20 



3rd December^ 1^95- 



RoBERT Lloyd Patterson, Esq., J. P., F.L.S., President, in 

 the Chair. 



Mr. George Coffey, M.A., Barrister-at-Law, M.K.I. A., of 

 Dublin, delivered a Lecture entitled : — 



" FROM EGYPT TO IRELAND— A CHAPTER IN 

 THE HISTORY OF ORNAMENT." 



The lecturer in his preliminar}/ remarks, said that the 

 subject which he had the honour to introduce to their notice 

 that evening formed one of the most fascinating chapters in the 

 history of ornament. It had an archaeological and an historical 

 interest, and it had a decorative interest. He vvauld be engaged 

 the greater part of the evening on the archaeological and the 

 historical aspects of the subject, and if time permitted at the 

 close of the lecture he might be able to say a few words on the 

 purely decorative or ornamental side of the question. It was 

 usually assumed that primitive man in his first efforts in art 

 began to make geometrical patterns, zigzags, geometric circles 

 and spirals, but within the past fourteen years the subject had 

 been studied more closely, and they now knew, so far as 

 investigation had proceeded, that primitive man had never 

 begun art in that way. Geometrical patterns, simple as they 

 looked, represented an advanced stage of art, and they now 

 recognised that primitive man began by drawing graphic and 

 realistic representations of the things with which he was in 

 immediate contact — in other words, of the life that existed 

 around him, and if they considered for a moment they would 

 recognise that was the natural beginning of any form of art. 



