Anatomy of Pattern PDF

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'T^ E^^CT, 5 O O K^ r
nRNA/AENTAL,
THE.
ANATO/A"
OF
PATTERN
Cornell University Library
arV18093
The anatomy
of pattern
3 1S9A 031 236 114
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TEXT BOOKS OF ORNAMEi^TAL DESIGN.
By
lewis
F.
day
THE ANATOMY OF PATTERN.
TEXT BOOKS
OF
ORNAMENTAL
By lewis
F.
DESIGN.
day.
THE DISTRIBUTION OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN

WILL BE READY SHORTLY.
^la-te
Construction, of
German Gotlpic
'Tracery 'Pattern &
TEXT BOOKS OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN.
THE
ANATOMY OF PATTERN.
BY
LEWIS
AUTHOR OF
F.
DAY,
'EVERY-DATI: ART,' ETC.
ILLUSTRATED.
B.
T.
LONDON:
BATSFORD, 52, HIGH HOLBORN.
1887.
UlNilVERSiTY
-^LIBRARY
PREFACE.
There was a time
artistic
in
my own
when
existence,
struggling for
should have been
so grateful for any practical teaching in ornarrient,
who
that I fancy there
will find it helpful to
before
myself
of
Ornamental
amplified
and
of
series
December
set
plainly
Design
illustrated
in
which
the
Cantor Lectures
have
substance
of
delivered
in
last before the Society of Arts.
have assumed no great amount of tech-
nical or artistic
reader
some pains
following
The
knowledge on the part of the

he wants to know. And,
only that
elementary as
in'
have
them what I have had to puzzle out

Hence this series of Text Books
for
must be students
my
to save
my
subject
him
all
have taken
effort
meaning.
illustrations are to
as illustrations,
is,
unnecessary
be taken
literally
and not by any means con-
sidered as ornamental addenda to the book.
vi
Preface.
only as diagrams that they have any

claim to insertion
although, as an ornaIt
is
have naturally made the necessary

diagrams as interesting as under the circummentist, I
stances was feasible.
have
plates,
itself
as
far
as
the
possible,
them
have to say, a
construction
of
of
the
explanatory
so that from the study of
apart from what
of
make each one
to
tried
pattern
fair
idea
might be
gained.
Lewis
13,
Mecklenburg Square, London, W.C.
March
Tptk, 1887.
in
alone,
F.
Day.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
I.
Introductory
II. Pattern Dissection

III. Practical Pattern Planning
IV.
V.
VI.
25
The "Drop" Pattern
34
Skeleton Plans
40
Appropriate Pattern
47
DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF PLATES.

1.
THE CONSTRUCTION OF GOTHIC TRACERY PATTERNS

Showing the
square, diamond, hexagon, circular, or
other plan on which elaborate tracery

2.
THE SQUARE
is built.
Checks and other diapers
built
on cross-
Plaids,
zigZagS,
lines.
3.
THE LATTICE AND THE DIAMOND

&c,, built
4.
FRETS, &c.
on
cross-lines.
Showing
their construction
on a network
of cross-lines.
5.
6.
the
THE TRIANGLE Diapers
hexagon, and lozenge
up on the
shapes, built
7.
and
its
star,
THE HEXAGON
THE OCTAGON
of the equilateral
compounds.
Honeycomb
upon the hexagon and

9.
of
cross-lines
lines of the equilateral triangle.
THE TRIANGLE Diapers composed

triangle
8.
upon
ALL-OVER PATTERN Showing

which it is planned.
its
Simple
and other diapers based

compound.
octagon diapers and the lines
of their construction.
10.
ARAB LATTICE PATTERNS
Dissected, and their anatomy
laid bare.
11.
CURVILINEAR
PATTERNS
Showing
of the wave, the ogee, the net, &c.
the construction
X
12.
13.
List of Plates.
DIAPERS OF CIRCLESWith
from which they are struck.
lines
showing the points
OTHER CIRCULAR DIAPER FORMS Produced by
inter-
secting circles.
14.
FREE JAPANESE DIAPER The
repetition of geometric
forms not geometrically disposed.

15.
THE SCALE PATTERN
16.
A STAR PATTERN
Together with ogee, cusped,

and other shapes derived from it.
Showing
different
ways of
construction
upon the
six
arriving at a simple diaper.
17.
ITALIAN DAMASK
Showing
its
lines of the scale pattern.
18.
HENRI
BOOK-COVER
II.
and again
19.
Showing
result of reversing,
reversing, the pattern.
SOME PATTERN PLANS
Shovring (A) the square plan,
(B) the dropped parallelogram plan.

20.
design
21.
With
SILK
SICILIAN
is built,
the
cross-lines
and the diagonal
on which the
lines it assumes.
With
TAPESTRY OF THE XVTH CENTURY
angular unit of repeat, in which the pattern

over, after the manner of the weaver,
22.
the rectis
turned
LATE-GOTHIC VELVET Showing horizontal effect of

pattern constructed upon the lines of the ogee or
hexagon.
23.
WALL-PAPER PATTERN Shovnng Ogee

it is
24.
A DROP-PATTERNIn which
first
lines
on which
planned.
apparent.
the construction
is
not at
List of Plates.
25.
MAP Showing
simple pattern
26.
three plans,
may be
27.
Showing
on the diamond, which
the effect of the
Showing
is
its
Construc-
not apparent.
ARAB TILE AND LATTICE PATTERNS Showing

simple means by which intricacy
29.
which the same
length, &c.
DIAGONAL DAMASK PATTERN

tion
28.
its
either of
produced. -
VARIOUS DROP PATTERNS

drop according to
on
xi
DESIGN
Exemplifying
forms.
the
is
the
produced.
intentional
confusion
of
t'
30.
WALL-PAPER DESIGN
31.
PERSIAN TEXTjLE-^Showing the lines of the double

square on which tae pattern is constructed, as distinct
Showing a "drop" in the

ornamental scroll, whilst the grotesque creatures introduced follow tke lines of the square block.
from the
32.
lines
it
FOLIATED SCROLL
takes.
A design made
on square
lines, yet
assuming an ogee shape.
Showing
ij,
33.
ITALIAN SILK
ogee,
hexagon, or diamond
plan.
34.
SET PATTERN
35.
DAMASK
by
On
Explanatory of economy in weaving.

the^
plan of waved upright
horizontal bknds of rosettes.
lines,
crossed
ERRATA.
Page
36.
37
Line 14, dele from

,,
2,
dele from
"
When "
"But
to " upright line."

" to end of paragraph.
THE
ANATOMY OF PATTERN.
I.
INTRODUCTORY.
The
tion
dictionary scarcely helps us to a defini-
of the word pattern, in the
technical sense
in
which
it
somewhat
used by the
is
designer.
Inasmuch as a pattern signifies a "specimen," one might argue that repetition is imBut inasmuch
plied in ornamental pattern.
as
any "shape or model
quite
as
strictly
speaking
for
imitation"
pattern,
is
one
cannot exactly define pattern as repeating
ornament.
comes of reMany a pattern bears on the very

the evidence that it grew directly
Nevertheless, pattern mostly

petition.
face of
it
out of the, necessity of repetition.

It is
more than probable that some me-
chanical necessity gave rise to
all
geometric
The Anatomy of Pattern.
pattern
certainly
impossible to plait,
is
it
weave, or otherwise mechanically
net, knit,
make, without producing pattern.

so small, as
it
often
It
may
be
in weaving, that the
is
warp and weft are invisible to the naked eye

and all that remains for us to
it is there
but
do
is
to efface
best of
Out
of
it
we
all
it
can, or to
make the
it.
make
of the determination to
has grown
To
pattern-work.
spiration,
much
neglect this source of in-
say nothing of the
to
therefore,
attempt to suppress
wasteful
the best
of the most beautiful
it,
of opportunity
would seem to be
the
to
very last
degree.
The very
pattern
repetition of parts, then, produces
so
much
wherever there
pattern.
repeat
it
is
that one
so,
may
say
ordered repetition there
Take any form you

at regular intervals,
whether you want
it
please,
is
and
and you have,
or no, a pattern, as
surely as the recurrence of sounds will pro-
duce rhythm or cadence.
The
be
distribution of the parts
regular.
need not even
The wave marks on the
sand,
the veins of marble, the grain of wood, the
crystallisation of the breath upon the window-
Introductory.
panes, the curls of the hair, the very features
human
of the
So
pattern.
that
resolve
faces.
speculation whether
himself
finds
There
even room for
is
may
it
con-
patterns that
lui,
a view of escaping
anticipating
themselves into
this last the case,
malgr
devising,
remind one of
with
is
ornamentist
the
tinually
face
distinctly
not have been

danger,
this
or
rather, that the designer first
it
took to the deliberate use of those masks and

grotesque heads, which form so prominent a
feature in certain styles of ornament.
The popular
mental design
sit
down
idea of the process of ornathat the artist has only to
is,
before a piece of paper, and, like a
spider, spin out the fancies that
Indeed, there
imagination.
fertile
design for
his
all
that ornament
may crowd his
fancy
should
but he
spring,
is
is
scope in
no Zeus
Athena-like,
full-grown from his brain.
Ornament
is
constructed, patiently
(I will
not say laboriously, for the artist loves the

labour), patiently built
to
its
consistency
expert
is
it
skeleton
not
and
up on
lines
lines inevitable
so simple, that to the
difficult to
lay bare
its
very
just as the physiologist divides
the animal world, according to anatomy, into

B 2
families
and
the ornamentist
classes, so
able
is
to classify all pattern-work according to its

structure.
Like the
scientist,
he
is
able even
to show the affinity between groups to
appearance dissimilar
out
how few
which
and, indeed, to point-
upon
are the varieties of skeleton
all this
all
variety of effect
is
framed.
Before enumerating these varieties, let us
suppose for a
moment
man
to imagine (and
by no means an imaginary case) that

he will make to himself a repeating pattern
this is
without regard to
though
in
skeletons.
its
logical construction
as
domain there should be no

That would be, from my point of
his
view, a profoundly foolish thing to
do
more than
He may
that,
is
it
impossible.
design a unit in which there
and no
formality, but the
that unit,
is
if I
may
call
it so,
its
but,
repetition,
moment he
the very order of
proves to be,
no
repeats
repetition
the cupboard
which the skeleton
will be found.
might be imagined that by designing in
some such haphazard fashion as I have just
in
It
supposed, the
a freedom of
artist
line,
would secure to
his design
an absence of formality, not
readily to be obtained
systematic method.
by adopting the more

But this is not by any
Introductory.
means
so.
absolute
If,
indeed, the design be of that
uniformity
no one feature
another,
it
may
in
it
all
much
for
over, that there
is
more pronounced than
pass muster, notwithstanding
the want of backbone.
claim
it
But that
not to
is
And
as a design.
it
was
scarcely worth the pains to take exceptional
measures merely to
If,
this insignificant end.
on the other hand, a design be above
the level of insignificance, there must be in
it
some dominant feature or features, which,

when many times repeated, will appear more
prominent than
ever.
It is to, these features
that the eye will irresistibly be drawn

is
the lines
it
they take in relation one to
another, which will assert themselves.
hardly to be expected that,

never been
and
if
It is
these lines have
taken into consideration, they
should come out very satisfactorily
and, as a
matter of experience, they always come out
Every one must have suffered more or

less from wall-paper, and other patterns,, in
which certain ill-defined but awkward stripes
impressed themselves upon him and he may
awry.
have imagined
it,
possibly, if
that this effect of stripes
upon
he thought about
came of working
vertical, horizontal, or
diagonal
lines.
was much more
It
working upon
the result of not
likely,
definite lines at
all.
A designer
who knew the ABC of his business, would

make sure of lines not in themselves offensive;
he would counteract a tendency to stripes in
one direction by features directing the attention otherwards
and he would so clothe any
doubtful line that there would be no fear of

its
unduly asserting
ness
it
He
might.
itself,
as in
its
foresees the danger
naked(it is
danger even to the most experienced) and he

is
fore-armed against
of valour
who
principles, or
it.
disdains to
The mighty man

be -trammelled by
any such encumbrance,
is
with-
out defence against contingencies practically

certain to arrive.
fluke, that
It is
only by a miracle, or
he can escape
failure.
The
over-
whelming odds are, that the petty considerations he has despised, will be quite enough to
wreck any venture he has dared in defiance
of them.
Since, then,
it is
there shall be
practically inevitable that
definite lines
in ornarriehtal
designseeing that if you don't arrange for

them they arrange themselves
is the merest
ît
common
sense to lay
with, and, in -fact, to
down those lines to begin

make them the skeleton
Introductory.
or framework
upon which you build up your
pattern.
You
will see,
when they
are laid bare for
you, that these skeletons are after

few.
all
very
II.
PATTERN DISSECTION.
Repeated- pattern
cording to
First
classified
ac-
structure, I said.
its
in
may be
order of obviousness comes the
comes also very early in order of

invention
the loom must from the beginning have suggested the stripe-pattern, which
practically grows out of it.
It
stripe.
The
stripe,
however, carries us only a very
For
short distance in the direction of design.
immediately you make any break in the repeated
line,
the recurrence of that break gives
other lines in the cross direction.
Suppose a
series of horizontal
at equal intervals
is clear,
other,
that
if
by a
the rosettes
they give upright
shifted
bands broken
series of rosettes.
fall
lines
you get diagonal
It
one under the

or
if
they are
cross lines.
If the
line itself is broken, as in the case of
a series
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4.
Pattern Dissection.
of waved
lines, or,
more
still
plainly,
in
Vandykes, the turn of the wave, or
series of
when
the point of the zigzag,
it is
repeated,
gives the cross line just the same.
And
so
we come
at once to the vast order
of patterns constructed upon cross
This
is
probably quite the
time, arising as
it
point of
You have
of plaiting.
only to interweave strips
is
first in
inevitably does out of the
very primitive art
colours,
lines.
of two different
and you get at once a
familiar to us in black
chess-board pattern.
check, or
and white
(Plate
what
as the
2.)
Suppose the interwoven strips were all of

one colour, then the lines, of intersection would
make a lattice or basket-work pattern.

The simplest form of check or lattice is
when the crossing is at equal intervals and at
Vary the interval, and you
right angles.
have
all
manner
of plaids
and
tartans.
Alter
your point of view (or turn the design 45

degrees round) and you get the diamond.
The
difference in point
real
difference
any
direction,
in
but
plan
it is
of view
:
a stripe
always a
makes no
may
stripe.
take
But
if we alter the angle at which the lines

cross, we get not only a fresh variety of
lo
shapes,
but
we
get also a
diamond shape
which, for the sake of clearness, I will call

the diamond, which plays a very important
part in the next order of patterns, at which
however we have not yet arrived. Various
plaids,. diamond's, and other developments of
the lattice are exemplified in Plate
3.
In the case of a regular network of cross-
no particular reason
lines there is
should always be
chess-board.
grouped
filled
in alternately
They may
and so
solving
themselves into patterns
variety
and even of
intricacy,
they
la
well be
as
just
in twos, threes, fives,
seen in Plate
why
on, re-
of great
as
may be
2.
This theory, however, must not be pressed

too
hiard,
like
or
you may squeeze something very

it.
It might be
a false idea out of
contended that
the square, or
patterns
all
are formed on
all patterns, at least,
that can
be woven, the threads forming the squares on

which the design is laid. This is obviously
absurd.
square
The only
are
sciously or
The
those
in
patterns
built
which, the
not) worked, upon, those, lines.
actual squares apparent in a
woven
scroll,
on the
artist (con-
coarsely-
or in the old-fashioned sampler,
^-^lale
5-
Pattern Dissection.
belong, not to the pattern, but to
\ i
its
trans-
lation into a textile fabric.
If instead of the chess-board
get,
we take
the
and work upon them, we

without departing from those lines (only-
lines
of the
lattice,
intermitting them) a wonderful range of inter-
lacements and the like
some of them of ex-
ceeding intricacy, as in the case of the "fret"

number of these are shown on Plate 4.
There seems no
limit to the ever-increasing
range of pattern-work thus disclosed,
upon the same constructional
From
all built
scaffolding.
the intermission of the lines results
a kind of spot pattern, more or
which might be mistaken

of design.
But
it is
for
less
free,
a distinct order
only a variety.
whether a design
It really matters little
constructed on geometric
lines,
or
is
only ar-
it falls within
them. The
when you come to dissect the two,
is the same in either case.
Our theory of
construction, therefore, applies quite as much
ranged so that
skeleton,
to sprigs, spots,
as to those in
and all so-called free patterns,

which the constructional lines
actually occur as lines.
away with
construction
ceeded
keeping
in
the
You have
not done
when you have
suc-
scaffolding out
of
Again, the use of the broken line instead of the straight, or of the curved (which
sight.
we
have to consider more
shall
further
on),
makes no
effect.
The
skeleton
you show no
lines
at
as in the "all
all,
5,
which
on the parallelogram given by
So
far
we have had
most two
The
all
to do
though
same,
the
is
over" pattern on Plate
simplest of
particularly-
difference except in
planned
is
lattice lines.
only with the
possible schemes, in which at
series of lines intersect
one another.
introduction of a third series of cross
lines constitutes
new
departure,
and a most
important one.
Cross the square lattice
gonal
lines
bisecting
by a
the
series of dia-
angles
right
cutting the squares in half, that
to say
is
and we have a new form to work upon, the

triangle.
If instead of the square lattice,
with a lattice
of
diamond
series of cross lines bisecting the
the
diamond produces
one
equally
starts
a third
shape,
angles of
diaper
of triangles.
And
if
the diamonds of the lattice be of a
certain proportion^f,
sharp
that
is
to
say,
two
angles be together equal to one of
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7.
fPlate 8.
CTIU.'ElLMaldeh'.
Pattern Dissection.
the blunter angles, you have only to bisect
the blunt
third
angle
series
equilateral triangle,
far
the
of
of cross
away the most
diamonds by
lines to
which of
arrive at
this
the
triangles
all
is
useful in design.
By merely grouping the equilateral triangles,

6, we get the hexagon (a group
as in Plate
of six triangles), the star (a group of twelve),
and other shapes, such as that on Plate 7,

is made up of seven triangles (i. e. three
which
diamonds and a
which
is
triangle)
or that on Plate
composed of eighteen
8,
triangles or
three hexagons.
glance at the three Plates
show how immensely the
6,
8, will
7,
designer's scope is
now widened.
We
finity
in
have already the basis of
all
of geometric pattern which
Byzantine
mosaic
and
inlay,
Moresque tile-work derived from

be seen
other
hexagon,
that the
compound
shapes,
that in-
we
find
in
the
it.
the
It will
star,
themselves
and
form
exactly-fitting diapers.
By
the use of a fourth series of cross lines
another
new shape
is
it
Returning
evolved.
once again to the square

diagonally both ways,
lattice,
cross
if
it
we
by
cross
itself.
14
that
so that each square
is,
cut up into
you get out of those lines the octagon

but not an equal-sided octagon
four,
(Plate 9)
that
is
on a cross
built
is,
lattice
of different
proportions.
The
octagon, however,
will.
not a unit which
is
form a diaper, as the hexagon
will of itself
only in connection with a square,
It is
diamond, or other four-sided
by
Place side
will repeat.
figure,
that
it
side a series of
octagons, and there will appear four-sided gaps
between (Plate
9).
new
new varieties of radionce more the elaborate
Nevertheless, this
series of lines gives us
ated, patterns
witness
interlacings of the
Arabs
all
of which, even
the most magnificent, are closely related, to
common cane-bottomed
the seat of a
chair.
It is possible to carry the principle of radiastill. You may, for example, cross
more elaborate lattice by a lattice like
itself; but you get by that means rather
tion further
this
intricacy than variety
especially
when the
intersecting lines are in part interrupted.

certain
Arab patterns, where this
tion of lines
as
if
is
new
(Plate 10)
employed,
principle
but upon
it
In
ultra-elabora-
appears almost
had been introduced

analysis the
designs
fPlsLte 9.
.JI,tM*11*>>DlÂwaJ.
3>nV>i
^late 10.
Pattern Dissection.
resolve
themselves
into
15
the elements with
which we have already had to deal
so few
upon which pattern is conAlready we have come to the end
are the plans

structed.
of the straight-lined family.
Why,
may be
it
on other
diaper
asked, can
lines,
pentagon for example ?

together so
you not make a
on the
lines of the
Well, you
many pentagons and
spectable diaper they form
may
put
a very re-
especially
if
you
further enrich the
with
pentagons
five-pointed stars.
Not long since I

came upon just
a
such
diaper,
which, for a mo-
promised
ment,
to upset
all
my
arranged
neatly
on
theories
of
subject
the
patPentagon diaper and
anatomy.
tern
However, I had only to dissect

that
it
disguise
was our old

;
sight to deceive.
There
diamond
made up
it
is.
skeleton.
to discover
it,
friend the
but so artfully
its
as at
in
first
It consists of
pentagons put side by
between them ingeniously
and
triangles,
much
the interstices
side,
with stars
filled
as the pentagons
them-
selves are filled so that one does not readily

It wants no
any kind may be put
distinguish between the parts.

telling that shapes of
together to form a pattern
but that does not
alter the fact that the lines
on which they are
arranged, or into which they
those
fall,
have already laid down
indeed the base of
all
For further variety

to the use of the
must be
which are
possible pattern.
in design,
circle.
The
we must resort
circle itself must,
indeed, be arranged on one or other of the
foregoing plans.
say,
It
must be
struck, that is to
from centres corresponding to the points
of intersection of lines, such as have already
been described.
In so far
it is
only one of the
innumerable arbitrary shapes that

arranged.
feature
in
But the
itself,
it
circle is
so
may
be so
so important a
entirely
scope of geometric pattern, that
alters
it
the
deserves
One cannot simply
to be considered apart.
ignore the element of curvilinear design in
ornament.
Whether
or not the idea of flowing patterns
originated in the circle,
is
of no great conse-
^la-tell.
Pattern Dissection.
quence.
Instinct
17
must have preceded geo-
metric principles in the mind of man.
One may very easily deduce many of the

common curvilinear patterns directly from
angular motives.
The wave,
(Plate
for
1 1.)
example,
blunted at the points.
is
a zigzag, just
Soften the lines of the
hexagon, and you have the ogee.

straight
rods,
may be seen in
common hurdle.
hexagon
circle.
gon diaper
lines,
as
the perspective view of the
Round
the corners of the
and you
or octagon,
The
Interlace
and you get waved
relation of the
arrive at a rude
hexagon or octa-
to the diaper of circles
Presumably, the busy bee,
if
one
obvious.
is
may
suggest
such a thing without irreverence, only works

in a circle,
of the
and the hexagonal form of the
honeycomb
crowded
all
simply the result of
is
gravitation; just as
you
find that cylinders
become hexagonal
The circular form

the moment he first
cells
is
prisms.
man from
sun or moon
familiar to
sees the
like a disc in the sky, as also the principle of
radiation
is
perceived in the
know, the very
first
stars.
For
all
pattern ever traced
we
by
human hand may have consisted of circles.

The primeval artist had only to pick up the
c
is
nearest dry twig, and indent the

I
with the end of
damp
earth
to get a series of round
it,
would pass
impressions, which
for
a very
say that was so.

upon it, that the ways
in which patterns are formed can be reduced
and that they practically
to the siniplest
force themselves upon the workman^making
him, as it were, an artist in spite of himI don't
respectable diaper.
I
only
mean
to insist
self.
The circle, with its segment the curve, and

compound the spiral, assumes extreme
importance whenwe come to the consideration
of the scroll (with which just now we are not
its
concerned)
but
mere diapers
it
will
it
be seen that even
leads to an apparently
in
new
order of things.
The
the
simplest form of circle diaper
.circles
diamond plan
By
and so as
when
to touch at the edges.
the intersection of the

.
another, an effect of
much
at once obtained
and
is
is
are arranged on the square or the
ference whether
circles,
one by
greater elaboration
it
makes
all
the
dif-
you determine the proportions
of the circle according to the lines on which
they are struck (as in Plate 12) or not (as on

the upper part of Plate 1 3).
CPlate
12.
fPlate 13.
î^pers
-"-^b-î-W,^^^.
*COiislY-uctio(i
of Scale
"pattern,
'rbc iti1crilion oF
dotted ltnb dhoiuoccnlrcborcirclc
(î^j^g
n^lsLte 14.
Pattern Dissection.
Out
of the
circle,
or
its
segments,
we get
and
manner
also the trefoil, the quatrefoil,
all
of cusped shapes (Plate 15), which also must
needs be put together on one or other of the

plans already propounded.
Further, out of the segments of the circle
you can construct the scale pattern, which

(as you may see on Plate 15) might equally
have been derived from the scales of a
or the
plumage of a
may also
bird's neck.
The
fish
scale
be considered as a translation of the
Re-arrange the
diamond into curved lines.
and you have a more graceful, as well
as a more complicated, diaper (same plate)
scales
in
which appears the ogee shape, once
before,
referred to as being a curvilinear modification
of the hexagon.
The hexagon
,
itself
may be deduced from
Suppose a network of
it.
lines or
.thing
ogee shapes
and the result
figures
(Plate
11),
it
is
interlacing
wave
amounts to the same

a series of six-sided
very nearly approaching
the straight-lined hexagon.
In this
way
the straight-lined series might
be derived from the curved
and so once more,
by a veiy different road, we reach always, in

maze of pattern-work, the same pointy
C 2
this
A natomy of Pattern.
The
2o
which
is,
the limited variety of the skeleton on
which pattern
From
is built.
the combination of straight lines with
curved (Plates 12 and 13) result all manner

of new diaper forms ; which, however, present
way of skeleton.
You might start a scroll pattern, such as was
common in the sixteenth or seventeenth cennothing very new in the
17) on the lines either of the
turies (Plate
hexagon or of the ogee, or of a mixture of

curved and straight lines which I may call the
broken ogee
and
in the
end
it
would not be
very clear which of them you had taken for a
g-roundwork
or even whether
you had not
founded your design upon the diamondsuch
do those various skeleton
lines
have dwelt at some length upon
rudi-
close kindred
betray.
I
mentary diaper forms,

from
anything
for reasons quite apart
intrinsically
interesting
beautiful in them, although they
one and the other.
More
likely if tender colours
the forms, or
if
may be
especially
or
both
is this
be employed to soften
the colour variations do not
quite follow the pattern, as in the case of
marble
inlay,
the material
where the accidental colour of

is
a relief from the geometric
n^late 15
Pattern Dissection.
monotony of the
The Japanese some-
shapes.
times go so far as to interrupt the pattern,
wiping out a bit of
it
here and there, anti-
cipating, indeed, the softening effect that age
might impart to
But
it is
it.
more
(Plate 14.)
as a basis of design that
we
have at present to consider geometric forms.
The basis
of
geometric.
all
repeated patterns
And,
this
being
is,
as I said,
so, it is
as essen-
that the designer should be acquainted
tial
with simple geometric principles, as
draughtsman
figure
it is
should have
that
some
knowledge of superficial anatomy.
For
all
the simplicity of the skeleton lines
he has to deal with, the pattern designer's

art
is
not such a simple thing as you might
suppose.
He
has not merely to invent pretty
patterns, but patterns that can
worked
and
by the
be conveniently
mapped
the lines
out for
him
conditions of his work, are, in most
instances, not just those
which beauty would
have decreed.
They
prove, however, to be identical with
the lines already shown to be the basis of

recurring pattern-work
and so we begin
all
to see
had there been no such thing as pattern

design before, and no traditional forms of
that,
22
design for us to follow, those very forms must
have been evolved as certainly out of the more

complex conditions of modern manufacture as
they were out of the simple contrivances of
That is to say, that the

by the primary processes
of netting, plaiting, and so on, would equally
have been prescribed by the printing roller or
the power loom.
primitive handicraft.
lines first given to us
one of the most interesting points
It is
the analysis of pattern design to
see
regularly
in
how
we work
identically the
round, again and again, to

same shapes. You cannot safely
dogmatise as to the origin of this or that

pattern
which
by
there are always so
it
many ways
might have been suggested.
waved
side a series of
in
Put side
lines so that their
curves are opposed (Plate ii) and the effect
is
exactly the same as though you had opened

out an ogee diaper
pattern
you can deduce
from the other.
plate), if the
ogees interlace,
to say whether this
ogee, or of
waved
either
Or, again (same

it
is
impossible
was the outcome of the
lines,
or simply of the pro-
cess of netting.
On
in
shown six different ways

and the same simple staif
Plate i6 are
which
pattern
one
may
be arrived
at.
^late
16,
Pattern Dissection.
By
1.
the juxtaposition
23
of stars and the
addition of cross-lines.
2.
By
the juxtaposition of diamonds and
the addition of cross-lines.

3.
By
the
juxtaposition
of right-angled
diamonds, each occupied by a

4.
By
the interlacing
of
star.
two
of
series
octagons, and the addition of cross-lines.

5.
By
the crossing of two series of zigzag
and the addition of
lines,
or lozenges,
And
the
cross-lines.
By the crossing of two series of diamonds
6.
this
and the addition of
number of ways
result
To
cross-lines.
does not by any means exhaust

in
which the
same
might have been reached.

take another instance, of a very
dif-
you know how common it is to

see a waved line with leaves alternating on
each side of it. It appears on the face of it, a
quite mechanical and arbitrary arrangement
ferent kind,
but you have only to note how, in nature,

the alternate leaves on a slender stem, pull
it
out of the straight to see the natural and
inevitable origin of the idea.
By
merely ex-
aggerating the slight wave of the natural

stem,
you get one of the most conventional
of ornamental border patterns.
24
So
it
would seem
that,,
whether you begin
with mechanical construction or with nature,

it
htod of an ornathe same thing in the end only
works round, in the
mentist, to
in the
hands of an ornamentist.
-v
late 17.
erKA.nii>iidu.sn>(T>i st.H.'aaM.x.c
Practical Pattern Planning.
25
III.
PRACTICAL PATTERN iPLANNING.

Pattern design
is
very seriously affected
by the circumstance
that the possible lines
of construction are not in
In practical design
limitations are strict
them
mission to
design
is
all
for
and
cases practicable.
manufacture the
it
is
only by sub-
that success in ornamental
possible.
Nor
only the style
is it
or character of the design that
but
its
The
is
affected,
plan also.
Oriental mind, delighting in geometric
intricacy,
has availed
itself
largely
of the
built up with it all

manner of delightfully elaborate patterns.
The modern European finds it more convenient to him to adopt the simpler parallelogram. He may now and then use hexa-
triangular unit, and has
gonal
prefers
or
other many-sided
the
square.
So
also
tiles,
the
but he
weaver's
cards are inevitably in the shape of parallelo-
grams, and the printer's blocks
and though
The Anatomy of Pattern,
26
make
the printer
roller instead
use of the
of the block, the conditions of design remain
unaltered
for the roller
is,
for all practical
purposes of design, only a block bent round
shape of a cylinder.
in the
Even the bookbinder of the Renaissance,

who was comparatively free to do what he
liked in the way' of "tooling," was led,
whether by instinct or by his tools, to adopt
a
rectangular
which also
in the
way
is
repeat,
i8
Plate
in
in
may be done
of reversing, and again reversing,
the unit of design

little
as
exemplified what
so as with
drawing to produce
comparatively
the effect of an
extensive pattern.
We have,
ordinarily, to reconsider the pos-'
sible lines of
pattern
construction
relation to the rectangular figure,
repeat determined for us

nearly
all
modem
The base
by the
in their
which
is
the
conditions of
manufacture.
of our operations
is
then usually
a parallelogram.
Furthermore, this parallelogram

cases restricted in size,
more
and
in
is
in all
most cases of
or less arbitrary proportions.
For example
printing,
it
is
in
the case of wall-paper
practically determined for us
?late
18.
27
that the printer's block shall be rectangular.
Custom has further fixed its width at 21

And, since a block of greater length
than that would be unwieldy, we are restricted
inches.
to a square of 21 inches
The
of the
by
21 inches.
represent a fraction only
which can theoretically be
design,
made up
But
may
block
many
of as
blocks as you please.
in practice the
expense of such a pro-
make
the paper-hangings cost
ceeding would
more than
worth
paper-hangings
are
ordinarily
and, apart from commercial consider-
which would be enough to prevent
ations,
that kind of extravagance,
it
is
contrary to
The
who can apply his
craftsmanship so to misapply labour.
most capable
art to
he
artist is
most purpose, and get
full
value out of
his materials.
As
a matter of
fact,
the wall-paper designer
has to content himself, then, except in very
few instances, with a repeat of
at
most 21
inches square.
Within those
free
he
but, as I
will,
his
geometric
limits
he
is
comparatively
have already shown, do what
repeated pattern will
lines, if
gram on which
fall
into
only those of the parallelo-
it is built.
A pattern, such as
28
A, on Plate
19,
eonform to no
may seem
at first sight to
conditions of restraint
lines of the repeat are
actual
closer inspection in
recurrence
is
any
but the
apparent on
single feature
to be traced.
whose
It is based,
you
upon the square.

Apart from the conditions of actual manu-
will find,
facture
it is
found commercially expedient to
adopt certain fixed dimensions for the

block, roller, or whatever
it
may beand we
are thus constrained to design

are to be of
any
use)
tiles (if they,
on the usual
eight-inch or other accepted scale

to a width fixed
controlled
by
tile,
three, six,
;
textiles
the loom, and a length
by the consideration of economy
block-printed fabrics under very similar conditions
and
roller-printed to a length as well
as a width prescribed.
The
proportion of the
parallelogram within which our design must
be confined
varies, that is to say,
manufacture for which
we
experienced designer could often

its
with the
are designing.
tell,
An
from
proportion and scale alone, for what par-
ticular
it is
manufacture a design was made.
And
in the impracticability of his ideas that
the novice most infallibly betrays his lack of

experience.
9la1e
CrKelPhoto-llth,
19.
There
no occasion
is
29
more
to enter
fully
into all the various technical reasons for the

limitations to
which the designer
The practical convenience

patent.
is
subject
of them, however,
It is as desirable that
example, should know what sized
for
may be
available, as that
upon the
to reckon
and
it is
is
the architect,
tiles
he should be able
" bond " of his brickwork
equally clear that without some uni-
formity in the width of materials (such as

silks, velvets,
would be
carpets, chintzes,
difficult to estimate,
and so
on),
it
off-hand, the
relative cost of each.
As
it is,
the public
that way.
The
is
not seldom misled in
difference
2 1 inches in width,
is
between 18 and
not so apparent to the
eye that the purchaser of a French wallpaper need

is
realise,
when he
selects
it,
that
it
actually nearly seventeen per cent, dearer
than an English paper nominally at the same

price
Something very
perpetrated
when
facts
like
swindle
of
this
kind
deliberately kept from the buyer.
There
further fraud in withholding from
him the
is
are
is
in-
formation that certain foreign goods sold by

the piece are only about three-quarters of the
length of English goods competing with them.
30
To
return to the subject
the
upshot of
it
that the designer has habitually to shape
is,
his
design according to a rectangular plan,
and that of
It
limited, if not fixed, dimensions.
becomes, then, a very serious question
with him
how
far
he can
avail himself of
any
other basis.
The
student might
with
advantage
set
himself to tabulate the possibilities in the
way
of adapting the various units of repeat to

repetition, within the square.
be seen
that,
though
all
It
would then
things are possible,
there are schemes the artist would like to

adopt, which, in order to be brought into the
repeat permitted, would need to be worked
out upon so small a scale as to become quite

too insignificant for use.
One
instance of this
it
may be
worth while
to give.
Suppose a square block of 21
you wish
to
inches, and
adapt a hexagonal design to
Only those who have tried the experiment have any notion how small the hexagons would come. If you made your hexait.
gons 10^ inches wide, so as to get two in

they would not come true in the
width,
length
they would be too long.
If
you made
-?late 20.
lia>,9Jin>tHl
them
not
they would
true,
the square, but
fill
only a space about 21
by
inches
Three
18.
and
hexagons
half
the width
in
would work, but only

as a
"
drop " pattern
that would give hexa-
gons
of
inches
six
In
across.
order
to
occupy the square with

true hexagons repeating
without a " drop," they
would need to be
re-
duced to half that
size
that
there
to
is
say,
would have to be seven

hexagons to the width,
measuring
each
only
three inches across.

It
will
seen, in
this
how very
artist
is
plainly
be
instance,
strictly
the
bound
by
considerations
which
scarcely occur
to the
<-5caTe21 ioc1;)e->
32
uninitiated, considerations
had
which have always
do with the design of

Fashion has had her say in
a great deal to
pattern-work.
the matter, too, no doubt
she has
it is
a wicked
way
but though certain lines have been
generally adopted at certain periods and in

certain countries, I think
it
will invariably
be
found that there was some technical or practical
reason for their adoption in the
first
instance.
Out
for
of the conditions
of weaving
came,
example, the adoption of upright patterns
and
cross
Colouring
(as
the
in
silks
of
Byzantine, Sicilian, and early Italian design),

as well as the turning over of the design on
the two sides of an upright stem, or purely
imaginary central
Plates 20 and
line.
21,
old Sicilian silk
the
woollen fabric of the
In Plate 22
influence
pattern.
This
is
shown
in
the one taken froni an
may
other
from a coarse
5th century.
further be
the material
may
There was a whole
seen what
exercise
upon
class of patterns
of this kind schemed in the 15th and i6th centuries,
as
with the obvious purpose of disturbing
little
as possible of the rich pile of the
velvet for which they were designed.
^kte
21.
?late 22,
The
tially
turning over of the pattern
a weaver's device.
same
On
the
introduce
Plate 23.
rigid
symmetry
contrary,
some
it
is
essen-
In a pattern similarly
planned for printing there

that
is
33
is
no occasion
of the
for
sides.
rather
to
have done
in
desirable
variations, as I
two
34
IV.
THE "DROP" PATTERN.

The most
work upon, all

For it is
" drop"
diamond
that
basis
of
the
on the
patterns are most readily designed.
The " drop " is a device by means of which
useful skeleton to
things considered,
the designer
is
is
the diamond.
enabled, without reducing the
scale of his work, to minimise the
danger of
unforeseen horizontal stripes in his design, a
danger which
occur always
is
imminent when the repeats

by side on the same
side
level.
The
printer's block,
or the roller
take that
is
form.
its
we will
say, is a square
equivalent
or the cards
In the printed or woven

.
whether paper, cretonne,
or what
end of one repeat must tally with
the beginning of the next, in order that the
strip,
silk,
not, the
pattern
piece.
may be
continuous throughout the
Equally of course
.the
design must
?late23.
The
'
Drop "
Pattern.
35
be so schemed that the ri^t side of one

piece of the stuff will
But
fit
on to the
left
of
may be
so
and so on.
another,
clear that the design
is
it
contrived that each succeeding breadth has to
be dropped in the hanging.

drop were only very slight
If this
three inches
it
say
would take seven breadths,
in a pattern of 21 inches deep, before a given
feature in the design occurred again exactly

.
on the same
level.
There would be no dan-
ger then of any horizontal tendency in the
on the other hand, great likelihood
lines, but,
of a diagonal line developing
itself,
with even
more unfortunate effect. The design steps

downwards and the shorter the steps, the
more noticeable is the line they take. This
"
difficulty is avoided if you make the " drop
;
just one-half the depth of the pattern, so that

is hung on the same
Then the diagonal lines correct one
every alternate strip

level.
another.
If
any
line at all asserts itself,
it
is
a zigzag (instead of a step), which, in connection with corresponding zigzags above
below,
may
very possibly form a
and
trellis
of
diamonds.
There
is
good reason,
therefore, for saying
36
the diamond
upon
it is
pattern
its
is
a useful plan to work on
for
formed the safest variety of drop
that,
namely, which drops one-half
depth.
Instances
of drop patterns
are given
in
and others.
One has heard persons, more familiar with
the forms of ornament than expert in practical
Plates 17, 24, 29, 32, 33,
design, complain of the
perience in
scheming
difficulty
they ex-
a "drop."
If they
would only think of the problem as the

filling of a diamond shape, it would come
very easily to them.
When
the pattern within the diamond
is
symmetrically disposed on the two sides of

a
central
upright
line,
the artist
has the
opportunity of working out a design which

is
apparently twice the width at his
dis-
posal.
If
you subdivide a block of 21 inches

thus, so that the two smaller
divisions a and V together
equal the larger division ^, it
amounts to precisely the same
thing as though you designed

upon the basis of a squat diamond 21 inches
high by 42 inches wide. You have only to
Îate24.
CF.KollPlioto-LitTi
"
The
Drop "
Pattern.
37
transpose the component triangles to produce

the squat diamond.
But, in order that the
design shall be practicable,
it
must be
symmetrically
dis-
posed on either side

of a central line
one side of
it
the
must
be an exact reverse of the
other, or
it
would
not work.
The advantage gained

course, only apparent
strip is
in
what
way
this
is
is,
of
put into one
but
taken out of the other
in the
case of a pattern appearance goes a long way.
From
the practical point of view,
it is difficult
to over-estimate the value of this expedient

in design, the
for all
common
manner of
property of designers
fabrics,
but undreamt-of
in
the philosophy of the amateur.

Theoretically,
it is all
the
same whether you
design a drop on the lines of the square, on

the slant, or on the diamond, you
in either case at identically the
This
the
is
plainly
shown
may
same
in Plate 25, in
arrive
result.
which
dotted portions of the ground will ex-
plain
how
the same pattern might be built on
either one of three plans.
You might
snip
The
J8
A ndtomy of Pattern.
square
pieces from the four corners of the
and make with them the diamond or if you

dispose them differently, you might produce
the oblique shape which last would amount
to the same thing as though you had cut off
;
only two corners and transposed them.
For
all
that,
makes
it
difference in the world
practically all
the
which plan you adopt.
Your design must be influenced to a very

considerable degree by the shape you set
yourself to
It
fill.
would never occur
to you,
for instance, to stretch a festoon, or wreath,
across a width of space
you.
So
it
may be
you did not see before

fairly said, that
such
extension of the design, beyond the width of

the material,
on the
is
the direct result of working
diamond
lines of the
whilst
you are
designing within the lines of the square, you
have naturally no impulse to go beyond
its
limits.
In designing for
the material
is
tiles
are soniewhat different,

accordingly.
and such
like,
where
not continuous, the conditions
Where
and the
possibilities
the unit of design can
conveniently be turned round, or half-way

round, or three-quarters of the way, the scope
of the
designer
is
increased
out
of four
The
'^
Drop"
repeats of a six inch
Pattern.
he can
tile
39
get, for ex-
ample, a circular design 12 inches in diameter.
So
again, the bookbinder, with a compara-
tively
limited
set
of tools,
siderable scope in design

lines
very con-
but even then the
he can work upon are always the same
although
him
has
more of them may be open
than to another.
to
40
V.
SKELETON PLANS.
The
designer finds
venient to design at
lines,
because their
more cononce upon the diamond

simplicity enables him
ordinarily
it
better to keep in view the effect of his pattern
in
any other
repeated form than
its
on which the
lines (there are others)
"
drop
can be worked.
Even though one may have no

taking advantage of the
it
may
still
be found convenient to design
within the diamond,
economise design
is
full
intention of
width of a block,
if
and,
only
order
in
to
mind you, economy
an absolute necessity of the
But
case.
for
economic reasons there would be no weaving,

printing,
confine
-
stamping, and so on
ourselves
to
we
embroidery,
should
tapestry,
and other work of our own hands.

If you begin by dividing the width of
21 inches into two, and make your pattern a
painting,
'drop," 21
same
as
inches long
by \o\
wide,
it is
the
though you had worked upon a
Tiate 26.
Skeleton Plans.
41
diamond 21 inches from point
may ,be
seen at
to point, as
in Plate 26, although, as I
same pattern would probably

not have occurred to you in either case.
Designing on the diamond such a pattern as
the last-mentioned might very likely occur to
said before, the
one
on the
lines of the
gram, more
dropped parallelo-
such
likely
one
B on
as
Plate 19.
you divide the width of 2 1 inches

into three (A, Plate 26) and On those lines
set out a series of diamonds 21 inches long
Again,
if
by 14 inches
wide, so that the block contains
one and a half

as a drop (to
in the
fall
the diamonds were
work
width, this will
one-half
its
depth)
if
only
Variously
all filled alike.
diamonds would not repeat.

If you still divide your 2 1 inches into three,
and institute a series of stripes or panels of
filled
seven inches wide, each of which drops at the
same
interval (whatever
it
may
to result in a diagonal stripe
nounced
have
be),
more
it is
likely
or less pro-
which might, of course, equally
been
designed
upon diagonal
lines.
(D, Plate 26.)

If
of the
three
dropped,, the design
stripes
only
one
were
would
also
hang
as a
42
drop, revealing very likely a zigzag line on
the principle already laid down.
(C, Plate 26.)
Further explanation of the ways in which
may
a given space
said
the
of
be subdivided (what
supposed
inches
21
is
applies
equally to any given parallelogi-am) would be

superfluous.
Enough has been
how by such
subdivision the utmost variety
of scale
may be
said to
show
obtained.
you come
back always to the same few schemes and
although in any case your pattern might
equally have been designed upon other lines,
working on those lines it never would have
Although, however you
start,
'
occurred to you.
The
diagonal stripe pattern on
resolves itself into a
diamond
Plate 27
repeat, but
it is
tolerably certain that the designer did not
work upon the lines of that diamond, but

probably upon a network of diagonal and
horizontal cross-lines
as did also the inventor
of Plate 20.
The
inevitable influence
on your design of
the lines upon which you start,
and the only excuse,
is
the excuse,
for puzzling over all the
various skeletons upon which pattern can be

laid out.
n'l
ate
27
_ionat
rormoS upon "tbey
C
(..;. of tS|
'\j^
"J
Skeleton Plans.
It
is
43
when you
make the
By that means
a good test of your design,
have roughe;d
out on one plan, to
it
finished drawing on another.
you see it, as it were, from two points of view,

and can form a very fair idea as to how it
drawing much of the repeat.
repeats, without
The
practical designer,
who
has learnt not
attach great value to the appearance of
to
his design as a drawing, often cuts

liberately,
and re-arranges the
it
up de-
parts, in order
the better to prove his repeat.
A design
on
the square he cuts into four equal parts, and
what were the

corners of the design come together and form
the centre, and so on. The accompanying diagram shows how
re-arranges the quarters^ so that
the
parts of
the
diamond may be
re-arranged.
But the best of

all
possible tests
is
to cut ever so rude
stencil
of
the
broad masses of the

to multiply
it
design,
indefinitely.
so as roughly
A child
taught to apply that test for you

is infallible.
can be
;
and
it
44
Whatever the lines of the skeleton, in any

important work they are usually disguised.
Sometimes (as often in Arab art) they are
so crossed and interlaced that it is difficult
to
follow
their
The
intricacy.
really very
simple patterns on Plates i,,io, and 28 are

at first sight very puzzling.
Or the lines may be interrupted so

or
that
you
Or, again, two
lose the thread of the design.
more schemes of ornament may
be, so to
speak, interwoven, the one asserting itself here,
the other there, so that neither thread of idea

is
be
too conspicuous.
seen
which
in
the
Plate
The
29,
attention
is
eflfect
a drop
of this
in
the
formal lines of the scroll by^ a conventional
growth
ning
of
>
to
is
pattern,
diverted from
'
\
'
much
freer
character
overrun-
it.
Further, features
may be
introduced of such
importance in the design that the eye
drawn
and
to them,
fails
to
is
perceive the
connecting lines between them.
In
Plate
30
the strongly marked bird-
forms counteract to some extent the simple 1
ogee or diamond
set out.
In
lines
fact,
on which the pattern
the birds
is-
emphasise the
actual repeat of the block, just as the scroll
flaf6 28.
Plate 29.
iNKi-PHtTO, SPBAfU'E *f' lon;
Skeleton Plans.
45
reveals the unit of the ornamental repeat
and
out of the two contrasting schemes arises

a certain confusion, which
is
of
some
artistic
account in design.
way
Obviously, however, the most effective

of disguising the skeleton
to clothe
is
nature does; and the most natural

this
is,
tion
lines
it,
as
way of doing
with something in the nature of
folia-
beneath which the bare constructional

are
as
noticeable
little
the
as
stiff
branches of a tree under their burden of leaf
and blossom.
By this
(Plates 31, 32, &c.)
means, you get at once
and variety so
this
already
became
sceptic
and yet
believe
quite
interest,
explanation until
lengthy
tedious,
life,
one might continue
great, that
fail
to
make
it
the
the absolute sim-
in
the skeleton forms underlying
plicity" of
all
pattern.
The foliated scroll,

in
Roman
even in Plate
as
you see it, for example,
Renaissance Arabesque (or
or
32), looks
almost as though
it
were impossible of geometric construction.
And, of
built up.
course,
it
But, for
familiar lines.
The
never
all
is
that,
mathematically
it
spiral itself
of segments of circles
and
if
falls into
is
the
only a series
you
dissect
any
46
repeated scroll-pattern, you will find most

likely that
spiral.
bone.
Pattern
scroll the
pronounced.
is
its
back-bone
Certainly
is
you
broken-backed.
a wave line or
it
has a back-
a vertebrate thing
spinal cord
You
is
will find
is
and
in
very decidedly
can easily see when a
scroll
?1ate ^0,
]3Ae3].
a.te
iîik..ajt u. J.
w.B .,.
32.
Appropriate Pattern.
47
VI.
APPROPRIATE PATTERN.
only by experience that a designer
It is
learns to
know what may, and what may
be done within given
lines.
Many
not,
a notion
which one had a thought of adopting, turns

out to be practically quite unamenable to
existing conditions.
You
out
caniiot
draw a
considerable
bold, flowing scroll with-
allowance in
the
way
length in the blocks, cards, or whatever
be
of
may
nor can you well avoid a certain upright
tendency in patterns where the width
much
the
it
restricted.
The
lines
characteristic
is
very
fact of the matter
of
is,
time-honoured
patterns are mainly the direct result of the

restrictions
under which the craftsman was
working.
It is
owing to the
angular cubes of
that the
facility
tile
peculiarly
with which
tri-
can be manipulated,
geometric character of
48
much
us,
Oriental ornament
the
is
So
due.
proportions of the square
also with
tile
have
resulted in a distinctly characteristic form of
ornament.
do not pretend to say whether the turning

over of the design which prevails in early
I
was suggested by the
silks,
turning over could be
weaving
but
it
that such
fact
done
so, readily
looks, at all events, as
the Sicilians, and, in
in
though
weavers generally,
fact,
until comparatively recent times,
adopted that
plan of design, because by means of
it
they
could at once double the scale of their pattern.

In the Renaissance
figured on Plate 33,
silk,
and in all such reversible designs planned

upon the diamond, hexagon, or ogee, onehalf the labour of designing and card-cutting
is
Naturally, the nineteenth century
saved.
manufacturer has not been slow to adopt a

plan so obviously economical.
said, that
owes
may
its
the
origin to the circumstance that
double a sheet of paper, and
action, cut out the

is
not
has been
It
idea of reversing a pattern
so, it
two sides of
well might be
If that
that, pro-
common
Very possibly
you
with one
it.
except
bably, reversed patterns were
before paper was.
so,
it is
long
derived
C F
Kell Pliolo-Lith
^1 ate 34.
49
One
from the practice of folding or doubling.
may
put together, for example, several sheets
of veneer, or even several planks, and, with one

action of the saw, fret all of
facility
gave
at
rise
characteristic
them
events to Boulle's
all
patterns
inlay
balconies of Swiss chilets one
and
still
in
accounted for in a similar way.
Bands or
common
in
stripes of different colours are so
Eastern curtains, blankets,
more elaborate
certain
of the
is
The
At
dis-
variety of colour so
obviously due to the ease with
whiqh the weaver can change his

the same time,
effected.
designs,
are very often
colours
tributed band-wise.
obtained,
and other
silk
&c.,
Even
because they can be so easily woven.

in
the
sees a very
kind of pierced pattern-work, which
effective
is
That
alike.
If in
such
economy
shuttle.
thus often
is
a design' as that on
Plate 34 the flowers were
meant
appear
to
in gold, or only the eyes of the flowers, the
gold thread need only be used in the bands
where the flowers or eyes actually occur.

You have but to look at the back of any
old piece of many-coloured silk
damask
to
see the changes of the shuttle very plainly
marked. The aim of the designer
is
usually to
50
disguise
them more
or less in his pattern.
But
in the early days of silk weaving the unso-
had no
phisticated artist
fear of a horizontal
In such a pattern as the Sicilian silk in
line.
make
Plate 20, he would boldly
bands of animals
in various
the various
colours.
He
would sometimes even carry bands of colour

straight across the animals, regardless of their
shape.
And
the
ready proceeding,
justifies
effect
of this rough-and-
in the silk itself, certainly
him.
In early examples of weaving both the

turning over of the pattern, and the banded
arrangement of the colour are veiy frequent;

indeed, so
much
so, as to
form quite marked
features in the design of the eleventh
lowing centuries, whether Sicilian or
and
fol-
Italian.
was from Sicily, you know, that the art of

weaving was introduced into Italy.)
Designers would be the more ready to
adopt, and to adhere to, the plan suggested.^;
(It
by the
loom, in that the horizontal
line, due to
was not anyways injurious to the effect of a
fabric meant to fall in folds. The dim vertical
it,
which was also likely to occur from the

turning over, was calculated to lose itself in
line,
..the
more strongly marked
verticality of the
n^l8LTe35.
folds
and the horizontal band emphasised
by the change of the
shuttle
had an absolute
value in marking the fulness of the hangings.
In
flat
decoration the horizontal band
unobjectionable
so
many
and
it is
is less
for that reason that
of the wall-paper patterns, borrowed
or stolen from
you
good old
know them
shall
factory on the wall.
stuffs
are
To
by their stripes
altogether unsatis-
me, horizontal stripes
always suggest the ample hanging, and seem

to
want the
folds.
The bold and

damask pattern
be
lost if
it
of such
beautiful effect
as that in Plate
were rendered
especially without the
35 would
in flat decoration,
charm of the texture
of the stuff: those waving lines and bands

of big rosettes
would be unendurable.
That
pattern, by the way, although it

works on the principle of the parallelogram
actually
was obviously arrived

a series of waved
zontal
band of
Many an
by
carrying across
upright lines a
broad hori-
rosettes.
admirable textile pattern, other-
wise in every
flat
at
way
suitable, is inapplicable to
decoration, whether in the shape of
silk,
or chintz, or wall paper.
Some
persons appear to be of opinion that.
A natomy of Pattern.
The
52
a pattern, according to Dr. Johnson, beiiig

"
something to be copied," design
therefore
in
That
before.
is
all
word pattern
but
the meaning of the word design
would go beyond the lexicographer, and

not everypattern is an " exemplar."
say
adapting a design, from one material
In
to use in another,
it,
done
very well so far as con-
cerns the definition of the
how about
consists
copying what has been
it
is
not enough to copy
needs to be translated
it
lation
is
which trans-
not so easy, but that an artist gifted
with any invention of his own, will find
it,
on the whole, better worth while to say what

it
is
in
him
to say for himself,
on harping on the
though they
and not go
old, old tunes,
melodious
be.
The most perplexing thing about modern

design is that we are asked tcdesign, to-day
under these conditions, to-morrow under those.
We
have no traditions and no
yet in the very variety of
manded
of us there
style.
And
the efforts de-
and
in
the presence of difficulties our ingenuity,
if
we have
any,
is
relief of
excited.
a kind
The more
difficult
more they provoke soludesigner must have in him something
the conditions, the

tion.
is
of
pugnacity
he must enjoy attacking a
tough problem.
designer, not
53
man
proves himself a
when he has somehow
at a design, but
arrived
inasmuch as out of unpro-
mising material and untoward circumstances
he can shape a thing of beauty.
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IT"

Cornell University Library

3 1S9A 031 236 114

the Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright

the United States on the use of the

TEXT BOOKS OF ORNAMEi^TAL DESIGN.

THE ANATOMY OF PATTERN.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN

TEXT BOOKS OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN.

'EVERY-DATI: ART,' ETC.

should have been

so grateful for any practical teaching in ornarrient,

that I fancy there

will find it helpful to

last before the Society of Arts.

have assumed no great amount of tech-

knowledge on the part of the

them what I have had to puzzle out

and not by any means con-

sidered as ornamental addenda to the book.

only as diagrams that they have any

have naturally made the necessary

stances was feasible.

so that from the study of

apart from what

make each one

Mecklenburg Square, London, W.C.

II. Pattern Dissection

The "Drop" Pattern

DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF PLATES.

THE CONSTRUCTION OF GOTHIC TRACERY PATTERNS

square, diamond, hexagon, circular, or

other plan on which elaborate tracery

Checks and other diapers

THE LATTICE AND THE DIAMOND

THE TRIANGLE Diapers

hexagon, and lozenge

upon the hexagon and

lines of the equilateral triangle.

THE TRIANGLE Diapers composed

ALL-OVER PATTERN Showing

and other diapers based

octagon diapers and the lines

ARAB LATTICE PATTERNS

Dissected, and their anatomy

of the wave, the ogee, the net, &c.

showing the points

OTHER CIRCULAR DIAPER FORMS Produced by

FREE JAPANESE DIAPER The

forms not geometrically disposed.

THE SCALE PATTERN

Together with ogee, cusped,

arriving at a simple diaper.

lines of the scale pattern.

reversing, the pattern.

SOME PATTERN PLANS

Shovring (A) the square plan,

(B) the dropped parallelogram plan.