SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM ART HANDBOOKS.
NO~ 6.-A MANUAL OF DESIGN.








MANJUA L OF DESIGN
COMPILED FROM
THE  WRiN'JATGAS  ANVD  ADDRESSES
OF
RICHARD  REDGRAVE, R.A.,
Suzvzyor o'f Hr eilajlsty's Piclzures,
Late inspector-GCzeminra fO. Art, Science and Arlt De/'arm/Jzent,
BY
GILBERT  R, REDGRAVE,
Published for the Coznnlzittee of Council on Education.
SCRIBNER, WELFORD, & ARMSTRONG, NEW  YORK




CHAlRIES DICKENS AND EVANS,
CRYSTAL PALACE PRESS.




PR E FAC E.
DURING  Mr. Redgrave's long and active service in connexion with the Schools of Art and the foundation of the
South Kensington Museum, from which he has so lately
retired, as well as in his appointed duties relating to the
International Exhibitions in this country and in France,
he was called upon to prepare numerous official reports.
On many occasions, also, he was required, when presenting
medals and prizes to the Students, to address them on the
course of their studies, and on the technical training of the
designer.
His reports and addresses defined and formulated many
new principles of ornamental design, and contained various
practical suggestions concerning the methods upon which
his system of teaching had been founded. The chief of
these documents which have been officially printed, are:
I. Report on Design. Exhibition of I85I.
2. Report on Design as applied to Manufactures. Paris, 1855.
3. Report on Applications of Drawing and Modelling to the Common
Arts. Paris, I867.
4. Report on the present state of Design. Annual International Exhibition, I87I.
5. Evidence before the Commission, on the Government School of
Design, 1847.
6. On the necessity of Principles in teaching Design, I853.
7. Catalogue of Cabinet Work, Gore House, 1853.
The teaching of these reports has long been acknowledged as of recognised authority, and it has been




vi                  PREFA CE.
frequently proposed that the matter contained in them
should be collated and published, as it would form a useful
book of reference and a manual of the principles of design.
It has been more than once suggested to me to undertake the duty; but it was not until it was formally proposed to me, by the Lords of the Committee of Council
on Education, that such a work should form part of the
series of South Kensington Museum  Art Handbooks,
that I was led with some diffidence to see how far I might
be able to do justice to this task, involving, as it did, the
compilation of so large a portion of the thought and labourof my father's long official career.  I felt the more
pleasure in attempting this work, from the gratification
afforded to my father by their Lordships' selection ofme, and from the assurances I received from him of his
advice and assistance.
In undertaking this compilation, I have confined myself'
almost wholly to his own words. Indeed, nearly all the
matter might be placed in inverted commas.  I have
studied, to arrange and bring together like things in the
order and upon the plan which my father has in most
cases pursued, to avoid the repetitions which would
naturally arise in such a series of documents, and to omit:
only such matters as had a local and temporary interest.
G. R. R.
May, 1876.




CONTENTS.
s'ECTION L
272le Prizcailes of Oralamaent.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
PRELIMINARY RIEMIAR KS
CHAPTER II.
ON THE SOURCE OF STYLI:.. 12
CHAPTER IHI.
ON'THE 1LLEMENTJS OF STYLE ARISIN(G OUT OF CONSTRRCTION.  29
CHAPTER IV.
ON U'TIILITY, AVHICH MUST BE CONSIDERED BEFORE DECORATION.  36
CHAPTER V.
ON FITNESS OF TIIE ORNAMENT TO THE MATERIAL TO WHICH IT
IS APPILIED..43
CHAPTER Vi.
ON UNITY 01o STrYLE  AND DECORATI VE SUBORDI)INATION.           48




viii                    COXNTEVNTS.
S ECTlOiV H.
The App4zical/czi of t/Ie Pirb'cij/cs of Or;/lai/uil o I /hCe iuiJfcltl/rcs.
CHAPTER VII.
JAGE
ON THIE NATURE AND GENERAL APPLICATION 01 ORNAMIENTAL
ART.55
CHAPTER VIII.
ON THE DECORATION OF BUILDINGS                             65
CHIAPTER IX.
ON DOhMESTIC AND OTHER FURNITURE.87
CHAPTER X.
ON DOMESTIC UTENSILS AND OBJECTS OF PERSONAL USE.      112
CHAPTER XI.
ON THE DECORATION OF GARMENT FABRICS.                    33
SECTION  II.
The Teac/zzng of Or/uzialmez,, and Ia'  e Educatzio  of thze Desizer.
CHAPTER XII,
ON ART EDUCATION IN'THIS COUNTRY AND ABROAD              155
CHAPTER XIIII.
ON THE SPECIAL EDUCATION OF THE DESIGNER                  i6()




SECTION I.
THE PRINCIPLES OF ORYAAJirfTE'T.?








A MANUAL OF DESIGN.
CHAPTER I.
PRELIMINARY REMARKS.
THERE are certain periods in the history of the world or of
individual nations, when some important event, some discovery,
or some cause which deeply affects the public mind, produces a
corresponding change in art also. Such for instance, in civilised
Europe, was the change produced by the discovery of printing,and the dissemination by its means of the writings and thoughts
of the ancients. These led to the study and contemplation of
those fragments of antique art which had survived the injuries of
time and barbarism, and the result of their study was to reconstitute beauty as the prevailing principle of art: they led also
to the subversion of the religious sentiment which had, for many,ages, been the leading and all-pervading idea of art.
Again, when from political changes art became gradually,estranged from its Italian cradle, to be fostered by the growing
power of the French kings; and when the victories of the Fourteenth Louis had gained him the title of the Great Monarchll, art
also was led captive in his triumph. No longer satisfied with
beauty, she decked herself to please him in "barbaric pomp and
B 2




4               fA  IzANUAL  OF DESIG;..
gold": splendour and display became her ruling principles, and
the Louis Quatorze style called after his name was formed.
As we approach still nearer to our own era other changes,
not so marked, but equally characteristic, might be noticed as
influencing art through changes in the outer and surrounding
world: all these chlanges are clearly discernible to us who look
back upon them; we can even trace them  to apparent causes;.
but rising' gradually and imperceptibly in their own age, they were
then not clearly noted as points of departure, as they did not
sufficiently influence the prevailing taste to form  a new  and
distinctive style.
In any critical examination of the present state of design, our
attention is in the first place forcibly directed towards -France,
which has long ruled our taste in such matters.  It may, therefore,
be as well in the first place to glance at the conditions which have
led to this state of things, and caused our neioghbours for so long
a period to rule supreme in matters of taste.
The decorative arts, attracted to France by Francis the First,
were actively patronized and encouraged by the succeeding House
of Bourbon. Colbert, the'Minister of the great Louis, established,
as royal manufactories, the tapestry and furniture works of the
Gobelins, Beauvais, and Aubusson, and in these works the most
skilled workmen, aided by the most scientific men of the age,
executed the designs of the first artists of France.  In the succeeding reign the porcelain works of Sevres became also a royal
establishment withl the like appliances for artistic excellence.
In these royal manufactories every effort was made to attain
the highest degree of perfection, and the works were carried on
with princely munificence, entirely irrespective of the cost of
production.  By Colbert also, schools for the instruction of the
workmen in drawing and the elements of art were organized in
some of the principal seats of French manufactures.
By these means France, and more especially Paris, gradually
became looked up to for works of luxury.  The products of her




A  I~4N4JUAL  OF DESGN.                     5
royal manufactories were spread abroad among the other nations
of Europe, either by purchase, or as gifts to the various monarchs
and princes, and the skilled labours of French workmen gradually led the surrounding countries to recognize her as the
school of the decorative arts, and the acknowledged arbitress
of taste.
The Revolution, and the long wars that succeeded it, though
repressing for a time the intercourse with France, did not deprive
her of those institutions which had tended thus to advance her in
the eyes of the nations, neither did they disperse the continuous
band of skilled workmen  and cunning artificers who would
emanate from these factories to raise still higher the pretensions
of France to be considered the chief source of objects of luxury
and taste.
To the protracted wars which had divided this Island from the
Continent, and in many respects the Continental nations from
each other, succeeded an equally long peace, during which commerce increased, and the accumulating wealth of Europe became
everywhere invested in those vast undertakings which facilitate the
intercourse of nations. By these means we were led insensibly
to the first of those gatherings which were to bring together in one
place all that science, skilled labour, and the arts could produce,
and by which each country endeavours to supply the growing
wants, and to tempt the increasing taste for luxury in its own and
other lands.
It was under this natural tendency of the age, and arising out
of it, that the first great gathering of the national industries took
place in 1851.  It took place, not inappropriately, in our own
country, which had most diligently laboured in the improvement
of the means of intercourse, and had most actively promoted the
free communication of nations, by the construction of railroads
and ships, and the removal of commercial restrictions.
To this first Exhibition, France, our nearest neighbour, was,
after ourselves, the greatest contributor, and especially so in those




6                A MANUAL OF D1ESIGNA.
objects for which she had so long held a high reputation.  The
first gathering of the industries of the world was speedily followed
by a second in France itself.
In this second Exhibition the fine arts were more fully asso —
ciated with industry as an integral portion of the Exhibition than
in I85i, and the artists of Europe who had been invited-painters,
sculptors, and architects-largely responded to the call.  The
entire of the arts thus formed a most judicious addition, and one
which gave a marked character to the First Paris Universal Exhibition, inasmuch as the reciprocal influence of the arts on manufacture could be carefully examined.
Former periods of advance in the products of the artizan in.
any country have always been connected with progress in the fine
arts, and there is reason to believe that taste and skill in manufactures are seldom attained by a country in which the fine arts
are neglected, or not properly cultivated or encouraged.  Here
then was afforded an opportunity on a grand scale to consider the
two in their mutual relations, and to examine the assembled
products of the manufacturer and the artizan, together with those
of the artists of the several countries; in order to test if the inspirations of the latter had indeed led the others to a higher degree
of taste, excellence, and skilful manipulation.
It has been already noticed that great public events, and the
changed characteristics of the age, result in marked epochs of art
and industry; and it is not too much to believe that these great
international exhibitions, arising out of and consequent upon the
scientific improvements of the age and upon the improved means
of intercourse, may conduce to some such important change in
public taste. In these exhibitions the manufacturers of all countries are striving to compete, not so much in works of ordinary
excellence, as in the production of such as shall outvie each
other, and be considered markedly in advance of the taste and
skill of the times. The result of these competitive struggles must
be an advance to real excellence, or a retrograde movement.




A MA4NVUA4L OF DESIGC                       7
towards decline, according as they are made on sound, Gr on illunderstood principles.
There would, however, be little difficulty in showing that,
in former periods, the introduction of one false principle iln decorative art, diverging at first but slightly from the truth, his led
gradually to the entire adoption of a false, vitiated, and meretricious style.  It is therefore most necessary that nothing should
be taken upon trust, but that a searching investigation should be
made at the present time, lest we are led astray by the grandeur
of these displays, the vast amount of skilled labour, and the
gorgeousness of the materials used, to accept the false for the
true, the meretricious for the excellent, or the gaudy for the
magnificent.  We must not allow the blandishments of false and
meretricious excellence, or of skill misapplied, to hinder the condemnation of works, however rare the talent displayed on them,
but rather the reverse, for mediocrity will rarely lead us astray; it
is the sins of genius that lead the multitude to do evil, and in
such cases the more the talent the greater the crime.
On entering upon such an examination it must be remembered
that there are many difficulties in the way of a just judgment. As
has been remarked, such exhibitions, however much it may be
desired that they should do so, hardly represent the normal state
of the manufacture. Each manufacturer is striving his utmost to
attain notice and reward, not so much, it is to be feared, by an
effort after perfect taste in his goods, as by an endeavour to catch
the consumers by startling novelty or meretricious decoration,
leading, in most cases, to an extreme redundancy of ornament.
The goods are like the gilded cakes in the booths of our country
fairs, no longer for use, but to attract customers.
Moreover, in endeavouring to form a just estimate of European
manufactures the differences of national taste must not be overlooked. It will be universally allowed that the French as a
people are more deeply imbued with the love of and the desire
for ornament than other nations of Europe, and that, as compared




8              A MANVUAZ OF DESIGNz.
with this country, the general knowledge of the middle and lower
classes of Paris is, in such matters, above that of the same rank
in England.
For this there are many causes, arising from political circumstances, climate, mode of living, and a hundred other things
wherein they differ from us islanders.
Family life abroad differs so entirely from  what it is in
England.  In the case of our nearest neighbours the French,
what we understand by home-life is almost unknown-lofty
erections of several stories permit several families to live under
one roof, and without great cost to the tenant a more decorative
treatment of the general structure is rendered possible. The
places of general entertainment, intended for the pleasure of the
many, are richly decorated, and each individual lives more or less
in public, and in the enjoyment of public splendours.
The taste of successive monarchs, suiting itself to the genius
of the people, has led to the erection of magnificent palaces in
Paris and its environs, and the talent of the greatest artists of
France has from time to time been engaged to decorate them.
Rich in carvings, in costly marbles, in gilding and painting, in
mirrors and arabesques, these palaces contain also collections of
the rarest pictures and the finest sculptures of the artists of all
ages. They are at certain times open to the people, and on fetes
and holidays are crowded, as a matter of right, by all classes, from
the ouvz-ie'r in his blouse to the shopkeeper, the merchant, and the
man of fashion.
These great national works, the constant sight of which has
stimulated the public taste for ornament and decorative enrichment, have been the school for a body of skilled artists and
workmen capable of gratifying the taste thus fostered, and we find
that many of the theatres, the cafes, the restaurants, and even the
shops of Paris, in the richness of their decoration and the
splendour of their gilding, vie with the palaces, which they attempt
to rival.




AX JA/iNUAZL OF DESIG.                      9
But all this decoration constantly around the Parisian, imbuing
him unconsciously with a knowledge of and taste for ornament,
and insensibly forming his inclinations and educating his eye, has
its defects as well as its advantages.
Accustomed to gaze on the splendour, the gorgeous enrichments of palaces, to sit weekly in their salons on velvet couches,
not alone to enjoy the chastened art of the great works that adorn
their walls, but to feast his eyes on the gilded blandishments of
the chambers in which these works of art are enshrined; accustomed also to the glittering brilliancy of his cafe, adorned for his
delectation, and in many senses of the word more his home than
the nightly dormitory he retires to from them, he cannot be content in his own house with the simple furniture suitable to his rank.
His small apartments are fitted up for show rather than for comfort,
a. word not in his language: everything must simulate his out-ofdoor experiences, and if he cannot afford realities he will obtain
the appearance of them by gaudy finery and over-decoration.
in his commodes, his armoires, his hangings, his couches, his
pendules, and his candelabra, utility is too often overlooked in
favour of display and ornamentation.
Taste, therefore, which is in accordance with the habits, inclinations, and general disposition of any people, may be national
without being correct.  It is with nations as it is with individuals
concerning whom we hear it said that one has a vulgar taste,
another a refined taste, one a mean taste, another a taste for the
beautiful or the magnificent. Thus in referring to the ancients,
all who have had any knowledge of ancient art or literature would
at once say that the Greeks as a people had a taste for the refined
and the beautiful; in literature, always entering into the most
subtile definitions and the nicest distinctions, and in art, refining
all they undertook with the most sensitive perception of what is
perfect; never leaving a new creation until they had by continual,effort arrived at the most beautiful form, proportion, and colour
of which it was capable.




0o            A    lJAUAL  Of DESGIV.GN
The Romans, who succeeded to their art, were of a different
temperament: grandeur and massiveness were the leading characteristics of their taste.  Larger in mind than the Greeks, there
was at the same time a coarse strength in their nature; and a
barbaric grandeur to which Greek art never attained, was the corresponding result. This was shown in the vast extent of their
public buildings (such as the Baths of Titus and the Coliseum,
compared with which the largest works of the Greeks would appear
diminutive), in the coarse vigour and bold relief of their ornamentation, and the spherical curves of their mouldings.
Thus we see, that while each nation had a taste, the taste of
each was wholly different; and in examining French taste, which
has so long dominated over the nations of Europe, it is most
desirable thoroughly to search into its principles, that we may
know when it is worthy of being admitted and followed, and when
it is to be rejected, in order that a higher, purer, and more simple
taste may be sought after in its stead.
We have already shown that French art is accommodated to
the mind of the French people, and reacts upon it; that it is up
to their requirements, mental and sentimental, and certainly not
beyond them. Whatever it might have formerly done, it now
ministers to the inclinations of the people, but does not lead
them. The French are a pleasure-loving people, of a gay and
lively disposition, with a sensuous indulgence in pleasurable
enjoyments, a proper national vanity and a love of display. To
this their whole industrial art ministers; and from all causes,
natural and induced, the tendency of the national taste is
evidently to glitter and over-ornamentation to display and finery
rather than to decorated usefulness.  We repeat therefore that it
is most desirable as France has been so long acknowledged as the
arbitress of European taste and fashion that we should test
thoroughly the ground of her pretensions, and should beware lest
unconsciously " the world is still deceived with ornament," and




A MA4NUAL 0F DESIGN.                       I I
led astray by pretentious display, instead of advancing in the road
to real excellence.
The first step in this direction will be to attempt to lay down
some general principles of taste in decoration, deduced from those
works which in all ages have been considered excellent. Without
such principles for our guidance, the inquiry would descend into
vague and unsatisfactory assertions, a course which has fostered
the idea that taste has no settled laws, but is a mere matter of
fashion or individual feeling, against which there is neither dispute
nor appeal.




CHAPTER II.
ON THE SOURCE OF STYLE.
IN attempting to define the principles which should govern
decorative design, the first consideration must be given to those
dominating influences, which pervading all the works of a period,
subordinate them to what is called STYLE. These influences, as
we have already seen, may, and indeed must be various: they
generally arise out of circumstances which impress the universal
mind of the age, or of some nation pre-eminently great in learning,
rule, manufacture, commerce, or the arts.
Style, indeed, will be universal in proportion as the sentiment
which inspires it is more or less widely prevalent, more or less
akin to our common nature; and on this account those styles
which have arisen out of the religious sentiment are generally coextensive with the religion which produced them.
When these influences arise out of the purer and nobler
qualities of man's nature, the style they produce will be noble also,
and being constantly around us, contribute in no small degree to
raise the tone of individual and national feeling. The influence
of a mean style, founded upon the ignoble or sensual qualities,
will in a like degree tend to degrade not only our taste but our
moral intellect also.
Thus the governing influences of Greece, when her art was
formed, were the worship of the Deity through his created forms
and attributes of beauty; and a sentiment of purity and beauty




A IzANVUAL OF DESIGN.                      I3
became the characteristics of Greek art.  In the latter days of
this people, when the poetical religion gave way before the
subtilty of her philosophers, the sense of the beautiful only
remained, and the principle of her art, deprived of the zealous fire
that even an imperfect religious sentiment inspires, became more
sensual under the domination of abstract beauty only.
When the Greeks were conquered by the Romans, and their
artists transplanted to serve the conquerors, they brought with
them their own dominant principle, sensuous beauty.  This, however, alone, ill suited the spirit of their proud rulers.  In the
full career of universal conquest, pomp and splendour were their
governing influences, and a new style was formed, wherein a
degree of barbarous grandeur dominated over the element of
beauty.
As the Romans, from being the conquerors, in turn became
the conquered, their art died out under the mean and contemptible desire to appear what they no longer were; having no
influence sufficiently strong to inspire their artists, they became
degraded imitators, and even broke down the mighty works of
their fathers, to build trophies to call after their own names. The
all-pervading spirit which had been present in the growth of
Roman art being gone, Europe was ready for the new influence,
which, gradually working on society, was to pervade all the nations.
in various degrees with the spirit of Christianity, and to produce
the new styles called Romanesque and Gothic, wherein the sentiment of religion again largely prevailed.
And perhaps the very circumstance that religion was presented
by means of art materially to the senses, rather than spiritually to
the reason and intellect, increased the universality of the influence.
Not only had the churches, but even the houses and all the
worldly goods of our fathers, the outward impress of these new
styles, which appearing first in the erection and decoration of
splendid temples devoted to the worship of the Deity, gradually
gave to all things an ecclesiastical character also.




14             A 1VANfUA4L OF DESIGlN.
When, from the causes before glanced at, the renaissance of
ancient art took place, it was impossible that any sentiment of
religion, which, in its own age, it might have possessed, could be
re-born with it; the beautiful only was sought in this revival;beauty, however, mnore or less tainted with the sensuality and pride
of the peoples from the study of whose remains the resurrection
to new life had been attempted.
Revived moreover without a thorough identity between the
sentiment of the age, and the sentiment of the past which produced it, this style became at once subject to national modifications.  In our own country it resulted in the Tudor, a style
redundant yet mean and grotesque; without ingenuity, and without
any constructive truth or consistency.  It bore the impress of a
people willing to borrow  their art at second-hand rather than
endeavour to cultivate it at home.  Flemish, Italian, and French
versions of the renaissance were mixed up in a strange medley
with the Gothic of the preceding age, and the style had a
character arising out of its very errors and absurdities.
In France the renaissance was gradually modified by successive
monarchs, until the revived love of beauty which had given it
re-birth gave place to the sentiment of pride.  It was modified to
pander to the self-esteem of the monarchs and people of the age,
and mere meretricious splendour resulted in that style which is
called the style of Louis Quinze.  In all that this style differed
from  the true renaissance, it differed merely as arising out of
decoration, and from the love for mere magnificence and display,
for which it was admirably adapted, being one of the most
suitable styles for gilding, and for brilliancy and sparkle in metal
and or-molu work; showy and glittering beyond anything attainable in the simpler forms of the renaissance or of classic
antiquity.
It must however be allowed to have a sufficiency of marked
characteristics to rank as an acknowledged style; the last in order
which decorative art has developed, and, with the other instances




A fWMANUAL OF DESIGN                         5'brought together, tends to establish that one of the first elements
of true style is an all-pervading and over-ruling sentiment.
In considering the elements of sty/e, it must be remembered,
that style does not merely relate to decoration, as is too often
supposed, but originates in construction, to which decoration is
only subsidiary.  All the great aras of style have been notedly
mras of changed construction. The mound-like temples of Egypt,
the horizontal constructions of Greece, the arched vaultings of
tRome, the vertical aspirings of Gothic buildings, contain elements
of STYLE as marked in their bare  a/z/7s, as when, in their completed state, they are covered with the rich decorative treatments
peculiar to them.
These preliminary arguments being admitted, it will follow,
first, that style implies some dominating influence reflecting the
mind of the age in all its works, and therefore presumes a certain
unity of character throughout.
Secondly, that the primary elements of style are constructive,
and that the design of a work must have regard to construction,
and consequently to proper use of materials, prior to the consideration of its ornamental decoration.
Thirdly, that as construction necessarily implies a purpose,
uz/iizy must have the precedence of decoration.
Fourthly, as construction necessitates a proper consideration
of materials, and as each material has its own mode of mainipulation, and is wrought by separate and varied processes; design
must be bad which applies indiscriminately the same constructive
forms or ornamental treatments to materials differing in their
nature and application.
Fifthly, that as the greater i'egulates the lesser, the building
should determine the style, and all which it contains of furniture
or, decoration should conform to its characteristics; and thus
there would be a proper uniformity of style throughout, and a
subordination of all the inferior objects to one another and to the
whole.




:E6           A MfANUAL OF DESIGN
Many minor principles are contained under each of these
several propositions.  In the few words of discussion on each
necessary to connect them with our present subject, these will be
noticed, and it is hoped that the preliminary argument will lead
to a better understanding of the whole question of decorative
design as illustrated subsequently in our remarks upon our various
manufactures.
The subject of the first proposition-the prevailing influence
characterizing works and thus producing style, has already been
touched upon. When this influence is neither strong nor general,
characteristic indications of style will be slight and hardly noticeable, and the age will be imitative rather than original: even the
slight national character that is present in art labours being less
observable by the people themselves than by others.
Thus although to Englishmen there appeared so little originality in the art applied to our own manufactures at Paris in the
International Exhibition of I855 as to incline us to regard them as
devoid of any peculiar character, we were less at a loss to perceive
a nationality in those produced in Germany, France, or Spain. It
was some satisfaction, therefore, on various occasions to hear the
same remark from Frenchmen and others on the manufactures of
their own land, namely, that they could recognize national
characteristics, and many indications of novelty and unity of style
in British goods, these qualities being absent to them  in their
own; a subject which seemed most justly a cause of regret on
their part.  Our mutual remarks are therefore somewhat encouraging to each other, and we may hope that there are influences
at work to raise us above the rank of mere imitators of the men of
other lands and other times-and as imitators necessarily shortcomers-and that we may thus impress the national character of
our age and people on our art and our works.
The great effort that is now made towards a wide-spread
development of art education in Great Britain-and this not
alone for the upper and middle classes, but for all, even the




A MANUAL OF D~ESIGNV.                         I7
poorest, must tell upon the rising generation.  Once properly
instructed, there is very little doubt that the plain good sense, the
energy of will, and the dislike of mere display of our countrymen
will result in works of much higher excellence in decorative art
than has yet been attained in this country.  The artizan will thus'be empowered to add to his admitted manual dexterity and
thorough workmanship, the knowledge and taste that will enable
him  to join beauty to excellence, and to carry out the labours
which the advanced taste of the general public will demand at his
hands.
It has been said above that we are rarely sensible of our own
growth and progress, and thus it is most difficult to estimate
whether any sentiment arising amongst us is sufficiently strong, persistent, and all-prevailing to produce a style.  Such, however,
may be the case notwithstanding our lack of the power to perceive
it.  There seem to be many symptoms that the desired change is
arising, and will arise out of, or be very materially influenece  by
the great scientific improvements and discoveries of our times.
Not however directly, but indirectly.  Changed materials are
altering the whole system  of construction, and utility, in such
works, is of necessity a paramount consideration;   the iron'orad
has opened up to the multitude the power of seeing and enjoying
nature; the camera fixes her mlost fleeting images, and allows us
to surround ourselves with evidences of the marvellonls and
infinite variety of her beauties; the art of nature-print-il,,   tplaces
the very accidents of growth and structure palpably before us.
As the altered character of the materials, and the necessity of
strictly considering utility in our scientific works, has improved
our knowledge of structure and weaned us from mere precedents
in constructive art; so the opportunity of seeing and enjoying
nature, and of searching into the details of her beautiful variety,
has led to such a love and delight in natural objects as may be
productive of a new style in decorative art also.  If these sources
-of novelty are Tightly understood and directed, they point indeed




i8             A MANUA4 OF DESIGNM
to a most hopeful future, if due regard is paid to the principles of
ornamental adaptation hereafter to be laid down.
If there was any perceptible advance towards novelty in
design in the great Exhibition of I85I, it wVas the tendency to
zatiitra/lstzc treatments of ornament, pervading not only those
fabrics wherein imitative renderings are easily adapted, but those
manufactures also in which the primary consideration of structure
and use required at least some modification in the application of
Nature's details to manufactures-as, for instance, in furniture and
metal-work.  As an indication, however, of an increased love of
nature, and of recurrence to her, as the true source of ornamental
decoration, this tendency, notwithstanding its errors, may be
hailed with satisfaction; and our endeavours should be earnestly
directed to avoid former faults, and to teach the rg'/tZ mode of
seeing and making use of nature.  This must be accomplished
not by the mere imitative rendering of flowers and foliage, which
is a means of study, but not the end: the ornamentist must be a
much deeper student, if he would found a new style.  If he seeks.
out the mode of development of vegetable growth, he will find
that regularity and symmetry are the normal laws, while all that is
irregular is accidental and extraneous.
This is in strict accordance with the principles of ornament in,
the best times; indeed, in this lies the true distinction between
pictorial and ornamental art; that which has been called disparagingly 2,tzi-z/riJstc ornament, arises from the ornamen tist forgetting his own laws, and the absolute laws of natural growth,
and taking to mere pictorial imitation, whicll regards the accidents
and disturbances of growth only.
These normal laws would instruct the ornamentist that nature
is developed in strict geometrical and numerical rhythm.  Thus
leaves are placed on the supporting stem  either continuously
opposite, or alternate, or numerically recurrent; and as are the
leaves, so are the future stems placed also.  Again, varied quantity would be learnt from the study of nature;'while it would be;




A MAN/VUAL OF DESIGNV.                         I9
found that all vegetation is developed under a law of numbers;
those numbers most largely prevail whose correspondent geometric
forms give the greatest variety consistent with symmetry.  Thus
three, corresponding with the triangle, is the law of inflorescence
of all endogenous vegetation, whilst the flowers of exogens are
developed numerically as five, corresponding with the pentagon,
much more largely than as four, the less varied root of the square;
thus contributing to the greatest amount of symmetry consistent
with variety.
Moreover, the ornamentist might learn something of restraint,
and be warned against over-ornamentation, by seeing how nature
restricts her true ornaments, the flowers, to the most salient and
culminating points of plants, and sprinkles them  sparingly, contrasted with the foliage.  It is not in place here to allude to the
colours of nature, because the endeavour is simply to prove that
the principle of symmetrical arrangement, advocated as the true
law of ornament, is to be deduced from the study of nature's laws
of growth.  Our aim, while referring to the hope that an increased
acquaintance with nature may be operating to produce a style, is
to insist upon the necessity of a thorough examination of and not
a mere superficial acquaintance with her works: we shall then
find " the art itself is nature," and that as Shakespeare tells us-' Nature is made better by no mean,
But nature makes that mean; so o'er that art,
WVhich you say adds to nature, is an art
That nature makes."
There was ever a true sense of ornamental clistiibuti'on in the
early Italian works which extended even to pictorial art when
applied decoratively to vwalls, the principle being dei-ivcd  raolmL
Byzantine sources.  This principle was not wholly neglected by
artists so late as the time of Francia and Bartoloneo, as is
evidenced  in their balanced  and  symmetrical compositions.
When, however, pictorial art began to assert itself over tihe
decorative, and to assume its own high place and office, then the
C 2




20             A MANUAL OF DESIGN.
ornamental principle succumbed to pictorial treatment, and the
painted ornament, as well as much also of the ornamental
sculpture of the early renaissance, became pictorial and unsymmetrical.  This will at once be seen by anyone who examines
the bas-reliefs, or even the fruit and foliage of the architrave of
the Florentine gates by Ghiberti.  Herein pictorial art reigns
paramount; the frieze which surrounds the gates is an imitative
rendering of nature, hardly disposed according to the law of
)                  AciI
FIG. I.
geometrical distribution  even the bas-reliefs are pictorial not
sculpturesaue: many planes enter into their composition; so that
it may be said that the painter rather than the sculptor-the
artist certainly rather than the ornamentist-has composed them.
The return to classic examples stayed the innovation for a time in
sculpture of the cinquecento period; but the irregular treatment
became more dominant than ever in the I7th century.
It must be admitted that there are styles dependent for their




A MANUAL OF DESIGNV                            21
character on the absence both of symmetry and of constructive
truth.  The style called after Louis Quatorze ignores all constructive truth:-Supporting forms are twisted and have even their
continuity broken, and in the ornamental details symmetry is purposely disregarded, the aim  evidently being to startle or surprise
us by novelty and
magnificence. Thus
rich veneers, costly
marbl e s    finely       i     I.,'
chased or-molu, with 
a proffulsion of gildincg, give a  mere-  
tricious  splendour
viciously   alluriing 
and  dangerous to                                     ______=____
youngdesigners. \We
reproduce  here  a
sofa (Fig. r), from                   _
Assilineau, to   illus-   lH!l Uli11'   I         II
trate the foregoing      y 
The openi ng of
Japa ni allso   has                            __M__
brought the art of
this  people  more         i                ii 
prominently before
us of late; an art      -.....,....
wvhich rejects sym-                      FIG. 2.
metry as a principle.
But in the beautiful productions of this art-sensitive  people,
the absence of symmetry is compensated for by their refined
feeling for balance of quantity, both of form  and of colourand this, aided by its novelty and from its very quaintness, makes
us overlook the distortion arising from the unsymmetrical con



22             A  A7UfALUZ OF DESIGNY.
struction of their furniture.  Eventually, however, even here the
absence of symmetry is felt to be an error in principle.  The
little cabinet (Fig. 2) will serve as an illustration of the Japanese
irregular treatment.
Yet from what has been said, it must be evident that the law
of symmetrical arrangement is not only in accordance with a
deeper insight into nature's working, but moreover lends itself to
the absolute necessities of many manufactures, especially in this
age of machinery, and proves the best means for the display of
form and colour in all.  The naturalistic view on the other hand
is not only difficult of execution in many manufactures and fabrics,
but is a mere surface view of nature, only concerning itself with
Wvhat is open to every one, and neglecting those hidden truths
-which lie at the root of the whole subject.
That man's love of nature who studies her inmost secrets to
apply them anew to his handiwork, must be much more intense
than his who only looks at her to make false and exaggerated
imitations of roses, poppies, and peonies, to sprawl them  over
carpets and who reverses even her simplest laws to stand brass
candlesticks on the points of leaves; who causes gas to jet out of
the corollas of flowers, or who covers with bunches of grapes or
sprays of ivy the fronts of cabinets or buffets.  The one studies
nature, the other caricatures her.
It is in this spirit of a loving study of nature, coupled with a
due appreciation for art, that the courses in our public art schools
are now arranged.  Alternately with the study of ornament, the
pupil has natural foliage, fruit, and flowers placed before him;
he is taught to imitate natural objects carefully, then to investigate
the laws of their growth and development; and finally, as a step
to invention, he is instructed how to arrange according to like geometrical laws and principles the unnumbered beautiful forms and
varied colours with which nature supplies him.
Moreover, many able writers and earnest workmen in this
country have of late years endeavoured to inculcate the true




XA MiANVU4LZ OF DESIGNT.                   23
principles of decorative art, and of the application of nature's
forms to ornament; and a general sense of the truth of these
principles begins to prevail.
The question of the direct imitation, or the conventional treatment of natural objects as the details of ornament, has been of late
much discussed, and requires indeed the fullest consideration, if,
as has been suggested, there is a likelihood that the electrotype
and the camera are leading, through a deeper insight into nature,
to novelty of style;  while a recurrence to nature for new elements
is enforced in our schools.
It must be remembered that absolute imitation, difficult in
fine art, is almost impossible in many manufactures, whether produced by hand or by the machine, and therefore imitation can be
but a question of degree. Take for instance the application of art
mlore peculiarly to manufacture by machinery; say in the case of
calico-printing.  Here the precise imitation of natural objects is
impossible, since relief is unattainable, although the appearance of
relief may be given by light, shade, perspective, and colour. But
is the mode or degree of imitation peculiar to the artist flowerpainter that which is most suitable or conducive to the desired
end? In the first place, the processes of production control the
application of colour, which must be laid on in separate and unblended masses by means of machinery, and not by that curious
and delicate instrument the human hand, while the several tints
also must be applied by successive and distinct processes; so
that it would seem  scarcely possible that calico-printing could
compete with the imitative means at the disposal of the flowerpainter.
Let us, however, allow that by improved mechanical and
scientific aids the imitation of flowers, foliage, or other natural
objects in light, shadow, growth, colour, and relief could be
rendered as perfect by machinery as it is by a Van HIuysum or a
Daniel Seghers; still the art is to be applied to a specific use, and
not to be examined as a picture is. The fabric on which the




24             A 2ANVUAL OF DESIGN/.
painting is to be impressed is partly transparent, and the forms are.
at once blurred and indistinct; the garment it is intended to be
made into is to hang full and in folds; thus the light, shade, and
the very fornis of the object which has been imitated, are confused and hidden, and that ZilitcAifozZ which the manufacturer has.
been at such pains to produce is entirely lost and destroyed. The
garment moves with every motion of the wearer, and any examination of this rare art, as we are enabled to examine the
painter's work, is, by the very use of the material, as impossible as
it is undesirable.
Printing again necessitates a constant repetition of the same
details; and what would be said of the painter who, instead of a
rare flower or group of flowers, offered for our admiration a dozen
or a hundred, of the same monotonous form, the same unvaried
colour, the  same  tedious  arrangement of imitation? if the
painter's imitation is sought for by the calico-printer;-let at
least each flower, each sprig, each group, be varied and different.
But, no  such is not the end in view: it is not to imitate the
painter, it is not to attempt to vie with nature that is the
true aim of the calico-printer.  The legitimate art to be applied
to such fabrics is at once seen to be simply to decorate or
enrich thle surface with agreeable forms and colours, and if for
this purpose we employ the beautiful forms and colours of natural
objects, it must be consistently with the true use and purpose
of the material and with the means at our command to produce
the effect sought for. As the machinery by whichl the art is
reproduced acts by a constant repetition, a geometrical distribution of forms is more or less a necessity which cannot be
overcome.  As the tints must be laid on separately and successively, and cannot be softened or blended, the simplest conm —
bination of tints and colours must be sought for rather than
the more intricate; a condition necessitated also in point of cost
and called for by the market offered for such goods.
If varied hues of colour are introduced; to be agreeable to,




A IVAXUAL OF DESIGN.                        25
the eye, colour must be distributed according to fixed laws of
quantity and juxta-position; and this is scarcely attainable by
that mode of imitation which is called naturalistic, while it lends
itself readily to that symmetrical and regular display of the plant
which is called a " conventional treatment," a treatment shown to
be consistent with the natural laws of the growth of plants, as it
is also with that simple impression which flowers in their natural
state of growth make on the casual observer.
It has been already said that direct imitation of nature
pertains to fine art, but not to ornament other than as a means
of study. Even in fine art, imitation, although the necessary
language of the art, is impertinent and mean when it becomes
the end sought, or as an eloquent writer has expressed it, "so
degrading a thing is deception even in the approach or appearance
of it, that all painting which even reaches the mark of apparent
realization is degraded in so doing."  (Ruskin, Seven Lamps,
P. 31.) Thus we acknowledge at once the sublimity and grandeur
of Rembrandt, the deep mysteries of his generalised imitation of
nature's great truths, while we despise the mean littleness of his
pupil Dow, who wasted the capabilities of his art in the deceptive
treatment of the rind of an onion, the knitting of a stocking, or
in producing hair by hair the texture of fur.
The sculptor, moreover, does not seek deceptive imitation,
but rather the normal form only; otherwise it would not be necessary to consider if the colouring of flesh or draperies was permissible to the statuary: it would, as being the nearest approach to
deceptive imitation, be the highest effort of his art.  Such, however, is not the case; and although the ignorant are in the habit
of making imitative deception a ground of wonder, the more intelligent and educated have consented to place it very low in the
scale of artistic qualifications, and to agree with the assertion
"that no art is noble which in any way depends on direct imitation for its effect on the mind."
But if mere imitation is inconsistent with nobility in fine art,




26            A.4AN2UAL  OF DESIGNEV.
it is also as inconsistent with the principles as it is with the means
at command in ornamental art, which seeks either symbolic expression, or the merely beautiful, or both in combination. Its forms
and colours of beauty and richness must be derived from nature,
but are not of necessity copies of her works.  "Symbolic expression," as has been said, "appeals altogether to thoughts,
and in noways trusts to realization."  Thus the well-known wave
scroll of the Greeks was not imitative: it truly symbolized the
ever-recurring waves of their inland sea, but at the same time it
was an abstract form of beauty also. This was indeed the case
with all their ornament; they chose, no doubt, the most elegant
forms from leaf and flower, but they cared not to preserve the
least actual resemblance to the type they copied. Their ornament was all abstractedly beautiful, the most elegant and refined
curves being chosen and the most rigid symmetry observed; sometimes as simply recurrent as in the wave scroll; sometimes
alternately recurrent, as in the anthemion and tulip form of the
frieze of the Erectheum, but always rhythmical.
The Egyptians, although deriving the details of their ornament more evidently from nature, still treated them  strictly as
ornament and arranged them accordingly; and not to tire with
instances, the Jews (to whom, if there ever was a true inspiration
of genius, we are to believe such inspiration was given), deriving
their ornament from natural objects, were taught by divine command to arrange it symmetrically and in a continuous order, the
robe of their Ephod being bordered with "a golden bell and
a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate upon the hem of
the robe round about."
These principles of symmetry-of conventional treatmentand geometrical arrangement were handed down to us from the
nations of antiquity through the Byzantine ornamentists, and prevailed almost exclusively in Romanesque decoration, and largely,
if less decidedly so, in Gothic.  If such laws of arrangement




A MANUAL OF D-ESIGNM                       27
-wvere necessary when ornament was produced by handicraft labour,
how much more so are they in our age of production by
machinery.  In all ornament so produced, whether by printing,
stamping, or weaving, some law of geometrical recurrence, both
of form and colour, is enforced by the requisite receats, and takes
place, however we may strive to disguise it, at oft-recurring intervals; and the question is whether we shall strive to ignore and
bide it in efforts after i'tct/rz'ial art, or whether it is not more judicious to accept it as a law and make it subservient to our own
purposes, in the extended use now more than ever advocated, of
nature's treasures.
While on the subject of style we must remember that old
styles are, and perhaps ever will be imitated: and indeed the
larger number of modern works are based upon imitations; but
the mere imitation of past works will not renew or give real
vitality to an old style.  In order to do this, the artist must enter
into the spirit of the past age, and be imbued with the same
feelings that then prevailed; and not only the artist, but the
world also for whom he labours.  The artist must go with the
spirit of his own time, or be strong enough to lead it, and this can
only be done by an earnest and convinced will. Indeed, it must
be allowed that in general the age as much makes the artist as
the artist the age. Even in reproductions of old styles, national
character has much to do with the result; thus in English works
some sympathy with the Gothic is largely evident, while in
France the styles reproduced are mostly the cinquecento renaissance, and that of Louis XIV. and XV.
It appears a curious anomaly, although, as has been shown it
is really very consistent with the French character, that in France,
a Catholic country, there is so little tendency to revert to the
truly ecclesiastical styles.  The direction of French taste is
certainly not to the Gothic, far less so indeed than is the case in
Protestant England. Even in those objects and utensils which




28             A IMANUAL OF DESIGN
are for the service of the Church, the Gothic style is rarely used,.
the Romanesque occurs perhaps more frequently, while there is a
strong tendency to take renaissance types for these purposes, not
only in chalices, flagons, monstrances, &c., but also in altar
work. And yet the renaissance is essentially a sensuous style,
and far more fitted for the banqueting-table than for the altar,




CHAPTER  III.
ON THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE ARISING OUT OF CONSTRUCTION.
THE second preposition states that the primary elements of styZe
are constructive, and that the design of a work must have regard
to construction, and consequently to the proper use of materials,
prior to the consideration of its ornamental decoration. That
the primary elements of style are constructive will at once be
manifest when it is remembered that the constructive application of
materials gives the broad distinction between the architecture of
the ancient and of the modern world.
The ancient races sought grandeur and sublimity by building
temples formed of enormous masses of stone simply imposed on
one another, the remains of which we still gaze at with wonder
and surprise.  It is true that the feeling inspired is of the earth,
earthy, tile building of necessity clings to earth: we think less of
the gods that were honoured by these labours than of the men
that wrought them; yet, looking upon the huge cyclopean walls,
the monolithic pillars, and the enormous lintels of these mighty
structures, we acknowledge that, if man is magnified rather than
God, " there were giants on the earth in those days."  Such is the
horizontal system of construction.
Our Gothic fathers wrought altogether in another spirit; in all
their doings they were looking upwards.  Like the Israelites of
old, each had his own offering, each as it were brought his gift to




30              A MfANIUA4L OF DESIGNA.
the altar, his stone to the building, and lifted it higher and higher
towards the God of heaven, to whom  the sacrifice was made, and
who alone was to be magnified by the worlk.  Such is the vertical
system of construction, differing alike in the sentiment that inspired it and in the mode of using the materials of construction,
and consequently in all the elements of style.
The primary consideration of construction  is so necessary
to pure design, that it may be talken as a rule that whenever style and ornament are found to be debased, it will be seen
that constructive truth was first disregarded, and that those styles
which are considered the purest; and the best periods of those
styles, are just those wherein constructive utility has been rightly
understood, and most fully attended to. Thus in the masterpieces
of Gothic architecture, the necessities of construction produced
much of the decoration; for instance, flying and other buttresses
aild pinnacles, constructively necessary to resist the thrusts of the
inner groined work and roo0, were by the skill of the Gothic
architect rendered strikingly beautiful and ornamental features,
materially ministering to character.  In castellated architecture
also, the battlements and machicolations, at first constructed for
use, were made to contribute largely to enriclhment.
On the contrary, the renaissance architect being in too many
cases but thle mere revivalist of ancient classic constructive details, was obliged in order to apply these details to modern uses to
resort to continual constructive shams and falsities.
The introduction of the arch into construction by the Romans
had tended, even in their own age, to modify the ancient pr'inciple,
and when classic architecture was revived at the'ra of the renaissance, the men of those days, who had seen the Gothic temple
in its glory, were tempted to endeavour still more to unite the
horizontal with the perpendicular principle.  The two thoughts,
however, are essentially distinct, as are all the constructive details
they lead to, and a mixed or composite system  of architecture is
not to be formed by -taking the ranges of columns, the porticoes,
b             0




A  MIfZANUALf  OF  D.ESIGNr.        3'
and roof-formed pediments of classic architecture, and piling them
one upon another, as a child' raises higher and higher his house
of cards. If such a mixed style is to be arrived at, it can only
be accomplished by an entirely new departure, by some mastermind starting from the constructive root, thence building up the
necessary parts, and gradually decorating the construction as it
arises.
Half the gross faults of bad styles may fairly be traced to
false construction, and the use of constructive parts merely for
decoration, and this whether in architecture or in ornament, which
is ever dependent upon it.  It was this that debased the Gothic
in its last period; it was this that reversed the columns of the Tudor
style; that broke through pedimental roofings, or placed them unnecessarily within one another; and finally it was the want of even
constructive probability that led to the gross extravagances of the
Rococo style, and in the characterless age, which has just passed
away, crowded our streets with absurdities, and made our architecture a byword and a reproach.   Architecture became the
mere bond slave of precedents-precedents followed perhaps in
the letter but never in the spirit; and thus the mere imitator
lorded it over the original thinker. If a church was to be designed,
the last consideration of the architect was the arrangement of the
general plan, the constructive utility, the comfort and convenience
of the people who were to hear and pray, the modes and requirements of the worship that was to be therein celebrated; these were
wholly overlooked in order to patch together some Grecian portico
and Gothic spire.  Or, was a museum to be built, so long as some
classic structure could be adapted to the elevation, what care was
there concerning the contents that were to be arranged or displayed therein, the convenience for lighting the objects so as to
be seen to the best advantage, the best arrangements for visiting
them, the provision for future extensions, or the characteristic
expression of the whole that was to arise out of all these considerations.  Hi-ow best to stint the various heights within to the




32             A MAN/,UAL OF DESIGN
diameters and proportions of some oft-reproduced portico was the
great question, thus the whole was evolved with the cold frigidity
of a dead and classic period, ill adapted to modern wants. From
the same causes our theatres looked like prisons so far as any
outward character was observed, and our workhouses assumed
the jaunty air of cockney palaces.
But if this was the case with our public buildings, it can scarcely
be said that our private ones fared better. In our towns, the architect was so hedged in by fiscal regulations, and tied and bound
by Acts of Parliament regulating the form, the size, and the
number of openings for light and air, the mode of structure, and
the very scantlings of his materials, —so watched was he by district
surveyors, and so prevented, by all possible means, from any attempt
at originality; in consequence of being required to build streets to
pattern, with houses all alike within and without, that his imagination
was spell-bound, and the new quarters of our towns were necessarily as regular as, and far less striking than, a range of cotton
mills.  How different this from the vigorous licence of our forefathers, whose picturesque ba-Hbarismis and careless vigour yet
surprise and delight us. What wonder that men who were to
design houses to be erected by dozens to the same pattern became
so chilled down to the one dead level of unimaginative uniformity,
that to fit a plan to some classic elevation from Greece or Rome
was the utmost stretch of their inventive powers.  Happily, however, these times have passed away, and a new race of architects
has arisen with the new order of things.
But while our architects were content to put columns that
supported nothing, roofs that covered nothing, and parapets and
balustrades that protected nothing; to contrive sham attics to
hide the construction of ugly roofs, to make us peep through the
scroll-work of a frieze, or the channels of a triglyph instead of a
window, or to make the pedestal of a statue into a chimney-pot;
how was it likely to fare with furniture, which became a sort of
toy architecture? Was it to be wondered at that all constructive




A MlAfVUALZ OF DESIGNAr                     33
shams were increased tenfold when used as ornament? was it
surprising that Grecian stone altars formed our sideboards, Roman
temples our cabinets, sarcophagi our cellarets and wine coolers,
or that our harpsichords stood on lyres instead of legs; that
constructive truth, in short, was wholly and entirely disregarded,
in order that some favourite type might be reproduced?  Was it
to be wondered at, moreover, that men broke loose from these
dead shams, and, getting sick of these classicalities, entirely
deserted constructive truth and symmetrical arrangement; went
mad first after Rococoism, and then, in our own days, after
picturesque naturalism, and that the very revolution of taste,
produced the wildest contradictory faults.
It has already been remarked that true construction includes
the. proper use of materials; and it might be added that much of
what is ornamentally constructive will naturally arise from  this
source.  Thus, how much of beauty in architecture is owing to
the arch, at first no doubt a structural necessity, arising out of the
impossibility of quarrying blocks of sufficient size to bridge over
the wide spaces and intercolumniations of the trabeated system
in large buildings.  Again, how much beauty is due to the tracery
formed by the ribs of groins in Gothic architecture, necessary in
themselves to combine lightness with strength.  How much also of
real character and even of beauty is to be observed in the displayed
construction of our old timber houses, with their quarterings and
braces, their projecting bays, carved knee timbers, and pierced
barge-boards; things apparently tending to an unpromising effect,
but when honestly treated, contributing to picturesque beauty and
character.  So also it might be with our brick buildings-a necessity of our geographical situation on a vast bed of clay, where
stone is a costly material-if the material were treated in good
faith, and not hidden by the smooth hypocrisy of stucco.  How
much of life and vivacity might be given to the dull monotony of
our streets by the varied interchange of the colour of the bricks,
helped perhaps by coloured surface glazings, which would resist
D




34           A i/7ANXUAL OF DES'IGN.
damp and smoke, and which, but for the cheap facility of cement,
would surely have been perfected long ago.
Our present space will not allow us to enter upon this subject
at any length, or it might be fully shown how much that is of
importance in " design " is contained in the right use of materials.
What is true of stone, of brick, and of wood, is true also of
metal.  How diverse, for instance, is, or should be, the whole
treatment of cast as compared with wrought metal-take forged
and cast iron, the lightness and elegance obtainable in the one,
contrasted with the necessary solidity and weight of the other:
the play of form; fancy, and variety obtainable in wrought iron,
now, alas! almost wholly laid aside for the heavy, mechanical,
commonplace repetition of cast work. Even in minor constructive operations the true use of materials often evolves the true
ornamentation; as for instance, in weaving, as contrasted with
printing processes, in basket weaving, &c. &c.
Our age is an age of new materials and new processes, which
want carefully considering with a view to evolving from them and
for them new and appropriate designs. Gutta-percha and electrodepositing should, equally with iron and glass, have earnest study
on the part of the artist, not necessarily to make the former do
c/zeapy what wood carving and metal embossing and chasing
accomplish, or to bind the latter, when used as building materials,
to the five classical orders, but to find the right use of these
materials and the decoration conzsistenzt with that use.
It is worthy of remark that the true novelty of our own time
arose almost fortuitously out of the uzseful application of iron and
glass treated honestly in construction in the Palace of Crystal of
i85I.  More earnest study on the part of the artist may be expected to give more artistic combinations, combinations not
arrived at by the mere juxtaposition of materials, so often seen
in modern buildings.
If there is one rule more than another which may lead us to a
style characteristic of our own age, it is that of making the pur



4A M-ANVUAL OF DESIGN                    35
pose and utility of our buildings or furniture, and every object
and utensil the first consideration; then of selecting the proper
materials, by the use of which that utility may be most completely
obtained; and, thirdly, ornamenting consistently with the nature
of the materials chosen, the leading forms arising out of such
construction, irrespective of the mere reproduction of the bygone
elements and ornamental details of any style. And reverting to
what has been already said, that all the great eras of style have
been mras of changed construction, it may not be too much to
hope that the mighty constructive works of our day, and our
changed materials may at last originate some characteristic style,
which, impressed with the " mind and body of the time, its form
and bearing," may give to the nineteenth century characteristics
as strongly marked as those of the eleventh were marked in the
ecclesiastical styles which then arose.
D 2




CHAPTER  IV,
ON UTILITY WHICH MUST BE CONSIDERED BEFORE DECORATION.
THE terms of the third proposition are, that as constructiol
necessarily implies a purpose, utility must precede ornament.  In
all arts applied to articles for the use, convenience, and comfort
of man, from the building which shelters him  and the objects of
his care, to the meanest utensil which he values enough to desire
to render it ornamental, the utility and fitness for intended purpose is, or ought to be, the first consideration.  It has been said
that design must commence with the choice of the first structural
form and the best use of the materials to be employed, and afterwards proceed to the enhancing, enriching, and ornamenting of
that utility, or in other words, in accordance with the well-known
rule, we must ornament construction, not construct ornament.
This seems an obvious and an almost unnecessary proposition,
but it is often completely overlooked; if, however, it were kept
prominently in view, it would correct so many grave errors, that
it is worth being earnestly enforced and constantly repeated.
Thus, with respect to the external structure of both public and
private edifices, the errors that arise out of useless constructive
ornamentation have already been noticed.  Nor are the faults
zeit/ifn the building, its furniture, its decoration, or its utensils,
likely to be less grave, in consequence of the neglect of the
principle of the prior claims of utility.




A M~ANUALX OF DESIGA.                      37
The way in which utility must control decoration is not always,so patent as might be inferred, and oftentimes requires most
attentive study and research.  Thus, after the consideration of
the general uses of any building, must come that of its individual
apartments, regulating and characterizing the decorative treatment
of each; and the hall, the library, the dining and withdrawing
room, should each be considered having regard to their separate
uses.
What, for instance, can be more practically absurd in a public
building, serving as a picture gallery, than to cover the upper part
of the halls and ceilings with pictorial subjects, surrounded by
gilding  and coloured decoration, whose coarse execution, vivid
colour and brilliant "entourage," call away the eye from, and
quite overpower, the more modest and thoughtful labours of the
easel?  Would not utility at once suggest that the character of:the decorations should be sufficiently grave and simple, quiet and
reserved, to support and display, without interfering with these
far more valuable works of art?  Yet in many of the galleried
apartments of the Louvre used for the display of easel pictures,
the very reverse of this is the case, and the walls and ceilings are
redolent of decorative painting and gilding.
So also, in many of our private houses, you will see those who
have spent thousands and tens of thousands on rare and costly
-works of art, sacrificing them  entirely to gaudy wall-papers,
manufactured decorations, or glaring carpets.  Here ztizity would
at once set the inquirer right.
Again, how often do we find cabinets so covered with carved
ornaments, that they will not open, so embossed with useless
reliefs that it is dangerous to come near them, so heavy that they
hide without exhibiting the invaluable rareties they are intended
to contain; rich and costly buffets, that have neither sideboard
-for the dining utensils, nor shelves for displaying the plate, chairs
-that give no repose to those who sit in them, and caskets that, from.being too fragile to be toucihed, are a misery to their possessors?




38             A MANUALE OF DESIGN2
There can be no doubt that the cabinet-work of this country
is far beyond that of other nations, and that for plain but sound
workmanship, including easy action, excellence of framing and
joinery, substantiality, and general utility, a chest of drawers, a
sideboard, or a table, of English make is unequalled by foreign
workmen; and if not exactly beautiful it is certainly not vulgar.
But when beauty is to be added to this utilitarian excellence, we
are apt to have " upholsterer's ornament" in the shape of some
coarse scroll-work or some Louis Quinze coquillage, originally
intended for gilding but rendered heavy, clumsy, absurd, and
essentially vulgar by carving it in the same coloured wood as the
furniture.
Granted  that " design"  includes both  construction  and
ornamentation, and that this latter should arise naturally out of
the appropriate decoration of suitable materials, we shall arrive,
at a law of good taste, which, while it applies to architecture
primarily, is equally to be observed in regard to the furniture and
fittings which buildings contain, and to the smaller articles of
everyday use. If in architecture, for instance, it is false in,
principle as it is weak in invention to impose on the face of a
structure meaningless columns, purposeless porticoes, or useless
pediments, it is equally so in furniture to make cabinets, armoires,
buffets, or bookcases into miniature temples, with columns which,
so far from having anything to support, are moved from under their
entablature whenever it is necessary to open a door, and niches
equally useless, trenching upon any space which may be devoted,
to purposes of utility.
Yet in these adaptations, we have, to a certain extent,
precedent to guide us, and some sort of architectural rule and.
lore to refer to. Far more erroneous is the taste when natural
imitation is pushed to extremes and the ornaments on a piece of'
furniture are made to look less like the work of man than nature's
own growth, decayed and withered on some old wall or ruined'
paling. This very idea has in fact occurred to some designers,.




A  ANVU4AL OF 9ESIGN'/                      39
who have izproved it into a reality and rendered the stiles and
rails of their works into the crumbling wall and broken paling
carving on them, by way of enrichment, the brown, shrivelled, and
clinging ivy.
It is the merely imitative character of architecture to which
we have already alluded, which has so largely contributed to
decorative shams, to the age of putty, papier-mache, and guttapercha. These react upon architecture; and, from the cheapness
with which such ornament can be applied and its apparent
excellence, the florid and the gaudy takes the place of the simple
and the true. A popular writer describes the wearer of cheap
finery as having his jewellery " a size larger than anybody else;"
and so it is with the cheap finery of imitative ornament: it is
always "a size larger" than it should be-bolder, coarser, and
more impudent than the true thing; it excites our contempt by
its flashy tawdriness, so incongruous with the meanness and
vulgarity it is intended to adorn.
From this nuafzzadctire of ori-zametd arises all that mixture of
styles, and that incongruity of parts, which, perhaps, is itself
"the style" of this characterless age.  Through it, also, the
plasterer and the paper-hanger too often usurp the place of the
architect, to the certain dismissal of the mason and the woodcarver; and ornament, perchance in itself unobjectionable, is
sure in such hands to be grossly misapplied.
The errors to which we have directed  attention  in  our
architecture and in our furniture, are equally prevalent in
our domestic utensils.  The simple forms which were at first
evoked by the rudest arts of the potter or the smith, become,
as  luxury advances, so  overladen  with  superabundant and
unnecessary ornament as to render their daily use a constant
misery, and their application for domestic purposes a source of
continual annoyance to us.  Take, for instance, our pottery;
here purity of form  almost of necessity arises out of constructive utility, and the reliefs governed solely by the imitation




40             A ifANUAL OF DESIGNV.
of natural objects and not by the requirements of use or the rules
of art are quite unsuited to the material; yet how often do
we find in porcelain imitative flowers in high relief, glowing and
brilliant as the tints of nature, yet looking gaudy as ornaments,
and, from  their fragile projections, liable to injury from every
touch.  Even the Dresden may-flower pattern, a production of
great beauty on the principle of a diaper of form and colour; in
consequence of its minute hollows is quite incapable of being
cleansed, and, from the thickness which it adds to the form,
contradicts the true effects of porcelain, which should unite
lightness with capacity.
A further consideration of the question of design as applied to
that division of pottery and porcelain which more especially cormprises works of utility, would lead us to assign to constructive
form the first attention; and in such works as are intended for
vessels of capacity those forms should be adopted which, while
they are most elegant, are best fitted for containing or holding.
Such articles, moreover, being of continuous use, the power of
ready cleansing is of great importance, and should have due
attention from the designer.  It is to be remembered, also, that
the means of receiving that which is to be contained is as necessary as the facility for its ready outpouring; since it is hardly
desirable to have to apply a funnel to fill a pitcher or jug intended
for constant use, although this may be permitted in a bottle which
is required to keep its contents cool, and may have to be carried
about, and which is liable to spill the contents by jolting, and
therefore needs a smaller aperture. Moreover, a jug, or pitcher,
which will admit the hand to cleanse it thoroughly, must be more
suited to daily use than one which will not.
A due consideration of utility would regulate the form in many
other cases; as, for instance, in cups and other drinking vessels
though it might be most graceful to curve the top edge outwards
yet, since such a form is likely to overflow the person in drinking,
however superior it may be in elegance, it should not be adopted.




A M-ANIVUAL OF DESIGN                      41
When utility is considered before ornament, numerous truths of the
like kind will be arrived at, which are entirely overlooked when the
order is reversed; thus relief, when used, should be extremely
low, and without indented hollows in the composition, as well as
without undercuttings, in order to give facility for cleansing; but,
while this is required for utility, it is necessary for elegance and
beauty also.  The Greeks were fully aware of this fact as an
important truth, and in their pottery abstained from reliefs, or
kept them to the lowest impost: the vases of Etruria have
generally their line unbroken by the ornament, and the reliefs on
the celebrated Portland vase are so extremely low as entirely to
FIG. 3.
preserve its outline. The eastern nations are sensible of the same
truth, and their decoration of pottery is on this principle, being
entirely subservient to the lines of the form.
The application of handles is another important point connected with constructive design. The easiest and most convenient
means of lifting the weight, when lifting only is required, and of
lifting and pouring when both are requisite, being the question to
be determined. Too often this is arrived at more by chance than
by calculation.  We see, for instance, the form of an Etruscan
vase, such as is shown in Fig. 3, No. i, adopted as a pitcher; the




42             A MlfANUgAL OF DESIGNA,
original having two handles, formed for its occasional removal
only; for its new purpose, a spout is substituted for one of the
handles; perhaps it is to serve as a ewer, requiring raising and
reversing at every effort to pour, and yet, so changed, it is acted
upon by the hand and wrist at the greatest possible disadvantage,
the hand having to lift the weight, as it were, at the end of a long
lever, and reverse it by the power of the wrists, as is shown at ca
(No. 2), while a much less power applied at b (Nos. 2 and 3) would
suffice to reverse the pitcher and pour forth the fluid. The height
of the handle is of less importance when the contents have to be
delivered from near the bottom, as in the eastern form at No. 4;
since the slightest tilt of the vessel would begin to empty the
contents through the spout, which would not be the case if they
had to be discharged from the top. These hints will serve to
show how important the proper consideration of the insertion of
the handles is in such works, and how easily errors arise from
merely adopting inconsiderately a form fitted for one use in order
to adapt it to another one.
It is also to be remembered that utility may be departed from,
and over-ornamentation be produced by a false or excessive use of
colour, with which fault so many of our manufactures are chargeable.  It does not suffice for true excellence in the case say of
woven fabrics, that rare skill is shown in the gradation of the
various tints, or rare brilliancy has been obtained in the dyes, or
that even the individual pattern has been well and harmoniously
arranged.  It is the effect of the whole that is to be considered,
and its due subordination to the general surroundings and to the
position in which it is to be placed. But this will be noticed in
the fifth proposition.




CHAPTER V.
ON FITNESS OF THE ORNAMENT TO THE MATERIAL TO
WHICH IT IS APPLIED.
WITH regard to the fourth consideration, that "design must be
bad which applies the same constructive forms and ornamental
treatments indiscriminately to different materials."
It has already been shown that the due ornamentation of
construction produces unexpected beauties in architecture, and
this is no doubt the case also with those secondary objects of
furniture, utensils, and fabrics, which are supplementary to architecture.  Moreover, some remarks have been made on the
architectural faults arising from the misapplication of decorated
constructions to other purposes and materials than those for which
they were originally designed.
Each material has its own peculiar constructive qualities;
stone those of homogeneity of texture combined with strength, its
weight and mass rendering it extremely suitable for arched construction; wood those of continuity of fibre, and strength conjoined
tvith lightness, rendering it available for bridging over wide spaces,
and from the direction of its fibre necessitating right-lined rather
than circular or arched construction; metal those of strength due
to tenacity of fibre, combined with a large amount of homogeneity
rendering it equally fitted with wood for crossing wide spaces, with
less bulk of material in. proportion to weight than either wood or




44             XA MANIVUAL OF DESIG2NV
stone, and fitting it by its tenacity, for either right-lined or curved
constructive forms.
With reference to the decoration of these several materials, the
homogeneity of grain in the stone, and its perfect freedom under
the tool, admirably adapt it for carving, but necessitate a different
treatment to that for the continuous fibre of wood.  The latter
will. bear more finesse of execution than the former, and a more
detached  relief; the colour, as light or dark, or veined and
mottled, the hardness or softness, the intractibility or freedom of
the grain in wood, moreover, require peculiar renderings of the
ornament; while metal, whether the ornament be cast, chased, or
embossed, evidently demands a totally different treatment to
either.
Again, the position of the ornament requires special consideration, as, for instance, its height above the ground, or point
of view, which will govern both its relief and execution: while
much more varied quantities, bolder relief, and coarser execution
are not only allowable but absolutely necessary at heights considerably above the eye.
The practice of cutting the ornament after the stone has
been placed in the structure, so universal with the best Gothic
carvers in mediaeval times,:' and still practised by the French
workmen, admits of a right estimate of the true relief and just
quantity of ornament, but from this very circumstance (its relation
to situation,) the mere reproduction of such ornament is often
very unsatisfactory; for it must be remembered that the fitness of
ornament for its special situation, and for the peculiar material in
which it was to be wrought, was a necessity in its first production,
but is overlooked in its mere imitative repetition.
If then the translation of ornament, even from one position to
another, requires that it should be greatly modified and changed,
" An instance of this may be seen in one of the west towers of Rouen
Cathedral:-the stone is built into the structure with the requisite projections,
but much of the carving has never been completed.




A VANSVUAL O2F' DESIGNV.                   45
still more so is this the case when the material in which it is to
be wrought is changed also.
The heavy scroll-work of a Roman frieze carved in stone,
although appropriate in its place far above the eye, must be quite
unsuitable carved in wood as the back of a sideboard, and still
more so, cast in iron as part of a gate or a balcony, where it is
not only close to the eye, but pierced through between the foliage,
which in the original was backed out and supported by the ground
from which it was carved.  Still more absurd is this same scrollwork imitated in relief on a carpet or tablecloth, or a muslin
curtain. Yet such anomalies are continually occurring, arising
perhaps from the use of casts of antique ornament as a means
of study; their beauty becomes so impressed upon our minds
that it is hard to appreciate fully their unsuitableness for every
purpose.
In this respect, indeed, originality is less to be hoped for in
each succeeding age. As a writer is sure imperceptibly to reproduce something of the books he has read, so the artist cannot
entirely forget those works through which his studies have been
conducted. The path to excellence may be shortened, but other
minds have set up their landmarks upon it. Thus studying art,
as we must do, in and through art, nature is apt to be overlooked,
propriety to be neglected, and fitness to be disregarded, and all
that we do is liable to become more or less a varied repetition
of what has been done before.
Moreover, each fabric and each material has its peculiar
texture, lustre, &c., and even when the uses are the same the
translation of ornament from  one fabric to another is rarely
successful and is often productive of very bad taste. Thus in the
case of woven hangings, what might be suitable and beautiful in
silk would be dull and heavy in worsted, and coarse and extravagant in muslin.  The same holds good in garment fabrics also,
where forms that may be unobjectionable in silk of a self colour
would be large and extravagant in varied colours, and utterly




46             A  IfAVAUAL  OfF ]DESIGJV.,tasteless in a printed de laine.  Thus ornament must be studied
for the special material it is to be wrought in, or however agreeable
it may be when seen on paper as a design, it will be found to be
in bad taste when it is executed.
Again, each mode of execution has its characteristic qualities,
and each produces its own peculiar and varied beauties, and thus
requires its special application of ornament.  It is one of the
difficulties of manufacture, to render by the machine and in the
particular material to be used, all that the mind and hand has
shown in the design, or to indicate in the design all that the
material will add to it of lustre, beauty, or richness.  Again it is a
matter of extreme difficulty and one requiring long experience in
manufacture, to tell how a design will work; and connected with
this difficulty is the due appreciation of the changes that must take
place in the translation of the design from the paper to the fabric
to produce the effect sought for. Nor does the consideration end
here.  There is still the difficulty which remains to the purchaser,
and requires an effort of judgment, which many are wholly
incapable of exercising: viz., the power to know how the decoration of the material will appear in use. Thus a garment fabric
may be beautiful in itself, but look ill when made up for wear, and
a silk hanging or a paper hanging which we admire in the pattern
may, and often does, disappoint us extremely when it is hung;
and this supports a former remark on the appropriateness of
ornament being governed in some respects by position as well as
material.
As the lustre and brilliancy of silk must be considered in its
ornamentation, the material itself lending so much beauty to the
design wrought in it, so there are many other cases wherein the
material has a rare beauty, which must be preserved, sometimes
arising from its purity and translucency, as in the case of glass
and white marble, sometimes from its colour, as in ivory, sometimes from its beauty and purity of surface, as in porcelain.  Thus,
as it would not be desirable to paint marble or to stain ivory,




A   VANUAL OF DESIGNVT.                  47
neither is it desirable to destroy the whole surface of porcelain by
decoration, however rich or however beautiful.
In no other branch of our manufactures perhaps is the fitness
of the ornament to the material so much disregarded as in metal
work, and more particularly in the characteristic and marked
differences which should arise in the proper treatment of wrought,in distinction to cast metal.




CHAPTER VI.
ON UNITY OF STYLE AND DECORATIVE SUBORDINATION.
WVE have yet to consider that unity of style and proper subordination of one work to another, and to the whole external and
internal decoration, which is so necessary to true taste.
It has already been said that there must be some predominating
influence, some prevailing sentiment present in the minds of men
to produce a style.  Did this influence really exist, it would be
seen in all that a man possessed, and a certain unity of character
in his house and all his belongings would be the necessary
result.
In the medisval times this predominating sentiment was the
respect of the many to the outward forms of a material religion;
thus the aspect of all that a man possessed was ecclesiastical-his
furniture carved with emblems of the church, and his walls covered
with the choice precepts of religion-as in the times of Judaism,
when in the same spirit of outward respect the Pharisees wore the
holy texts on the frontlets of their brows, and wove precepts,
which they ought to have acted upon, into the borders of their
garments.
In our own times any wide-spread sentiment is unfortunately
wanting, and the greater number of even wealthy people are
content to live in dwellings and to be surrounded with furniture
totally incongruous in character the one with the other. This




A MANUAL OF DESIGNV.                        49
being the case, additions are made from  time to time with the
same careless indifference as to the harmony of the whole: each
work is purchased for itself alone, with little reference to others,
either as to style, to colour, or to relative subordination in decorative richness, till the house is like a museum, and the taste of
the possessor being more and more vitiated and vulgarised, it
becomes hard to impress him with any belief in the beauty which
would result, not from uniformity, but from the mere absence of
incongruity.
It may be objected that the principle of unity or congruity,
however observable in the mediazval period, was never attended
to by the great artists of the renaissance, and that we continually
see in their works and in their additions to other works, the
strangest inconsistencies and anomalies.  This is perfectly true,
but it most probably arose from reasons quite apart from their
rejection or recognition of the justice of the principle.
These revivalists, coming with all the ardent enthusiasm of
converts from the study of classic art, and convinced in their own
minds of its ideal perfection and beauty, found the land covered
with vast and magnificent temples and structures, deep in the love
and reverence of what they deemed the vl,7zrar public, and venerable from age and from consecration to God, yet of a style and
character wholly opposed to the one they sought to introduce.
The reconstruction of these time-honoured edifices was hopeless,
and the new race of architects began to seize upon and adcornz the
Zi'te'Zio's of the old cathedrals and churches of Europe with roodscreens, stalls, altars, confessionals, pulpits, and monuments, in
the new style of the renaissance, quite irrespective of the character
of the original structure. In process of time they even ventured
to make additions to the very structure itself.  Thus, in our own
country, Inigo Jones, not foreseeing the fiery purgation that was
to prepare the way for the great monument of the new art, did not
hesitate to build a classic portico to the Gothic structure of old
St. Paul's; and it is impossible to enter the churches and catheE




50              A MAANUAL OF DESIGNV
drals of France and Belgium without seeing how  continuous was
the endeavour to seduce the people gradually into the new faith
in art, by additions such as those we have spoken of above.
The apostles of the renaissance did, in fact, but follow the prac —
tice and example of the early missionaries of Roman Christianity.
These sought to humour the superstitions of the Pagan  worshippers, and to wile them into truth by adopting, not only their
festivals and holidays, but also their temples and altars, consecrating
them to the new faith, and at the same time smoothing down those
distinctive differences that were most repugnant to their old belief.
In our own day, and following out the same course of action, an
eloquent writer on art proposes to revert to what he considers the
sounder taste of our Gothic forefathers, by making piecemeal
additions and alterations to our houses, and patching their bald
and characterless horizontalism  with gazebos and plorches of a
medieval character.
As was the result in respect to  Christianity, where a like
practice propagated all sorts of errors and superstitions, whose
parasitical growth nearly strangled the parent plant, so the various
compromises and adaptations which architects thought reasonable
in reviving classic art, have been the source of errors which have
grown up side by side with the new style, and by their grotesque
absurdity marred the beauty with which they had common birth.@
The Gothic principle of progress in style was essentially different from  that of the renaissance.  New and increased enrichment invariably began  in  the interior of the building, in  the
shrines, altar-screens, stalls, and monuments of churches, and the
* Even the faults and absurdities which were thus admitted are now so
hallowed by time, and moreover offer such marked characteristics and illustrations of the age that produced them, that one would hesitate to suggest their
removal, however much we may object to them as errors, and protest against
their reproduction. There can be but little doubt that the florid classic altars,
the chubby, cloud-borne cherubs, with their gilt palm branches, however incongruous with a Gothic cathedral, as truly exemplify the pretentious age of
Louis le Grand, and the preaching of Bossuet, Bourdaloue, and Fenelon, as the
writings and sermons addressed to it which these authors have left behind them.




A MANU'4AL OF DESIGN.                       5r
furniture and utensils of private dwellings (more particularly in the
former however, as the style was essentially ecclesiastical), and
gradually these enrichments passed from within the building, from
its enshrinements as it were, to the decoration of the outside of
the building itself. In the renaissance, on the contrary, as has
just been shown, the constructive ornamentation of the exterior
of the building became the model of the interior furniture and
fittings, and hence arose niany of the faults that have been already
pointed out.
It is in the nature of imitators to seize on the most salient
points, whether good or bad, and to exaggerate them; in the
same way that a tasteless portrait painter caricatures a feature or
expression in order to give a coarse and telling likeness. So the
more recondite beauties of the renaissance, those which appeal to
the highest minds, have been overlooked, and the grotesque
and the novel features have been considered as the elements of
the style, disregarding much in it that was spiritual and refined.
This very incongruity, a fault, perhaps a necessary one at the
period of the revival, has been thus perpetuated as a beauty, while
it is in reality an error and a mistake; for unity of style and decorative subordination are indispensable to true taste; all admit
this in a degree, since none trust completely to indiscriminate
selection.  Most people allow a subordination in the apartments
of the houses, and do not decorate the hall, the library, or the
dining-room so richly as the drawing-room or the boudoir.  Moreover, there is usually some desire, often, it is true, with little
knowledge, to have a due subordination in colour also in the
furniture of individual apartments, and an effort is at least made
that the carpets, the hangings, and the walls should have some
harmonious agreement.
Is it too much then to assert that there should be a subordination as to uses also, and that the carpets and the wall-papers
should be subdued and quiet, as forming the background of the
apartment;  while the chairs and tables, the cabinets and comF 2




52'           A XA  A4NUA4, OPF DESIGN
modes, the mirrors and picture-frames should each have sucli an
amount of decoration, and only such, as is justly relative to their
importance to the whole?
If this is true of furniture collectively considered, it is true
also irrespective of this condition, and many of the gross errors,
and. much of the useless and improper expenditure, evident in all
sections of our manufactures, would be avoided by proper attention to this rule.
If also the previous arguments are correct, it will be seen that the
authority of antiquity in its best periods, the authority of Nature
as displayed in her works, the natural laws of form and colour, as
well as the conditions and limitations of manufactures and the
purposes of utility, are in favour of some such principles of decorative design as those which have been laid down.
One reason for the prevalence of so much lawlessness and
absence of correct principles in our manufactures is due to the
fact that the law of pictorial art prevails rather than the law of
ornamental art. Now, although the office of a picture is to bring
some object, some incident, some history or subject to the eye of
the spectator, and to touch and please him with the passion, sentiment, or feeling which it is fitted to instil, it does this quite
irrespective of the material in which or on which it is wrought.
What have the canvas, the paper, the mere copper, or the panel
to do with the enjoyment of a work of fine art? But ornament, on
the contrary, if what has been said is in any degree correct, cannot
be dissevered from the material, from which indeed much of its
varied effect arises; and the character of the decoration adopted
should be in accordance with the material, and with the uses of
the object decorated. So much so ought this to be the case, that
it might be expected, that to see the design, or even a careful
description of the ornament, would be sufficient to enable us to
determine the nature and the uses of the object itself.
END OF SECTION I.




SECTION  II.
THE APPLICA TIOI  OF THE PRINCIPLES OF
ORNVAIENiVT TO THE MANUFACTURES.








CHAPTER  VII.
ON THE NATURE AND GENERAL APPLICATION
OF ORNAMENTAL ART.
THE desire evinced by the rudest, as well as the most civilized
nations for the decoration of their buildings, utensils, and clothing
almost raises ornament into a natural want, and must render its
proper application of the utmost consequence to the manufacturer,
since upon it the value of his manufactures in the various markets
of the world chiefly depends. Whether we regard the war-club
and the paddle of the savage, or the priceless jewel of Cellini;
the simple woven matwork of the South Sea islander, or the
gorgeous masterpiece of the Utrecht loom, we find that the ornament in every case has been governed in its application by certain
definite rules or principles, and these principles we have endeavoured to formulate in the foregoing chapters. By some such
well-defined laws all design and all decoration must be judged,
and it is only by a careful study of the best works of all periods,
and an earnest search after what is found to be good and true in
the art of each people and each period that we can devise rules for
the guidance and instruction of the designer.
In our opening chapters we have endeavoured to gather some
of the principles which should govern the application of ornament,
and before we proceed to apply these principles to the various
branches of our manufactures, we may glance briefly at the nature




56             A M.ANUAL OrF DESIGN.
of ornament and the conditions of its employment in the arts and
manufactures.
We have spoken of design and of ornamental decoration.
These are two essentially different things, and it is highly necessary
that they should, from the first, be considered as separate and
distinct.  " Design " has reference to the construction of any work
both for use and beauty, and therefore includes its ornamentation
also.  " Ornament " on the other hand implies merely the decoration of an object already constructed.
Ornament is thus necessarily limited, for, so defined, it cannot
be other than secondary, and must not usurp a principal place; if
it do so, the object is no longer a work ornamented, but is,
degraded into a mere orznamzezi. The tendency too much of the
present time is, as we have already shown, to reverse this state of'
things, to the utter subversion of all true principles of taste.
The ornament of past ages is the tradition of the ornamentist,
and tradition ever hands down to us things both good and bad, each
equally consecrated to most minds by the authority of antiquity.
But a moment's reflection will show how necessary it is to discriminate before receiving anything on such authority. A church
or temple built in a rude age remains undisturbed by some happy
chance, a villa or a theatre in a remote provincial town escapes
the fatalities of accident or time, some tomb is opened, some over-4whelmed city exhumed from the debris of ruin that had gathered
over it. The ornamental details found therein are copied and.
illustrated by the notes of the antiquarian, or published in the
proceedings of learned societies, and are at once regarded as
authorities for imitation, forgetting all the while that they may have
been perhaps the works of obscure provincial artists, of a barbarous.
age perchance, or of a people among whom art, no longer studied
for its principles, had ceased to progress or had rapidly declined.
Such traditional ornament moreover had or had not a local
use, a consistent application to domestic, ecclesiastical, or funeral
purposes, in fact a local symbolism; but whether it had such or'




A MfANJUAL OF DESIGN.                      57'
not (a fact mostly overlooked) is sure to be soon disregarded; and
not only have we ornament of a degraded period, of a declining
age, or by inferior artists, but to this must be added, one whose
symbolic life is totally extinct, and, perhaps, fortunately so, for'
when revived it is indiscriminately used, for purposes totally at
variance with its first application and original intent.
Ornamentists may fairly be divided into two classes: the
traditional, who superstitiously reverence the remains of past
ages and are wedded in practice to existing styles; and those
who despise the past and feel themselves at liberty to adopt from
the abundant sources of nature a mode and manner for themselves, without regard to the works of their predecessors. The
first class desire simply to follow where precedent leads them, and
to be able to claim  the sanction of authority for their works.
These, even when taste duly regulates their choice, are men of
limited ideas and small progress. Those of the second class, who
pay no deference to authority, who think that ornament is governed
by no laws, and who recognise no principles by which they are to
be guided, are little likely to raise the art to the level of past times,
and, still less are they likely to advance its aim and widen its,
scope. The true ornamentist would seem to be one who seeks,
out the ptiicifz2es on which the bygone artists worked, and the
rules by which they arrived at excellence, and, discarding mere
imitation and reproduction of details, endeavours, by the application of new ideas and new matter upon prinzcizes which he
believes to be sound, or which time and the assent of other minds.
has approved to be fundamental, to attain originality through
fitness and truth. The antiquarian ornamentist, however, will.
always have a certain reputation, and justly too if he has the taste
to select what is, best from the great masters of past times. In
any case the critic must be bold who speaks against the authority
of the fathers of the art; and praise is safe when great names are
on the critic's side. From this latter class of ornamentists we may
at least demand purity of style, we may require that marked oeras




58           XA MANUAL OF DESIGN
should be kept distinct, and that the adopted ornament should be
fitly applied to fabrics or manufactures of the like nature, and, as
far as possible, for the like uses, as those for which the ornament
was first designed.
From the labours of the second class of ornamentists, united
to that constant search after novelty at any sacrifice of true taste
for which manufacturers are so constantly urgent, there has arisen
a new species of ornament of the most objectionable kind, which
we cannot too strongly deprecate on account of its complete
departure from just taste and true principles. This to which
wve have already alluded may be called the nzazural or merely
imitative style, and it is seen in its worst development in some of
the articles of form.
Thus we have metal izitatiozns of plants and flowers, with
an attempt to make them  a strict resemblance, forgetting that
natural objects are rendered into ornament by subordinating
the details to the general idea, and that the endeavour ought to
be to seize the simplest expression of a thing rather than to imitate
the thing itself. This is the case with fine art also, in every phase
of which, mere imitation is an error and an impertinence; and
true ornamental art is even more opposed to the merely
imitative treatment now so largely adopted. Let any one examine
floral or foliated ornament produced in metal by electrotyping the
natural object, whereby every venation and striation of the plant
is reproduced, and compare it with a well and simply modelled
treatment, where only the general features of the form are given.and all the more minute details purposely omitted; and if this
latter has been done with a true sense of the characteristics of the
plant, the meanness and littleness of the one mode will be perfectly
evident, compared with the larger manner of the other. But this
imitative style is carried much further: or-molu stems and leaves
bear porcelain flowers painted to imitate nature, and candles are
made to rise out of tulips and china-asters, while gas jets gush
forth from opal arums.  Stems, bearing flowers for various uses,




A IHANVUAI,  OF DESIGN.                      59
arise from groups of metal leaves standing painfully on their points,
and every constructive truth, and just adaptation to use, is sacrificed for a senseless imitative naturalism.  In the same way, and
doubtless supported by great authorities, past and present, enormous wreaths of flowers, fish, game, fruits, &c., imitated a' mzervezile,
dangle round sideboards, beds, and picture-frames. Glass is
tortured out of its true quality to make it into the cup of a lily or
an anemone: not that we may be supposed to drink nectar froml
the flower, but that the novelty may catch those for whom  good
taste is not piquant enough, and for whom chaste forms are not
sufficiently showy.  In fabrics where flatness would seem most
essential, this imitative treatment is often carried to the greatest
excess; and carpets are ornamented with water-lilies floating on
their natural bed, with fruits and flowers poured forth in overwhelming abundance in all the glory of their hues and shades;
or we are startled by a lion at our hearth, or a leopard on our
rug, his spotted coat imitated even to its relief as well as in its
colour, while palm-trees and landscapes are used as the ornaments
of muslin curtains.  Though far from  saying that imitative ornainent is not sometimes allowable, still it will at once be felt that
the manner of its use wants a determined regulation to exclude it
in most of the above-mentioned cases from all works aspiring to
be considered in just taste, and to leave it to be adopted by those
only who think novelty better than chaste design, and who consider that display is preferable to truth.
The constant search after novelty has just been alluded to as
one of the sources of bad taste in modern adornment. Manufacturers are eager to obtain it at any sacrifice of truth, and at any
cost. The efforts of those past ages, when taste was most indisputable, appear, as we have already shown, to have been directed
rather to the continually perfecting and refining their designs and
inventions, than to creating new ones. Thus in architecture the
robust simplicity and grandeur of the Doric order remained unchanged from generation to generation, the only discernible effort




6o             A MVTANUAL OF D0ESIrGNZ.
being to perfect just proportions and true symmetry of parts, rather
than to add any novelty of feature or ornament, until, in the Parthenon, it seems to have arrived at the most perfect development that
taste, science, and art could unitedly effect: even among the more
voluptuous inhabitants of Asia Minor, at least until the age when
their artists became servants and panderers to the coarser magnificence of Rome, the details of ornamentation were few, and those
universally received.  The volute, the acanthus, the anthemion,
the achinus, and a few frets and guilloches, seemed to pass the
ordeal of criticism, not that they might be rejected for more novel
treatments, but that the symmetry of their parts might be more
justly balanced, the commoner curves rejected for those more
varied, beautiful, and refined, and the true impost given to their
projections.  Proportion and symmetry being thus sought after
instead of novelty, Grecian ornament has come down to us with
authority like that of Scripture, rather than of tradition, and all
the after efforts of artists, who have adopted and adapted it, have.
failed either to improve its elegance, or to add to its beauty.  In
the eastern nations we find the same usage prevail, and to this day
Indian ornament is composed of the same forms as it was in the
earliest known works: the principles that governed ornamental
practice in those works seem still to be a tradition with the artist
and the workman, and still to produce the same beautiful results,.
as is abundantly seen in the fabrics and tissues of modern Indian
workmanship.  Now, however our efforts are of an entirely
different nature, and the hunger after novelty is quite insatiable;
heaven and earth are racked for novel inventions, and happy is
the man who lights upon something, however ozdlf, that shall
strike the vulgar mind, and obtain the " run of the season." Such
patterns result as often from the caprice of accident as from any
effort of thought-witness what was called the dioramal pattern in
cotton-printing, once very popular, which was the result of an
accidental folding of the stuff on the cylinder in printing.  Accepted for the season, these fantasies no sooner pass away than




XA JMANZUAL OF DESIGNV.                    6 r
the world wonders how it could ever have looked upon them with
satisfaction, or tolerated for an instant such solecisms in taste,
such strange incongruities, or such gross absurdities.
The ornament of past ages was chiefly the offspring of handicraft labour, that of the present age is the child of the engine and the
machine. This great difference in the mode of production causes
a like difference in the results.  In old times the artist was at
once designer, ornamentist; and craftsman, and to him was indif-'ferent the use of the pencil or the brush, of the hammer, the
~hisel, or the punch: his hand and his mind wrought together,
not only in the design, but in every stage of its completion, and
thus there entered a portion of that mind into every minute detail,
and into every stage of finish, and many a beautiful after-thought
was embodied by the hand of the "cunning artificer," many a
grace added to the work by his mastery and skill.  He worked,
not to produce a rigid sameness, but he worked as Nature works:
-she produces nothing exactly similar to its fellow; in every turn
of every stage of growth, in every flower, and in every leaf, adding
a changing grace, a differing beauty; so he varied his labours with
every feeling of his overflowing mind. But this is not possible'with the stamp, the mould, the press, and the die, the ornamental
agents of our days: after the type or model is made, all the products are rigidly the same, whence arises a tiresome sameness, a'sickening monotony, unknown in the works of nature and peculiar
to these artificial works of man: the varying mind has no share in
their production, and man himself becomes only the servant of the'machine.
Moreover, the old ornamentist worked generally from feelings
of piety, from love of his labours, or from the desire for fame,
motives hardly known to the artist of this class in our days, at
-least in this country-Who seeks fame from the ephemera of a
season?  Who loves a labour that is so soon to pass away? Who
cares for a work that is not to be the child of his own hand, but to
-be produced in thousands by the aid of machinery? The toil of the




62zA JMANVUAZL OF DESIG2V.
artificer of olden times was spent upon the thing itself, and not upon
a mere model for it: the chalice, the cup, the lock and key, or the
reliquary, were to be without repetition, and without rivals: he:
sought to give them their highest excellence, and, labouring from
one of the feelings we have described, threw his whole soul into
his work, so that it became a thing for future ages to look upon
and to prize.  Not that handicraft or art-workmanship is utterly
excluded from Our manufactures; it is only partially so. making it
all the more painfully evident how greatly ornamental art has
suffered from its new union with machinery.  Wherever ornament
is wholly effected by machinery, it is certainly the most degraded
in style and execution; and the best workmanship and the best
taste is invariably to be found in those manufactures and fabrics
wherein handicraft is entirely or partially the means of producing
the ornament, as in china and glass, in works in the precious
metals, carving, &c. These faults arise partly from the facilities
which machinery gives to the manufacturer, enabling him to produce the florid and over-loaded as cheaply as the simple forms, and
thus to satisfy the larger market for the multitude, who desire
quantity rather than quality, and value a thing the more, the more
it is ornamented.  This state of modern manufacture, whereby
ornament is multiplied without limit from a given model, by the
machine or the mould, ought at least to awaken in the manufacturera sense of the importance of the first design. One would think
that what was to be produced by thousands and tens of thousands.
should at any rate be a work of beauty, and that no pains would
be spared to insure its excellence.  The cost of the first design or
model must in such a case be a mere atom when divided among
its myriad reproductions.  It would seem  strange, however, to
judge by the results, in some cases, that any one could be found to
throw away great expense upon dies and moulds, to carry out a
design which in itself was hardly thought worth paying for. Yet
often in this country artists are paid little better than workmen,
and a belief seems to prevail, that knowledge, skill, and taste:




A MANUAL OF D-ESIGNA                        63
come by nature: the artist has seldom any interest in the result of
his labours, his name is unknown, his pay is niggardly, and what
there may be of beauty and excellence in his work is often spoiled
by the alterations of the manufacturer, who makes no scruple of
setting his own taste above that of the artist, and altering and
changing a design at his sole pleasure.
In France, and in some parts of Germany, where taste has
long been cultivated, and the value of ornamental design is better'
appreciated, these relations are better understood also; and in
this country, if good taste is to prevail, the manufacturer must
learn to appreciate more highly the value of the designer's labours,
must seek to foster his talents and stimulate his amouzr propre by
giving him  some increased share in his successful endeavours.
Society also must be prepared to contribute more largely than
heretofore to public education in ornamental art, and taste must
be disseminated by every available means; for it is not only a
truth, but a truth that should everywhere be told, that, notwithstanding our skilful workmanship and our excellence in the manufacture of most fabrics, we have been until quite lately sadly
behind-hand in the design applied to them, and greatly indebted
to foreign artists even for what little that was good.
Moreover, our greatest difficulty consists even less in the want
of designers than of skilled art-workmen to carry out designs.  A
design for cotton-printing may be spoiled by the " putter-on," or
for silk by him who prepares it for the loom.  The sculptor may
design a statuette, but there are few able to chase the bronze, to
retouch the clay, or to unite the parts when they come forth from
the mould. Even where such are found, they are mostly men of'
slow minds, who enter little into the spirit of the artist's labours,
and who work without feeling as without fire. We find plenty of
chasers able to imitate the fur of animals, or the texture of
draperies, but few who understand the bones and the anatomy of'
the parts, and fewer still who carry an artist's spirit into their
works.  In decorative painting, also, the painter on glass and




/64           A MANUAL OF DESIGNA
china is generally a mere copyist, or he works too entirely by rote,
and without feeling. The lily and the rose which he paints are
always the same lily and the same rose, a work of the hand and
eye, in which the mind has no share. There are honourable exceptions, no doubt, but with the many art is a mere handicraft,
partaking only in the smallest degree of those higher qualities
which, as we have seen, animated the art-workmen of mediaval
times, and prior to the introduction of machinery. One of the
best tendencies of the present age, and also the one holding out
the best promises for the future, is a desire in some manufactures:to return to the typical forms of hand-worked ornament, and to
bring into its due prominence the superior value of honestly hand-wrought decoration.




CHAPTER VIII.
ON THE DECORATION OF BUILDING(S.
HAVING in our last chapter glanced at the general nature of ornament, we may now  proceed to the second division of our subject,
viz., the application of the principles formulated in our first section
to the different branches of our manufactures.  It will be advisable
for facility of reference to classify the subject under four general
heads:-Decoration of Buildings —Domestic and other Furniture
— Domestic  Utensils and Objects of Personal Use-Garment
Fabrics.
These general heads may again be subdivided as follows:I. Decoration of buildings, consisting ofIst. Architectural decoration, painted, &c.
2nd. Stone% carved wood, terra cotta, carton-pierre,   and other
relief decorations.
3rd. Stained glass.
4th. Inlaid floors, mosaic pavement, inlaid tiles, &c.
5th. Paper and other hangings.
6th. Metal-work.
2. Domestic and other furniture, including cabinet-work of
all kinds, and furniture of all materials.
Ist.  Cabinets, sideboards, and furniture generally.
2nd. Stoves, grates, fenders, lamps, gas-fittings, and other
hardware.
g3rd. Carpets, portieres, table-covers, and floor-cloths.
4th. Curtains and hangings.
5th. Table-linen.




66              A MIAN1UAL OF DESIG.VA/
3. Domestic utensils and objects of personal use.
Ist. Porcelain, pottery, &c.
2nd. Table and ornamental glass.
3rd. Works in the precious metals and jewellery, clocks, &co
4th. Bookbinding.
4. Garment fabrics.
i st. Woven in patterns of any material, and hand-worked.
2nd. Printed.
3rd. Lace.
4th. Ribbons.
In reviewing these classes we shall endeavour under each of
the above headings to point out the more salient defects arising
from the introduction of false principles; selecting here and there
a few good examples for the sake of illustrating our meaning, and
showing more clearly what we have to expect when correct and
true principles have been followed.
We may now pass on to the consideration of our first group:THE DECORATION OF BUILDINGS.  Properly speaking, the design
for the decoration of any building, both externally and internally,
is the province of its architect, since in this case decoration is
essentially a part of architecture. If the principle we have before
enunciated, that ornament is the decoration of construction, be
just, it will be apparent that it is hardly possible to judge of the
one without the other. In works wherein the decorator makes his
own sham construction in order to ornament it, as well as in those
multiplied manufactured " parts " which form the staple ornament
of a large class of workmen in this line, we may admire the skill of
the execution, the cleverness of the details, the excellence of the
manufacture, or the imitation of early works of acknowledged
merit; but to appreciate " decoration " we must view it as a whole
in the place for which it was specially designed, and in harmony
with the building whose construction it ornaments.  Moreover, it
must mainly originate in local circumstances, and ought to have
an individual significance.   In this respect we soon become
sensible how impracticable it is to lay down any general rules for




A MANUVALZ OF DESIG1N\                    67
our guidance under the singular complications of modern house
decoration.
Papier-mach6, carton-pierre, and a host of other cheap modes
of ornamentation, have no doubt a substantial value commercially
considered.  As regards design, however, they are but dangerous
subsidiaries, often doing more injury than good, owing to the
tasteless, misplaced, and false decoration arising from their use.
Apart from that monotonous multiplication of the same forms,
necessarily resulting  from  the unvarying  productions of the
mould and the die, which has been before alluded to, there
are other evils sure to accompany matrzzufrtacfz-e  decorations
such as those now under consideration.  The great cheapness
of the substitute, compared with the real material, inevitably
leads to excess. Such ornament always seems added or applied,
stuck on as it were, and can rarely be made to appear as
a part of construction; it therefore constantly carries with it a
sense of untruth, till the mind and eye, from habit, become
satisfied with it, and at the same time deadened to what is
really true and good.
Moreover, decoration consisting of such materials must necessarily always be patchy and incomplete.  When the parts to be
ornamented are large, this evil is seen in its most exaggerated
form; a florid and gaudy centre has perhaps to be united with
coarse corners, either by other ornaments or by the repetition of
the centre portion, and all sorts of expedients must be resorted to,
to " bring in " the parts so as to suit the architectural distribution
of the apartment; it can indeed barely be possible that the
quantities, or the geometrical arrangement in which the ornament
has been originally constructed, will agree with the place to which
it has to be adapted, and more or less of make-shift must be the
result.
The whole system of modern house-finishing, so far as regards
the apJ/ziqzz work of the plasterer and the decorator, is utterly false
and untrue. A cornice so many inches in depth is found to be
F 2




68             A lI,4AATUAL  OF DESIGN.
needed, and from a well-filled storehouse of such works in every
style the plasterer, disregarding every other consideration, seeks
the pattern which most readily complies with the necessary
conditions of depth and projection.   A  centre-flower for the
ceiling so many feet in diameter is the next requisite, and,
the labours of the plasterer at an end, the decorator and the
upholsterer step in, and the former touches up his work with colour
applied with no regard to relative fitness and appropriate gradation,
while the upholsterer sends in the hangings and furniture suited
to another country and another age. Scale seems to have been
quite disregarded in the work of the plasterer, since the fruit and
flowers, the birds and game, of one part, are different in size from
those of another part.  The style, again, is mixed, one part being
two centuries earlier than the other.  There is, besides, far more
pains taken with the exact rendering of fur or a feather, than in
perfecting the form of a moulding, or the shape of a panel-the
architecture has, in the designer's mind, been subordinate to the
ornament, and an ill-formed ellipse, or a coarse and unrefined
moulding, appears of less importance to him  than the mere
imitation of the feathers of his birds, or the fur of the animals of
which his ornament consists.  Carry this treatment a little further,
and it will result in having the game, the fruit, the foliage, and the
flowers not only modelled to the exactest imitation, but the skill
of the painter called in to add to its naturalism, and the whole
painted with the colours of nature; thus decoration will be
thought perfect only when it competes with those strange groups
in relief we sometimes find framed to form a picture.
One great cause of evil in the use of the materials under consideration consists in the false principle of their application to
decorative purposes.  It is found, for instance, that peculiar
qualities, which are difficult of attainment and an effort of great
skill in other materials, can easily be obtained by a new means;
instead, therefore, of carefully studying its just adaptation to
ornamental production, the effort is only to emulate in excess of




A AJAIVUAL OF DESIGNV.    69
skill those peculiar qualities which are trials in the more intractable
material.
It too often happens, moreover, that the original works
imitated were in false taste; and this becomes far more apparent
in the copies, since the mind can no longer dwell on them with
that admiration which is caused by a sense of difficulties overcome, and which compensated, in some degree, for the absence of
good taste in the works they emulate.  As instances the exact
imitation in wood or stone carving of the individual details rather
than of the general character of objects used as ornament, extreme
relief, under-cutting, lightness, thinness, and picturesqueness of
the forms of foliage and flowers, whereby their natural growth is
attempted in carving rather than a due ornamental disposition of
their forms-all tending to excess and exaggeration, and to be
avoided rather than copied.
Another source of error consists in rendering what should be
true constructive forms into mere ornament; thus pilasters, and
even columns, consoles and trusses intended to support weight,
are manufactured in these imitative materials, and introduced only
to decorate, until all sense of utility and construction is lost, and
ornament becomes the principal instead of the subordinate.
During the past few years there has been a marked revival in
the use of terra cotta for structural purposes, and there are
numerous signs in the buildings recently erected and still in
progress in many parts of the metropolis that its proper treatment
as a material for ornamentation is becoming appreciated by our
architects.  As an enrichment for brick buildings there can be no
fitter material, and from the fact that, although it at first originates
from the mechanical process of moulding, terra cotta admits of any
amount of subsequent perfecting by hand, there are few materials
more deserving of careful and considerate treatment. The points
to be regarded are chiefly these:-First, to beware of a stone
treatment or the attempt which so many terra cotta manufacturers
have always before their eyes of making terra cotta a substitute for




70             A 2MANUAL OF DESIGN'V
stone; and second, to remember that, as it has to be produced in
numberless repetitions from a mould, the ornament should be in
low relief and free from  undercutting.  The above observations
apply of course to terra cotta as a material to be used in construction.  It has for very many years occupied a prominent
position for the manufacture of decorative objects for our gardens
and suburban villas.  The constructive forms of many of such
works are, it is true, to be traced back to the antique, but so
vulgarised in proportion and in their curves, as to be wholly spoilt.
The ornamentation moreover of these forms is, as a rule, too
redundant; the material is so pliant under the manipulation of the
modeller, lends itself so readily to ornament, admits so easily of
additional details, that, unless in the hands of a true artist, overornamentation is sure to result.  One great rule for such works is
that beauty of form should first be sought for, and then that the
leading lines should be sparingly decorated.
STAINED GLASS DECORATION.
The art of painting on glass, or glass-staining, has come down
to us so intimately mixed up with the ecclesiastical architecture of
the middle ages, that it is almost impossible to view the one unconnected with the other.  It was born of the same parent (the
Church), and from the first both were equally devoted to her
service.  Of Gothic architecture, and of it almost exclusively,
stained glass has always formed a necessary decoration: it follows,
therefore, that its ornamentation is almost wholly traditional, and
has relation to the various periods of the Gothic architecture which
it accompanies.
Not that it is necessary, or even desirable, that the epochs of
the two arts should, in their revival, continue to correspond; but
the periods of each, whether simultaneous or otherwise, when
utility and beauty were most fully understood and attained, should
be diligently studied in search of the principles that guided the




A JI ANVUALf OF DESIGNA.                     7 
artists of those times, and that which is best should be chosen,
irrespective of mere  correspondence of epoch or antiquarian
authority.  Moreover the errors, which the ignorance of an early
age evidently occasioned, should be carefully separated from the
truths, and not considered as of necessity a part of the style of the
period in which they are found, —such, more particularly, as bad
drawing and want of knowledge of the human figure; at the same
time, that simplicity of treatment which is so highly characteristic
of early works, which overlooks all details, and renders a composition from the Scriptures, or a single figure, more as a symbol
than as a picture, should, as a principle of excellence, be carefully
-retained.
As is the case with all other manufactures and fabrics, so it is
with painted glass: the question of utility, rightly considered, will
lead us to some knowledge of what is most suitable in its treatment
as a decoration. Glass was introduced into the numerous windows
of Gothic architecture to temper the glare of light, and to serve in
a manner as a blind by preventing the direct entrance of the sun's
rays, and also to shed that solemn religious light which so well
accords with the sacred mysteries of religious worship. The
mosaic glass of the early artists of the 12th and i3th centuries
was most admirably adapted for this purpose: being composed of
many small pieces of full and pure tints, with little white glass,
Athe rays of the sun were broken and dispersed, the light was lowered
in brilliancy, and the whole effect was homogeneous, rich, and
solemn; sufficient light being still permitted to enter for the per-'formance of the religious services of the church.  Even compositions of figures were subject to the principle that regulated
the whole: the figures were small, so that the colour of their
draperies and accessories might be broken up into many pieces to
give the same equal distribution as in the ornamental parts of the
window.  It would seem, indeed, that the painter did not intend
to simulate a picture, but rather to symbolise a sacred text or'thought, and the figures, therefore, were not so much pictorially




72            A MANVUAL OF D_ES~IGN7
arranged, as composed with extreme monumental simplicity; thus,
they not only partook of the general effect of the window, but the
attention of the spectator, impressed with the solemn yet beautiful light, was, at the same time, filled with the holy thought
conveyed by the subject, without being distracted by too great an
individuality of parts.
The representation of shadow, strictly speaking, was not admissible, the composition consisting only of flat forms of the
greatest simplicity.  For this, even, there would seem to be just
reasons: the light being transmitted through the glass to the
spectator within, shadow would appear to be anomalous and out
of place, since the illumination in such a case emanates from the
figures themselves; moreover the simplicity of the shadowless
forms was better suited to impress the eye from the distance at
which such works must necessarily be viewed. Such would seem
to be some of the principles which ought to regulate, and which
in the best times did regulate, the design for painted glass.
An entirely different view of the art has however sprung up
with its revival, and has obtained many advocates, especially on
the Continent.  It has been felt how greatly art has advanced in
the hands of the historical painter since the times spoken of: that
the principles of composition, of foreshortening, of perspective, of
light and dark, and of the arrangement of colour, then quite unknown, have been discovered and developed; that drawing, then
in its infancy and unaided by knowledge, has now arrived at
maturity; and that science has given us power over the materials
which they failed to possess, and enabled us to conquer difficulties
which they considered insuperable; and it is asked why the painter
on glass should not avail himself of all these advantages, to perfect
his art and render it as pictorial as the works of his brethren.  By
artists who entertain these views, the surface of the window is
treated almost as a canvas would be; the forms of the figures are
large, even as the size of life; the draperies are massive, and the
heads painted with great imitative skill and completeness. Chiaro



A iANUALUX  OF DESIGA                       7 3
oscuro and perspective are studied, and foreshortening and pictorial
attitudes in the figures supply the place of the monumental and
statuesque delineations of the earlier artists; in fact everything is
done to treat the window as a picture.
To the advocates of this style it may be objected, that a
picture is specially intended to address itself to the mind and
imagination only, while painted glass has a reference to use also:
and that, apart from this consideration, each and every art has its
own mode of rendering nature-not necessarily implying deceftive
or complete imitation; thus, for instance, the art of the sculptor is
a generalised imitation of form, and even the painter of high art
does not desire to make his picture deceptively imitative, but
listens with impatience to the remarks of the ignorant, who are
apt to praise his work for this quality above others proper to it
which they do not understand. An outline of Flaxmnan's fills the
mind with a perfect sense of beauty and with the fulness of a
poetical idea; surely, then, the flat and simple treatment of subjects in glass-painting, if such treatment is requisite for its utility
and most in consonance with its other qualities,'may be found
sufficient to give as complete an expression to the pictorial rendering of a scripture truth as the material and situation of such works
require.
The reader will readily recall examples of both these modes of
treatment, and in the South Kensington collection are fine specimens of medixval glass from the Sainte Chapelle at Paris, and of
the more recent and more pictorial manner of the Munich school.
The window by Professor Bertini, of Milan, is a beautiful example of
the transparency treatment of glass. Here the forms are simple and
broad, the masses of colour large, and the effect thoroughly that of a
transparent picture, with all its details well drawn, carefully painted,
and rounded by shadow; while the composition is arranged with
regard to the masses of light and dark by colour.  But instead of
that general and harmonious effect of sobered light, which is so desirable in stained glass for the windows of a religious edifice, the




74             A MANUAL OF DESZGV
effect is painful to the eye from its extreme brightness, and the
window would irresistibly obtrude itself upon the attention of the
spectator, and rather distract his thoughts than induce that solemn
repose of mind which is so consistent with the place for which it is
intended.  It is to be observed also that the construction of the
window is greatly in the way in these pictorial treatments, and that a
false construction is too frequently adopted to the entire disregard
of architectural fitness. The other method of treatment has many
able exponents in this country, and the tendency of the modern
school of glass-painters is, in many cases, to revert to the principles
we have endeavoured to deduce from a study of the best works of
medieval artists.
It would seem to be a great fault in glass to have a prevailing
tint or hue, since by a truly harmonious composition of colour
such a result would be avoided.  This is often the case with the
modern French glass, as seen in some of the restored churches of
Paris, more especially the pictorial glass, in which a warm, red hue
is often present, sometimes to a painful extent: the flesh especially
is hot, and dirty in the shadows.  It is to be doubted, indeed, if,
with all our knowledge of the harmony and complements of
colours, we have yet attained to the principles by which the old
glass-painters arranged their agreeable combinations.  Whatever
was the method, the effect was coolness of general tone: the flesh
had little local colour, the prevailing tints of the draperies and
accessories were blue, cool green, and amethyst, and even the red
was cool, inclining to crimson. The brown hues of the flesh in
the modern glass, together with its opacity, are often very disagreeable, and the effect of scarlet instead of crimson tends to increase the hot and glaring effect of the whole.  In the Parisian
churches, where ancient and modern glass is to be found side by
side, even when the former is not of the best period, as in St.
Germain 1'Auxerrois, for instance, it is quite refreshing to turn the
eye from  the modern to the old glass, showing how far more
harmonious the one is than the other.




A MIANVUAL OF D3ESIGA.N                    75
In estimating the excellences of the one or the other methods
of glass-painting we have spoken of, the superior durability of the
earlier method is to be noticed; also the much smaller liability to
accidents from the diminished size of the pane, and the comparatively small amount of damage done if a fracture does take place:
an unlucky blow may immediately destroy the finest portion of a
pictorial window, while it could do but small injury to a work on
the older principle. These are minor merits, but to them may
be added the greatly increased brilliancy of colour occasioned by
the more frequent interposition of the dark line of the leading, and
the lustre occasioned by the slight change of plane, in the smaller
pieces of the early method bringing out thereby the richness of the
glass, as the varied facets of the lapidary increase the lustre of
the precious stone. Indeed it may be doubted if the subject of
leading has had all the attention it so well deserves. The skilful
manner in which this was executed in the early works is apparent
from the preservation of the windows, unharmed by the storms
and winds of centuries.  It is certain that a varied surface was at
times adopted in such works, for resisting, as has been supposed,
the pressure of the winds: thus at Haddon Hall, in the long
gallery, glazed in the reign of Elizabeth, each window is waved
inwards and outwards over the whole surface, and each piece of
glass cut to adapt it to this treatment: the result has been great
durability, even although the lead itself is extremely narrow. These
are, it is true, windows of uncoloured glass; but it may probably
point to the use of some similar method in decorated windows, to
enhance their brilliancy and increase their effect.
INLAID FLOORS, MOSAIC P.A.VEMIENTS, INLAID TILES, ETC.
The ornament of this section of our manufactures seems to be
in the soundest and most satisfactory state, the most free from
false principles, the most thoroughly amenable to true ones.




76             A fMAIVUAI OF DESIGAN.
Although this no doubt partly arises from the conditions of the
manufacture, it is, in a degree, to be attributed to other causes.
The modern introduction of such works in England was at a
fortunate time, when the attention of the ecclesiologists and of
able artists was called to the revival of mediaval art, and to the
study of the best works of Greece and Italy.  The designer, therefore, started upon just principles, and continues to adhere to them,,
even repudiating some of what must be considered errors in the
ancient works which have been handed down to us, such as those
arrangements of light and dark inlays, giving the appearance of
relief, which are found occasionally
even in the best ancient examples.
b We here reproduce a few specimens of floor and wall tiles, which
AT ~ ~    appear to us to combine a true
UiF   u    I   application  of principle with  a,
thorough  comprehension  of the
necessities of the material.
Ilb!l1 Fl   F I PThe illustration (Fig. 4) is of
an  enamelled  wall-tile, imitated
4110. 4.         from one found at Salisbury, and is
given here to shoiw the mode in which flowers were used as
ornaments in such works by the mediaeval artists.  The flower
is displayed perfectly flat, in one colour, and arranged geometrically.
Fig. 5 is given as a more intricate treatment on the same
sound principles, and is from a design by Mr. Pugin.
Fig. 6 is an impressed and enamelled tile of a Moorish pattern,
for covering the surface of a wall with an ornamental texture, and
with a broken harmonious richness of colour, in very durable
materials, for which purpose it is admirably adapted. Many novel
and praiseworthy works in burnt and coloured clay are now produced to facilitate the application of design and colour to the exterior of buildings.  Among others, a species of Majolica ware,




A  i'A'VUAl     OF  DESJIGzV              77
with ornament in relief, coloured with delicate tints, intended to
be introduced into friezes, string-courses, panels, &c., and other
combinations of the art of the designer with the skill of the tilemaker and the potter, which will enable the architect to break the
monotonous surface of brick buildings, and introduce ornamental
forms and colour without the necessity of resorting to plaster and
FIG. 5.
stucco, so long the wretched resource for such purposes.  From
the geological position of London, bricks must always be the
prevailing material for building purposes: such means, therefore,
for the safe introduction of colour and ornament, are especially
desirable, and should be carefully studied, that the most judicious
and sound principles of ornamentation may be adopted in these
newly-revived materials. It is curious to see how instantly the




78            XA MANlVU4L 0FZ DESIGN.
removal of the excise-duty on bricks was followed by the infusion
of a new life into the manufacture, both as to novel forms and the
application of coloured ornament to their surface; it must be
remarked, however, that the ornament of each separate brick
should be perfect in itself as well as perfect in combinations.
From the general use of carpets, considered, as they are, as a
necessary comfort in this country, inlaid floors are far less used
here than on the Continent, and we therefore obtain our chief
supply of marqueterie work for floors from abroad.  The principle
of ornamentation, of course, is the same as that for mosaics and
other inlays; care, however, should
be taken to select wood without a.
strongly marked form  in its grain,
since this is likely to interfere with
the pattern of the inlay in general;
also right-lined figures are preferable
to curved ones, in consequence of
there being less need of crossing the
5    grain of the wood in cutting.
FlG. 6.             PAPER AND OTHER HANGINGS.
If the use of such materials is
borne  in mind, the proper decoration for them  will at once
be evident, since materials of this class ought to bear the
same relation to the objects in the room  that a background
does to a picture.  In art, a background, if well designed,
has its own distinctive features, yet these are to be so far
suppressed and subdued as not to invite especial attention;
while as a whole it ought to be entirely subservient to supporting
and enhancing the principal figures-the subject of the picture.
The decoration of a wall, if designed on good principles, has a like
office: it is a background to the furniture, the objects of art, and
the occupants of the apartment.  It may enrich the general effect,,
and add to magnificence, or be made to lighten or deepen the




A MANVU.4A OF DESIGNA~                      7 
character of the chamber: it may appear to temper the heat of
summer, or to give a sense of warmth and comfort to the winter
it nay have the effect of increasing the size of a saloon, or of
closing-in the walls of a library or study: all which, by a due
adaptation of colour, can be easily accomplished.  But, like the
background to which it has been compared, although its ornament
may have a distinctive character for any of these purposes, it must
be subdued, and uncontrasted in light and shade; strictly speaking,
it should be flat and conventionalized, and lines or forms which are
harsh or cutting on the ground should be as far as possible avoided,
except where necessary to give expression to the ornamentation.
Imitative treatments are objectionable on  principle, both  as.
intruding on the sense of flatness, and as being, too alttractizke in
their details and colours to be sufficiently retiring and unobtrusive.
Some of the best examples of correct style as well in paper as
in silk, velvet, and other hangings, are manufactured in varied
treatments of texture in a self-colour; as for instance of flock
on plain or satined ground in paper, of tabby and satin in silk
hangings, of stamped forms or cutting in velvet, or the same
contrast of pattern with the ground in various mixed stuffs.  By
these means the ornament is necessarily flat, and does not disturb
the general effect.  AWith the slightest attention to the choice
of form  such a design can hardly be in bad taste, whilst
great elegance and beauty often arises from such treatments. Next
to these, graduated tints of the same colour produce a safe and
quiet ornamentation for such fabrics; or gold upon a coloured
ground, where the gold is sparingly distributed and the colour not
too strongly contrasted; since in all cases a general toze of surface
is to be sought for rather than pronounced individual forms.
Further richness may be obtained by the judicious use of two or
more colours, arranged either according to the ancient method of
harmony, that is separated from each other by bands of black,
white, or gold, or contrasted and enhanced by their complementaries, and enriched by flock in either case; in the latter case




o80            A  11AiiVUAL  OF DESIGNIV.
gold may be used with advantage.  But we ever find that the
combination of many colours, though it may increase expense
from the number of blocks, is far from producing richness in a like
degree, while it has often quite the contrary effect, and results
only in poverty and meanness.
It is necessary, however, to advert to a perfectly different treatment of these materials quite at variance with these rules, and
bound by no such principles, by which paper-hanging becomes a
pseudo-decoration, the wall being divided into compartments
often irrespective of architectural construction, with pilasters,
friezes, and mouldings imitated in false relief on its surface,
and having compositions of pictures, statues, hangings, flowers,
fruits, &c., skilfully designed and well drawn, and, it may be,
often most ably blocked for the purpose of printing.  This
is, however, at best but a sham  decoration amenable to no
laws, necessarily false in light and shade, often constructively
inapplicable, and always impertinent and obtrusive, and should be
left to those who, while desirous of display, are too much wanting
in taste to be annoyed at its untruth and extravagance.  Such a
mode of decoration may perhaps be not quite out of place in the
saloon of a theatre, in cafes, or in taverns, but it ought to be
confined to such localities, and should only be used there until the
general taste is so -far instructed that the public will no longer
tolerate gaudy shams and false magnificence.
The same laws which ought to govern design for paper-hangings would, therefore, appear proper to regulate hangings of other
fabrics, tapestries, &c. Although far from regarding ornament in
that exclusive spirit which would reject what is beautiful when it
does not agree with the requisitions of a theory, it must be obvious
that pictorial and picturesque treatments for such fabrics are
wrong whenever they intrude on the domain of another art. Thus,
figures, landscapes, fruits, and flowers, when rendered as they
would be in works of fine art, are almost of necessity inferior to
the pictures they imitate, even when they are as skilfully and won



-.A MANJUAL OF DESIGNi  8"
derfully wrought as in the works produced by the national establishment of the Gobelins, where every effort of skill and science
has been most successfully used for their manufacture and embellishment.  Indeed, it is a matter of doubt whether custom, and
the authority of great names and of past times, are not the causes
of the continued admiration of such decorations, which perhaps
we rather persuade ourselves we like than are fully satisfied
with.
Our mlodern designs for hangings are too often florid and
gaudy compositions, consisting of architectural ornament in
relief, with imitative flowers and foliage. In some of the cleverest
of them the flowers and foliage are perspectively rendered with
the full force of their natural colours, and light and shade;
moreover, they are often three or four times as large as nature,
whereby the size of a room  would be apparently dinminished.
This florid style is mainly prevalent among French manufacturers,
and from the extent to vwhich this country is supplied with wallpapers and tapestries froml France, these errors of style are liable
to  be imported into England with all the added influence of
French taste.
In all these florid and pictorial treatments of surface as contrasted with the correct treatment for wall-papers, there is evidently
no distinction in the minds of the designers between the principles
applicable or permissible in the one class of works, and those
ornamental principles which alone should govern the other. Thus
pictorial imitation is the rule throughout; not only pictorial renderings of flowers as ornament, but occasionally imitations of silk
hangings with their plaited folds, of lace and muslin, of fringes, of
stone and metal mouldings in high relief; but also (even in highpriced papers) imitations of landscapes, birds, trees, and architecture, which  vould thus be multiplied interminably over the
walls.  Thus, notwithstanding the superior taste in the management of tints and the discrimination of colours, which is the
result of the causes before alluded to, or of the better education
C




82           XA MAUAL 0' DESIGC7.
of the French workmen, it is difficult to find abroad a paper in
really good taste.
Having laid down certain principles upon which this class of
manufactures and fabrics should be designed with a view to the true
use of materials, and to the avoidance of unnecessary display, by
the proper application of ornament, it is impossible to refrain from
speaking in high terms of the influence upon our modern manufactures of the elder Pugin. Some may object to the exclusiveness of the style of his designs, and to its too purely ecclesiastical
and traditional character, even in domestic works; but for just
principles of decoration, for beautiful details, and for correct use
of materials, we cannot too highly praise the works he inspired.
Thus, in his paper-hangings, for instance, there is no throwing
away of many blocks to obtain richness, when one or two can be
made sufficient: there is a perfect flatness and a subdued harmony
of colour in all such works; and if Tudor roses and heraldic lions
are sometimes too pronounced, and there is occasionally a little
excess of ornament, richness is generally obtained at the smallest
sacrifice of means, and without any sacrifice of truth.  It is difficult to over-estimate the important effect for good brought about
mainly by the writings and designs of Pugin, and to omit the
mention of his name in any work on modern design would be a
grievous oversight.
The lately-introduced processes of printing paper-hangings by
such machinery as is used for cotton goods, and of applying many
colours from one block, are, we fear, likely to create a style of
ornamentation for such fabrics of the most depraved kind.  The
largeness and flatness of details attainable by block-printing are
less suited to cylinder-printing than more minute details, and the
new processes offer ready means of applying several colours at a
small expense-the reverse of what has hitherto been the case;
hence the effort has been to impress as many tints as possible on
paper, and excellence is reckoned rather by the number of colours
than by any other quality.  Thus we are informed that works are




A    ALNirefVU4AL  0F DKESIGNV.          83
printed in " sixteen colours," in "fourteen colours," &c., the works
themselves evidencing the absence of all knowledge of the effective
arrangement of colour; while violent, crude, and harsh tints are
too often used to give greater impression of this exceZence!/ and
the result is littleness and extreme meanness; in fact, such
papers are, in point of design, much inferior to those printed
in two colours by the same machinery.  Well-considered design,
thoroughly adapted for this process, would enable the manufacturer to unite good taste with extreme cheapness; whereas the
only present result is, by increased labour, to detract from the
beauty of the ornamentation.
EXTERIOR AND OTHER METAL WORK.
The works, in metal, of this section w ith which we are mainly
concerned consist of fountains, and ornamental iron-work in gates
and balconies, and of castings for door-panels and lamp-pillars.
The best of the metal fountains come so nearly within the limits of
fine art, that their consideration is almost beyond our scope while
dealing with simple decoration.  Notwithstanding all that has
been said about the incongruity of our climate with public fountains, there are undoubtedly long periods of the year, and those
when London is most crowded as well with her own resident
population as with visitors, when such works are not only extremely
ornamental, but when an exhausting atmosphere would render
them really useful and refreshing.  The motion of water, at any
season, has a great charm, and is peculiar in its power of giving
pleasure even in the simplest jet or fall, agreeably and artistically
disposed; and ornamental arrangements for its full display would
not only be picturesque additions to our city, which offers so
many localities for their adoption, but would afford to our artists
motives for combinations of figures with ornamental decoration.
A means might thus, perhaps, be afforded of once more uniting
fine and ornamental art, which, sadly to the deterioration of public
G 2




84             A  AXiVUAL OF DES/ONiG
taste, have for so long a time been almost wholly separated.  It
may be doubted if the public would willingly part with even the
tame and commonplace repetitions which adorn Trafalgar Square;
and those who have had the pleasure of enjoying the fountains of
Italy and France will be quite prepared to judge of the effect
which more skilfully-designed structures would have on the public
mind here.
Such works as gates, balconies, and panels, when made in iron,
are for the greater part, in cast-metal, which of late years, from
its capability of receiving cheap ornamentation, has almost wholly
superseded wrought iron for these purposes. Where the object is
intended to be fixed and immovable, as a balcony or panel, cast
work is not unsuitable, and is capable of much beauty of ornamental design. In these the ornament should add to the strength
by its numerous articulations, yet be light and elegant in its forms.
Works of this kind, too, are generally of a size to admit of being
cast in one piece, ensuring thereby strength and lightness by
continuity of parts.  But in cast-iron constructions intended to
be movable, as in the various kinds of gates, a very different
character of design is necessary; partly because entire casting is
not always possible, both from the difficulty of running the metal
into the numerous ramifications of the ornament in works of such
increased size, and partly from the fear of warping in the cooling.
The great expense of a mould is also saved by forming the
ornament of a series of parts.  This leads to the necessity of
framing the work in wrought, and applying the ornamental details
in cast-iron; but hence results this evil, that the ornament has
little constructive use, and is apt to look rather an addition than
an integral part of the work.  Moreover, cast-iron ornament is
necessarily far heavier than that composed of wrought iron, owing:to the extreme brittleness of the cast-metal: this heaviness is
sadly opposed to its real constructive strength in the manner
usually adopted for putting together. The ornamental parts of
such structures being pinned or screwed into the framing, there




4A ANVUAL Of DESIGN.                       85
are' smaller points of attachment than in wrought iron; the parts
bed themselves less perfectly at the junction, since it is impossible
to assist this union with the hammer, and the metal has small
tenacity, and easily breaks with any sudden jar.  There is thus
much less power to support, while there is of necessity much
greater weight to bear; and without very careful and wellconsidered design, making the ornament as far as possible a brace
to the wvork, the whole is apt to be an insecure aggregation of
parts, without constructive unity or truth. In large objects, cast in
one piece, such difficulties are readily surmounted, as weight can
then be made to add strength, instead of detracting from it.  In
the old hammer-wrought gates, the ornament was not only a truly
integral, part, of the work, but most materially assisted in the
general support.  Thus great lightness and elegance were, in
this case, consistent with great strength, since the ornamental
details supplied a means, not only of tying and bracing the work
together, but also of preventing the front of the gate from drooping
with its own weight, to the great hindrance of its use, and which
defect in modern cast works of this kind has often to be overcome by the use of friction-rollers-a make-shift that the older
workmen would have despised.  When, therefore, we consider
the varied beauty of which wrought iron is capable, its far greater
durability, its tenacity and power of resisting accidents, the
individuality of design which arises from its being wrought by the
hand instead of cast in a mould (thereby leaving the fancy and
the feeling of the workman untrammelled), it is satisfactory to find
that a return to wrought iron for such uses is beginning to be
evident.
We frequently come across garden-seats and chairs in castmetal, which are principally to be noticed from the great want of
due consideration of the material evidenced in their design: thus
sometimes they are ornamentally constructed of branches and
foliage naturally imitated, or of branches alone; while, in others,
carved and flowing lines are given to the back, arms, and legs of




86            A MANUAL OF DESIGciG
the seat, adding nothing to the comfort of their use, and sadly detracting from the form properly belonging to such works. It must
be confessed, indeed, that the tendency to consider the ornament
before either the requirements of the material, or the use to which
the work is to be applied, is but too evident in many of the works
in metal in this class.  The uses of iron for constructive purposes
have ever been increasing since the Exhibition of I851 pointed
the way to a fit method of introducing this material.  In America,
in some of the principal cities, iron is made to do the work of
almost every other building material, and often, where it is made
to take the place of and to assume the characteristics of brick and
stone, with the most unfortunate results.  We learn that a TransAtlantic founder thinks nothing of turning out an entire hlouse
front in cast-iron to order.




CHAPTER  IX.
ON DO'MESTIC AND OTHER FURNITURE.
FURNITURE and upholstery constitute, perhaps, the bulk of the
manufactures which must receive our attention, and we shall find
that many of the principles laid down in our first section will have
a direct bearing upon works of this class.
In endeavouring to state principles which may serve as general
rules for the furniture designer, it will without difficulty be conceded that, having some specific purpose in view, his first consideration should be pefgect adaatpltion to izeztnded ulse; this may
appear so obvious a truism as to want no enforcement, but a visit
to a modern drawing-room will speedily undeceive us, for there we
see a multitude of objects offending against this rule: in some of
them  use is almost entirely overlooked, or has been evidently
quite a secondary consideration, whilst in others it partially gives
way either to effect or ornament.  Thus we find a table of costly
manufacture which has ornament in solid relief on its upper surface, and a fire-grate which evidently requires a glass case, since
fire and smoke must be the worst enemies to such a polished
marvel.  We see, again, a pianoforte, surrounded by bristling
bulrushes, which must always be catching in the dresses of those
who approach it, and with hardly a right line in any part of it;
and chairs so heavy that they must be fixtures instead of movables;
while of minor incongruities, the instances are too numerous to




8$8           A MA1VUAL OI0  DESIGN
specify.  Manufacturers should aim  at obtaining the greatest
amount of convenience and accommodation in the least space, in
order that the furniture may be as suitable as possible to the size
and uses of the apartment in which it is placed.
Another consideration to be attended to is stability of construction, apPareet as well as real; the first being necessary to satisfy
the eye, the last being indispensable to excellence and durability.
Thus, as we have seen, the legs of articles of furniture, designed
in the style of Louis XV., are often broken in the centre across
the grain of the wood, or have their base of support far within
the perpendicular line of the bearing; a fault which, though it
does not actually render them unstable, yet offends the eye as
much as if they were really insecure.
The constructive forms, moreover, should not be obscured by
the ornament, but rather brought out by it; nor should all portions
be equally decorated, but only such parts as friezes, pilasters,
capitals, pillars, or panels; herein simplicity is the safest guide to
beauty.  Over-enrichment, indeed, destroys itself, and it would
not be difficult to point out works of the greatest pretension and
the most costly workmanship, which are completely spoilt by this
fault. Cabinets entirely covered with carving, the very stiles and
rails being as decorated as the panels and pilasters: metal chandeliers, with leaves and flowers in as great profusion as in nature 
papier-mache hidden under a surface of pearl and gold. It should
be remembered that contrast is one of the first elements of pleasure, and that repose is one of the most valued excellencies of art;
thus simplicity serves as the background to ornament, as the
setting to the gem, or the foil that enhances the beauty of the
jewel; and the good artist is as much shown in the economy of
his labour as the bad one is by over-enrichment.
In following out our principle that ornament should arise out
of construction, the work, abstractedly, should be constructed and
then decorated; not that it is meant that the ornament should be,aphied to the object, but (as in wood for instance) carved from




A  IANAUZ4L    OF D.)ESIGV                 89
it; thus the leg formed for support-, the pilaster or column for
bearing, may be lightened and enriched by cutting away from the
block or slab, not by adding to it. In his natural state man is a
true workman in this respect, and works on just principles without
knowing it. The New Zealander or South-Sea Islander first forlms
his war-club or his paddle of the shape best adapted for use, and
then carves the surface to ornament it. The Swiss peasant, or the
shepherd of our own hills, works in a similar way.  Such also is
the case in the works of Eastern nations, as is particularly exemplified in their choice sandal-wood carvings.  Here the natural
and the refined taste agree, for the best ornamental wood-carving of
the Renaissance is on this principle, low in relief, seldom projecting beyond the surface of the pilaster, or the framing of the panel.
In wood-carving care should be taken not only to have the
relief so managed as to guard the work as much as possible from
accidental injury, but the designer should seek to adapt the forms
of the ornament to the direction of the grain when it is open or
free, and the work should be framed with a view to this consideration; moreover, ornamental carving should not be applied to wood
of strongly-marked party-coloured grain, but that which is homogeneous in colour should be selected for the purpose, in order
that the ornamental forms may as little as possible be interfered
with by being mixed up with the lines and colours of the grain.
It is curious how much costly and skilful labour has been thrown
away from inattention to such minor considerations as these.
CABINET-WORK AND FURNITURE OF ALL KINDS.
The furniture of a man's house should indeed be well designed,
well constructed, and judiciously ornamented, for, as it is constantly under his hand and eye, defects overlooked at first, or disregarded for some showy excellence, grow into great grievances,
when, after they have become an offence, the annoyance daily
increases.  Here at least utility should be the first object, and, as




90           RA  MANVfUAZL; OF DESIGNV.
simplicity rarely offends, that ornament which is the most simple
in style will be likely to give the most lasting satisfaction.  Yet
how seldom is this consideration duly attended to! The ornament
too often consists largely of izatifzve carving; bunches of fruit,
flowers, game, and utensils of various kinds in swags and festoons
of the most massive size and the boldest impost, attached indiscriminately and without meaning to bedsteads, sideboards, bookcases, pier-glasses, &c., rarely carved from the members of the work
itself, but merely applied as so much putty-work or papier-mache
might be. The laws of ornament are as completely set at defiance
as those of use and convenience.  Many of these works, instead
of being useful, would require a rail to keep off the household.
We see a sideboard, for instance, with garlands of imitative flowers
projecting so far from the slab as to require a': long arm " to
reach across them, and ever liable to be chipped and broken; and
cabinets and bookcases so bristling with walnut-wood flowers and
oaken leaves, as to put use out of the question.  Now, such treatments, while they are not only not ornamental, are also not beautiful, and only enter into competition with stamped leather and
gutta-percha.  There is great reason to doubt if this merely imitative carving is ever just in principle, when applied ornamentally to
furniture; for, although the masterly chisel of Grinling Gibbons
has raised it to great favour in this country, and although it may
be tolerated when executed skilfully, yet it becomes absolutely unbearable under less skilful hands, and when it is lavished in such
profusion as we used to find it.  Happily this state of things is
dying out under improved culture.  In France there is far less of
this false mode of decoration. and a better sense of ornament
prevails; the works being more frequently designed in the traditional styles.  A modification of the Renaissance is principally
used, and in this the ornament is in low relief, and does not
interfere with use; although false construction is a vice of that
period, which has not been remedied in their modern works, but
is sometimes even exaggerated.




4A   ANLVUAL  OF DESI(-zOA.                 9I
The style of Louis XV. lingers in France; its playfulness of
line and surface, its varied treatment and mixture of materials,
together with its showiness, still command favour with the multitude.  The surfaces of works in this style are curved, when practicable; they are veneered in party-coloured woods, and panels
are formed by or-molu mouldings, often in both instances completely at variance with the true construction; and occasionally
the panels are filled with porcelain enamels, the whole having at
least a gay and sparkling appearance.  In English adaptations of
the style, instead of the treatment above described, the bold
scrolls and shell-forms used in the decoration of rooms at that
period are carved in all their coarseness on furniture. Such works
bear out the remark before made, that these forms were especially
adapted for gilding, and, indeed, are hardly bearable except when
so treated, or when made of metal.  This becomes even more
apparent when full-coloured woods are used, such as mahogany;
in this material the ornament is even more coarse and heavy than
in lighter-coloured wood.  Since, however, the vendors of cheap
furniture have adopted this manner as a cheap and flashy decoration for their goods, it is to be hoped that it will. soon be entirely
proscribed, or retained only by such dealers.
Those designers who unreservedly adopt the ornament of past
times must, of course, apply it to their works without any peculiar
significance or connected idea, but merely for its beautiful forms,
elegance, grace, or richness.  Where, however, any significant
allusion, sentiment, or happy idea can be embodied in the ornamnent, uniting it with the use and intent of the work on which it is
to be placed, it will have a charm which is otherwise wanting. Not
that this want is peculiar to the application of traditional ornament, since the designer in the natural or imitative manner seldom
attempts any connexion between his decoration and the work to
which it is to be applied.  There seems no fitness, for instance,
in surrounding the frame of a pier-glass with dead birds, game,
shell-fish, nets, &c., although they may be excellent specimens of




92?            A   VIJANJ7UCAL_  OF  DESIGN.
carving; nor is it clear why eagles should support a sideboard, or
dogs form  the arms of an elbow-chair; nor, again, why swans
should make their nests under a table, at the risk of having their
necks broken by every one seated at it. Indeed, in most cases, as
such imitative forms cannot in the strict sense be called ornament,
they almost challenge inquiry as to why they have been adopted,
and only disappoint us when we find that their application has been
without motive: this is not the case with traditional ornament,
which, like the current coin, is accepted at once without inquiry.
When we turn from such imitative works to furniture designed
strictly in accordance with the rules of a traditional style, we feel
that there is often a cold propriety about it which requires consideration before we can admire it.  There is a strong movement
at the present time in favour of a so-called mediaeval treatment.
It may perhaps be objected that the general forms of furniture in
this style want variety, and this is rendered more apparent by the
florid lines of works of the ordinary type; but the principal reason
will be found to arise from a due consideration of the true constructive treatment of wooad, which is ill adapted to curved forms
on account of its grain, and requires horizontal and perpendicular
lines as the basis of framing. Some credit is due to this revival
of a better and purer state of things, to the return to the'old paths,
and to the avoidance of the present mere sensualism of ornament.
Yet it is not on this account, but as examples of careful and strict
adhesion to truerpi)cz25es of construction and ornamentation, that
the works in this style deserve commendation.
Some of the greatest faults in our furniture are unsuitableness
to uses and false construction: it will often be found to be as skilful
in execution as it is deficient in adaptation to its intended purposes.
In cabinets large spaces are thrown away, and therefore, though
occupying much room, there is little that is available for use; the
centre space, with its canopy (though pretty), has no apparent
purpose, and it is quite disproportioned to the size of the wings,
while it is also deficient in the appearance of support. The books




A  1712VNUAL  OF DESIGN.                  93
cases have often the same fault of room thrown away and of
unsuitableness to use, besides displaying a false adaptation of
Gothic stone forms to wood-carving. This latter fault is elsewhere
also largely prevalent; it will be found to be a common error in
foreign furniture. Thus we have a wardrobe which would be more
characteristic as an oratory, and a bookcase with arches that
support nothing, and buttresses which have no thrusts to resist.
Indeed it should be remembered that the alrc/ is not a wooden,
but essentially a stone construction; it will be evident, on a
moment's consideration, that it is a means of obtaining support by
a number of separate small parts, the reverse of timber construction. It ought, therefore, to be well considered before being
used in wood, wherein it should arise rather from coupled knees
or brackets introduced to strengthen horizontal beams, than as an
independent form.
Sham construction is another error to which we have already
alluded, not only of the kind before spoken of,-the suppression
of the true constructive forms, as panels, framing, &c., and the
giving of undue prominence to others,-but also that where those
portions which are intended for support (as, for instance, columns
in cabinets, legs in sideboards, &c.) are made to move from under
the parts intended to be supported when opening the doors of
the furniture.  This is a common case in cabinets designed in
the Renaissance style, and has the authority of some of the best
early specimens; nevertheless, it is a constructive fault, and is
instanced because it is the source of many like errors of a more
glaring kind, as where legs are made to remove, or where the
whole front of a cabinet or wardrobe is made into doors hanging to the sides without a framed facia and hanging style, and
where both the side and centre columns (when such are so used
as decorations) are made to move with the doors.
The great defect in all our more ambitious furniture is the
want of art-power in the workman.  In this respect we are still
sadly behind continental nations. Whenever the human figure is




94,1 i`4AGV UAL  OFf  D.ESIGN
used as ornament in English works it is pretty sure to be faulty.
The figure may be well composed, may be evidently designed in
good taste, since that is often the work of a superior artist; but in
the execution it is almost always misunderstood and spoiled.
The extremities are finished without knowledge of the internal
structure, the fingers, toes, and joints have no bones within the
skin, but that "gummy" undecided treatment which evidences
the ignorance of the workman.  In wood-carving this is equally
apparent, even when it consists only of ornamental forms.  Very
often in such work the " design " of the ornament would seem to
be by the sanme unskilled hand that carved it, since it is mostly
out of place, coarse, and merely " natural " in style, and rarely
reaches beyond the expression of the most commonplace thought,.
or the imitation of the commonest fruits and flowers.  Success in
rendering either the human figure or animals, when in life and!
motion, can only be the result of knowledge attained by a careful
study of the structure of the bony frame-work and of the moving
muscles; and thus it is the want of such anatomical knowledge
and of a proper training in art that causes the deficiency we are
obliged to notice in our furniture, and which compels the carver to
confine himself to mere works of imitation, knowing that higher
flights are beyond his powers.  This deficiency of power and skill
in the human figure is only an additional evidence of the want of
better education for our art-workmen.  They need to have proper
treatises prepared for them, laying down the principles of ornament,.
and giving them a thorough foundation in practical geometry, form,
proportion, and, above all, in anatomy, together with a careful
education of the hand and eye. Unless the manufacturers of
this country are soon awakened to our deficiencies, and prepared
to make great sacrifices to support the government art schools,.
and to enable and induce their workmen to study in them, we
must be content to lag still further behind as the world advances,.
and for the future to be manufacturers of cheap goods, leaving.
excellence and beauty to our continental neighbours.




A MAfrNUAL OF DESIGA.                      95
HARDWARE.
Under this head are comprised grates, fenders, fire-irons, stoves,
gas-fittings, lamps, and various miscellaneous applications; the
whole being largely connected with ornamental design.  The
works in this section, however, are not more miscellaneous in their
use than they are in their style of ornamentation: thus we see in
our shops Greek candelabra adapted to miany uses, Gothic chandeliers and Renaissance lamps, with a pretty large sprinkling of
the forms and ornament of Louis XIV. and XV., to which is to
be added the zalztzrcs  sy/e before alluded to, which, adopting
foliage or flowers as its leading idea, presents them as they grow,
without any constructive or architectural arrangement whatever.
Yet even this is encouraging, since it indicates a desire for something more than mere reproductions of the antique, or that mt/ize
of ornament which the ignorant gather from many works, and reassemble without taste or appropriateness.  In a great portion of
the works in metal French taste is found largely to prevail 
nor is this to be wondered at, since, for a long time, the lively
fancy and invention of many excellent French artists have been
directed to designing and modelling for these goods; ably
seconded, also, by trained and educated workmen capable of
appreciating their labours, and completing them by skilful casting,.
chasing, and fitting.  But the tendency of the French mind
towards display has resulted in over-ornamentation, and it is unfortunate that this fault is rather a merit in the eyes of the world,
and has been eagerly adopted by the manufacturers of other
nations, more especially by our own; that which is meretricious.
being retained, whilst what is really excellent in French design,.
and especially in French. workmanship, is overlooked by them, or
is found unattainable.
Moreover, whilst the most able French  artists in metal,
eschewing the gaudy style of Louis XV., have returned to a,
modified form of the Renaissance, and have given it somewhat of




96           XA M/MANUfAL OF DESIGNA
newness of character, the English designers for hardware too
often still adhere either to  the contorted style first named,
or they produce works composed of ornaments pirated from all
times and all nations, put together without any sense of construction, without selection and without fitness. Such works are a
thorough chance-lnedley, disgraceful to our manufacturers, and
_ _FII
FIG. 7.
they make us look back to the simpler forms of the Middle-ages
with respect and regret.
Let anyone examine the characteristic simplicity of the candlestick here engraved (Fig. 7), made from a design by Mr. WV. Pugin,
adapted as it is for use, standing firmly, capable of being handled,
light yet strong, and compare it with the showy works of this
class we commonly see, so rag'ged and tangled with ornament that




A 2MANUA 4L OF DESIG2N~                    97
all characteristic form is lost, branched arms, bristling with foliage
which weighs down rather than braces and supports them, with
perhaps a bunch of flimsy chains dangling in the way of those who
would touch or lift them, or two or three Parian Cupids basking
at the foot, or bearing up the candles; and having, where the hand
should grasp the stem to lift the candelabrum, the ornament so sharp
and thorny that to touch it would be impossible. In making such a
comparison can we do otherwise than feel that the one is honest,
useful, characteristic, and therefore beautiful, whilst the others are
flashy and grotesque, full of little prettinesses, which some misname
"' ideas," put together without any leading motive, and having no
definite character or true construction?
The faults of English design for hardware are obvious to every
one; the error of the French designers is equally open to the most
superficial observer.  In the great mass of their works there is no
rest for the eye-the whole surface is nothing but ornament. Thus,
for instance, the French art-bronzes have justly obtained a wide
reputation, and the works of Deniere, Pradier, Mene, and other
French artists, are sought for all over Europe; but when such
become a part of manufacture, and liable to be classed as hardware, art is overlaid with ornament, and the skill of the workman
is directed to that which degrades the work, and sadly militates
against good taste.  Thus, figures designed with much fancy, and
modelled with ability and vigour, are vulgarised from the imitation
of fur and of the texture of the garments, of buckles, buttons, and
ties of the dress, of chain or plate armour or weapons, whilst the
homogeneity of the bronze is no longer retained, but various parts
of dress are treated in various tints of the metal; and all the
different qualities of surface, such as tooling, frosting, and burnishing, in which it is but just to say the workmen are most skilful,
are brought into play to eznrz',  the effect; while sometimes we
have, in addition, combinations of many materials, such as marble,
porcelain, ivory, and bronze, united in a single work.
Another class of works are those anomalous candelabra comH




98            A M/ANUAL OF DESIGN.
posed of porcelain vases filled with a bunch of flowers in or-molu,
a few bearing candles amongst a number of barren branches, the
whole being a bush of glitter and burnish. This is the direction
which naturalism in ornament takes in France. Such works have
a total absence of constructive feeling, and an equal want of
proper treatment of metal; to add to their finery, an epergne of
artificial flowers is often mixed up with metallic ones, as a centrepiece for the dinner-table. The error, however, does not wholly
rest with the designer, since it will be long before he has a public
sufficiently educated to relish the amount of plainness which is
absolutely necessary to give the true value to each part enriched.
Grates rank among the principal works in hardware to which
ornamental design is applied, and it is gratifying also to find
that the design and decoration of these goods has greatly
improved in the last few years. There is, however, an evident
tendency to do too much, and it is incumbent on designers
for such goods carefully to avoid this, and to endeavour to
restrain manufacturers from such treatments of the metals
as lead to gaudiness and glare, and by which, at the same
time, the grate itself is rendered less useful.  The great secret,
after constructive use has been considered, consists in the proper
and judicious treatment of the materials, which offer great advantages for contrast, either with or without the introduction of bronze
or or-molu. True excellence will be found here also to be closely
allied with simplicity, a moderate use of ornament and of the
burnisher, and the contrast of broad flat masses of plain metal
with ornamented or burnished mouldings, with inlays of brass, or
with bronze and or-molu ornaments. The arched form which has
generally been adopted for grate-fronts is architecturally suitable
as supporting the chimney breast, and agreeable in outline, giving
ample opportunity for ornament in the mouldings of the arch, as
well as in the spandrels, besides having sufficient surface of metal
to serve as a contrast to the ornament; moreover, it is not likely to
interfere with the architectural arrangement of the mantel-piece to




A MiANUAL OF DESIZG                         99
which it may have to be fitted.  Several grates designed by the late
Mr. A. Stevens, decorative in character, and of great general merit,
will be found in the Museum.  The one engraved (Fig. 8) is constructively simple, and sufficiently ornamented for its office as an
article of furniture, while it displays most judicious use of
materials. The face is of ground, cast metal, the ornamented
moulding of pa-le bronze, with the leafage of brass, and the figure
_`lii       I itiI1I I,Ig a1
FIG. 8.
bronzed, while some semi-burnished lines about the. fire give a
very chaste and tasteful effect; the fender is also of bronze and
brass, with the leading lines burnished.  Much more ornament
than this would raise the grate out of its right place in the scale of
furniture, and draw undue attention to it; its sober simplicity is
more to be commended than many more highly ornamented,
It can never be too much insisted on, that ornament loses
its value when it overloads a work, and that large uii6rnamented spaces. are required to enhance and give zest tV,tr te
H T o




100           A M/1ANUAL OF DESIGN.
decoratedparts. As we descend to grates designed by inferior
artists, we find excess substituted for excellence, and works of such
brilliant gaudiness of surface as to be quite unfitted for their
intended use; indeed, the process of keeping them in order would
seem to require that a whitesmith should form part of our establishment, or that the housemaid should have a practical education
to enable her to take to pieces the elaborate constructions which
would come under her care, independently of the skill required to
clean them.
It is tiresome to repeat what has so often before been said,
that use ought to be considered before ornament; yet no section
of furniture suffers more from neglect of this rule than that coniprised under hardware. In some cases this shows itself in applying a form or construction suited for one use, to another for which
it is quite inapplicable. Thus we find some French chandeliers,
which at first sight seem cleverly designed and show a skilful
treatment of the metal, but which, on examination, are seen to
consist of a large central lamp, which alone is intended to give
light, surrounded by a circle of branches bearing sham candles,
not intended or prepared in any way for illumination, but introduced merely to allow of a little extra ornament. From the same
cause results the impertinent aclilication of figures, in bronze or in
Parian; a fertile source of bad taste. These are too often merely
added to the work, and not constructively treated, and thus seem
to have no real relation to the forms they are connected with.
Hence the manufacturer is enabled to adapt the same figure to
many purposes, and to the most opposite uses; sometimes at the
base of a chandelier, sometimes at the top, and sometimes perched
upon the branches. Profitable to the manufacturer this may be,
but it is as completely opposed to every just principle of design
as to every hope of progress or good taste.
In the treatment of metal the rendering of the surface demands
tLe most careful study, since much of the beauty of a work results
f.An* this being properly understood.  No doubt the true lustre of




A  IVMANUAL  OF DESIGN.                   I OX
metal is only given in the burnished state; but when burnishing
is introduced in any quantity it becomes not only tormenting to
the eye but wants contrast to bring out its brilliancy. Moreover,
by its glitter it obscures ornanmental forms, which rarely look
sharp or clear in their details under this treatment.  When figures
or animals, introduced for decoration, are burnished, their true
form is almost undistinguishable on account of this glitter and the
reflection from the polished surface, and this together with the pressure of the tool completely destroys all details of forms and surface.
Yet we find that many important works have the figures entirely burnished. The evil caused by a glittering surface in such works is
duly appreciated by the French artists, who have wisely adopted
bronze as the material for figures in the baser metals, and have
overcome the difficulty by oxidation in their works in silver. A
medium state of the surface between mat and burnished, though
much to be desired, is not always obtainable, nor has it perhaps
been  sufficiently  sought.  Bronze, however, from  its colour,
partially supplies this want; and the mixed metals, and ground
cast-iron from its duller polish, afford good contrasts to burnished
iron or steel.
While our use of burnish often tends to blur and destroy form,
the older workmen took advantage of a polished surface to produce ornament; this may be seen in some of the old church
chandeliers, of which the central trunk, consisting of a plain
turned shaft, seems richly reeded when the branches are lighted,
merely by the reflection of the lights on the metal.
In most of the modern works, burnished and matted surfaces
seem to be used indifferently or at random, instead of applying the
burnisher to give variety to recurring forms, or to enhance leading
lines. These are often entirely matted or tooled, and those parts
burnished which will give the greatest flutter and glitter to the.object.
The facilities which modern mechanism gives to the production of ornament, and consequently to over-ornamentation, have




1o02           A MiANUAL; OF DESIGNa
already been adverted to.  It is to be hoped that in view  of
these facilities manufacturers will see their own interest, and seek
the best designs at any cost, since these will frequently be found
to combine cheapness of production and simplicity with good
taste.
CARPETS.
The use of these fabrics suggests the true principle of design
for their ornamentation;  which is governed by the laws before
given for flat surfaces, where the object is rather to treat the whole
as a background than to call particular attention to the ornamentation.  Flatness should be one of the principles in decorating a
surface continually under the feet; therefore all architectural relief
ornaments, and all imitzations of fruit, shells, and other solid or
hard substances, or even of flowers, strictly speaking, are the more
improper the more imitatively they are rendered.  As a field
or ground for other objects, the attention  should hardly be
called to carpets by strongly-marked forms or compartments, or
by violent contrasts of light and dark, or colour; but graduated
shades of the same colour, or a distribution of colours nearly
equal in scale of light and dark, should be adopted; secondaries
and tertiaries, or neutralised primaries being used rather than pure
tints, and lights introduced merely to give expression to the forms.
Under such regulations as to flatness and contrast, either geometrical forms, or scrolls clothed with foliation in any style, leaves,,
flowers, or other ornament, may be used, which, with borders and
compartment arrangements, and the use of diaper treatments, leave
ample room for variety and for the inventive skill of the artist. It
may be thought impossible or unnecessary to confine the designer
too strictly by such laws, and they are, indeed, rather stated from
a sense of their truth than with an immediate hope of their
thorough acceptance, but at any rate they may serve as curbs to
extravagance of design, and as guide-marks to lead back the
errant designer to the paths of consistency.  In speaking of




A MANUAL OF DE SIGNV.                     Io3
designs for carpets we turn first to France, because the importance of her national manufacture of these fabrics must claim our
first consideration. The establishments under royal or national
aid have carried these fabrics to the highest pitch of excellence in
all that relates to skill of manufacture, brilliancy of colour, and
magnificence of design.  In the face of the many and rare excellences exhibited by them, both of handicraft and scientific knowledge, the chemist and the botanist having united their sciences
with the invention and taste of the painter, it may seem daring
to reprobate the ornamentation of such costly works; but their
very excellence has so largely contributed to the spread of bad
taste and false principles in such fabrics, that it becomes a
positive duty, in the face even of the highest authorities, to object
to the principles on which they are ornamented, if we would place
carpet designs on the right footing for the future. There can be
little doubt that we owe most of these faults to the false taste of
the designers in these royal establishments, who have vitiated
the judgment of the public. Carpets issued from them are found
which combine a mixture of ornament with natural or imitative
flowers, designed with the greatest skill, coloured with the tints of
nature, and gracefully and tastefully disposed. The ornament, however, is purely architectural, and in shaded relief, without any sense
of flatness; and consists largely of the broken curves, the coarse
scrolls, and the shell forms of the Louis Quinze period.  The
contrasts of colour, both as to tints and light and dark, are, however, sometimes. of the most violent kind, distressing the eye, and
distracting the attention from any works which might be in juxtaposition with them. It may be said that these carpets, designed for
the gorgeous magnificence of palaces, can hardly come under sober
rules; that they are essentially intended for display. Even allowing this to be the case, such specimens may well serve as warnings
of the danger of adopting the like style for more general uses; and
even in a palace, the chaste simplicity of its statues, and the subdued hues of the works of high art which should adorn it, could




Io4           A    /1AfNfUALA   OF  DESIGAr
stand little chance of vying with the richness and lustre of fabrics
so over-decorated; and the princely inhabitant would certainly
share the attention of the spectator with the gaudy carpet which
covered the floor.
The manufactured goods of this class too often consist of
such a confused mixture
of styles, and exhibit
such a total want of consistency, that it is at
once evident that the
designers, both at home
and abroad, are amenable to none of those
pIz;czjples which  have
been explained as
governing  the decoration  of carpets; the;~.....k~~~~~ L ~  ~~~-  flowers are often far beyond the natural size,
the colour's are bright
and gaudy, flatness is.=z~-                               not attempted: in short,
imitation and not orna-mentation has been the
FIG. 9.               rule which has guided
them. A work of much
excellence is copied in the accompanying impression (Fig. 9).
In the carpet itself the border is about half its width too narrow
for the centre, but this is not seen in the woodcut; the colour of
the centre consists of gradations of a neutral red, the forms of the
border are red on a dull white ground. Though meritorious in
other respects it will serve to illustrate the error of indiscriminately
applying the ornamentation of one material to that of another.
Thus the design, taken from the excellent work on the Alhambra by




A  MAfIAVU4Z   OF DESIG/V.                105
the late Mr. Owen Jones, and there used as a wall decoration, where
its " up and down " treatment was characteristic and proper, is no
longer so when applied to a carpet, since this requires an " all-over "
treatment, or an arrangement towards the centre, a consideration
which does not seem to have entered into the mind of the designer.
The justness and truth of the Eastern style in carpet decoration and
in the application of colour to such fabrics, and the inherent tradition
of fitness in both, is well known.  Turkish carpets are generally
designed with aflal border of flowers of the natural size, and with
a centre of larger forms conventionalized, in some cases even to
the extent of obscuring the forms; a fault to be avoided. The
colours are negative shades of a medium or half-tint as regards
light and dark, tending rather to dark, with scarcely any contrast,
and therefore a little sombre in character.  Three hues are principally prevalent and largely pervade the surface, namely, green,
red, and blue; these are not pure but negative, so that the general
effect is cool, yet rich and full in colour. The colours, instead of
cutting upon each other, are mostly bordered with black, the blue
has a slight tendency to purple, and a few orange spots enhance
and enliven the effect. The distribution of colour in these fabrics is
far simpler than in those from India, which latter have sometimes
a tendency to foxiness, in consequence of a larger admission of
warm neutrals, as brown and brown-purple; they also admit of a
much greater variety of colours than the Turkish. The colour of
the Indian carpets, however, is so evenly distributed, and each
tint is so well balanced with its complementary and harmonizing
hue, that the general effect is rich and agreeable; the hues all tend
to a dark middle tint in scale, and white and yellow are sparingly
introduced to define the geometrical arrangement of the forms,
such arrangement being the sound basis of all Eastern ornament.
The carpets and mats of Persia and the Levant are coming
into great favour at the present time, and most justly deserve the
high estimation in which they are held. Both in design and
colour they are often everything that could be wished. One




106            X1~2A MANUAL OF D.ESIGNV
thing is certainly to be learned from the works referred to, namely,.
that bright colours are not necessarily rich or beautiful, but that
tone is a great source of richness, and has at the same time the
further merit of keeping such goods in their true place in the scale
of furniture. No nations exhibit greater richness of what may be
called upholstery, or more gorgeous costumes, than those of India
and Persia, and the wisdom displayed in the negative tone and
subdued colour of their carpets is worthy of consideration, affording, as it does, a means of enhancing and supporting the richness
and costliness of their other fabrics and their personal decorations.
Almost all that has been said of carpets is applicable to
druggets and felted goods for the same uses, and the principles of
their ornamentation, under certain modifications, may be applied
to floor-cloths and painted cloth for furniture covers, as well as to
printed, felted, and woven fabrics, in various materials, for tablecovers.
Floor-cloths are not so much used in this country for dwelling
rooms as in halls, staircases, lobbies, and other approaches, and
richness and fulness of colour are, therefore, in general less
needed. The laws which regulate mosaics and inlays for floors
will, in some degree, rule these works also, except that wood
inlays, especially when large, require a design capable of being
framed in its construction, and due regard must also be paid to
the shoulderings of mortices and tenons, a construction obviously
unnecessary in floor-cloths. It is, therefore, requisite to guard
carefully against mere imitations of such designs, and more especially to avoid all imitations of carpet patterns.
CURTAINS AND HANGINGS.
The ornamentation of textile hangings follows the same laws,
and is amenable to the same general principles, as that of other
wall decorations, flatness of treatment and subdued contrasts of
colour being the only sure guides.




A MANUA1  OF DESIGNA7                      I07
The richest, and at the same time the most sober effects ill
silk, are produced as we have already noticed merely by the
processes of weaving, as of satin figures on a tabby ground, in a
self-colour; and ornament properly suited for this treatment of
the silk is generally in good taste, and shows the full splendour of
the rich material.  Next to this, graduated tints of a self-colour,
as gold on straw colour, or even ornaments in one colour, on a
ground formed of the natural golden tint of the silk, where the
contrast is not too violent, have a good effect, and show to
advantage beside those over-decorated works which are covered
with natural flowers in many colours. In such treatments as these
the lustre and gloss of the silk, and the richness of colour consequent on these qualities, are seen to the greatest advantage in the
flat masses of such ornament, heightened as they are by the duller
ground; while smaller parts and varied tints interfere with these
inherent qualities of the material.
The izatural treatment of flowers as the ornament of textile
fabrics is nowhere seen to greater disadvantage than in the rich
altar-cloths in gold brocade of French, Austrian, and Russian
manufacture. The coloured and shaded flowers instantly vulgarise
and give a commonness to this essentially rich material; while
diapers of colour, or a different texture produced by weaving, or
silver threads woven with the gold, as in some of the Russian
fabrics, have a rich and true effect.
The consideration of chintzes comes under the head of hangings; and upon these fabrics it is quite necessary to make a few
remarks, since their decoration seems at present to be of the most
extravagant kind. Overlooking the fact that the lightness and
thinness of the material will not carry a heavy treatment, and that,
in addition to all the principles which have been shown to regulate
designs for hangings, the use of imitative floral ornament is
peculiarly unsuitable on account of the folds in which it hangs, the
taste is to cover the surface almost entirely with large and coarse
flowers-dahlias, hollyhocks, roses, hydrangeas-or others which




Ic8           A MrNUAL OF DESIGN.
give scope for strong and vivid colouring, and which are often
magnified by the designer much beyond the scale of nature.
These flowers are not only arranged in large groups, but often cover
the whole surface, in the manner of a rich brocade. Nothing can
be more erroneous, or more essentially vulgar, and this would at
once be evident did not fashion blind us for a time, and a feeling
for costly labour and difficult execution prevail over truth and
good taste.
Moreover, it is scarcely possible in such distributions of
colours, whether printed or woven, to arrange them according to
just or scientific laws. For although this may be attainable when
colour is in simple flat tints, and subordinated to geometrical
groupings, we find that when the tints are broken up and
graduated into shades, and distributed with regard to flowing
and naturally-dispersed forms alone, the due quantities for
harmony, the juxtaposition of complementary and harmonizing
tints, and the true balance of parts, becomes difficult or impossible. The present mode of ornamenting these fabrics seems
to have arisen from the false spirit of imitation-a desire to rival
the richness of silk; but the fact is overlooked that the texture,
naturally light, requires lightness and elegance of form and colour;
and that, as a suzilmler fabric, richness and fulness of hue, which
tend rather to a sense of warmth, are out of place. The true
principles for the decoration of chintzes, on the contrary, require
fresh and cool light grounds, with flat ornamental forms, either
" all over" or in "up and down" bands, or diapers of floral
ornament, on a simple textural ground.
In conclusion we may say a few words on muslin curtains
which properly belong to this section. These fabrics should, of
course, have a perfectly flat treatment, whether purely ornamental
forms or flowers are used for their decoration. The best effect
for borders is obtained by a symmetrical arrangement of flowing
lines, which may be large in pattern, from the lightness of the
material; while a diaper treatment, or small sprigs arranged with




A M4ANUViAL OF DESGIV.                     Io09
large and regular spaces over the central field, complete the simple
rules for their decoration. It would seem hardly possible to err
much in designing for a fabric which admits of such small variation, the contrast of the thick work with the more filmy ground
being the source of the ornamental form, and colour being rarely
used; yet, perhaps, in the whole range of manufactured goods,
there are few more glaring mistakes to be seen than are made in
the decoration of these fabrics.  In the Swiss muslins, the effort
seems to be directed rather to curious skill in workmanship than
to taste in design, and some of the most costly goods are in the
worst conceivable taste-immense cornucopias, pouring out fruit
and flowers, palm-trees, and even buildings and landscapes being
used as ornament. Even when this only consists of flowers, they
are used imitatively and perspectively, foldings of the leaves, and
in some cases the actual relief of fruits, being attempted. Although
the same faults occur in English manufactures, these, on the
whole, have been greatly improved in taste.
Except that curtains allow of an " up and down " treatment,
which table-cloths do not, most of the same rules apply to damask
table-linen as to white muslin curtains. The ornament of damask
linen, arising, as it does, merely from the gloss obtained by various
distributions of the warp and woof in weaving, ought to be extremely simple in form; yet even in these goods we find buildings,
landscapes, vases, baskets, fruits in relief, and flowers perspectively
treated as the details of decoration, while we have seen a centrepiece of precious metal wrought in the table-cloth where the real
one is meant to be placed. A border of flat ornament, consisting
of flowing lines or a flat floral treatment, carefully studied as to
the distribution of quantities; a diaper geometrically arranged
over the inner field, composed either of floral or ornamental forms,
with a judicious interspace (the diaper being rather dispersed than
crowded), and a central form, give the best general distribution
for the surface of table-linen.  Proper attention should be paid, in
designing the border, to the quantity allowed for turning down




I IO          A MAN7'~UAL OF DESIGNV.
over the edge of the table; and care should be taken, when
heraldry and heraldic devices are introduced, to have them strictly
flat. Landscapes, solid and shaded forms, perspectives, and
architectural relief ornament, should be carefully avoided. Although
the principles which govern the decoration of these fabrics appear
to be simple and self-evident, there are few manufactures where a
greater amount of error prevails, the nearest approach to purity of
style being floral treatments, imitatively rendered.
In concluding our remarks upon this section of design, we
may again invite attention to the different relative importance, in
an ornamental point of view, of the various articles which are comprised under the head of the furniture of an apartment. These
are produced by various manufacturers, each endeavouring to give
the greatest amount of decoration to his own works, without duly
considering their relation to other fabrics. Thus the carpet manufacturer ornaments his articles so showily that they outvie the
hangings — the wall-decorator, or paper-stainer, his goods, till they
emulate the cabinet furniture-whilst the upholsterer overlays his
share of the furniture with florid carving, with or-molu and inlays,
or with rich broideries of silk or velvet, so as far to outshine the
rare workmanship of the jeweller or the goldsmith, or the art of
the bronzist, the sculptor, or the painter, with which they are
mingled.
All this arises out of error; each article of furniture has a due
share of importance-a relative value as decoration-beyond
which it should never be forced; and the designer for each should
have this truth strongly impressed upon him in all his labours.
We may suppose it will readily be conceded that the carpet, bearing, as we have pointed out, the relation of the groundwork for
objects, should have a quiet richness of surface and texture,
intruding in the least possible degree on the eye or the observation;
the wall decorations, the next in importance, being entirely of the
nature of a background, should be subordinate to the cabinet
work; which, in its turn, should hardly be forced into undue




A  ~2ANVUA-L OF DESIGN.                    I  I
competition with the skilful works in glass, porcelain, metal, or the
fine arts, for which it serves merely as a means of display or
arrangement.  Yet how often is this order entirely reversed, and
the simplicity of fine art outshone by the gorgeousness of mere
furniture! Where the educated taste of a decorative artist is not
sought for, this too often arises from  want of taste in the
purchaser, who selects each object for itself, and not on full
consideration of this principle of subordination; but were the
designer really alive to the trith of the principle, such gaudy
and false ornamentation would hardly be applied to inferior
fabrics. Jewellers are careful that the setting may be a proper
foil to the more valuable stone, but those who have the means of
richly decorating their dwellings often make such a show of the
setting that it overpowers the gem.




CHAPTER  X.
ON DOMESTIC UTENSILS AND OBJECTS OF PERSONAL USE.
OUR third group brings us to the examination of design applied
to domestic utensils and objects of more immediate personal use.
Although there is not an exact line of demarcation between such
works and those more properly ranging with domestic furniture,
the division is sufficiently accurate, and is convenient as permitting
classification under the separate heads of:i. Porcelain and pottery.
2. Table and ornamental glass.
3. Works in the precious metals, &c.
4. Bookbinding.
It will at once be evident, that whatever is comprehended
in this section ought to display the greatest purity of form and
the rarest excellence of ornament; such objects should be characterized by the utmost refinement and finish, since they are
daily under our hands, and continually subject to minute personal
inspection. Their utility, moreover, should have special attention,
and convenience and usefulness should be carefully studied.
Here the ornamentist will have full scope for the highest efforts of
his ingenuity and taste; and when working on the most precious
materials, he may add by his labour even to their value and
richness.




A MA1IVUAL OF DESIG.N.                    x I3
Moreover, in those classes in which use is a first requisite, as
is largely the case in china, pottery, and glass, the purest forms
should be sought, allied to the greatest convenience and capaciousness; and the requisite means of lifting, holding, supporting,-of
filling, emptying, and cleansing, should engage the attention of
the designer, before the subject of their ornamentation is at all
considered.
PORCELAIN AND POTTERS' WARE.
There is hardly any nation, however primitive its state, with
whose works we have become acquainted, that has not numbered
among its manufactures some kind of potters' ware; rudely made,
perhaps barbarously decorated and imperfectly fired, but sufficient
for the simple domestic purposes of people in an early stage of
society and civilization.
As nations advanced in culture, their pottery improved also,
both in elegance of form, in beauty of decoration, and in manufacturing excellence; so that their fictile fabrics alone will often
mark the standard of national civilization, and indicate the progress
of a people in the arts of life.
This has been the case not only with the Greeks and the
Eastern nations, but with the modern Europeans also, both of
Italy, Germany, France, and England.  It is unimportant that in
Europe the improvement of these manufactures has, until of late
years, been dependent on the patronage and assistance of princes,
since, at the period of the first impulse to excellence, this was
largely the case with all works of costly production. It is sufficient
to notice that the pottery faithfully reflects the taste of the time;
that its improved manufacture and decoration has been coincident
with general culture; and that the style and progress of art, its
motive and object, are as vividly depicted on the pottery as in the
pictures and statues of the age. Thus, when pagan subjects began
to be treated among the artists of Italy, from the revival of learning and the spread of a knowledge of the literature of Greece and
I




II4           A MANUAL OF DESIGNz.
Rome, this change was immediately stamped as indelibly on the
pottery of Urbino as upon the pictures of Raphael and his galaxy
of pupils. In the same way, when the luxurious court of Louis XV.
became interested in the manufacture of porcelain, and encouraged
it with royal munificence in the workshops of Sevres, all the glare
and glitter of that pleasure-loving court, its debased art and
theatrical prettiness, were at once impressed upon the works of
that manufactory.
In this view of the ceramic arts there is much that is hopeful
in their present position, since not only is there a manifest progress in the last few years in the general manufacture of porcelain
and pottery, both at home and abroad, but there is also a decided
improvement in their decoration. We seem to have nearly passed
through the stage of mere imitation; the antique has been carefully studied, not so much with a view to the mere reproduction
of the elegant forms of its utensils and of their decoration (too
much the custom during the latter end of the last and the commencement of the present century), as, from the examination of
the vases and tazzas of antiquity, to obtain the geometrical basis
of their construction, and the principles on which the Greeks
applied ornament to their surface.  Hence has resulted an improved elegance and refinement in modern porcelain; and the
beautiful details of Moresque ornament, or the richness and
elegance of the Renaissance, have been adapted to its decoration
on the same just principles that guided the artists of Greece and
Etruria in ornamenting with their own national and significant
ornaments the beautiful works which time has spared for our
admiration.
The works of this class may, for facility of consideration, be
examined under two heads, generally broadly distinguishable,
without, however, having special reference to peculiarities of
manufacture or of material, whether as hard or soft paste, as
earthenware and porcelain. They may fairly be divided into
ornaments and works of utility. It has elsewhere been said that




A MVANUAL OF D~ESIGN.                      I I5
manufactures may be so over-decorated as to be degraded into
mere oriznmnents; yet when works are produced simply with that
object, they may not only be admired as addressed to the purpose
of giving pleasure by their beauty, but by their production they
often sensibly exercise a useful influence on the general taste of
the manufacture.  This is nowhere more evident than in the
beautiful and valuable porcelain, the present product of the Sevres
factory.  Here we find the taste of the first artists assisted by the
science of able chemists, and, under a judicious direction, united
to the most skilful workmanship and manufacture, and the result
is that the fabrication of porcelain is carried to the highest degree
of excellence.  The c/efs-d'azuvre of this factory, however, are
works which must be classed as ornaments, such as vases, caskets,
chalices, tazzas, &c. The forms adopted, heretofore so rococo,
are pure, and those pure forms are rarely interfered with by the
reliefs. The details of the decoration, the modelling of the reliefs
and the painting,-whether these consist of figures, flowers, or
simply of ornamental forms, —are, in many cases, of rare and
felicitous excellence, and of high merit in all. The finished perfection of these choice works must have exercised a great influence
on the other manufactures of the country, not only by forming a
band of workmen educated to perceive excellence as well as to
produce it, and capable of giving assistance in many other
branches of manufacture, but also by their effect on the general
cultivation of the public taste. Nor do such establishments benefit
alone the country that supports them; they diffuse, as we have
seen, taste abroad, even into other lands. Thus the improvement
of our own general manufacture of china has already been adverted
to, and yet it is but justice to say that it owes much to the labours
of the national establishments both of Sevres and Dresden; not
only from the fact that their works have in some cases served as
our examples, or guided our manufacturers by the principles of
their decorative treatments, but from the stimulus to improvement
which has resulted from the contemplation of such rare works,
I 2




GI6           A VANzUVALUZ OF DES/GAN
and of that perfection which arises from a manufacture occupying
itself rather upon efforts of skill than upon general production,
and able to employ itself upon them irrespective of expense and
regardless of cost.
When we consider the choice paintings on porcelain and in
enamel executed at Sevres, not only from the old masters and
others, but original works also, we shall be sensible of the great
impression they must produce on the workmen, and the emulous
efforts of manufacturing skill they must call forth.  The figure
paintings of Ducluzeau, Thurgot, Beranger, Laurent, and others,
with the flower-pieces of Jacobber, Schildt, &c., must be allowed
to have exerted this influence in a high degree.  In our own
country we have skilful enamellers, but those artists are not connected with the potteries, nor employed by the manufacturers; in
fact, their art is too costly for such uses, unless where, as in France,
a nation pays for that which is of great value for a nation's improvement.
In England our china painters are rarely artists, and but few of
them seem to have artists' feelings, nor until of late years have
they had opportunities of gaining the necessary instruction. The
painters on china copy fruit, foliage, and flowers well, but when
such labours are original they too often consist of but slight variations of some stock and stereotyped forms and colours, which the
workman uses over and over again, without novelty either in
grouping or drawing. In the power of painting the human figure
they are mostly deficient, and few of them are able to execute
subjects of which flesh forms a part. The modellers also have
been sadly deficient in knowledge of the figure and of its anatomical
details.  In both these particulars, however, they are slowly improving, and the introduction of parian and other materials for
the manufacture of statuettes, which now forms a large branch
of business in the potteries, has been of service in showing them
their defects and in urging them to amend them. The Schools
of Design established in the potteries, in which some of the




A MANUA4L OF DESIGN.                      I I7
principal manufacturers take an earnest interest, have been
productive of good results, and, energetically supported, they
will no doubt be of essential value to the workman and to the
manufacturer.
In the application of colour to porcelain and earthenware the
surface should never be wholly, or, indeed, largely covered; the
material has a purity that should be decorated, not obscured, and
due consideration of this simple rule would condemn. a vast
amount of bad taste, such as completely
metallizing the surface of china by
gilding, changing china into imitative
marble, or covering the field of many
utensils with pictures, landscapes, or
flowers. The Greeks decorated their
pottery in bands, introduced to mark
the change of curve, or to separate the
various surfaces: the eastern pottery
is in  the  same way decorated  in
bands, or, where the surface is more
covered, it is merely with a diaper,
which leaves the material sufficiently
visible,
The adaptation of the ornament to
the varying curves of their vessels is
most skilfully managed by the Chinese
FIG. I0.
and Japanese.  An antique Chinese
vase in enamel for cut flowers, which is here illustrated (Fig. io),
will serve to exemplify these remarks.
Landscapes and pictures are almost always out of place on
pottery, and it certainly is objectionable to cover the centre of
plates and dishes with pictures and views; not only because it
hides the surface, which, it has been before said, it is desirable to
retain, but because utility would be better served by the absence
of any decoration in the part which receives the viands, to satisfy




I 8           A  /ANVUAL OF DESIGNA.
that sense of cleanliness only to be obtained by the white unchanged surface of the material.
There is still another subject to be referred to, which consists
in the imitation of the ornament peculiar to one age and one
purpose on the utensils of another age, which are intended for
totally different uses; or applying the ornament of one material to
the decoration of another, which last fault, in speaking of other
manufactures, has already been often strongly animadverted upon.
The revivals of Wedgwood were, in a degree, in this spirit; and
although they produced a vast change for the better in the forms
of our pottery, and placed a salutary curb on the extravagance of
the style that then obtained, they were but the resurrection of a
dead art; and the funeral urns of Etruria, being inconsistent with
modern uses, have a cold formality quite inconsonant with the
feelings of the time.
The abuse of the ornament of other materials by its application to unsuitable purposes is shown in many ways in this
fabric; among others, in copying engravings and pictures on
various utensils. In one case we have seen the most sacred
symbols of religion were used as the decorations for the borders
of plates, while the centres of them, and of the dishes of the same
set, consisted of angels, copied from an illustrated prayer-book,
flying in the midst of a blue heaven diapered with stars. Such
incongruities, improper in any case, are sadly and strangely inapplicable to a dinner-service.  It has been well said, that
"symbolical ornament demands perfect accordance between the
use of an object and its decoration;" but can anything be more
inharmonious than such sacred symbols mixed up with a festive
dinner?  Such incongruities are ever arising from  unthinking
imitation.
GLASS.
Among the many beautiful materials which the earth has
yielded to the industry of man, to add to his comforts and
increase his enjoyments, glass holds a prominent place. If we




A MANVUAL OF DESIGA.                        I I9
regard its use in the fabrication of utensils to contain the fluid
portions of our food, it is most especially valuable, since its
surface has the power of resisting the action of almost all liquids,
and, as a material, it unites strength with extreme lightness and
great capacity. Its perfect transparency is another rare quality,
whereby the purity and clearness of the liquid it may serve to contain is immediately manifest, enabling the satisfied eye to minister
indirectly to the pleasures of taste.  Moreover, whilst it is one of
the most cleanly materials, from its extreme smoothness and
hardness of surface, it is also most easily purified, and its pristine
brilliancy is restored by the smallest possible effort of labour.
Besides all these varied qualities, the materials of which it is composed are of the least costly kind, and the processes of its manufacture are extremely simple; so that it is fitted for general use,
and within the means even of the poorest purchasers.
For the purposes and utensils above enumerated, the qualities
ascribed to it, properly understood and duly considered, will lead
to a discovery of the principles which should govern its design
and decoration. Of these, the foremost are its brilliancy of surface
and its transparency, both of which should ever be preserved with
the greatest care in all right treatments of glass. And yet, strange
to say, these qualities are not only often disregarded, but there is
a strong tendency to contradict and destroy them: thus we see
wine-glasses and decanters, water-bottles, caraffes, and drinkingvessels of many kinds, not only with the surface covered with
ground ornament, but sometimes wholly and entirely changed and
obscured by grinding, so as to render them perfectly opaque: or,
-we have colour most injuriously applied to destroy purity, and
prevent a proper enjoyment of the glowing lustre of the liquid
contents; whilst sometimes the material is wholly or partially.opalized; in the one case making it into a spurious porcelain, in
the other into a species of japanned hardware, without the toughness and tenacity of that manufacture. Another excellence of
~glass is its lightness, as compared with its power of containing;




120           A  MAX4NU'AL    Op  DOESIGN.
the maintenance of this quality is opposed to the heavy and deep
surface-cutting to which glass is now so frequently submitted,
especially in water-jugs and decanters, and in the pieces of dessertservices. This cutting is intended to enhance the jewel-like and
prismatic effect of glass, but it is opposed to its true qualities for
such purposes, and should only be resorted to in handles, stems,
or bases, where transparency is unimportant, where constructive
thickness is necessary, and where the grasp in holding may be
aided by the facets of the surface.  Yet it has been the fashion to
carry this practice of cutting to an extreme, tending to vulgarize,
as far as possible, the simple and beautiful material: in some
instances it is even applied to the bowls of wine-glasses.
The more simple mode of manufacturing glass is productive
not only of the most beautiful shapes, but of its best qualities:
and blown glass unites thinness, translucency, and pure surface, to
forms which combine the greatest symmetry with varied curves;
that is, the sphere, resulting from the circular motion of the workman's instrument, elongated by the breath and weight, into the
ellipse and its combinations. These blown forms may be ornamented by narrow bands of engraved ornament, of which flatness
and symmetrical distribution are requisite qualities: in wine-glasses
and drinking vessels the ornament ought to be reserved for those
parts of the bowl which do not interfere with a perfect sight of
the contents.  Any gilding or enamelling can only be admissible
under the same rules. In all cases, elegance of form should be
the first consideration, to which cutting, gilding, or engraving
should be entirely subordinate.  The relation of the stem to the
bowl in wine-glasses is another point of some importance. The
practice has of late obtained of making them  of such extreme
tenuity as to produce a sense of fragility and insecurity, which is
quite as great an error in taste as the contrary fault of heaviness
and thickness.
Like porcelain, a section of the manufacture of glass is devoted
to the production of what can scarcely be called by any other'




A MAVUAL4 OF DESIGN.                       121 r
name than orizazelts.  But while the production of porcelain
ornaments has been fostered by princes, and, through the clever
artists attached to royal manufactories, has arrived at great beauty
and rare excellence, reflecting back an improved taste on the
design and decoration of the general manufacture, glass has not
been favoured with such advantages.  Even in the case of Bohemian and Hungarian glass, notwithstanding the rare beauty of the
materials of the manufacture, the objects we generally find can
hardly be instanced for the merit of their design. The mode of
manufacture, by casting in clumsy masses in wood or metal
moulds, and reducing by cutting with the wheel, is contrary to the
best qualities of glass, which consist of lightness and elegance,
This alone causes many of the faults of the manufacture; since
the true characteristics of glass are lost, and are replaced by
qualities too apt to degenerate into the meretricious and the gaudy.
Thus transparency is merged in rich colour, and this, again, overlaid with gilding: or the surface is flashed with opal, cut away by
grinding to the coloured under-surface; sometimes giving the
appearance of porcelain; sometimes even that of the inferior
manufacture, papier-mache'; whilst, occasionally, the whole surface
is frosted by grinding, and tinted in crude colours, the appearance
of glass being entirely lost, and only its worst quality, that of
brittleness, remaining: whilst the forms adopted are often as
inelegant and rude as they are unsuited to the material to which
they are applied.  This is far less seen in smaller works in
foreign glass, but it is, nevertheless, the natural result of a wrong
application of constructive forms to the material, and of an
improper over-decoration of the surface: whilst it would appear
that the true adaptation of such glass for the above purposes has
not yet been obtained. Its use in the manufacture of lamp pillars,
knobs, and handles, lock furniture, and finger plates, seems likely
to be attended with more tasteful results.
When glass is used for large objects, such as chandeliers and
candelabra, where construction is required, its known brittleness




I122           A MVANUAL OF DESIGNV.
is rather at variance with the constructive application of the
material, and it seems in the principal branches and supports
to require not only a hidden metallic structure, but even the
appearance of it to the eye, to overcome a certain sense of
insecurity.
In upright standing candelabra the work should arise out of
some other material as a base, and it is exceedingly objectionable
to plant a glass superstructure on the same material, supported on
foliated or other forms of the nature of feet. In hanging chandeliers a construction entirely of glass equally quarrels with the sense
of security; the chandeliers of the last century illustrate the error
of such constructions,-their long bent branches appear weak and
brittle, and the full beauty of the glass is not brought out by the
lighting. The present mode, which treats glass rather as a string of
jewels assisting to hang up the branches, is more consistent with
its true use and best qualities; for while in masses it constructs ill
and has not its full brilliancy, lustre and prismatic beauty are obtained by loose pendant forms cut with proper facets, so that every
motion, however slight, contributes to the splendour of the work
by the varied reflections of the lights.  In such works coloured
glass should be introduced sparingly, and it should always be
translucent, opalized coloured glass hardly ever having a satisfactory
effect.
WORKS IN THE PRECIOUS METALS.
The design and ornamentation of works wrought in the precious metals deserve especial attention in this Manual, since in
this sub-division we should find the highest a-t applied to the
richest and most costly materials.  Moreover, in such manufactures more than in any other the labours of the artist and the
ornamentist seem to concur, and are often so intermixed that it is
difficult to designate their several provinces, or to determine where
art and ornament diverge from one another.  Here we have a
field wherein we may study the right application of each, and




XA MAANVUAL OF DESIGNV.                   123
understand the due limits within which each is available for the
purposes of manufacture.
However much, in the highest range of his art, the ornamentist
may be merged in the artist, there is a distinct difference in the
principles of the two arts, a difference which becomes the more
apparent as the ornamentist descends from labours of such high
requirement to those more strictly within his own province. Art
has its childhood in a careful imitation of nature, and grows into
an abstract imitation or generalization of nature's highest beauties
and rarest excellences-still, however, imitatively rendered-and
nature, thus selected, becomes the vehicle for impressing men
with the thoughts, the passions, and the feelings which fill the
imaginative mind of the artist. The generalized imitation of
nature is the language in which these imaginative abstractions are
embodied and expressed, and this whether the artist be sculptor or
painter: the landscape painter even proceeds on the same principles, and endeavours by a selected i~nit'atzio  to reproduce the
aspects of nature in harmony with certain feelings which fill his
mind, and which he wishes to impress upon the minds of others.
In its lowest phases art relies more and more on imitation, seeking
to give pleasure only by the reproduction of beautiful objects or
beautiful combinations, until, in its lowest development, art, if it
can be so called, rests contented with mere imitzazion.
In considering in a like manner the scope of the orazamentist,
it will be evident that in his highest aims he is assimilated to the
artist, so that it becomes extremely difficult, nay impossible, to
separate them, or to draw any line of distinction between the one
and the other. Thus the beautiful shield which embodies the
description given by Homer of that of Achilles, designed by Flaxman, and that skilful specimen of embossed work, the shield by
Antoine Vechte, copies of which will be found in the Museum at
Kensington, are at one and the same time works of art and works
of ornament. From this high range the occupation of the ornainentist descends by imperceptible degrees; not as in the case of




I 24          A MIVNUAL OF DESIGNz.
the artist through the more and more close imz'aition of nature, butt
by selecting from her whatever is beautiful and graceful, irrespective of her individual embodiment of these qualities, and adapting
them to give pleasure separately and apart even from any wish to
recall the objects themselves from which he has sought or obtained
his designs; his effort is to give the most characteristic embodiment of those natural objects (viewed in relation to some peculiar
quality, form, or colour, or some particular adaptation required),
rather than to imitate; indeed he departs more and more from
izmitation as he diverges from the path of the artist to occupy his
own separate province as an ornamentist.  These are truths to
be continually borne in mind, as they constitute the only cure for
that false style of ornament so largely pervading the manufactures,
of the day, and already so frequently alluded to under the name
of  atluralismn; consisting of the mere iziIta/zve rendering of
natural forms as ornament, and which is nowhere more largely
exhibited than in works in the precious metals, and in the
affiliated manufacture of plated and Sheffield wares.
While it is not possible, therefore, in works in the precious
metals, entirely to separate the artist from the ornamentist, still
for the purposes of description their separation is marked with
sufficient distinctness.  A great cause of the faults noticeable in
works in the precious metals seems to be, that they have received
their design rather from the artist than the ornamentist; thus we
have figures having no constructive connexion with the work
ornamented, but rather of the nature of statuettes perched whereever a ledge or shelf offers accommodation for them: these are
generally as zz'itatz'e/y treated as the material used and the powers
of the artist permit, and are applied to inkstands, candelabra, and
works of the like kind requiring a purely ornizamenztal consideration.
Many centre-pieces, racing-cups, and testimonials are treated
merely as groups would be by the sculptor, although the lowest
style of his art has but too frequently been adopted, and imitations
of textures, chain and plate mail, and such laborious littlenesses,




A MAJNUAL OF DESIGN.                      1 25
made a point of, rather than that nobler view of art, which, discarding miniature and strictly imitative details, seeks by grandeur
of form and largeness of manner to make us forget the scale of
the work in the dignified style of its treatment.  Now, if it is
proper that these works should be consigned to the hands of the:artist, he is bound to treat them according to the laws of his own
art, not only by a noble style but also by making them, as groups,
truly statuesque, and combining the parts so that they form an
agreeable whole in all possible directions of view. Above all, the
thzozughts which, as works of art, they serve to embody, should
be such as are worthy of being illustrated on metals of great value,
which, enriched by true art, are enhanced in worth a hundredfold.
If we contemplate some of the inventions of the artists, and
some of the thoughts which they have wrought out, we shall be
indeed surprised that such puerilities could be dwelt upon long
enough to execute them as works of art, and still more that manufacturers, so shrewd as they generally are, should be found to
engage in their production, were it not sufficiently evident that
there is a large and wealthy public whose taste does not rise above
such alrt, proved by becoming its patrons and purchasers.  What
can justify the employment of the precious metals, and what,ought to be the more precious labours of artists, upon huntsmen,and ploughboys, to render them with all the coarseness of their
garments and the texture of their hose?-or who, but the givers
of a testimonial, relying on the known taste of its receiver, would
require art to be degraded into the mere imitation of a hedge-row
occurrence on a hunting-day when the sport was successful; kneebreeches and top-boots being items as important in the group as
the hounds, horses, and the portraits of the individuals whose
goodfellowship it commemorates? It is such art in the more precious metals, employed on such thoughts, that leads, in the imitative manufactures, to the many paltry inventions which are found
to prevail therein. Rachel at a well in a rock under an imitative
palm-tree draws-not water, but ink; Burns' shepherdess would




I 26          A. MANfUAL OF DESIGAN
find the same black fluid in the formless well by her side; a
grotto of oyster-shells with children beside it contains, not a
light, but an ink-vessel; the milk-pail on a maiden's head contains, not goat's milk, as the animal by her side would lead you to
suppose, but a taper.  Such works are akin to epergnes with the
hippopotamus and his keeper; or Paul and Virginia under a palmtree which upholds the glass for flowers on its top; or Apollo
dancing, supporting at the same time a glass epergne twice his
own size; and inventions of equal or greater nzovelty wrought out
with great waste of skill and labour.  Even when we find really
artistic works in this style, of which happily there are many
examples, it is more than doubtful whether the ornamentist would
not have been more suitably employed upon them  in obtaining
an ornamental and architectural construction, ere art was called
in to aid in their completion.
It must be owned that our own countrymen are greatly
deficient in the treatment of the precious metals as the medium ofart. The truth seems to be that here one artist designs the work,
and perhaps makes the model, whilst another is employed to produce it in the metal. This is an evil we have already alluded to
in the case of furniture. Thus we find works designed with great
ability, and modelled with much knowledge, and evidently by
artists of great professional excellence, yet these works are completed in the metal with every possible littleness of imitation,
serving only to degrade and vulgarise the art it is employed upon;and this frequently is caused by the surface treatment and the
mode of execution, wherein imitation has taken the place of art.
Thus the true artist does not produce the texture of the fur of'
animals hair by hair, but gives its general expression by some conventional rendering, by the indications at the parts where the skin
folds, or by tooling to emulate the lustre of its gloss.  In the same
way true art does not imitate the materials of our dress by the'
threads of its manufacture, but indicates them rather by the shape
and contour of the foldings.  Yet in the works under examination




A MANUAL OF DESIGNA                       I 27
the surface is often subjected by the workman to a most laboured
treatment, labour without knowledge, which dwells more upon
hairs and threads, upon details and buttons, than on the form of a
joint, or the bones of an extremity: the one is a labour that
requires no exercise'of thought, nothing but mere dexterity; the
other requires a workman not only educated into a knowledge of
the parts, but who can enter into the feeling and intentions of the
designer. This dwelling with complacency on mere labour, and
this evident satisfaction with its tedious facilities, can only arise
from the habit of giving the models of the superior artist into less
skilful hands, to be completed in metal.
Again, in the higher works in silver the true artist has the
boldness to regard the material, rich and costly as it is, merely as
the vehicle of the art he adds to it; and that lustre and brilliancy,
which is one of the great excellencies of the rarer metals, he subdues by acids to prevent the glare from interfering with the forms
of art. To the eye, silver, so treated, might be so much zinc, did
not the informing mind and the beautiful art enshrined in it at
once bespeak the valuable metal which alone is capable of rendering such a noble return for the artist's labours. The metal so used
serves only to display the art; but our workers in the precious
metals have not yet arrived at such a state of virtue; the value of
the mere silver is too great in the eyes of the public to be given
up, and the full glitter of its polish must be sought to satisfy their
desire for cost and magnificence. From the same cause it is, no
doubt, that figures, well designed and artistically modelled, are
loaded with toolings and burnishings, are matted and frosted, and
have every other expedient attempted, to show the silver rather
than to exhibit the art.
Another defect of the works in the precious metals, as exhibited
by our English manufactures, may be traced to the same causethe separation of the work of the artist and the workman in silver;
hence casting and chasing are the means of production here, whilst
the foreign artist himself uses the hammer and the punch, and




1 28          i4A MANUA4L  OF DESIGN.
beats out with his own hand the creations of his fancy or the inventions of his skill.  Casting and chasing in their proper application are means only of producing and perfecting a thing, after the
design and model have been executed: even in the hands of the
artist himself they are but completing and perfecting processes;
the work, as far as invention goes, is already done before it is
committed to the mould; and the chaser does but perfect what
the caster has produced, with  the more or less excellence,
according to the art-knowledge which he possesses.  But by
the embossing process, called repouzss", the artist himself produces the work by punching the plate of silver on a soft
matrix, and  continually  annealing  it in the course of his
labours. By this embossing process the mind of the artist is
working with every stroke of the craftsman's hammer; and not
only does his own hand work out every characteristic quality of
the surface, whether of flesh or of drapery, and his knowledge
supply every essential detail, but thoughts seem to arise out of
the very method and means of working, and each stroke of the
punch may prove a suggestion leading to new fancies, or be
followed out into more happy details. Even from the accidents
of annealing-constantly necessary during the work —the colouring of the metal in the furnace calls up new thoughts, like those
which arise in the mind of the poet watching the glowing embers,
and the artist at once embodies his new-found fancies. Chasing
has none of these suggestions; as has before been said, it only
perfects: whilst embossing is to it what etching in the hands of the
painter is to engraving. The very means in the one are suggestive
in every stage of the progress; while the other is only a more or
less complete copy of a previously designed original. One thing
that we neglect which our French neighbours do not, is the use of
enamels; and the varied treatments of surface by oxidizing, parcelgilding, burnishing, niello, &c.
If we can allow such works as testimonials, racing-cups, centrepieces, and others of the like character, to be given up to the




A MANUAL OF DESIGN.                        129
treatment of the artist, there is still a large number of other
articles in the precious metals and their representatives, having a
defined purpose as utensils, and strictly devoted to use, which
must belong to the domain of the ornamental designer, and be
subject to all the laws of his art. Of these, utility should be the
first consideration. They should be composed on geometrical
forms and have a symmetrical construction.  Capacity and
mobility, in most cases, will have to be regarded, in connexion
with proper stability and solidity; and it should be remembered
that, as domestic ztensils, they are not to be placed under glass
shades, and therefore will require constant cleansing and polishing,
and that, not at the hands of the silversmith, but at those of the
butler or his assistant.  This alone ought greatly to regulate the
treatment of surface, which should be such as will best display the
beauties of the metal, and yet not render it liable to injury under
such cleansing. In such works it is usual to make the handles and
knobs points of ornamentation, and this not improperly; but it
should not be forgotten that they are to be grasped for lifting, and
should be convenient for that purpose. And neither in these, nor,
indeed, in any other part of the ornamentation, should the relief
be so bold, or project so far, as to be liable to accident or lead
to entanglement in the use of the articles. Some of these remarks
may seem almost uncalled for, but they are really not so: thus it
is impossible to justify large and florid groups of dead game,
of fish, of fishing utensils, or the like imitative treatments, when
made to serve as the knobs of dish-covers, or the handles
of tureens; however beautiful they may be in design, or however
well they are chased, they are not convenient for use: neither
can the hand be safely brought in contact with the metallic toes
of a pheasant, the tentaculIe of a lobster, or the twigs of a fishbasket, any more than stags with their branched antlers can well
be laid hold of to remove the cover of a venison dish.  Faults
of this class chiefly arise from the natural or imitative treatment,
which has to answer for so large a growth of errors.
K




130           A M3IANUAL OF DESIGAN
In jewellery, used for personal adornment, the fancy has full
play, and the invention need be but slightly curbed by a consideration of use, such works being in their very intention ornaments.
Where precious stones are employed, the first object being to
display them to the greatest advantage, the designer should be
careful that neither gold nor enamel interferes with them, and
that there is sufficient motion in the parts to bring the light into
play on their surface.
A remarkable contrast in some respects to our own goldsmiths'
work is seen in the examples we possess of the native Indian
metal work, wherein the least possible amount of metal is so treated
by delicate hand-labour, by exquisite pierced work, enamellings,
and inlays, combined with such a thorough consideration of the
treatment of surface by bulb-work, &c., as to give the greatest
amount of skilled workmanship with the smallest quantity of the
material; and even in their commoner works (inlays and incrustations of silver on iron) there is such a due consideration in the
first place of beauty of form, and such varied and beautiful ornamental arrangements of the details, that they well deserve the
consideration of the ornamentist.
BOOKBINDING.
The concluding subject of this section has reference to bookbinding, and when speaking of the design applied to this branch
of industry a few remarks appear necessary to counteract a
direction largely seen in the general works of the time. This
consists in overlooking the only true intent of the art —the appropriate protection of literary works-in order to make it a vehicle
for such gaudy ornamentation and decorative display as shall serve
to attract to their contents; the outside garb being a presumed
measure of the inner excellence, a practice not more degrading to
art than it really is to literature.  Such attempts induce the use of
crude and harsh colours, and lead to excess in gilding; to heavy




A MfAN;I2VAL OF DESIGAr                    I3 I
and coarse imitations of carved work in leather, gutta-percha, and
even less durable materials; to perspectives and pictures on
covers; to improper and inconsistent applications of metal work,
and numerous other objectionable practices, which, as they do not
tend to utility, and are opposed to the true spirit of the binder's
labours, must be avoided if the art is to attain to the simple
excellence of the medixvalists or to the chaste richness of the
binders of the sixteenth century.  It is no doubt admissible, nay
desirable, that the outside decoration of a book should have some
reference in its ornament to the inside contents; but still the
details chosen should be amenable to ornamental treatment, should
not be mere conceits, and, as has been so often reiterated, should
not be mere reproductions of the ornament proper for a totally
different material.  Thus a painter's palette, with its range of tints
prepared for study, let into the cover, can hardly be regarded as the
appropriate binding for a work on colour, apart from the impossibility of any symmetrical arrangement of the object itself, or of
the tints upon it, for its newly adopted purpose. Neither is the
perspective delineation of the apse of a cathedral a proper ornamentation for the cover of a "Church Service," any more than
the host of treatments in the same direction, consisting of the
fronts of cathedrals, oriel and rose windows, and stone tracery of
many kinds, so often adopted for such purposes.
In all tooled work and block impressions, bookbinding requires
flatness of treatment as one of its first principles; interiors of
churches, perspectives of tunnels, and even figures, pictorially
used, are quite out of place. Heraldry and heraldic devices should
be displayed flat, and even strap-work, or mere combinations of
lines, should not be arranged so as to give the appearance of
projection, any more than coloured materials or mosaics should
give the appearance of relief, although the fine old Grolier bindings and other works of the Renaissance period sometimes offend
against this rule.
Another class of errors arise from mere imitation of details
K 2




I32           A4 MANUALi OF DESIGN.
without full consideration of their intent and use.  Thus, formerly,
when the heavy Church Services were really bound in boards richly
ornamented, hinges were a necessary appendage, as also were
bosses, which by their projection beyond the surface served to
protect any delicate carving, rich tooling, or rare metal work inlaid
into the cover; and, at present, in books of constant use, of large
size, which require great strength, and come under the same conditions, the use of these appendages is desirable and appropriate.
But that which is proper for a copy of the Scriptures or a Church
Service for the lectern, is hardly suitable for a book for the
pocket; yet these miniature works are ozanamented with hinges and
bosses, sometimes really in metal, and sometimes only imitated as
tooled work on the surface of the leather.




CHAPTER  XI.
ON THE DECORATION OF GARMENT FABRICS.
PERHAPS there is no subject which comes under review in this
Manual of more importance than the consideration of design as
applied to garment fabrics, since the amount of skill and labour
engaged in their production forms so large a part of the industry
of the world.  Moreover, the design applied to apparel must exercise a great influence over the general taste of the public, and
persons who have been accustomed to consider gaudy, florid, and
large ornament suitable for articles of clothing, will hardly be
capable of judging correctly of what is true, beautiful, and appropriate, in the ornament of the domestic utensils and furniture of
their dwellings. The great sources of error in designing for garment
fabrics are over-ornamentation, and attracting undue attention to
the ornament-which may arise from many causes; thus from the
violence of contrast either of light and dark, or of colour, from overcharging the colour, or from the ornament being too large for the
fabric. All these causes, however, are modified by the material.
Thus muslins and bareges will bear more pronounced contrasts
than the more solid or more absorbent textures of jacquonet
muslins or de-laines. Silks and de-laines, again, will bear greater
fulness of colour than the drier surface of cotton; while woven
patterns in silk, formed by tabby and satin in a self colour, will bear
much larger figures than are applicable to either woven patterns




134             A MANUAZ OF DESIGN.
in varied colours, or the same pattern printed on cottons or silks.
Thus, the pattern inserted (Fig. I i)-half the size of the originalis from a printed barege, and will give the largest scale of pattern
which appears suitable for the open texture of this material; it
would, however, even in the reduced size of the woodcut, be far
too large for a Swiss cambric, although it might be even larger
than the original size of the pattern on a self-coloured, figured silk.
These observations will show the necessity there is for careful attenN'i'I'l            iii
VI II M
FIG. II.
tion on the part of the designer to texture, lustre, &c., in preparing his design, and will illustrate the difficulty of adopting
the ornament of one fabric for the decoration of another. The
flowing lines, agreeable distribution, and flat treatment of the
details will illustrate other points in these remarks.  See also the
pattern of a de-laine (Fig. I2), and of a muslin (Fig. I6). Though
the relative scale of the  pattern  is a most important consideration, it is difficult, even after the above considerations, to
arrive at any absolute rule on the subject, since the person and the




A MAWNUAL OF DESIG2N.                      I35
stature of the wearer of a garment must have some weight in determining the suitable size of the pattern.  Generally speaking, however, ornament for such fabrics should consist of small, rather than
of large forms-should be treated flatly, and without light and.shade-and inclined to subdued contrasts of colour, and of light and
dark.  A geometrical rather than a dispersed' arrangement of the
forms, moreover, would be found the most agreeable to the eye, and
the most consistent with sound principles; some of the best patterns
being formed by diapering sprigs, leaves, flowers, or often even
simple geometrical forms, regularly over the ground.  That such
patterns are essentially in good taste is shown by their constant,reproduction for the more cultivated class of customers; whilst the
sprawling trails, and coarse imitative treatments brought out from
year to year as the novelties of the season, pass away and are for-'gotten, or are thrust cheaply on the market at a low cost, to catch
persons whose taste is regulated by their pockets, rather than by
their cultivated senses. The above principles are nowhere more fully.and completely carried out than in the garment fabrics of India:
these are almost wholly designed on the principles here presumed.to be just ones; the ornament is always flat and without shadow;
natural flowers are never used imitatively, or perspectively, but are
*conventionalized by being displayed flat and according to a symme-.trical arrangement; and all other objects, even animals and birds,
when used as ornament, are reduced to their simplest flat form.
VWhen colour is added, it is usually rendered by the simple local
hue, often bordered with a darker shade of the colour to give it a,clearer expression; but the shades of the flower are rarely introduced. If we look at the details of the Indian patterns we shall
be surprised at their extreme simplicity, and be led to wonder at
their rich and satisfactory effect; it will soon be evident, however,
that their beauty results entirely from adherence to the principles
above described.  The parts themselves are often poor, ill-drawn,
* By dispersed, is meant the attempt to distribute the pattern over the
ground, without any apparent arrangement.




I36           A MANUAL OF DESIGNI
and commonplace, yet from the knowledge of the designer, the
due attention paid to the just ornamentation of the fabric, and the
refined delicacy evident in the selection of zzzantity, and the choice
of tints, both for the ground, where gold is not used as a ground,
and for the ornamental forms, the fabrics, individually, and as a
whole, will give many useful lessons to our designers and manufacturers.  Moreover, in the adaptation of all these qualities of
design to the fabrics for which they are intended there is an
entire appreciation of the effects to be produced by the texture
and foldings of the tissue when in use as an article of dress,.
insomuch that no draught of the design can be made in any way
to show the full beauty of the manufactured article, since this,
is only called out by the motion and folding of the fabric itself.
In reverting to the general question of design for garment
fabrics, it may be remarked that the making up of such goods for
use should have due consideration in the general direction of the
pattern. Thus while, " up and down " treatments in stripes and
trails are proper, the horizontal direction of pronounced forms is,
not to be admitted, since, as they must cross the person, the
pattern would quarrel with all the motions of the human figure, as,
well as with the form of the long folds in the skirts of the
garment; for this reason, large and pronounced checks, however
fashionable, are often in very bad taste, and interfere with the
graceful arrangement of any material as drapery.
In designing for garment fabrics, it will generally be found that
the simplest patterns are in the best taste.  The efforts, however,
both of designers and manufacturers, have been too often directed
towards difficulty and complication, rather than to produce the
greatest effect with the least possible means.  Thus we find the
number of blocks used in printing any pattern, or of colours in
weaving, or the number of cards required to produce a certain design, dwelt upon, rather than the excellence of the design itself, and
gaudiness and ugliness are estimated, if expensive and troublesome
in production, rather than beautiful simplicity at small cost. As,




A MJANVUAL OF DESIGN.                      I37
simplicity is one of the first constituents of beauty, it will often
happen that simple patterns are far the most beautiful, and that the
effect of one printing, or weaving in one colour, is in good taste,
while every multiplied difficulty becomes further removed from it.
It has before been said, that calling undue attention to the ornament
is a great error in designing for garment fabrics: there needs, in
the larger masses of the dress, a sense of what a painter calls
breadthi or repose, which is only attainable by great simplicity, by
flat or diapered treatments of small forms, by uncontrasted light
and dark, and delicate tints of colour: those complicated patterns
of many parts are too apt to offend against the above requirements,
and to cause the figure to stare upon its ground and attract
attention to itself, to the destruction of the true decoration of such
fabrics.
In the section on the precious metals it has been stated that
imitation is not one of the principles of ornamental art generally,
but rather one of the elementary bases of fine art, and it is now
desirable to give another distinctive difference between the two
which will serve still more to define their respective provinces. It
is, that geometry, not necessary as a principle of art, is essentially
required as the basis of ornament; thus the grouping and arrangement of art is picturesque and dissymmetrical, and consists rather
of unequal quantities, except in some of the works of the early
artists, which had an ornamental source.  Ornament, on the contrary, has a geometrical distribution, and is subject to symmetry
and correspondence of parts, and it may be truly said that it is
from confounding these provinces, and a departure from this true
foundation on the part of the ornamentist, that has caused so
much bad ornament in various branches of our manufactures,
and in none more than in the textile fabrics.  Thus it is not possible to cover a large space with a repetition of small ornament,
without sovme symmetrical arrangement developing itself, however
studiously we may endeavour to avoid it, the necessary " repeats,"
for instance, leading to the development of the square. In such




r38           A lMANUAL OF D.ESIGNV.
dispersed patterns, therefore, some amount of symmetry is produced
by chance; thus the pattern (Fig. 12) has not been founded
on any geometrical lines, yet a four or five fold repetition would
develop a regular arrangement of parts, some determinate recurrence of the berries, for instance, subject to a symmetrical law of
lines.  In such a case, then, the geometrical law of recurrence is
arrived at adventitiously, the necessity inducing it being unFIG. 12.
governed by the controlling will of the designer, who therefore has
neglected all the beauty resulting from a proper choice of the
regulating form.  Moreover, if a repetition by means of blocks or
cylinders wholly without a symmetrical arrangement is an impossibility, would this not lead us to infer that symmetry is a law of
nature not lightly to be broken through or disregarded, and should
it not induce us to search for those geometrical figures which give
the best distributions of quantities, and the arrangements most
pleasing to the eye? In fact we ought not to attempt to overcome
this law, but to accept it, and so regulate it as to give effect to




A M/ANTUA4L OF DE, SIGlN                   139
other qualities essential to beauty, such as proportion, quantity,
grace, and harmony of colour.
Having shown then that symmetry, regulated by geometrical
forms, should govern the distribution of ornament, a little investigation would lead to the causes why certain symmetrical arrangements please more than others; thus the square of equal sides and
equal angles (Fig. I3) is the simplest and least varied basis of distribution, the most obvious regular figure, and at the same time the
most inelegant and commonplace; simply changing the direction
of the lines, however, and placing the square lozengewise, as
FIG. 14.            FIG. 13.            FIG. /5'
FIG. 14.            FIG. 13.            FIG. 15.
in Fig. I4, gives a decided improvement; variety is partially joined
to perfect symmetry, and a more pleasing arrangement of the forms
and quantities than in Fig. I3 is the result.  Then again, if we not
only change the direction of the governing lines, as in the last
figure, but their angle also, as in Fig. 15, and adopt the equilateral
triangle and the lozenge which is its plural, we have a further
variety, in the interchange between the upright and perpendicular
spaces of the quantities, and the result is a still more elegant distribution arising from the mere variation of arrangement of the same
simple details.  Having arrived at these facts as a starting-point,
viz., that symmetry is a necessary condition of repetition, and that
symmetrical beauty is largely influenced by the angle or combination of angles which govern it, we may pass from the right angle,
and the angle of sixty degrees which forms the equilateral triangle,




140           A MANUAL OF DESIGN.
to study arrangements under various other geometrical combinations, founded on other polygons and on ordinate lines from the
various intersections of the sides of polygonal figures; such as
hexagons, octagons, &c., of an equal number of sides; or triangles,
pentagons, &c., of an unequal number, developing many beautiful
symmetries and proportional arrangements.
Thus the design inserted (Fig. i6), intended for a printed
FIG. I6.
muslin, is founded on combinations of the octagon and its ordinate
lines.  As combining geometrical forms with a thoroughly flat
floral treatment it is very ingenious; the size of the pattern (onehalf larger than the block) is very well considered for the texture
of the fabric, and it will serve to illustrate the subsequent remarks
on yuzantity, as the pattern covers well without being crowded, it is
broad from  the absence of harsh contrasts, whilst a sufficient
amount of surface is left uncovered as required by this material.
The colours, much wanted for the proper expression of the pattern,




A MANUAL OF DESIGN.                       I4I
are delicately rendered in pink and green, and the design has a
character of much elegance for a light fabric such as muslin.
Geometry then is the basis of symmetry, leading the way to
those arrangements which best govern the general distribution of
form.  If this view of the value of geometrical arrangement is
correct as to the distribution of formJz, it is still more so as to
colour; some colours require definite arrangements in juxtaposition with one another for harmony, and are governed by their own
laws of relative quantity, having reference to their power of mutual
neutralization, as three yellow, five red, and eight blue; such
arrangements being more easily obtained and regulated on a geometrical basis, than on those dispersed patterns which arise out of
repetitions of the accidents of growth, or natural imitations.
The subject next in importance is quaztity, by which, in the
decoration of garment fabrics, the taste of the designer is so
largely made known. The due appreciation of quantity regulates
the amount of the surface of the ground to be covered by the
ornament, the interspaces between diapered forms, and the size of
the ornamental details, especially in relation to the geometrical
bases which govern the grouping; thus in the Figures I3, 14, and
15, the spots which are regulated by the ordinate lines might be
larger or smaller, or, instead of them, the lozenges might be filled
wholly or partially with ornament, as in the design inserted
(Fig. I6), the beauty and elegance of the design largely depending
on the proper quantity admitted. Here the taste of the designer
is exercised where rules help him no longer, but where he is
guided by the considerations before mentioned as to textures of
stuffs and qualities of surface, very important considerations which
will be further spoken of. A study of Indian tissues will show
how well qgzuanity as a source of excellence is understood in the
East, their quantities being generally extremely suitable to the
colour and texture of the material sought to be ornamented.
To recur to the subject of textures and surface as important
considerations regulating design.  It is too much the custom with




142           A4 MANUAL OF _DESI~G2Nr
designers to imagine that the patterns applicable to one quality of
surface may be used indiscriminately for another, and to think that
something which is successful in one material, or by one process,
must necessarily be a success in another; thus, no sooner does a
pattern in silk or worsted obtain the notice of the public than it is
immediately copied in printed cottons, without any regard to differences of material or modes of production, to the lustre and richness:
which belong to the former, and must be wanting in the latter.
In adopting the patterns of the weaver, the progress by squares
necessary to the weaving process is imitated in printing where it is
neither suitable nor required; sometimes the whole texture and
treatment is copied on the cylinder. As an observable instance,
no sooner did alpacas make a strong impression on the public and,
become popular, than their low  tones and broken tints were
imitated largely in cotton prints, which almost changed their
character from this circumstance, a low-toned surface or ground
being adopted with slightly contrasting figures; they lost their
own character to take up an unsuitable one. Cotton prints are
capable of being easily cleansed, and the whiteness of the material
is a great cause of beauty from its appealing to our sense of purity;
this source of excellence is heightened rather than diminished bysuch a treatment of the ornament as contrasts with the general
ground without covering it too much (see Fig. i6); when the
ground, therefore, is entirely covered, as in these imitations, this
appeal to the eye is lost, and, however suitable such patterns may
be for the poorer classes, they detract from the true beauty of the
fabric.  The contrary is the case with woollens; the material does
not admit either of the same easy purifying, nor has it the samenative whiteness; the whole ground, therefore, may be coloured,
or where its native hue is retained it must be more largely covered
with the pattern. Thus Fig. 12 (page I38) is a pattern for a de-laine,
and shows not only a proper flatness of treatment, but an agreeable
quantity and a due amount of the surface covered by the ornament,,
and is therefore suitable for such goods.




A MAN' UAL OF DESIGN.                      143
The consideration of texture and surface is necessary in the
application of design to other fabrics as well as cotton, and to
other means besides printing; thus colour, which has such effect
on printed woollen goods, and shows with such richness and
fulness in the absorbent material of de-laines and flannels, where
it may be used broken over nearly the whole surface, is apt to
destroy more valuable qualities when applied in varied tints to the
decoration of silk. Colour should be used more sparingly on this
material either in woven or printed patterns, leaving large spaces
of the ground untouched; so much of the true beauty of silk consisting, as before stated, in its lustrousness and the textural beauty
of its surface. Of course this remark does not refer to self-coloured
silks nor to figured brocades in a self-colour, where the greatest
brilliancy of colour does not interfere with the textural beauty, but
only to weaving or printing patterns, consisting of many colours,
too largely spread over the surface! The fact is, that a variety of
colours tends to vulgarize both cotton, woollen, and silk fabrics,
and, although least objectionable in woollen goods, they want an
attention to laws of harmony which either has not been given
them, or is not easily attainable by those hues which chemistry
has placed at the command of the manufacturer as comprising
durability among their other qualities.
The proper treatment of texture has other considerations as
respects the ornamentation of garment fabrics; graceful and
elegant foldings are very important in all goods intended for
personal wear, and many of the most beautiful qualities of materials are brought out by the interchange of light and reflection
playing over their surface on the motion of the wearer.  Itis important, therefore, that no mode of decoration should be
adopted, calculated to destroy this quality, even irrespective of the
sacrifice of proper utility which takes place in all works so overcharged with decoration or stiff from embroidery as to impede
ease of movement and freedom of action in the wearer: the full
lustre of silk more especially is dependent upon the folding, and,




144            A  MANUAL OF D-ESIGN.
every fabric is more or less influenced by the same cause.  When
gold or silver threads are introduced in the weaving, stiffness must
result from them, and the skill of the designer should be so exercised as to give the greatest effect from the least possible use of
such materials.
The restrained use of means has often been before adverted
to, nor is it unnecessary to recur to it in this section also; under
the old and simple methods of cotton printing, when the resources
were few and the means limited, the style was in some respects
better than at present obtains. Thus block-printing by hand
required flat forms and flat tints diapered regularly over the
surface, and some simple flower or leaf so used had a pleasing and
just effect, of which Peel's well-known parsley-leaf may serve as an
instance.  It will at once be seen that these qualities are herein
advocated as tz'bzc5czes, to be'filled up and enriched by more
modern resources, yet as ascertained truths not to be departed
from.  In the place, however, of the former limited means, printing from metal cylinders has put at the command of the designer
all those powers of more perfect imitation enjoyed by the engraver,
and, instead of using them as they should be used, consistently
with the requirements of manufacture and the principles of ornamental art, they are wasted on the zi'itat'ion of flowers, foliage, and
accidents of growth, quite out of ornamental character and opposed
to just principles.
Generally, however, it may be stated that there is less dereliction from true ornamental art in woven than in printed goods, the
powers of the weaving process being more limited than those of
the printing process, so that varied tints and complicated forms
fortunately present greater difficulties in production in the former
than in the latter case.
SHAWLS.
In the section of garment fabrics, design as applied to shawls
has been reserved for a separate head; not so much from the




A   JMA/NUA L  OF  DESIGr.                I145
importance of the manufacture, although even for this reason it
would call for careful consideration, in that it leads to the examination of the principles on which these fabrics were decorated in
the countries from whence this article of dress has been derived.
The beauty, excellence, and costliness of the shawls imported
into Europe from the East have united the Cashmere patterns so
intimately with these fabrics in the public mind, that it has become
almost a fixed idea connected with them, and it is consequently
thought indispensable to the manufacture that eastern forms and
eastern treatments should be applied to these goods. Thus for a
long time such works were but mere imitations, and the invention
of the artist was less taxed than the laborious skill of the copyist.
It is due, however, to the French designers to say, that they have
of late made earnest study of the works from Cashmere and Persia,
not with an intent to continue mere imitators, but to obtain the
principles on which the eastern artist designed.
There is nothing more difficult than to disabuse the world of a
rooted error, and as the multitude, who rarely understand the true
cause of excellence, have adopted the idea that the form called the
zndiJzn pi'ze is the distinguishing characteristic of Cashmere patterns,
this form is supposed to be necessary to the sale of shawls of this
fabric, and it is therefore the prominent or leading feature in all the
European imitations and repetitions of these goods. But there
are principles of excellence in the designs from India and the East
which are the real causes of this beauty, apart from any leading
form, and, unless these principles are understood and practised,
the forms alone will help but little towards the rich effects so
constantly found in those works.
The Indian pine, moreover, is not present in all Cashmere
shawls; in some it is either greatly suppressed or entirely absent.
Whatever may have been the cause of its introduction there,
whether as a sacred or national symbol, or whether used only for
the supposed beauty of its curves, its constant repetition in works
intended for European wearers is, to say the least of it, a cause of
L




I46           A  MA1VUA'L  OF DESIG/V.
great monotony, and implies a want of invention on the part of the
designer, whose skill should supply some novel application of
ornament to such fabrics to wean the public from this stock idea
on the subject.  But in doing this care should be taken to keep in
mind those _IrinzcZTes which are the true cause of the beauty of the
Indian fabrics, comprising their treatment of form, treatment of
colour, beauty of line, and due consideration of the material. The
treatment of form is one of the essential excellences of the Cashmere designs.  The objects used in ornamental decoration are
always, for woven fabrics, treated quite flatly, as is the case, indeed,
in all the Eastern and Indian works, whether these consist of
ornamental forms having no apparent relation to natural objects,
of flowers, foliage, or even of birds and animals. There is hardly
any instance in which this rule has been overlooked.  Moreover,
excepting in the ground, large masses are rarely introduced, but
large leading forms (as the Indian pine, before spoken of) are
filled in with a minute diaper of smaller forms, mostly floral, and
the beauty is enhanced by the graceful curves and elegant flow of
these leading lines. The colours also are subject to a general
rule; they consist of simple flat tints without shading, each
flower, or petal, where flowers are used, each leaf in foliage,
being rendered by one tint. In the best Cashmere shawls these
inner diapering forms are very minute, and thus a broken
texture of colour is given to the surface ornamented. The
tints, where in large masses, as in some of the embroidered
ornament, have rather a tendency to secondaries; thus purple,
green, and gold prevail, and the red is inclined towards the colour
of the pigment called Indian red, or in some cases to pink, which
is a diluted crimson (a red with blue in it): thus the general hue
has rather the direction of coolness; this is particularly seen in
the carpets also, both Indian and Persian, as has been before
remarked. In the Cashmere woven shawls, if pure tints are used,
which may be the case, these tints become broken by the mixture
of colour produced by the threads of other tints coming to the




A  Ji/4ANUAL  OF DESIGAN.                 X47
surface in them in the process of weaving, thus neutralizing their
force and producing the same negative tendency; invariably we find
that flat forms without perspective or imitative rendering, flat tints
without shading, and single hues of the same colour, are the
principles of the designer. The due consideration as well of the
material as of the use to which the fabric is to be applied is evident
both from the nature of the ornament, which never draws peculiar
attention to itself, and from th'e texture, since, notwithstanding the
use even of metallic threads in the ornamental design, the Indian
fabrics seem never to lose the property of flowing in beautiful folds,
and adapting themselves to every motion of the wearer, an excellence not so constantly present in the European manufactures. Now
the French designers, to whom it seems clear that manufacturers
are almost wholly indebted for their designs, although they have
mlade much study of principles, seem either to have overlooked
some, or to have willingly ignored them, either in deference to the
ruling idea entertained by the public, or in order to obtain novelty;
but novelty should never be sought at a sacrifice of truth. Let
the designer throw  away, if he pleases, the Indian forms-the
Indian pine form, perhaps, the sooner the better, since it never
had any symbolical significance with us, and it has long ceased to
have beauty of line, tormented -as it is into every possible variation
-from the normal form-and avoiding mere imitations seek after:a treatment in harmony with European taste and feelings.
Thus, for instance, geometrical leading forms are sometimes
used in the Cashmere shawls, and such treatments might be most
successful in the hands of European artists, considering the
numerous and varied combinations of flat forms open to their choice.
The Byzantine tracery, guilloches, or even the graceful forms of
the Renaissance, if perfect flatness were preserved, might be
diapered with colour in the Indian manner; but the tide seems
to have set in quite the contrary direction,-the leading forms of
the Eastern patterns are kept, the just principles are disregarded:
the Indian pine, exaggerated often to extreme caricature is applied
L 2




I48           XA uIANUAL OF D.ESCIGN
not merely to shawls but to other goods; the diaper, moreover,
instead of being flat, is composed of flowers often the size of
nature, imitatively and perspectively drawn, and sometimes most
elaborately shaded. Thus simplicity is lost-the principle of flatness is totally disregarded-the colour not being in flat tints, and
the broken texture of surface entirely done away with; the result
has a certain showy beauty, but it is meretricious and unsound;
it may be the novelty of a season, but it is built on a false foundation and will never last.
There is a circumstance connected with floral ornament which
hardly seems to have had proper consideration; it deserves, however, some attention. Many of the flowers used by us as ornament
are not in a state of nature, but have already been subjected to
another art, the art of the horticulturist, submitted by him to a
process of cultivation which unnaturally stimulates the growth of
the parts, and by means of which, the stamens being converted
into petals, the flower becomes doubled and rendered artificialmore beautiful, perhaps, as a flower, but less tractable as ornament,
and far less simple, far less fitted for that flat display which is
required by some fabrics. By these means the five-petalled rose,
the five-petalled pink, &c., become a bunch of petals; and if we
would see how entirely some flowers are thus rendered artificial,
the dahlia may be instanced as an example: in its simple state it
has a single border of petals with a central disk,-by cultivation it
is a cluster of petals, so regularly disposed as hardly to be distinguished from a rosette of ribbons made up by the milliner.
Flowers in this state are already conventionalized by another art
ere the designer takes them in hand, and the result is analogous
to the case of the artist who copies the actions and passions of the
stage, instead of seeking them  in their simple reality in common
life.  Moreover, flowers in a natural state have simple and clear
characteristics which they often lose in cultivation, and it is the
difficulty of duly expressing them, as artificially changed by
cultivation, that seems in some degree to have led to the false




A MANUAL OF DESIGNI.                         I49
manner of treating them in the ornamentation of woven or printed
fabrics.
To return to the consideration of the fabrics themselves. The
relaxation of just principles is seen even in those which purport to
be simply imitations of Cashmere designs; it is shown in the
introduction of small landscapes on the spaces of the ground
between the large leading forms; in representing in the pattern
borders of ornament quilled or gathered in the manner of a fringe;
and in rendering the spaces filled up with small diaperings imitative
of foliage, palm-trees, &c., instead of covering it merely with flat,
graceful, and flowing ornamental forms. In lieu of endeavouring to
suppress novelty, it is most desirable to encourage it as far as possible, since true novelty is not an extreme characteristic of the
present time, but it must be sought by other means than those
reprobated; the designer must not suppose that by exaggerating
a secondary characteristic of style into undue importance, and
adding new materials entirely out of harmony with it, anything
really beautiful and new will be likely to result.
LACE.
In examining the next head of this section of garment fabrics,
which includes lace design, we must remember that lace is assimilated to certain other classes of fabrics by its uses as well as
by its peculiar qualities; thus, to worked muslins, for instance, by
its general lightness, and as being usually without colour either in
itself or in its ornamentation; and to ribbons, as being an ornamenting fabric to other parts of dress. It is one of the peculiarities
of lace that it is necessarily ornamented, since, without some
pattern upon its surface, it would hardly retain its name.  Its
characteristics of lightness and filminess of texture should never
be forgotten in its ornamentation, which should be essentially light,
elegant, and flowing; all straight lines should be avoided, not only




150            A _M,4ANUAL OF DESIGNV.
from the necessities of the manufacture, but because graceful forms
are required to pervade its ornamentation.  At the same time this
textural lightness may lead into the opposite error, and the ornament be so flimsy as entirely to lose proper point and expression;
and thus, where lace is used as a trimming, the line which it is,
intended to enforce or enrich be inefficiently marked from this
very meagreness. The old point lace, worked with the needle,
was often too heavy in character, from too equal a distribution of
the masses of its ornament; it wanted less crowded spots to give
value by contrast to the general surface; whereas the modern lace,.
from the object of the manufacturer being to cover large spaces
with little work, too frequently errs in the opposite direction, and
wants parts of more full enrichment to give point and character to
the remainder. The border or edge, which in reality constitutes the
true lace, should have the most solid and marked ornamentation,
out of which should grow graceful curved forms, less marked and
pronounced, gradually passing, in wide lace or in veils, &c., into
diapers of sprigs or small ornamental forms over the remaining
space.  While the natural lines of the growth of plants may be
adopted as the ornament of lace-for which they are very suitable
from  their elegance and variety-subjected to a symmetrical
arrangement, however, in the succession of pattern; almost all
imitations of flowers are to be avoided: floral forms being the
rule; imitations of flowers quite the exception. The petals and
leaves should rarely be filled in solid, but should be treated with
stitches of varied forms of the nature of a diaper of texture, so.
as to give lightness, variety, and richness at the same time.
The great excellence of French and Belgian lace seems to consist rather in the more true appreciation of beauty of line and.
delicacy of form, than in any very marked superiority of design
over the English.  There is, moreover, a more just appreciation
of zquantity in the ornamental arrangements of Brussels and
Valenciennes lace than in our own; the patterns of Honiton lace
are generally too heavy, the forms rather too large and over



A  zl~ANVUrAZ   OF  DESIGNV.              151
crowded, and the whole effect a little too solid and equal, although
this partly arises from the mode of manufacture.
The English lace, especially the hand-worked lace, seems
rather to call attention to the labour bestowed on it as a part
of the excellence; the foreign lace, even when greater labour
has been employed, strikes us as rather elegant and beautiful than
as laborious and costly, from the more easy and playful forms of
its decoration. These qualities entirely accord with the nature of
the fabric, and charm us more when, on examination, we become
sensible of the curious elaboration which often accompanies them.
On the whole there are fewer errors in the designs for lace than
prevail in most other manufactures, partly arising from its circum-l
scribed nature.
RIBBONS.
Our concluding subject is design applied to ribbons, and here
again it is necessary to have especial regard to their use, and the
purpose which they are intended to fulfil; for although many of
the principles which have been laid down as regulating the
decoration of garment fabrics are equally applicable to them, these
principles are modified by the place which ribbons hold, partaking,
as they do, largely of the nature of ornamenzs a'dded to the other
portions of the dress.
It may be said that, when the dress itself has much pattern,
ribbons, which serve as bands marking the leading lines, or as
borders, should be plain in colour and without much enrichment;
their office is contrast, and either simple colours or stripes in that
case are most desirable; but when the garments themselves are
plain and unfigured, or figured without strong oppositions of light
and dark or colour, then the ribbon may become a true contrast
by its ornamentation, and may require marked forms and colours
to give that expression which is so requisite. When regulated by
good taste, ribbons, besides giving effect to form by their contrasts,
serve another important purpose, by being the means of introducing




I5 2          A  MAf4NUAL  OF  DESIG2N.
brilliant portions of pure colour, complementary to the general
masses of the dress; thereby, when the pervading tone of the dress
is negative, giving that brilliancy and heightening which, when
judicious, is a great means of enhancing its effect, and giving richness without gaudiness.  This use of ribbons points out their
proper ornamentation, which should be in simple forms, permitting
the introduction of pure tints: these forms require a geometrical
arrangement to give them adequate force and expression, and for
this purpose the patterns of many Indian tissues offer most valuable
suggestions to the ornamentist; even the introduction of gold and
silver may be taken advantage of as a very suitable enrichment for
these ornamenting fabrics.  It is to be regretted that the great
prevalence of natural floral treatments in the decoration of garment
fabrics has caused the adoption of the same style in ribbons, where
it is more peculiarly out of place, and that the rarest efforts of
the designer and the greatest manufacturing achievements have
been misapplied to overcome the difficulties induced by this
treatment.
There is an evident tendency to gaudiness and over-decoration
in the greater number of these articles, and it largely arises from
the above cause. The increased width these goods are now
manufactured, and the wrong direction of the decoration applied
to them, have greatly altered their character, and we find landscapes,
figures, portraits, and all kinds of natural imitations employed for
their ornament.




SECTION  III.
THEY TEA CHING OF ORIVAMENT AND THE
ED UCATIION OF THE DESIGIVER.








CHAPTER  XII.
ON ART EDUCATION IN THIS COUNTRY AND ABROAD.
BEFORE entering upon the present state of art education, it may
be as well to revert shortly to the past relations between fine art
and the arts as applied to industry. In the Middle Ages and at
the period of the Renaissance these relations were exceedingly intimate; the distinction between artist and designer had hardly
arisen.  The great German, Flemish, and Italian artists were not
only the painters of altar-pieces, neither were they employed alone
in decorating the walls of churches with the history of saint and
martyr, but they designed the furniture of palace and church, the
rich services for the banquet, the reliquaries, monstrances, chalices,
the splendid candlesticks of the altar-table, even the hangings of
the rooms and the robes of the priests.  The architects were often
at the same time both painters and sculptors; and they did not
disdain to design, and often partially to execute, the interior
decorations of the buildings they erected. Some of the most
celebrated sculptors were equally celebrated as workers in metal,
as delicate modellers, or as skilful chasers; and their handiworks in
bronze, in gold, and silver are still treasured for us in museums
and collections.  But gradually the range of the artist became
more limited; those who practised as painters or as sculptors
ceased to follow the cognate arts: the artist ceased to be the artworkman. The manufacturer arose, and then, in most countries,




I56           A MiANUAL OF DESIGIV.
the relations of art to industry were relegated to a separate, and,
as it soon came to be considered, an inferior class of artists. Yet
it must be noted that all great improvements in taste may still be
traced to the follower of fine art stooping once more to ally himself with the manufacturer, rather than to those who had started as
designers for manufactures advancing to greater taste and skill in
their branch of the profession. Thus, in England, where, more
than in any other country, the two branches of art had become
most completely disunited, it was to the genius of a Flaxman that
we owe a distinct development of the potter's art; while to Stothard, perhaps in a less degree, is due improved taste in our
textile fabrics and greater propriety in the works of our silversmiths.
Although this change of relation between the artist and the
manufacturer had begun to arise in France, as in other countries,
the disseverance between the two was early checked there by the
wise policy of Colbert in founding the Royal manufactories of
Sevres and the Gobelins. It has been well said that Governments
are bad manufacturers: a great truth as regards economy; but
there are other phases of the question, by which these Royal
establishments come to have an important bearing on the manufactures of the country; and it can hardly be doubted that the,acknowledged superiority which Paris maintained for some generations in articles of luxury and matters of taste, and the place it
held, and still holds, as the source of fashion, has largely arisen
from the taste of designers fostered and the skill and excellence of
the art-workmen trained in these national workshops. These are
points to which we have already alluded in our opening chapter,
and to the results which spring from them, we have more than
once referred.
Added to the causes which have already been stated why the
artists of France have more readily allied themselves to industrial
art than English artists have, is that arising from the locality of
their great manufactures. In England the great seats of those




A MAN4UAL OF DESIGN.                      I57'
manufactures to which art is applied are far from the metropolis,
in which our greatest artists reside, and to which they press from
all provincial towns.  Staffordshire and Worcestershire-a day's
journey from London-are the seats of our pottery and porcelain
works; Sheffield and Birmingham, of our hardware and plated
goods; and of far the largest portion of our current jewellery; Manchester, Coventry, Macclesfield, Paisley, &c., of our textile fabrics.
There, no one following fine art will permanently reside; whatever
advantages the manufacturer may offer to unite them  to his,
interests, all press to the great art-centre.  But Paris is not only
the seat of art, but largely also the seat of art-manufactures.
Besides the Gobelins, with its tapestries, its carpets, and its manufacture of furniture for the Imperial palaces, Scvres is within half
an hour's distance; while the furniture manufacturers of the
Marais supply not only Paris but France and foreign countries;
and the bronzist, the designers for goldsmith's work and jewellery,
find their designs perfected in the immediate vicinity of their own
ateliers. In England the intercourse between the studio and the
manufactory is divided both by time and distance.  In France the
artist can see his own creations grow under the hand of the workman, can easily be consulted as to every change and difficulty, and
finds the highest class of instructed workmen close at hand to aid
in the realisation of his designs.
Other causes connecting those who cultivate the fine arts in
France with those who more especially devote themselves to the
decorative arts and as designers for manufacture, may be found in
the rules of the Ecole des Beaux Arts.  In England, at least until
within the last few years, those who desired to become artists
sought the preliminary knowledge necessary, either in private
schools, or by studying from the marbles in the British Museum,,
and then endeavoured to obtain admission to the Royal Academy.
There the works of each candidate for admission are submitted to.
the council, and, if possessing sufficient merit, the youth is allowed
a term of probation of three months.  At the end of that time the




.158          A _MIIANUAL O.F DESIGNS,.
works executed in the schools are submitted with those first pre-.sented to the council, and, if satisfactory, the candidate becomes
a student for seven years, or otherwise he is remitted to his
preliminary studies for a further period of six or twelve months.
Once in the Academy, his time is almost exclusively given to
the study of the human figure from the antique and from nature,
and to painting and sculpture as fine arts. Admitted to these
schools, the pupils consider themselves to take rank as artists, and
since none can study there but those who have gone through the
above-named long probationary trial with success, the students
cultivate exclusiveness, and look down upon the outsiders who are
not partakers of their own advantages.  A great change, however,
has latterly taken place.  The numerous advantages offered,.and the excellent course of teaching provided in the Government
art schools have led many who intend eventually to become artists
to frequent them for elementary instruction.  Therein they obtain
a degree of acquaintance with the best ornament of all periods,
some knowledge of styles, and great readiness in drawing forms of
ornament and foliage before entering upon the study of the figure.
Thus many young artists rising into eminence and many students
of the Royal Academy, are now well acquainted with ornamental
design, and are using their talents simultaneously in the decorative
and in the fine arts. But the schools of the Beaux Arts at Paris
have always been far less exclusive than those of our Royal
Academy-the admission of all who are desirous of studying art is
more free and unfettered than in the case of our own institutions.
There the classes for the study of the figure can be attended, not
only by those inscribed on the books, whether as students or.aspirants for admission, but by any of those who are devoting themselves to the study of art. Another good regulation of the French
schools is also worthy of adoption. There the figure from the
antique is placed for a fortnight alternately with the living model,
new places being arranged on every change. This results in a
more rapid and less laborious mode of studying from the cast,




A MANUAL OF DESIGVN                        59
while a more careful mode of working from the living model, and
a more direct reference of the nude life to the antique is also
obtained.  At the same time, that irregular attendance is obviated
which arises in our schools of the antique owing to the fact that
the figure remains unchanged during a whole session, while the
student, even when not Iregular in his attendance, is allowed to
retain his place.
But the real purpose in view in drawing this comparison
between the two academies of fine art is to show how greatly
the Parisian system  tends to a union between the student
of fine art and the ornamentist. Through it students in the
various schools of design in Paris-both Governmental (as that in
the near vicinity of the tcole des Beaux Arts) as well as communal
-can freely enter and study in the evenings side by side with
those specially following the fine arts; Paris, a city of much
smaller area than London, offering little obstacle to their so doing.
Thus the class distinctions prevalent in our own schools are
avoided, and the youths feel it no loss of caste to work indifferently
as ornamentists or artists, accordingly as remunerative occupation
offers. This is aided by the course of instruction laid down for the
architectural students at the Beaux Arts, which is really a complete
course, while the instruction of architects in the London Academy
has been till within the last year or two little more than nominal.
In Paris great stress is laid on the young architect's power as an
ornamental draughtsman and designer.  There are in the architecturai course, four competitions in each year in designing the
figure and ornament; thus architects brought up in the ateliers of
the professors of the Beaux Arts are highly accomplished in a
branch of the art in which they so seldom qualify themselves in
England, and they learn to appreciate and take a deeper interest
in all the arts cognate to architecture than has until lately been the
-case in England.
But besides the more intimate relations which have been
fostered in France between the artist, the designer, and the




iGo            A M ANIU4ZL OF DESIGNr.
manufacturer, and those to which we have just alluded, which
arise out of the rules of their schools of fine art, it must be remembered that for a century before such institutions existed in England,.
schools, both Government and municipal, had been open in Paris
for the gratuitous instruction of the artisan, the designer, and
the decorator.  We have from  time to time inspected the arteducation afforded by such schools, both in Paris and in other
continental cities, and from  this inspection —from  the careful
examination of the works exhibited in Paris in I863 at the Exhibition of the Union Centrale des Beaux Arts appliques a l'Industrie,
and from the drawings and models exhibited in the various international exhibitions by Italy, Wurtemberg, Bavaria, Austria, and
England-wve shall endeavour to make a few remarks on the
merits and defects of the varied teaching to be found in them.
In the French schools for art-workmen no special course seems
to be laid down which the students are expected to follow.  They
commence with linear drawing, both with instruments and free
hand, but in the latter case, the clear outline and precision
exacted in the schools of art in England is not sought for, oftentimes a bolder manner-a kind of black-board practice-being the
only elementary initiative.  When the student proceeds to shading
from flat examples or from casts the use of the stump in execution
is far more prevalent than the point, and the same is observable
when he arrives at the study of shading from the cast or from
flowers and foliage, or ultimately practices shading the figure from
the cast or from life. This tends to great freedom and ease of
execution, if at some loss of correctness and truth; too often, also,
the study from  flowers and foliage is confined to copying the
designer's rendering of Nature rather than any recurrence to
Nature herself. By this the freedom and ease of the decorator is
arrived at, though at the loss of novelty and of imitative truth.
Our English course of teaching seeks freedom through knowledge
attained by careful and precise imitation, the French system rather
seeks facility and fluency without such foundation.




, 41_/L AUAL  OF D.ESIGNv                 I 6 
And this brings us to the examples used in the French
schools, which are certainly not well selected, or such as we
should so consider. The students are permitted to draw from
modern lithographed  " studies for ornament " —from  coarse,
picturesque costume heads and figures —rather than  required
to  make careful studies from  the antique-from  flat copies
first, and then from  the round; the fine examples from  the
antique by Reverdin being less used than those by Julyan or
others of like character. In these schools also there is far less
drawing from actual plants and foliage than with us, and many of
the flat examples set before the scholars, both of flowers and foliage,
are such as have already undergone one stage of generalization at
the hands of the decorative artist. They thus neglect exact,
imitative studies of nature, which lead the student on to work ill
our schools with like care from nature itself, as a ground-work for
his own future treatment of it. Again, although the construction
of ornament and the production of new ornamental forms is taught
in the Government, and partially in some of the communal schools,
no instruction seems to be given in the historic styles of different
periods, or in the principles which should guide the application of
ornament in the decoration of separate fabrics and objects. The
use in these schools of the ornament of to-day rather than of wellchosen examples has already been alluded to, and it arises largely
out of the nature of the occupation of those who frequent them for
study, men more or less skilled in the decorative arts, and constantly following them as their occupation.  To them a knowledge
of the prevailing fashion is all important, and any new publication
by artists of repute, or any decorations in progress of execution
from their designs, are eagerly sought as a direct source of present
profit, and of more immediate value to the art-workman than those
studies which, if valuable in the end by leading him to a fuller
sense of the beautiful and the true, might do so at the expense of
his attaining facility, readiness, and acquaintance with the fashion
of to-day by which he lives. With us decoration is the exception
M




16           A M 2AN X   4UAL OF DE1SIGNT
rather than the rule; but in France the churches, palaces, private
residences, and shops, abound with decoration, both painted and
modelled, and the workmen who execute it acquire a facility and
skill inducing them to spurn precise study. Such men often continue to frequent the schools, and their readiness has a charm for
those who are their companions in study, leading them to consider
facility the highest excellence, and disinclining them to that careful
and thorough training pursued in our schools.  Yet there is no
doubt that the more precise instruction required by us would act
as a corrective to the weak exuberance observable at times in French
decorative art, without depriving it of the rare manipulative skill in
which we are deficient, while an infusion of the French practice in
our own course might be equally useful to ourselves, and correct the
common tendency to coldness and apparent want of inspiration.
An examination of the works of art students in Germany shows
us that the course does not essentially differ from that of England.
The student seems to be taught practical geometry, perspective,
and mechanical drawing, of which we find good examples, the
course of orthographic projection being very full. In fieehand
drawing the same clear and somewhat precise treatment of outline
seems sought after as with us, and the early training of the hand
and eye to correctness is carefully attended to. The shading from
the casts is, as in England, rather with the point than by the stump
process. In our schools, in all the early stages the studies are
alternated; first, outlining from flat examples, then from solids and
objects; shading from flat examples next has place, then shading
from models and casts of ornament; flowers and foliage are drawn
from flat examples, then from nature; the figure in outline, or
shaded first from flat examples, then from the round, and finally
from the living model; so that through the whole course the
student has, as soon as possible, the,izg' izse/f placed before him
for study rather than a drawing from it given him to copy; just
sufficient use being made of the flat example to give him power to
proceed to the round. This interchange does not seem so fully




A  M2ANU4AL  OF DESIGNE.                 i63
carried out in the practice of any foreign schools. Nor do we
trace in them the use of a well-selected set of examples. It would
seem here, as in France, that the choice was somewhat capricious,
and that at times the ornament of the day replaced for the purpose
of study those finer examples which should be derived from the
antique or from the best periods of the Renaissance.
We notice also that in many German schools examples of relief
ornament are in use which appear to have been modelled expressly
for study, and to that end have been made so sharp and precise, so
cleanly cut from the ground, as to tend to great errors in their use.
The student ought to be taught that relief ornament should not be
like aipAizue work, and that it is a great fault to lose that beautiful
quality, seen in all good ornament, of occasionally melting the forms
into the ground. This error arises among the modellers from
working on a hard ground, as a slate or tile-a practice discontinued
in our English schools at the instance of Sir R. Westmacott, who
early perceived the stringency and hardness resulting from it.
Perhaps the cold precision of much of the German ornament, its
cast-iron respectability and mechanical look, so opposed to the
happy facility of the French ornamentist, may in part arise from
these faulty models. We did not find among their works many
examples from foliage and flowers, and the life-studies were principally portrait heads, often clever and characteristic, if somewhat
prosaic, and with too much attention to rendering into black and
white the colour of the hair and dresses. As far as may be learnt
by the works we have seen, the object of the schools appears to
be more to form good draughtsmen and modellers, intelligent
artizans skilled to handle the pencil and the modelling tool, and
able thoroughly to comprehend working drawings, rather than to
instruct designers for manufacture, or to instil the principles of
decorative art. For this purpose the instruction they provide is very
suitable, while it is worthy of notice how widely this teaching is
spread, and what small towns, or as we should call them villages,
have their drawing schools.
M 2




I64           A1 _iAXUAL OF _DESIG~GN
Bavaria exhibited at Paris in i867 a collection of works executed
at the Ecole Royale des Arts et Metiers at Nuremberg.  They
were very similar to the other German works, but more advanced,
of the class in fact of those in our own art-schools, and carried
further in the direction of the figure; many fine drawings of the,
whole figure both from the antique and the life being among them,
as well as some very bold drawings of half-length draped figures,
florid in treatment, and picturesque as to chiaroscuro. The stump
is used more than in our schools, but with a result less slovenly
than in the French.  The ornamental examples of modelling were
from exclusively German works, and modelling seems practised by
a larger proportion of students than with us, while, as in other
foreign schools, colour seems little attended to. There was the
same apparent want of selection in the examples.
The few drawings of students we have seen from the art-schools
of Austria do not greatly differ from those from our own, except in
being more hard, respectable, and precise, from the reasons already
referred to. There were one or two heads from antique busts
hardly of average merit, and some models of ornament in red wax
on a hard ground, fully bearing out the remarks we have already
made  that this leads to a clean and hard treatment without much
feeling, and without any union of the ornament with its ground.
As it is, our inspection led us to think that the course adopted
in England is better than that of Germany, and can gain little from
it, but that advantages might arise if, after the care and precision
inculcated by the more elementary part of our course are attained
the students were directed to seek the greater facility afforded by
parts of the French system of teaching.  This would result from
more attention being given to z/ize dawz'ina,, a practice occasionally
enforced in our schools, and which has then shown how fully the
exact training of the student in the elementary part of our course
has given readiness and power of rapid execution. In many of
our provincial schools the member for the town, the municipal
authorities, or the resident manufacturers, besides the rewards




A    AJNf4AUAL  OF  D-ESIGNA.             x65
offered by Government, give prizes to stimulate the industry of the
students: perhaps some of these could not be better applied than
by instituting stated competitions in modelling, drawing, and
designing, wherein the students in the school should be required
to compete in a given time; rapidity of execution being one of
the conditions to be combined with excellence in the work produced.
Although the composition of ornament is taught in Paris, both
in the school in the Rue de l'EIcole de Medecine and in some
others, one section of the English course is peculiar to our own
schools.  We allude to the section of " Elementary design,"
preparing the student as it does for the practice of decorative.design by the careful study of ancient ornament; by the analysis,of foliage and flowers, with a view to the new ornamental forms
to be derived from them; and by the study of the geometrical
ancl other laws which govern the agreeable distribution of ornamental details, either as to form, colour, quantity, or symmetrical
combinations.  Two woodcuts are here given as examples of this
mode of analysis.  In the first (Fig. I7) is a sketch of a plant
the Sonchus or sow-thistle) pictorially drawn as it grows; in the
second (Fig. i8), the plant is displayed and flattened, whilst the
form  of the buds, the open blossoms, the seed vessels and the
leaves, are examined as new motives for ornament. These drawings are mere indications of the mode of analysis, since many
figures would be wanted to show all that could be obtained from
this single plant; thus the setting of the leaf on the stem  is
remarkable, and in most plants the bracts and spathes should be
studied, especially with regard to new forms of beauty in relief
ornament; such study will open out original treatments not to be
obtained by copying former ornamental renderings. After this
stage of " Elementary design" comes the study of " filling given,spaces" with the ornament derived from the above sources, then
the "repeats," by which units of ornament are distributed over
large surfaces, and, finally, the student is taught the proper appli



x66           A MANVU4AZL OF DESIGNA
cation of ornament to the various materials in which the design
is intended to be wrought or executed; these laws of fitness in
FIG. 17.
application are, to say the least, not followed by Continental decorative artists.  The flat treatment of ornament on hangings,
carpets, &c.; the conventional rather than the imitative rendering;




4A  MAzZVUAL  OF DESIGNI               I67
of flowers and foliage, the absence of shadows, and the true
relation between the ornament and the ground on which it is
\,
FIG. I8.
wrought-all so well understood by the Orientals and by the
artists of the Middle Ages-are far too much ignored in the works
of modern designers, and the true distinction between pictorial




i68' MANiVUAL  OF DESIGNA
and ornamental art is quite overlooked.  Thus, as we have seen,
landscapes, animals, and figure-subjects are found not only on
hangings and carpets, but on the backs and seats of couches
and chairs, while the woven and painted flow}ers on the dresses of
the ladies vie with the artificial ones that adorn their head-dresses,
or with the natural flowers that compose their bouquets.




CHAPTER XIII.
ON THE SPECIAL EDUCATION OF THE DESIGNER.
HA-IING thus glanced at the subject of art education at home
and abroad, it only remains for us, in connection with our present
subject, to consider briefly whether the means adopted in our own
Government schools are those best adapted for education in design,
or whether it would be desirable to extend their scope, so as to
make them not only schools of design, but in some degree workshops, where the specialities of design may be fully explained,
and the due application of ornamental art to manufacture may
be thoroughly exemplified and carried into practice.
This question, however, is twofold, and has reference to two
classes, whose functions and qualifications are not necessarily
identical-the designer and the art-workman. That the designer
should be acquainted with certain of the means of production and
the peculiar processes of the manufacture for which he designs can
be doubted by no one, since, without a knowledge of the genzeral
conditions of the manufacture his art is to be employed upon, his
labours would be useless. But the question is one of amount, and
the consideration to be arrived at is, shall this knowledge be given
in the course of his art-education? or is it best acquired when,
having obtained a thorough knowledge of ornament, he turns his
attention to some specizl atZica/lon of his powers?
That the art-workman should know all the processes of the




I70           A MANVU4AL OZF DESIGN.
manufacture he is engaged upon is absolutely necessary; it is his
starting-point; as his education in the technicalities or processes of
ornamental art is the starting point of the designer. What the artworkman has to add to his manufacturing knowledge is, such an
amount of art as will enable him thoroughly to appreciate and perfectly to carry out the work of the designer, without which, indeed,
he is imperfectly educated in his trade; while, on the contrary, the
designer (not necessarily a workman) has to obtain such an insight
into the processes of the workman or the machine as will enable
him to fit his design to the difficulties of production. Like the
artist or the ornamentist, the two classes, whilst generally distinct,
sometimes merge the one into the other, from which cause the question has been unnecessarily obscured. The truth is, that while, in
some cases, it would be most desirable that the designer should
understand the mlnzzu/e specialties of the manufacture, in others it
is nearly unnecessary: while the art-workman's province is quite
apart from the imaginative, and all that lhe requires is a full acquaintance with the tecizz'cal meazs of art, such as drawing, modelling, chasing, painting, &c. In these he cannot be too fully
educated; but since the large mass of those who are to be instructed are of this class, it is obvious that the principles and
practice of zdeszz need not necessarily form a part of the education
in all schools of ornamental art.
This view of the question does not interfere with those special
cases so often alluded to in this manual, wherein, from the high
requirements of the material, or of the object itself, the artistdesigner is at the same time the artist-workman also, and
produces and embodies his own conceptions by his own skilled
handicraft.
The general truth seems to be that, when a designer has
thoroughly mastered the technical language of art, and the general
principles of design and its application, the amount of special
knowledge sufficient for his purpose is speedily acquired in any
branch of manufacture to which he may devote his attention; and




A IIJANUAL OF DE~SIGIN.                   I17
in all cases more strict adaptation to uses, more originality, and
greater aptness to mould the power of production to the best and
most beautiful results, will arise rather from a full insight into the
means at the manufacturer's command than from any technical
education in those means.
This, however, is not the case with the art-workman; to give
him proper instruction in carvihz, casiz,,, embossing, pazztizg, &c.,
it should go on consecutively with his acquisition of the technical
elements of art, and his perfection as a workman will be measured
by his power of embodying his art-knowledge in his trade labours.
The process, moreover, is a tedious one, requiring the hand to be
educated as well as the eye and mind, to enable him successfully
to combine art with handicraft; and it would seem, therefore,
that such labours are essential parts of the education of true schools
of ortname;ntaz art.
Yet the several requirements enumerated are partial and local,
and not to be made a part of general so much as of local education. Thus, since London and its vicinity is the seat, more or
less, of all manufactures, and of the highest efforts of those manufactures; for this reason, and as a central normal school, it would
be advantageous to embody, in the course of the London head
school, instruction in all such matters; but they could only be
partially useful in the provinces; as die-sinking and chasing, for
instance, in Birmingham, chasing and embossing at Sheffield,
modelling and painting in the Potteries, &c.; and when it has
been ascertained which are the proper localities for central provincial schools, their peculiar art-handicraft should be taught therein,
and the instruction obtained in the surrounding districts should be
of such a character as best to prepare for the higher instruction of
the central provincial school. The truth is, that our schools have
all been accidentally founded, rather than distributed on any
general, comprehensive, and well-defined principle: and before
proceeding further, it is very desirable to have some well-arranged
distribution of the means of instruction for the whole kingdom,.




17 2          i4 tA ANUAVr   L  OF DESIGN.
laid down in accordance with local wants and local seats of manufacture; and to control and regulate the whole, so that schools,
when founded, should fall in with a pre-arranged and predetermined system.  These remarks are made with no intention
to dogmatise on the subject, which should rather be viewed prac-.tically than theoretically, and the solution should be based on known
results, rather than inferred from any supposititious points of view.
The great public establishments of France, both of the Gobelins
and Sevres, would on this account demand especial attention and
consideration, since the fabrics produced therein have attained a
greater excellence, both of design and manufacture, than is seen
elsewhere; and it would be desirable to gain full information as
to the knowledge of art obtained by the workmen, as well as that of;the processes of manufacture acquired by the designers in those
celebrated manufactories. In the same view, the schools founded
for the instruction of the bronzists of Paris, and in which they
mostly obtain their art-education, should have a full share of attention, both on account of the reputation gained by these works for
artistical completeness, as well as the great fancy and invention
displayed in the Parisian bronzes. MWe have to learn whether the
workmen have any, and what amount of, education in desi;zt,
and whether their inzventizve powers have been stimulated, or.whether only the most perfect technical acquirements have been
obtained; we know pretty well that in the case of our own art
m.anufactures the workmen have obtained but little even of the
technical langzgage of art, and that in invention they are entirely
led by the designer.
The condition of the schools at Lyons also, and their routine,of instruction, would furnish much valuable information on this
subject, since, in the manufacture of silk, the relations between the
art and the means of execution are most intimate and complicated.
These investigations would show whether the education of the
workman in art, and in many cases the exalting of him into the
place of the designer, has resulted in a pure and just ornamenta



A MANiL/UAL L OFIJDESIGA 0 S   i/         I 7 
tion of the fabric, or whether it has led to the skilful appliance of
manufacturing means to the production of difficulties of execution
in these fabrics, rather than to the simple and the beautiful in
their ornamental decoration.
In conclusion, the author trusts that a proper spirit of inquiryT
into the sources of true excellence in ornamental art may be elicited
from his brief labours, and that this may lead to the rejection of
what is meretricious and false, and to a more simple, grave, and
earnest style in modern ornament.
FINIS.








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