In regard to the figures of snow we have two distinct suggestive ideas in reference to their application,—the one, that of ingrafting them into different styles of ornament for their further extension into new forms; the other, that of their adoption to various decorative purposes now usurped by designs or patterns which, in part sanctioned by use, are greatly censurable on the grounds of fitness and taste. In the latter spirit we consider that they may be most usefully applied to paper-hangings, although of late in this branch of design there has been a manifest improvement. Not long ago the “artist” who presided over this department, and whose influence was felt more or less in every home of the kingdom, had no guide but his own ill-educated and distorted will; he threw things together without the least regard to harmony of colour, fitness of proportion, or form of any kind, and called the heterogeneous mass “a design.” Latterly he has had better opportunities for the acquisition of knowledge; but what is of far more importance, he has had better-informed critics. In some instances his task has preceded, in others it has followed, that of his customers; but assuredly we do not now often see upon our walls the monstrous perpetrations which disgraced those of our childhood. If the paper-hanger will examine this collection of suggestions from Nature—from Nature as she exhibits only one phase of grace and beauty—we feel sure that he will be at once convinced that their adoption will be of immense value to him.
There is one application yet to mention, which we have reserved to this place as involving somewhat lengthy consideration—that of their adaptation to the manufacture of earthenware and porcelain. The ungainly and unmeaning spots that are so often put upon plates, and the distorted ornament which so frequently degrades cups and saucers and jugs for ordinary domestic use, we hope may, to a great extent, be displaced by these snow crystals, which, varied to infinity, would cause the eye and mind to receive that refreshment which arises from the true and beautiful; nor are we without hope that they may ultimately be received into the higher application to porcelain. We all know that porcelain has long enjoyed a monopoly of the most tasteful designs that art could suggest, whether of birds, flowers, medallions of figures, or arabesques; but we are in hopes that they may suggest a few novelties of designs to this the most favoured medium for the display of the natural and beautiful in art. This hope of itself suggests the question, How far have the beauty and symmetry of the geometric figure been acknowledged and employed hitherto in their designs? The answer to this question involves an inquiry into the history of designs as applied to pottery, from its first crude attempts at the delineation of natural objects to the present time, when, both in England and abroad, it has attained to such great perfection. As a distinct inquiry this is scarcely less interesting than instructive, leading, as it does, the student in design to a correct knowledge of that which is beautiful and appropriate rather than conventional. As an important aid to such knowledge, the Ceramic collection at the South Kensington Museum offers a means of study to the student in ceramic design. The most crude attempts, dating from the conclusion of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries, are easily distinguishable by the rude outlines they exhibit of men and animals and flowers: in some cases strictly imitative, so far as the skill of the workman has permitted; in others, fanciful and grotesque. In some specimens belonging to this period of art are attempts at creative design in the geometric precision with which similar forms of leaves and interlaced patterns are represented, chiefly described in shades of the same colour upon a uniform ground, and differing much in regard to the accuracy with which they are executed. Some of the subjects chosen are religious, including representations of our Saviour; some allegorical; and others, again, heraldic devices. The rude, but flowing, and sometimes evolved, designs of the interlaced and outline patterns are chiefly borrowed from leaves and flowers, rather than based on principles of geometry; the colouring also is bold and prominent, in conformity with the spirit of the design, and exhibits the primaries blue, red, and yellow, but slightly tempered by the milder and subsidiary tints, upon which, at a later time, the painters of Majolica knew so well how to rest their most soft and agreeable effects.
Of the Raphael ware, so well known and so highly prized by connoisseurs, little here need be said. Raphael, in his early youth, is supposed to have devoted some time to the painting of Majolica, and hence its name at this period and for some time beyond. Whether or not the easy grace and spirited style of these paintings, chiefly allegorical, though representing sometimes passages from history, and the harmonious softness of the colouring, give intrinsic value to the most trifling specimens of the art, whether for ornament or domestic use (and many rich specimens still remain to attest their value, and the exuberant taste and imagination of those painters who were content to trust their creations of fancy to so brittle a medium), to them the designers of the present day remain indebted for a certain freedom and unconventional display of art, which, restrained and modified, long exercised an influence on design, and is traceable even now.
A few years later an entirely new class of designs was originated by Palissy, master potter to Francis I. This eminent ceramic artist, born in France, was the originator of the Palissy ware, scarcely less known than that of Raphael. His works are executed in relievo, and are distinguished from others of the period in the choice of subjects, which are chiefly drawn from natural objects, such as plants, reptiles, fishes, &c. Among the specimens known by the name of Palissy ware are rustic baskets designed on a strictly geometric base of divergent lines from the centre to the circumference, partly in relievo, and very effective in style and composition. The chief merit of this artist consists in his fidelity to Nature, and an original whimsicality of conception. Passing on from Palissy, we come, many years later, to specimens of china of a tasteful degree of ornament, that would do no discredit to the porcelain works of the present day. Here, in the central medallion, is a group of figures, Raphaelesque in their easy grace of outline, yet highly studied, and claiming the rank of a finished picture.
The Berlin porcelain illustrates the perfection of that union which combines the imitation of the beautiful in Nature with the less sensuous beauty of the geometric figure. In the Sèvres porcelain, in the same collection, the geometric figure rises to higher importance, forming in the beautiful “Versailles Service” a framework for the jewels which enrich the exquisite centre medallions.
The impression we derive from retracing the history of the past is, that the geometric figure has rarely been employed as a principal agent in decoration. We are speaking still in reference to the period we have been considering, and which is one calculated to trace with effect the progress we have in view. Prominent among the earlier specimens is the delineation of simple forms borrowed from Nature, repeated with indifferent fidelity of execution, and spread over the entire surface of the piece; whilst in later times, when the mechanical processes improved and admitted of greater accuracy, we find it restricted to light and artificially constructed borderings, so arranged as to lend additional beauty to the freedom of colour and design elsewhere displayed; and we gather, also, that if in the works of high art we find it nowhere unmixed with designs of a less formal character, there is scarcely a work that is not indebted to the grave and conventional arrangement of pattern founded upon a genuine knowledge and elucidation of its principles.
It has ever been greatly against the very general adoption of geometrically constructed figures to the purposes of porcelain, that the unaided hand of the draftsman is insufficient to insure the requisite accuracy of outline—a difficulty which even at the present day limits to a very great extent their employment in this department of art. Still, we are led to hope that the figures of snow may prove suggestive of a new basis on which to construct designs no less symmetrical than those which we have seen to proceed from other and better-known sources; whilst the rate of modern improvement in most branches of industry leads us to hope that this difficulty before long may become less formidable, and that improvements in printing will enable manufacturers to repeat with tolerable cheapness patterns which have been confined to the more costly articles of luxury. Of modern applications one in particular occurs to us—it is that they may aid in the formation of a set of ice-plates for the dessert or supper table. We can imagine the ground of the plates a clear light blue; in the centre may be the crystal, selecting in preference from those forms which are most crystalline and arborescent; among them, that most graceful of all, the water crystal, distinguishing it from the ground by shades of grey, which should be so distributed as to impart to the copy the frosted effect of the original. Around the centre, and immediately beneath or upon the raised margin of the plate, might be arranged a circular bordering, similar to that we have described as surrounding the margin of a pond on its first congelation, when the needles, becoming incrusted with crystalline deposit, assume the appearance of frosted ferns.
There is yet another application that suggests itself to us, although the beautiful designs on porcelain executed by Messrs. Copeland & Co. scarcely leave anything to be desired by the most fastidious; we refer to the painting of tiles or slabs of porcelain, to be mounted in frames of silver, or wood, for ornamental or domestic purposes, and for which, of late, there has been a large and increasing demand. [Fig. 44] (page 174) is designed for this application from one of the snow crystals.
To turn to yet another and far wider scope which may hence be given to the cotton-printer, millions of “dresses” issue every year from Manchester. For those which are intended to clothe “the masses” there is usually little attempt at design. A simple form of a single colour is all that is sought for, and the puzzle is, how to obtain variety. Here is a book of patterns, no one of which has ever been used; leaf after leaf may be turned over, “and still find something new”—something that may be copied as it presents itself, something that will be suggestive.
Our references have been made to but a few of the arts which may be—which must be—largely influenced by this power to