Principles Of Decorative Design

CONTENTS.


CHAPTER I. PAGE

INTRODUCTORY
DIVISION I. ART-KNOWLEDGE; HISTORIC STYLES
" II. TRUTH, BEAUTY, POWER, ETC.
" III. HUMOUR IN ORNAMENT

CHAPTER II.
COLOUR

CHAPTER III.
FURNITURE

CHAPTER IV.
DECORATION OF BUILDINGS
DIVISION I. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS--CEILINGS
" II. DECORATIONS OF WALLS

CHAPTER V.
CARPETS

CHAPTER VI.
CURTAIN MATERIALS, HANGINGS, AND WOVEN FABRICS GENERALLY

CHAPTER VII.
HOLLOW VESSELS
DIVISION I. POTTERY
" II. GLASS VESSELS
" III. METAL-WORK

CHAPTER VIII.
HARDWARE

CHAPTER IX.
STAINED GLASS

CHAPTER X.
CONCLUSION




PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN.




CHAPTER I.

DIVISION I.


There are many handicrafts in which a knowledge of the true principles
of ornamentation is almost essential to success, and there are few in
which a knowledge of decorative laws cannot be utilised. The man who
can form a bowl or a vase well is an artist, and so is the man who can
make a beautiful chair or table. These are truths; but the converse of
these facts is also true; for if a man be not an artist he cannot form
an elegant bowl, nor make a beautiful chair.

At the very outset we must recognise the fact that the beautiful has a
commercial or money value. We may even say that art can lend to an
object a value greater than that of the material of which it consists,
even when the object be formed of precious matter, as of rare marbles,
scarce woods, or silver or gold.

This being the case, it follows that the workman who can endow his
productions with those qualities or beauties which give value to his
works, must be more useful to his employer than the man who produces
objects devoid of such beauty, and his time must be of higher value
than that of his less skilful companion. If a man, who has been born
and brought up as a "son of toil," has that laudable ambition which
causes him to seek to rise above his fellows by fairly becoming their
superior, I would say to him that I know of no means of his so readily
doing so, as by his acquainting himself with the laws of beauty, and
studying till he learns to perceive the difference between the
beautiful and the ugly, the graceful and the deformed, the refined and
the coarse. To perceive delicate beauties is not by any means an easy
task to those who have not devoted themselves to the consideration of
the beautiful for a long period of time, and of this be assured, that
what now appears to you to be beautiful, you may shortly regard as
less so, and what now fails to attract you, may ultimately become
charming to your eye. In your study of the beautiful, do not be led
away by the false judgment of ignorant persons who may suppose
themselves possessed of good taste. It is common to assume that women
have better taste than men, and some women seem to consider themselves
the possessors of even authoritative taste from which there can be no
appeal. They may be right, only we must be pardoned for not accepting
such authority, for should there be any over-estimation of the
accuracy of this good taste, serious loss of progress in art-judgment
might result.