November, 19 13 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



403 



the paintings super- 

 imposed one upon an- 

 other and the various 

 colors so used, 

 handled to produce 

 the effect had in 

 mind. It will be seen 

 that the precision of 

 "register" or of 

 printing each impres- 

 sion in the exact 

 space necessary was 

 a detail upon which 

 depended the success 

 or failure of the en- 

 tire work. Even in 

 the older days of the 

 craft the use of metal 

 wires wrought into 

 the blocks was neces- 

 sary to define the 

 very thin edges of 

 the wooden blocks, 

 for even the hardest 

 of woods will become 

 worn with much use. 

 Sometimes the wood would 

 swell under the influence of 

 the moisture of the liquids 

 used as coloring material, 

 and without such wiring 

 would print a ragged edge 

 which would ruin the beauty 

 of the work. 



Every added use of metal, 

 however, indicated one de- 

 gree of departure from the 

 spirit of primitive crafts- 

 manship, and the old cotton 

 printers used these modifica- 

 tions with due restraint. 



When the print makers 

 of England began their in- 

 vasion of foreign fields, they 

 realized the necessity pf 

 planning ever so wisely the 

 designs with which to tempt their 

 tended for Mohammedan countries 



"Perm's Treaty with the Indians." Drake Collection 



Washington Allegory chintz 



Prints in- ton," which is, perhaps, the most interesting of them all, 



human form in de- 

 sign, as that was con- 

 trary to Mohamme- 

 dan teaching. In 

 consequence many 

 old prints show such 

 anomalies of design 

 as balloons soaring 

 through space or of 

 trains of cars without 

 a human being in 

 sight. The same re- 

 straint was not neces- 

 sary when prints were 

 made for the Persian 

 market, for the 

 Persians are follow- 

 ers of Abulika rather 

 than of Ali, the 

 cousin and son-in-law 

 of Mohammed, 

 whose cause was 

 championed by the 

 Turks. The tenets 

 of the Persians are 

 therefore somewhat 

 different from those of the 

 Turks, but the cross in any 

 form is equally offensive to 

 both nations. In Syria the 

 people array themselves 

 with printed fabrics depict- 

 ing architectural magnificence 

 — palaces, towers, fountains 

 and gardens. 



For their own market or 

 for America, the old cotton 

 printers drew liberally upon 

 current history, and por- 

 trayed the "Funeral of Ad- 

 miral Nelson," of the 

 "Childhood of Queen Vic- 

 toria," or essayed a repre- 

 sentation of "Penn's Treaty 

 with the Indians," or the 

 Apotheosis of Washing- 



markets 

 could not suggest the as will be seen from its illustration presented on page 402 



Old chintz pattern printed for the campaign of William Harrison 



