156 ON COLOUR. Paet I. 



forming the semicircle, is very admirable in colour ; but the 

 flower-work, in what may be called the spandril above, is not 

 quite in keeping with the style of the ornamentation of the 

 semicircular portion. Nor are the borders in the rest of this 

 plate commendable either for colour or composition. In 

 PI. Lin. figs. 1, 3, and 8 are very elegant; and the quantity 

 of green which may be introduced on a gold ground is well 

 exemplified in the two last patterns (see above, p. 106). In 

 PL liv. fig. 2 is effective in colour. Fig. 7 is also pleasing ; 

 but the flowers are too isolated, like spots, on the blue ground. 



In the Chinese there is little which could be adopted with 

 advantage; but many "Celtic" designs are good in colour and 

 pattern, as figs. 1, 5, 6, 7, and 26, 33, in PL lxiv.* In PL 

 lxvii. figs. 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 30, 31 are pleasing examples of 

 mediaeval patterns; as also in PL lxviii. particularly fig. 20, 

 and figs. 10 and 37; and, as specimens of gold and red alone, 

 figs. 25, 26. Other good examples from illuminated works 

 are given in some of the next plates ; but those of the Ke- 

 naissance period, as in PL lxxviii. lxxix. lxxx., are most 

 objectionable in point of colour, and very inferior to most of 

 those in PL lxxxv. of Elizabethan time. 



The foregoing remarks will suffice to show the general 

 character of those which in design and colour are most deserv- 

 ing of study and of imitation, and of some which are deficient 

 in those merits ; and they will serve as a guide in forming an 

 opinion respecting others given in that useful work. 



I may also mention other designs in the " Treasury of 

 Ornamental Art," published by Messrs. Day, some of which 

 afford very useful illustrations of the mode of decorating 

 surfaces with colour, and of the true principles of forming 

 patterns by means of conventional flowers. Many of these 

 are from the fabrics of India and Persia ; and they show the 



* Of Anglo-Saxon and other designs in MSS. see Part II. § 84. 



