KERAMC STUDIO 
while recognizing the origin. Another form of decoration originating 
with the Arabs is what is termed rose-ivork, Nos. i, 2, 3 and 4 being exam- 
ples ; also the "Star of Solomon." These are frequently ornamented with 
words and sentences from the Koran, the background being formed of an 
interlacing ornament. The design of these roses is formed by the inter- 
lacing of curved lines attached to a common center and radiating toward 
the circumference. There is a continuity of ornament entirely filling the 
surface, nothing can be taken away without leaving an unseemly void. 
This imaginative construction is frequently double, formed by two com- 
plete systems, which follow each other to an end (see No. 4) without con- 
fusion ; in which construction the meetings and overlappings produce 
incidental figures. The intersections and alternations, relieved by color, 
form the ground, amid the interlacing of foliage. The decoration remains 
clear and distinct, thanks to the purity and fineness of the lines and the 
general rule excluding superfluity, also to the principle observed in the 
construction of roses, i. c, reserving the wider expansions for the extrem- 
ity of the circumference, leaving the fine work to the central point of the 
circle. The Arabs are also the inventors of the ingenious design producing 
a double effect, the silhouette of which has two exteriors, tracing with a 
single line two opposite figures. This is shown in the first of the column 
of borders, the white band marking a scallop of one shape from the top, 
and another from the base. Their upright border patterns are exquisitely 
113 
ARABIAN RUG PATTKRX. 
