442 -ZUr. H. H. Statham [June 4, 



ornamented. The treatment of a Japanese plate indicated in Fig. 23, 

 where the surface is irregularly divided into blue and white, and some 

 sprigs are thrown on at one side, may rather be described as splashing 

 a thino- than ornamenting it ; and still worse is the framework for a 

 screen (Fig. 24), where foliage ornament is carried irregularly along 

 the bars and over their angles from one face to another, straggling 

 about quite independently of the form and construction of the object. 

 And even our Greek friend seems to have missed a point in his vase, 

 for the strongest as well as the most important point on the body of 

 the vase is that where the handle springs from the surface, and this 

 he has ignored in his ornament. If he had applied the same style of 

 ornament somewhat as in Fig. 15, emphasizing the base of the handle 

 by two or three strong lines, and causing the rest of the ornament to 

 arise and develop from that point (leaving bare the part of the handle 

 that is to be grasped, for there ornament would be misplaced), he 

 would then have produced the same decorative effect in a manner that 

 would at the same time have emphasized the most important feature 

 on the surface of the vase, and would have caused the ornament to 

 appear as manifestly intended for that special place and for no other. 

 As it is, the base of the handle is the weak point in the design, 

 whereas it ought to be the strong one. 



When we pass from the question of the application of ornament to the 

 consideration of the actual forms of ornament and their various charac- 

 teristics, we shall find that all the immense variety of forms which have 

 been used as ornament may be classified under two heads : what we 

 may call abstract ornament, which is not an imitation of any object 

 in art or nature, but which deals only with proportions and relations 

 of lines and spaces, and natural ornament, which includes the use of 

 forms more or less imitated from Nature. All ornament which is 

 good may be classed under one or other of these heads ; there is a 

 third class, to be mentioned just now, but which is radically bad and 

 may be left out of the question for the moment. Abstract ornament 

 appeals mainly to what may be called our geometrical sense ; to the 

 pleasure which the eye derives from equal spacing and repetition, 

 just as the ear derives pleasure from that equal spacing in time which 

 we call "rhythm," and to the pleasure which both eye and mind 

 derive from the play of line and the opposition of forms or spaces in 

 compliance with geometrical proportion. A typical specimen of this 

 class of ornament is the Greek fret, or, as it is sometimes called, " key- 

 pattern " (Fig. 7), of which there are many varieties, from simple to 

 exceedingly complicated forms. This is an example of the way in 

 which interest may be given to surface ornament by a treatment 

 which breaks up and evades the really simple basis of the ornament. 

 This fret pattern is merely based upon squares drawn one within 

 another, but the lines are broken off and reunited in such a way as to 

 mask the real basis of the design, and cheat the eye by a kind of 

 labyrinthine puzzle. The same kind of interest, that of presenting a 

 certain puzzle to the eye and giving it a problem to trace out, belongs 



