264 



ON TASTE IN ORNAMENTAL DESIGN. 



Part II. 



was adopted in Greece as " the Corinthian type." But the 

 Greeks did not carry it out to the same extent as the Egyp- 

 tians ; and they even abandoned the principle altogether in 

 their Ionic volute ; which was originally the upright blos- 

 som of an Egyptian wate/-plant, terminating on the right and 

 left in an involved edge. (See also woodcut 49.) 



51. One great point to be observed is that [the ornamental 

 decorations of every space should be so devised as to appear 

 a complete design made for that very purpose, and not a 

 fragment forced to fit it, as in our carpets and wall-papers, 

 where the pattern, being cut through, looks as if the rest 

 passed under the wall to the next room.] The effect is the 

 same as if a cornice ran along the front and back wall of 

 a room, and was absent from the sides; which last would 

 therefore look as if they had been introduced as partitions 

 at a later time. [The difficulty in the carpet, or the wall- 

 paper, is easily overcome by having a border so adapted to 

 it as to correspond with the pattern along the whole outer 

 edge, and thus complete the design. Moreover a wall-paper 

 should not affect to represent Gothic tracery, parts of build- 

 ings, or battles ; and a Ghasse de Fontainebleau, or similar 

 scenes, as on the walls of a French cafe, 

 are equally vulgar and tasteless. The same 

 may be said of animals, ships, buildings, 

 or landscapes on drapery and furniture, 

 or on trays and similar articles of use; 

 and mixed designs, such as flowers, with 

 scroll-work, or with architectural details, 

 offend against true principles of taste, and 

 are rendered still more monstrous when the 

 flowers are above life size.] 

 Exaggerated fondness for flowers in ornament is a common, 

 and commonplace, taste ; and this, like the imitation of other 

 natural objects, frequently arises from the same state of mind 



