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53 chapters
PREFACE.
PREFACE.
The comprehensive nature of the subject of this work renders it impossible to deal with its various divisions and sub-divisions, except in a very condensed manner, within the limits of a handbook for students. I have endeavoured to present to the reader, and to the student of ornamental and decorative art, some of the salient features which characterize the historic styles of ornament, and those that seem to me to show themselves as landmarks in the wide domain of Historic Ornament. Realistic de
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INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
It can hardly be doubted that, for the education of the student in ornamental design, or in architecture, a study of the history of ornament and a knowledge of the principal historic styles of architecture is indispensable. Historic styles of ornament remain for us, vast accumulations of tried experiments, for the most part in the character of conventional renderings of natural forms; for however remote from nature some of these may be, they can, as a general rule, be traced back without much di
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CHAPTER II. PREHISTORIC ORNAMENT—PALÆOLITHIC PERIOD OR EARLY STONE AGE—RIVER DRIFT AND CAVE-MEN.
CHAPTER II. PREHISTORIC ORNAMENT—PALÆOLITHIC PERIOD OR EARLY STONE AGE—RIVER DRIFT AND CAVE-MEN.
The first indications of the presence of man in Britain was brought to light in the shape of a flint flake found by the Rev. O. Fisher, in the presence of Professor W. Boyd Dawkins, in the lower brick earth of the Stoneham pit at Crayford, in Kent, in the year 1872. In the year 1876 a second flake was found in a similar situation at Erith, in Kent, considerably worn by use. This form of implement was used in the late Pleistocene age, and also in the Neolithic (Newer Stone age) and Bronze ages. I
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CHAPTER III. NEOLITHIC STONE PERIOD.
CHAPTER III. NEOLITHIC STONE PERIOD.
This period is divided from the Palæolithic Stone age by a great unknown gap. It is sometimes called the Later or Newer Stone age. In this period the flint implements were better shaped, many of them were ground and polished (Figs. 17 , 18 ). Some of the flint and other stone implements were very like in form to those of the Bronze period, and as these implements were made, and continued to be used, in Northern Europe after the Bronze periods of the East had developed, it is quite possible that
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CHAPTER IV. THE BRONZE AGE.
CHAPTER IV. THE BRONZE AGE.
The people of the Bronze age introduced a higher civilisation into the world than their predecessors of the Stone ages. There appears to be a great overlap between the Neolithic, Bronze, and Iron ages of Central and Northern Europe, and the historic periods of the Eastern countries bordering on the Mediterranean. We have evidence that great periods of time must have marked the epochs of the prehistoric ages, and that the Bronze age, like the Stone and Iron ages, began at different times in diffe
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CHAPTER V. THE IRON AGE.
CHAPTER V. THE IRON AGE.
The age of Iron, like the Bronze ages, varies very much in point of time in Europe as compared with Asia, and also there is a great overlapping between the times of the Iron age in the northern, middle, and southern parts of Europe. It is safe to say that the early part of this age belongs to prehistoric times as far as Central and Northern Europe is concerned, and although the Grecian Archipelago and Western Asia were in a high state of civilised culture five or six centuries before the Christi
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CHAPTER VI. THE LAKE DWELLINGS OF SWITZERLAND AND OTHER PARTS OF EUROPE.
CHAPTER VI. THE LAKE DWELLINGS OF SWITZERLAND AND OTHER PARTS OF EUROPE.
In Switzerland and in Upper Italy evidences have been found of numerous lake dwellings, and in Ireland and Scotland analogous dwellings on islands in lakes and morasses have been found, to which the name of “crannoges” (“wooden islands”) has been given. The exact age of these dwellings has not been accurately defined, but an approximate date has been assigned to them. From the nature, kind, and decoration of the numerous articles that have been dug up from the foundation relic beds in the lakes
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Egyptian Ornament and Industrial Art.
Egyptian Ornament and Industrial Art.
Fig. 120.—Hathor-headed Campaniform Capitals, Temple of Neetanebo, at Philæ. (P. & C.) A great part of Egyptian ornament and decoration is composed of symbolic forms, the remainder is made up of geometrical ornament, such as checkers, meanders, frets, rosettes, diapers of lotus and other forms. Natural forms of flowers and foliage were not copied direct, but only used in shape of geometric abstractions, and their arrangement as diapers in surface decoration was derived, in the first inst
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CHAPTER VIII. CHALDEAN AND ASSYRIAN ART.
CHAPTER VIII. CHALDEAN AND ASSYRIAN ART.
The Chaldeans or Babylonians and the Assyrians came from one great stock, the Assyrians being mostly colonists from Babylonia. The original inhabitants of Chaldea spoke a Semitic dialect. At an early date Eastern Chaldea was invaded by the Sumerians or Accadians, a Turanian race which is supposed to have come from the plateau of Central Asia. The two languages were used side by side, the Semitic as the common tongue, and the Accadian as a literary language. The earliest known king of Chaldea was
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CHAPTER IX. PHŒNICIAN ART.
CHAPTER IX. PHŒNICIAN ART.
The origin of the Phœnician people remains in obscurity. According to Herodotus, we learn that they came as an Eastern branch of the Canaanitish peoples, of which race the Greeks were also a part, and who settled at the foot of Lebanon, on the Syrian sea-coast, between Mounts Carmel and Casius. The Phœnician and Hebrew languages resembled each other very closely, and from this it has been argued that the Phœnicians belonged to the Semitic race of the Hebrews. Ancient Phœnicia was a narrow strip
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CHAPTER X. ART IN ANCIENT PERSIA.
CHAPTER X. ART IN ANCIENT PERSIA.
Persia occupies what is known as the tableland of Iran, and is a plateau bounded on the north by the Elburz Mountains, Armenia, and Afghanistan; the Bol-ur and Hindu-Kush in the east; the heights that are parallel to the Indian Ocean in the south; and the Persian Gulf, the chains of Zagros, and Ararat in the west. The Zagros Mountains separated Persia on that portion of the Iran plateau from Assyria, which was known as part of Media. The Assyrians under Tiglath-Pileser scaled these mountains and
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CHAPTER XI. GRECIAN PEOPLE AND MYTHOLOGY.
CHAPTER XI. GRECIAN PEOPLE AND MYTHOLOGY.
The early inhabitants of Greece were the Pelasgians, a people who had the reputation of being great builders. At Athens, around the Acropolis, and at other places, remains of huge walls, made of unsquared stones laid in mud, have been found; these are the remains of the Pelasgian walls. The oldest historians were not disposed to make any difference between the Hellenes and the Pelasgians, but see in the former a continuation merely of the old Pelasgi stock. The Dorians came from the mountains of
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CHAPTER XII. ART IN PRIMITIVE GREECE.
CHAPTER XII. ART IN PRIMITIVE GREECE.
It was not only on their temples and images of their gods that the Greeks put their best efforts in art; but in their vases, jewellery, furniture, and humbler utensils of the household and of every-day life, we find the Greek artist pouring out some of his richest fancies, and the same spell of beauty is cast over them all. And did not Pericles, the son of Xanthippus, eulogise his countrymen in his famous speech on those who had fallen in the Peleponnesian War, as “lovers of justice and wisdom,”
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CHAPTER XIII. THE GREEK AND ROMAN ORDERS OF ARCHITECTURE.
CHAPTER XIII. THE GREEK AND ROMAN ORDERS OF ARCHITECTURE.
Although Egypt and Assyria are justly credited with the creation of the models and the invention of the methods that subsequently aroused to life the artistic genius of the Greeks, yet the fact remains that, from all the wealth of artistic forms bequeathed to succeeding ages by the nations of hoary antiquity, prior to the Grecian period, nothing has survived except those forms which Greece has selected from her predecessors, and after remodelling them by her own standards of beauty and fitness,
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CHAPTER XIV. GREEK AND ROMAN ORNAMENT.
CHAPTER XIV. GREEK AND ROMAN ORNAMENT.
Greek ornament—as found on the carved mouldings, friezes, acroteria, antifexes, and capitals, or, as in the painted variety, found on vases, plain mouldings, bands, plates, and other surface decorations, or incised on the bronze cistæ and mirrors—was of a severe and refined order, almost all of which had its birthplace in Egyptian and Assyrian forms, that in the first instances were used in a symbolic sense, but under the hands of Greek artists had lost all their former meaning, and were develop
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CHAPTER XV. INDIAN ART AND ARCHITECTURE.
CHAPTER XV. INDIAN ART AND ARCHITECTURE.
An Aryan race of people came into India about B.C. 2000 across the Upper Indus. They settled in the first instance in the Punjab, in the watershed of the Sutlej and the Jumna, and finally in Oude and the east. After one thousand years they lost their purity of race by mixing with the aboriginal natives. About this time the prophet Sakya Muni, or Buddha, arose, and apparently succeeded in converting nearly the whole of Northern India to Buddhism. He died in B.C. 543, and three hundred years after
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CHAPTER XVI. CHINESE AND JAPANESE ARCHITECTURE.
CHAPTER XVI. CHINESE AND JAPANESE ARCHITECTURE.
The architecture of China does not possess what we might call a serious character. Founded mainly on Buddhistic elements, as far as the more important efforts of their temple architecture is concerned, the only original development that marks the Chinese structural design is the pagoda tower—in itself really a Buddhistic idea—but the Chinese have the credit of carrying it further in their Taas or Pagodas by placing story upon story until sometimes a great height was attained; as, for example, in
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Byzantine Architecture.
Byzantine Architecture.
The ancient town of Byzantium, the modern Constantinople, was mostly in ruins when Constantine the Great selected it for the new capital of the Roman Empire. He rebuilt the old town and named it after himself, and in the year A.D. 330 the inauguration of the new capital was celebrated. Later on, under Theodosius, the Roman Empire was divided, and Constantinople became the capital of the Eastern portion. It was the great connecting-point between the countries of the East and the West. The inhabit
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CHAPTER XVIII. SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE AND ORNAMENT.
CHAPTER XVIII. SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE AND ORNAMENT.
The architecture of the Saracens in its most perfect examples has a thoroughly distinctive style of its own, and their ornament in its pure form is unlike the ornament of any style that has hitherto existed. The originality of the latter arose from the experimenting in ornamental patterns that should have no likeness to plants, animals, or other natural forms. This prohibition of the use of objects from nature in their ornament was one of the articles of the Moslem religion; but to get any pleas
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CHAPTER XIX. ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE AND ORNAMENT.
CHAPTER XIX. ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE AND ORNAMENT.
Romanesque is the name given to the architectural style developed by the Western barbarians who overran the Roman Empire, after their partial civilisation, when they had learned the art of building. The style arose chiefly from the copying of Roman buildings and their remains, with some added features of Byzantine buildings. Out of this Romanesque, in its turn, there sprang another style which was founded on the Romanesque and on the architecture of the Saracens. Towards the end of the eleventh
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CHAPTER XX. GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE AND ORNAMENT.
CHAPTER XX. GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE AND ORNAMENT.
The Gothic or “Pointed” style grew, as we have seen, out of the Romanesque. Churches were built in which the pointed arch was used side by side with the round arch of Romanesque. These were the buildings of the transitional period. In France, Germany, and in England some of the earlier Gothic buildings were purer in style than those of the later period. The work of the thirteenth century is more correct in artistic principles, more restrained, and less bewildering in the principles of constructi
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Ornament of the Renaissance.
Ornament of the Renaissance.
The ornament of the Renaissance period was founded on the the Roman. Before describing the former it will be necessary to say a few words concerning its prototype, the Roman. More than anything else the great use of the acanthus foliage characterizes the ornamental art of the Romans. The treatment of the acanthus in Roman architecture has already been noticed in the first part of this work. A fine boldness and freedom was everywhere apparent in the Roman treatment of this foliage (Figs. 28 and 2
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PREFACE.
PREFACE.
This work is a continuation of the former volume on the subject of Historic Ornament, and treats of the historical development of ornament and decoration as illustrated in furniture, pottery, enamels, ivories, metal work, including goldsmiths’, silversmiths’, and jewellers’ work, textile fabrics, mosaic, glass, and book decoration. Though each volume may be considered complete in itself as far as it has been possible to consider the subjects therein treated in the dimensions of this work, at the
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Maiolica.
Maiolica.
Before the advent of Maiolica ware in Italy a similar kind of pottery was made in Spain, which had the stanniferous or opaque tin glaze and the golden lustre that belonged to the best examples of Italian maiolica. We refer to the Hispano-Moresque ware. This opaque stanniferous glaze was known to the Arabs of Spain from the end of the thirteenth century, or more than one hundred years before Luca della Robbia (who died in 1430) produced his enamelled earthenware. The first specimens of Hispano-Mo
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Della Robbia Ware.
Della Robbia Ware.
It is not known whether the above celebrated artist invented the opaque white stanniferous glaze with which he covered his works, but he was the first to use it successfully in the architectural decoration known as “Della Robbia” ware. He succeeded, however, in colouring his white glaze, thereby greatly enlarging its usefulness for exterior and interior decoration. The colours he obtained were blue, yellow, green, violet, and a copper tint. His sculptured terra-cottas glazed with these colours b
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Italian Maiolica.
Italian Maiolica.
About the year 1450 the Sforzi, the Lords of Pesaro, established at the latter place Maiolica factories, and a decree, dated 1st of April, 1486, was published, granting certain privileges to the ceramists of Pesaro. The potteries of Urbino, Gubbio, and Castel-Durante were then equally famous with those of Pesaro. It is generally thought that the use of metallic lustre was first known at Pesaro; the pearly, the ruby, and the golden lustres appeared at Pesaro and Gubbio before they were known at a
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Persian, Damascus, and Rhodian Wares.
Persian, Damascus, and Rhodian Wares.
The artistic pottery and tiles of Persia, though forming a large variety, may nearly all be brought under the designation of siliceous or glass-glazed wares, the tin glaze being only met with occasionally in some Persian and Damascus examples, where an unusually white surface was required. All the glazed wares of Persia are highly baked, and are mostly of a semi-translucent character. Fig. 36.—Persian Lustred Ware. There is the fine copper, ruby, and brown lustred ware, which has sometimes a whi
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French Pottery.
French Pottery.
The art of the potter flourished in Gaul before the time of the Romans, but this early pottery was of a coarse kind, used mostly for domestic purposes, and of an unglazed variety ( poteries mates ). The use of a vitreous glaze was common in France as early as the thirteenth century, and in a grave that had the date of 1120, in the Abbey of Jumièges, two small broken vases were found covered with a yellowish lead glaze. We are informed by an old French chronicler that “On fait des godets à Beauva
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Oiron Ware.
Oiron Ware.
To take our subject in a chronological order, the wares of Oiron, or “Henri-Deux ware,” as the name they are better known by, must be noticed first. Until a recent date the origin of this was only guessed at, but the late M. Benjamin Fillon by his researches has cleared up the mystery. It appears now that the invention of this scarce and unique ware was due to Hélène de Hangest, Dame de Boissy, the widow lady of Gouffier, who was formerly governor to Francis I. This lady established the pottery
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Palissy Ware.
Palissy Ware.
Bernard Palissy was one of the most remarkable men who practised the art of the potter in France or in any other country. He was born about the year 1510, but his birthplace is not exactly known. He worked in his younger days and up to the period of his middle age at surveying, glass-making, portrait painting, and was also well skilled in natural sciences, but was not brought up to the trade of a potter. It was in the year 1542, at Saintes, that in order to increase his slender means he took to
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Nevers, Rouen, and Moustiers Wares.
Nevers, Rouen, and Moustiers Wares.
We have mentioned before that some maiolica artists and workmen came from Italy in the sixteenth century to Nevers and Lyons and there set up potteries. One of these artists, named Scipio Gambin, worked at Nevers, under the patronage of the Duc de Nivernais. Fig. 51.—Pilgrim’s Bottle, Nevers Ware. (S.K.M.) The maiolica productions at Nevers were in imitation of the Urbino, Castel-Durante, and Faenza wares, but the colours were inferior, probably owing to the poorer glaze used by the French potte
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French Porcelain.
French Porcelain.
The desire to imitate the porcelain ware of China led to the discovery of the soft paste ( pâte tendre ). The names “ porcelaine de France ” and “ Sèvres porcelain ” have also been given to it. As previously mentioned, it was made at Rouen in 1690, at St. Cloud in 1698, and at Lille in 1711, but in all these cases in a small and tentative way. The composition of the paste in the French soft porcelain is described by MM. Gasnault and Garnier in their handbook of “French Pottery” as follows: “The
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German Pottery.
German Pottery.
German stoneware was manufactured at an early date, and in the countries bordering upon the Rhine the industry must have been in an active state in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, judging from the plentiful examples of the different varieties of the ware formerly known as “ Grès Flamands ” or “ Grès de Flandres, ” but now classified under their proper German origins. In the sixteenth century this ware was carried in great quantities from Raeren, from Frechen and Sieburg, near Cologne, and
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German Porcelain.
German Porcelain.
The Portuguese introduced China porcelain into Europe, and for a long time the potters sought to imitate it, but without much success, until the true kaolin was discovered by Böttger, about 1709. At Aue, Schneeberg, and in the year 1715, a pottery for the manufacture of hard porcelain was established at Meissen, by Augustus II., Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, with Böttger as director. Fig. 65.—German Stoneware. Fig. 66.—Dresden Candelabrum. This porcelain, after it had been brought to a c
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English Pottery.
English Pottery.
Ancient British pottery has been found in the barrows and burial mounds in the form of incense cups, drinking and food vessels, and cinerary urns. These have all been made of clays that were found usually on the spot, and are either sun-dried or imperfectly burnt. The drinking vessels were tall and cylindrical in form, and the incense cups were wider in the centre than at either end. The urns and food vessels have a similarity of shape, being globular, with or without a neck. The decoration is o
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English Porcelain.
English Porcelain.
Porcelain was first made in England about the year 1745. The best period of the manufacture dates from 1750 to 1780, though some of the oldest factories have survived to the present day. English porcelain, or as it is better known as “China” ware, was made at Chelsea, Bow, Derby, Worcester, Plymouth, Bristol, and in Staffordshire. Some of the best porcelain from these places does not yield in beauty to the finest of Sèvres ware. The Chelsea porcelain works were first under a Mr. Charles Gouyn, a
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Chinese Porcelain.
Chinese Porcelain.
Fig. 85.—Chinese Vase. The manufacture of porcelain in China, according to their own accounts, dates for more than two hundred years before the Christian era. The composition of Chinese porcelain is of two elements: one, the infusible argillaceous earth or clay called kaolin; and the other the “pe-tun-tse,” which is feldspar slightly altered, a micaceous mineral and quartz or silica, which is fusible. The latter is used with or without other mixtures to form a glaze for hard porcelain. Other mat
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Indian Pottery.
Indian Pottery.
The making of pottery is universal throughout India. The unglazed wares are made everywhere, and of various colours. Red glazed pottery is made at Dinapur, gilt pottery at Amroha and in Rajputana; black and silver pottery at Azimghar in the north-west, and at Surujgarrah in Bengal; painted pottery at Kota, the unglazed pierced variety at Madura, and the celebrated glazed pottery made at Sindh and in the Punjaub. Fig. 91.—Glazed Pottery of Sindh. (B.) It may be said that in general the pottery of
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Enamels of the Countries of the East.
Enamels of the Countries of the East.
China, India, and Persia have been famed from early times for their exquisite productions in enamels. Japan also has made, and continues to make, enamels of great beauty. The older or Cloisonné method is mostly in favour with the natives of the East, and very little Champlevé work is executed. Although enamelling is an old art in China, yet Chinese enamels are rare that have been executed before the fifteenth century. In the Ming dynasty, under the Emperor King-tai (1450-7), enamel working was i
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CHAPTER III. IVORY CARVINGS.
CHAPTER III. IVORY CARVINGS.
In the former part of this work we have noticed the ivory carvings of the ancient world, and it is proposed in the following pages to give an outline of ivory carvings of the Middle Ages and of the comparatively modern periods. One of the oldest and most important works in ivory carving of the sixth century is the celebrated Chair of St. Maximinian, now preserved in the metropolitan church of Ravenna. It is entirely overlaid with plates of ivory, and has five upright panels in the front and belo
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GOLD, SILVER, BRONZE, PEWTER, AND IRON.
GOLD, SILVER, BRONZE, PEWTER, AND IRON.
The early Egyptian, Assyrian, Phœnician, and Primitive Grecian metal work has been noticed under the historic sketch of the art of these nations in the former volume. We read in the Bible of the great magnificence of Solomon’s Temple, especially in the extreme richness and wealth of the gold, silver, and brazen vessels, utensils, and architectural decorations, in which the precious metals were used in the solid or plated manner on capitals, pillars, doors, seats, thrones, and on the decorations
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Spanish Metal Work.
Spanish Metal Work.
During the Arab rule in Spain metal work was an important branch of the Moorish arts. The Arab rulers had in their train many accomplished Eastern artists in metal work, and such objects as caskets, jewellery, bracelets, rings, sword and dagger handles, and scabbards. Fig. 143.—Sword of Boabdil, Madrid. (R.) Fig. 144.—Spanish Monstrance, 1537. (S.K.M.) The Moorish caskets are often made of wood, covered with silver or gold plates, the ornamentation being similar to that of the ivory carvings. Th
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Niello-work and Damascening.
Niello-work and Damascening.
Niello-work has been mentioned on a previous page. It was an important branch of the goldsmith’s art, as well as that of damascening. From the earliest times the nations of antiquity have engraved on metals and filled up the lines or grooves of the engraving with a black species of enamel composition— niello —or with other metals such as silver, gold, and electrum; the latter process has been called damascening , from Damascus, where gold and silver inlaid in iron or steel was practised in the t
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Iron Work in France, Germany, Belgium, Italy and England.
Iron Work in France, Germany, Belgium, Italy and England.
Ornamental iron work was executed in France and in England before the Roman occupation of these countries, but any early remains of this work that have been found in either country are supposed to be of the Roman period. The Romans were not skilled in the working of iron, although well conversant with the manufacture of bronze objects. Remains of iron hasps, escutcheons, window grilles, candlesticks, folding chairs, &c., have been found in France and in England, of the Romano-Gaulish and
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ANTIQUE: EGYPT, ASSYRIA, GREECE, AND ROME.
ANTIQUE: EGYPT, ASSYRIA, GREECE, AND ROME.
The furniture of the antique nations has been noticed in some instances in the former volume of this work, especially in the cases of Egyptian and Assyrian examples, where fortunately we can point out the many representations of it that occur on the bas-reliefs. It is from these that we chiefly form an opinion as to how the palaces and interiors must have been furnished, for, owing to the great lapse of time, nearly every vestige of furniture of these old nations has passed away. The British Mus
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Byzantine, Romanesque, Saracenic, and the Furniture of the Middle Ages.
Byzantine, Romanesque, Saracenic, and the Furniture of the Middle Ages.
The furniture, such as tables, chairs, beds, and the chariots, of the Byzantine period, was like the architecture in having something of the classic Roman mixture with some Asiatic Greek forms in its design. Scarcely any remains of such are now in existence, although we have evidence of the extreme richness of the sumptuary furniture and vessels of the great houses and palaces of Constantinople, for owing to the decadence and destruction of the Roman empire in the provinces, the capital of the E
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Italian and other Furniture of the Renaissance.
Italian and other Furniture of the Renaissance.
In the early part of the fifteenth century and during the whole of the century the furniture of Europe generally was designed more or less on Gothic lines, but gradually the new forms that were now rapidly developing in the architecture of the Renaissance, but in a slower measure, began to assert themselves in furniture designs. Consequently, we find in many articles, such as armoires or presses, and cabinets, a mixture of style in the design—as, for instance, the upper panels would be in the Me
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Textiles of India.
Textiles of India.
The textiles of India form an important section of the industrial arts of that country. The materials used in the woven and embroidered fabrics are silk, cotton, wool, hair, coloured grasses, jute, gold, silver, and various tinsels. Among the chief artistic productions in textiles are the kincobs , or silken brocades, made at Ahmedabad and Benares, the embroidered muslin of Dacca, the pile carpets of Malabar, the rugs of Madras, and the shawls of Cashmere. The native excellence, however, in the
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Embroidery.
Embroidery.
The earliest method of decorating textiles was that of embroidering. It has been called “painting with the needle,” and is even an older art than pattern weaving. In some of the oldest monuments of art that are still in existence, as the bas-reliefs of Egypt and Assyria, there may be seen representations of the embroidery that formerly decorated the kings’ garments (see Figs. 162 A to 165, former volume), and we have seen that these were the models for some of the earliest woven patterns. At fir
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Lace.
Lace.
Hand-made laces are divided into two great classes—the “needle-point” and the “pillow-made”; the former is made with a needle on parchment, and the latter by twisting or plaiting threads from bobbins on a pillow. Needle-point lace is an offspring of embroidery, and pillow-made lace is the highest artistic development of twisted and plaited threads. The foundation lines or threads of the pattern, various kinds of grounds, and the edging in needle-point lace, are usually worked over with a button-
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CHAPTER VII. MOSAICS.
CHAPTER VII. MOSAICS.
The word mosaic is applied generally to a decorative work executed with small cubes or tesseræ made from various coloured marbles or enamels, cut into convenient sizes according to the requirements or scale of the design. These cubes of enamels or marbles are placed in a bed of cement which is first spread on the surface of the wall or panel. The composition of this cement has varied in the different periods and countries and according to the nature of the ground which receives it. The Italian m
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CHAPTER VIII. GLASS.
CHAPTER VIII. GLASS.
Fig. 294. Glass Vase or Bottle; height, 3½ ins. (B.M.) The manufacture of glass is of great antiquity. The invention has been ascribed to the Phœnicians, but specimens of glass beads, amulets, plaques, vases, and small phials or bottles have been found in some of the oldest Egyptian tombs. In the British Museum there is a small piece of blue opaque glass in the form of a lion’s head, which bears the prenomen of the Egyptian monarch Nuntef IV., belonging to the Fourth Dynasty ( B.C. 2423-2380). T
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CHAPTER IX. THE DECORATION OF BOOKS.
CHAPTER IX. THE DECORATION OF BOOKS.
Books may be illustrated in a more or less pictorial manner without any particular regard to the decoration of the page, or with due regard to its ornamentation. In the latter case the designer of the decoration will be the illustrator and decorator in one. The great majority of modern illustrated books are not decorated in the true sense of the word, but have their illustrations inserted as pictures, or scraps of pictures, without borders or frames, and with little or no relation to the distrib
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