CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



reference to ceramic manufactures pottery and 

 porcelain. 



The first point to be attended to is utility. To 

 give a form, for instance, to a vessel which pre- 

 vents its being cleaned, or to put a handle to it in 

 such a way as to prevent it being lifted, is a mani- 

 fest absurdity ; such absurdities, nevertheless, have 

 been often perpetrated. The ornament should 

 also be subservient to the purpose for which the 

 vessel is used. Thus, where it is likely to be in 

 frequent use, all ornament should be avoided 

 which will render it difficult to be cleansed, or 

 afford facilities for dust and dirt harbouring. The 

 nature of the material will also dictate rules for 

 its ornamentation. Thus brittlencss will prevent 

 ornament in high relief from being used : ' All 

 projecting parts should have careful consideration, 

 to render them as little liable to injury as is con- 

 sistent with their purpose.' Again, the peculiar 

 characteristics of the material should be preserved 

 and brought out ; hence the absurdity of applying 

 a surface-colour which gives the idea of another 

 material, as the metallic lustre we see often in 

 common vessels, or one conveying the idea that the 

 material is marble. ' Landscapes and pictures are 

 almost always/ says Mr Redgrave, 'out of place 

 in pottery ; and it certainly is objectionable to 

 cover the centres of plates and dishes with pictures 

 and views, not only because it hides the surface 

 which it has been before said it is desirable to 

 retain, but because utility would be better served 

 by the absence of any decoration on the part 

 which receives the viands, to satisfy that sense 

 of cleanliness only to be obtained by the white 

 unchanged surface of the material. ... In the 

 application of colour to porcelain and earthen- 

 ware, the surface should never be wholly or indeed 

 largely covered ; the material has a purity that 

 should be decorated, not obscured.' 



In designing articles made of glass, due atten- 

 tion should be paid to the peculiar nature of the 

 substance. Its transparency; its purity of surface, 

 which, if tarnished by use, is easily restored by 

 cleaning ; its brittleness, which prevents its use 

 for merely constructive purposes, as, for instance, 

 where a weight is to be supported all these 

 should be considered in the design. The use to 

 which the vessel is to be put, must also be con- 

 sidered. Our remarks on this point, in speaking 

 of pottery articles, are applicable here as well. A 

 great deal of bad taste is often displayed in orna- 

 mented glass. Its transparency is frequently 

 marred by a redundancy of obscuration, effected 

 by grinding, or it is rendered opaque by dead 

 colouring, or imitations of other materials, as opal 

 or metal. Its purity of surface is destroyed by an 

 excess in cutting ; and its absence of all construc- 

 tive qualities forgot in its frequent adaptation to 

 architectural decoration. On this latter point, Mr 

 Wallis very justly remarks : ' The inappropriate- 

 ness of architectural details, the value of which as 



363 



ornaments consists in their outline, and the effects 

 resulting from a play of light and shadow, being 

 applied to and in a material in which the effects 

 are obtained by a light in transition, is at once 

 obvious, if that very simple but much-neglected 

 question as to the nature of the material to be used 

 is even fairly asked and honourably answered.' 



In the application of glass to w.vv ornament 

 meaning by this, articles not of everyday utility, 

 as chimney-piece and drawing-room decorations 

 the peculiarities of the material are still more 

 frequently ignored. Thus, colouring in rich tints, 

 overlaying the surface with gilding, imitation of 

 opal, papier-machd, and porcelain, completely hide 

 the peculiarities, and attach ideas to the material 

 altogether wanting in truth. 



As regards the form of the articles, that is the 

 best which gives the idea of lightness and ele- 

 gance. ' In all cases, elegance of form should be 

 the first consideration, to which cutting, gilding, 

 or engraving should be entirely subordinate.' The 

 ornament, says another authority, should be ' so 

 arranged as to enhance by its lines the symmetry 

 of the original form, and assist its constructive 

 strength.' 



In the department of stained-glass decoration, 

 much might be said, did space admit. There are 

 two schools or modes of treatment one, the oldest, 

 in which the subjects were not treated pictorially, 

 but composed with ' extreme monumental sim- 

 plicity,' severe outline, and thoroughly flat treat- 

 ment ; the other, the modern or continental school, 

 in which all the characteristics of a picture, care- 

 ful drawing and perspective effects, are attempted 

 to be given. Each of these schools has its able 

 advocates. Mr Ruskin's dictum is as follows : It 

 should ' always be remembered by the workman, 

 that the use of a window was to let in light, and 

 that the virtue of the glass in a window was to be 

 transparent ; and that all art which tried to repre- 

 sent it as opaque, as a picture instead of a window, 

 was mistaken and absurd.' 



Of the moulding compositions we have noticed, 

 papier-mache' is the most generally used. As 

 regards the received ornamentation of this mate- 

 rial, Mr Redgrave says it is 'the most gaudily 

 decorated of all manufactures, and seems quite 

 beyond the pale of any just principles of orna- 

 ment. ... At present, it is a mass of barbarous 

 splendour that offends the eye, and quarrels with 

 every kind of manufacture with which it comes in 

 contact.' 



In drawing up the remarks in this and the 

 following number on decorative design, as applied 

 to manufactures, we have been much indebted, 

 amongst other authorities, to Mr Redgrave, R.A. 

 who appended to the Jury Report of the Great 

 Exhibition, a Report on Design, replete with 

 instruction and suggestions of a highly valuable 

 nature. 



