holmes i ORIGIN OB" CERAMIC FORMS. 445 



ORIGIN OF FORM. 



Iii order to convey a clear idea of the bearing of the preceding state- 

 ments upon the history of form and ornament, it will be necessary to 

 present a number of points in greater detail. 



The following synopsis will give a connected view of various possible 

 origins of form. 



(By adventition. 



Origin of form By Imitation {gfSSSSSl'SHt. 



I By invention. 



FORMS SUGGESTED BY ADVENTITION. 



The suggestions of accident, especially in the early stages of art, are 

 often adopted, and become fruitful sources of improvement and progress. 

 By such means the use of clay was discovered and I he ceramic art came 

 into existence. The accidental indentation of a mass of clay by the 

 foot, or hand, or by a fruit-shell, or stone, while serving as an auxiliary 

 in some simple art, may have suggested the making of a cup, the sim- 

 plest form of vessel. 



The use of clay as a cement in repairing utensils, in protecting com- 

 bustible vessels from injury by fire, or in building up the walls of shal- 

 low vessels, may also have led to the formation of disks or cups, after- 

 wards independently constructed. In any case the objects or utensils 

 with which the clay was associated in its eailiest use would impress 

 their forms upon it. Thus, if clay were used in deepening or mending 

 vessels of stone by a given people, it would, when used independently 

 by that people, tend to assume shapes suggested by stone vessels. The 

 same may be said of its use in connection with wood and wicker, or with 

 vessels of other materials. Forms of vessels so derived may be said to 

 have an adventitious origin, yet they are essentially' copies, although 

 not so by desigu, and may as readily be placed under the succeeding 

 head. 



FORMS DERIVED BY IMITATION. 



Clay has no inherent qualities of a nature to impose a given form 

 or class of forms upon its products, as have wood, bark, bone, or stone. 

 It is so mobile as to be quite free to take form from surroundings, and 

 where extensively used will record or echo a vast deal of nature and of 

 coexistent art. 



In this observation we have a key that will unlock many of the mys- 

 teries of form. 



In the investigation of this point it will be necessary to consider the 

 processes by which an art inherits or acquires the forms of another art 

 or of nature, and how one material imposes its peculiarities upon an- 

 other material. In early stages of culture the processes of art are closely 

 akiu to those of nature, the human agent hardly ranking as more than 



