Early Symbolic Ornament
It has previously been suggested that the early employment of natural types was symbolic in the Egyptian treatment of the Lotus and Papyrus, which, providing material for woven fabrics and for manuscripts, were therefore esteemed.
These details associated as they frequently are with the zigzag line, are symbolic of the fertilizing of the land resulting from the periodical inundation of the Nile.
The date-palm on account of its value as food was symbolised by the Assyrians as the tree of life in the fronding Anthemion form, which undoubtedly influenced the later ornament.
The Palm-tree was said to grow faster for being weighted down, hence it was the symbol of Resolution overcoming Calamity. The oriental belief was that it sprang from the residue clay from which Adam was formed.
Symbolism, universally understood as it undoubtedly was in early times, implied a universal interest on the part of the individual and the general community. The absence of this interest in more modern work is to be deplored.
A common example of the employment of such symbols, which however is fast disappearing, is the barber’s pole, the gilt knob of which represents the basin, and the pole the staff held by the patients in the operation of venesection. The painted spiral stripes are to indicate the respective bandages, one for twisting round the arm previous to blood-letting, the other for final bindings.