direct
reference
is
the
technique employed.
What
simplest under
36

is
the circumstances
not only safest but most

;
directly conducive to success
and there
is
further
itself.
charm
in the
evidence of directness
In
all
applied
art,
and
in
every stage of
it,
the work in hand points out the appropriate
treatment
it
suggests the degree as well as

;
the kind of conventionality to adopt
you have
you
but to heed
its
prompting and
stop.
it
will tell
what
to do,
and where to
Style
and Handicraft.
37
IV.
Style and Handicraft.
The purpose and

which we have not yet
position
of
ornament
belong to the wider subject of decoration, at

arrived,
and come only
incidentally under our consideration.
On
the
method of
said,
its
execution depends, as already
the
very
conception
of
ornamental
design.
One cannot
properly discuss style
without reference to material and tools.
The
style peculiar to each particular kind

is,
of work
indeed, so strongly marked, that

feasible to classify
it
would be quite
according to
its
ornament
evolution.
in
Mr. Wornum's
analogy between "style"
ornament and
wrote
in
"hand"
its
in
writing, holds
absolutely good.
it
There never was a
tool or process but

It
character on the work done.
was so
a simple practical matter like lettering.
The
was
cuneiform character of the Assyrian inscriptions
was developed
chisel in hand.
It
the chisel shaped the hieroglyphs of Egypt.
38

early
In a certain bluntness of the
Greek
is
character the influence of the stylus

parent.
first
ap-
Chinese and Japanese writing must

various shapes of letters
have been done with the brush.
The
are
on Plate
of
13
instructive.
The simple form
the
Roman
first
capitals
ABC might, like the Greek,

soft substance
lettering,
have been indented on a
with a point.
The
later
form of
DE
its
F, with
its
varying thickness of line and
spurred extremities, was better calculated
for
engraving on hard stone.
The
use of the
thick and thin lines (the down-stroke
and the up-stroke) comes of the use of the pen, and

does the characteristic thickening
so, plainly,
of the backs of certain Gothic capitals such as

the G.
still
The
smaller
Roman
italics
letters,
i j,
and
more plainly the

it is
m, are unmis-
takably related to the "round-hand"
nop.
"
But penmanship
in the
in the
is
medieval
"
black letter
that
in
most plainly pronounced, as

the capitals
the letters 5
r S, in
'^WiV, and
on
more
fantastically flourishing SSt
the
same plate. That our own printed type does not more
metal
is
distinctly reveal the intervention of the
worker,
accounted for by our following the
Plate
1.3
Ci.LneiforiT?
jxpa^nese
Style
historic,
and Handicraft.
39
pen-born, fashion of lettering
would
senti-
say, too closely, but that history
and
ment must be allowed to count for something and it would be hard to set a limit on their
just influence.
In our day
"
we
are given to the cultivation of

is
a good business hand," which
just a little
characterless
and monotonous, as are indeed
the lives of
some of us who accomplish that modest end. Time was when the pen of the
ready writer indulged
in occasional flourishes.
;
There
is
no time
little
for
such frivolity nowadays

is left in
and what
character there
our
handwriting seems likely to be sacrificed to

the convenience of the stylographic pen
if
even
we do not
Style, then,
give
up penmanship altogether
in favour of the " type-writer."

is
not so
much
a thing of dates
and countries as of materials and tools. Whenever the development of ornament

discussed,
it
is
is
the custom to begin with the
savage.
How
is
the aboriginal developed into
the Assyrian
not very clearly shown.

art
is
But and
foun-
from Assyrian
traced Egyptian,
art,
from that again Greek

imitation
and
its
Roman
ruins of
all
very
plausibly.
art
The
dation of Byzantine
upon the
40

growth of Gothic, the reaction of
its
Classic, the
the Renaissance,
transplanting,
and
its
degradation, follow in accustomed order.

It
is
easier to jog along this well-beaten

it
road,
though
be a
trifle
tedious, than to
this.
explain how,
all
the while, parallel with

its
Oriental art was pursuing a course of

infringing, nevertheless, at times
art,
own,
upon Western
case, leaving
and whenever that was the

its
the imprint of
touch upon
it.
This would be well worth doing
but
it
would take volumes to do
it
in,
and would
far
demand,
besides,
I
historical
knowledge
greater than
can pretend to
a knowledge
always
perhaps scarcely compatible with the necessary knowledge of

art.
One
feels
how
hard
it is
for the artist to
equip himself with
the necessary scientific and historic knowledge

as for the
man
of learning
and research to
cultivate that susceptibility to art necessary
to
any
Still
profitable discussion of the subject.
classify
more to the purpose would it be to ornament according as it was plaited,

woven, embroidered, or what
notched, scratched, turned, modelled, carved,

inlaid, printed,
riot
(see Plates lo, 30, 12, 37, 21, 9, 36, 7, 19,
40, respectively).
?1ate
14.
PmoTO-TiNt", t^ J Ak-.rman,G,l}ue.n Squaro.WC.
(Plate 13
Photo Tiht by >> AKrinn
6 Quara
Squuv \ ^
Style
and Handicraft.
In such a classification architecture would

divide itself
into
masonry, brick, concrete,

styles.
timber, plaster, and iron

sidiary arts
The
sub-
would
class themselves in conclay,
formity with the use of

metal, yarn, and so on.
stone, wood,
There would be further subdivisions

granite,
soft
into
marble,
sandstone
into
hard and
;
wood, close grained and variegated

cast,
into
into
wrought,
chased or beaten metal
tapestry, cloth, damask, velvet, lace, brocade,
embroidery, and the
like.
known as the historic styles might be examined by the way they would go to
are
;
What
illustrate
the
development
In
that,
its
of
all
style
more
it
technically considered.
probability
would be shown
style
is
wherever the historic

is
marked,
character
to be traced
if
it
to
some mode of workmanship which,

it,
did not actually inspire
made
it
advisable.
The
characteristic
ornamental forms of a
period or people can usually be traced to the
technique and needs of that same people.

this
far,
In
ornament
rises
to
the dignity of
history.
A tolerably
to us at once
clear idea of style
is
conveyed
by the mention of Egyptian,
42

But
Greek, Gothic, or Renaissance sculpture.

if
we compare
for a
moment
and
of
the carving of
Egypt, of
Greece,
Medieval 'and
once that
Renaissance Europe,
we
shall see at
the styles are not more distinctly of a place
and of a period than they are markedly granite, marble, and soft stone styles.
The monumental
obelisk, the
frieze,
simplicity of the graven
refinement of the
Panathenaic
the rude grandeur of the Gothic portal,

elaboration
the
delicate
of the Italian ara-
besque, were but the natural development of

resources at hand.
basalt, or granite,
Working
in
porphyry,
severe simplicity was in-
and the Egyptian (Plate 14) was There was no severe with a vengeance.
evitable,
temptation to him_ to
in the
fritter
away
all
breadth
accumulation of petty detail.
On
the
other hand, the even textured but less obsti-
nate marble encouraged the Greek sculptor
and and
his fifteenth century successor (Plates 15
16) to greater
and ever greater subtlety
of execution; which again would have been

quite out of the question in working the
friable
more
sandstone native to Northern Europe
(Plate 17).
We
associate the
coarser
treatment with
?la1e
16.
PhbTo-Tiht',
}]/
J.Akumaii.G.lîsm îpiaro.WC
"Photo-Tiht", hyi) Aksmmn.G.lînii iqur,WC
Style
and Handicraft.
It is
all
43
the
Gothic carving in particular.
more
noticeable, therefore,
how the
sculptor of
the Renaissance, working in a coarse stone,

arrived at results
Gothic work.
some respects so like Compare Plate 16 with Plate 1 7,

in
and see the

stone.
difference
between
early
Re-
naissance marble and
later
is
Renaissance sand-
The
later
is
work
much
the rougher,
as sandstone
rougher than marble.

that has been said, there are
Apart from
all
conditions of sunlight and
grey
skies,
dry
atmosphere and moist, which also have their

say in the character of carving everywhere.
To
explain at length the invariable con-
ventionality of historic ornament, would be to
write the history of the various crafts, each of
which might claim a

like this
treatise to itself
All
that one can do within the limits of a manual

is
to give instances, typical as
may
how
be, of the influence of material, tool, or process
of execution upon design, and to show the
forms
of
ornament
were
if
inevitably
modified by such influence,
not actually
due to
it.
In discussing
in
a former text-book the

I
anatomy of
construction
pattern,
pointed out
how
its
was
affected by,
and very often
44

due
to,
directly
some
particular manufacture
or method of work.
of ornamental design.
So
it is
with the details
The
exquisite
simplicity of certain
familiar
is
cha-
racteristic
patterns
in
the figured
velvets of the 15th century,
cleverly calcu-
lated to disturb the least possible
amount of
value of
the sumptuous
pile,
is
so that the
full
the rich texture
preserved.
In the old-fashioned
big broad leaves and
damask
patterns the
scrolls are
planned
(like
a Turkey carpet or an Indian rug) with a view,

before
colour.
all
things, of getting a
broken
effect of
The
designer relied upon the quality

its
of the silk with
varying sheen to alleviate
the exceeding flatness of the pattern.
No
treatment
less
broad would have done justice
to the quality of the stuff, which in those days
was worth consideration.
Compare even the
comparatively debased specimen of woollen
damask on Plate
in linen
18,
with the current designs

it
damask, and
will
be seen how well

Nineteenth
desire equally to
advised were our grandfathers.
century manufacturers
who
it
exhibit the quality of their woof, can think of
no other
way
of doing
than by leaving
the ground for the most part empty.
They
TlatelS
KKLL,rH0TO-I.ITHff.e.FUHHIVAU
S-f
H0UI1
'Plate
19.
Photo-Tpht* tjJ.Akrman.6,IJuBnSquu,WC.
Style
and Handicraft.
Is
it
45
dearly love a spot pattern.
possibly out
of consideration for the lady purchaser that
modern
petite in
table-linen
is
for the
most part so
of the
is
style?
The
consideration
customer and not the thing to be done,

responsible for
much
of our
modern misdoing.
In certain woven fabrics of our time the
hope of disguising the shabbiness of the

substance has prompted the adoption of the
fussiest
kind of pattern.
One had need
be;
ware of
they
textiles worried all over with pattern
are
often
expressly
designed to hide
of bond fide
silk,
shoddy.
The manufacturer
or wool, or other worthy material, would do

well, for his part, to identify his
goods with a
kind of design which the baser fabrics cannot

imitate without convicting themselves.
The
character of the
Lyons
silk designs of
the 17th and i8th centuries owes very
much
to the circumstance, that the lustrous material
was so fascinating that artists were led astray from beautiful form, and simply revelled in Charming as these the delights of colour.
silks often are, translate
any one of the

at
pat-
terns into
uncompromising black and white,

are
disillusioned
and
most
you
once.
all
The
their
characteristic
of
them
lose
46
charm

in
monochrome.
but
It is
hard to realise
19 can ever
that forms like those on Plate
pass for beautiful
it
is
wonderful what
colour and texture will reconcile us to in the
way
artist
of design.
That
still
is
no reason
why
the
should leave us to reconcile ourselves

less
with ugly forms,
why we
should
accept such models without attempting to
improve upon them.
The Byzantine
its
colouring, in bands, accordis
ing to the weft (Plate 20)
almost brutal in
outspoken acceptance of the limitations of

It
weaving.*
speaks volumes for the safety
with which such limitations
may be
accepted,
that the contradiction between the forms of
the design and the scheme of colour does not

in the least offend
one
in
the
silk.
The same
kind of thing occurs sometimes in Japanese

stuffs.
Until recently, the conventional treatment

of foliated forms always and everywhere confessed
quite
frankly the
way
it
was done.
Greeks
I
The
so-called honeysuckle of the
have shown elsewhere f to be directly traceable to the use of the brush, as

*
was the case
See
'
Anatomy
of Pattern, ' pp. 49, 50.
t See
'
Everyday Art,' pp. 106-8.
Plate 20
l^y^Mifipc colourio^jvccor^lino^'foK')
Kill, rHOTO-HTMP.fl
n^late 21
"pHOTO-TtHT:
J,Akm.n,G.(hi.,inSc,UM,W.C,
Style
and Handicraft.
47
with other familiar forms of painted Greek
ornament.
The
scroll,
Corinthian capital and the acanthus
even when they most nearly approach

(which
is
nature
never very closely), are
always modified according to the conditions

of sculpture.
In the Byzantine version of the Classic

leafage, in
which the sculptors made abundrill,
dant use of the
the drill-holes form an
element
occurs in
in
the design.
The same
thing
much
of the later Gothic foliage,
more
especially in
German work.*
The Arabian
on the
to do.
borders on Plate 21 leave no
possible doubt as to their having been traced

plastic stucco with the modelling tool.
The workman
did what was simplest for him

sure, too, that
it
We may be
which
,led
was the
ease with which the plaster could be manipulated,
to the extraordinary elabora-
tion characterising the impressed diapers
on
the walls of the Alhambra.
The somewhat savage enrichment of our own Norman buildings forcibly recalls the rude way it was done. It is more properly
speaking chopped than carved.
*
See 'The Planning of Ornament,' Plate 24.
48

refer to a specific material,
To
you cannot
period
look at the ironwork
of any
early
without seeing
its
how
directly the forge affected
design.
It
was the obvious thing to do to
beat out the metal into a bar, and equally
obvious to beat out the bar into the familiar

spirals.
And
the very difficulty of forging a
perfectly even bar
was the surest preventive
against mechanical results, such as

the handiwork of the
we
see in
modern smith, whose bars are made for him by machine. The forms on Plate 22 belong more distinctly to the forge
than to France of the

of the
17th.
13th
century
or
Italy
The
metal-workers in different parts of medieval
Germany
give different
23).
expression to their
work (Plate
If
man had
anything to
strong
smith's
say he expressed himself.
A
it is
man
work
would found a
everywhere.
art,
school.
in
But
Even
the decadence of the
when
it
bursts out into an uncomfortably

foliage,
it
bristling
form of
breathes always
If nature in-
the atmosphere of the forge.

spired
it,
it
was the hammer and the pincers

it.
that shaped
It is precisely for this
reason that similar
forms
in cast iron are so singularly ill-judged.
BatB 22
'Plate
23
^pes
of
lroi7Worl^
Style
and Handicraft.
49
iron, if
There
in
is
nothing contemptible in cast
we would but
it
abstain from the reproduction
of forms inappropriate to casting.
We
should have no cause to regret the institution

of the foundry,
into their
if
founders would but put art

;
moulds
and the
be, to
first
step towards
their
that
end
would
dismiss from
memories the familiar forms of the forge. It is customary to talk about cast iron as if it
were an abomination.
only that
is
It is its misapplication
objectionable.
There
is
no reason
why we
bronze
should not do in iron something like

Italians of the 15 th century did in
it
what the
petence.
It
is
unless
one
be
the
19th
century incom-
of
wicked
all
ways of our
character from
in
civilisation to
smoothe out
workmanship.
to a
For idiomatic expression

travel
ornament we have generally to

remote period.
back
The
angularity of the
is
piece of darning on Plate 24
what might
it
be called old-fashioned.
itself!
But how
cares
for
explains
No
in
one who
it
needlework
would wish to have
otherwise.
for
So
in
embroidery (Plate 40) we look

;
colour and not perfect lines
and so again
39),
mosaic or stained glass (Plate
just as
E
50
in

we properly expect
glass-blowing (Plate 8)
to find lightness rather than precision of form.
In the pursuit of mechanical finish and the

blind worship of nature, considerations of this
kind are commonly

of smoothness
chinery.
lost sight
of
The
love
comes of our abuse of malove of nature

is
The
not, as the
realists (so-called)
would have us
Artists
believe,
an
the
invention
of to-day.
have always
Only, in
loved
and
studied
nature.
historic
treatment of natural forms, modelled

carved in
in clay or plaster,
wood
or stone,
painted on wall or window, wrought in metal,

or on a loom, or with the needle
there
is
always a touch of the tool which removes the

rendering by so much,
nature, for
let
us not say from

directs
the instinct which

is
such
niodifications
natural
enough,
but
from
the imitation of nature.
?late 24.
Phbtb-TimV; hyJ Alcnn.n.G.QuB.n
5i]um,.C.
The Teaching of the
Tool.
The Teaching of the Tool.

Difficult as
it
may be
for
any but a workdesign,
man
quite to appreciate the influence of tools
and treatment upon ornamental

to their
all
first
and
so to trace the origin of time-honoured forms
cause
in
it
is
certain that nearly
forms of ornament
may
be followed back
to a beginning in technique.
Take any
design with
tool
it,
hand and proceed

be
to
and see what comes of the

will
experiment.
different
It
something
quite
from what you would have drawn
with a pencil on paper, and something

less
literally
much
:
like
any natural object
and
according to the tool employed will be the

character of your design.
The
process of repousse work or embossing
will serve for
an example.
its
You
face
pitch,
lay a sheet
of brass or copper, with
downwards,
on a bed or cushion of
and proceed
sizes
with tools of various shapes and
to
E 2
52
punch the pattern from the back. Now, if you have any feeling for the material at all (and if you have not, you have mistaken your vocation), you begin very naturally to do
what can be done

to
in
it.
Accordingly you
set
work
to
beat out certain round bosses,
Plate 25, A, which

bosses,
flowers.
you surround with smaller

so
at
B,
arriving
something
like
These you go on to connect with

C,
rounded stems,
foliage,
from which grows a kind of

detail, as
D, large or small in
need
may
be, but
always more or
less
bulbous in
is
shape.
We
have thus a pattern, which
characteristically repoussi, beaten work,
and
which has grown to a great extent out of the
you were working. Plate 25 pi'etends to do no more than illustrate this method of proceeding. Your
conditions under which
bosses
or
may
take the form of figures, animals,

;
what
not
yet,
in
the
hands
of
sympathetic workman, they will not cease,
whatever their individual shape or

to
interest,
be always bosses.
It is
your unsympa-
thetic
seeing
workman who designs without forehow every detail is to be carried out,

characteristic qualities of his
and misses the

material.
(plate 23.
'^\'m>
s?
>y
mi.X
im
iV'
'''&>
W'<
Tkte 26
-Plate 27.
?Me28
â^vs^nescl
fHOTO-LITHO.O.FUHKIVW. S'
Onoe^poent ipspi red by wacy ofWorlMi-j^
The Teaching of the

It
Tool.
53
cannot be insisted upon too strongly

designing for ornament,
it is
that, in
abso-
lutely essential
ditions in
always to have those con-
mind, as clearly as though you
were yourself working under them.

In beaten work you descend from the mass
in filagree, on the contrary, you would work from the minutia; to the
to the minutiae
mass. Commencing with wiry lines, you would perhaps clothe them with more compact spirals, clustering these together where
you wished
years ago
different
is
to concentrate the effect.
The
very
design of the Byzantine artist of a thousand

not,
you
will see (Plate 26),
from that of the medieval

artificer of to-day.
silver-
smith, nor yet from that of the Genoese and
Maltese
This
is
the type of
all
ornament
in deli-
cately elaborate
line, as, for instance,
damas-
cening, embroidery in gold or silken outline,
and, on a larger scale,
hammered
ironwork.
it
Substituting straight lines for curved,

its
has
parallel in certain kinds of lacework, such
as the so-called "
Greek
lace."
(Plate 27.)
A very
inspired
curious instance of design directly
by the way of working occurs in the Javanese work on Plate 28. Some plastic
54

is
substance, paper or gutta-percha,
rolled out
into the thickness of stout wire, curled round into spirals,
and
laid
on papier-miche.
The
ground
is
then partly fretted away and the
whole gilded.
There
is
something delight-
fully naiVe in the result.
Fret cutting affords another homely

tration.
illus-
The very
necessities
of the
saw
are
suggest the nature of the design.

led to devise
You
some form of pierced ornament not unlike stencilling or, if you prefer to cut away the ground instead of the pattern, you
;
are
compelled to hold the design together

ties.
by
Unless these
ties
were from the
first
taken
into account, they

effect.
would be sure to mar the

accordingly, finds himself,
The
artist,
as
if
by
instinct,
evolving a kind of strap-
work, which
reminds
one
such
of
the
typical
Elizabethan ornament
originated
in
which
very possibly
as
fret
some
device
carving, although
the forms show also the
influence
of types
more proper
fret
to
metal.
The
likeness of the strip of low-relief pattern-
work, on
Plate
29, to
cutting,
is
too
rela-
striking to be merely accidental.
The
tionship challenges recognition.
Tlate ?3
A\ctav.1
-
Germs^r)
The Teaching of the
Tool.
55
In the comparative massiveness or delicacy

of a fret pattern, one sees at once whether
it
was designed
for stone, or
wood, or metal.
The
artful fret- worker leaves
no
frail
project-
ing ends, in stone or
wood
to be promptly
broken
off,
and
in
metal to catch hold of any
textile thing that
may
brush against them.
The
strength of a metal fret naturally affords
facility for
indulging in more florid forms of
ornament.
The
iron
lock-plate represented
on Plate 29 shows
sides
this,
and exemplifies bein part
how the metal may be
embossed,
and, of course, engraved.
Even simpler and more direct than fretwork is the plan of notching thin planks of wood and crossing them (as in Plate 30). It
has
all
the effect of elaborate fretwork.

of simplicity
is
The
less
acme
side
shown
in the
no
ingenious device of placing the notched planks
by
side, so as to
produce a pierced patInstances of
tern of singular
this,
effectiveness.
taken from the balconies of Swiss chalets,
are given on the
same
plate with the
Arab
lattices referred to above.
The
likeness
is
between a
a
fret
pattern and a
stencil pattern
explained when one realises

is
that a stencil plate
fret
of cartridge paper,
56
The Application of Ornajnent.

is
through which the design

plate protecting the ground.
rubbed
in,
the
Stencilling
tion as a
only, in
is
very properly used in decorain a first painting
means of laying
or
which case one
may do
with
it
what
even,
one
will,
what one
can.
One may
by the use of a succession of plates, produce most elaborate designs. An ordinary Italian house decorator will manage to stencil a wall surface with a gorgeously rich damask pattern, at
a cost not exceeding that of equally proper should, however,

off,
effective wall-paper.
stencil pattern
be designed to be stencilled right

needing to be
This principle
without
made good
is
at
all
by hand.
i,
illustrated in Plate
which
by
It
its
is
construction
owns
to being stencilled.
is
a bastard kind of design that
ashamed
of
its origin.
Ties,
it
will
be seen,
may
well be turned to
account to form a pattern on the pattern, to

give detail, such as the veining of large leaves,
or otherwise to break
up the broader masses

is
of the design.
The geometric
viously produced
diaper on Plate 31
ob-
the outline
by means of two stencils, being formed by the portion of
Hate 30
Tlate 51
'
B * a
I-
-LiTHo. b.fuhnival 8' KOi-OM*,e-o KEU, PMOTO-
The Teaching of the

the ground
left
Tool.
57
clear.
In the case of an
elaborate series of stencils each one
may be
will
schemed
but,
to
make good the workman

to
the ties of another

at
in
least,
there
always be
the
an
interest
the
evidence
of
way an
effect
has been produced.
He
looks for character as well as beauty.

It
must be confessed that he

does.
is
the only one

is
who
This merit of workmanlike-ness

I
one which the public cannot, as

expected to appreciate.
It
is
said,
be
reserved for
the craftsman to recognise behind his work a
craftsman with
fellowship.
whom
it
is
his pride to claim
His interest
in it is
not alone in
seeing
how
another solved a difficulty which

to himself, or took advantage of
fruitful
thrill
had occurred
an accident which to him had been

only of disappointment.
He
has a
of
purest satisfaction in feeling

far
how some
was the
one,
away and years ago

this,
perhaps, realised, as
that,
spirit
he does, that
in
and not
which such and such thing should be done,
such and such material should be treated, saw

the
same hint in nature as he sees, or felt the same limitation in his art as he feels. This is
the satisfaction, not of the sentimentalist but
of the workman.
And
no workman of any
58
account will be satisfied without the approbation of the
fellow-workman he respects.
book-binding
illustrated
The
Plate 32
tooled
i
on
interesting rather to the craftsman

artist.
than to the
The
ingenuity with which
a few simple and rather insignificant tools are
made
effect,
to suffice towards
somewhat
florid
shows the practised hand.

at
Our wonder
architectural
Italy, settles
the
splendid scheme
of
in
it
colouring
which
prevailed
down
if
into the conviction that
was encouraged,
within easy reach.
not wholly suggested,
by
the gorgeousness of the multi-coloured marbles
This
it
was which led
also
to the development of a kind of decoration,
very characteristically mosaic, in which the
beauty of the material
is
displayed
in large
is
slabs of rich veneer, whilst the waste
used
up
in
the form of geometric pattern work, the

is
design of which
the chips.
surfaces
literally cut
according to
The
contrast between the broad

is
and the minute mosaic
exceedingly
happy.
The
large circular slabs of porphyry

in
which
form so prominent a feature

of Byzantine churches
in
the pavements
Italy,
notably in
(Plate 33),
many
of
the
Roman
Basilicas
n^late 32.
'Pmotc-Timt" by
J.
Aki
-Plate
33
'trjlaîcl
Mo53.ic
"^.^ve-i-nenl
S"*
6xio Ma^-rco
Tôme
'HOTO-llTMO.B.FUnNIVAL
HOuSonr
The Teaching of the
Tool.
59
afford yet further evidence of the
dependence
material.
of design
upon the conditions of
These
circular plaques are in fact so
many
slices of old
columns, saved from the wreck-
age of more ancient buildings, and put to

this ingenious use.
The common adoption

terns for inlaid pavements
of geometric pat-
was countenanced
unequal and
mechanical
by the circumstance
counteracted
the
that the
accidental colour of the marble cubes, just
tendency
lies
to
hardness, in which
the danger of purely
geometric ornament.
In marquetry,' similar geometric forms were
found, for similar reasons, to be serviceable,
so that one
may
say that, whether in wood, or
mother-o'-pearl, or marble, a style of inlaid
pattern-work was begotten of the very

of shaping
facility
and laying geometric forms, by
the certainty of the harmonising influence of

colour.
It
is
in the inlay of
natural
woods and
most
stones and the like that
we
find the
satisfactory use of absolutely geometric pattern.
The
is
accidental variation of the natural
colours
exactly the thing needful.

of tint
Unexfor
pectedness
makes amends
cer-
6o
tainty of shape, and gives an air of mystery
to what would otherwise be
only so
much
mechanism.
softening
The
rigid forms of the diaper

in
on Plate 34 are plainly

influence
need of some such

colour.
of
Again,
" niello "
in
geometric
ornament
like
the
on
Plate 35, the silvery brilliancy of the metal

glorifies,
so to speak, the nakedness of the
design.
So
used
in the
ornamental glass mosaic so often

about Giotto's time in connec-
in Italy
tion with white marble, the

surface,
more
especially
all
as
shimmer of the it was never
absolutely even, put
contingency of harsh-
ness out of the question.
Such a thing was

those
little
barely possible with

glass
all
facets of
catching the light at
all
manner of
angles,
and
glittering each according to its

will.
own
In
bright
marble
is
inlay
of strongly contrasted
for severity of
colour there
no such excuse
form
for
some of the old pavement

in the baptistry at
patterns, that
example
Florence (Plate
36), are
exceedingly graceful in design.
Even
there
you see the influence of the
material.
The
desirability of maintaining the solidity of
the white slabs into which the blackish -green
Plate 34
Plate 35
-IITHO. B.FUHMIVAL
S''
M0LOIlH,e
The Teaching of the

is inlaid,
Tool.
61
has led to a kind of network of white

tints,
enclosing the darker
the contrast between light and dark

judiciously softened.
stencil perfectly.
in
by which means is most These patterns would

are,
They
in fact, fretted
marble.
Here
it
may
be as well to remark
is
that,
though a
stencil
a kind of
stencil.
fret,
fret is
not
exactly the same as a

stencil the
ties
In designing a
are
fret,
the main consideration. the connection
In designing a
of the
openings
as
is
an important point.
One must
much
as possible avoid the hindrance of
perpetually removing and refixing the saw,

which, in fretting a stencil pattern such as that
on Plate
i,
would take almost as much time

Long, smooth, sweep-
as the actual cutting.
ing lines are also suggested
by the
saw, the
backward and
forward
lines,
action
involved in
following jagged
such as the serrated
edges of leaves, resulting in

labour.
some waste of
Very wooden
characteristic
design occurs
the
lattice work which has lately been imported from Cairo, and freely used (not always with discretion) in the decoration and
furniture of English houses (Plate 37).
Better
62
it would be difficult to find, or a better, means of employing otherwise not very useful scraps of wood, or a better employment of wood turning. This Cairene woodwork in-
lattices
dicates equally the scarcity of large timber,
the cheapness of labour, and the dependence
upon the
other,
lathe.
Had
the conditions been
we should never have had 'just such patterns as the Arab builders evolved in
infinite variety.
The
characterlessness of 19th century ornato the absence of

tool
ment is due very largely any direct impress of the

thing
is
upon design.
In the process of modern manufacture, every-
planed down to a marvellous but

;
monotonous smoothness
tool,
the
mark of the
which
is
is
the evidence of workmanlike-
ness,
popularly regarded even as bad work

of finish, indeed.
want
enlightenment there are some

to learn that
Even in this age of who have yet
work may be smooth and smug,
and yet not
beautiful, nor so
much
as finished.
is
This mistaken ideal of perfection
not,
it
must be owned, altogether a modern

tapestry, for example, designers
one.
In
have been
in the
working
for
centuries
past, steadily
pictorial direction,
and against the threads
<?1ate36.
'PhcTO-Timt'.
tyJ
Akrm.o,6.DuB.n SqUAi
The Teaching of the

until there is
Tool.
6o
now
little
difference
between the
the
picture
and
its
copy
so
in
in wool,
except that the
copy costs ever

original.
much more than
Already
the comparatively early
tapestries of Raffaelle,
or Beauvais
what
inferior
you can see at Dresden and characterless

earlier,
hangings
his
famous cartoons make, as comaccomplished draughtsmen,
pared with the neighbouring designs of
unknown, and
less
who knew their trade. That Raffaelle either knew little or cared little about tapestry, is
clear.
And
in his failure there is
solation for the least of us.
If
some we only
conlove
our trade, and

love
it)
know
it
(as
only those can
who
would
fail,
we may succeed where a Raffaelle though we be anything but

It is easier said
Raffaelles.
than done, for a
great painter to step
down
to mastery in the
minor
arts.
All trades want learning.

point of ignorance and inconis
The crowning
sistency in design
reached where the con-
vention peculiar to and characteristic of

quite different material
is
some
affected, as in the
bulbous forms of beaten metal reproduced in

15th century Gothic stonework, or the facets
of Brobdingnag jewels in Elizabethan woodcarving.
64

to
The modern Fi-enchman seems

conscience
at
all
have no
in
this
respect.
He
will
copy anything
of himself.
in
is
any material, and be proud

not to be persuaded that
He
the characteristic lines of darning for example

(Plate 24),
when reproduced
lines, as
in wall
paper are
simply broken
are awkward.
meaningless as they
Affectation of that kind
seems to throw
fit
into stronger relief the fitness of
ornament.
Plate 37
^revCi
lattices
cWacWis+ic
Vocd-ttirnin^
Some
Superstitions.
65
YI.
Some Superstitions.
Out
of the practical
conditions
of work
have arisen elements of design so distinctly

decorative that they are sometimes taken to
be inseparable from ornament and essential

to
it.
Flatness of
effect,
symmetry
of dis-
tribution, firmness of outline,
and other such

faith.
useful devices, have been adopted as articles
of
a rather
too credulous
That
is
a proud position to which they are by no
means
entitled.
They
are at the best work-
ing rules, a sort of
recipe,
not without use, but
useful mainly to those
who
are not
much
in
need of such
tions
help.
Let us inquire into one of these supersti-
outline.
It is of
such use in ornament,

it
and so often
of the case
"
useful, that
has
come
to
be
accepted by certain theorists as a necessity

;
with them
it
is
the passport to
is
the decorative."
it is
Useful as an outline
in
decoration,
not,
however, inevitable.
Nor
66
is
it

so easy to
say just where an outline

cases, the material
should be used.
In very
many
and
its
workmanlike employment necessitate an outline.
They may even determine
its
colour,
as in the case of the metal
lines
marking
is laid.
the cells in which the paste of enamel
And
it
is
curious to notice how, in champlev^

cells for
enamel, where the
the paste are dug
out of the metal ground, the outlines are of
varying thickness
whilst in cloisonni
work
the even section of the wire soldered on to
form the
cells,
necessitates an absolutely even
strength of
line.
You have
outline, to
only to look at the quality of the

tell
at
once whether enamel
is
champlevi (a sort of niello

of
black)
or
cloisonne
in colours instead
The
evangelistic
emblem on
cesses.
Plate 38 combines the two prodistinguish the solid metal
You can
find
from the wire-work quite plainly.
You
process
that
when the more
laborious
is
of cutting out the ground
used,
is
the artist adopts a larger treatment, and

altogether
more chary of his lines, omitting them even, and blending one colour into another. The method invites the use of broad
Tlate38.
ENAMLt
Goi30DDe
KILL, rHOTO-LITHO.a.FUHKIVAL
S- HOLIOHH,!
Some
spaces of plain
Superstitions.
metal, which
in
67
their turn
is
tempt to engraving
although thereby there

surface, a
artist
a danger of disturbing too much the breadth
and beauty of the polished

successfully avoided
danger
of
by
the
the
twelfth century (Plate 38).
In soldering on the
flat wire,
on the other
hand, one
of
lines,
is
induced to elaborate a network
such as
we
see
in
Chinese
and
illus-
Japanese enamel, too familiar to need

tration.
-
Thickness of outline
is
not
unusually
in point
regulated
is
by
material.
Another case
the
leadwork by which a stained-glass

is
window
held together.
Glazing being, in
richly-coloured glass, a necessity, the art of
designing
it
consists partly in throwing the
lead lines into the outlines (Plate
leading of
mosaic
The 39). window corresponds
exactly to the cloisons of enamel, just as the

pierced
plaster
to
windows of Cairo may be

enlarged
transparencies
in
compared
champlevi.
In appliqui embroidery, again (Plate

it
40),
is
practically something of a necessity to

joints
mask the
by an
outline
of gold
or
silken cord, very
much
to the enhancement
68

In short, there
is
of the general effect.
every
the
reason to follow the lead given us

material.
It
by
is,
does not do to play altogether

;
from your own hand
the material
so to
speak, our partner in the
game
of decoration.
his
An artist
will
will
seldom resort of
own
free
to an even
and
rigid outline all
round
every form.
Excepting
its
at a great distance
from the eye (where

that
is
equality
is
not seen),
almost certain to result in hardness.

is
Mechanical precision
facturer's
not seldom the

It
is
manu-
ideal of
finish.
all
one, unfor-
tunately, which
he can
too easily realise
at
a loss of what beauty of feeling and
colour,
he can probably never be brought to

instinct of art is rather to lose
less, in
its
know.
The
line,
an out-
more or
it
places,
is
and not
to insist
upon
unless
its
value
sufficient to justify
the risk
use entails.
The only
rule
which
is
can be laid
down
as to the use of outline,
so
extremely simple as not altogether to satisfy

the pedantic
is
mind
if
the need of an outline

it
;
apparent, then adopt

is
but
it,
if
not, if the
effect
satisfactory without
insist
why on
earth
should one
upon
its
use
For a reason
yes
but not otherwise.
n^late 39.
'Pmot-Tiht, byJ.AkMm.n,6,I)uenS<iU4ro.Wf:.
Some
The
insistance
Superstitions.
69
upon outline
for the sake of
outline, as
though decoration were not decora-
tion without this official

this trade
stamp of pedantry,
decorating shop,
is
mark
is,
of the
pure nonsense.
The
truth
outline
is
frequently just a
matter of expediency, and no more.

a very wise
And
only in
and
fit
expedient
it
is, if
view of that process of reproduction which

is
admitted to be one of the necessities of

particularly of
modern decoration, and

ornament.
modern
The vaguer forms which depend

upon the touch and
duction.
so
much
do
feeling of the artist
not lend themselves to this necessity of repro-
An
outline does.
And
it,
if,
in
out-
lining his drawing, the designer cannot help

in
some
degree
less
hardening
if
the
evil
is
infinitely
than
more undefined and

left
delicate forms
had been
to
the tender
mercies of another.
Moreover there are cases

consolation
in
which some
has the
awaits
the
his
man who
render.
courage
to
make
design such as the
available mechanic can
outlines of stained glass are blurred
The hard by the
spreading of the light as
it
shines through
yo

damask weaver
silk or linen,
the hard shapes drawn for the

are
redeemed by the sheen of

so on.
and
In such cases the artist
who
has
been equal to the emergency will often find again in the executed work something of the
delicacy belonging to his original.
Even
self of
in
autograph work, where the
artist
executes his
own
design, he
still
avails
is
him-
a soft outline.
Its
its
Decorative art
a kind
of shorthand.
very existence seems to
depend upon
quickness,
being done with readiness,
and certainty
so that he who runs
may
read.
art
The
which only careful scrutiny reveals

for
to us will,
appreciation.
the most part, fail to win Whatever its merits, if it hide
them, no wonder that
men
pass
them by.
is
Even poetry of the

popular
;
over-subtle order
art
not
and
be)
is
decorative
(unpopular
though
it
essentially popular art.
The
effectiveness so
art,
much
to be desired in
decorative
has to be obtained without
many
is
of the resources of which the painter
free to avail
himself
It is
not often that
the ornamentist can indulge in extremes of

light
ling.
and shade, nor yet
in
very strong model-
Under
these circumstances, an outline
-Plate
40
Some
is
Superstitions.
71
invaluable in helping to detach a pattern

its
from
background.
It
is
not generally-
understood
how
efifectually
even a delicate
outline will sometimes
do
this (Plate 41).
In work placed at a great distance from the

eye,
outline
is
quite the simplest
means of
off,
definition.
The
greater the distance

in
its
and
the
less
the contrast
tone
and colour
between the design and
background, the
more urgent something of the kind becomes. For all that, there is no law making outline
compulsory, unless the
it.
artist feels the
need of
He
may,
if
he please, detach
his pattern
from the ground by deepening the one, or

lightening the other, or
by doing
it is
both.
That
fair to
would, however, ordinarily be a

laborious business. Besides,
much more
only
assume that there was always some reason

for the choice of tones
adopted
in the first
instance
and
it
may
be
anything
but
desirable to
modify them.
So
it
happens
that in
outline
many
is
instances the expedient of an

It
most handy.
enables one de-
liberately
and
safely to
it,
adopt a scheme of
colour which, but for

ineffective.
would be altogether
So
far
from invariably hardening or empha-
72
sising form, outline
may
equally be used for
the diametrically opposite purpose of soften-
ing the shapes, as
may
be seen on Plate 42,

is
where a small portion of the pattern
harsh
by comparison with
in the
the part outlined.

is
The
softening effect of outline
exemplified also
embroidery on Plate 40.

use of outline must not be taken as
its
The
a justification of
abuse.
To
Art
accept the
its
dogma
of
is
its
saving merit and submit to
tyranny,
sheer foolishness.
may
quite
is
well be decorative in which the outline
not
it
emphasised
nor does the insistance upon
make
it
design decorative, however effectually

it
may remove
from the
pictorial.
So with regard
rative treatment,
to flatness,
symmetry, and
other qualities supposed to pertain to deco-
one must in every instance

Any
effect
use one's wits.

disturbs
of relief which
the
sense of flatness in a surface

flat, is
characteristically
plainly out of place.

as
Just so
much
of
symmetry
may
is
be needful
to convey the sense of balance
to be desired
but no more.
The
fear of offending against the arbitrary
" irrespon-
laws of authority, often altogether

sible," is a
bogey which may scare some from
'Plate 41.
Oatltiie tolotcb defines tbf formX^^f^''^-
Plate 42.
Outline tohicb
F
softens'fljc forms,
ti^}-ô\,-
KtUl, PHOTO-LrTHO.e.FUWIVAl S^ H0LEOHN,C 0.
Some
Superstitions.
73
trespassing on dangerous ground, but which

certainly deters others from adventuring on
fields of
design in which they might perhaps

full
discover the
use of their artistic faculty.
What
finds
it
is
called
convention
is
not a hinIf
drance to the workman, but a help.
he
an impediment, he would do well to

if
ask himself
that
may
not be his
fault.
LONDON
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
WORKS ON DECORATIVE ART

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ME. DAY'S TEXT BOOKS OF OENAMENTAL DESIGN.
L The Anatomy
Illustrations.
of Pattern.
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The Planning of Ornament.

Illustrations.
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These text-books are approved by the Science and Art Department.
The Details and Ornaments of the Italian Renaissance.

Drawn by
J.
G.
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Architect,
" Building
royal
News
folio,
"
and
"Aldwinckle" Travelling Student. bound in cloth, yis.
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Modern Ornamentation ; being a
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Designs for the Patterns of Textile Fabrics, for the Ornamentation of Manufactures in Wood, Metal, Pottery, &c. ; also for the Decoration of Walls and Ceilings, and other Flat Surfaces. By Chr. Dresser, Ph.D., &c.. Author of "The Art of Decorative Design" ; "Japan, its Architecture, Arts," &c. ôpiates, exhibiting about 150 Designs, imperial 4to,
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Robert
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Decorative Designs.
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taken from the Original Drawings in the Soane Museum, by R. Charles. dfine large plates of Ceilings, Scroll Ornaments, Ssfc, folded in wrapper,
Grammar of
fapanese Ornament and Design.
many in Colours and Gold, representing all Classes of Natural and Conventional Forms, Drawn from the Originals ; with Introductory, Descriptive, and Analytical Text. By T. W. Cutler, F.R.I.B.A. Imperial 4to, in elegant cloth binding, 2,1. hs.
Illustrated by 65 plates,
Art and Work

Industries
: as shown in the several Artistic employed in the use of Marble, Stone and Terra-Cotta, Metal, Wood, and Textile Fabrics ; as well as in the various Details associated with Decorative Art. The whole exemplified by 85 Lithographic Drawings. By Owen W. Davis, Architect. Royal 4to, cloth, \%s.
Handbook of Coloured Ornament,
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36
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WORKS ON DECORATIVE
Book
ART.
Japanese EncyctopcBclia of Design (Native printed).

I. Containing over 1500 engraved, curious, and most ingenious Geometric Patterns of Circles, Medallions, &c., comprising Conventional Details of Plants, Flowers, Leaves, Petals, also Birds, Fans, Animals, Key Patterns, &c., &c. Book II. Containing over 600 most original and effective Designs for Diaper Ornament, giving the base lines to the Oblong i2mo, design, also artistic Miniature Picturesque Sketches.
price
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Native Printed Japanese

Series of Studies of Birds in
Art Books:
Book
a Charming
most Characteristic and Life-life Attitudes, surrounded with appropriate Foliage and Flowers. In Two Books, each containing 66 pages of highly Artistic and Decorative Illustrations,
Printed in Tints.
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Art
Foliage for Sculpture
and Decoration.
By
Jas.
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plates,
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Examples of English MedicBval Foliage and Coloured

Decoration. By Jas. K. Colling. Taken from Buildings of the Twelf^ to the Fifteenth Century, 76 lithographic plates, and 79 woodcut illustrations,
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Wall Papers, Inlays, &c., &c. 1^0 plates, some printed in Colours, exhibiting upwards of 500 Examples of Textiles, Embroideries, Paper Hangings, Tile Pavements, Intarsia Work, Tapestries, Bookbindings, Surface Ornaments from Buildings, &c., &c., collected from Various Museums, Churches, Mosques, &c., &c., with some Original Designs for Textile and other Ornament by Dr. Fischbaeh, Giraud, and others. Imperial 4to, in portfolio, 25^-.
Textiles, Embroideries,
Examples of Ancient and Modern

Description, &c., folio, cldth, 32J. net.
Ftirniture,
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rt Furniture : By A Original Sketches for J onquet. A Series of Designs for Modem Furniture in the Jacobean, Queen Anne,
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Adam, Chippendale, and Sheraton Styles, illustrated in 143 Designs on 65 lithographic plates, exhibiting Examples of Drawing Room, Dining Room, Bedroom, and Hall Furniture, Chimney- Pieces, &c. Imperial 4to,
cloth, 25^.
Motifs for Panels and other Decorations

12J-.
Twenty
photo-lithographic plates, exhibiting a great variety of Designs in the Japanesque and other Styles. By John Ward. Imperial 4to, bound,
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The Application of Ornament

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The Application of Ornament

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TEXT BOOKS OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN.

THE APPLICATION OF ORNAMENT.

TEXT BOOKS OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN.

Price Three-and-Sixpence each,

THE ANATOMY OF PATTERN.

THE PLANNING OF ORNAMENT.

THE APPLICATION OF ORNAMENT.

TEXT BOOKS OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN.

'THE ANATOMY OF PATTERN,'

LONDON: BATSFORD, 52, HIGH HOLBORN.

cerned themselves with the rudimentary lines

theory, however, that ornadiscussed.

ment can be independently

exists only relatively to its applicaits

place and purpose and

technical conditions imposed

the means of working

These few chapters go essential to ornament is

tion to practical conditions

out of obedience to them.

of ornament will be found the strongest argu-

consideration of natural form and

adaptation to ornamental design

Mecklenburg Square, London, W.C.

The Rationale of the Conventional

Style and Handicraft

The Teaching of the Tool

DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF PLATES.

breaking up the broad masses of

ORNAMENTAL FIGURE COMPOSITION Identical

ANIMALS AND ARABESQUE

A TREE OF JESSE among the foliage.

NURSERY WALL PAPER

ANIMALS AND ARABESQUE^ Various

PATTERN* WITH GROTESQUES

WOOD CARVING Shovifing

the marks of the chisel.

Direct potter's work.

relation to the pen, &c.

and colour of the material.

^Coloured according to the weft.

of quite different periods.

different types of wrought

Design suggested by the process.

And the Way of producing

And the tools used. "Workmanlike PAVEMENT

need of the softening influence of

Severity of pattern calculated

by the brilliancy of the metal.

MARBLE INLAY Practically

ARAB LATTICES Characteristic wood-turning.

Showing the and champlevl.

difference of outline in cloisonni

lines for the

most part the

Softening the forms.

The Rationale of the Conventional.

culty of coming to any clear understanding