ORNAMENTATION
Offer a child the choice of two toys, alike excepting that one has a flower painted upon it, and he will doubtlessly select the ornamented one; proving that the human race has a natural liking for ornamentation. When the old-time trader visited savage countries, he took with him colored glass and brought back gold. The glass soon after ornamented the somber bodies of the savages, and the gold became rings and bracelets worn by the whites. There are those in this day who love the trees and the flowers and hear music in the brooks, but more find pleasure in artificially ornamented ball-rooms with music blown and sawn and hammered from brass and catgut and sheepskin.
EXAMPLE 83
The egg-and-dart ornament
EXAMPLE 84
The bead ornament
Man was created in a garden of flowers and trees pleasant to the sight, yet he has ever been yearning for a new Eden of pure gold, garnished with precious stones, forgetting that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like the lily of the field. Nature is the great artist, and man’s ornamentation at best is a poor imitation of natural things. The trees of the forest gave the motive for the stone columns and ornamental capitals of architecture, and the plant and animal world furnished themes for talented calligraphers in the days when books were literally written. The blue vault of the skies inspired Michelangelo to plan the great dome of St. Peter’s at Rome, as the sun furnished a model for the Indian while decorating his tepee, and the flowers of the field have provided inexhaustible color harmonies.
EXAMPLE 85
The egg-and-dart ornament as a typographic border
In the early days of this country most of the inhabitants devoted their working hours to the struggle for existence, and it has been only within recent years that the average man has given thought to art. Many a one has thrown off his lethargy to discover beautiful things all about which he had never before noticed.