ST. PAU CAMPUS
LIBRARY

JONI


一
​



ST. PAL CAMPUS
LIBRARY

TI
COM


——








2 su
ORNAMENTAL DESIGN,
EMBRACING
THE ANATOMY OF
PATTERN.
(SECOND EDITION.)
THE
PLANNING OF
ORNAMENT.
(SECOND EDITION.)
THE APPLICATION OF ORNAMENT.
BY
LEWIS F. DAY.
P
WITH ONE HUNDRED & SIXTEEN
FULL PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.
LONDON:
B. T. BATSFORD, 52, HIGH HOLBORN.
1890.





136015
945
D 335-
finefan


Plate 1

Square
plan
plan
Hexagon plan
Diamond
(squares set
angle-wise)
on
Circles
square Plan
Circles on Diamond
Plan
Reversed “Scale or
"Ogee"!
Plan
Construction of
Stripe
German Gothic
plan Tracery Patterns
Wave
plan
Lewis F. Day: 1736


TEXT BOOKS OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN.
ily
THE
ANATOMY OF PATTERN.
BY
LEWIS F. DAY,
AUTHOR OF
EVERY-DAY ART,' ETC.
SECOND EDITION, REVISED.
ILLUSTRATED.
LONDON:
B. T. BATSFORD, 52, HIGH HOLBORN.
1889.





PREFACE TO THE SECOND
EDITION,
In the preface to the first edition of the
Anatomy of Pattern, I explained how the
recollection of my own want of some practical
direction in the first steps towards orna-
mental design, had led me to think, that there
must be students who would find it helpful to
have set before them plainly what I had pain-
fully to puzzle out for myself.
The call for a second edition leads me to
the gratifying conclusion that my text-book
did actually fill a vacant place on the student's
book-shelf.
The occasion of reprinting has afforded
also an opportunity for revision. Wherever
a passage has seemed to be open to mis-
understanding I have made it more precise.
I have added, here an explanation, there a
diagram. Some of the plates which came
out unsatisfactorily in the first edition have
been worked on or altered : one new one has
been added.


vi
Preface.
It should be understood, however, that the
illustrations are literally illustrations. It has
naturally been endeavoured to make them in
themselves as interesting as might be ; but it
is only as diagrams that they have any claim
to insertion at all. Indeed, if they fulfil
their function, it should be possible to gain
from the study of the plates alone, apart from
anything that is said on the subject, some
notion of what pattern construction is.
Throughout this text-book (as throughout
the series) I have assumed no particular
knowledge on the part of the reader, but only
that he wants to know.
It follows from the very rudimentary
nature of my subject, that is not by any
means free from the difficulties which beset
all beginnings whatsoever. Of course
pains of mine will save the student the pains
of study ; but I have done my best to present
to him, in as few words as possible, the sum
of my experience-for what that may be worth
at second hand.
LEWIS F. DAY.
no
13, Mecklenburg Square, London, W.C.
April 24th, 1889.


TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
1.-INTRODUCTORY
.
..
I
..
II.- PATTERN DISSECTION
..
8
III.-PRACTICAL PATTERN PLANNING
25
IV.-THE “ DROP” PATTERN
34
V.-SKELETON PLANS
40
VI.-APPROPRIATE PATTERN
..
48
..


.


Plate 2.

Brick or Masonry
195
ALE
fret
Diapers formed
on
Squares
1
TI
IL
1
HA
-
-
E
E
E
[Ewis F.Day
1836
Checquer





Plate 3.

Cross liv;es Chess
board
Lattice
Plaids
Lewis F. Dan 1886
Plaiting
+
Cross patter 12
HU
M
Diamond
Chevron or 31g-gag





Introductory.
ar
means so. If, indeed, the design be of that
absolute uniformity all over, that there is
no one feature in it more pronounced than
another, it may pass muster, notwithstanding
the want of backbone. But that is not to
claim much for it as a design. And it is
scarcely worth the pains to take a round-
about way to this insignificant end.
If, on the other hand, a design be above
the level of insignificance, there must be in it
some dominant feature or features, which,
when many times repeated, will appear more
prominent than ever. It is to these features
that the eye will irresistibly be drawn; and it
is the lines they take in relation one to
another, which will assert themselves. It is
hardly to be expected that, if these lines have
never been taken into consideration, they
should come out very satisfactorily—and, as a
matter of experience, they always come out
awry. Every one must have suffered more or
less from wall-paper and other patterns, in
which certain ill-defined but awkward stripes
impressed themselves upon him; and he may
have imagined possibly, if he thought about
it, that this effect of stripes came of working
upon the vertical, horizontal, or diagonal


6
The Anatomy of Pattern.
lines, which thus asserted themselves. It
was much more likely, the result of not
working upon definite lines at all. A designer
who knew the A B C of his business, would
make sure of lines not in themselves offensive;
he would counteract a tendency to stripes in
one direction by features directing the atten-
tion otherwards; and he would so clothe any
doubtful line that there would be no fear of
its unduly asserting itself, as in its naked-
ness it might. He foresees the danger (it is a
danger even to the most experienced) and he
is fore-armed against it. The mighty man
of valour who disdains to be trammelled by
principles, or any such encumbrance, is with-
out defence against contingencies practically
certain to arrive. It is only by a miracle, or
a fluke, that he can escape failure. The over-
whelming odds are, that the petty considera-
tions he has despised will be quite enough to
wreck any venture he has dared in defiance
of them.
Since, then, it is practically inevitable that
there shall be definite lines in ornamental
design-seeing that if you don't arrange for
them they arrange themselves—it is the merest
common sense to lay down those lines to begin


Introductory.
7
with, and, in fact, to make them the skeleton
or framework upon which you build up your
pattern.
You will see, when they are laid bare for
you, that these skeletons are after all very
few.


8
The Anatomy of Pattern.
II.
PATTERN DISSECTION.
Repeated pattern may be classified ac-
cording to its structure, I said.
First in order of obviousness comes the
stripe. It comes also very early in order of
invention : the loom must from the begin-
ning have suggested the stripe-pattern, which
practically grows out of it.
The stripe, however, carries us only a very
short distance in the direction of design. For
as soon as you make any break in the re-
peated line, the recurrence of that break gives
other lines in the cross direction.
Suppose a series of horizontal bands broken
at equal intervals by a series of rosettes.
is clear, that if the rosettes fall one under the
other, they give upright lines; or if they are
shifted you get diagonal cross lines. If the
line itself is broken, as in the case of a series
of waved lines, or, still more plainly, in a


DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF PLATES.
1. THE CONSTRUCTION OF GOTHIC TRACERY PATTERNS-
Showing the square, diamond, hexagon, circular, or
other plan on which elaborate tracery is built.
2. THE SQUARE-Checks and other diapers built on cross-
lines.
3. THE
LATTICE AND THE DIAMOND-Plaids, zigzags,
&c., built on cross-lines.
4. FRETS, &c.—Showing their construction on a network
of cross-lines.
5. ALL-OVER PATTERN—Showing the cross-lines upon
which it is planned.
6. THE TRIANGLE-Diapers of star, hexagon, and lozenge
shapes, built up on the lines of the equilateral triangle.
7. THE TRIANGLE-Diapers composed of the equilateral
triangle and its compounds.
8. THE HEXAGON—Honeycomb and other diapers based
upon the hexagon and its compound.
9. THE OCTAGON—Simple octagon diapers and the lines
of their construction.
10. ARAB LATTICE PATTERN—Dissected, and their anatomy
laid bare.
11. CURVILINEAR PATTERNS-Showing the construction
of the wave, the ogee, the net, &c.
6


X
List of Plates.
12. DIAPERS OF CIRCLES—With lines showing the points
from which they are struck.
13. OTHER CIRCULAR DIAPER FORMS-Produced by inter-
secting circles.
14. FREE JAPANESE DIAPER—The repetition of geometric
forms not geometrically disposed.
15. THE SCALE PATTERN–Together with ogee, cusped,
and other shapes derived from it.
16. A STAR PATTERN-Showing six different ways of
arriving at a simple diaper.
17. ITALIAN DAMASK-Showing its construction upon the
lines of the scale pattern.
18. HENRI II. BOOK COVER—Showing result of reversing,
and again reversing, the pattern.
19. SOME PATTERN PLANS-Showing (A) the square plan,
(B) the dropped parallelogram plan.
20. SICILIAN SILK--With the cross lines on which the
design is built, and the diagonal lines it assumes.
21. TAPESTRY OF THE XVTH CENTURY— With the rect-
angular unit of repeat, in which the pattern is turned
over, after the manner of the weaver.
22. LATE-GOTHIC VELVET-Showing horizontal effect of
pattern constructed upon the lines of the ogee or
hexagon.
23. WALL-PAPER PATTERN-Showing ogee lines on which
it is planned.
24. A DROP-PATTERN-In which the construction is not at
first apparent.


List of Plates.
xi
25. MAP-Showing three plans, on either of which the same
simple pattern may be produced.
26. VARIOUS DROP-PATTERNS--Showing the effect of the
drop according to its length, &c.
27. DIAGONAL DAMASK PATTERN-Showing its construc-
tion on the diamond, which is not apparent.
27A. DIAGRAM—How to prove a drop design.
28. ARAB TILE AND LATTICE PATTERNS-Showing the
simple means by which intricacy is produced.
29. DESIGN—Exemplifying the intentional confusion of
forms.
30 WALL-PAPER DESIGN Showing a drop ” in the
ornamental scroll, whilst the grotesque creatures in-
troduced follow the lines of the square block.
31. PERSIAN TEXTILE-Showing the lines of the double
square on which the pattern is constructed, as distinct
from the lines it takes.
32. FOLIATED SCROLL-A design made on square lines, yet
assuming an ogee shape.
33 ITALIAN SILK-Showing ogee, hexagon, or diamond
plan.
34. SET PATTERN-Explanatory of economy in weaving.
35. DAMASK—On the plan of waved upright lines, crossed
by horizontal bands of rosettes.





THE
ANATOMY OF PATTERN.
I.
INTRODUCTORY.
The dictionary scarcely helps us to a defini-
tion of the word pattern, in the somewhat
technical sense in which it is used by the
designer.
Inasmuch as a pattern signifies a "speci-
men," one might argue that repetition is im-
plied in ornamental pattern. But inasmuch
as any “shape or model for imitation” is
quite as strictly speaking a pattern, one
cannot exactly define pattern as repeating
ornament.
Nevertheless, pattern mostly comes of re-
petition. Many a pattern bears on the very
face of it the evidence that it grew directly
out of the necessity of repetition.
It is more than probable that some me-
chanical necessity gave rise to all geometric
B


2
The Anatomy of Pattern.
pattern ; certainly it is impossible to plait,
net, knit, weave, or otherwise mechanically
make, without producing pattern. It may be
infinitesimally small, as in weaving, where
the warp and weft are often invisible to the
naked eye; but it is there; and all that re-
mains for us to do is, to efface it as far as we
can, or to make the best of it.
Out of the determination to make the best
of it has grown much of the most beautiful
pattern-work. To neglect this source of in-
spiration, therefore, to say nothing of the
attempt to suppress it, would seem to be
wasteful of opportunity to the very last
degree.
So certainly will the repetition of parts
result in some sort of pattern, that one may
say, wherever there is ordered repetition there
is pattern. Take any form you please, and
repeat it at regular intervals, and you have,
whether you want it or no, a pattern, as
surely as the recurrence of sounds will pro-
duce rhythm or cadence.
The distribution of the parts need not even
be regular. The wave marks on the sand,
the veins of marble, the grain of wood, the
crystallisation of the breath upon the window-


Introductory.
3
panes, the curls of the hair, the very features
of the human face-resolve themselves into
pattern. So distinctly is this last the case,
that the ornamentist finds himself con-
tinually devising, malgré lui, patterns that
remind one of faces. There is even room for
speculation whether it may not have been
with a view to escaping this danger, or
anticipating it rather, that the designer first
took to the deliberate use of those masks and
grotesque heads, which form so prominent a
feature in certain styles of ornament.
The popular idea of the process of orna-
mental design is, that the artist has only to
let his hand crawl over a piece of paper, and,
like a spider, spin out the fancies that may
crowd his fertile imagination. Indeed, there
is scope in design for all his fancy ; but he
is no Zeus, that ornament should spring,
Athena-like, full-grown from his brain.
Ornament is constructed, patiently (I will
not say laboriously, for the artist loves the
labour), patiently built up on lines inevitable
to its consistency_lines so simple, that to the
expert it is not difficult to lay bare its very
skeleton; and just as the physiologist divides
the animal world, according to anatomy, into
B 2


4
The Anatomy of Pattern.
families and classes, so the ornamentist is able
to classify all pattern-work according to its
structure. Like the scientist, he is able even
to show the affinity between groups to all first
appearances dissimilar ; and, indeed, to point
out how few are the varieties of skeleton upon
which all this variety of effect is framed.
Before enumerating those varieties, let us
suppose for a moment a man to imagine (and
this is by no means an imaginary case) that
he will make to himself a repeating pattern
without regard to its logical construction-as
though in his domain there should be no
skeletons. That would be, from my point of
view, a profoundly foolish thing to do; but,
more than that, it is impossible. He may
design a unit in which there is no repetition,
and no formality ; but the moment he repeats
that unit, the very order of its repetition
proves to be, if I may call it so, the cupboard
in which the skeleton will be found.
It might be imagined that by designing in
some such haphazard fashion as I have just
supposed, the artist would secure to his design
a freedom of line, an absence of formality, not
readily to be obtained by adopting the more
systematic method.
But this is not by any


Plate 4

PHP
1
The Construction of
Frets & Interlacings
Skeleton
a Nel of
Cross lines
면
​ఎటత





Pattern Dissection.
9
series of vandykes, the turn of the wave, or
the point of the zigzag, when it is repeated,
gives the cross line just the same.
And so we come at once to the vast order
of patterns constructed upon cross lines.
This is probably quite the first in point of
time, arising as it inevitably does out of the
very primitive art of plaiting. You liave
only to interweave strips of two different
colours, and you get at once a check, or what
is familiar to us in black and white as the
chess-board pattern. (Plate 2.)
Suppose the interwoven strips were all of
one colour, then the lines of intersection would
make a lattice or basket-work pattern.
The simplest form of check or lattice is
when the crossing is at equal intervals and at
right angles. Vary the interval, and you
have all manner of plaids and tartans. Alter
your point of view (or turn the design 45
degrees round) and you get the diamond.
The difference in point of view makes no
real difference in plan: a stripe may take
any direction, yet it is always a stripe. But
if we alter the angle at which the lines
cross, we get not only a fresh variety
shapes, but we obtain also a diamond shape


IO
The Anatomy of Pattern.
which, for the sake of clearness, I will call
the diamond. This plays a very important
part in the next order of patterns, at which,
however, we have not yet arrived. Various
plaids, diamonds, and other developments of
the lattice are exemplified in Plate 3.
In the case of a regular network of cross-
lines there is no particular reason why they
should always be filled in alternately à la
chess-board. They may just as well be
grouped in twos, threes, fives, and so on, re-
solving themselves into patterns of great
variety and even of intricacy, as may be
seen in Plate 2.
This theory, however, must not be pressed
too hard, or you may squeeze something very
like a false idea out of it. It might be
contended that all patterns are formed on
the square, or all patterns, at least, that can
be woven, the threads forming the squares on
which the design is laid. This is obviously
absurd. The only patterns which can fairly
be described as built on the square are
those in which the artist (consciously or
not) worked upon square lines. The actual
squares apparent in a coarsely-woven scroll,
or in the old-fashioned sampler, belong, not


Plate 5





Pattern Dissection.
II
to the pattern, but to its translation into a
textile fabric.
If instead of the chess-board we take the
lines of the lattice, and work upon them, we
get, without departing from those lines (only
intermitting them) a wonderful range of inter-
lacements and the like ; some of them of ex-
ceeding intricacy, as in the case of the "fret."
A number of these are shown on Plate 4.
There seems no limit to the ever-increasing
range of pattern-work thus disclosed, all built
upon the same constructional scaffolding.
From the intermission of the lines results
a kind of spot pattern, more or less free,
which might be mistaken for a distinct order
of design. But it is only a variety.
In a certain sense it matters little whether
a design is constructed on geometric lines, or
only arranged so that it falls within them.
The skeleton, when you come to dissect the
two, is the same in either case. Our theory of
construction, therefore, applies quite as much
to sprigs, spots, and all so-called free patterns,
as to those in which the constructional lines
actually occur as lines. You have not done
away with construction when you have suc-
ceeded in keeping the scaffolding out of


Plate 6.

le
Diapers constructed on equilateral triangle
Lewis
5.Day
1%86
Star. Hexagony lozenge shape
CEKA, Ph....





Plate 7.

Diapers constructed
Diapers
Tequilateral
triangle
Lewis Day
1886
CIK-, Pantoth, Furnival 2.11 ob E.C.





Plate 8

B Yay
BYNY
BVY
Honeycomb & other
Diapers
the Hexagon
vased lupo
I wis. Dan B
1996
CTX Photothewal Robem, EC





Pattern Dissection.
13
the blunter angles, you have only to bisect
the blunt angle of the diamonds by this
third series of cross lines to arrive at the
equilateral triangle, which of all triangles is
far away the most useful in design.
By merely grouping the equilateral triangles,
as in Plate 6, we get the hexagon (a group
of six triangles), the star (a group of twelve),
and other shapes, such as that on Plate 7,
which is made up of seven triangles (i. e. three
diamonds and a triangle); or that on Plate 8,
which is composed of eighteen triangles (i. e.
three hexagons.)
A glance at the three Plates 6, 7, 8, will
show how immensely the designer's scope is
now widened.
We have already the basis of all that in-
finity of geometric pattern which we find
in Byzantine mosaic, and in the Moresque
tile-work derived from it.
It will be seen that the hexagon, the star,
and other compound shapes, themselves form
exactly-fitting diapers.
By the use of a fourth series of cross lines
another new shape is evolved. Returning
once again to the square lattice, if we cross
it diagonally both ways, cross it by itself,


14
The Anatomy of Pattern.
will “
that is, so that each square is cut up into
four, we get out of those lines the octagon
(Plate 9); but not an equal-sided octagon;
that is, built on a cross lattice of different
proportions.
The octagon, however, is not a unit which
will of itself form a diaper, as the hexagon
will. It is only in connection with a square,
diamond, or other four-sided figure, that it
repeat.” Place side by side a series of
octagons, and there will appear four-sided gaps
between (Plate 9). Nevertheless, this new
series of lines gives us new varieties of radi-
ated pattern: witness once more the elaborate
interlacings of the Arabs; all of which, even
the most magnificent, are closely related to
the seat of a common cane-bottomed chair.
It is possible to carry the principle of radia-
tion further still. You may, for example, cross
this more elaborate lattice by a lattice like
itself; but you get by that means rather
intricacy than variety-especially when the
intersecting lines are in part interrupted. In
certain Arab patterns, where this ultra-elabora-
tion of lines is employed, it appears almost
as if a new principle had been introduced
(Plate 10); but upon analysis the designs


Plate 9.

20
ele
Y
ola
oko
88
(simple
Octagondiapers
dotted lines show onstructions
Ewis F. bru 1956.
C. Koli, Chotodicho, Fumul *. Holb., EC





Plate 10

upon the
Based
Hexagon
Based upon
the Square
Construction of Arala 14ice Patterns
Based upon
The Square
set diamond-wise
D
Interlacing
Octagons
Based upon the Square
24
set
angle-
Wise
YA
CP XI,Photo Lithe, 8 Funwal bom. E.C.





Pattern Dissection.
15
resolve themselves into the elements with
which we have already had to deal—so few
are the plans upon which pattern is con-
structed. Already we have come to the end
of the straight-lined family.
Why, it may be asked, can you not make a
diaper on other lines, on the lines of the
pentagon for example? Well, you may put
together so many pentagons-and a very re-
spectable diaper they form-especially if you
further enrich the
pentagons with
five-pointed stars.
Not long since I
came upon just
such diaper,
which, for a mo-
ment,
promised
to upset all my
neatly arranged
theories the
subject of pat-
tern anatomy.
Pentagon diaper and its skeleton.
However, I had only to dissect it, to discover
that it was our old friend the diamond in
disguise ; but so artfully made up as at first
sight to deceive. There it is. It consists of

a
on


16
The Anatomy of Pattern.
pentagons put side by side, the interstices
between them ingeniously filled with stars
and triangles, much as the pentagons them-
selves are filled-so that one does not readily
distinguish the main divisions. It wants no
telling that shapes of any kind may be put
together to form a pattern ; but that does not
alter the fact that the lines on which they are
arranged, or into which they fall, must be
those I have already laid down; which are
indeed the base of all possible pattern.
For further variety in design, we must resort
to the use of the circle. The circle itself has,
indeed, to be arranged on one or other of the
foregoing plans. It must be struck, that is to
say, from centres corresponding to the points
of intersection of lines, such as have already
been described. In so far it is only one of the
innumerable arbitrary shapes that may be so
arranged. But the circle is so important a
feature in itself, it so entirely alters the
scope of geometric pattern, that it deserves
to be considered apart. One cannot lightly
pass over the element of curvilinear design
in ornament.
Whether or not the idea of flowing patterns
originated in the circle, is of no great conse-


Plate 11

Hexago w
zigza8
ve
9821
to Vforin Janet
wis F. Day
Wave)-(1ines
Joined to
form logee
opposed
(wave Diapers
Opposed 3 Crossed
CTK-0.Photo Litho.8 Fursa!..C


1
--


Pattern Dissection.
17
quence. Instinctive practice must have pre-
ceded geometric principles in the mind of
man.
One may very easily deduce many of the
common curvilinear patterns directly from
angular motives. (Plate 11.)
The wave, for example, is a zigzag just
blunted at the points. Soften the lines of the
hexagon, and
you
have the ogee.
Interlace
straight rods, and you get waved lines, as
may be seen in the perspective view of the
common hurdle. Round the corners of the
hexagon or octagon, and you arrive at a rude
circle. The relation of the hexagon or octa-
gon diaper to the diaper of circles is obvious.
Presumably, the busy bee, if one may suggest
such a thing without irreverence, only works
in a circle ; and the hexagonal form of the cells
of the honeycomb is simply the result of
gravitation; just as you find that cylinders
crowded crush themselves into hexagonal
prisms.
Geometric shapes offer themselves to us
from the first—stars in the heaven above and
in the grass below, circles in the sun's disc
and in the eye of the daisy. For all we
know, the very first pattern ever traced by
C


18
The Anatomy of Pattern.
so.
human hand may have consisted of circles
The primeval artist had only to pick up the
nearest dry twig and indent the damp earth
with the end of it, to get a series of round
impressions which would pass for a very
respectable diaper. I do not say that was
I only mean to say that the ways in
which patterns can be formed are of the
simplest ; and that they practically force
themselves upon the workman-making him,
as it were, an artist in spite of himself.
The circle, with its segment the curve, and
its compound the spiral, assumes extreme
importance when we come to the consideration
of the scroll (with which just now we are not
concerned); but it will be seen that even in
mere diapers it leads to an apparently new
order of things.
The simplest form of circle diaper is when
the circles are arranged on the square or the
diamond plan, and so as to touch at the edges.
By the intersection of the circles one by
another, an effect of much greater elabora-
tion is at once obtained : and it makes all
the difference whether you determine the pro-
portions of the circle according to the inter-
sections of the lines on which they are struck



Plate 12.
The Intersect
-10115 of
dotted lines
show centres
of rcles.
Segments
also forn
diaper.
Diapers of Circles
Carcles & cross lines inicrlacing.
on square 3 diamond
lines indicated......
Lewis. Day
1836






Plate 13.
dotted lines
show
construction
Diapers on the lines
of intersecting Circles
geometric
construction
of Scale
pattern.
The intersection of
dotted lines shows centres of circle
in Dan 1936


。


Plate 14

$
WA
Free
Diaper
Japanese
The
Repetition
of geometric Forms
10+ geometrically arren





Pattern Dissection.
19
(as in Plate 12) or not (as on the upper part
of Plate 13).
Out of the circle, or its segments, we get
the trefoil, the quatrefoil, and all manner of
cusped shapes (Plate 15)—which also must
needs be put together on one or other of the
plans already set forth.
Further, out of the segments of the circle
you can construct the scale pattern; which
(as you may see on Plate 15) might equally
have been derived from the scales of a fish
or the plumage of a bird's neck. The scale
may also be considered as a translation of the
diamond into curved lines. Re-arrange the
scales and you have a more graceful, as well
as a more complicated, diaper (same plate)-
in which appears the ogee shape, once before
referred to as being a curvilinear modification
of the hexagon.
The hexagon itself may be deduced from
it. Suppose a network of interlacing wave
lines or ogee shapes—it amounts to the same
thing—and the result is a series of six-sided
figures (Plate 11), very nearly approaching
the straight-lined hexagon.
In this way the straight-lined series might
be derived from the curved ; and so once more,
C 2


20
The Anatomy of Pattern.
Nex
agon
by a very different road, we reach always, in
this maze of pattern-work, the same point,
which is, the limited variety of skeleton on
which pattern is built.
From the combination of straight lines with
curved (Plates 12 and 13) result all manner
of new diaper forms; which, however, present
nothing very new in the way of skeleton.
You might start a scroll pattern,
such as that given in Plate 17 (a type
common in the sixteenth and seven-
teenth centuries), on the lines either
of the hexagon or of the ogee, or of
a mixture of curved and straight
lines which I may call the broken
ogee; and in the end it would not
be very clear which of them you had
taken for a groundwork; or even
whether you had not founded your
design upon the diamond-such close
kindred do those various skeletons betray.
I have dwelt at some length upon rudi-
mentary diaper forms, for reasons quite apart
from anything intrinsically interesting or
beautiful in them, although they may be both
the one and the other. More especially is this
likely if tender colours be employed to soften
Ogee
Broken
Ogee


-

Scale
pattern
kwish Day
1836
Wave
pattern
Feather
patlern
Ogee
pattern
Scale pattern derivatives
Houble
Ogee





Pattern Dissection.
2 1
the forms, or if the colour variations do not
quite follow the pattern, as in the case of
marble inlay, where the accidental colour of
the material is a relief from the geometric
monotony of the shapes. The Japanese some-
times go so far as to interrupt the pattern,
wiping out a bit of it here and there, anti-
cipating, indeed, the softening effect that age
might impart to it. (Plate 14.)
But it is more as a basis of design that we
have at present to consider geometric forms.
The basis of all repeated patterns is, as I said,
geometric. And, this being so, it is as essen-
tial that the designer should be acquainted
with simple geometric principles, as it is that
a figure draughtsman should have some
knowledge of superficial anatomy.
For all the simplicity of the skeleton lines
he has to deal with, the pattern designer's
art is not such a simple thing as you might
suppose. He has not merely to invent pretty
patterns, but patterns that can be conveniently
worked—and the lines mapped out for him
by the conditions of his work, are, in most
instances, not just those which beauty would
have decreed.
They prove, however, to be identical with


22
The Anatomy of Pattern.
the lines already shown to be the basis of all
recurring pattern-work; and so we begin to see
that, had there been no such thing as pattern
design before, and no traditional forms of
design for us to follow, those very forms must
have been evolved as certainly out of the more
complex conditions of modern manufacture as
they were out of the simple contrivances of
primitive handicraft. That is to say, that the
lines first given to us by the primary processes
of netting, plaiting, and so on, would equally
have been prescribed by the printing roller or
the power loom.
It is one of the most interesting points in
the analysis of pattern design to see how
regularly we work round, again and again, to
identically the same shapes. You cannot safely
dogmatise as to the origin of this or that
pattern; there are always so many ways in
which it might have been suggested. Put side
by side a series of waved lines so that their
curves are opposed (Plate 11) and the effect is
exactly the same as though you had opened
out an ogee diaper ; you can deduce either
pattern from the other. Or, again (same
plate), if the ogees interlace, it is impossible
to say whether this was the outcome of the


Plate 16.
StiroporDianfonès Voide Myloide 1/2
land
Crosslinos Padded
82
Cross tozsjyes
T
5 tines
T
Diamonds
each
occupied
3
by a
star
Six
Ways of arriving at a simple
Draper pattery
Crosszig zag
4
Interlacing Octagon
tines
Cross
9881
Lewis F. Day


1


Pattern Dissection.
23
ogee, or of waved lines, or simply of the pro-
cess of netting
On Plate 16 are shown six different ways
in which one and the same simple star
pattern may be arrived at.
1. By the juxtaposition of stars and the
addition of cross-lines.
2. By the juxtaposition of diamonds and
the addition of cross-lines.
3. By the juxtaposition of right-angled
diamonds, each occupied by a star.
4. By the interlacing of two series of
octagons, and the addition of cross-lines.
5. By the crossing of two series of zigzag
lines, and the addition of cross-lines.
6. By the crossing of two series of diamonds
or lozenges, and the addition of cross-lines.
And this does not by any means exhaust
the number of ways in which the same
result might have been reached.
To take another instance, of a very dif-
ferent kind, you know how common it is to
see a waved line with leaves alternating on
each side of it. This appears on the face of it, a
quite mechanical and arbitrary arrangement;
but you have only to note how, in nature,
the alternate leaves on a slender stem, pull


24
The Anatomy of Pattern.
it out of the straight, to see the natural and
inevitable origin of the idea. By merely ex-
aggerating the slight wave of the natural
stem, you get one of the most conventional
of ornamental border patterns.
So it would seem that, whether you begin
with mechanical construction or with nature,
it works round to the same thing in the
end-in the hands of an ornamentist.


Plate 17

PG
On
the
lines
of a Scale
pattern).
CYKA, Photo-Lath, 6 Fumisal ...E.C.





Practical Pattern Planning.
25
III.
PRACTICAL PATTERN PLANNING.
Pattern design is very seriously affected
by this circumstance—that the possible lines
of construction are not in all cases practicable.
In practical design for manufacture the
limitations are strict ; and it is only by sub-
mission to them that success in ornamental
design is possible. Nor is it only the style
or character of the design that is affected,
but its plan also.
The Oriental mind, delighting in geometric
intricacy, has availed itself largely of the
triangular unit, and has built up with it all
manner of delightfully elaborate patterns.
The modern European finds it more con-
venient to him to adopt the simpler paral-
lelogram. He may now and then use hexa-
gonal or other many-sided tiles, but he
prefers the square.' So also the weaver's
cards are inevitably in the shape of parallelo-
grams, and the printer's blocks, too; and


26
The Anatomy of Pattern.
though the printer make use of the roller
instead of the block, the conditions of design
remain unaltered; for the roller is, for all
practical purposes of design, only a block
bent round in the shape of a cylinder.
Even the bookbinder of earlier days,
who was comparatively free to do what he
liked in the
way
of tooling," was led,
whether by instinct or by his tools, to adopt
a rectangular repeat, as
in Plate 18;
in
which also is exemplified what may be done
in the way of reversing, and again reversing,
the unit of design-so as with comparatively
littie drawing to produce the effect of an
extensive pattern.
We have, ordinarily, to reconsider the pos-
sible lines of pattern construction in their
relation to the rectangular figure, which is the
repeat determined for us by the conditions of
nearly all modern manufacture.
The base of our operations is, then, usually
a parallelogram.
Furthermore, this parallelogram is in all
cases restricted in size, and in most cases of
more or less arbitrary proportions.
For example—in the case of wall-paper
printing, it is practically determined for us


Plate 18.

The
French
17th
Century
The
ruled lines
indicate the
extent
of the Udsign.
which being reversea
and again reverseas, forms a
Repeat of 4 tinies that extent.
CFX-D, EhotoLith. Fursal St. Holbon, E.C





Practical Pattern Planning.
27
that the printer's block shall be rectangular.
Custom has further fixed its width at 21
inches. And, since a block of greater length
than that would be unwieldy, we are restricted
to a square of 21 inches by 21 inches.
The block may represent a fraction only
of the design, which can theoretically be
made up of as many blocks as you please.
But in practice the expense of such a pro-
ceeding would make the paper-hangings cost
more than paper-hangings are ordinarily
worth; and, apart from commercial consider-
ations, which would be enough to prevent
that kind of extravagance, it is contrary to
craftsmanship so to misapply labour. The
most capable artist is he who can apply his
art to most purpose, and get full value out of
his materials.
As a matter of fact, the wall-paper designer
has to content himself, then, except in very
few instances, with a repeat of at most 21
inches square.
Within those limits he is comparatively
free; but, as I have already shown, do what
he will, his repeated pattern will fall into
geometric lines, if only those of the parallelo-
gram on which it is built. A pattern, such as


28
The Anatomy of Pattern.
A, on Plate 19, may seem at first sight to
conform to no conditions of restraint; but
the actual lines of the repeat reveal them-
selves, on closer inspection, in any single
feature whose recurrence is to be traced. It
is based, you will find, upon the square.
Apart from the conditions of actual manu-
facture it is found commercially expedient to
adopt certain fixed dimensions for the tile,
block, roller, or whatever it may be—and we
are thus constrained to design tiles (if they
are to be of any use) on the usual three-, six-,
eight-inch or other accepted scale ; textiles
to a width fixed by the loom, and a length
controlled by the consideration of economy;
block-printed fabrics under very similar con-
ditions; and roller-printed to a length as well
as a width prescribed. The proportion of the
parallelogram within which our design must
be confined varies, that is to say, with the
manufacture for which we are designing. An
experienced designer could often tell, from
its proportion and scale alone, for what par-
ticular manufacture a design was made. And
it is in the impracticability of his ideas that
the novice most infallibly betrays his lack of
experience.


Plate. 19

AL
SS
S
6.F. KEL, PHOTO-LITHO. O.FUANIVAL ST HOLBORN, E.O.





Practical Pattern Planning:
29
There is no occasion to enter more fully
into all the various technical reasons for the
limitations to which the designer is subject.
The practical convenience of them, however, is
patent. It is as desirable that the architect,
for example, should know what sized tiles
may be available, as that he should be able
to reckon upon the “bond” of his brickwork ;
and it is equally clear that without some uni-
formity in the width of materials (such as
silks, velvets, carpets, chintzes, and so on), it
would be difficult to estimate, off-hand, the
relative cost of each.
As it is, the public is not seldom misled in
that way. The difference between 18 and
21 inches in width, is not so apparent to the
eye that the purchaser of a French wall-
paper need realise, when he selects it, that it
is actually nearly seventeen per cent. dearer
than an English paper nominally at the same
price! Something very like a swindle is
perpetrated when facts of this kind are
deliberately kept from the buyer. There is a
further fraud in withholding from him the in-
formation that certain foreign goods sold by
the piece are only about three-quarters of the
length of English goods competing with them.


30
The Anatomy of Pattern.
To return to the subject--the upshot of it
is, that the designer has habitually to shape
his design according to a rectangular plan,
and that of limited, if not fixed, dimensions.
It becomes, then, a very serious question
with him how far he can avail himself of any
other basis.
The student might with advantage set
himself to tabulate the possibilities in the way
of adapting the various units of repeat to
repetition, within the square. It would then
be seen that, though all things are possible,
there are schemes the artist would like to
adopt, which, in order to be brought into the
repeat permitted, would need to be worked
out upon so small a scale as to become quite
too insignificant for use.
One instance of this it may be worth while
to give.
Suppose a square block of 21 inches, and
you wish to adapt a hexagonal design to
it. Only those who have tried the experi-
ment have any notion how small the hexa-
gons would come. If you made your hexa-
gons 101 inches wide, so as to get two in
width, they would not come true in the
length; they would be too long. If you made


Plate 20.

1
Early
confiry
99 Gidiliant
Silk
1 kn, Phots Lath, Fursal 2. Holbum, EC





Practical Pattern Planning.
31
them true, they would
not fill the square, but
only a space about 21
inches by 18.
Three and a half
hexagons in the width
would work, but only
as a "drop" pattern:
that would give hexa-
gons of six inches
across. In order to
occupy the square with
true hexagons repeating
without a “drop,” they
would need to be re-
duced to half that size ;
that is to say, there
would have to be seven
hexagons to the width,
measuring each only
three inches across.
It will plainly be
seen, in this instance,
how very strictly the
artist is bound by
considerations which
scarcely occur to the scale21inche->


32
The Anatomy of Pattern.
uninitiated, considerations which have always
had a great deal to do with the design of
pattern-work. Fashion has had her say in
the matter, too, no doubt-it is a wicked way
she has; but though certain lines have been
generally adopted at certain periods and in
certain countries, I think it will invariably be
found that there was some technical or prac-
tical reason for their adoption in the first
instance.
Out of the conditions of weaving came,
for example, the adoption of upright patterns
and cross colouring (as in the silks of
Byzantine, Sicilian, and early Italian design),
as well as the turning over of the design on
the two sides of an upright steni, or purely
imaginary central line; examples of which
are shown in Plates 20 and 21, the one
taken from an old Sicilian silk, the other
from a
coarse woollen fabric of the 15th
century.
In Plate 22 may further be seen what
great influence material may exercise upon
pattern. There was a whole class of pat-
terns of this kind schemed in the 15th and
16th centuries, with the obvious purpose
of disturbing as little as possible of the


Plate 21.





Plate 22.

Titel
Gothis
Horizontal rows
of gee shapes
with Big jag
intervals
between
tiyeul
C7 Kel, Prolete, Furnival bom, FC





Practical Pattern Planning.
33
rich pile of the velvet for which they were
designed. *
The turning over of the pattern is essen-
tially a weaver's device. In a pattern similarly
planned for printing there is no occasion for
that same rigid symmetry of the two sides.
On the contrary, it is desirable rather to
introduce some variations, such as occur in
the design on Plate 23.
* See ‘The Application of Ornament,' page 44.
D


34
The Anatomy of Pattern.
IV.
THE "DROP” PATTERN.
The most useful skeleton to work
upon,
all
things considered, is the diamond. For it is
on the basis of the diamond that “drop
patterns are most readily designed.
The "drop" is a device by means of which
the designer is enabled, without reducing the
scale of his work, to minimise the danger of
unforeseen horizontal stripes in his design, a
danger which is imminent when the repeats
occur always side by side on the same level.
The printer's block, we will say, is a square ;
or the roller is its equivalent; or the cards
take that form. In the printed or woven
strip, whether paper, cretonne, silk, or what
not, the end of one repeat must tally with
the beginning of the next, in order that the
pattern may be continuous throughout the
piece. Equally of course the design must
be so schemed that the right side of one


Plate 23

验
​-





The “ Drop” Pattern.
35
piece of the stuff will fit on to the left of
another, and so on.
But it is clear that the design may be so
contrived that each succeeding breadth has to
be dropped in the hanging.
If this drop were only very slight-say
three inches—it would take seven breadths,
in a pattern of 21 inches deep, before a given
feature in the design occurred again exactly
on the same level. There would be no dan-
ger then of any horizontal tendency in the
lines which recurring features of the design
might take, but, on the other hand, great like-
lihood of a diagonal line developing itself,
with even
more unfortunate effect. The
design would seem, rather, to step down-
wards; and the shorter the steps, the more
noticeable would be the line such features
might take. This difficulty is avoided if you
make the “drop” just one-half the depth of
the pattern, so that every alternate strip is
hung on the same level. Then the diagonal
lines correct themselves. If any line at all
asserts itself, it is more likely a zigzag (instead
of a step), which, in connection with corre-
sponding zigzags above and below, may very
possibly form a trellis or lozenge pattern.
D 2


36
The Anatomy of Pattern.
There is good reason, therefore, for saying
the diamond is a useful plan to work on; for
upon it is formed the safest variety of drop
pattern-that, namely, which drops one-half
its depth.
Instances of drop patterns are given in
Plates 17, 24, 29, 32, 33, and others.
One has heard persons, more familiar with
the forms of ornament than expert in practical
design, complain of the difficulty they ex-
perience in scheming a "drop.”
If they
would only think of the problem as the
filling of a diamond shape, it would come
very easily to them.
There is this further advantage in adopt-
ing the lines of the diamond—that it affords
an opportunity of working out a design
which is apparently twice the width of the
material.
If you subdivide a block of 21 inches
thus, so that the two smaller
A
divisions A and V together
A
equal the larger division it
V
amounts to precisely the same
♡
thing as though you designed
upon the basis of a squat diamond 21 inches
high by 42 inches wide.
You have only to


Plate 24

C.F. KELL, PHOTO-LITHO.B.FURNIVAL ST HOLBORN,E.O





The “ Drop” Pattern.
37
transpose the component triangles to produce
the squat diamond. If, therefore, you design
your pattern within
the lines of the squat
AJA
diamond, 21 in. by
V
42 in., you will find
that it can be printed
on a material 21 in. wide from a block 21 in.
square.
The advantage gained in this way is, of
course, only apparent--what is put into one
strip is taken out of the other-but in the
case of pattern appearance goes a long way.
From the practical point of view, it is difficult
to over-estimate the value of this expedient
in design, the common property of designers
for all manner of fabrics, but undreamt-of in
the philosophy of the amateur.
Theoretically, it is all the same whether you
design a drop on the lines of the square, on
the slant, or on the diamond, you may arrive
in either case at identically the same result.
This is plainly shown in Plate 25, in which
the dotted portions of the ground will ex-
plain how the same pattern might be built on
either one of three plans. You might snip
pieces from the four corners of the square


38
The Anatomy of Pattern.
and make with them the diamond ; or, if you
dispose them differently, you might produce
the oblique shape ; which lasť would amount
to the same thing as though you had cut
off only two corners and transposed them
(Diagram page 45).
Nevertheless, it makes practically all the
difference in the world which plan you adopt.
Your design must be influenced to a very
considerable degree by the shape you set
yourself to fill.
It would never occur to you,
for instance, to stretch a festoon, or wreath,
across a width of space you did not see before
you. So it may be fairly said, that such
extension of the design beyond the width of
the material, is the direct result of working
on the lines of the diamond : whilst you are
designing within the lines of the square, you
have naturally no impulse to go beyond its
limits.
In designing for tiles and such like, where
the material is not continuous, the conditions
are somewhat different, and the possibilities
accordingly. Where the unit of design can
conveniently be turned round, or half-way
round, or three-quarters of the way, the scope
of the designer is increased — out of four
.


Plate 25.

LEwis F. Dan
1886





The “ Drop” Pattern.
39
repeats of a six-inch tile he can get, for ex-
ample, a design in the nature of a circle
12 inches in diameter. So again, the book-
binder, with a comparatively limited set of
tools, has very considerable scope in design;
but even then the lines he can work upon are
always the same-although more of them
may be open to him than to another.


40
The Anatomy of Pattern.
V.
SKELETON PLANS.
The designer finds it ordinarily more con-
venient to design at once upon the diamond
lines, because their simplicity enables him
better to keep in view the effect of his pat-
tern in its repeated form than any other
lines (there are others) on which the "drop
can be worked.
Even though one may have no intention of
taking advantage of the full width of a block,
it may still be found convenient to design
within the diamond, if only in order to
economise design : and, mind you, economy
is an absolute necessity of the case. But for
economic reasons there would be no weaving,
printing, stamping, and so on; we should
confine ourselves to embroidery, tapestry,
painting, and other work of our own hands.
If you begin by dividing the width of
21 inches into two, and make your pattern a
“drop," 21 inches long by 103 wide, it is the
same as though you had worked upon a


Plate 26.

| 21 inch block
A
K21 inch block B
Diamond )
21 X 21 inches
GOU
Diamond
21 X 14
linches?
21 inch blocks
D





Skeleton Plans.
41
diamond 21 inches from point to point, as
may be seen at B in Plate 26; although, as I
said before, the same pattern would probably
not have suggested itself to you in either case.
Designing on the diamond such a pattern as
the last-mentioned might very likely occur to
one ; on the lines of the dropped parallelo-
gram, more likely such
as B on
a
one
Plate 19.
Again, if you divide the width of 21 inches
into three (A, Plate 26) and on those lines
set out a diamond pattern 21 inches long
by 14 inches wide, so that the block contains
one unit and a half in the width, this will
work as a drop, to fall one-half its depth.
It is clear, also, that the half diamond on
the one side of the block (A) and the two
quarter diamonds on the other
side (a a) must together form a
B
complete unit, and the two half
C А
diamonds (B B) another, or the
B
block would not work. With
that proviso, the diamonds need
not all be filled alike—that is to say, the three
diamonds (A B C) comprised in the repeat
may be variously filled.
If you still divide your 21 inches into three
a
a


Plate 27

Diagonal
Stripe
formeð upon the
'basis of the
Diamond
15th
contury





Plate 27

A
No
2
В
2/1
3
NI
3
Lewi
1889
Diagrain
showing how to prove
a Design
OF KELL, MOTO-LITHO. 8.FURNIVAL SI HOLIOAN, E.C.





Skeleton Plans.
43
upon the lines of that diamond, but probably
upon a network of diagonal and horizontal
cross-lines-as did also the inventor of Plate 20.
The inevitable influence on your design of
the lines upon which you start, is the excuse,
and the only excuse, for puzzling over all the
various skeletons upon which pattern can be
laid out.
It is a good test of your design, when you
have roughed it out on one plan, to make the
finished drawing on another. By that means
you see it, as it were, from two points of view,
and can form a very fair idea as to how it
repeats, without drawing much of the repeat.
The practical designer (who has learnt
not to attach great value to the appearance
of his design as a drawing) often cuts it up
deliberately, and re-arranges the parts, in order
the better to prove his repeat. The use of
this expedient is shown in Plate 27a. Fig. I
gives a pattern as the designer might sketch
it-and not much more of it than is enough to
show the lines it will take in repetition.
But, as I said, the simpler way of proving
it would be to cut up the repeat (the square
with black background in diagram No. 1) and
re-arrange its parts.


44
The Anatomy of Pattern.
This has been partially done in Fig. 2, in
which the design has been cut horizontally
into two equal parts A B and CD; and, by
the transposing of these two halves, what
were the upper and lower edges are brought
together, showing plainly how this portion of
the design will appear in completion.
The joining of the side edges is tested in
Fig. 3. Here the drawing has once more
been cut in two, vertically this time. And,
since this is a drop pattern, it is not merely
the two halves that have to be transposed;
but, whilst parts B and D remain relatively
to each other in the same position as in
Fig. 2, parts A and C are reversed in order
(A C becomes C A).
The remaining Figure, 4, supposes us to
have left parts A and C in the same position
relatively to one another, as in Fig. 2, and
to have re-arranged (on the same principle as
before) parts B and D (B D becoming D B).
The four quarters of the design have thus
been shuffled and dealt out in every practic-
able manner, and each portion of it in turn
promoted to the position most in view.
In the case of a pattern which did not
drop, the proving would have been, of course,



Plate 28.
Simple Construction of
intricate Arab
lattice & tile Patterns
overlaila
--
1076
0.7. KELL, PHOTO-LITHO.B.FURNIVAL ST HOLBORNEO





Piate 29.
>

SY
A
PHOTO-TEXT" by James Akerman London.W.C.





Skeleton Plans.
45
a yet simpler matter. Obviously, too, the
operation of cutting up might be (and in
practice would be) performed at a compara-
tively early stage in the designing, so that
the various joints might in turn be tested and
adjusted before the details of the intermediate
spaces were finally determined.
The way in which the parts of the dia-
mond may be re-arranged, in like manner,
is sufficiently in-
dicated
by the
accompanying
diagram.
But the best of
all possible tests
is to cut ever so
rude a stencil of
the broad masses of the design, so as easily
to multiply it to any extent. A child can be
taught to apply that test for you; and it is
infallible.
Whatever the lines of the skeleton,
in any important work they are usually dis-
guised.
Sometimes (as often in Arab art) they are
so crossed and interlaced that it is difficult
to follow their intricacy. The really quite
N


46
The Anatomy of Pattern.
simple patterns on Plates 1, 10, and 28 are
at first sight very puzzling.
Again, the lines may be interrupted so that
you lose the thread of the design. Or, further,
two or more schemes of ornament may be, so
to speak, interwoven, the one asserting itself
here, the other there, so that neither thread of
idea is too conspicuous. The effect of this
is to be seen in Plate 29, a drop pattern,
in which the attention is diverted from
the formal lines of the scroll by a con-
ventional growth of much freer character over-
running it.
Furthermore, features may be introduced
of such importance in the design that the
eye is drawn to them, and fails to perceive the
connecting lines between.
In Plate 30 the strongly marked bird-
forms counteract to some extent the simple
ogee or diamond lines on which the pattern is
set out. In fact, the birds emphasise the
actual repeat of the block, just as the scroll
reveals the real construction of the design ;
and out of the two contrasting schemes arises
a certain confusion, which is of some artistic
account in design.
Obviously, however, the most effective way
of disguising the skeleton is to clothe it, as
we


Plate 30

Sts
G
A
1886
ook lond
viac od TM
Car.......





Plate 31.

Constructed upon
che waved tines of running stalks
or on the plan of double square
CPX, Ekoto It, Fumiwalalham, E.C.





Plate 32.
.

TON
oo
**
"
and falling into ogee shapes not at first square of.
Scroll pattern, Designed on the lines of the
11181111!!!
.
YU
".
))
While
AN
S02
un
WHILE
w!
Lewis Day.
CYKL, te Lith.8 Final Holbom.E.C





Skeleton Plans.
47
are
nature does; and the most natural way of doing
this is, with something in the nature of folia-
tion; beneath which the bare constructional
lines as little noticeable as the stiff
branches of a tree under their burden of leaf
and blossom. (Plates 31, 32, &c.)
By this means, you get at once life, interest,
and variety so great, that one might continue
this already lengthy explanation until it be-
came tedious,—and yet, perhaps, fail to make
the sceptic quite believe in the absolute sim-
plicity of the skeleton forms underlying all
pattern.
The foliated scroll, as you see it, for example,
in Roman or Renaissance Arabesque (or
even in Plate 32), looks almost as though it
were impossible of geometric construction.
And, of course, it never is mathematically
built up. But, for all that, it falls into the
familiar lines. The spiral itself is only a series
of segments of circles; and if you dissect any
repeated scroll-pattern, you will find most
likely that its back-bone is a wave line or
spiral. Certainly you will find it has a back-
bone. Pattern is a vertebrate thing; and in
a scroll the spinal cord is very decidedly
pronounced. You can soon see when a scroll
is broken-backed.


48
The Anatomy of Pattern.
VI.
APPROPRIATE PATTERN.
It is only by experience that a designer
learns to know what may, and what may not,
be done within given lines. Many a notion
which one had a thought of adopting, turns
out to be practically quite unamenable to
existing conditions.
You cannot have a bold, flowing scroll with-
out considerable allowance in the way of
length in the blocks, cards, or whatever may
be the medium of execution ; nor can you
well avoid a certain upright tendency in pat-
terns where the width is very much restricted
The fact of the matter is, the characteristic
lines of time-honoured patterns are mainly the
direct result of the restrictions under which
the craftsman was working.
It is owing to the facility with which triangu-
lar cubes or tiles can be arranged in pattern,
that the peculiarly geometric character of much


Piate 33

>
Form
OGEE
Construction





Plate 34

OF KELL, MOTO-LITHO.8.FURNIVAL ST HOI DOAN,C.C





Appropriate Pattern.
49
Oriental ornament is due. So also with
us,
the
proportions of the square tile have resulted
in a distinctly characteristic form of ornament.
I do not pretend to say whether the turning
over of the design which prevails in early
silks, was suggested by the fact that such
turning over could be so readily done in
weaving ; but it looks, at all events, as though
the Sicilians, and, in fact, weavers generally,
until comparatively recent times, adopted that
plan of design, because by means of it they
could without more ado double the scale of
their pattern.
In the Renaissance silk, figured on Plate 33,
and in all such turned-over designs planned
upon the diamond, hexagon, or ogee, one-
half the labour of designing and card-cutting
is saved. Naturally, the nineteenth century
manufacturer has not been slow to adopt a
plan so obviously economical. It has been
said, that the idea of reversing a pattern
owes its origin to the circumstance that you
may double a sheet of paper, and so, with one
action, cut out the two sides of it. If that
is not so, it well might be—except that, pro-
bably, reversed patterns were common long
before paper was. Very possibly it is derived
E


50
The Anatomy of Pattern.
from the practice of folding or doubling. One
may put together, for example, several sheets
of veneer, or even several planks, and, with one
action of the saw, fret all of them alike. That
facility gave rise at all events to Boulle's
characteristic inlay patterns ; * and in the
balconies of Swiss châlets one still sees a very
effective kind of pierced pattern-work, which
is accounted for in a similar way.f
Bands or stripes of different colours are so
common in Eastern curtains, blankets, &c.,
because they can be so easily woven. ^ Even
in more elaborate silk and other designs,
certain of the colours are very often dis-
tributed band-wise. The variety of colour so
obtained, is obviously due to the ease with
which the weaver can change his shuttle.
At the same time, economy is thus often
effected. If in such a design as that on
Plate 34 the flowers were meant to appear
in gold, or only the eyes of the flowers, the
gold thread need only be used in the bands
where the flowers or eyes actually occur.
You have but to look at the back of any
* The Planning of Ornament,' plate 14.
† “The Application of Ornament,' plate 30.
À 'The Application of Ornament,' plate 20.


Plate 35.

YT.
Wave-lines crossed
by borizontal bands
of largs
Rosettes





Appropriate Pattern.
51
old piece of many-coloured silk damask to
see the changes of the shuttle very plainly
marked. The aim of the designer is usually to
disguise them more or less in his pattern. But
in the early days of silk weaving the unso-
phisticated artist had no fear of a horizontal
line. In such a pattern as the Sicilian silk in
Plate 20, he would boldly make the various
bands of animals in various colours. He
would sometimes even carry bands of colour
straight across the animals, regardless of their
shape. And the effect of this rough-and-
ready proceeding, in the silk itself, certainly
justifies him (Plate 20, Vol. iii.).
In early examples of weaving both the
turning over of the pattern, and the banded
arrangement of the colour are very frequent;
indeed, so much so, as to form quite marked
features in the design of the eleventh and fol-
lowing centuries, whether Sicilian or Italian.
(It was from Sicily, you know, that the art of
weaving was introduced into Italy.)
Designers would be the more ready to
adopt, and to adhere to, the plan suggested
by the loom, in that the horizontal line, due to
it, was in no way injurious to the effect of a
fabric meant to fall in folds. The dim vertical


52
The Anatomy of Pattern.
line, which was likely to occur from the
turning over, was calculated to lose itself in
the more strongly marked verticality of the
folds, so the horizontal band emphasised by
the change of the shuttle had an absolute
value in marking the fulness of the hangings.
In flat decoration the horizontal band is less
unobjectionable; and it is for that reason that
so many of the wall-paper patterns, borrowed
or stolen from good old stuffs-by their stripes
you shall know them-are altogether unsatis-
factory on the wall. To me, horizontal stripes
usually suggest the ample hanging, and seem
to want the folds.
The bold and beautiful effect of such
damask pattern as that in Plate 35 would
be lost if it were rendered in flat decoration,
especially without the charm of the texture
of the stuff: those waving lines and bands
of big rosettes would be unendurable. That
pattern, by the way, although it actually
works on the principle of the parallelogram-
was obviously arrived at by carrying a broad
horizontal band of rosettes across a series of
waved upright lines.
Many an admirable textile pattern, suit-
able in all respects but that of its marked
a


Appropriate Pattern.
53
horizontal lines, is inapplicable to flat deco-
ration, whether in the shape of silk, or chintz,
or wall paper.
Some persons appear to be of opinion that,
a pattern (according to Dr. Johnson) being
"something to be copied,” design consists
therefore in copying what has been done
before. That is all very well so far as con-
cerns the definition of the word pattern ; but
how about the meaning of the word design ?
I would go against the lexicographer, and
say: not every pattern is an “exemplar.”
In adapting a design, from one material to
use in another, it is not enough to copy the
original : it needs to be translated; which
translation is not so easy, but that an artist
gifted with any invention of his own, will find it,
on the whole, better worth while to say what
it is in him to say for himself, and not go
on harping on the old, old tunes, melodious
though they be.
The most perplexing thing to us just now
is that we are asked to design, to-day under
these conditions, to-morrow under those.
We have no traditions and no style. Our
consolation is that in the very variety of the
efforts demanded of us there is relief of a


54
The Anatomy of Pattern.
5
kind : and in the presence of difficulties our
ingenuity, if we have any, is excited. The
more difficult the conditions, the more they
provoke solution. A designer must have in
him something of pugnacity; he must enjoy
attacking a tough problem. Indeed he proves
himself a designer, not when he has somehow
or other arrived at a design, but inasmuch as
out of unpromising material and untoward
circumstances he can contrive a thing of
beauty.
LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.





(Plate 1.

ले
म
11836
"PHOTO-TINT", by James Akerman,


TEXT BOOKS OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN.
[r.2
THE
PLANNING OF ORNAMENT.
BY
LEWIS F. DAY,
AUTHOR OF SOME PRINCIPLES OF EVERY DAY ART,'
• THE
ANATOMY OF PATTERN,' 'THE APPLICATION OF ORNAMENT,' ETC.
SECOND EDITION, REVISED,
WITH ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS.
LONDON:
B. T. BATSFORD, 52, HIGH HOLBORN.
1890.





PREFACE.
The second of a series of Text Books stands
scarcely in need of preface. The aim and
scope, as well as the origin, of this series
were duly set forth in ‘The Anatomy of
Pattern.' What was there said applies for
the most part to the present volume.
A new edition gives me the opportunity of
revising both the text and illustrations, and
of adding some new plates.
It is encouraging to find that the demand
for the Text Books is not exhausted with
the first issue, and that they appear to be
fulfilling the purpose I had in view in under-
taking them.
LEWIS F. DAY.
13, Mecklenburg Square, London, W.C.
September 21st, 1890.


-


TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
I.-INTRODUCTORY
I
II.-THE USE OF THE BORDER
..
3
III.-WITHIN THE BORDER
16
IV.-SOME ALTERNATIVES IN DESIGN
27
V.-ON THE FILLING OF THE CIRCLE AND OTHER
SHAPES
37
VI.-ORDER AND ACCIDENT
45





DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF PLATES.
1. PANEL AFTER THE MANNER OF DU CERCEAU-Order
in apparent disorder.
2. BORDER IN THE MANNER OF FLÖTNER—Example of
comparatively important frame.
3. ROMAN PAVEMENT-In which is shown the development
of a geometric diaper into a more important scheme of
ornament.
4. GREEK BORDER—Instance of simple and very formal
treatment.
5. DIAPERS—Schemed to fit panels.
6. PAINTED DOOR—Showing the influence of the propor-
tions of the panels upon the design of the decoration.
7. BOOK COVER OF XVIITH CENTURY—Illustrating the use of
border within border,
8. PANEL—Invaded by ornament springing from the border.
9. INTERLACED HENRI II. BOOK COVER - In which a
border line is suggested.
10. PANEL—In which the border is inseparable from the
filling.
11. PANEL—In which the filling breaks over the border, in
the Japanese manner.


х
List of Plates.
12. PANEL-In which the border is invaded by the field.
13. INLAY, AFTER BOULE-In which the border, so to speak,
loses itself.
14. FREE DESIGN–Which by the orderly arrangement of the
parts constitutes itself a border.
15. BROKEN BORDERS-Showing various ways of breaking
them.
16. INLAID PANEL-Showing a break in the border, and
the suspension of the principal ornamental feature.
17. CARTOUCHE, AFTER JOST AMMAN—A very free treat-
ment of the frame.
18. PANEL_With medallion, &c.
10 PATTERN-In which the detail is grouped so as to give
medallion shapes not otherwise marked.
20. DIAPER -Not schemed with reference to the panel it fills.
21. PANEL IN NIELLO—With geometric diapers disposed in
eccentric Japanese fashion.
22. BANDS—Their application to a cylindrical shape.
23. DOOR PANELS— Treated from the ends.
24. BOOK COVER—Treated from the corners.
25. DOORS-One-sided scheme accounted for by the position
of lock plates.
26. PART OF CABINET-In which the construction has sug-
gested the scheme of ornament.
27. LACQUER BOX-In which the artist takes the whole
object for his field.


List of Plates.
xi
28. CABINET DOOR-Jacobean panelling.
29. CARVED DADO-With square panel shapes within the
panels.
30. DESIGN-In which the borders are interrupted.
31. DOOR—In which the disproportion of the panels is recti.
fied by borders supplementary to the mouldings. .
32. PANEL-Where the borders round a central medallion
interrupt the borders of the panel itself.
33. SUBDIVISIONS-Each with its own ornamental filling.
34. PANEL-Eccentrically cut in two.
35. BROKEN SURFACE-Japanese diaper without repeat.
36. STENCILLED ROOF DECORATION - Designed in cross
bands to correct the parallel lines of the joists.
37. VASES—Illustrating lines on which they may be decorated.
38. DIAGRAMS-Explanatory of the subdivision of the circle.
39. CIRCLES—Illustrating lines on which they may be deco-
rated.
40. BOOK COVER-One ornamental feature designed to
disappear behind another.
41. PANELS-Jointly symmetrical.





THE
PLANNING OF ORNAMENT.
1.
INTRODUCTORY.
"The Anatomy of Pattern" concerned itself
with the lines on which repeated pattern
is built. It is proposed in this second text-
book of the series to discuss the order in
which ornament not necessarily recurring
may be distributed. And it will not be diffi-
cult to show that, illimitable as those lines
may at first sight appear to be, they too allow
themselves to be classed pretty definitely ;
and, moreover, that the classes are not by any
means so numerous as might be supposed.
The first step in design, or rather the
preliminary to all design, is to determine the
lines on which it shall be distributed—to plan
it, that is to say.
The more clearly the designer realises to
himself the lines on which it is open to him to
B


2
The Planning of Ornament.
proceed, the better; and if it can be shown
(as it can) that these are, comparatively
speaking, few and simple, so much the easier
will it be for him to make up his mind
promptly and determinedly which of them he
will in any given case adopt.
The shape of the actual space to be filled
will oftentimes determine for him, more or
less, the distribution of his design. That is
to say, it may very likely render certain
schemes altogether unavailable, and perhaps
even limit his choice to a single plan; but at
his very freest a man is limited, in the nature
of things, to certain methods of procedure
presently to be defined.
Plainly it would be out of the question to
discuss at length the relation of every possible
plan to every possible shape. I purpose,
therefore, to take the simple parallelogram
(which may stand for panel, page, floor,
ceiling, carpet, curtain, wall, window, door,
façade, no matter what), and to show the
possibilities with regard to the distribution of
ornament over its surface. It will then
remain only to explain how the same prin-
ciples apply, whatever the shape to be
filled.


The Use of the Border.
3
II.
THE USE OF THE BORDER.
Given a panel to be filled, how is this to
be done?
There are two very obvious ways of going
to work, either of which, to the sophisticated
modern at all events, seems equally natural.
You may start as well from the centre as from
the edge of it. That is to say, you may boldly
attack the centre and let your design spread
outwards to the margin ; or you may begin
with a border and creep cautiously inwards.
When once the border is defined, the space
within remains to be treated. Theoretically,
indeed, you have only reduced the area over
which your composition is to be distributed.
But practically that is not quite so; more
especially if the border be of any importance.
For a border may be of such interest that
nothing further is needed, and the centre of
the panel is best undisturbed by ornament.
Especially may this be so if the material in
B 2


4
The Planning of Ornament.
use be in itself of some intrinsic interest. It
is distinctly not desirable to mar the surface
of beautiful wood or richly varied marble
with added ornament. And, for example,
with the cabinet maker it resolves itself pretty
generally (unless he should once in a while
mean to indulge in ultra lavish enrichment),
into a question of whether he shall enrich his
panels or the mouldings bordering them.
The proportion of a border is of more
importance to a scheme of design than might
be supposed. It makes all the difference
whether it is simple or elaborate in character.
A very deep rich border has such an entirely
different effect from a moderately simple one,
that it looks something like a different treat-
ment altogether. Compare Plates 2, 3, and
4, and see what a different part the border
plays. in each. The ornament on Plate 2
might appropriately enrich a page of text :
that on Plate 4 requires obviously some more
substantial filling. The strength of the border
goes for something as well as its depth.
Borders may easily be so schemed (and
should be so schemed) as to give panels of
proportions calculated to allow of the decora-
tion proposed for them. If, for instance, a


Plate 2.
D

Be
C. KELL. NOTO-LITHO...FVINWAL ST NOLSONA.A





(Plate 3.

.
GRADE


--
和
​


Plate 4.

OOOO
"OOM OOOO"
ᏱᏊᏱᏊᏊᏊᏊᏊᏊᏊᏊ
J. Alerman Photo-lith London





The Use of the Border.
ол
panel is to be filled with a diaper, arrange-
ment should be made for the “repeat” of the
pattern within it. It is quite clear that the
Arab diaper spread over the panels in Plate 5
was devised expressly with that object. Again
in Plate 6 the necessity of accommodating
one's ornament to shapes so unequal as the
panels of the door, has obviously to a con-
siderable extent controlled the design. But
for those small upper panels, it would never
have occurred to one to break up the longer
panels just so.
Panels or other spaces which are to contain
figures or figure subjects should be of a pro-
portion and size not too difficult to occupy in
that way
In the case of an isolated panel, this is
perhaps of less importance—the artist ought
to be equal to the occasion—but in the case
of a series of panels to be treated in accord,
the problem is made infinitely more difficult
when they are of all manner of shapes and
sizes.
It is no easy matter to scheme even the sim-
plest ornament into panels of such awkward
and widely different shapes and sizes as the
decorator has only too frequently to deal with.


6
The Planning of Ornament.
There is a salon in the palace at Fontaine-
bleau in which the proportions of the panel-
ling prove to be due almost entirely to the
painter, who has brought the larger panels
into scale with the smaller by means of a
series of borders within the actual mouldings.
It is much less trouble, of course, for the
joiner, when he has an awkward space to
panel, to determine the width of the stiles,
and let the panels come as they may. But
a very little consideration on his part would
save the decorator, who comes after him, an
infinity of pains. And though it may be the
business of the decorator to get over difficul-
ties of the sort, his work is not so easy that
there is any occasion to put difficulties in his
way.
The stiles which frame a panel may be con-
sidered as its border; the mouldings again,
are so many borders within borders.
A border which is made up of many lines
really constitutes a series of borders one
within the other. The use of border within
border as a deliberate scheme of ornament is
common enough, as was the case in certain
tooled bookbindings of the seventeenth cen-
tury, one of which is represented on Plate 7.


Plate 5.



J Akerman Photo-lith London





Plate 6

26
C.F.KSLL, LITHO, , FURNIVAL ST NOLIONN, K.C.






Plate 7
TUTINN
ME
MO1961
3
e
20
51
C. KL, PHOTO-LITHO.O.FURNIVAL ST HOLSONN,E.O





Plate 8

UMRETTE
Lucis I. Day.is
1987
• KELL, NOTO-UTINO...FURNIVAL ST MOLDONN,L.O





The Use of the Border.
7
You may even add border to border (as was
sometimes done) until the whole field is
occupied. It is not altogether uncommon in
Renaissance cabinet-work to find the panel en-
croached upon by border after border of mould-
ings until it dwindles practically to nothing.
The obvious and simple thing to do with a
border is to keep it of one uniform and equal
width. But such equality of width is by no
means essential. You may see in mediæval
illuminations the effect, more or less satisfac-
tory, of emphasising two sides of the page.
Nor need the border necessarily be continued
all round the space at all. Curtains have
often a border on two sides only, and some-
times only on one, marking what one may
call the lips of the hangings. You may look
upon the architrave of a door as a border on
three sides of it only. And in the same way
a mantelpiece partly frames the fire-grate, the
fender completing the scheme. A certain
reasonableness is the most complete justifica-
tion of such partial bordering.
Every frame is a border. No matter how
irregular the shape of it may be, a frame's a
frame “for a' that.” It may take the archi-
tectural form of cornice, pilasters, and dado,


8
The Planning of Ornament.
or it may be arched ; and in either case
the architectural members are but unequal
borders. All this applies, it need scarcely be
said, not only to an architectural picture
frame, but to architecture itself, and to
whatever may
be framed.
Something like a new departure occurs
when the border, so to speak, invades the
field or centre of the panel, as it very often
does in French Renaissance work, sometimes
to such an extent that little or no further
décoration of the field is necessary. There is
an indication of such trespass in Plate 8,
where the “swag” and corner ornaments,
which belong to the border, cut deliberately
across the face of the panel. In some of the
interlacing strap work of the Henri II. period
(the French equivalent to our Elizabethan
ornament), you cannot always clearly tell
where the border begins and ends, or even
whether a border was intended at all. It
looks sometimes as if the designer had
started with the notion of a border, but had
allowed it so to encroach upon the field, or
the field upon it, that in the end it is not at
all clearly recognisable as such. An example
of the kind occurs in Plate 9.
You may


Plate 9

Simi
C.F. KELL, PHOTO-LITHO, B,FURNIVAL ST HOLBORN,E.C.






Plate 10
ha
"PHOTO-TINT", by James Akerman.





Plate 11.

D
'PNOTO-TINT, by James Akerman





The Use of the Border.
9
see the idea of a border here, but you
innot be quite so certain that the designer
intended it.
Nearly allied to this is another variety of
border, also devised so as to be quite in-
separable from the filling ; in which, in fact,
frame and filling are so ingeniously mixed up
that but for the emphasis of colour, the effect
would be confused. There is an instance of
this in Plate 10, where the scroll, whilst to
some extent acknowledging the boundary
line, invades, and indeed entirely occupies,
the border. In such a case there is at all
events no fear of the exceeding preciseness
which is one of the dangers to beware of in
border design.
It is interesting to notice the difference
between the last-mentioned method and the
practice of the Japanese, who will, in the most
unhesitating manner, allow the panel pattern,
whatever it may be, to break over the margin
or border, as the impulse may prompt. It is
a proceeding which may or may not result in
confusion, according to the relative strength of
the border and the pattern that cuts across it.
In Plate ii the border pattern is so subdued
that the more important floral growth is very


IO
The Planning of Ornament,
well able to take care of itself. In the case
of a panel in which the enrichment only
partially occupies the ground, it is often
advisable to introduce some sort of subsidiary
border, losing itself behind such more pro-
minent enrichment.
One appreciates the freak of the Japanese
as a relief from the monotony of absolutely
formal disposition; but it is not a thing to
indulge in very freely. It is refreshing to
see that a man is not afraid of infringing
occasionally upon the margin-on sufficient
grounds; but the licence needs always to
be justified by some excuse other than the
artist's impatience of order. We have to
be on our guard against a certain spirit of
anarchy which appears to have taken posses-
sion of so many a modern artist. There is
a class (one cannot call it properly a school)
which will repudiate, not only all the laws of
art, but the need of all law whatsoever.
Urgent need there may be of reform in our
ideas of art, perhaps even of revolution ; but
sobriety recognises in the artistic anarchist
only the enemy of art.
There is no peculiar sanctity implied in a
margin, that it should be held inviolate; but


Plate 12

1
Border
invaded by
the field
1
C.F. KELL, PHOTO-LITHO..FURNIVAL SY HOLBORN,E.C





Plate 13.

6)
9
"PHOTO-TINT", by James Akerinan.





Plate 14.
"PHOTO-TINY", by James Akerman





The Use of the Border.
II
the very idea of ornament implies order. And
the artist cannot afford to be forgetful of
order, even when he allows his border to
overgrow the field, or his filling pattern to
extend beyond the frame.
There was a fashion in vogue in the seven-
teenth and eighteenth centuries — borrowed
probably from the East-according to which
the border is invaded rather by the field or
ground than by the pattern on it ; where the
field, in fact, seems to eat into the border.
It is usually, as you may observe in Plate 12,
rather a symmetrical mouthful that it takes.
A border may be lost in a sort of confusion
with the panel it began by pretending to
enclose. No one ever managed that more
cleverly than Boulle, a panel of whose design
is given in Plate 13. There is considerable
ingenuity in the way in which the pattern is
made to appear alternately light on dark and
dark on light, without actually confining such
alternation within strict border lines, as on
Plate 16. But a border remains a border,
however undefined. Boundaries may be un-
derstood rather than expressed. Yet that
makes no difference as to the lines upon which
a design is constructed. You may discard the


I 2
The Planning of Ornament.
very idea of formality ; you may determine
that you will have none of it; that you will
merely sketch upon your page such and such
marginal forms, natural or ornamental; but if
you dispose them in anything like an orderly
manner, you arrive at something which comes
as clearly under the category of border treat-
ment as though it had been enclosed by hard
and fast boundary lines. The winged heads
and boys and ribands on Plate 14 form, after
all, a border.
Every margin or marginal line is in its
degree a border. The white margin of this
printed page borders the type. In Indian and
other Oriental work you often see the orna-
mental details so closely packed as to define
the border-shape even without actual boun-
dary lines. And the Germans of the sixteenth
century (Jost Amman, for example) sometimes
did with very different details just the same
thing. The looser borders of the looser times
of Louis XIV., XV., XVI., do everything they
can to hide the lines of their construction ;
but you may take it as a sign of artistic
demoralisation to be afraid of a straight line.
Hogarth, who preached "the line of beauty,"
was not exactly an apostle of the beautiful.


Plate 15.

Break in Border
accounted for
by Patera
Broken Borders
Border
cloubling
upon
itself
Arbitrary break
in Border by Giova 1912 i, da
Udine
co
e.. KELL, NOTO-LITNO, O.FURNIVAL 6T HOLOAN,E.O.





(Plate 16

৩
ই
C%99
C.F KELL, PHOTO-LITHO. 8.FURNIVAL ST HOLBORN, E.C.





The Use of the Border.
13
So great is the use of the border, that even
they who least like formal lines are bound to
adopt it; although they are perpetually re-
belling against its formality, and doing their
best to break it up, as in the case of the
encroaching and interrupted borders already
mentioned.
The very naïvest way of getting over the
difficulty—it is a difficulty, there is no denying
-is by, so to speak, snipping a piece or two
out of the panel, and carrying the border round
the incisions, so as to get a more or less irre-
gular central space instead of the four-square
parallelogram.
In the Certosa near Florence, there are some
windows by Giovanni da Udine (the border
of one of them is illustrated on Plate 15),
in which he has deliberately snipped pieces
(a) out of the space to be filled, and left them
so many gaps in the design.
We can
forgive this kind of thing once in a way ;
but it stands very much in need of justifi-
cation.
Where a gap has some meaning it is
different. In the case where there is a square
block or patera occupying the corner, as
you sometimes see in seventeenth century
as


14
The Planning of Ornament.
wood-panelling (and on Plates 15 and 16),
that seems to account for the break in the
border. It is as though the border went out
of its way in order to escape the patera.
Nor is there any objection to the doubling
of the border round an imaginary line (b
on Plate 15); by which means
the same
end of irregularity is arrived at without the
brutality of da Udine's method. The Italians
of the Cinque Cento resorted freely to the
foregoing plans—in their schemes of ceiling
decoration to wit; and with marvellously
beautiful results. Perhaps, however, they
were rather too ready,-certainly the artists
of the later Renaissance were too ready-to
adopt any device which would enable them to
depart from the simple panel form. In not a
few instances, the further they went from it
the worse it fared with them.
A separate treatise might be written upon
the construction of the border itself. It may
be continuous or broken, and broken at all
manner of intervals, and in all manner of
ways. It may flow, or grow. It may be
symmetrical or absolutely free. The outer or
the inner edge may be accentuated, or both,
or neither. It may spread outwards from


The Use of the Border.
15
a well-defined central feature or inwards from
the margin, diffusing itself, and giving a less
definite central shape.
But it is not so much the design of the
border that we are considering at present as
the place of the border in design-on which
point enough for the present has been said.


16
The Planning of Ornament.
III.
WITHIN THE BORDER.
Though you abandon all idea of bordering,
and elect to place, as you well may, some
arbitrary shape within the parallelogram, the
space round about that shape may indeed be
considered as an irregular border to the same.
If, for example, you plant in the centre of the
space a medallion, and round that medallion
design a cartouche, after the manner of Jost
Amman in Plate 17, the cartouche and its
accessories may be called the frame or border
of the medallion; and, again, the ground
beyond the edge of the ornament may be
taken to be the margin or border to that.
But it is going rather out of the way to look
at Amman's design in that light.
In the example chosen for illustration we
have shapes, fitted one to the other; but one
might just as well have two or more indepen-
dent and unconnected shapes. Nothing is
easier than to take a simple field, and to spot


Plate 17.

bi
borc
are
"PHOTO-TINY", by James Akerman,





Plate 18

cs
"PHOTO-TINT", by James Akerman..





Plate 19.

B
C. KELL, PHOTO-LITKO.B.FURNIVAL ST HOLBORN,E.D.





Within the Border.
17
about upon it any shapes you please. That is
one way, not a very ornamental way, but one
way, of occupying the space.
When you proceed to connect such shapes
in any way, you bring in another principle of
design--which, however, will be more con-
veniently approached from the other side,
when we come (as we presently shall) to the
discussion of the lines enclosing various shapes
and subdivisions.
Abandoning all thought of border, or sup-
posing a border already in existence, you
may, as I said, plant any independent shape,
medallion, shield, cartouche, tablet, what you
will, within it. This form may be left, as it
were, floating in space, or it may be sup-
ported by ornament; which ornament may
literally seem to hold it up; or, if you will,
the ornament may appear to be suspended
from it, as was most frequently the case with
the festoons and garlands of the later Re-
naissance. Instances of such support and
suspension are given in Plates 16, 17, 18.
Finally, the ornament may be unconnected
with the central shape, and comparatively
independent of it, as a powdering or sprig-
diaper would be.
С


18
The Planning of Ornament.
The central feature need not, of course, in-
clude a frame of
any kind ;
it
may
be a figure,
a spray of flowers or ornament, a vignette, a
spot, a spray-as free as painter's heart could
wish. Or, just as in the case of the closely-
packed border whose shape was marked
without the aid of boundary lines, so any
central sprig of ornament or foliage may be
so densely massed within a square, circle,
quatrefoil, or other imaginary form, as to
assume a quite regular outline. Such group-
ing of the ornament is shown very plainly
in Plate 19, where the circular shape is
emphatically pronounced without the aid of
any enclosing line. You see the same thing
very commonly in Indian art.
A number of sprays, or other features, free
or formal, group themselves into a sort of
diaper. Such diaper should naturally have
some reference to the space it fills, or it will
appear less than trivial. The interlacings on
Plate 5 form panels, Plates 20 and 35 are
only bits of diaper work, Whether the com-
ponent units of such a decoration be all alike,
or of various design, is a question independent
of the lines of their distribution. The variety
in Plate 21 is at all events amusing. Had


Plate 20.

oktoris. Dan
C.F. KELL, PHOTO-LITHO, 8,FURNIVAL ST HOLBORN, E.C.





Plate 21.

*
J. Akerman, Photo-lith. London


Plate 22.

:::::
*
राज
"PHOTO-TINT', by James Akerman.





20
The Planning of Ornament.
II and 25, or disposed symmetrically in rela-
tion to an imaginary central line or spinal
cord, as in Plates 10, 13, 16, &c. ; or it may
radiate from the centre, as it naturally would
in a ceiling, pavement, carpet, or other object
demanding an all-round treatment.
Some-
thing like radiation of the design occurs in
Plates 3 and 9.
The scroll work, or what not, may equally
proceed from two ends of the panel, as in
Plate 23, or from the sides, or from both
sides and ends, either symmetrically or at
irregular intervals; or it may spring from
the corner or corners, as in Plate 24.
The treatment from the corners is, again,
adapted to, and often adopted in, ceiling
decoration. In principle it is very right
indeed ; but in practice it is not invariably all
that decorator could desire. The “line and
corner" tune, as it may be called, has been
harped upon until one is pretty well sick of
it, even when it is played in time—which is
not always the case.
A corner-wise treatment is seen to advan-
tage when it has been suggested by use, as in
the metal garniture of old book-bindings, and
in the clamps of coffers such as German


Plate 23

C.F. KELL, PHOTO-LITHO, 8.FURNIVAL ST HOLDORN,E.C.





Plate 24.

OS
1
J Akerman Photo-lith London





Within the Border.
21
smiths of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
elaborated with workmanlike pride. In the
tooled binding of the Henri II. period,
given on Plate 9, the corner is very carefully
taken into consideration, such consideration
being very possibly a survival from the times
when the corners were habitually protected
by metal-work. There is an instance of this
on Plate 40. You see also in book covers
of all times instances of a treatment where
the design is manifestly “to be continued in
our next," the side unseen being necessary
to its symmetrical completeness.
Further examples of the same thing occur
in the mediæval cabinet doors given in
Plate 25.
The need of clasps, hinges, and so forth,
no doubt gave the hint of such a manner,
which, in spite of the one-sided forms it gives,
is wholly satisfactory in effect. We do not
sufficiently realise how readily the mind
makes good what the eye does not see in
design ; assuming, that is to say, a certain
workmanlike reasonableness in it. In Plate
26 (which is only one half of a cabinet) the
design is in a very noticeable degree the
outcome of the constructional idea. The


22
The Planning of Ornament.
artist relied greatly upon the locks and hinges
for his effect.
It is worth while to compare the above-
mentioned scheme, in which the symmetry is
suggested rather than expressed, with the free
and easy way in which the Japanese lacquer-
worker will overrun the limits of a box top or
cabinet front, and trail his ornament over all
or any of its sides indiscriminately. The
front of the box is not enough for the dragon
on Plate 27. Yet you will observe that there
is a certain consideration for ornamental pro-
priety in the disposition, for example, of the
creature's claws.
There also, the artist, in his very different
fashion, chooses to consider the whole object
his field, and not just the portion of it he sees
before him. There is a certain logic in his
licence, too-especially as it appears to be
good manners in Japan minutely to examine
your neighbour's nicknacks; but the more
restrained manner of the mediæval workman
is, in proportion to its restraint, the more to
be preferred.
Where the design-scroll, foliage, or what-
ever it may be-bears no relation at all to the
shape or space it occupies, like the diapers


Plate 25.


DOORS
of old
German
Cabinets
with
heraldic
carving
قمل
Panels
incomplete
or
one-sided
C.E. KELL, PHOTO-LITHO, S.FURNIVAL ST HOLYOAN, E.O.





Plate 26.

Part of a Cabinet
German
C. KELL, PHOTO-LITHO, B.FURNIVAL ST HOLDORN, L.O.





Within the Border.
23
on Plates 20 and 35, it ceases to be surface
design, and is merely a means of breaking the
surface. It is only as a background that
such hap-hazard distribution of forms has any
meaning. But then a good deal of decorative
design pretends to be no more than back-
ground.
A very satisfactory and effective result is
sometimes reached where the artist starts, as
it seems, with the idea of a diaper more or
less geometrical, and, as he approaches the
centre of the panel, gathers together the
pattern, so to speak, into points of emphasis.
You see this in the Roman pavement repre-
sented on Plate 3.
That is a case in which the design was
unmistakably set out first of all in geometric
divisions, certain of which divisions were
afterwards grouped together to give point to
the pattern. If you analyse any of the old
Jacobean ceiling designs, or the Italian
originals on which they are but variations,
you will find that many of them may be
resolved into very simple diapers, on a rather
large scale, adapted to the space they fill, and
emphasised here and there by figure subjects
or other special filling of some of the more


24
The Planning of Ornament.
prominent geometric compartments. The
panelling of the Jacobean cupboard door on
Plate 28 resolves itself into just such a diaper,
to which the figure in the central octagon
gives point.
The difference between the method of design
employed in Plate 3, and the plan adopted in
the kind of design shown on Plate 9 is, that
in this last the main shapes appear rather
to have suggested the corresponding interlace-
ments than the interlacements to have led up
to them. But even in such a case it seems
desirable that the artist should have in his
mind from the beginning some kind of idea of
geometric construction. The longer he can
manage to keep that geometric notion in his
mind, without putting it on paper, the more
freely he can go to work. That same faculty
of holding a design, so to speak, in solution
in the mind, is most invaluable to the designer.
A notion is so much more manageable in its
fluid state. Once an idea is allowed to
crystallise into definite form, it is no easy
matter to modify it.
Should the space to be decorated be very
considerable in extent, it is often nece ary
to cut it up into sections, otherwise than by


Plate 27.

"PHOTO-TIxt, by Jamu Akerman.





26
The Planning of Ornament.
dado, either one of which may again be broken
up. Thus the dado on Plate 29, itself one
division of a scheme, is again subdivided into
panels—and each of these panels is further
broken up by a square of carving enclosed
within an irregular margin of plain wood.
Again one may plant upon the field any
independent feature, frame, shield, tablet,
or such like, and then fill in the background
without regard to it, as though a portion of
the design were lost behind it. As many as
three, or more, plans may be associated. For
example, one may, as on Plate 30, stretch
across a title-page a tablet, then introduce a
border disappearing behind it, and the spaces
enclosed between the border and the top and
bottom of the tablet one may treat again
either as one interrupted panel or as two
independent parts. The fact, however, that
they are both, as it were, on one plane in the
design, seems to require that they should
both be treated in much the same way.
The possibilities opened out by this associ-
ation of various plans, are obvious.


Plate 29.

... KELL, NOTO-LITHO.O.FURNIML ST MOLDOAN, E.C
44..
Հ Ա Ն Ո ԼՈ ՐԿԻ ԱԼԱՆ ԱԼԱ, ԼԵՆ





Plate 30.

ART OF
DECORATIVE
DESIGN
"PHOTO-TINT", by james Akerman.





Some Alternatives in Design.
27
IV.
SOME ALTERNATIVES IN DESIGN.
The use of the border is not, of course, con-
fined to the outer edge of the main space to
be filled. Every sub-section of the design may
be provided with its own border, as you see
in the case of panelling, where each separate
panel has its own border of mouldings.
Plate 3 shows two panels only of the design
emphasised by independent borders within
the outer frame. On Plates 6 and 31, the
mouldings round the door panels are supple-
mented by additional painted borders.
A central feature, such as the medallion on
Plate 32, may have its border or borders,
interlacing with, intercepting, or intercepted
by, the borders which mark the space or
panel itself.
A surface once subdivided, as already
described, two separate courses are open to
the artist. The one is to accept each com-
partment as a separate panel, designing his


28
The Planning of Ornament.
ornament into it; in the manner shown on
Plate 33. The other, which is no less reason-
able, is to make his ornament continuous
throughout; allowing it, that is to say, to
cross the dividing lines or to interlace with
them; more in the manner of Plate 9. The
necessary thing is always to take the dividing
lines duly into account even when crossing
them.
Again, the two plans may be combined,
certain prominent parts being reserved for
individual treatment, and the subsidiary spaces
only being linked together by the forms
of the ornament, as though in Plate 33 the
pattern had been allowed to meander through
the lesser panels, the central diamond only
being reserved for the grotesque head.
Which of these plans may be the better to
adopt is a question of some nicety, not always
easily to be decided. What rational ques-
tion is? In proportion to the importance of
the framing lines, it becomes dangerous to
overstep them. Who ventures nothing runs
no risk of failure; but neither will he achieve
any great success in art. And then there
is the charm of danger. Soldiers, sports-
men, and mountaineers are not the only class





Plate 32.

MOா
(59
(
கை
ceaes
'PNoro -TNT', by Janes Akerman





Plate 33.

7
"PHOTO-TINT", by James Akerman.





Some Alternatives in Design.
29
of persons privileged to run a risk. It is
a luxury we may all indulge in on occasion
—were it not so, art would be no congenial
pursuit for any one who is really alive. Only
a man should look before he leaps into
danger, weigh the odds before he wagers;
“ Erst wägen, dann wagen," is the pithy way
Count Moltke's motto puts it.
When the artist starts from the beginning,
and the scheme of design rests entirely in his
own hands, it is not so difficult to determine
just what is fit. The scheme develops itself.
But in the more frequent case, in which the
art of the ornamentist is only supplementary,
and he has to work, as he usually has, upon
lines already laid down for him, it is only
where those lines are worth preserving that
he is necessarily bound to preserve them-
assuming, that is, that he can obliterate them.
This is heterodox, but none the less true. If
the lines existing are bad, and he can by his
design withdraw attention from them to lines
more reposeful to the eye, he is doing good
work. Only he should do nothing but what
he can make seem right. There must be no
appearance of awkwardness, no suspicion of
effort about it. It is a case in which success


30
The Planning of Ornament.
alone justifies the attack upon the situation.
To fail is to lay yourself open to the charge
of the unpardonable sin, the sin of disobedience
to the conditions of design.
An actually hap-hazard or eccentric scheme
of composition, such as a Japanese will some-
times affect, is hardly in contradiction to what
I have laid down. When a Japanese artist
cuts a panel quaintly into two, after the
manner of Plate 34, and treats each part of
it as seems good to his queer mind, he is only
doing what the Pompeian decorator did when
he cut off a portion of his wall space, and
painted it as a dado; though he does it more
energetically, not to say spasmodically, and
with less appreciation of proportion.
So, again, when the said Japanese strews
buds and blossoms about a box top, and
breaks up the ground between with conven-
tional, though very accidental, lines of crackle,
as on Plate 35, or when he crams all manner
of geometric diapers into a panel, as on
Plate 21, he is merely doing in a more eccen-
tric manner what the European artist does,
with greater regard for symmetry, when he
disposes his sprigs or what not on a geometric
basis. If only he arrive at balance, which he





Some Alternatives in Design.
31
almost invariably does (so little is his instinct
in this respect likely to err), there is no occasion
to cry out against him. We, on our part, are
perhaps too much disposed to design as
though there were no possible distinction
between symmetry and balance, between
bulk and value-as though the little leaden
weight did not balance the heaped-up pound
of fruit or feathers in the scale.
Design apparently quite unrestrained, such
as the men of the Renaissance habitually
indulged in, proves very often, upon exami-
nation, to be constructed upon one or other
of the systems I have described. Sometimes,
indeed, the system of construction is very
frankly indicated, though not precisely de-
fined the confession, that is to say, is full
enough to ensure absolution for any offence
there may be against strict order.
On Plate I there is blotted in a panel of
ornament somewhat on the lines of Androuet
du Cerceau, in which the central feature is an
echo of the medallion treatment, whilst certain
vertical and horizontal lines recall, however
vaguely, the notion of a border. Such remi-
niscences of severely constructional divisions
give additional charm, as it seems to me, to


32
The Planning of Ornament.
design otherwise fanciful, and even fantastic
in character. It is as though a man said in
his design, almost in so many words : I claim
my freedom, but I have some lingering
respect for law and order.
Except on the very minutest scale, the
scope of subdivision possible with regard
to a space, is not affected by the amount
of ornament introduced, nor by its character.
No matter whether it be human or animal
figure that you employ, conventional or
natural foliage, scroll or growth, interlace-
ment, arabesque, or geometric pattern, the
possibilities in the way of distribution are the
same.
Naturally, however, certain lines of sub-
division will be found to accord with certain
kinds of treatment; and so we find that, as a
matter of history, the Mohammedans adopted
certain lines of composition, the Greeks other
lines, and the Japanese quite others again, and
so on.
Furthermore, the lines one would instinc-
tively choose for different purposes would
themselves be different. One would scarcely
proceed to decorate a panel by merely cross-
ing it with bands of ornament (see Plate 22),





Some Alternatives in Design.
33
except perhaps in the case of some long strip
of a panel which it was absolutely necessary
to shorten. There is a case in point given on
Plate 36, where the disproportionate, though
constructionally very proper, length of the
panels of a roof is mitigated by the band-wise
arrangement of the stencilled ornament.
A similar system was found by the Greeks
to be the most satisfactory way of dealing
both with vases and draperies. Their pet
idea of decorating a full skirt seems to have
been by means of so many parallel patterns.
You have only to refer to the terra-cottas at
the British Museum to see both of these uses
illustrated, often in a single vase.
What one would do, then, is not the same
thing as what might be done. The possible
ways of distribution are never all of them
alike expedient. There must, for example,
necessarily be some correspondence between
detail and its distribution.
For all that, there is no cut and dried rule
as to the association of this kind of detail
with that kind of distribution, or vice versa.
It does not even follow that the description
of detail usually found in connection with a
certain order of composition is the only detail
D


34
The Planning of Ornament.
appropriate to it. The happy connection of
the one with the other is evidence only of
their conformity, not at all of the incongru-
ity of other combinations. It is just possible
to fry without bread-crumbs. Is it not chiefly
laziness (where it is not a suspicion of our
own incompetence) which tempts us to adopt
bodily what has already been found to suc-
ceed? There are so many people in the
world to whom it comes easier to take what
there is than to give something of their own.
A design is in harmony, not when it is
strictly according to Greek or Gothic prece-
dent, but when the parts all fit.
Suppose, for instance, the lines in a compo-
sition lead up to some prominent feature,
that feature must be of sufficient interest to
justify the attention it attracts.
There are
positions so prominent they almost demand
figure design properly to occupy them.
Such central features as those in Plates 1,
17, and 32 are bound in consistency to be
of more importance than their surroundings.
I don't mean to say that an heraldic shield
like that on Plate 17 is essentially of pro-
foundest interest; but in the eyes of its
owner at least it is worthy of all prominence.


Plate 36.

Lewis 3. Dan 1285





Some Alternatives in Design.
35
In like manner also, if it is proposed to
introduce the figure, or anything of that
importance, it is only natural to provide for it
in your scheme, whether in the shape of
medallion, frame, niche, or what not. The
gem of your design should have a setting
worthy of it.
Any feature, such as a tablet, medallion,
label, cartouche, shield, and so on, introduced
into a composition, should bear relation not
only to its surroundings, but to what it is to
enclose. This is a serious consideration very
often neglected. It is no uncommon thing to
see a shield introduced only to bear an inscrip-
tion, a circular medallion to frame a picture
which demands a rectangular outline, and all
manner of queerly proportioned shapes, which
by their very position call for decoration, whilst,
at the same time, it is almost impossible to
fill them satisfactorily.
Upon the same principle of fitness, a pre-
determination to adopt natural forms of
foliage would, artistically speaking, necessitate
the choice of a not too rigid skeleton for
it. Detail designed on a large scale would
call for equal breadth and simplicity in the
setting out
D 2


36
The Planning of Ornament.
So with regard to the allotment of orna-
ment-once the lines determined, the artist
must scheme his ornament accordingly.
Whether he elect to ornament every portion
of the surface, as the Orientals and the artists
of the Early Renaissance often do, or certain
selected parts only, like the Greeks, whether
he chose to decorate many parts or few, and
which parts, and how—that is his affair. His
taste must be his guide in that; and unless
he have some taste he had better not
attempt to design. This may sound like
discouragement; but it is only kindness to
the beginner easily capable of discouragement
to make him aware at once of the difficulties
in his way. The lukewarm may as well be
warned off. Ornament is not one of those
easy things a man may take up for a liveli-
hood, pending fame as a painter. Success
in ornament implies devotion to it.


On the Filling of the Circle, &C. 37
V.
ON THE FILLING OF THE CIRCLE AND
OTHER SHAPES.
The various lines on which ornament may
be distributed over a simple panel or parallel-
ogram having been so far discussed, it remains
now to show how the same principles apply
to the covering of all manner of shapes.
Evidently it makes little difference at all,
and in principle none whatever, whether it is
four sides of a figure we have to deal with, or
three, or five, or how many. In either case
you proceed in the same way; you work from
the centre or from the sides, as best may
suit;
you divide your space into regular or irregular
compartments, on the systems already ex-
plained ; you overlay one feature with another,
or interweave this with that ; you interrupt a
border, or encroach upon a field, according to
the circumstances of the case; and so on,
much as though it were a square shape you
were dealing with.


38
The Planning of Ornament.
In the case of anything like an awkward
shape, you have even an opportunity of
correcting it, by introducing into it some pro-
minent figure of more regular outline, which,
if you insist upon it, will occupy attention,
whilst the irregular surrounding space will go
only for margin or border—just as in the
case of the regular panel you had the option
of discounting its severity by means of any
irregular feature it seemed good to you to
insert.
The management of the circular shape, and
of the irregular forms of vases, seems to
present a more serious difficulty; but it is
more apparent than real.
The simple treatment of a vase is (1) ac-
cording to its elevation, as may be seen in
Vase 1, Plate 37, or in any striped Venetian
glass, or (2) according to its plan, as exem-
plified in Vases 2, 3, 4, or in the rude
earthenware of every period. The glass-
blower falls, in fact, as naturally into the
one scheme of lines as the thrower or turner
into the other. (“The Application of Orna-
ment,” Plate 8).
A third way is to cross the shape diago-
nally, which gives the appearance of twisting,


Plate 37

N0.5
2
No.6
No1
N°3
PAVL FLYNDT
Nº.2.
N°4
MEISTER)
1551
HANS BROSAMER
"PHOTO-TINT", by James Akerman





On the Filling of the Circle, &C. 39
to be seen in the bowl of Vase 3 a device
common enough in old silversmiths' work.
Two or more of these systems may be asso-
ciated; and they often are ; as in so many a
German tankard of the fifteenth or sixteenth
century, where the bulbous bowl is beaten out
into the semblance of a melon, and the neck
and foot take the lines of the lathe. In
Vases 5 and 6 it is very noticeable how the
ornament is constructed on two series of
cross lines, the one series according to their
plan, the other according to their elevation.
Now the decoration of a vase lengthwise,
according to its elevation, corresponds to the
striping of a panel with vertical lines; the
decoration bandwise, according to plan, cor-
responds to the striping of a panel with hori-
zontal lines; and the twisted treatment
corresponds to a series of diagonal lines
crossing a panel.
The way in which medallions, panels, and
other shapes may be incorporated with the
design of a vase is not different from that
already set forth. There is, however, this
difficulty, that any marked independent shape
is likely to interfere with the form of the vase,
or the form of the vase to distort it, which is


40
The Planning of Ornament.
the way with the landscape and picture medal-
lions so persistently misapplied to Sèvres and
Dresden china. Not that it is impossible
to introduce such features with good effect;
only it needs to be done with judgment,
which of all things is most rare. And, as it
happens, the difficulty has been more often
attacked with valour than with that discretion
which is reputed to be its better part.
What is said with reference to the vase
shape applies equally to balusters, columns,
and cylindrical shapes generally.
When we come to the circular shape, as
of coins, plates, medallions and so on, its
decoration involves new forms rather than
new principles.
The circle is most naturally divided either
into rays or into rings. In the one case the
radiating lines may be said to answer to the
division of a rectangular space by vertical lines;
in the other the rings would answer to the
horizontal lines dividing a panel. A reference
to Plate 38 will make this more clear.
Imagine a series of upright lines (A) to rer
present the folding of a sheet of paper. You
have only to gather the folds together at one
end, after the manner of a fan (B), and you





On the Filling of the Circle, &c. 41
have the system of radiation. Repeat the
fan shapes side by side, and you arrive at a
circle divided into rays (C).
Again, in the case of a series of horizontal
bands (D), you have only to suppose them
elastic enough to be bent, and you have a
series of concentric arcs (E), so many slices,
so to speak, out of a circle decorated ring-
wise (F). The identical target-like result may
be arrived at by the continuation of a series
of borders round the circle, one within the
other. That is only another way of reaching
the same point in design. As in the case of
pattern planning (“ Anatomy of Pattern,”
pages 19 and 22), one comes by various lines
of thought to the same conclusion.
The crossing of the two schemes (G) is
much the same thing as a square lattice of
cross lines in a rectangular panel. The sub-
division of the circular space by lines of more
flowing character (H) would correspond to the
division of the panel by diagonal lines. And
if those lines were crossed (J), it would be
analogous to the division of the square by
cross lines into diamonds.
The spiral line, as applied to the decoration
of the circle (K), is equivalent to the fret or key


42
The Planning of Ornament.
pattern as applied to the square (L). These
analogies, I think, are plain enough. They
were suggested to me by Mr. Henri Mayeux's
“La Composition décorative” (A. Quantin,
Paris), to which the student may refer for
more ample illustration of the subject.
All manner of independent shapes may be
introduced into the decoration of the circle,
as into that of the panel. One may plant a
shield in the centre, and surround it with a
border, as in the central disc on Plate 39:
one may associate any arbitrary form with
ringed or radiating lines. But should any such
shape form an important feature in the de-
sign, the situation is not so free from danger.
The limit is soon reached, that is to say,
within which lines or forms at once indepen-
dent and emphatic may judiciously be intro-
duced into a circular design. Anything which
counteracts the shape of the space you have
to fill needs to be accounted for. The two
rosettes at the top of Plate 39 are designed
on the safe lines of radiation; in the two at
the bottom of the plate the design is based,
in the one case on a vertical dividing line, in
the other on a horizontal.
The difficulty in dealing with forms con-
ws


Plate 39.
C.F. KELL, PHOTO-LITHO.O.FURNIVAL ST HOLLOAN, E.C.





On the Filling of the Circle, &c. 43
tradictory one to another is, that you are apt
to leave interspaces of irregular shape, which
are not easily manageable; as for instance, in
the inevitable spandril which occurs so fre-
quently in architecture. If a spandril happen
to be very large you can insert into it a more
symmetrical shape, which will hold its own ;
and if it be insignificantly small, you may
ignore it. You may (where it is of import-
ance enough to be accepted as an individual
panel) treat it as such, with figures, scrolls,
and so on.
You may simply cover it with
an unimportant pattern in the nature of a
diaper, or leave it blank. These are the
extremes: the happy mean in spandril deco-
ration is not easy to find.
The spandril may be taken as typical of
all the many awkward shapes which come of
the intersection of curved lines by straight.
Ornamental design would be a very much
easier thing if we had only to consider the
lines of the ornament, without any regard to
the interspaces.
From the circle to the rosette, or cusped
circle, is so short a step, that the treatment
of such shapes goes almost without further
saying. The cusps seem almost to call for


44
The Planning of Ornament.
acknowledgment by lines radiating towards
them. Indeed, if you simply carry a series
of borders, one within the other, round the
cusps, the points where they meet will give
of themselves radiating lines; just as in the
case of the vandyke or zigzag ("Anatomy
of Pattern,” p. 9) it was shown that the
recurring points gave vertical cross lines.
The pentagon, hexagon, and other equal-
sided polygonal figures may be considered as
broken circles.
The triangle offers no new difficulty: it is
merely a case of three sides to deal with
instead of four.
A branched form may be resolved into
its elements. The Greek cross, for example,
may be regarded as an assemblage of five
squares; the Latin cross as a group of as
many as you please, according to the length
of its arms, or as four parallelograms arranged
round a square.
An altogether exceptional space will be
pretty sure to indicate of itself the exceptional
lines on which it can best be decorated; and
a capricious one may well be left to the caprice
of the artist.


Order and Accident.
45
VI.
ORDER AND ACCIDENT.
Entirely apart from the question of the
skeleton of a design, is the consideration
as to whether it shall be looked at primarily
from the point of view of line or of mass.
In any satisfactorily completed scheme, lines
and masses must alike have been taken into
account; but the artist must begin with one
or the other; and the result will probably be
influenced by the one or other consideration
which was uppermost in his mind. Which of
the two it may happen to be, is more often a
matter of temperament than of choice with
him.
The primary consideration, whether of line
or mass, will always lead the designer, though
perhaps unconsciously, to adopt a plan accord-
ingly. That is to say, the preference for mass
will lead him to attack his panel resolutely,
planting shapes upon it, which it will be his
business afterwards to connect by means of


46
The Planning of Ornament.
the subsidiary lines needful to the completion
of the scheme. On the other hand, a greater
partiality for line will induce him to have
recourse to a more orderly procedure; will,
perhaps, even suggest a geometric ground-
work, which, however far he may depart from
the first lines, will materially help him in
securing the object he has most at heart.
If you start with certain arbitrary and
irregular forms, arbitrarily and irregularly
disposed, so many patches, as one may say,
on the panel, it is clearly not such a very easy
matter to connect them by any systematic lines
of ornament. If, on the contrary, you begin
with a system of orderly lines, these must
necessarily determine in some measure the
shape and distribution of any more prominent
features you may thereafter introduce into the
scheme.
For my own part (whilst I disbelieve
entirely in arriving at anything more than flat
mediocrity by the adoption of set rules of
proportion), I feel rather strongly that there
should be by rights a strict relation between
the parts of a design, however little it may
be obvious. If, for example, there is a space
to fill between border and central medallion,


Plate 40.
>

"PHOTO-TINT', by James Akerman





Order and Accident.
47
a diaper may be enough; but the diaper
should be designed into its space. And even
if part of a design be permitted to disappear,
as it were, behind this feature or that, it should
be so schemed that no very material form is
mutilated in the process. Where an interrup-
tion occurs in a border the pattern should be
planned with a view to such interruption.
Even though you deliberately adopt a diaper,
say as background to a scroll, the character of
that diaper should be determined by the scroll,
notwithstanding that the lines of the one are
meant to contradict the lines of the other.
The cultivated artistic sense is by no means
satisfied with the casual employment of any
diaper.
Again, where one feature of the design is
overlaid by another, as frequently happens
in Early Gothic glass, the overlapping pat-
terns should be designed to overlap-as they
always were. The spaces between one series
of medallions should suggest the outlines of
the subordinate medallions between, which
again should be shaped with a view to
any proposed interruption. In the book
Plate 40 the tooled borders
disappear as it were behind the silver clasps
cover
on


48
The Planning of Ornament.
and corners; and one sees no harm in this,
because the tooling is so distinctly subor-
dinate to the silver mounting, indeed one
may say designed to supplement and connect
it. The careless overlaying of one pattern,
or of one scheme, by another, is the merest
make-shift for design.
The apparently "accidental” treatment,
when it is at all successful, is not quite so
much a matter of accident after all. You will
find invariably, if you inquire into it, that
there has been no disregard of the laws of
composition, but only the omission of some
accustomed ceremonial. To take what might
seem a flagrant instance of the disregard of an
obvious rule of art :-an artist like Boulle
would sometimes boldly treat the doors of a
cabinet as one panel, notwithstanding their
actual separation by a pilaster between them.
However wicked this may be in theory, his
practice proved it to be not so unsatisfactory.
And for this reason—that the upright inter-
vening space was, as a matter of fact, very
carefully taken into account in the design.
He only goes a step further than the
obviously permissible treatment shown in the
double panel on Plate 41, where the two one-


(Plute 41.

Kawis dau
Symmetrical
panel
treatment:
Unsymmetrical
panels jointly
symmetrical
Q. F. KELL, "HOTO-UTHO. 8.FURNIVAL ST HOLTOAN, E.C.





Order and Accident.
49
sided panels are jointly symmetrical. Boule
chose to make a constructive feature less em-
phatic than its position would have suggested
to most of us it should be. But he did not
really ignore it. Very far from it. Had he
disregarded construction, the error would have
been very perceptible. If he succeeded at all
in satisfying the eye, it is because he did with
great deliberation and judgment what might
easily be mistaken by the inexperienced for
an inconsiderate thing. Giants can afford to
be daring.
It is when dangerous liberties are taken by
the novice, without forethought and without
discrimination, that they become offensive.
Where there is no offence in the lapse from
what we have been accustomed to think a
wise rule, be sure it was designed, and designed
with more than ordinary skill. It is only a
master that can reconcile us to something
which, until he did it, we did not think could
properly be done. There is nothing careless
or casual in the art of design-not even in
the little art of ornament.
E


LONDON :
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.


1


Plate 1

DAE


TEXT
ORNAMENTAL DESIGN.
BOOKS
OF
50.3]
THE
APPLICATION OF ORNAMENT.
BY
LEWIS F. DAY,
AUTHOR OF
EVERY-DAY ART,'
THE ANATOMY OF PATTERN, ETC.
ILLUSTRATED.
LONDON:
B. T. BATSFORD, 52, HIGH HOLBORN.
1888.





PREFACE.
The former text-books of this series con-
cerned themselves with the rudimentary lines
on which ornament may be designed and
distributed.
It is only in theory, however, that orna-
ment can be independently discussed. Prac-
tically it exists only relatively to its applica-
tion. Apart from its place and purpose and
the
process of its doing, there is no such
thing as ornament.
The necessity of adapting design to its
· position and use is as obvious as it is abso-
lute. The need of conforming to the more
technical conditions imposed by material, and
the means of working it, is not so generally
understood. It takes, perhaps, a craftsman
thoroughly to appreciate its urgency.
These few chapters go to demonstrate how
essential to ornament is its strict subordina-


vi
Preface.
tion to practical conditions ; how in all times
and in all crafts good workmen have cheer-
fully accepted them ; and how the very forms
of historic detail handed down to us grew
out of obedience to them. In the genesis
of ornament will be found the strongest argu-
ment for the study of technique.
The consideration of natural form and its
adaptation to ornamental design is reserved
for a separate volume.
LEWIS F. DAY.
13, Mecklenburg Square, London, W.C.
October 7th, 1888.


TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
I.- THE RATIONALE OF THE CONVENTIONAL
I
..
II.- WHAT IS IMPLIED BY REPETITION..
..
7
III.- WHERE TO STOP IN ORNAMENT
17
IV.-STYLE AND HANDICRAFT
..
37
V.-THE TEACHING OF THE TOOL ..
51
VI.-SOME SUPERSTITIONS
..
..
65





DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF PLATES.
1. STENCIL—The ties breaking up the broad masses of
colour.
2. ORNAMENTAL FIGURE COMPOSITION-Identical figures
reversed.
3. ANIMALS AND ARABESQUE — Varied creatures sym-
metrically disposed.
4. A TREE OF JESSE — Figures ornamentally valuable
among the foliage.
5. NURSERY WALL PAPER—Fun in design.
6. ANIMALS AND ARABESQUE—Various creatures enliven-
ing the ornament.
7. PATTERN WITH GROTESQUES—The creatures them-
selves reduced to ornament.
8. VARIOUS VESSELS--Characteristic of the way of their
making.
9. WOOD CARVING-Showing the marks of the chisel.
10. AFRICAN BASKET WORK-A typical example of plaiting.
II. CARVED LEATHER
material.
Preserving the quality of the
12. PERSIAN FAIENCE-Direct potter's work.
13. LETTERING-Showing its relation to the pen, &c.
6





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 begin with definitions does not greatly
help us. We no sooner commence to define
than we find ourselves stumbling against
other words equally in need of explana-
tion.
What a flood of light would be let in upon
the question of decorative design, could we
but agree amongst ourselves as to what is
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


2
The Application of Ornament.
decorative character of the work in hand. It
implies to him that self-restraint, that intelli-
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.
To a Frenchman, on the other hand, it
stands for all that is helpless and hopeless
in art. “C'est de la convention, ça," is the
expression of his supremest contempt.
Of course it is not merely a matter of
country. Not all Britons are agreed as to
what they mean by the word conventional,
nor all Frenchmen; but there is in the
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. The conventional is literally
that which has come to be accepted ; and, as
a matter of experience, we find that, even in a
world of progress, little or nothing is ever
universally accepted until it is already toler-
ably stale.
The accepted thing becomes,
therefore, identified with all that is most
deadly dull and tedious in modern art.


4
The Application of Ornament.
If by
artist's interpretation of the word.
conventional ornament we mean perpetual
variations on the old, old tunes, long since
played out ; if we mean adherence to well-
worn types ; if we mean affectation, imita-
tion, mimicry, a bigoted belief in the letter
of the law as it was in the days that are
happily past; no one of any originality or in-
vention of his own—no artist, that is to say,
can consistently belong to the party of con-
vention.
If, however, what we understand by the
term is the spirit in which the past masters of
ornament accepted nature, finding in her a
never-failing source of inspiration, reverencing
her most deeply—aye, and following her most
truly-in that they were not content to copy,
without further thought, the forms nearest at
hand, because they did not imagine for a
moment that what she had made fit for her
ends must, without modification, perforce be
fittest for their very different purposes ;-then
it seems hard to understand how ornament
can properly be anything but conventional.
A fitter term might be found for it, no
doubt ; I prefer myself the more expressive
word "apt"; but in discussing the thing we


The Rationale of the Conventional. 5
cannot conveniently ignore the word by which
it is currently known, and we find the word
“conventional” in possession.
One can scarcely conceive of ornament
which is not, in a manner, more or less modi-
fied by considerations altogether apart from
the natural forms on which it may have been
founded. Even the human form, which is
our highest type, and with which liberty may
less safely be taken than with any other of
nature's works-even the human form is not
ready-made to the hand of the sculptor. The
works of the great masters, to which we accord
the title 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 what you will-con-
ventional, traditional, monumental, ideal, indi-
vidual-something there is in all applied art
(in all art for that matter, but our concern is
just now more especially with decorative and
ornamental art), something which is, let us
not say contrary to nature, for it belongs in-
herently to human nature, but non-natural, in
the sense that it is not directly borrowed from
natural forms.
Conventionality in ornament is another


What is Implied by. Repetition.
7
II.
WHAT IS IMPLIED BY REPETITION.
The very purpose and position of ornament,
the method of its execution, and even its
construction, insist upon some treatment of
natural forms which, for want of a better
word, we call “conventionai.”
First, in reference to the construction of
ornament. Its mere repetition, which in a
former text-book (“The Anatomy of Pattern ')
was shown to be inevitable, would of itself
render such treatment necessary; and even
without the inducement of economy, which
calls for the use of a machine, we should still
resort to repetition, if only because the human
brain cannot go on inventing without inter-
mission, but needs the comparative rest of
repeating itself, even in hand work.
In the artist's repetition of himself (unless
the fatal pressure of the times have made
him also a machine), there will always be a
certain degree of variety, which there could


8
The Application of Ornament.
not be in mere mechanical reproduction. But
he cannot afford to dispense with repetition ;
nor need he wish to dispense with it. It is
in itself an element in decorative design ; it
is a preventive against loose and rambling
ornament ; it exhibits order, and gives
scale.
The only question is, where and to what
extent we should avail ourselves of it.
In proportion to the naturalism of a design,
and the point of realism to which it is carried,
it becomes unsuited to multiplication. To
put it the other way about, the oftener it is
proposed to repeat a form, the more impera-
tive 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 is strictly in proportion to
what one may call its reticence. A highly
elaborate and attractive feature—anything,
certainly, that is in the least self-assertive-
will not 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-


Plate 2

16th. centy. Geria1
Identical Figures reversed
Gent
c. F KELL, PMOTO-LITHO.B.FURNIVAL ST HOLDORN, E.O
--





What is Implied by Repetition.
9
tition is of the utmost service, and repetition
implies modification,
It follows from what has already been said
as to the danger of tampering with the human
figure, and the prominence it naturally as-
sumes, that there is great difficulty in repeat-
ing it without offence. The interest of a
pattern is 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; for with
every repetition of the same figure its charm
is discounted. There is something exaspera-
ting in the reversing of identical figures in
a pattern (Plate 2), when it is so simple a
thing by the careful disposition of various
creatures to retain the symmetry of effect
desired (Plate 3).
Presumably the reason for introducing
figures into ornamental design, is for the sake
of 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 suggest only the mechanism
loyed in producing them. The multipli-
cation of the figure, far from multiplying its
interest, diminishes it in proportion to the


IO
The Application of Ornament.
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.
The only safety is 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
like designs, it is brought about partly by the
low relief of the stamping, partly by the soft-
ness of the colouring, and partly by a more or
less cunning complication of the figures with
the rest of the design, so that they do not
thrust themselves into notice. That variety
in the creatures, were it possible, would be
desirable no one can doubt.
The consideration which occurs in the case
of figure design which it is so necessary to re-
duce to comparative insignificance is, whether
it 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 figure very
readily gives, is one obvious way out of the
besetting danger.
Apart from the symbolic intention of the


Plate 3

g
Variety in Creatures symetrically disposed. German
statt
c. KELL, PMOTO-LITHO.O.FURNIVAL ST HOLIOAN, E.O








What is Implied by Repetition.
II
figures on Plate 4 (it is part of a genealogical
tree of Jesse), the ornamental use of them in
the design is conspicuous. We may take it
that symbolism does not flourish where the
symbols are ugly or unamenable to orna-
mental effect.
It is not suggested that we should be
straightlaced to the extent of denying our-
selves the amusement that may be got out of
designs such as Mr. Crane has made popular
in his nursery wall-papers, in which he has
contrived to give us grace of line and charm
of colour, as well as the humour of the nursery
rhyme (Plate 5). Once in a while the human
figure may be degraded to do the merest
pattern work. The artist must be allowed,
now and again, to put off his dignity and in-
dulge in an artistic 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 mind the primâ
facie objection to the repetition, not only
of the human form, but of the forms even of
birds, beasts, and all living, and especially
moving, creatures.
The occurrence of the stag, boar, hare,
fox, hounds, and birds in the border of which





What is Implied by Repetition.
13
hidden, so that it is only by degrees that one
becomes fully conscious of them all, scarcely
the purist can find cause of complaint. Some
sort of mystery in design is always delight-
ful. The perfection of art is reached when,
however attractive at first sight, it continues
to grow upon you, and the more you contem-
plate it, the more you see in it.
Natural forms, to be admissible in ornament,
must be decoratively treated. Natural though
they be, they must be at the same time orna-
mental. A lion, as Landseer modelled it, is not
fit for any decorative purpose. An Egyptian
or Assyrian lion, on the other hand, Dona-
tello's lion at Florence, or Stevens's outside
the British Museum, are admirably decorative.
The objection to naturalism, or perhaps it
would be more exact to say literalism, in forms
repeated, applies not only to animal but even
to floral forms. It exists in a less degree,
inasmuch as they are of less prominent
interest; but for all that it exists. The
charm of the simplest flower is lost when
we see, side by side, so many copies of it
-not varieties, as they would be in nature,
but stereotyped repetitions of the same thing.
The designer is exposed, by his very artistic


14
The Application of Ornament.
ability, to the temptation of aiming at natural
effects, a temptation all the stronger because,
few persons having knowledge enough to
appreciate design, whilst all are more or less
familiar with natural forms, there is nothing in
the shape of public opinion to keep him in
check.
Every artist likes, of course, to make a good
drawing, and to carry it as far as he can.
But that is not at all the vital point in de-
corative design: the all-important thing is
the effect of the work in execution and in its
place. Any one who thinks twice about it
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. Submit he must
--better do it, then, with a good grace.
Some adaptation of natural forms, some
simplification in fact, is demanded, not only to
fit them for repetition, but, further, by the
position and purpose of the work; sometimes
in order that the detail may not assert itself
too much, sometimes in order to give it the
emphasis that is needed.


Plate 6

IN
130
2
Combination of Scroll & Hunting scene incised 01 Stone





What is Implied by Repetition. 15
For example, it is quite a common thing
to see an infinity of elaborate and laborious
work misspent upon details of domestic furni-
ture, which not only pass unnoticed, but which
ought never to attract notice. It often seems
as if the workman had set himself to show
how far it was possible to go in the direction
of minuteness of detail. It is quite possible
to show that, and at the same time illustrate
the futility of going anything like so far.
In proposing to carry execution to a point
beyond what has hitherto been attempted, it
is as well to ask oneself, whether there may
not be good reason why the attempt has never
been made. Our forerunners were not all of
them fools, we may be sure.
As a tour de
force, once and again, most things may be ad-
missible; but a wise workman rarely indulges
of his own accord in that kind of “brag
(there is no better word for it) which exhibi-
tions, international and other, have done so
much to encourage.
A master is loth to waste labour, and he
knows how to make his work hold its own
without shouting at you.
He deliberately
does less than an inexperienced person would
have thought necessary, with a view to making


Plate. 7

જે કોઈ
C.F. KELL, PHOTO-LITHO.B.FURNIVAL ST HOLBORN,E.C


一
​


Where to Stop in Ornament.
17
III.
WHERE TO STOP IN ORNAMENT.
Assuming, on the one hand, the urgency
for some inodification of natural forms accord-
ing to the work in hand, and on the other, of
some continual reference to nature in design,
the question arises as to the limits of the one
and of the other. How far may one safely
go in the direction of nature ? And to
what extent is it well to admit the dictation
of the tool ? In order to settle that point
quite definitely, each separate craft would
have to be discussed. An excellent pre-
scription would be, just so much of natural
food as the artistic stomach can digest; but
then we have to take into account each man's
powers of artistic assimilation-always an
unknown quantity. The degree of ornament
which is barely enough for one man will be
far too much for another.
Any attempt to define the limits within
which decoration should reasonably be con-
С


18
The Application of Ornament.
fined may seem at first sight rash enough.
But with regard at all events to things of
common everyday use, there clearly is a
point at which the line of decoration must be
drawn. And, more than this, just as the
object itself, its use, its material, and the
manner of its making, indicate plainly enough
the fit method of its decoration, so also they
give the hint as to the measure thereof. It
would seem, in short, as though the point at
which a material or a process failed were the
point at which we night most conveniently
stop, rather than bring in some supplementary
process, which, under pretence of helping it
out, ends more likely in supplanting it.
This will be made clearer by an example,-
let us say pottery, in aid of which so many of
the applied arts are called in, that we shall
necessarily have to branch out by the way
into discussion of the wider subject of applied
ornament, with which this text-book is con-
cerned.
The primitive way of making a pot is by
what is known as “throwing,” that is to say,
shaping the lump of wet clay with the hands
as it revolves on the wheel before the potter.
This, it should be observed, is at the same


Plate 8

Ihrown
Surneo
Earthenware
Greek vase
Porcelain2
Stoneware
Blown glass
(ut crystal
1
"PHOTO-TINT', by J. Akerman, 6. Queen Square W.C.





Plate 9

Pistoja
11011
wood carving
"PHOTO-TINT", by J. Akerman, 6. Queen Square, W.C.





Where to Stop in Ornament.
21
the hand. If any such final shaving is to take
place there is, artistically, small reason for the
preparatory process of throwing. The thing
might just as well be cast, or otherwise mecha-
nically made from the commencement, since
there is to be nothing but what is mechanical
in the result. There is this against after-
processes generally. They are apt to undo
a great deal of what has been done. How
fatally the final process of glass-papering
wipes all character out of our modern wood-
carving ; whereas one great charm about old
work (Plate 9) is in that crispness of touch
which tells of the carver's chisel.
The excuse in the particular instance of
earthenware (there is always an excuse ready
for unworkmanlikeness) is in some supposed
advantages of lightness and so-called elegance.
The answer to this is that lightness is not the
quality most characteristic of, or especially
desirable in, pottery. If it is elegance we
want we had better employ glass (Plate 8),
the convenient and conventional treatment of
which is all in the direction of grace and airi-
A bubble, whether blown in molten
glass or soap and water, is a bubble. In
earthenware we had best be content with
ness.





Where to Stob in Ornament.
23
of work in which that hint has been taken,
there is always a fitness or rightness 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
that you inevitably lose those qualities of use-
fulness and fitness which are the only justifica-
tion of art, excepting only such as may be of
the supreme beauty to justify its claims to
independence. A great work of art is a kind
of king among created things, deserving of all
homage. But we don't want this work-a-day
world peopled with kings, least of all 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
The Application of Ornament.
artist and a delusion to the buyer. The sales-
man has a way of excusing the high price of
a thing on the score of the difficulty there was
in making it. But was it worth while ? That
is the question. Apart from its superiority in
design, there is not 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
labour, and no more. The simplicity and
appropriate breadth of treatment of the crystal
cup on Plate 8 is vastly more workmanlike
than either. Patience does not rank, outside
the copybook, as the virtue of virtues. With-
out some share of it genius falls short; never-
theless the power of taking pains does not
constitute genius, nor will it even enable one
to design so much as a good pattern.
But this is straying rather from the point,
which is, that material and process may
be trusted to suggest the character of de-
coration and the point at which it should be
restrained. The lavish and unintelligent use
of ornament about us is enough to reduce
one to despair. In our longing for palat-
able ornament we seem sometimes to see


26
The Application of Ornament.
producing faulty work, but by noting how
a new and beautiful, and at the same time
workmanlike, effect may be obtained by
working with the material. A coloured
glaze, no doubt, may be too unequal; a
careless or lazy workman may stop too
soon. In the glazes of the Chinese and
Japanese the change of colour is sometimes
far too sudden. But even so, it is a hundred
times to be preferred to the insipid evenness
of tint which is the aim of so many a modern
manufacturer. It was the aim too of the
celebrated French potters, who laboriously
produced some of the most excruciating tints
-whether due to their own want of taste or
to the vulgarity of the Du Barry and other
such patrons, one hardly knows. In how
many of the arts is insipid evenness reached,
with infinite pains, and at the sacrifice of
beauties peculiar to the material !
Greater variety of colour than is to be
obtained by simple glaze may naturally be
arrived at by in any way roughening the sur-
face of the ware before it is dipped. And the
judicious contrast of smoother and rougher
parts is only what would naturally occur to the
artist. This roughness may consist in the


Where to Stop in Ornament.
27
merest scratching, or in raised modelling,
which last is capable of being carried to the
point even of competing with sculpture. In
that case it enters a class of work not now
under consideration. If the perfection of
figure modelling is what is wanted (and this,
again, applies to a great deal of misplaced
figure work in decorative art generally), it
would be so much more properly put to so
many other purposes, that it is a mistake to
apply it to the useful but homely pot.
The genius of Flaxman was, relatively
speaking, wasted on those finikin and crudely-
coloured medallions with which the most
familiar form of Wedgwood ware is encrusted.
A much more workmanlike process is that of
painting in clay on clay, usually in white upon
a coloured ground. M. Solon, with whose
name it is associated in England, is not a
Flaxman ; but his paintings in pâte sur pâte,
as it is termed, are infinitely superior as pot-
decoration to Wedgwood's moulded medal-
lions. You get here the utmost delicacy of
which the material is capable. Not that this
utmost delicacy is a thing universally to be
sought. It is a kind of luxury in which one
may be occasionally allowed to indulge, or


Plate 11.

"PHOTO-TINY", by J. Akerman,6, Queen Square, W.C.


។


Plate 12.

"PHOTO-TINT", by J. Akerman, 6.Queen Square W.C.


Where to Stop in Ornament.
31
simplest and most spontaneous kind, such as
can be done without effort and under no
special disadvantage, such as in no way pre-
tends to the accuracy, finish, or dignity of art
unapplied. The figures on the Etruscan vases
(Plate 8) were, ordinarily, painted right off
without any great care for accuracy. Some-
times they are wild enough in drawing. If it
comes easier to a man, or is more amusing to
him, to devise human or animal forms rather
than any other, by all means let him do that;
but, in so doing, let him aim at what he can
best do under the circumstances, and not ignore
them, nor yet attempt to oppose them.
How desirable it is to let the mode of work-
manship suggest the design, is shown by the
futility of searching for qualities difficult of
attainment in the material used. This is
nowhere more apparent than in the painting
of pottery. Think of all the miniatures in
china turned out from the factories of Sèvres,
Dresden, and Stoke-marvels of misapplied
skill—and compare their absolute ineffective-
ness as decorations with a bit of Italian or
Persian faience (Plate 12), and see how the
glory is all with the direct and untrammelled
“conventional ” art of the potter who made


32
The Application of Ornament.
the most of the beautiful capacities for colour
and iridescent beauty which lay in his
crucible, and how vain were the efforts of the
would-be miniature or landscape painter. If
he ever succeeded in getting what he sought
(which is very doubtful), he certainly failed to
produce decoration ; that was sacrificed, as it
so often is, to a misplaced pictorial ambition.
This applies, mutatis mutandis, with equal
force to decorative treatment in general.
Whatever medium a painter may adopt, he
is bound in reason to consider that medium,
as he is bound to consider the work before
him in adopting it-distemper, fresco, oil,
encaustic, or whatever it may be.
In ceramic painting the choice lies 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 failures lies in the multitude of our
facilities; the secret of the ancient triumphs
is often in the simplicity of the workman's
resources.
The artist's choice of manner will be
regulated to some extent by what he wants


Where to Stop in Ornament.
33
ances.
to do. In any case, if he is discreet, he will
limit his ambition to the range of his appli-
The china painter, that is to say, will
think out a scheme of colour which, if not
suggested by the oxides employed in ceramic
painting, is not in any way opposed to them.
This will, indeed, deprive him of some pos-
sible indulgence in naturalistic effect, but in
the main it will lead him to more perfect
achievement than would the pursuit of mere
difficulties, without regard to the nature of
vitreous colours and the action of the kiln
upon them. One appreciates more fully the
colour of the Persian or Damascus pottery
when one realises that the painter's palette
was set by the circumstances.
It is only
when we respect our materials that we get so
much out of them.
The uncertainty of all colour which has to
pass through the fire renders it most unwise
to entertain a scheme which (whether founded
upon nature or not) depends upon absolute
accuracy of tint. The certain thing about
vitreous colours is their uncertainty in the
kiln.
The potter is working always more or less
in the dark, since the value of his work is not
D


Where to Stop in Ornament.
35
medium has its inherent advantages as well
as its limits—and it is 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 stage of his
picture. This is just what the china painter
can get, without the least trouble, by simply
floating on his colour with a full brush.
Surely, then, that is the kind of thing to aim
at, when it is within easy reach ; instead of
fidgetting it, or stippling it, or dabbing it with
cotton wool, to the dull evenness so dear to
the commercial mind, or otherwise laboriously
seeking effects more easily and much better
produced by other means. That loose, juicy,
pot-like look is more valuable in ceramic
painting than any degree of mere finish, and
should be valued accordingly. So also the
scheme of colour should have reference to what
can best be done with the palette available.
In pottery painting, or whatever it may be,
in all kinds of carving, in mosaic, in embroi-
dery, in jewellery, everywhere it holds good,
that the selection both of the forms and the
colour should have direct reference to the
technique employed. What is simplest under
D 2


36
The Application of Ornament.
the circumstances is not only safest but most
directly conducive to success; and there is a
further charm in the evidence of directness
itself.
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
but to heed its prompting and it will tell you
what to do, and where to stop.


38
The Application of Ornament.
In a certain bluntness of the early Greek
character the influence of the stylus is ap-
parent. Chinese and Japanese writing must
first have been done with the brush.
The various shapes of letters on Plate 13
are instructive. The simple form of the
Roman capitals A B C might, like the Greek,
first have been indented on a soft substance
with a point. The later form of lettering,
DEF, with its varying thickness of line and
its 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
so, plainly, does the characteristic thickening
of the backs of certain Gothic capitals such as
the G. The smaller Roman letters, h i j, and
still more plainly the italics k l m, are unmis-
takably related to the “round-hand” no p.
But it is in the medieval “ black letter " that
penmanship is most plainly pronounced, as in
the letters q r s, in the capitals T UV, and
in the more fantastically flourishing on on
the same plate.
That our own printed type does not more
distinctly reveal the intervention of the metal
worker, is accounted for by our following the





Style and Handicraft.
39
historic, pen-born, fashion of lettering—I would
say, too closely, but that history and senti-
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
“a good business hand,” which is 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 for such frivolity nowadays;
and what little character there is left in our
handwriting seems likely to be sacrificed to
the convenience of the stylographic pen-even
if we do not give up penmanship altogether
in favour of the "type-writer.”
Style, then, is not so much a thing of dates
and countries as of materials and tools.
Whenever the development of ornament is
discussed, it is the custom to begin with the
savage. How the aboriginal developed into
the Assyrian is not very clearly shown. But
from Assyrian art is traced Egyptian, and
from that again Greek art, and its Roman
imitation-all very plausibly. The foun-
dation of Byzantine art upon the ruins of


Plate 14

iring
"PHOTO-TINT', by J. Akerman, 6. Queen Square, W.C.


Plate 15.

Greek
Marble
"PHOTO-TINT", by J. Akerman,6, Queen Square, W.C.











44
The Application of Ornament.
directly due to, some particular manufacture
or method of work. So it is with the details
of ornamental design.
The exquisite simplicity of certain cha-
racteristic patterns familiar in the figured
velvets of the 15th century, is cleverly calcu-
lated to disturb the least possible amount of
the sumptuous pile, so that the full value of
the rich texture is preserved.
In the old-fashioned damask patterns the
big broad leaves and scrolls are planned (like
a Turkey carpet or an Indian rug) with a view,
before all things, of getting a broken effect of
colour. The designer relied upon the quality
of the silk with its 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 18, with the current designs
in linen damask, and it will be seen how well
advised were our grandfathers. Nineteenth
century manufacturers who desire equally to
exhibit the quality of their woof, can think of
no other way of doing it than by leaving
the ground for the most part empty. They


Style and Handicraft.
45
dearly love a spot pattern. Is it possibly out
of consideration for the lady purchaser that
modern table-linen is for the most part so
petite in style ? The consideration of the
customer and not the thing to be done, is
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 textiles worried all over with pattern;
they are often expressly designed to hide
shoddy. The manufacturer of bona fide silk,
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 18th 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
the delights of colour. Charming as these
silks often are, translate any one of the pat-
terns into uncompromising black and white,
are disillusioned at once. The
most characteristic of them lose all their
and you


46
The Application of Ornament.
ever
charm in monochrome. It is hard to realise
that forms like those on Plate 19 can
pass for beautiful; but it is wonderful what
colour and texture will reconcile us to in the
way of design. That is no reason why the
artist should leave us to reconcile ourselves
with ugly forms, still less why we should
accept such models without attempting to
improve upon them.
The Byzantine colouring, in bands, accord-
ing to the weft (Plate 20) is almost brutal in
its outspoken acceptance of the limitations of
weaving. It 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 con-
fessed quite frankly the way it was done.
The so-called honeysuckle of the Greeks I
have shown elsewhere † to be directly trace-
able to the use of the brush, as was the case
* See ‘Anatomy of Pattern,' pp. 49, 50.
+ See 'Everyday Art,' pp. 106-8.


Plate 20

uc
15
raden
MESTESTE TEST
Bygantine colouring according to the weft.
CF KELL, PHOTO-LITHO. 8,FURNIVAL ST HOLICAN.E.O.








Style and Handicraft.
47
with other familiar forms of painted Greek
ornament.
The Corinthian capital and the acanthus
scroll, even when they most nearly approach
nature (which is 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 abun-
dant use of the drill, the drill-holes form an
element in the design. The same thing
occurs in much of the later Gothic foliage,
more especially in German work.*
The Arabian borders on Plate 21 leave no
possible doubt as to their having been traced
on the plastic stucco with the modelling tool.
The workman did what was simplest for him
to do. We may be sure, too, that it was the
ease with which the plaster could be manipu-
lated, which led 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.


Plate 22

17th Century
Italian
IRON
13th Century French
RETRIVITETER



Plate 23
Types of
Wrought
Tronwork
German 16
Centy:
VOT





Style and Handicraft.
49
There is nothing contemptible in cast iron, if
we would but abstain from the reproduction
in it of forms inappropriate to casting. We
should have no cause to regret the institution
of the foundry, if founders would but put art
into their moulds; and the first step towards
that end would be, to dismiss from their
memories the familiar forms of the forge.
It is customary to talk about cast iron as if it
were an abomination. It is its misapplication
only that is objectionable. There is no reason
why we should not do in iron something like
what the Italians of the 15th century did in
bronze unless it be 19th century incom-
petence.
It is one of the wicked ways of our
civilisation to smoothe out all character from
workmanship. For idiomatic expression in
ornament we have generally to travel back
to a remote period. The angularity of the
piece of darning on Plate 24 is what might
be called old-fashioned. But how it explains
itself! No one who cares for needlework
would wish to have it otherwise.
So in embroidery (Plate 40) we look for
colour and not perfect lines ; and so again
in mosaic or stained glass (Plate 39),—just as
E


50
The Application of Ornament.
in glass-blowing (Plate 8) we properly expect
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 lost sight of. The love
of smoothness comes of our abuse of ma-
chinery. The love of nature is not, as the
realists (so-called) would have us believe, an
invention of to-day.
Artists have always
loved and studied nature. Only, in the
historic treatment of natural forms, modelled
in clay or plaster, carved in 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,—let us not say from
nature, for the instinct which directs such
modifications is natural enough,—but from
the imitation of nature.





52 . The Application of Ornament.
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 in it. Accordingly you set
to work to beat out certain round bosses,
Plate 25, A, which you surround with smaller
bosses, B, arriving so at something like
flowers. These you go on to connect with
rounded stems, C, from which grows a kind of
foliage, D, large or small in detail, as need
may be, but always more or less bulbous in
shape. We have thus a pattern, which is
characteristically repoussé, beaten work, and
which has grown to a great extent out of the
conditions under which you were working.
Plate 25 pretends to do no
more than
illustrate this method of proceeding. Your
bosses may take the form of figures, animals,
or what not; yet, in the
the hands of a
sympathetic workman, they will not cease,
whatever their individual shape or interest,
to be always bosses. It is your unsympa-
thetic workman who designs without fore-
seeing how
every detail is to be carried out,
and misses the characteristic qualities of his
material.


Plate 25.

>
3
D-
B
"PHOTO-TINY", by J. Akerman, 6. Queen Square W.C.


Plate 26

Filagree
acomo
Byzantine
old
Germ 127 212
..F. KELL, PHOTO-LITHO. 8.FURNIVAL ST HOLDORN,E.C






Plate 28
Javanese
Ornament inspired by way of working
CF KELL, PHOTO-LITHO, 8.FURNIVAL ST HOLBORN,E.C.





The Teaching of the Tool.
53
It cannot be insisted upon too strongly
that, in designing for ornament, it is abso-
lutely essential always to have those con-
ditions in mind, as clearly as though you
were yourself working under them.
In beaten work you descend from the mass
to the minutiæ ; in filagree, on the contrary,
you would work from the minutiæ to the
mass. Commencing with wiry lines, you
would perhaps clothe them with more com-
pact spirals, clustering these together where
you wished to concentrate the effect. The
design of the Byzantine artist of a thousand
years ago is not, you will see (Plate 26), very
different from that of the medieval silver-
smith, nor yet from that of the Genoese and
Maltese artificer of to-day.
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.
Substituting straight lines for curved, it has
its parallel in certain kinds of lacework, such
as the so-called “Greek lace.” (Plate 27.)
A very curious instance of design directly
inspired by the way of working occurs in the
Javanese work on Plate 28. Some plastic


54
The Application of Ornament.
substance, paper or gutta-percha, is rolled out
into the thickness of stout wire, curled round
into spirals, and laid on papier-mâché. The
ground is then partly fretted away and the
whole gilded. There is something delight-
fully naïve in the result.
Fret cutting affords another homely illus-
tration. The very necessities of the saw
suggest the nature of the design. You are
led to devise 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
by ties.
Unless these ties were from the first taken
into account, they would be sure to mar the
effect. The artist, accordingly, finds himself,
as if by instinct, evolving a kind of strap-
work, which reminds one of the typical
Elizabethan ornament—which very possibly
originated in some such
device
fret
carving, although the forms show also the
influence of types more proper to metal.
The likeness of the strip of low-relief pattern-
work, on Plate 29, to fret cutting, is too
striking to be merely accidental. The rela-
tionship challenges recognition.
as


Plate 29

Embossed fret in Metal - German
Arab Fret work in Wood
Elizabethan Strap work
11
Ge


مر


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 this, and exemplifies be-
sides how the metal may be in part embossed,
and, of course, engraved.
Even simpler and more direct than fret-
work is the plan of notching thin planks of
wood and crossing them (as in Plate 30). It
has all the effect of elaborate fretwork. The
acme of simplicity is shown in the no less
ingenious device of placing the notched planks
side by side, so as to produce a pierced pat-
tern of singular effectiveness. Instances of
this, taken from the balconies of Swiss chalets,
are given on the same plate with the Arab
lattices referred to above.
The likeness between a fret pattern and a
stencil pattern is explained when one realises
that a stencil plate is a fret of cartridge paper,






Plate 31
GADV
Design complete
Second stencil
AR
First stencil
B.F. KELL, PHOTO-LITHO.B.FURNIVAL ST HOLBORN, E.C.


The Teaching of the Tool.
57
the ground left clear. In the case of an
elaborate series of stencils each one may be
schemed to make good the ties of another;
but, to the workman at least, there will
always be an interest in the evidence of
the way an effect has been produced. He
looks for character as well as beauty.
It must be confessed that he is the only one
who does. This merit of workmanlike-ness is
one which the public cannot, as I said, be
expected to appreciate. It is reserved for
the craftsman to recognise behind his work a
craftsman with whom it is his pride to claim
fellowship. His interest in it is not alone in
seeing how another solved a difficulty which
had occurred to himself, or took advantage of
an accident which to him had been fruitful
only of disappointment. He has a thrill of
purest satisfaction in feeling how some one,
far away and years ago perhaps, realised, as
he does, that this, and not that, was the spirit
in 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


(Plate 32.
இரு
-

M
Surein the
Sools
(ased
@ 1
"PHOTO-TINT', by J.Akerman,6, Queen Squars ,W.C.








60
The Application of Ornament.
tainty of shape, and gives an air of mystery
to what would otherwise be only so much
mechanism. The rigid forms of the diaper
on Plate 34 are plainly in need of some such
softening influence of colour. Again, in
geometric ornament like the “niello" on
Plate 35, the silvery brilliancy of the metal
glorifies, so to speak, the nakedness of the
design.
So in the ornamental glass mosaic so often
used in Italy about Giotto's time in connec-
tion with white marble, the shimmer of the
surface, more especially as it was never
absolutely even, put all contingency of harsh-
ness out of the question. Such a thing was
barely possible with all those little facets of
glass catching the light at all manner of
angles, and glittering each according to its
own bright will.
In marble inlay of strongly contrasted
colour there is no such excuse for severity of
form; some of the old pavement patterns, that
for example in the baptistry at 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


62
The Application of Ornament.
lattices 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-
dicates equally the scarcity of large timber,
the cheapness of labour, and the dependence
upon the lathe.
Had the conditions been
other, we should never have had just such
patterns as the Arab builders evolved in
infinite variety.
The characterlessness of 19th century orna-
ment is due very largely to the absence of
any direct impress of the tool upon design.
In the process of modern manufacture, every-
thing is planed down to a marvellous but
monotonous smoothness; the mark of the
tool, which is the evidence of workmanlike-
ness, is popularly regarded even as bad work
-want of finish, indeed. Even in this age of
enlightenment there are some who have yet
to learn that work may be smooth and smug,
and yet not beautiful, nor so much as finished.
This mistaken ideal of perfection is not, it
must be owned, altogether a modern one.
In
tapestry, for example, designers have been
working for centuries past, steadily in the
pictorial direction, and against the threads;


Plate 36.

"PHOTO-TINY", by J. Akerman.6.Queen Square, W...





The Teaching of the Tool.
63
until there is now little difference between the
picture and its copy in wool, except that the
copy costs ever so much more than the
original. Already in the comparatively early
tapestries of Raffaelle, you can see at Dresden
or Beauvais what inferior and characterless
hangings his famous cartoons make, as com-
pared with the neighbouring designs of earlier,
unknown, and less accomplished draughtsmen,
who knew their trade. That Raffaelle either
knew little or cared little about tapestry, is
clear. And in his failure there is some con-
solation for the least of us. If we only love
our trade, and know it (as only those can who
love it) we may succeed where a Raffaelle
would fail, though we be anything but
Raffaelles. It is easier said than done, for a
great painter to step down to mastery in the
minor arts. All trades want learning.
The crowning point of ignorance and incon-
sistency in design is reached where the con-
vention peculiar to and characteristic of some
quite different material is affected, as in the
bulbous forms of beaten metal reproduced in
15th century Gothic stonework, or the facets
of Brobdingnag jewels in Elizabethan wood-
carving


Plate 37

WE
mu
will
an
llllllmlimantan
alg
Arab lattices
characteristic Wood-turning
W
O MITO
C.F. KELL, PHOTO-LITHO.G.FURNIVAL ST HOLIORN,E.O.


Plate 38

MIGHTED
BAURELIANA LEHIASAANUT OUT
12th Century
Geria12
DUO 20
මමත්
13th Century
French
KAS
?
ENAMEL
Champleve
8
Cloisonne
11* Century
Talian
...F. KELL, PHOTO-LITHO. B.FURNIVAL ST HOLBOAN, E.C.


70
The Application of Ornament.
the hard shapes drawn for the damask weaver
are redeemed by the sheen of silk or linen,-
and so on.
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 in autograph work, where the artist
executes his own design, he still avails him-
self of a soft outline. Decorative art is a kind
of shorthand. Its very existence seems to
depend upon its being done with readiness,
quickness, and certainty-so that he who runs
may read.
The art which only careful scrutiny reveals
to us will, for the most part, fail to win
appreciation. Whatever its merits, if it hide
them, no wonder that men pass them by.
Even poetry of the over-subtle order is not
popular; and decorative art (unpopular
though it be) is essentially popular art.
The effectiveness so much to be desired in
decorative art, has to be obtained without
many of the resources of which the painter
is free to avail himself. It is not often that
the ornamentist can indulge in extremes of
light and shade, nor yet in very strong model-
ling Under these circumstances, an outline


Some Superstitions.
71
is invaluable in helping to detach a pattern
from its background. It is not generally
understood how effectually 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
definition. The greater the distance off, and
the less the contrast in tone and colour
between the design and its background, the
more urgent something of the kind becomes.
For all that, there is no law making outline
compulsory, unless the artist feels the need of
it. He may, if he please, detach his pattern
from the ground by deepening the one, or
lightening the other, or by doing both. That
would, however, ordinarily be a much more
laborious business. Besides, it is only fair to
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 many instances the expedient of an
outline is most handy. It enables one de-
liberately and safely to adopt a scheme of
colour which, but for it, would be altogether
ineffective.
So far from invariably hardening or empha-


72
The Application of Ornament.
sising form, outline may equally be used for
the diametrically opposite purpose of soften-
ing the shapes, as may be seen on Plate 42,
where a small portion of the pattern is harsh
by comparison with the part outlined. The
softening effect of outline is exemplified also
in the embroidery on Plate 40.
The use of outline must not be taken as
a justification of its abuse. To accept the
dogma of its saving merit and submit to its
tyranny, is sheer foolishness.
Art may quite
well be decorative in which the outline is not
emphasised ; nor does the insistance upon it
make design decorative, however effectually
it may remove it from the pictorial.
So with regard to flatness, symmetry, and
other qualities supposed to pertain to deco-
rative treatment,—one must in every instance
use one's wits. Any effect of relief which
disturbs the sense of flatness in a surface
characteristically flat, is plainly out of place.
Just so much of symmetry as may be needful
to convey the sense of balance is to be desired
—but no more.
The fear of offending against the arbitrary
laws of authority, often altogether “irrespon-
sible,” is a bogey which may scare some from


LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.