PLATE CIV.
DECORATION OF AN INDIAN SADDLE-COVER.
Although, at first sight, this elegant specimen of design appears to have been executed by means ofspangles sewn on to the velvet groundwork, a closer examination shows that each of the little bosses whichform the decoration are, in reality, small brass-headed nails ; and have been driven into the leather beneaththe velvet, and securely fixed by being clenched up at the back. The regularity with which this work hasbeen done, the skill with which the curves of the pattern have been followed, together with the refined taste
and elegance of the design, reflect the highest credit upon the native artizan.
The superb trappings, of which the specimen we engrave formed a part, were contributed by His Highnessthe Rajah of Kottah to the Great Exhibition , in which they attracted universal attention and admiration.
It has been justly remarked by Dr. Royle,* who has done more than any other person to enforce thelessons to be derived from the study of the Indian department of the Exhibition, that “while treating ofthe arts of an anciently civilised country, it is hardly possible to avoid noticing their antiquity. Nor is it,”he adds, “ desirable to do so, for though some may conceive that the literature of the arts, and their probableantiquity, deserve only the attention of antiquarians, I am of opinion that it is detrimental to the arts toseparate them so much as is usually the case, both from literature and science. It is owing to such neglectthat we have so little information respecting the arts, not only of the ancients, but of many modern nations.For those who are qualified to write are usually unacquainted with, and often despise, the details which itis necessary to describe; while those who formerly practised the mechanical arts, seldom took the trouble todescribe what they alone knew how to make. As it is still common with us all to depreciate subjects ofwhich we are ignorant, and to over-estimate those which we study, so it is not unusual for the practical
man to be wrapped up in his own skill, or what he conceives to be his own original discoveries; and
though many of these are due to accident, and others are the legitimate results of careful thought, he seldominquires what others have done in former times, or are doing in other countries even in his own time. It"Would not be difficult to prove, that had a little more interest been shown in inquiring into the history of thearts, even of India , many so-called discoveries would not appear to have been made in the nineteenth century;but we might years since have started from points which others had reached even ages before.”
In our last two notices of Indian productions, we endeavoured to trace the circumstances which attendedtbe developement of art among the two great races of the population of that continent. On the presentoccasion we may avail ourselves of the following remarks of Dr. Royle, on the antiquity of Oriental design111 general:—“Though few may deny altogether the antiquity of the arts in India , many may be disposed tolimit this antiquity to comparatively recent times. It is desirable, therefore, to get some idea of what wettiean when we talk of the antiquity of these arts. But this is a task of some difficulty, from the littlea ttention which the Hindoos themselves have paid to the canons of chronology. All are familiar with the habit°f some authors of referring everything to the East, and of the now proverbial expression of “ ex Oriente lux.Fut these terms are so indefinite that we are at a loss to know to what nation they refer, whether to thePersians or to the Babylonians, to the ancient Assyrians, or to the still more ancient Egyptians. For all theseWere early civilised nations. But if it were not from the representations within the tombs of Egypt , or from