Class XXX.]

SUPPLEMENTARY RETORT OX DESIGN.

727

branches bearing sham candles, not intended or preparedin any way for illumination, but introduced merely toallow of a little extra ornament. From the same causeresults the impertinent application of figures, in bronzeor in Parian; a fertile source of bad taste. These aretoo often merely added to the work, and not construc-tively treated, and thus seem to have no real relation tothe forms they are connected with, lienee the manu-facturer is enabled to adapt the same figure to manypurposes, and to the most opposite uses; sometimes atthe base of a chandelier, sometimes at the top, and some-times perched upon the branches. Profitable to themanufacturer this may be, but it is as completely opposedto every just principle of design as to every hope of pro-gress or good taste.

In the treatment of metal the rendering of the surfacedemands the most careful study, since much of thebeauty of a work results from this being properly under-stood. No doubt the true lustre of metal is only givenin the burnished state; but when burnishing is intro-duced in any quantity, it becomes not only tormenting tothe eye but wants contrast to bring out its brilliancy.Moreover, by its glitter it obscures ornamental forms,which rarely look sharp or clear in their details underthis treatment. When figures or animals, introduced fordecoration, are burnished, their true form is almost un-distinguishable on account of this glitter and the reflec-tion from the polished surface, besides the pressure ofthe tool completely destroying all details of form andsurface. Yet many important works (a clock in theRussian Court may be especially instanced) have thefigures entirely burnished. The evil caused by a glit-tering surface in such works is duly appreciated by theFrench artists, who have wisely adopted bronze as thematerial for figures in the baser metals, and have over-come the difficulty by oxidation in their works in silver.A medium state of the surface between mat and bur-nished, though much to be desired, is not always ob-tainable, nor has it perhaps been sufficiently sought.Bronze, however, from its colour, partially supplies thiswant; and the mixed metals, and ground cast iron fromits duller polish, afford good contrasts to burnished ironor steel.

While our use of burnish often tends to blur and de-stroy form, the older workmen took advantage of apolished surface to produce ornament; this may be seenin some of the old church chandeliers, of which thecentral trunk, consisting of a plain turned boss, seemsrichly reeded when the branches are lighted, merely bythe reflection of the lights on the metal.

In most of the modern works, burnished and mattedsurfaces seem to be used indifferently or at random,instead of applying the burnisher to give variety torecurring forms, or to enhance leading lines. These areoften entirely matted or tooled, and those parts burnishedwhich will give the greatest flutter and glitter to theobject.

The natural taste in connexion with the ornament ofhardware has already been condemned. It is as falsein construction as it is to all just ornamental principles.

The facilities which modem mechanism gives to theproduction of ornament, and consequently to over-orna-mentation, have also been adverted to in the earlier partsof this Report. It is to be hoped that in view of thesefacilities manufacturers will see their own interest, andseek the best designs at any cost, since these will fre-quently be found to combine cheapness of productionand simplicity with good taste. There can be no doubtthat half the ornament in the Great Exhibition , and con-sequently the labour expended on it, is in excess; that isto say, that a better effect might have been producedwithout it; and this wasted labour might have been be-stowed on the more careful completion of simpler designs,to the enriching of the manufacturer, and the great ad-vantage of the public taste.

Carpets.

The use of these fabrics suggests the true principle ofdesign for their ornamentation, which is governed by the jlaws before given for flat surfaces, where the object is |

rather to treat the whole as a background than to callparticular attention to the ornamentation. Flatnessshould be one of the principles for decorating a surfacecontinually under the feet: therefore all architecturalrelief ornaments, and all imitations of fruit, shells, andother solid or hard substances, or even of flowers,strictly speaking, are the more improper the moreimitatively they are rendered. As a field or ground forother objects, the attention should hardly be called tocarpets by strongly-marked forms or compartments, orby violent contrasts of light and dark, or colour: butgraduated shades of the same colour, or a distribution ofcolours nearly equal in scale of light and dark, should beadopted; secondaries and tertiaries, or neutralized pri-maries, being used rather than pure tints, and lightsintroduced merely to give expression to the forms.Under such regulations as to flatness and contrast, eithergeometrical forms, or scrolls clothed with foliation in anystyle, leaves, flowers, or other ornament, may be used,•which with borders and compartment arrangements, andthe use of diaper treatments, leave ample room forvariety and for the inventive skill of the artist. It maybe thought impossible or unnecessary to confine the de-signer too strictly by such laws, and they are, indeed,rather stated from a sense of their truth than with animmediate hope of their thorough acceptance; but at anyrate they may serve as curbs to extravagance of design,and as guide-marks to lead back the errant designer tothe path of consistency. In speaking of designs for thesearticles we turn first to France , both as the largest con-tributor of designs generally, and because the import-ance of her national manufacture of these fabrics mustclaim for them our first consideration. Three of herprincipal ornamentists exhibit designs for carpets; twoof them, however, seem to consider any such principlesas those given entirely unnecessary: their works mightas well be florid designs for the decoration of ceilings, ifsuch a false system could be applied anywhere. Thusone of the most important carpet patterns of one of theseartists bears a deep border of architectural decorationshaded in relief, consisting of shields and scrolls, of theLouis Quinze period, with wreaths of flowers renderedimitatively and in perspective. This border seemsthrown downward, to form a. reversed coving; withinthe field of the carpet, as in a. mirror, is a forest, withthe sky seen through the central opening between thebranches, whilst amorini, almost as large as the treesthemselves, sport beneath theii shade or float in mid-air.The principal work of the second is of a like character,with trees and flowers, fountains and statues, earth andsky, mingled on the surface of the design, in total con-travention of those laws which have been presumed tobe just ones for such a purpose. The third artist,M. Clerget (p. 1219), both in his carpet and in his otherdesigns, forms an honourable exception. Flatness, a justornamentation, and a quiet distribution of colour beingthe consistent results of his labours. With regard, how-ever, to the two former, it would be unjust not to speakof the great executive skill, the knowledge, and cleverarrangement observable in their works. These, however,by their attraction, only increase the evil such designsfoster. The results of such false principles are apparentall over the Exhibition, and are plainly visible in thecarpets and hangings exhibited by France. To beginwith the establishments which, under royal or nationalaid, have carried these fabrics to the highest pitch of ex-cellence in all that relates to skill of manufacture, bril-liancy of colour, and magnificence of design. In the faceof the many and rare excellences they exhibit, both ofhandicraft and scientific knowledge, the chemist and thebotanist having united their sciences with the inventionand taste of the painter, it is extremely daring to repro-bate the ornamentation of these costly works; but thedesigners who have laboured for them have, by thesevery excellences, so largely contributed to the spread ofbad taste and false principles in such fabrics, that it be-comes a positive duty, in the face even of the highestauthorities, to object to the principles on which they areornamented, if we would place carpet designs on theright footing for the future. That the stream is impure